Maxim Behar's Blog, page 10

Maxim Behar for ���24 Chasa": "PR crisis management became routine"

24.11.2020

The PR expert Maxim Behar shared his opinion for 24 Chasa newspaper about the rapidly changing communications and the application of modern media tools in business. He also commented on the pros and cons of changes in the PR business that occurred after the pandemic.

- Mr. Behar, only a few days ago you were re-elected President of the World Communication Forum in Davos. What does it do?
In 2009, I was one of the initiators and founders of the World Communication Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, which we then almost connected with the iconic Economic Forum of Dr. Klaus Schwab. We were about thirty enthusiasts, PR, marketing and advertising specialists, mainly from Europe, but obviously there was a need to gather at a high level, because in just three years we were already 250 people from all over the world and the forum created its own life, again in Davos. In 2014, I was elected its first president, but a year later I was elected president of the World PR Organization ICCO. As I took on a huge responsibility, I temporarily retired from the management of Davos.

Last year, however, my colleagues insisted that I return, elected me president and re-elected me a month ago for a three-year term.
I chose my board very carefully, now there are 11 people from 9 countries on all continents. This guarantees a variety of ideas, but the different cultures, time zones and the lack of events at the Davos Congress Center make things quite complicated. But over the years we have become a powerful and serious organization, whose meetings teach the latest things in the field of public communications, share trends that will be dominant in months, you can meet experts of very high rank, for whom at other times you have to make appointments for months and years.
��It is my duty to manage the finances, events, ideas and diversity of this already very heavy machine, but for me it is an invaluable experience, and for Bulgaria a unique promotion.

-What are the global trends in communications? Are they only dealing with crisis PR in this sick time?
Crisis PR has become commonplace. A month ago I published my new book The Morning After in Bulgaria and in it I focused not so much on the communication business, but on leadership. Because actually being a PR expert nowadays is being a leader, in your workplace, on social media, among your clients and your readers. Now everything is PR, communications, and management.
If we have to work diligently for our customers, and this is now mandatory, we need to manage their brands, messages and products more than ever. Just us, not them. Here, this is the global trend, we, the communication experts, to be leading, and the clients only to support us. But that means brilliant preparation, daily pro-activity and always fresh and original ideas. I've been in business for over a quarter of a century and now, going back to some of our first projects, I say to myself - this is no longer the same business. There is probably no other that has changed so drastically over the years. And who does not understand it, of course, will have to part with it.

-How has your company - M3 Communications Group, Inc changed during this year?
It was a bit strange and uncomfortable to work from home during the first months. But this fact mobilized us incredibly, now we work much more, more responsibly and the results are there ��� we have new clients of world renown, to whom we offer even more professional and most importantly lightning fast services. In fact, the speed of reaction, communication, decision-making is the main characteristic that defines a company as modern and innovative. And not just in the communications business.
Working online, meeting with clients or the media or partners in different platforms have given us incredible freedom to save time, to make quick decisions, to be pragmatic. You won't believe it, but I've never seen my team so often before and I haven't known my colleagues so well. We meet at Zoom every day for half an hour, on Monday for longer. This could never have happened in the previous life, how will you gather the office every day in conference halls, what will you tell them, who will hear you?
The changes are many, they are forever and are already in our thinking and approaches - quick reaction, pragmatic view, and a lot of innovation, literally every day.

-What are the pros and cons of the pandemic in your daily work?
So far, I see only advantages in our business, I have already listed many of them. The pandemic coincided with my announcement by the influential American publication PR Week as the best PR professional in Europe for 2020. To this day, I joke that if I have to defend my title in this crazy and unpredictable year, I will have to work around the clock. In fact, I've been doing this for at least 40 years - first in journalism and then in business. And there is not much difference. Nowadays, if a person works and wants to succeed, he has to work hard, if not - it is better to give up. I can turn an amateur into a professional in a few months, but I can turn us into a lazy hard-working or intriguing team player. ��

-Did agencies stop working because of the coronavirus?
Well, for sure. We know a lot of them in Bulgaria, there will be even more. Globally, for years there has been a fairly rapid unification of the three elements of the business of public communications - PR, advertising and digital business. It was clear that soon they will be one business.

I have always defended the position that PR will be the leader in the future joint business, and this is exactly what happened. The pandemic simply accelerated this process. That is why in all three sectors there will be one or another company that will fall overboard.
In fact, many of the things described in my book, The World PR Revolution, which first came out in the United States a year ago, are already coming true. This puts her among the 10 best PR books in the world these days, ranked by BookAuthority - a global organization where books are offered and ranked by people like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Cheryl Sandberg, Warren Buffett and many others. This is a phenomenal success that I have never dreamed of in my wildest dreams, but it shows that in Bulgaria we can generate bold ideas in business and sell them successfully around the world.

-The Bulgarian Association of Communication Agencies expects a 10% decline in the advertising market for 2020. Is it possible that the decline will be greater?
The decline in the purely advertising sector will undoubtedly be greater in the coming years. And this will not be because advertising agencies are bad, or colleagues there are not creative. It's just that the needs of the market and customers are completely different.
We, in the PR business, have "taken over" many of the territories of both advertising and digital agencies. And the reason is too simple - the nature of our business is to create content, and now companies around the world need just that - new, interesting, readable and well-organized content, telling interesting, sometimes even fictional stories, professionally crafted words, cultural word order, a sense for the titles and the first few sentences. Straight - journalism, but in a slightly higher form, carrying the interests of the business you work for, absolutely in accordance with all ethical and moral rules. It seems a bit complicated, but it's very specific.

Online media is also the reason why the newspapers in their print life are slowly leaving, but not because the journalism in them is bad, not because journalists cannot write, but simply if they have to appear in these large circulations, a newspaper will cost at least 20 roars and only units will be able to afford it. The reason is clear - advertisers are gradually withdrawing from everywhere - newspapers, television, radio to devote themselves to online media. They are interactive, you can go and buy the product with just one click, they are fast to read and easy to remember - not only as text, but also as a file or content in the phone's memory, for example.
And with all these positives, they have one quality that just hits advertisers "right in the heart" - you can measure the effect of advertising like no other media - how many people came in, how many clicked, how many they bought, who they are, where live what they are interested in. This is the historical change that will make newspapers, television and radio radically transform and, if they do, survive and thrive, if not, ingloriously leave.

There are thousands of examples of this around the world every day. Here I would like to mention that a brilliant example of these changes in Bulgaria is "24 hours" - the first newspaper to realize that the online language has nothing to do with the language of the print media. That's why it's the media I read early in the morning and follow all day.

-Which businesses strengthened advertising market?
The answer is very short - everyone! I don't believe there is an advertiser who has a product or service and has stopped advertising. On the contrary - now the market is narrower and if you have a product, you have to be much more aggressive and active in advertising, to be more innovative, more creative, more flexible.

Companies now have two main concerns - how to communicate to the international customers, partners, suppliers, distributors and how to do this to their own team, as many of them work from home and do not feel comfortable at all.
Online advertising will certainly increase, no matter what anyone says. And I would say that it is not advertisers who strengthen the market, but good media that helps and strengthens advertisers. This is a trend that will continue to develop and it depends on the media how they will use it - on the one hand, to make their media products even more interesting, but on the other, to help their advertisers succeed. In English, this tandem is called a win-win, or "both sides win", but it is imperative that they come together and work together for their common success.

-How will the communication market develop in 2021?
Next year is very difficult to predict. Many businesses will still be "licking their wounds", but they will need good communication - advertising or PR - without having much money to do so or without being sure if it is wise to invest them.
I will tell them: if you have one LEV - give it for PR, if it doesn't work for you, then try advertising. And this is a very logical approach, without affecting colleagues in the advertising business. However, champions in advertising will be all online sellers - from stores through thousands of services because these businesses are now experiencing a great boom and their profits will increase steadily.

-The study of BACA hopefully predicts a recovery of the market and quite a large growth in our country in 2022. How will this happen?
Well, it is not so dramatically affected as of now. There is a decline naturally, but we have seen declines of this magnitude when there were not pandemics. The market will simply be restructured. PR will take an ever-increasing share, the advertising business will groan, and the digital business will be slightly and irrevocably twinned with PR, while everything blends into one big, modern, and dynamic communication business. Only then will we sigh and say ��� this is already a serious business for a serious market with serious media. My prediction is that this will happen in five years.

-Does traditional advertising die?
Gradually, everything old goes away. Of course, television is still a medium in which advertising continues to follow its basic rules, radio advertising has not changed much, but it seems to go the fastest, and for the newspaper - you know much better than me, it is almost gone. The most important and best thing remains - online advertising. What's new in it is that social media has started to "eat" more and more of the budgets, and because it is quite well regulated, the profits for the agencies are getting smaller. But I want to put aside the business part and look at the creative part. The forms of online advertising are beginning to differ more and more deeply from those we remember in standard ads.

Graphic design, no matter how important, is clearly giving way to words, content, stories, narration. Hence the great change. Only a year or two ago, advertising agencies - some until now, relied mainly on the image and what the ad will look like - television or outdoor, for example. But as interesting and colorful as it is, you can't stop the car, get on the billboard and click. You can't do the same on the TV screen, although it will happen soon. That's why - and we feel it more and more in our company, advertising forms, goals, and of course, budgets, are increasingly directed at PR companies.
We have the so-called wording, the art of persuading in words, we know perfectly how to formulate the right users, how to convince them, and last but not least - how to measure the result. Customers - and this is their nature and always will be - want to achieve the best commercial results with the least amount of money. The combination of good words with the exact "targeting" in the client can now be provided to them more and more successfully by PR companies. And this is no longer a fashion, but just a business necessity.

- Is it possible for the technological boom of programmers to completely replace the standard purchase of advertising?
At least at this stage, this approach seems to me to be in the realm of considerable risk. Virtually every LEV is valuable and for every lev you need to know if it will come back to you with more, whether it will be in money, in positioning, brand recognition or other purpose.

Online media largely offer automated purchase of advertising space, they can also quite successfully calculate the expected results, but I think that for at least another five or six years customers will choose media according to their preferences, depending on whether they like it or not, whether they are even read by people in their offices and in their families. In our latitudes, personal element, mood, and emotion continue to be quite strong factors in determining advertising strategies.
Over time, advertising campaigns will certainly be considered an algorithm for achieving the goals, but then probably the advertising business will completely fade, and PR companies will largely become media centers. And it will not be boring at all, believe me. To a large extent, this is already happening.

The modern PR business is already leading us all to become a strange combination of publishers, editors, and reporters. Publishers - because we have media in our hands, yes - social media, but powerful, interactive, and well targeted. Editors, because we work with words, we take good care of every comma, the order of these words, so that they influence as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible. And reporters, because news is expected of us, something new, unknown, and interesting. In fact, this very concept, described in great detail in the book ���World PR Revolution���, is one of the most cited and discussed worldwide among professionals this year.

-How did the crisis affect the budgets and prices of online advertising?
They will become more and more result oriented. And that shouldn't scare us. With fewer people in our companies we will achieve better results, even better turnovers, but with smaller profits. This is undoubtedly a trend and every manager must make his plans so that by "drawing the line", all three parties in this chain are satisfied - customers, media and the agency.

Media, whether social or just online, such as ���24 Chasa���, no doubt have to support teams, have a variety of other costs, and have to work hard to deliver good platforms with great content and target customers, but and thus facilitate the selection of agencies.
A global trend in the overall media business is with fewer people to achieve more with less profit. And here is the subtlety of the managerial approach, of leadership, to be able to make your plans so that this whole mix of clients, media and agencies is happy. This is achievable when there is an intelligent and well-founded proposal for prices for advertising by online media, and I do not rule out that they will soon be determined, as in social, by the results achieved. We live in a new world, by the way - everything is already in the hands of managers, their proactive approach, their visions and pragmatism.

-Is there enough transparency of the existing metrics for the online advertising market in Bulgaria? Do we need a second metric (besides Gemius) on Bulgarian sites, as appeals have always come from publishers? As far as I know, the IAB (International Bureau of Interactive Advertising) is preparing a new way of measuring - obviously there are suspicions all over the world.
The more companies that offer accurate metrics, the better. Monopolies, especially in such a sensitive area, are not a good thing, especially in a relatively small market like Bulgaria. The world has already developed very modern approaches to measuring the results of online advertising forms, but whatever they are, and they are evolving, in the modern world, everything that is transparent is ethical. After all, every agency for measuring the effects of advertising sells trust first, then everything else. Especially in this business I would add two more factors - innovation and precision.
��

Maxim Behar with Honorary Diploma for Contribution to Bulgarian Education

The leading PR expert Maxim Behar received an honorary diploma for his contribution to Bulgarian education based on his participation in the educational project SHORTcut Academy, providing a video lesson in the field of communications.

Over 200 schools in Bulgaria received free access to online training on "New rules for communication in the modern world." It is focused on Behar���s most valuable knowledge and key moments from his 25 years of experience in communications.

"I agreed to participate in this project because of my worship to education, among other things such as my business, my friends and family, and Bulgaria. I hope you learn something interesting to apply tomorrow in your business, in what you see and do, in the way you think. It���s essential for you to develop, change and learn interesting things, "said Maxim Behar.

