South Africa, Jan. 30 -- Holmes, founder and chair of Provoke Media has been writing about PR for more than 25 years, was speaking at the inaugural PRCA South Africa Conference on Wednesday, 29 January.

PR takes the lead

He outlined several events that have led to PR's current position.

Starting with six years ago, when the Business Roundtable in the US advised companies to adopt a stakeholder mindset rather than a shareholder mindset.

This was a defining moment for PR and communications, says Holmes.

"Stating that all stakeholders matter was the first step on this journey of corporate communications, PR, corporate affairs - whatever we want to call it - up the value chain inside corporations."

ESG was the next rung on that ladder, ...