As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the company I work for is currently trying to make an opportunity out of a challenge it is facing. BPR is a full-service, public relations and marketing firm. BPR specializes in sport and event marketing and is equipped with a full-service travel department as well. However, BPR is still finding itself doing more for its clients than it can handle (note the featured image from their website “we have no boundaries”), which in turn is hindering it from working on marketing itself to potential clients. This is where I come in, but it has been quite challenging. To understand BPR and its business practices has taken some time for me and I still don’t know if I quite understand the value network of everything. While it is a small company, everybody is always doing something, maybe even a few things at once. This is how I have interpreted things work in BPR from my conversations with Venka and other coworkers to observing Czech conversations in the office.

BPR uses its personal contacts to reach out to existing and potential clients about working together. BPR and the client will meet and discuss the work that needs to be done and the goals for both, from there a contract is made and agreed upon. Some of BPR’s clients only need a few years work of marketing or a complete re-branding but what gets lost in the contracts is the amount and extent of work BPR can do for the client. BPR says it is a public relations firm but there are specific sections of public relations that BPR only does. This can be confusing to the client and BPR because it never wants to refuse a client that has already signed a contract. This is how BPR loses time to market itself because it is doing work for its clients it shouldn’t necessarily be doing. Communication is key here yes, but I also think it might just be how business is run in the Czech Republic, it really seems like the client asks and the client receives. There is never really any question whether or not it is fair to the contract, it is just done. The work done for clients is phenomenal though and can be seen through their social media sites as well as on their website.

However, I was lucky enough to experience an event with a longtime and well known client of BPR’s, HP Enterprises. HP Enterprises has been a client of BPR for fifteen years now and BPR does mostly event planning for them as well as some marketing materials. I haven’t done any work behind the scenes of designing and making any marketing materials so I am unclear about the process behind that. It is shocking to think that my supervisor, Venka, is the Senior Account Manager and Marketing Specialist at BPR and it is only her second job ever. She is a college graduate and has been with the company for five years now. She was a marketing major and attended school in the Czech Republic. Her boss and BPR’s Managing Director, Tomas Pochop, started BPR with a colleague of his (who is no longer in the business) in 1995. My experience so far has shown me only BPR and the people who work there whom are all young and still starting their careers, except for Tomas. I have been here over a month now and I am still surprised by the young, casual work culture here and how this company works with its clients.