Find below the comments of students who passed the training:

"Extremely valuable communications management messages. Synthesized, short, but comprehensive! ���, Diana Georgieva

"Charismatic, inspiring, ambitious, resourceful and extremely invigorating. The vibe that Maxim gives you with this video makes you start working on the things you are postponing or further developing the ones you are currently working on and keep learning something new every day! Thanks! ���, Violeta

The Global PR Revolution Ranked Among Top 10 Best PR Books of All Time

The Global PR Revolution by the globally renowned PR expert Maxim Behar made it to BookAuthority's top 10 best PR books of all time worldwide. The book was ranked No. 7 in the prestigious international ranking - 100 Best PR Books of All Time. Another significant achievement of The Global PR Revolution is holding the 6th position among the best PR books for 2021.

BookAuthority is one of the most prestigious international rankings, which identifies and rates the best books in the world, based on recommendations by thought leaders and experts such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Tim Cook, Jack Ma, Richard Branson and many others.

"I am honored that The Global PR Revolution gets such recognition and international acclaim. This is of a great importance not only for me as an author, but also for Bulgaria and for ICCO, the largest PR global community, which I had the great responsibility to preside. The book is extremely relevant to the current situation, as one of the issues is focused on how businesses and societies can adapt to new realities and deal with crises," commented the author Maxim Behar.

The Global PR Revolution was initially launched in the USA, where it achieved an incredible success. Within 2 weeks, it was the best-selling book on Amazon.com in the categories Public Relations, Sales & Marketing and Career Advices, where it currently maintains a high score of 4.9 out of 5. The Global PR Revolution gathers the opinions of 100 of the world���s top public relations experts from 65 countries and 6 continents. In the book, Behar examines the innovative techniques in the public relations business, focusing on the impact of the Social media, fake news and the importance of the transparency. He also makes predictions about the future of this intuitive, ever-changing industry.

The book is published in Bulgaria since the end of 2019 and its first print run was out in less than a month. The Global PR Revolution can be purchased online in both digital and hard copy from the official webpage of the book.

Only a month ago, Maxim Behar's latest book The Morning After (in Bulgarian ��� ��������� ������������ ���� �����������) was released on the Bulgarian market. The author presents his unconventional point of view regarding the changes in the world, caused by COVID-19, and makes interesting forecasts about the business development in the new reality. This is the only book in Bulgaria dedicated to leadership during a pandemic. The Morning After aroused a great interest in readers and soon after its release it became the best-selling book in one of the largest book centers in Bulgaria ��� Greenwich.

Maxim Behar Among PRCA MENA Regional Award Judges 2021

Maxim Behar will be one of the judges of PRCA MENA Regional Awards 2021, honouring the year���s most effective and creative digital PR and communications campaigns, individuals, and teams across The Middle East and North Africa.

The leading PR expert and former President of ICCO will be one of the respected judges of the MENA Awards 2021, among some of the biggest names from the worlds of PR, communications and journalism in the region.

Winners will be announced at the PRCA MENA Regional Awards 2021 event in Dubai on February 2021.

About PRCA:
The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) is the world���s largest professional PR association, representing more than 35,000 PR professionals in 70 countries worldwide.�� It was founded in London in 1969 and launched PRCA MENA in 2016 with the aim of raising standards in PR and communications.

The PRCA���s mission is to create a more professional, ethical, and prosperous PR industry. It manages the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), the umbrella body for 41 PR associations and 3,000 agencies across the world, and LG Comms ��� the UK���s national body for authorities raising standards of local government communication.

Maxim Behar for BG ON AIR on the topic "COVID infodemia"

Maxim Behar was a guest on the "Bulgaria Sutrin" show on Bulgaria ON AIR hosted by Zlatimir Yochev and the social anthropologist Haralan Alexandrov. The PR expert commented on the lack of information and accurate communication about the COVID pandemic on the part of the people in power.

Host: Probably the same people who legitimized the previously unknown medical terminology to the world, WHO experts, realized early on that along with the pandemic there is no less violent process through the spread of false or misleading information called "infodemia". Both turned out to be difficult to control - something confessed yesterday during the regular briefing of the National Operational Headquarters. How dangerous can be contradictory or deliberately manipulated information, analysis on the topic in the next few minutes with Haralan Alexandrov, who is a social anthropologist and Maxim Behar - PR expert. Good morning, gentlemen.

Maxim Behar: Good morning.

Host: With both, we seem to be stumbling in managing, but we must say that there is a direct connection between them, because it turns out to be misleading information or wrong actions by people can be detrimental to them. And here we are not talking only about someone worrying a little or be afraid in their home, we are talking about the fact that such actions can be harmful for people and end up with fatal outcome.

Maxim Behar: It can be disastrous if there is no clear, accurate, timely, honest, fair information. If I have to define what is happening for nine months in Bulgaria in terms of communication, communication policy, it is just one word - "failure". Even two - "complete failure". It is not possible to have such management that nine months people in Bulgaria still do not know what is happening. People are only informed about the number of sick people and how many of them have died. These are the only two things that are served to us every morning or noon, or evening, or whenever.

Host: And what do you think there should be? Beyond that.

Maxim Behar: I know that many people would say, including my friend Haralan, that it's easy to criticize and say what is failure, but I am just wondering why there is no even a simple call center by which people can be provided with accurate information. You can call and they will tell you "If you live in Plovdiv dial two, if you live in Shumen dial 3". You dial the number and they it tells you "If you live in Krasno Selo, Sofia dial 7", you go to Krasno Selo and then you get clear information such as: "There are so many free beds in this hospital, there are so many pharmacies open, some of them work 24 hours ". It���s simple and we don���t have it. If people who are in power or responsible for that could easily rent an external call center. Bulgaria is the paradise of call centers in Europe, perhaps the most per capita. There is no speaker. How is it possible that there is no speaker? A person who can actually inform not only how many have died and how many have become ill, but also what we can do or how we can do it. There is no template.

Host: There was one such speaker, but he somehow surprisingly disappeared. We rarely see him and he is no longer in that position, I'm talking about the General Mutafchiyski.

Haralan Alexandrov: Yes, because he was insulted, ridiculed, devalued and attacked. I completely agree with what Maxim Behar says. There is a need for much more organization and much more information management, but let us not forget that we live in a pluralistic information society. That we live in a regime, I would call it information anarchy, in which not only the media give different points of view, but everyone on social networks can produce information, explanations, interpretations, facts. More and more false facts are being produced and imposed as genuine, as a result of which people are bombarded by so many and contradictory versions of what is happening that they are in a situation to either panic and stop, which by the way more and more people are doing in self-defense by refusing to be in touch with the information world. And they struggle to survive as long as they can, using their private networks, or they can choose what to believe in and a significant number of people, as we have all found, choose to believe that there is no drama and the virus is harmless. There was a very strong point of view in this regard, it was strongly launched and I think it contributed significantly to the current situation. So this is a joint success of government and civil society���

Maxim Behar: Precisely because we have a super pluralistic media environment, precisely because 5 out of 7 million Bulgarians own media and they have 25 million opinions shared on these media. There must be a place to generate clear, accurate, easy-to-understand information and to inspire trust in people. All the things I've read in the last nine months, it's clear that there is only one way to defeat the coronavirus, only one - with clear and accurate communication. We don't have a vaccine, we don't have treatment, we don't know what's going on, but you can have clear and accurate communication.

Haralan Alexandrov: There is only one way to defeat the virus and it is archaic. And it is like keeping a distance and reducing social contacts, it becomes clear in this period.

Maxim Behar: In particular that's right.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right. But it is this information and truth that was attacked most fiercely, because there are many business interests and many political interests that are exactly in the opposite direction - to meet people, restaurants to work, we all saw how it happened. That is why there must be���

Host: Gentlemen, do you believe in the words of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov yesterday, who said "Our measures are one of the most flexible and softest" and this was proved, among other things, by an Oxford study stating that we are ranked 22nd out of all EU countries in terms of firm measures, ie we are one of the countries with the mildest measures, ours are softer than those of the Swedes. This is absolutely proven with this study, which is relevant, and you can see it today on digital media - it is interesting. But the Prime Minister said "Our measures are flexible, this way we protect the mental health of the people." Did we protect it?

Haralan Alexandrov: No, I don't think we protected it. There is no doubt that the measures are flexible, but this is because Bulgaria is a typical example of a democracy in which public opinion sets the tone, not the government. The whole idea that the government can impose something is naive, given that public opinion is going against it. it could probably happen in Hong Kong, Singapore, but not here. As for mental health - no, there are very serious indications that mental health is in crisis and it is certain that a special policy will be needed to protect it.

Host: There is another study showing that we are more liberal than the Swedes, who we pointed with a finger. Isn't that weird? When things were light in Bulgaria, when there were few cases the tone was very hard, now things are getting more serious, we see that people are literally dying on the stairs of hospitals in an attempt to get to bed, but we say "Our measures do not need tightening ".

Maxim Behar: I would tell you what soft and hard measures mean, given that Bulgaria has available beds in hospitals, there are a number of beds. As far as I understand 40% of the beds are free, and no one knows where. And at the same time, while these beds are free, God forbid, they die on the steps of a hospital. Well, this thing probably did not happen in Bulgaria during the great plagues a century ago. There must be clear, precise measures and they must be communicated in a way that convinces people. And not just to say "Wear masks". By the way, does anyone know what is the fine if you don't wear a mask? No one knows. Does anyone check if you are wearing a mask or not? Nobody. What does hard or soft measures mean? In my opinion, there should be a communication council to the government or to the people who are supposed to govern, but not a person from the military. Paying respect to gen. Mufchiiski, but there must be people who deal with communication, who know how to persuade, who understand psychology.

Host: By the way, there is a development on this topic, because there were journalists asking why there are no communication specialists at the National Operational Headquarters. They say it���s due to lack of funds. They do not have a resource dedicated to this. And isn't this the most important thing at the moment - to provide people with good information, verified information.

Maxim Behar: The most important thing.

Host: The most important thing.

Haralan Alexandrov: There is no doubt that it is the most important.

Maxim Behar: And for what money are they talking about?

Host: I'm talking about an investigation of Free Europe. I read that there was actually a question from journalists on this topic.

Maxim Behar: There is no communication specialist who does not go to work pro bono or for free for any government for such a cause. The point is, no one wants to do that. Look, we're talking about what's going on below. Well, we have President Rumen Radev say and the Prime-minister Boyko Borissov who don't talk to each other and don't meet.

Host: They talk indirectly on the media from time to time.

Haralan Alexandrov: No, no. Worse - they blame themselves.

Maxim Behar: They have been attacking each other through the media. And all this have a great affect on the whole atmosphere, the people who do not know��� How is it possible that a president and a prime minister in such a situation, the most disastrous that we have seen in our lives, do not talk to each other? There are no people who communicate clearly and accurately. No institutions. This is a failure.

Host: Mr. Alexandrov, do you think the political contradictions complicate the situation more?

Haralan Alexandrov: No, it is deeper, it is worse. If it was only political and only institutional, it would be better. I think this is a failure of our entire civilization, which is not made to function and deal with severe crises, but is made to live in a world of ever-increasing prosperity with faith in science and medicine, with the conviction that if we are not today, then tomorrow we will be immortal and that the world is given to us to have fun and have fun, in which we refuse to hear the bad news, in which we refuse to believe in death, in which we systematically attack the truth, because we don���t find it comfortable. And in which we use all defense mechanisms, especially denial and rationalization, to impose our point of view and not be in connection with suffering and pain. This is the world we live in and this is a very big issue, this pandemic, to everyone. After all, the catastrophe happened in the United States, it happened in Europe, it probably happens here as well.

Host: In developed Western European countries?

Haralan Alexandrov: Yes, yes. They failed much more dramatically. Now we will see in the spring if we are alive and well by then. But it is certain that we will have to part with many of our fantasies. Our first fantasy is that we can control nature. We believed that nature was something sweet, sweet like a Chinese panda. It turned out to be a Chinese virus that, by the way, reproduces much better than the Chinese panda. Nature wants to kill us, ie. all this slightly affectionate, slightly spoiled Greta Thunberg green believes that man is at the center of the world and controls everything, must be completely abandoned. You need very serious humility. The second fantasy that we continue to believe, Mr Behar, clearly believes in it, is that the world is governed at the moment in this media situation and in this economic globalization and deregulation and the systematic weakening of states. Suddenly we find out�� that without a nation state holding the reins in crisis, we begin to die. And this is also a very sobering discovery. The whole neoliberal fantasy, the whole belief that we can stay in the market. By the way, the Bulgarian healthcare system is made on a market principle, it is made to get rich and profit from it in the late 90's.

Maxim Behar: Under normal conditions. Under normal conditions, however.

Haralan Alexandrov: Under normal conditions. Suddenly it turns out that when the conditions stop being normal, we start looking for someone to take responsibility for us, we feel absolutely dependent and therefore very angry. Because anger and rage are a direct function of addiction. And we begin, of course, to indulge in such accusatory behaviors characteristic of psychological development in adolescence. This does not negate the fact that there is an information failure, I do not negate it in any way. However, I explain the psychological, cultural and civilizational dynamics that lie below. If we survive in a good enough state of mind and public infrastructure, one of the first things we need to do in the next governance, whatever it is, is to reform the health care system, and I very much hope that we will learn this lesson. But I suspect, because I know how human minds work, that we will not do it. That we will conveniently forget what happened, we will mourn the losses and we will look at this period, this episode as a bad dream, as a nightmare to shake off from.

