Bijl, partners in public relations

Ruud Bijl

Joost van Os, jazz musician and PR pioneer, may be the only Dutch PR person after whom a street - okay, a path - has been named. This path is in my city: Rotterdam. Anyway, it was Joost who offered me - a cocky journalist - an opportunity at his agency at the beginning of the 1980s (when the Netherlands was experiencing a crisis and I was unable to find a job). It was the start of an ongoing love for the communications profession. I learnt the profession from Joost, but also from subsequent managers, including Henk Bol and Ton de Roo, and from dozens of colleagues and customers, for which I am very grateful.

I now learn things every day from Kofu and Zanta, my ‘management gurus'. The title of my book could be ‘How "small" dogs teach a large, bald man a great deal every day'. There is no better example for a manager - and certainly for someone who works in the communications sector - than a dog. It's not that I compare them with people, well, perhaps a bit...being angry...‘just do it yourself'...cajoling...‘slime ball'...come here? ... ‘what's in it for me?' Are we humans really all that different?

This is what I am: thinker, doer, professional, engaged, fan of opposition, a people person. Anything is possible until the opposite is proven. Even then, it may still be possible.