An Exclusive Interview with visionary leader Maxim Behar
Welcome to another enlightening interview on AllAroundWorlds.com, where we delve into the fascinating journeys of successful business leaders from around the globe. Today, we are thrilled to bring you an exclusive conversation with Maxim Behar, a globally renowned PR expert, entrepreneur, journalist, diplomat, and Harvard Kennedy School graduate. As the founder and CEO of M3 Communications Group, Inc., Maxim has revolutionized the field of public relations with his innovative approaches and relentless pursuit of excellence.
In this interview, Maxim shares invaluable insights into the rapidly evolving PR industry, highlighting the importance of precision, speed, and simplicity in delivering top-notch services. You'll learn about the unique strategies and principles that have propelled M3 Communications Group, Inc. to global success, as well as the exciting growth and expansion plans they have in store. Maxim also offers his perspectives on effective teamwork, the critical role of innovation, and tips for startups aiming to make their mark in the competitive business landscape.
Join us as we explore Maxim Behar's incredible journey and discover the key lessons that can inspire and guide you in your own professional endeavors. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, a budding PR professional, or simply curious about the world of public relations, this interview promises to provide you with valuable knowledge and inspiration.
Business Presence and Market Strategy
Tell us about the business and its presence in the target market
M3 Communications Group, Inc. was founded exactly 30 years ago as a professional public relations and public affairs company, and it has a couple of unique advantages. First of all – the precision. Every single detail in all our projects, more than 9 200 for all those years, has been done with special care and high professionalism. Secondly -always keep the deadlines, even one hour before, and third - the whole creativity on the Planet Earth is concentrated in the brains and souls of the great team, which we call every day #M3DreamTeam.
In the past couple of years of course, the efforts and investments of M3 Communications Group, Inc., are concentrated on digital business – management of social media, creating effective and result-oriented campaigns, very advanced video production and also creating strategies on how to use AI much more reliably in our businesses. The company has many values and principles and one of them definitely is the “Law of 3S” – Speed, Simplicity and Self-Confidence. Speed is really one of the main values of our company – fast decision making, immediate answering of emails, strictly keeping the deadlines and also great performance on the side in the projects implemented.
Simplicity is also a very important part of our job, meaning a clear vision of the priorities, emphasizing the important details and moments, and being responsible every second. But what I want to stress is that innovation has always been the main part of our job and this is the only way we secured our fantastic success throughout the years.
Future Growth and Expansion Plans
What are some of the growth and expansion plans you have in your pipeline?
The communications field is now very sophisticated, and I really believe that Public Relations is the most dynamic business in the world. This is why we are proud to be leaders of this development with the “speed of light,” and to react to it, we must improve our knowledge and practice literature every day. Now, we are planning to expand the fields of coverage of our business, implementing completely new technologies and software capabilities.
They will help us not only to dramatically improve the research we are doing for our clients and projects but also to enhance the creative process of ideas and new approaches worldwide. And this is the most important and key improvement for M3 Communications Group, Inc. for the past year – the word “worldwide”. Social Media presented us the opportunity to operate worldwide, and we started taking projects on a global scale, which is a major change compared to everything that we had done until now and also a key advantage to all our competitors.
Annual Achievements and Recognitions
How has the year been for your company?
So far, it has been more than great! We are celebrating our 30th Anniversary with great achievements and they will bring to us new positive motivation. Grist of all – the fabulous and respectful global magazine PR Week nominated M3 Communications Group, Inc. among the best PR agencies in Europe, and for the past three years, we have always been at the top.
Secondly, we were announced Best Brand in Bulgaria in the field of public communications, and just a week after independent jury announced M3 Communications Group, Inc. as the Company of the Year! And then… Bulgarian PR Association announces the company as The Agency of the Year for 2024. It happened just for the first couple of months of the year and we are expecting much more recognitions. But… of course the results of our work are much more important. We widened our portfolio with a couple of new big international clients, and it helped us, as stated already, to start implementing worldwide projects in the field of social media and video production.