Host: Let's hear, maybe in defense, Mr. Behar has something to say.

Maxim Behar: No, it's not even a defense. I deeply believe that this is a manageable process. It is really a manageable process, mainly through the means of public communication, ethics, honesty, transparency in particular. And I'm not criticizing and I'm not saying this one has failed, that one has failed. I think that a call center should be set up very urgently to tell you how many vacancies can be found in each hospital, and even automatically explain what to do if you are in doubt.

Host: You know how we solve this problem - with radio stations. This is absolutely serious. There are radio stations, which seems quite archaic to me.

Maxim Behar: For example, they could inform you which antibiotic you can take. It shouldn���t be that hard. There is a unified health pharmaceutical system and there all pharmacies are connected to some electronic system. What's stopping you from figuring out which antibiotic is there or not, literally in three minutes from some system. There should be, in my opinion, a communication council to the government or to the Ministry of Health. It is not possible for the Minister of Health to be on camera from morning till night and know everything. Absurd. There should be a communication council to talk, to analyze, to report every week on Friday what have happened, the news, how many people are infected, how many people believe or do not. If necessary, we can even call specialists from abroad. There must be a speaker providing information, whom people can trust, who can send the right messages and know what and how to communicate it.

Host: Gentlemen, since you are both cosmopolitan, can we give another example with a country that has succeeded in this endeavor? I personally watched what happened in Australia, it was very interesting there.

Haralan Alexandrov: Australia, New Zealand, somewhere in Canada.

Host: Yes, they have prime ministers in different areas, they went out and told people very honestly what they should do. They imposed another quarantine and now they have 8 cases a day and not a single person died. Huge countries.

Maxim Behar: Again, natural communication.

Haralan Alexandrov: And a high level of trust in the authorities in���

Host: But this trust has been created before, I guess.

Haralan Alexandrov: The situation finds us in a place where�� the faith, the trust in every public speaker, not only in politically empowered persons, is so low that the moment he says something a part of the spectators, the listeners, the audience will immediately choose to misinterpret it. And in this sense we do not have such a figure in Bulgaria, unfortunately. We will probably have to import it.

Maxim Behar: We will import it. It���s a cosmopolitan world.

Host: Actually, this is not a precedent, because we have to go back in history, there have been such cases.

Haralan Alexandrov: We have also imported princes several times.

Host: Yes. Let's look at the following thing - we put a lot of effort into talking about how vaccines develop, studies there, what stage they are in, what percentage is their effectiveness, but sociology shows, a Trend study shows that only 26% of Bulgarians would vaccinated if there is one created and is effective.

Maxim Behar: Due to the lack of communication policy. As a result of clear messages, as a result of precise explanations. Of course, people will look negatively. First - the 5G network. What is this nonsense saying that the 5G network brought the virus to Bulgaria - complete nonsense. Then they say they would chip us by vaccinations. Absolute jerks. However, no one reacted to this thing.

Haralan Alexandrov: We cannot underestimate the conspiracies. I have first-hand experience with a group of anti-vaccine mothers, with whom I argued for 4 hours, I invited my colleague and friend who has a dissertation in Hanover and worked at MaxPoint, one of the leading virologists in Bulgaria and one of the leaders of the pharmaceutical association . After 4 hours, we applied all our charm, they were a little hesitant and left a little disappointed because I did not support them. And they were referring to mysterious posts unknown to me on Facebook. We can't fight empowered stupidity, we can't fight conspiratorial thinking, because the world is too complicated and because people choose to think that way.

Maxim Behar: Yes, but we have to try to fight.

Haralan Alexandrov: I agree. At the moment, staring at vaccines is an attempt to regain our religious faith in science. We cannot experience that the god of medicine is temporarily absent. This horrific gap between the outbreak of the pandemic and the advent of the vaccine is a great drama for the modern world.

Host: But now there will be many gods, Mr. Alexandrov, it will not be one vaccine.

Haralan Alexandrov: I know. One of them is the god of communication, obviously in whom you believe. Let's not deify the communication strategy, it has its limitations. Of course, efforts must be made, of course, the best specialists must be invited.

Maxim Behar: But when it is missing, then we have anxiety.

Host: I agree.

Haralan Alexandrov: However, anxiety is not only based on the lack of communication. It has much deeper existential reasons and is due to the horror of death, which is again among us.

Host: And isn't it from the overdose with this information?

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right, that's right.

Host: Because we have, firstly, many channels, secondly, it distracts us, because there is too much unreliable information, illegitimate, but in spite of everything we somehow absorb it, and on the other hand, we will ever press the "Stop" button?

Haralan Alexandrov: What I completely agree with is that people are left to deal with themselves at the moment. There is neither reassuring nor disturbing information.

Maxim Behar: We are talking about a professional communication strategy. We are not talking at all about who wrote what. We are talking about a professional communication strategy. None of us can say whether we should be vaccinated or not. That is, firstly a personal choice, secondly it is more or less a medical problem. If there is a vaccine, then everyone should decide. The question is how to convince people that they must beware. How to apply the law, when there are still secret night gatherings in some closed restaurants where 200 people gathered together have a great party and probably 200 of them will be potential patients in the morning.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right.

Host: And we announce them in the news.

Maxim Behar: How to apply the law? How can these people, when there will be fear, how can we instill in them that this fear is real and that they really need to protect themselves from this disease. This is, in my opinion, a matter of communication.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right, but for this communication to happen, there must be a hierarchy of knowledge in society.

Maxim Behar: Oh, yes. Oh yeah.

Haralan Alexandrov: The hierarchy has been destroyed, we live in a super-democratic communication environment, everyone has the right to declare themselves an authority of last resort, to insult and spit on the authorities they do not like, as a result of which I simply say that the problem is much deeper and has cultural, existential and civilizational dimensions. And of course very psychological or psychopathological. I'm not saying there shouldn't be���

Host: Gentlemen, I heartily ask you for some advice. To me or to our whole team, even to all the journalists who deal with it. Do you believe that if we start showing more and prioritize and start tilting the scales to show positive news, because the world has not stopped doing good deeds, that this will have an effect? Should we do it or will we look funny and stupid? Because people will start blaming us, "Yes, but you're not talking about the coronavirus, you clearly don't believe in it." Here, we showed a report - the birth rate will be higher. There is also a positive thing - there is a baby boom.

Maxim Behar: You know, since I've been in journalism for many years, I've never divided the news into positive and negative. The news is as it is, the ones that are happening right now. Show what's happening���

Haralan Alexandrov: Nine months, Mr. Behar, we are only talking about the coronavirus. 90% of the information.

Maxim Behar: Yes, there are other things and they must be reported, of course, because this is the whole palette of life, we do not live only in fear or anxiety about the coronavirus. Show things as they are, but it is the job of the people who are responsible for Bulgaria to communicate things in a way that convinces people that we have a problem. And we have a giant problem. A pandemic.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right, I'm just saying that there is no such way at the moment. Whatever you say, I can prove it with research, because I'm researching a very large group. There is not a single fact that is reported that does not immediately receive completely opposite interpretations. But this is a Sisyphean job, you have to push the stone up���

Maxim Behar: That's right.

Haralan Alexandrov:��� with the full awareness that it will fall.

Maxim Behar: We missed the train a bit, maybe, for these nine months.

Host: Well, how can we live in peace with ourselves then?

Haralan Alexandrov: I can tell you to live in peace with ourselves - by trying to regain control by helping someone, not by blaming. This is the healthiest way. Any of us who have some resource, whether it is money and can help its employees - there are many entrepreneurs who do such things. It was like some kind of institutional power and he could make a good decision. I will immediately give you an example of good leadership - Gencho Genchev, the mayor of Svishtov, remember that name. A small, poor municipality with a practically bankrupt, bankrupt hospital, where the mayor went as a volunteer, did not move populist considerations and got sick, thank God he is healthy now. I have the pleasure to know him. This is not populism, this is heroism. After all, let's learn to distinguish between the two. Because immediately haters were found ��� those who insulted him and said that the man was working for his elections. So when you're faced with the existential drama of getting sick and taking the risk of dying or not, it's not populism, and it's good to be aware of that.

Maxim Behar: Oh, there are such cases around us every day.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right.

Host: And we have to show them.

Haralan Alexandrov: In this case we are talking about an authorized person who chooses this point of view.

Maxim Behar: But they have nothing to do with communication. These are two completely different planes that diverge. On the one hand, yes, we help people around us every day, also my employees in the company.�� But this has nothing to do with the fact that there is no clear and precise communication strategy.

Haralan Alexandrov: That's right.

Maxim Behar: This is the big drama.

Haralan Alexandrov: But this has to do with mental health, because when a person receives support from someone, especially from someone authorized in office, whether in business, administration, on the media, he regains the feeling that the world is a good place and it is worth it to do good things.

Host: There was pluralism of views here as well. It was interesting and informative for me.

Maxim Behar: That's great.

Host: Thank you for being our guests.

Maxim Behar: I will only end with one sentence. We can do it if there is good communication, if there is a clear and accurate approach, and�� honest, fair, transparent communication.

Host: Yes. I will add the words of Haralan Alexandrov that we must hold on to the good firmly and really get the best out of good causes.

Haralan Alexandrov: Otherwise they will just stop watching media and watching TV.

Maxim Behar: "The future depends on people who do business"

17.11.2020

Maxim Behar discusses with Krum Savov the changes in communications and business, caused by COVID-19. Behar shares his opinion on current issues such as non-transparent and one-way communication of the people in power, and the need of growing our business despite the crisis in order to save soiety's culture and development.


Host: As much as we have time and opportunity in the next 50 minutes, we give you the floor on the internet address krumsavovlive.sedemosmi.tv or on the QR code. We are modern people with such a person, although as far as I remember he has been in the public space in different forms, following the trends. Hello! Welcome, Maxim Behar, in all your roles and incarnations as a PR expert, specialist, agency owner, diplomat, entrepreneur, writer, fellow journalist.

Maxim Behar: Good evening!

Host: Today we sent a bright person from this field. He left us somehow unexpectedly and suddenly. Starting with President Rumen Radev and going through a whole galaxy of important figures of our country - everyone paid respect to the head of BTA, who left this world.

Maxim Behar: We all have a broken heart, because today I realize that I have known Maxim Minchev for 40 years. Apart from the fact that we are both from Shumen, we have worked in different redactions, and for the last two years life has brought us together living in the same neighborhood. I came to the conclusion that very rarely, when a person dies, you say to yourself, "he was a good person." Maxim was a professional, a precise journalist, an incredible traveler, a person for whom we have visited around 150 countries while reading his books. In the end, he was a good man, he did not quarrel with anyone, I did not hear a bad word from him ��� he was always smiling. You could easily recognize his artistic "r", among hundreds of other voices, the intonation, the smile, everything. It���s a pity. Too bad for many other people. You are right that our social media was a bit like modern obituaries. At the time, there were whole pages of such obituaries in the newspapers.

We need to understand what���s happening now and unite very well. We must fight this disease and follow all measures strictly. Maxim is gone, as well as Dr. Emil Iliev, the king of acupuncture and jazz festivals - also a great man. Putting all these things together, along with the crowded hospitals, the doctors, the police, the teachers, everyone who cares and is at the forefront. We, ordinary people, must really observe conservative measures, be careful, put on masks. In this regard, I believe that those people who hold positions of responsibility, bewaring of the words "govern the state", they must be very emphatic. First, we all know what the fine for pensioners who go shopping five minutes later or earlier is BGN 500.

Host: I wanted to get to these paradoxes with you.

Maxim Behar: Nobody knows what the fine is if you go without a mask.

Host:��� and whether it will last in court, and whether it is really the best tool. Now there is a paradox, called "exclusively Madrid". In Madrid, they do not comply with restrictions, do not observe distance,�� all measures have been lifted and at the same time there are the least infected. The Swedes also do not wear masks. There is no point in medically analyzing this dispute - for or against, but to constantly feel guilty and ready to be fined and punished for late measures of the government, is also not the way things can improve at the moment.

Maxim Behar: However, there should be very strict measures on those who do not wear masks, because one thing is certain - it protects. Yes, you may be uncomfortable. I had a flight to Switzerland two or three weeks ago, a one day trip�� just to sign a document, and for 18 hours I was wearing a mask - on planes, at airports, everywhere.

Host: In Europe how do you see things in terms of the implementation of this measure.

Maxim Behar: In Zurich there was no one without a mask on the street and at 9 p.m. all restaurants close, without exception.

Host: Their social life usually ends in such hours.

Maxim Behar: It���s a fact. But in Frankfurt at the airport every three minutes they remind people they have to wear masks, because there���s a fine. We are not doctors, specialists in this field, not even some futurists who can say what will happen and how it will happen.
I read articles from the Wall Street Journal - two pages on the topic of "Failure of the Swedish model", then there are 5 more articles that talk about the success of the Swedish model. However, one thing is clear, we must be careful, take measures, and stop panicing. It is very important to be fanatically strict and I think that���s the way to cross and reach the other shore, because we all have to. On the one hand, we have the illness, our life and the lives of our friends and family. On the other hand, we have business - without business there will be no culture, no society development, and increase in unemployment. We need to keep the business alive.

