Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Ray Rudowski
Epic Communications Limited
Founder & Managing Director
I launched Epic Communications Ltd in November 2018 to exclusively counsel, training, coach and mentor CEOs, their executives and their companies in how to communicate their strengths more effectively.
Prior to that I spent 19 years running the crisis planing & training practices at Hill & Knowlton and then Edelman based out of Hong Kong. My experience in helping clients and senior leadership teams better understand their stakeholders and develop high-impact communications strategies has helped them maintain trust and reputation and good times and navigate the choppy waves of crises and issues.
At the core of my business is offering YOU the CEO access, structure and expertise in the area of strategic communications.
Whether you need to plan for a product launch, an employee townhall, a media interview or important meeting or work towards moving beyond a major crisis or issue---as in the current case of Covid, Epic Communications is your trust partner.
Publish Date:
5 December 2020
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
I founded Epic Communications Ltd to mentor CEOs and their Senior Management Teams to communicate their strengths more effectively both internally and to the outside world.
My 12 years as a broadcast journalist in Canada & Hong Kong coupled with nearly 20 years experience in running the crisis planning & training practices for HIll & Knowton and Edelman locally and regionally make me an ideal partner to coach and train you and your teams be more competitive through effective and strategic communications planning, training & ongoing communications counsel.
I founded Epic Communications Ltd because after spending 19 years as the head of Crisis Planning & Training in two major agencies I grew to understand that clients like you hire consultants NOT companies. By offering a more structured and personalized approach I'm able to offer to make communications counsel more accessible and valuable to maintaining your business goals and bottom line.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Can you tell your company's story in ONE WORD? Can you tell ANY story in ONE WORD? In a multi-media, multi-screen world where news and misinformation collide you need a strong understanding of how to communication your strengths more effectively.
I provide your company and Senior Management Team an additional layer of protection by offering senior-level communications and strategic counsel to all your in-house teams to ensure there's alignment in story development and delivery. I'm the trusted adviser to all your support functions within the organization at a time when honest counsel is critical.
I founded Epic Communications Ltd. to offer CEO's, senior executives and their teams access to senior level counsel without the "hard-sell". I'm a consultant and trusted adviser not a salesman. Counseling, training and mentoring clients is all I do.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
My services and offer span 3 basic categories:
1. Crisis Planning & Training with my flagship offer of Managing Crises in the Digital Age22
2. Executive Coaching, Presentation Trainings, Media Interview Handling Workshops: these can be one-on-one or group sessions.
3. Ongoing communications counsel: often in the form of a retainer similar to your legal or other professional services. This can be ongoing or project or issue-specific.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
Increasingly CEO's are becoming more aware of the need to be actively involved in their communications planning & crisis plan development. Increasingly clients seeking communications counsel or training prefer to go to a specialist firm like mine rather than a generalist firm in the form of most PR Agencies. This follows the thinking that if you're seeking any sort of medical attention you should be going to a specialist for treating or diagnosing that ailment rather than trying to figure it out on your own or going to a generalist. I must stress that Crisis Planning, Training & C-Suite counsel is all I do so I'm not in the business of trying to upsell some expensive program, i provide clear, strategic advice in the form of counsel or training workshops.
Increasingly your stakeholders are demanding greater CEO and executive visability and transpency and without a clear communications strategy or a hands-on involvement in developing one you risk making costly misteps that could impact your own or your company's trust relatinoships with key stakeholders.
Finally media has changed and understanding the need for specific tailored stories aligned with your corporate culture and vision are critical to differentiating yourself in this crowded multi-media universe.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
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Epic Communications Ltd is a speicalist firm. Crisis Planning, Training & C-Suite Counsel is all I do. That immediately separates me because my experience in running this practice in two of the world's biggest PR agencies has taught me that clients hire consultants NOT companies.
My experience in working with senior executives across Asia-Pacific in every industry sector from oil and gas, through pharmacueticals, insurance, banking, aviation, hospitality and Fast Moving Consumer Goods separates me from most of my peers.
Very few consultants or Executive Trainers have worked as closely with senior leadership teams or in as many markets as I have. I've conducted these workshops and trainings in Hong Kong, Singapore, Mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Guam, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Dubai.
Finally, everything I teach or counsel my clients on I practice myself: I'm an expert commentator and frenquently called upon by media to offer expert opions or comments on a variety of issues. So I'm not just a former broadcast journalist turned consultant, as the CEO of my own firm I personally understand the anxieties big and small my clients face.
What does the future hold for your company?
Epic Communications Ltd. is focused on helping companies in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region communicate their strengths more effectively and manage their risks and issues quickly and efficiently through proper attention to planning & training.
The big challenge in 2021 will be work with companies to help them develop post-pandemic recovery stories especially in those hardest hit areas of hospitality, aviation, retail and personal or professional services. To do that it's vital that you develop a communication strategy aligned with your business continuity and operational recovery plans.