Competitive Edge in the Market
What does your business offer as per the current competitive market?
M3 Communications Group, Inc. offers many competitive services, which are full in accordance with the high-speed changes of modern communications. At first glance managing social media seems to be an easy task that could be handled even by an assistant, but on the other hand, this is exact process requiring high professionalism, a lot of knowledge and creative visions.
Our efforts this particular year will be aimed at strengthening the abilities of the team to manage the projects with artificial intelligence and also to improve the knowledge of the fast-developing new social media platforms. On the other hand, management of social media requires not only language knowledges, but to a very high extend excellent video production as a part of the extensive and creative storytelling. With this points we are sure to offer to all our clients and partners very competitive services, exactly the ones they need now.
Building Effective Teamwork and Unity
What measures do you think employees and organizations can take to build effective teamwork and unity?
For all those years in business, I always have one absolutely exceptional and important question: which is the most important in my business – the team or the clients? If I ask business people who do not understand our business in detail, their answer will definitely be the clients, of course. They pay the bill, they support the salaries, they give you good projects… without clients, business will not be possible. My vision is just the opposite – we can have the best ever clients with the most wonderful contracts and fees, but without a great team we will lose it sooner or later. On the contrary – we may not even have one client, but with the perfect team, they will come and start using our services.
In other words – all my efforts in-house throughout the years, especially recently, are aimed at establishing a great, good-working, and creative team. I say – especially now – as we witness recently the new Gen Z and post-COVID wave of young people with completely different understanding (or no understanding at all) of business realities, very young, ambitious, and knowledgeable, but with also very different value systems. These are today's most important tasks in front of each successful manager – how to combine the various generations with different understandings of life in a way that they will work in a strong chemistry.
Focus and Investment in Research and Innovation
Tell us about the company’s focus and investment in research and innovation
M3 Communications Group, Inc., is a great innovative laboratory of new business concepts and visions—many of them ahead of time and happening for the first time in Bulgaria. A couple of years ago, I published a book called “The Global PR Revolution,” which appeared first in the United States, was distributed exclusively by Simon & Schuster publishers, and afterward appeared in many countries all over the world. It was nothing but the logical continuation of my efforts and all my colleagues' efforts to provide innovations and new concepts.
The book immediately became a global best-seller, and it simply proved my efforts to set the rules of modern public relations on a global base. And not only me… but the whole team of this great and innovative company. And this obviously is a part of the tireless efforts to be innovative and to launch brand new services. This is the characteristics of a market leader and each company must fight to defend its position. Especially in the field of innovation.
Advice for Startups
Any tips for startups looking to get onto a similar pathway?
I know it will sound very ordinary, but I am really convinced that there is just one important quality that every successful business person should have, which is very simple indeed – sparks in the eyes. And it says everything – ambition, innovations, hard work, willingness to succeed. Just… a spark!
Conclusion
Maxim Behar is a globally renowned PR expert, entrepreneur, journalist, diplomat, and Harvard Kennedy School graduate. He is the founder and CEO of the Bulgarian leading PR company M3 Communication Group, Inc., exclusive partner of Hill & Knowlton.
Maxim is a former ICCO President, now ICCO International Growth Chair also International Fellow of PRCA, current President of the World Communications Forum Association in Davos, Switzerland, and Advisory Board Member of one of the most influential European Universities ENGAGE.EU.
Maxim Behar is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, the largest business University in South Europe.
He has been inducted into the Global PR Hall of Fame in London and awarded many titles, among them Best PR Professional in Europe for 2020 and 2022 by PR Week, Global CEO of the Year by The International Stevie Awards, and Communicator of the Decade by the Indian Association of Business Communications. His book The Global PR Revolution was ranked among the Top 3 Best PR Books of All Time by Book Authority. Maxim Behar is also a Honorary Consul General of Republic of Seychelles to Bulgaria.
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Recent Comments:
James Crofword
The best Public Relations company I used to work with ever... Based in Bulgaria, but operating internationally. And Maxim is involved in each project, which gives huge advantage of the team!