Host: If you see the bigger picture, you would be left with the impression that the main business here is related to restaurants and clubs, and the rest is the pharmaceutical test business. At the moment, people are doing business with tests, and the lack of drugs that will now be procured through government procurement. Why did this happen? And for this they accuse the population of being guilty, when in fact there is a deficit. Definite lack of calls for donations, hospitals. Absolute collapse of the medical staff - they are gone, they get sick, they are old or abdicated.

Maxim Behar: You know in the last 1-2 months all the TV, radio and online news starts similarly. The first part is presenting how many sick and how many dead people there are and what is happening - this is rather the tragic, but also the realistic part. The second part is what each minister has to say, which is 99 percent ���everything is fine, there are medicines���, there is this and that. The third part is when they show interviews with people who say the exact opposite. When you drive your car or stay at home and watch the news, or listen to these three parts on the radio, you say to yourself, "Wait, it can't be true, these are mutually exclusive things." What I don't like is that these people who are responsible, have one-way communication at the moment. They use social media, sometimes are guests at TV studios, where no one asks them anything different or interesting. They say just say what they want to say - this is one-way communication. By the way, Donald Trump was doing the same thing. Why did you use and continue to use Twitter?

Host: So that there is no feedback.

Maxim Behar: Yes, this is one-way communication. You have media, you have no one to ask you awkward questions. When asked something, he said, "You're CNN, you're a fake media, mind your own business."

Host: Our Prime Minister also limited himself to Facebook and the "jeep".

Maxim Behar: Even, first it comes the "jeep" and then Facebook - one-way communication.

Host: Media has spread information that he uses the services of a PR agency from Israel - do you have such information?

Maxim Behar: No, I don't have authentic information, I just read it.

Host: Does it seem logical to you observing the moves he is taking?

Maxim Behar: Absolutely.

Host: Do they seem correct to you, considered as advices and their execution?

Maxim Behar: No, because that's how you can survive - by hiding, by not calling, but these are 7 million Bulgarians who understand. Some of these are intelligent people who also read. Bulgaria is a super sick nation, full of young, intelligent, ambitious people who can enter any ministry tomorrow to govern and reap success as the London or Frankfurt offices are run.

Host: Did we just find these people or have the society just not seen them?

Maxim Behar: We didn't see many of these people at the protest either. We see them in the offices. A while ago I had to discuss the topic about the so-called "influencers" and now I am eager to write a book on the topic of "Bulgarian influencers". These are not just the girls in swimsuits who take selfies in the toilets or matchmakers. Influencers are people who make a million from IT businesses, people who run big businesses and offices, and people who achieve great success. In this sense, it seems to me that those people who are responsible should have two-way communication, be guests at studios like yours, like Slavi Trifonov's.

By the way, I brought my latest book The Morning After specially for Slavi and you. This is a book about business, about leadership, about how we should emerge in this situation, make quick decisions, support people, protect our teams and know that business is super important. And immediately after business comes culture, theaters, cinemas, actors.

Host: It is left behind again due to the expenses for plane designs and ships for a billion.

Maxim Behar: Maybe they are needed too. The point is that we need to have very transparent, open, clear and precise two-way communication. To have people asking and to have responsible politicians answering their questions. To have a vision. And for these people to have their dignity in order to meet TV hosts or other people on the streets without security guards and cars, and answer their questions, because we are at war now, as some say. I'm not so extreme, because there are still businesses that work, the shops are full of goods, food is still produced - we do not really have a crisis.

Host: There is no medical help and medicines.

Maxim Behar: And there is a crisis of trust. Politicians sell trust. They don���t do anything else. Yes, they spend taxpayers' money���

Host: It���s a bit exaggerated but how will they win this war, which is also worldwide?

Maxim Behar: We all have to win. In general, there is a crisis of leadership around the world. Unfortunately, social media and the opportunity for people to express themselves freely has led to the fact that politics is usually done by people who can't do anything else.

Host: This seems to be an old rule.

Maxim Behar: Yes, but now it is even more obvious. Imagine if Bill Gates was involved in politics or Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or people who invented genious products that changed the world completely. These people are not politicians, they are doing business. And the future lies in those people who do business so that they can dictate their terms to politicians, be transparent, honest, fair, go out, meet people, talk to them and explain whatever they need to hear. This is what I call trust.

Host: What do Serbian people say about influencers and PR?

Maxim Behar: In fact, an influencer is an English word and it means a person who influences mainly through social media. But I read that in Serbian the meaning is a person who does various things on social media for money. This is a good comparison, but the influencers are the ones who are actually the leaders of the future, those people who have ideas. Yes, we call influencers both fitness boys and girls in swimsuits because they have many followers, but their messages stay for a day . They can sell you one or two products, and tell you which clothing is better. However, those influencers who create a product, without mentioning names - they are many and I will describe them in this new book, a man who created a university, a private high-tech university - 120,000 people have passed through there so far. My good friend - Svetlin Nakov, SoftUni. Isn't he an influencer? Our wonderful world-famous conductor Yordan Kamjalov, Vesko Eshkenazi - again a well-known concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Host: Spiritual, talented, successful���

Maxim Behar: Yes, who are also an example for all of us. How many singers and actors are there��� for example Kamen Donev, who can fill the Arena Armeec hall for a single moment and around 15-20 thousand people come there to see the work he does.

Host: Why the book is called The Morning After? How much time is left?

Maxim Behar: We need to make quick decisions, to know that tomorrow is coming and that tomorrow requires new people.

Host: Isn't life today and now? Not yesterday, not tomorrow.

Maxim Behar: Life is today, but tomorrow will inevitably come. We have a very short time to change, to realize what is different, because we are entering a new life and the old one will never return. Never!

Host: I will respect one of our viewers and read you his question.
Dimitar Stanev: "All of Western Europeans wear masks, they have been closed for 8 months, observe strict measures. Okay, but the situation is the same, even worse than countries like Sweden and Bulgaria. By the way, the manual of a gas mask says "99% protection". Compare this rag in front of your mouth with a gas mask and you will understand what an absurdity we live in.

Well, yes, there are even collages to build a fence to protect against mosquitoes in the middle of the street. It's the same with the mask, to protect you from millions of microns, which determines the virus. I'm not arguing with you about the masks. I am talking about the fact that the situation is absurd we constantly feel guilty, because Milen Tsvetkov who also���

Maxim Behar:��� and his diplomatic phrase that we wear masks to make us speechless. This is a personal opinion. I���m not a specialist in medicine and I cannot say if the mask protects, but I wear it everywhere. I carry it in my office, even on the street outside, because the other option is to throw it away. There is no problem, however���

Host: Are you constantly changing and washing your mask? Today I learned how important this is, even every two hours.

Maxim Behar: Of course. Always.

Host: And how did so many medics get infected then, Maxim? There are hospitals where 50% of the staff is ill.

Maxim Behar: They not only breathe, but also touch. Physical contact there is tragic. No matter how much they disinfect their office, even though there are disinfectants in every two meters and people clean their hands and wear masks��� Again, the other option is to throw them away, but what will we gain from this?

Host: Sorry, check out what a nice question.
Adrian Iliev: "Hello, Mr. Savov. I have a question to which I cannot find an answer. Why COVID-19 is not so scary for the rich and famous and they recover in 2-3 days. It may sound a bit conspiratorial, but isn't it a PR game? ���

Maxim Behar: I have no idea. Some of them may say to themselves, ���I���ll hide a little, and I will raise my self-confidence afterwards.��� We all know that 2-3 weeks before the election, President Trump tested positive for coronavirus. Then I went to talk in different TV studios again. I don't know if he made it up, you can expect everything from him, but I think he wanted to beat someone. I think the rich and famous people, as our viewer says, want to be heros. Trump wanted to say to the masses, "Yes, I have a positive test," and after three or four days, "I killed this coronavirus because my body is strong, and I know how to do it. "

Host: Our Prime-Minister also killed it in two hours. In the morning he was positive when he had to meet with Zoran Zaev, and two hours later he gave two negative tests.

Maxim Behar: Maybe there are such medical technologies. I have no idea. However, it is true that this virus took away a lot of famous and rich, loved people, rock singers���

Host: Including Maxim Minchev.

Maxim Behar:��� including Maxim and Dr. Iliev, and more. The director Bedo Manukyan - when I read about him, I just couldn't believe it. We had dinner with him a week before. These are people who can afford everything. It's not just about money, it's not just about getting medicine from somewhere, but obviously there are a lot of people who took it easy and a lot of people who unfortunately couldn���t and died. But we can't discuss this topic with you at all, because we're not experts at it either. Communication is important to me. It is important for me that 7 million Bulgarians know what the Bulgarian government is doing, what the President is doing, and whether it is right to convene this notorious advisory council and consult many people. On March and April, we had this headquarters on television every morning. Every morning we all trembled and almost took notes, and we didn't dare go out anywhere. Now suddenly no one is there. From time to time someone appears to say, "There are so many sick people today."

I expect accurate and clear communication. This is already part of my business. There is no such communication. I think that what is said in fragments, piece by piece, from time to time, what is good, what is not good, there is medicine, there is no medicine, we have doctors, we have no doctors, there are hospital beds, and then suddenly reports say that there are no free beds at all. There must be very clear and precise communication, even a spokesman who can provide clear and accurate information every day, without scaring and obliging people. He should let them know that we are strong, and the human body is strong. First we need to know how to fight and secondly how the business can survive. How will the business survive? It will not survive with lower VAT for sure. I have many friends in the restaurant and hotel industry, where tax payability is much in doubt. We will survive only when there is a clear and precise vision of which business needs to be supported and how that can be done. Maybe somewhere in the software business, which brings great added value in Bulgaria, there is a need for help, not only in the restaurant business, maybe somewhere in the industries, such as Madara factory in my hometown Shumen.

Host: Do you want me to read one last question from a viewer, but we won't answer because I have to run commercials?

Maxim Behar: Good.

Host:
Bozhidar: "Sorry, besides me there are other Bulgarians in Zurich who are watching you. Please tell your guest that here the masks are only indoors, and outside the masks are not worn by more than 20% of the people. I really hope you don't spare him this comment. "

Maxim Behar: I was there 2-3 weeks ago and maybe things have already relaxed. I'm sorry. So masks in Switzerland are worn only indoors. Hopefully in Bulgaria we can also wear masks only indoors, but anyway - everyone should wear them.

Host: Thank you. This was Maxim Behar.

��

Watch the interview here.

Maxim Behar: " A person's image can be justified on the grounds of their abilities, achievements and public interest"

Maxim Behar was interviewed by Maritsa newspaper on PR techniques in politics and social media practices in business. The PR expert also commented on nowadays influencers, maintenance of good reputation and communication barriers for modern leaders.

- Your latest book The Morning After is a guide for modern leaders. What is the most important rule you recommend?
This is a rule that I have been repeating for years, and it is over the years that it has become more and more relevant - the worst decision is better than no decision. Or - make stock exchanges, adequate and brave decisions, they may not even be so adequate or so brave, but make them quickly and take the risk. Time is very dynamic and as long as business leaders or managers are hesitant or trembling of doing something or not, anything will get better. This is guaranteed.

- You have a short formula for a successful modern person - the Three S���s Rule - speed, simplicity, self-confidence. Why do you think these are the most effective elements of success?
The speed is clear - quick solutions, fast communication, timely reactions. Today, no one can wait anymore, every second, at least when it comes to communications, is priceless. In today's world, however, in which we are all literally flooded from morning to night with all sorts of information, we need to have the right senses to prioritize things, even to simplify them, knowing what we should focus on. Otherwise we make chaos, from which we can hardly get out. And finally - self-confidence, which I had to put first. I don't know a person who has succeeded, if he doesn't have the self-confidence to handle things, to succeed. And since we started with the Three S's, in English they sound like this: Speed, Simplicity, Self Confidence.

- You believe that success can be achieved by climbing a steep ladder, not using an elevator. What helps you climb your ladder and keep you going up?
Hard work, a lot of experience and learning every day��� In my business I have always relied on my team and my colleagues. We have actually climbed the ladder together, and we continue now, which positions our company as one of the best in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe.

The main thing in "climbing" is perseverance and we absolutely know the goals we want to achieve. Otherwise, the chaotic ascent of this or that ladder, earning some money from somewhere seems to me a complete waste of time. I work in the company I created 26 years ago, and I'm acting as if I just started and I have to put some effort and prove myself to my bosses. It is true - and my team, but every hour of my day is dedicated mainly to my clients, or more precisely - my bosses.

- What is your explanation for the lack of prominent leaders today? Do we need such figures in the foreseeable future or does the invasion of social media make this impossible?
One of the huge reasons, probably the main one, is that only fifteen years ago, political leaders were formed mainly through the media. Now the real leaders have completely lost interest in the media, as they own their own media ��� social media. Most recently, Elon Musk, the founder of the innovative Tesla campaign and many others, closed his global PR department with the words: "Why would I need media�� connections, when I have my own media that no one else in the world have - Twitter account with 29 million followers��� ���. And he's right.

