Wednesday 17th May will forever echo in the minds of public relations and journalism students at the University of Zambia in Lusaka as the day a titan in news and media came to give them tips on how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in a business arena that is so diverse yet holds the key to information dissemination.
African Press Organisation or simply APO Group as it is ubiquitously known is an international organization which has been in existence for 15 years and us currently a leading media relations consulting firm in Africa and the Middle East. They collaborate with both private & public organizations — from Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 corporations, multinational and large companies, SMEs to local and national Governments and NGOs — to design bespoke media strategies allowing them to sharpen their reputation, increase their brand equity and speed to market in Africa and the Middle East.
During a recent visit to Zambia, APO Group Founder and Chairman Nicolas POMPIGNE-MOGNARD addressed students at the University of Zambia on two aspects; media relations and entrepreneurship.
In his public lecture on media relations, he critically advocated the importance of the media as tool for information for the public. According to his statement, information must be always distributed according to the international standard. “For instance, news must be clear and accurate”, he said to large audience of students at the University.
He also provided nuggets of knowledge on what constitutes a proper press release. “Press releases must be well structured with; title, dateline, source of press release, and many more aspects pertaining to who should be contacted, if someone interested in the piece of information published”.
He further emphasized that, “acronyms should be always done away with when releasing information. This is on the basis that not every person understand their meanings”.
In the second aspect of entrepreneurship, Mr. POMPIGNE-MOGNARD encouraged everyone to venture into business. He said “there is nothing that can stop someone from commencing a business, any person can open up a company if they have capacity to do so. People should not be scared of failing, in fact every successful company has failed before and we learn from failing”.
In a long run, Mr. POMPIGNE-MOGNARD used APO Group as an example of a successful business to encourage everyone. He said, “APO Group was created 15 years ago, and I own 100% of it (while Zuckerberg owns 25% and Bezos owns 10%)”.
According to his statement, in 2021, the year-over-year revenue growth was 40%, and it further increased to 60% in 2022.
This year the group has achieved further success. APO Group has own 5 African SABRE Awards, the leading public Relations award, which is more than any other firm in this year’s competition. This is part of the reason the APO boss is in Zambia to receive the awards at a gala dinner slated for Thursday 18th May.