I know that you are actually asking about political leaders and it is the power of social media that is still related to my answer. It gives such power and influence on business leaders that even people who can hardly succeed in anything are already interested in politics. But there are leaders who run successful businesses, who offer innovations, create successful teams and surprisingly succeed even in conditions of crises and market challenges. It is social media that allows real business leaders to speak out, but also political leaders to show what they can do, and in very common cases, what they can't do.

- Can the wave of influencers be defined as the undisputed authorities for the next decade?
It depends on what you mean by the word influencer. When it comes to attractive girls who have several hundred thousand followers showing off their beautiful bodies, I don't think it's likely to happen. Rather, they work mainly for advertising campaigns for mass-market companies, and sometime for more luxurious ones. And that's where their influence ends.

True influencers are those who have achieved something unique, innovative and thus set an example to many others to achieve just as amazing things. In Bulgaria, these are people like Vasko Terziev from Telerik, Plamen Rusev from WebIt, Svetlio Nakov, who created the private university SoftUni, a huge number of software specialists, artists like Georgi Gospodinov and Stefan Valdobrev, like Donnie and the wonderful Neti, like Teodor Ushev - nominated for an Oscar, and Mitko Marinov, who even won one, the outstanding pilot Mario Bakalov, the singers Poli Genova and Ruth Koleva, whose music is listened globally���

If I continue I will not have enough pages of the respected from me a newspaper. The ones I listed above, and many others, are in fact the influencers of our time, the ones we not only have to follow, but really have far more followers than the glossy beauties on Instagram, who I also respect very much.

- Have politicians in our country learned to use PR techniques successfully? Do we have excellent students?
No, politicians in Bulgaria and worldwide do not need PR consultants at all. They are most often used by politicians to teach them how to behave in front of a camera or how to structure their sentences correctly. In general, working with politicians, from my point of view, is a rather ungrateful endeavor, and it seems to have nothing to do with real business. We all see what is happening around us - among politicians we have excellent students in terms of stupidity, incompetence, even arrogance. Their system allows it, unfortunately. Business has a much greater need for good communication, and any self-respecting and professional PR expert should understand this well. However, if a politician decides to use the help of a PR, he needs to accept anything he says unconditionally, as if you go to the dentist. There you open your mouth and follow his instructions without expressing any personal believes���

- What can't the best PR do? Do real stars need an image maker?
My long experience in this profession have taught me that there are no impossible things. Well, I can't make the lazy one work hard , or make the intriguer an useful part of a team. However, when we talk about creative achievements, innovation, modern communications - all this can be learned, experimented, upgraded���

Really I don't know who you define as a "star". Pop singers, folk singers��� My God! I listed the stars in one of the previous questions, without being exhaustive. They do not need PR consultants, because their very creativity and business achievements speak to the public loudly enough even without intermediaries or consultants. A person���s image, which is based on his personality, shows what he can do and achieve, what he gives back to society.

- How to deal with fake news? Is there a recipe?
There is. If�� a fake news seriously affects the reputation of a person, company, family, it should already be subject to the Penal Code. I have been saying this for years - fake news must be criminalized. There are different and many opinions on this issue, mostly - what is fake news, whether a news can be a little fake or very fake, or whether a news can be considered as fake if only one sentence or one element of it is not true��� This is a very serious problem and Bulgaria can be a leader in the new and modern legislation. You just have to gather media experts and good lawyers with an innovative vision and work out a project. Sooner or later this will happen, it will happen somewhere in the world, but it is better to happen now. Until then - everyone should read carefully and not trust anyone. And most importantly ��� we have to be careful what we share on social media, because we are all in danger of inadvertently becoming spreaders of lies and slander, untrue things.

- Social networks and technology have changed the world - billions of people already have media access. Who dictates the rules of the game today?
All of us, several billion people around the world who have media access, dictate the content of world information. The rules of the game try to control the boards or the executive boards of these social media, at least as much as they can. There won't be many revolutions from now on, there will be a boom in visual communications very soon, instead of talking on the phone, we will only communicate through video, and then everyone should be careful how they dress up, which will result in escalation of the fashion industry. The next sharp rise will be with opticians and eyewear designers. Soon the screens of our phones will be built into glasses and then everyone will wear glasses instead of checking their phone each minute. And everything you can read there will be written on the glasses. But these are rather evolutionary and technical elements, as a consequence of the Great Technological Revolution, whose undoubted peak is social media as we know it today.

- What important lesson can we Bulgarians learn by the Republic of Seychelles?
We can learn priceless lessons, such as calmness, honesty, accuracy and a lot of positivism. Two weeks ago, we had parliamentary and presidential elections. You can't even imagine the incredible British type of transparent order, including constant reports of actions in each section��� The newly elected President, Wawel Ramkalavan, dedicated the first 20 minutes of his speech in gratitude to incumbent President Danny Faure, who are both part of very different political parties, quite opposite on many issues��� In short - British order and French finesse. What is now completely missing in Bulgaria.

Maxim Behar on Bulgaria 24 - The US Presidential Election

06.11.2020

Maxim Behar commented on the US presidential election, the falsification of votes, international relations, as well as the US foreign policy for NT Bulgaria 24, in the show "Boiling Point" with Svetoslava Rudolf.

Host: Mr. Behar, what do you think about the current situation in the United States?

Maxim Behar: It looks a bit like a Brazilian series to me, which seems unclear for people in terms of its ending or which series are they currently watching. We all expected this since the beginning of the election campaign between the two candidates, when it became clear that whatever happens, they will have similar number of votes. For now, we all know that Biden is set to be the newly elected president of the United States. We had almost the same situation with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump four years ago, when perhaps the imperfections or peculiarities of the American electoral system allowed Hillary Clinton to have nearly 3 million more votes, as votes of American citizens, voters, and Donald Trump still became president in the end.

Host: Yes, that's the American system.

Maxim Behar: Now Joe Biden has three million more votes and we are all waiting for the outcome of this series, which is increasingly leaning in his favor. Tonight, in hours, the results from Nevada will be clear - which state came out first in the rankings will finally solve the dilemma. Very strange elections.
We remember all previous elections, at least I do. We have never had such a circus and so many different candidates who are united by one common thing - their old age, which is very risky in the decision-making process. You know, in those years, in the mid-1980s, we watched Leonid Brezhnev, a 74-75 years old party leader, and all those old people lined up on these mausoleums like some kind of panopticon taken out, so old people. And the public says, "How can such old people be there?" Yes, but now other people are appearing and this is very unexpected, because this is an extremely innovative and progressive nation, full of�� many capable young people. This is, after all, the nation of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, and many more people today. At the same time, we are asking big questions, "If this president is elected, will he perform well?"

Host: Actually, both of them have something caricatured in them. Donald Trump is unique in the things he says. What You said earlier - a Brazilian TV series - actually suits him very well. He constantly makes a funny show, a comic show. We laugh all the time whenever we watch him talk.

Maxim Behar: There is no such person, there is simply no such person like him. In my opinion, he lives in a world of his own, he talks to himself, he believes in himself. He uses only one-way communication and therefore uses mainly Twitter, because Twitter and social media in general are the most convenient means of one-way communication. You say whatever you want, nobody asks you questions, you don't spend time in TV studios, journalists don't ask you anything - he can just turn around and say, "You're a liar," simply gets up and leaves. And this, in my opinion, is not the image of a modern politician, nor the commitment of a new politician, but rather of a transitional player in the new politics, whose ways are largely unacceptable.

Host: On the other hand, Biden looks like a man who came out of the herbariums. We have spoken here many times in our studio and my fellow journalists have commented that he is a man who get injected in order to be adequate and speaks on his own, otherwise he doesn't even know what he is talking about. . Age speaks for itself very seriously, and the world wonders how this president will govern the United States.

Maxim Behar: We all hope he has good advisers. He has a strong candidate for vice president, but I really hope he has good advisers and they can analyze the different situations so that he can make good decisions or if he can't make them, they can make them on his behalf.

Host: How did it get so far to choose a person who is not even in a great condition? Is that the only option for the Democratic Party to nominate?

Maxim Behar: Hillary Clinton wrote her book after the defeat four years ago, which was called "What Happened?" Someone should write a book four years later, which would also be called "What Happened 2". With the utmost respect to Biden, who as Obama's vice president was a very energetic and very intelligent diplomat, always smiling, always so soft in his demeanor. I would even say that Biden has, in a sense, a subtlety that is not very characteristic of American presidents. They are usually a little sharper, speaking in shorter sentences. Trump is an exception. He is something that no one in the world has seen before. But it is likely that the Democratic Party itself could not unite around another candidate.

Host: Yes. Let's see now who is in second place next to Joe Biden, because this is an extremely interesting woman, Kamala Harris. We will show footage with her. She is a colored woman and a senator. What do You think about her?

Maxim Behar: She is known for the fact that so far no one has seen her angry, irritated or nervous, and at the same time everyone claims that when she speaks, she does not allow anyone to interfere in what she says and is very categorical in controversy, very well-argued, very well-prepared, and her entire career is in politics, much like that of Joe Biden. However, we all know that the current president hasn���t any experience in politics when he entered the White House.

American politics is a very delicate field and is quite different from show business. And here I am not referring only to Donald Trump, but to the overall situation in general, because the American president covers the interests of almost the whole world and has to communicate with different people.

Host: Why did they appoint Kamala Harris as vice president and are some of the votes because of her?

Maxim Behar: Probably yes! Of course, this is a nod to America's colored people, but it's also a nod to those who want to see perhaps a counterpoint to candidate Biden. A young, energetic man with good arguments, with quick decisions.

Host: Is there anything true in some of the comments that have already surfaced that she will rule the United States if Biden wins the election?

Maxim Behar: In my opinion, advisers will rule, analysts will rule and decisions will be made by either the president or the vice president. But we should not underestimate the fact that the candidate for vice president at this stage is a woman. So far, America has never had a woman vice president, leaving aside the fact that she is colored, these are the female voices. You know, America is a leader in feminism and women's rights. These are super strong movements that largely make political decisions. In that sense, Kamala Harris will be a very strong vice president, and she will certainly not be in the shadow of Joe in the shadow of his boss, Barack Obama. She will be a strong figure who will always be in the foreground and her word will be heard - this is more than certain. It is very important who will be the Secretary of State, because America is a strong player in international politics and if we make a reference to Bulgaria and what this will mean for Bulgaria and Eastern Europe, it seems to me and I hope that America will be more pronounced policy throughout this region, including Bulgaria, but also Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia - very strong countries in Eastern Europe that seemed to have been little overlooked by the previous administration.

Host: Europe was ignored by Donald Trump.

Maxim Behar: Neither Europe nor the EU were even ignored. Every month there was a conflict from somewhere.

Host: Does the appearance of Kamala Harris mean that Biden will have a more open migration policy?

Maxim Behar: We have to see. Everyone was sceptic about the Mexican wall. I recently watched reports on one of our national televisions with a team - it looks really funny. A superpower that has billions to guard its borders, that has a great army, internal security to stop immigrants from passing Mexico, given that the local sheriff explained that every 10 km there are underground canal, which enter a Mexican house and goes to an American house and that is tens of kilometers long. This cannot be the world on the walls, be it between Mexico and the United States, from where a great wave of emigrants comes. Rather, there should be better security and tougher laws. In America, they are very fierce with regard to immigrants and all our compatriots who live there, even with green cards. Some of them without. They know how difficult it is to be a legal immigrant in the United States, to have a social security number, which is very important, a driver's license, and everything else. Maybe there will be a more sensible policy towards emigrants, somehow those billions dollars that went to the wall will be placed in the column of losses or in the column of unrealistic investments. We will expect and see, but it largely depends on the third person in this administration, who will be the Secretary of State.

Host: Since you are extremely good in the economic part and a PR for big businesses - we will talk about this, but first I would like to discuss the behavior of Trump and Biden, and how it affected these elections, because after all there is some retreat from Trump, obviously.

Maxim Behar: It was more criminal than what we have seen. In total, Trump is winning more votes than he won four years ago, and I think the difference is a million more than he had before.

Host: He did a lot for the economy of the United States.

Maxim Behar: But if Biden has more votes, I think it's a punitive vote for the slightly more showman-like attitude that Trump had. We all know this camp with promises, promises, in the morning he says something else, the next day he writes something different on Twitter, and in the evening someone from his team refutes it.

Host: The most interesting thing is when he said that on November 4 COVID will disappear if he wins the election. Are there Americans who would believe that?

Maxim Behar: Of course! In which other country will the president say, "Drink bleach and disinfectants,��� and several people will die because they immediately reached for the bottles. Of course there is. This is a country of many nationalities, a country in small municipalities where people are closed and probably some of them do not know where France is, not to mention Bulgaria. They trust their leaders, they genetically trust the man who was elected President, from the time of Lincoln, because they believe that this is a free country, free elections, with fair elections. If we compare America's economy four years ago and now, all indicators are positive: less unemployment, more businesses. Trump made several rather dishonest gestures to German companies: he kicked out Mercedes, kicked out German investors, and said it would all be produced in America. In the modern world, you can say, "Let's make America great again," but we're all so connected and the borders are so lost and people are so informed now, even Americans in small communities and towns, that a little stronger populism it seems to repel a lot of people too. And if someone liked 78-year-old Joe Biden, whom I look at with sympathy - I wouldn't say whether I sympathize or not, we have to see how he will behave as president, but he was really a very intelligent and very accurate vice president - and if anyone has gone more to vote for him, I think a large percentage of these people are voting against Trump, not because they are for Biden. You used the word caricature, and that's the exact definition as we looked at these debates. I can't believe how it is possible for a great country to have two candidates for the most prestigious position, probably in the world, who offend and interrupt each other.

Host: An outrageous language.

Maxim Behar: And their microphones were muted because one of them scolded him while he was speaking, and that probably repelled many Americans who said to themselves, "No, we will not vote for what has been so far."

Host: Biden is also behaving in a similar way to this debate.

Maxim Behar: Yes, so he can to some extent respond to Trump, to his words and insults that are in his dictionary. We see every CNN question he answers: "Get out of the room! You are fake! You are liars! ���

Host: Is it true, Mr. Behar, that to some extent the media pressured Trump in some typically liberal way?

Maxim Behar: That is why they are media. The media, which will follow Donald Trump or any other leader, and just keep quiet and say only positive things to him, - such media do not work in a modern democracy. But now that we have social media in our hands, when we can learn everything first hand, when we have three billion users only on Facebook - that means 3 billion different opinions on one issue, and traditional media to praise someone and say only the good things. In my opinion, their job is just the opposite, especially in business and especially politicians, because they have public funds, they spend the money the businessmen give them, which every person who pays taxes does. And when they manage and spend these public funds, there must be super strict control by society, through the media, and of course the relevant institutions and social media.

Host: How did the battle between the two presidential candidates develop on social media, in your opinion? Who uses social media?

Maxim Behar: Donald Trump has been a leader on social media since day one. I often quote his first secretary of state, a businessman who said, ���My job is very easy. I get up in the morning, read Twitter, and I know what to do because my boss got up before me and already posted, for example, what will happen to Korea or Japan or China.��� While Biden held and continues to hold much more moderate tone in social media. Biden's headquarters itself has spent a lot more money on social media advertising, and they've used it much more actively, mainly to invest in advertising, when Donald Trump is followed by a lot of people anyway. Twitter is a very strong medium, and then probably Facebook and Instagram, but Twitter in America, in the Anglo-American world in general, is an extremely strong medium to share. The very fact that you can say something in 140 characters, which sounds like a whole political message means that it is really a tool for very intelligent people. It's not for everyone, and you as a journalist know that everyone can be spread over two pages, but with 140 characters you have to say what the newspapers say on a whole newspaper page. Biden and Kamala Harris also used Twitter, but far less and less often, as they invested much more in traditional media, television, newspapers, when Trump insisted on his social media. There are people, there is the influence actually. If he writes twice more times to drink bleach, it is unknown what will happen to the American nation. These are very influential messages.

Host: Tell me now about the business, which according to some information that I follow, supports Biden more, because he is more predictable.

Maxim Behar: This is a person who would listen to the big corporations and help them. We all remember the first or second week in the White House four years ago, when Donald Trump met with all the big companies. I think Bill Gates did not attend the meeting, but Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were there. Trump listened to them very carefully, but this whole conversation sank into oblivion and no one returned to it. While Biden seems not only more predictable, but also more pragmatic, and as a person who understands the intricacies of diplomacy and politics and is far from amateur and arbitrary, unknown decisions. But much of the business also supported Trump, because he is one of them. Analysts will say this after seeing who voted and how, because even the election results are not clear yet.

Host: How do big businessmen in the United States react when President Trump decides to end business relations with China and how it affects them as the economy grows, but on the other hand, are these global businesses happy with that?

Maxim Behar: I'm not very sure that especially in this case with China, the US economy has grown and gained so much. Perhaps 90 percent of all products used by the American economy are made in China, at 4-5 times lower prices, probably of the same quality. Yes, you will make a product in America, but three times more expensively and you will sell it to the customer five times more. So this is a bit of an artificial ratio in my opinion and this is a personal opinion. The trade war with China is a gigantic mistake because it totally disrupts the market conditions in which we live. Suddenly he says, "I'm going to ban this company, I'm going to ban that company," but on what grounds? There is a market, there is supply and demand, there are technologies in which your market has the opportunity to compete with American manufacturers, because only competition, and real market competition, can move business forward.

If we ban all televisions in Bulgaria and leave only one television, for example yours, will it be better? No, it won't get better. No one will watch and people will go to social media. While the competition, either in the TV market or in the car market, especially in the field of technologies that are evolving literally every day - we hear, see, watch, buy, try something completely new, which only a month ago we did not think existed . This is very healthy. When he put up the big barrier, the big wall, which is good that it's not made that strong, especially with China, but much stricter and much more painful than the one on the border with Mexico. When he put up the Great Wall, it was clear to everyone that this was an absolutely lost cause, because somehow the American president could make decisions for his country, but how would he influence France, Britain, Spain, Germany - giant markets, Brazil, the whole Latin America, Australia. There is no way it will affect if one of them decides to buy a Chinese product five times cheaper or much more innovative, especially in the field of technology. This is a mistake that I am sure will be one of Joe Biden's priorities if the predictions are confirmed, to restore the relationship and try to establish a market relationship. However, the market should not be influenced by exactly these things, but should be influenced by whether a product is better or is more expensive or cheaper, what it contains. It seems to me that this will be the biggest change in the new administration if it happens. I guess even if Trump wins the election in those small percentages and the probability he has, he will have to rethink very, very deeply what happened in the trade war with China.

Host: In terms of foreign policy, which concerns us as well, what would change from now on if Joe Biden wins?

Maxim Behar: I could hardly judge the various administrations from the time of Bush, Bill Clinton, Bush Jr., especially Barack Obama, but I would like to see a little more desire for Bulgaria as an extremely important country for the Balkan region, such as a country bordering on many risk factors, on the one hand the former Yugoslavia, Northern Macedonia, Serbia, on the other by sea with Russia, on the south by two strong NATO countries such as Greece and Turkey, which do not always understand each other. Bulgaria, despite the fact that we are very dissatisfied and have thousands of complaints, remains quite stable and adequate. I hope that this problem with Northern Macedonia will be resolved as soon as possible. I would really like to see a little more attention from any US administration to assess that we are behaving very adequately, we have no conflicts, we have no problems in practice with any of our neighboring countries in political and business terms. American investors in Bulgaria are important, however, there is much more room for more investment, especially in the field of high technology, and even for more lessons by the American business.

Host: And militarily?

Maxim Behar: It is all clear. We chose the path of F16 and this was absolutely the only logical, possible and predictable path. Lockheed Martin has been present in the Bulgarian environment, business and politics for 10-15 years and our politicians had to make their choice. They had enough time to consider it from all sides. Greek and Turkey, as well as most of the countries in Europe, are armed with F16. The F35, which is the next much better model, is already available in Israel for an hour or less with a fighter from Bulgaria. It seems to me that this was a very logical decision, even in terms of technology, but I do not want to make comparisons, because I am not an expert there. We are a proud member of NATO, and we in the Atlantic Club have a certain contribution, and of course the whole Bulgarian political class since the 90s, and we should have the best we can have in NATO and we should have what our neighboring countries have. Because this is an army, and this army must be armed as best as it can, and that is the choice we made.

Host: With regard to NATO, will the United States continue to pull away from NATO as Trump has done so far?

Maxim Behar: Another mistake of Donald Trump is that he went very sharply against NATO for some reason. Yes, it is true that America has responsibilities in this organization. It is true that it probably to a large extent supports the organization financially. Not just America, of course, but also Germany, Great Britain, Turkey. However, I am sure that relations will warm up again, even if Trump stays. These are mistakes that cannot be calculated by his advisers, by the people around him. Relations with NATO must be like relations between partners and allies who have the same goal, and that whole thing aims to have peace and no wars. To have open markets for business, to be able to develop technologies here, to be able to develop relations between people and between businesses. Undoubtedly, NATO is and will be an organization that will have a growing understanding. What will happen after Brexit is another matter. I hope that Britain's social and administrative separation from Europe will not affect their military commitments and what it has to do with NATO.

Host: According to some commentators, however, Joe Biden would start new wars.

Maxim Behar: Everyone is saying that. Honor and respect to Donald Trump, there has been no new war anywhere in the world for four years, and everyone says, "Yes, but now that Biden comes, they will begin." I have not read a single document to that effect. I don't believe any American president has fallen so much in love with making wars here or there, but quite the opposite. I think that from what Biden has shown so far, it seems that their role as people who love peace will be upgraded and continued. Bush had 9/11. He had no choice. Obama probably had no choice but to continue this war or this struggle that previous administrations had begun. Trump focused more on business, real business, and show business, and somehow the wars stayed out of his sight. I hope this is both Joe Biden's position and concept.

Host: This topic is long, but we will see. Depending on who becomes president, then we could talk more about foreign policy. Now, I want to ask you about something that strikes my eyes and ears for the first time - that there is a lot of talk about rigging the United States election. Something I considered a Bulgarian priority.

Maxim Behar: It has to be proven. And I read a lot of things. In Bulgaria this happens easily and maybe we see it more closely. I think that in this 250-year history of American democracy and the electoral system, which has gone through many trials, no falsification is possible. They talk about 100,000 votes by mail, 100% of which are for Joe Biden, no one can say whether they were falsified or not, but this is questionable. However, the legislature, especially local prosecutors, is so strong in America that it seems impossible to me not to check all the signals. But who among us can tell by today whether something went wrong or someone faked something. I do not believe that 10,000-20,000 votes will have an impact. We all remember when Bush won 10,000 against Al Gore in Florida. Then the counting lasted a whole month. The young Bush was elected president. Let's see, but at first glance it seems unimaginable. 100,000 people suddenly send letters and no one checks these people to see if they exist. Recently, there are many posts, especially on Twitter, of people who say that many dead souls have voted. Even a political analyst, an American who I follow closely, had posted that she was waiting for the results to the Arlington Cemetery, and then we would see who would win, with a little black humor.

Host: It would be shocking if it turns out that the United States receives such falsifications, when it is considered as the strictest nation compared to the world.

Maxim Behar: Everyone defines it as the mother of modern democracy, where people can express their opinions freely and at the same time be controlled when they break the law. This is not a simple theft, as Trump calls it, "They stole my election," but a crime.

Host: It will be up to the judges to decide the fate of the elections. Can these judges be trusted? Some were appointed by Trump.

Maxim Behar: Yes, but not all of them. I can't say whether he can or can't, but I remember that ridiculous incident with the votes in Florida, between Al Gore and George W. Bush, when the Supreme Court decided not to count the votes manually. However, two years later, some students counted them manually, and it turned out that Al Gore had more votes than Bush, and that's a known story. There are movies about it. However, the Court had already decided who the president was and there was no way��� It is absurd two years later for the president to be eliminated and for the other candidate, in this case Al Gore, to become president. The imperfections of the democracy, I would say. But as we expand on this topic a little more, we go even beyond America. It is obvious that what we still for some reason call "democracy" does not work. It does not work in Bulgaria either. The whole world has turned upside down as a result of the social media tsunami and the fact that we have started to communicate in a completely different way and have interactive two-way communication between different people, we have more information, that we have control over politics and business every day. Because only 10-15 years ago, if someone wanted to say, "this politician doesn't work," or "I don't like this company," he had to go to the newspaper or in a television studio and say, "Please let me talk. I want to say that politician�� X does not do his job or he lies.��� Now anyone can say that. In this revolution of control over politicians, we still wait for someone to make mistakes for four years and see what happens, whether they vote or not. In any billion-dollar corporation, if the chairman of the board of directors makes a mistake that costs the corporation its good reputation or funds, or positioning, or loss of partners and markets, he will be fired the next day. However, in politics we have to wait four years for the voters to decide. No, you don't have to wait. Of course, this system will change. It does not work.

In my opinion, there must be such selectivity that a politician who did not keep his promises because everyone is making promises, now we have seen Trump and Biden making promises from morning to night - complete nonsense. Usually the politician, in order to be elected, he says - I will raise salaries, I will raise pensions, there will be no budget deficit, I will not take loans, the business will have all the conditions to grow and more. The moment he becomes president, prime minister, minister of some kind, he is elected, and suddenly it turns out that what he said somehow didn't seem to happen, because probably half of the things were impossible. In this case, there must be a system in which the politician can leave immediately - on the same day, the next day if he has not kept his promise. And this can happen when this e-government, which we have been talking about for years in Bulgaria and not only in Bulgaria, happen and technology begins to have some control over politics.

For example, you promised to have a budget deficit of 2%, but suddenly the parliament voted for it to be 5.5%, because you need money for something else - for salaries, for example, you promised pre-election salaries or something else. Then there must be an electronic system that says "can not", you promised 2%. This happens in companies, in business, we make business plans, we make forecasts and you can't get out of this business plan. Why? Because you have no money or you have to take loans. And if electronics, technology control a little more the democracy, it seems to me that life will be better and people who are competing to be politicians will have a little more than one thing in mind to say to themselves: ���Wait, let's promise what we can do, because if we cannot in two months we can "take off" from this place. And it's a shame - to get out of the back entrance, which is terrible for a politician and his dignity. However, for a politician, this means the end of his career. But there is something else, politicians are not what we want to see, because there is already another way to succeed than in politics. And I will return to my favorite topic, social media ��� it is also one of the tools, a person who knows how to do something, to do it without appearing in politics. Because 20 years ago there were 4 categories of famous people in the world, which we called people who dictate public opinion and they were politicians, athletes, showmen and people who hosted TV shows. They were the people who influenced the people. In order for a politician, a person to succeed anywhere, he had to be recognizable. To be recognizable, he had to be in the media. There is no need now. Everyone has a social media that is much more influential than any other media if they have something to say and if they know how to say it. Imagine that Bill Gates had become a politician, there would never be Microsoft. Well, if Mark Zuckerberg had become a politician or a senator in his hometown, he would never have had Facebook. That is why all these people say to themselves: ���We will do business because we can succeed. We have channels of communication, we have media in our hands."�� Who stays in politics? People who can't do good business can't succeed in any other way. And this is also a big problem for the government of modern countries.

Host: I can argue a bit here, but I want to address another issue. It is about the Bulgarian political situation. Why did the protests stop? Where did the Poisonous Trio go wrong?

Maxim Behar: I don't know if the so-called Poisonous Trio made a mistake. The protests were extremely enthusiastic from the very beginning. And without even trying to be an expert on them, because especially in my business I am totally distanced from politics, but of course from a purely professional point of view I follow it carefully. Everyone said that there were no leaders and no bright personalities, and at the same time Bulgaria is full of such people - young, intelligent, well educated, ambitious, some of them want to enter politics, but did not appear at the protest. Because there were many different people, those who had good ideas said to themselves, "No, if I go there they will connect me with this or that." The protests were a very strong popular way of highlighting that something was not going well in the country, that many things needed to be fixed in the country. They did a lot of things, in the sense that the politicians suddenly said to themselves, ���Wait a minute, we can leave, as I just mentioned, through the back entrance. We may not do what we are chosen to do. Let's see if we can correct ourselves!���

It seems to me that this approach of: ���retirees will get 5 million; doctors will get 20 million,��� is going to result in bad consequences. You need every single expense to be very well reasoned, which is mainly depended on the communication policy and practices of all, whether president, prime minister, government, parliament ��� people, who are lacking such skills these days. Now, we are all living in times of restrictions, pandemics, quarantines and everything else. While I was coming towards your studio, on one of the most populated pedestrian and beautiful streets in Sofia, I noticed there were no people with masks. I also went into stores, again no one had a mask. Why? Because no one knows what to wear or not to wear. If they know that wearing masks is required by a random source from the TV, people are still not aware of the fines and who controls them. In France, London and Paris, I recently watched that the cities are full with policemen, who control the situation because there has to be control. People���s health is the highest priority. I go back to the topic of the square again - this one, I would say, can be defined as a bit awkward communication about what we fight for, what we want, how we will achieve it, and it wasn���t accepted well. People get a little tired and probably have said to themselves: ���we put so much effort, we walked so much, we spend so much money for a flag and for whistles ��� probably more than what we could spend for bottles of rakia and kebabs, and meanwhile nothing has changed.��� But I believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion. On the part of the protesters, the opinion seems to exceed the limits of normal protests at times. It was quite rude and quite inadequate. After the next election, if the government makes it to the elections at all, we will see to what extent the voice of those protesting was heard. If their voice has not been heard, this becomes only their problem, unfortunately.

Host: Yes, but for now they seem to be heard in the government.

Maxim Behar: They should be heard in Bulgaria. The government always hears them because it is their job to follow every message closely.

Host: What do you mean by ���to be heard in Bulgaria���?

Maxim Behar: I mean the Bulgarian society should hear the messages sent by protesters. I will really go into some phraseology, but very well-argued, very specific, very pragmatic. No protest in the world has succeeded, except perhaps somewhere in Central Asia, where relations are on a completely different basis. In Bulgaria, many things need to change, the business environment, the attitude of the government, the attitude of the state administration towards business must definitely change, and it just needs to change completely.

A few years ago I took an award from Manager magazine and everyone was in the hall of the Sofia National Opera and Ballet - the Prime Minister, the President, and then I turned to them and said: ���Look, we play in one team - business and government, business and the state administration - we play in one team. We have to play to succeed, but you know we are central strikers, you are defenders. You have to support us, you have to help us so that we can score goals. When we score goals we will earn money, and therefore, more jobs, better taxes, and success. Taxes and jobs are important, but Bulgarian business and technologies will reach great success. There are many businesses. We often say there are no leaders, but there are no leaders mainly in politics. There are many leaders in business, there are many leaders in culture - Vesko Eshkenazi, Yordan Kamjalov, young singers such as Poli Genova, Ruth Koleva and many others. Many personalities who are recognizable in the west - the pilot Mario Bakalov, Plamen Rusev, who made Webit and this is not an advertisement. Svetlin Nakov, who made SoftUni - a private university where half of Sofia studies. These are great leaders and if the administration helps us and helps this whole business environment, Bulgaria will succeed because it is an exceptional country. There is no country in Europe with so many young, intelligent, passionate, ambitious people, and such good, calm European relations. And the administration, no matter who it is, who is the prime minister or the president, must help these relations to improve and for Bulgaria to stand in the place it has deserved for many years in Europe.
Host: Thank you for this conversation!

Watch the interview here.

Maxim Behar received an honorary diploma for his contribution to the Youth Economic Forum of UNWE

The CEO of M3 Communications Group, Inc. Maxim Behar was a guest speaker at the 2020 Youth Economic Forum, organized by the Student Council at UNWE.

As one of the members of the university���s Board of Trustees, Behar received a honorary diploma on behalf of the management for his contribution to YEF 2020, presented to him by Angel Stoykov - the chairman of the Student Council.

Maxim Behar highlighted the importance of analysing leadership today. "Business is an endeavor for brave people who are not afraid to make quick decisions, take risks and be confident. Leaders need to guide people and think of the future. "Now we live a different life, we have become more pragmatic, we allocate our time better and we see the benefits of online communications," he said.

The forum was opened by Angel Stoykov and the Vice-Rector for Institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova.

Prof. Stoyanova congratulated Behar on the occasion of his re-election as President of the World Communication Forum in Davos.

Among the guest speakers were well-known entrepreneurs who shared their experience in business and made predictions about the "new normality" in business leadership.

The Youth Economic Forum was held on both - the MS Teams platform at the Great Conference Hall and online on Facebook.

Maxim Behar comments on the leaders in politics and business for Studio Banker

The PR specialist Maxim Behar is a guest at the Banker studio, hosted by Emil Yanev, to comment on political systems, the crisis of leadership and business worldwide.

Host: This is Banker Studio, I'm Emil Yanev. Tomorrow is coming very soon, and we are in five minutes to the new world. What all this means will be told by one of the world known PR experts, former chairman, president of the International Communications Consultancy Organization (ICCO) and the only Bulgarian listed in the World PR Hall of Fame in London. Of course, we are talking about the guru of Bulgarian PR Maxim Behar. Hello, Maxim.

Maxim Behar: Good afternoon. Hello, Emo.

Host: Now, before tomorrow comes, we will first look at the five minutes that remain until tomorrow, and before we dive into the five minutes - a very interesting correspondence is obtained in the title. A few months ago, Ivan Krastev also wrote a visionary book entitled "Is Tomorrow Already". You seem to give him an answer and tell him "It's not tomorrow, but there are five minutes left" until tomorrow. Is there any correspondence, any dialogue between these two visionary works?

Maxim Behar: There is correspondence with what is happening now in the world and in particular in Bulgaria. And with what we all anticipate could happen. Like Ivan Krastev, I read his book, so what I did was actually an attempt to predict what would happen and how the world would change. However, I focus on business. Because these are my impressions, this is my experience, and I believe that changes in business will actually lead to gigantic changes in the whole society. We are limited, we stay at home for a few months, and no one knows if this is going to happen again, we are closed, we have some psychological worries, that we cannot escape of no matter what we do, even if we drink one or two brandies, watch a movie or read a book. Anyway, somehow a lot of people hope to get through these difficulties. However, when business suffers, I return to politics because I mentioned Ivan Krastev at the beginning���

Host: There is no way to escape politics. Not possible.

Maxim Behar: We cannot expect big changes there. On the contrary, I think there will be negative changes. But focusing on business - huge departments are, in fact, on the verge of bankruptcy. Tourism, hospitality, airlines, many other sectors, which requires the employees��� personal presence. There are large industries that could shut down. Thousands of factories with tens of thousands of workers in Germany, France and Italy have stopped car production, for example.

If business suffers, that will reflect on our life and change it drastically, and therefore, the society will start living differently. And I think that's going to happen. Even in the title I made a��� not to say so much "warning", but a slight hint that we have five minutes. And we need to understand that life is changing, it will never be the same, I don't want to say that, but it's a fact. And if each of us, 4-5 billion people on the planet, especially 7 million people in Bulgaria, do not adapt, change, work, and make money, we are on the losing side. If we are on the winning side, we should know how to manage it even better so that it never loses? If we do not have answers to these questions, our lives will be very difficult, and I cannot imagine it.

Host: Are you saying that at 11:55 pm we can change what will happen next in five minutes?

Maxim Behar: This is a symbol, of course, and an image.

Host: Yes, but it's very short, five minutes.

Maxim Behar: We are lacking time, because all the changes are developing fast, the dynamics are exceptional, just 200 km / h. On top of that, the changes in the world ten years ago happened thanks to social media and the new way of communication. We all know everything, everyone can write what they want, where they want���

Host: Technology has changed the world, in fact, fundamentally.

Maxim Behar: Yes, the basis is technology, but the result is social media. And when we already have this gigantic flow of information and we can't separate and we can't decide what's important, what's not important, what's true, what's not true, or fake news. The fact that everyone can invent whatever they want, it creates a giant chaos in the whole flow of information. And you know, there are people, and we meet them all the time, some of whom say, "The coronavirus is fiction that only causes fear in people���s lives. Absurd." Others say, "There are 1,000 people infected." Others say, "No, there are 100 people infected." Fourth say "They pay people to be able to say that���", complete nonsense and complete chaos in information. I mention this in my book, so that everyone can determine their priorities, reconsider who can be trusted, how to check information, how to change their personal and working life. Of course, this is my point of view. I wrote The Morning After a month ago, and it came out in literally two weeks. If I was still writing it now, maybe I would add other things and it will develop even more, because for these ten days since it has been on the market, this is the second edition and I guess a third has already being printed. But the important thing is that all of us, with or without the book, should realize what is happening, how we should live from now on, how we should do business.

Host: Yes, but most experts, financial and economic experts predict a V-shaped, not a U-shaped crisis, i.e. crisis with a deep bottom, but with a rapid ascent. This means that tomorrow may come very soon, especially if the information about some vaccines is confirmed and these testing periods pass faster, then the world can return to normal or at least return to its previous state much faster, than foretold.

Maxim Behar: Life will never return to its previous state. Of course, there will be vaccines, there will be treatment, we will all be a little more confident. I hope we can meet as soon as possible, discuss together, communicate. However, it will never be the same because we have all reconsidered our priorities, the way we live, whether we could live with less money and less luxury, to think about the future in a completely different way, because only until the end of the year did we think that our the future is almost predetermined. "Yes, we will live, there will be some crises, but it will be a financial crisis."

Host: It can be compared to the Second World War to some extent, although the periods are different.

Maxim Behar: Yes, I do not want to compare it with wars, although there are many people in science who actually compare the 2020 pandemic with the Second, with the First World War, given the damage it has inflicted not only on people but the economy, as well as victims. But the world is different mainly because we have social media, and we are all informed by various random people. They cannot be regulated.

Host: So, aren't we also victims to a parallel infodemia, which is also talked about a lot and which may have a more avalanche-like development even than the curve of the virus itself?

Maxim Behar: We become victims if we do not know how to manage the flow of information we have.

Host: How should we manage it? Probably your book is focused on that.

Maxim Behar: Yes, of course there is a chapter that is focused on such matters. I think that first of all we are all victims of fake news. And it seems to me that the sooner governments, parliaments in the countries manage to criminalize fake news, this will somehow put them in a category where most people will rethink���

Host: It was suggested��� The "Censorship" alarm will light up immediately.

Maxim Behar: Well, yes, this is not censorship.

Host: It's very subjective.

Maxim Behar: No, no, wait, this is not censorship when you publish fake news.

Host: Yes.

Maxim Behar: This is the prevention of a crime or a lie.

Host: It still has articles in the Penal Code on which fake and slanderous news can���

Maxim Behar: Probably. Yes, probably when someone suffers the consequences of being slandered. On the one hand, regulating fake news and actions that could deceive or damage us. On the other hand, everyone needs to build a system on how to protect themselves from the large flow of information. I will give you an example with cars, todays cars. 120 years ago, when Henry Ford introduced his petrol carriage, as it was called back then, and today a modern car, many people said, "There is no future. There is no way we can get petrol to fill it up. What if we broke the engine? Moreover, an accident can happen and kill a person. There is no future for this." Yes, but today we do not travel in carts, we drive our own cars and we know when to press the brake or the clutch, when to accelerate, when to stop, when to give priority on the road, i.e. We have rules that we follow, and this image is a bit close to our situation. I think it is quite adequate, and we must proceed in the same way with the news. We must know which ones to read, which are the sources that can tell us accurate news or not, which are the analytical sources. And in all this chaos we humans, Homo Sapiens, must participate actively to protect ourselves, to analyse, to be able to do our business differently. And this book we're talking about right now is really focused solely on leadership due to the fact that leaders are the ones who could help humanity a lot. But we all see leaders nowadays, political leaders���

Host: There is a very serious crisis of leadership worldwide.

Maxim Behar: We all can see that some leaders look like cartoons.

Host: Yes.

Maxim Behar: Like something we did 20 years ago, living in the time of Thatcher, Cole, Mitterrand���

Host: To Deng Xiaoping, even if you want.

Maxim Behar: Even Deng Xiaoping, a visionary.

Host: Yes.

Maxim Behar: And the leaders are the ones who should realize the importance of their responsibilities now in 2020. And in the future to be able to show, mainly in business, to people, to Homo Sapiens, to their colleagues, to their boards, to management structures, how to approach businesses in order to achieve success. This is a great subtlety, this is a great professionalism. While writing the book, I discovered the simple difference between a manager and a leader. Especially in the Bulgarian language it is so simple and so obvious - the manager manages, he has to manage, take risks, set rules to his people or even discipline them. Overall, he manages, but the leader guides. This is a prefix. Such a simple difference. The leader should not focus on���

Host: The leader is a strategist; the manager is a tactician.

Maxim Behar: You can say that, although the tactics can be shared or guided by the leader as well. But he has to be a visionary, to look at the big picture, the important things and to show both the management and his colleagues how they can move forward. These are very important issues. Business is suffering at the moment, business is at a crossroads and if there are literate people who can explain in simple, human, prepositional, predicate, complementary terms, without complicating, without such big scientific phrases, definitions and everything else, they can explain and tell the businessmen how they need to change in order to succeed. Not to mention caring for people, in the first place, definitely in a crisis. To every colleague, to every person. And from there, the opportunity to bring out every single positive trait of each of your colleagues, so that the company as a whole, as a team, can succeed.

Host: Yes, but the biggest global companies, metaphorically speaking, are the nations and especially the big nations. The current sanitary situation, as you say, will change everything. Also, people's lives and way of thinking. Is it possible for us to hope that people can sober up, sober up somehow, and start choosing people like the ones we mentioned before - Cole, Thatcher, Reagan, Kennedy, instead of the clowns and cartoon figures we talked about a while ago?

Maxim Behar: This will definitely happen. In my opinion, these people at the moment, the so-called leaders are transitional people, transitional leaders. These are the people of total chaos on social media, of total chaos in information who share and influence the public.

Host: Yes.

Maxim Behar: Because people who vote for their leaders are totally confused about who they can trust. Everyone who speaks random things 24/7, gets up in the morning and says one thing and before he goes to bed says something completely different, all these people will disappear.

Host: Isn't this the state of the so-called post-truth in which the emotional prevails over the rational?

Maxim Behar: Yes, but it is shared by the mass media. Because if we go back in time and remember this period from 15-20 years ago, who were the influential people? Television hosts, politicians, of course, athletes, showmen - those people who appeared "on television", because they were the only one who could use media. Whether it will be a newspaper, radio, and mostly television. You also have a vision, but these people were influential, and they influenced public opinion. Today's influential people use social media that reaches more users than TV does. There are billions of people from around the world. They take advantage of these media and they also take advantage of the fact that people are not totally oriented, and that's what I'm focused on in the book - who you should trust and how. It seems to me that this whole wave will be swept away in 10 years, and then we will all wake up and say, "Wait a minute, who are we choosing?".

Host: Maybe the role of journalism as a filter of information will return. I remember one time, when I was a student and we lived in another world, I was very impressed. I read one of the rules for recreating the BBC, which said something like that a journalist should be like a bank clerk and work with facts the way a bank clerk manages money, as if they are not his property.

Maxim Behar: That's right. That time will return. Maybe not in this type of journalism that we or our colleagues from the journalism faculty at the university imagine. They know that when they graduate, they will go to a newspaper, radio or television, journalism of intelligent, influential and trusted people will appear on social media. They will be influenced by journalists��� advices, analyses, comments and opinions. People who will also enter politics, because you can trust them. These people will write truths and accurate analyses, and I think they will have the opportunity to lead societies and make them better, to influence people and make them better. However, nowadays there are no such people.

Host: Well, now to quote some big headlines, large-scale burdens in the global exchange of information such as Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian. Do you trust these institutions as journalists?

Maxim Behar: Largely yes, because���

Host: I say right away, because there were some very curious, not even curious, but quite unambiguous comments about the situation in our country, which from this point of view were called "paid", "slanderous", etc. You are a global PR man.

Maxim Behar: No, they are not slanderous, nor paid.

Host: That's right, but that's how they were stated.

Maxim Behar: But they were nominated by people who first want to use some political dividends���

Host: People in power. Directly people in power.

Maxim Behar: Yes, of course. And they think that stating such thing ��� by the way, a lot of people can really believe them.

Host: Yes, I saw that many people believed them.

Maxim Behar: People who don't have access to global media and aren't interested in it say, "Of course, someone took out �� 1,000 and gave it to a journalist from The Guardian."

Host: A boy from close to the politicians said that it was actually very easy and actually not expensive at all to pay Der Spiegel, who we all know rules the world in one form or another. To pay Der Spiegel with a small amount and have him write what you want.

Maxim Behar: Well, this boy, I don't know who he is, he understands so much. It is not possible, these are institutions that have existed for decades, some of them hundreds and have their own regulations and laws. If, for example, you could buy Der Spiegel or Le Monde, or the New York Times, these institutions would not be called that, they would not exist. It is not possible. For example, Time Magazine would probably take money for one word, even for one comma. But these are institutions. I am talking about the new institutions that will appear and are already appearing and which have a much greater impact than the traditional institutions. Because if you post a video on YouTube, it reaches millions of times more people than an article in Time magazine, which is even paid media.

Host: But still the severity is different.

Maxim Behar: Yes, the severity is different, but also the target is different, i.e. the target is not massive. Time magazine or any other large institution is trusted by 1,000 people or 100,000 people. A potential number of billion people can access YouTube. And that's why it seems to me that the new leaders will use only social media. By the way, one of them, without calling him a new leader, from the White House, from Washington, uses only social media. There was a secretary of state, a businessman, I think he was the boss of a big oil company, I don't even remember his name, before this one, the previous secretary of state who said, "My job is very easy. I get up in the morning to read what the president wrote on Twitter and I know what my tasks will be today." On the one hand, this leads to great transparency within politics, but on the other hand, to a great risk of someone saying something stupid or writing something that is not correct ��� And this is happening more and more often. It seems to me that the new leaders will come from the new generation. These people, who are now 20 years old, the so-called Millennium, in 5-10 years will develop the ability to work with social media, and therefore influence and trust people.

Host: There is no way to escape from that in our country. And because it is precisely these people who are on the crest of the wave in the events that are taking place in the squares. Do you see such people, are there such people, will these people appear?

Maxim Behar: I���ve seen such people; they will appear one day and start leading. However, the problem is neither in these people, nor in the people who are currently leading and managing their communications and their messages in an inappropriate way.

Host: My next question is about the PR of the government.

Maxim Behar: I think that these people who are currently either in the squares or standing in front of their screens, behind their keyboards, their laptops and wish for better world, better, transparent, richer, happier Bulgaria, these people are stopped by the system itself. The system, which we still call democracy for some reason, does not work. I have been repeating this for years. In previous book, The Global PR Revolution, there is a whole chapter, maybe 30 pages about it. This system does not work. Even if the most qualified, intelligent, and capable person appears in the Council of Ministers or any ministry in Bulgaria, he will be instantly overshadowed, both by the system and by the political parties and the officials in that ministry or institution. The world needs to change completely, and I am a little disappointed and deceived by the fact that Donald Trump with his great abilities could break this system, and something new should be built from the very beginning.

Host: What could this new thing be? If the foundations of democracy are broken, what can come up?

Maxim Behar: I think a country could���

Host: The Chinese version?

Maxim Behar: No, no, no.

Host: One-party system, regulations, rapid explosion of the economy.

Maxim Behar: It seems to me that a country could be governed on the principle of a company or a large corporation. There is a board of directors, this board has a chairman or chief executive officer who���

Host: But how is he chosen? This is the question, is he appointed or elected?

Maxim Behar: The board of directors is elected by the shareholders. The shareholders in a country are all people. Hence the first prerequisite - if there are majoritarian elections, entirely and only majoritarian, based on concepts, visions, views, the parties themselves will disappear. The parties will disappear. Then the people, the shareholders, the public, the people elected by the masses - they will be the main shareholders who will elect the board of directors of a country, they will be able to gather according to the interests and wishes of that country and make it better. And if the CEO of the board fails, he will be able to leave immediately. Globally you have to wait 4-year elections, ballots (millions, tens of hundreds of millions).

Host: Well, but how is this system can be immune, this potential new system on the principle of shareholder political participation from corruption? How can it be vaccinated so that corruption can penetrate there, and everything can be tarnished very quickly?

Maxim Behar: No one in business has been vaccinated against corruption.

Host: Yes, even there is more possible.

Maxim Behar: Probably yes, because the control is weaker. However, that is why there are judges and a court.

Host: There must be a free judiciary.

Maxim Behar: There must be an independent court.

Host: Yes, but isn't it better to start from there?

Maxim Behar: Independent Prosecutor's Office.

Host: Ah, an independent prosecutor's office.

Maxim Behar: Are we talking about Bulgaria?

Host: Yes, of course. Whatever we talk about, we always talk about Bulgaria.

Maxim Behar: Globally the free system does not reflect at all on the changes in the way we elect our MPs or the way a country is governed. The judiciary, the prosecution, must be totally���

Host: The prosecutor's office should not be in the judiciary at all.

Maxim Behar: It must be in the country.

Host: Of course.

Maxim Behar: As in many countries, of course, the Minister of���

Host: This is called a lawyer of the people.

Maxim Behar: There the Minister of Justice is the Chief Prosecutor and things are easily resolved. By the way, in America, as far as I know, it is very well developed. With these jurors who are independent, who are anonymous, who are ordinary people and who already have the responsibility of deciding human destinies, and they are many enough that no one can influence others, or an amateur voice can influence an important sentence. But these are already details. More importantly, it seems to me that the parties are interfering and the election system itself is also so outdated, I can't imagine. You know, our whole life will change - a new way of communication, a new way of living, a new way of connecting with each other, exchanging visions, thoughts and everything else. Only the electoral systems and the party systems are the same as they were a hundred and a half years ago. This is not possible. Therefore, if the people from the squares, whether in Bulgaria, in Tel Aviv, in Prague or Warsaw, or in Paris, or anywhere, have to take on their role as leaders, they must first try to change the system. If not, this system will fail by itself. If the house is not pushed, the house itself will rot and fall by itself, but it will be a little late. I hope in our lives, and I am convinced, this will happen very soon.

Host: Okay, we're done, our time is running out. As a professional, as an expert, how do you see the PR of the jeep, which is practiced here every day in our country?

Maxim Behar: From my point of view, it is a failure. From my point of view, a prime minister must address his messages in a different way. In the Council of Ministers���

Host: He sent them until the public went after him, but then he went to the village and started sending messages from the jeep again.

Maxim Behar: However, my point of view does not necessarily coincide with the point of view of many people he meets or many people who watch shows on their phones on YouTube or Facebook. However, I think I would really like to see a little more serious messages, a little more serious attitude. Money cannot be distributed, so one person cannot be���

Host: I don't see anything right in that.

Maxim Behar: Whoever he is, one person cannot repair everything that breaks somewhere. This is not the modern government we have just talked about, quite the opposite. People in power must be serious, prepared, and educated.

Host: This leads me to the old idea of meritocracy, which, however, is difficult to implement.

Maxim Behar: Yes, it is almost impossible nowadays.

Host: It is utopian.

Maxim Behar: But we all know that some young people swam across the Atlantic with their handmade boat���

Host: Yes, father and son, an inspiring adventure.

Maxim Behar: They are having dinner at home tonight, as they are also my friends and we helped them a lot. When they invited us to dinner in their home, we saw the boat in the garage in the making, right at the beginning. And when they landed in Barbados, I sent Stefcho a message on Viber and told him "Swear that the first dinner will be at home." It will be tonight. The reason I am telling you that is that I watched Maxim Ivanov, 17 years old, at his school last day. According to a man who has swum across the Atlantic Ocean, Maxim has set a world record in the whole history for the age category under 17. They set several world records, but this is definite. And I said to myself, "That's the kind of example I want to have - a young man." The Prime Minister of Finland is 29 years old; the Prime Minister of New Zealand is 32-33 years old.

Host: The Canadian is also young.

Maxim Behar: But I do not want to take an example from other countries. I believe that Bulgaria has many, many intelligent people who would immediately govern our country in a good and very orderly way with a vision for the future.

Host: I hope so. Thank you for visiting.

Maxim Behar: It will happen, you know. It will happen very soon.

Host: I hope so too.

Maxim Behar: Thank you.

Watch the whole interview here.