{"id":41864,"date":"2025-12-04T13:12:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T13:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open-up.ch\/in-the-beginning-was-the-consultant\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T14:26:22","slug":"in-the-beginning-was-the-consultant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open-up.ch\/en\/in-the-beginning-was-the-consultant\/","title":{"rendered":"In the Beginning Was the Consultant"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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04.12.2025|<\/p>\n

In the Beginning Was the Consultant<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Kaspar Silberschmidt\u2019s book \u201cMeinungsmacher\u201d (The Opinion Makers<\/em>) offers a national history of Swiss public relations \u2013 diligent, fact-rich, but chronologically narrow. A pity, because PR is more than associations, agencies, and interest politics. It follows the ancient pattern: human communication as the staging of power. Its origins go back to the Old Testament. PR fosters the belief that more is possible than reason suggests. Then, as now.<\/p>\n

Swiss PR has more \u201cfathers\u201d than children \u2013 the field knows no true inventor. Even the title doyen<\/em> is contentious: it means little more than \u201cthe most senior,\u201d yet it sounds reverential. That Klaus J. St\u00f6hlker once awarded himself this title suits a profession full of alpha personalities endlessly vying for interpretive supremacy.<\/p>\n

In my twenty years in the industry, I have met many who prefer centre stage to the substance of their work. Still, it\u2019s worth remembering: the first PR consultant had nothing to do with Zurich, Bern, or Basel.<\/p>\n

Let us start with the first person who called upon \u201cour\u201d services. His name was Moses. For those unfamiliar with him \u2013 he is the man from the Bible who not only \u201cdownloaded\u201d the Ten Commandments from God, but was also tasked with leading the Jewish people out of slavery from Egypt to freedom. The entire operation would not have worked without a consultant.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The First PR Miracle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moses was a pessimist and a fatalist. That, too, sounds familiar. He believed he had zero credibility among the people he was supposed to lead through the desert. As with us PR consultants and our clients, God took pity on him. To boost his self-confidence, He let him perform a few miracles: Moses turned his shepherd\u2019s staff into a snake \u2013 and then back again. When we build someone\u2019s public image, we do not always go about it the same way, but often in a similar minds.<\/p>\n

Still, the miracles didn\u2019t really help Moses. He had another tangible problem: communication didn\u2019t come easily to him \u2013 he stuttered. \u201cI am not a man of words, and I have a heavy tongue,\u201d he told God. So he asked someone else to take over his job.<\/p>\n

Turning Doubt into Belief: Convincing the Impossible<\/strong><\/p>\n

But God does not negotiate. He sent Aaron, Moses\u2019 brother, into the picture. Aaron\u2019s role was to put the right words in Moses\u2019 mouth, secure his authority, and make him the leader who would bring the Jewish people to the Promised Land.<\/p>\n

Aaron\u2019s success was to convince Moses to attempt the seemingly impossible: the parting of the Red Sea. He achieved precisely what remains at the heart of our profession today \u2013 inspiring the belief that more is possible than one dares to imagine.<\/p>\n

Baits tend to work well in such situations, according to experience. What Aaron promised Moses is not recorded. I would certainly have offered him a chapter in the Bible.<\/p>\n

Behind Every Prophet Stands a Consultant<\/strong><\/p>\n

As so often, behind every successful figure stands an influential consultant. Granted, a touch of divine intervention helped in the execution \u2013 after all, we communication consultants cannot do everything on our own.<\/p>\n

Our task, as I see it, is to inspire people to believe in themselves, to rise beyond their limits, and step off their well-worn paths. That can be done without divine support.<\/p>\n

Even if some of us like to present themselves as fathers, theorists, or doyens of PR, the fact remains: the pioneer of the industry was Aaron \u2013 the first communications consultant in history.<\/p>\n

Everything else is post-biblical storytelling.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

This article was first published on September 25, 2025, on <\/em>persoenlich.com<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

Philippe Welti didn\u2019t invent PR either \u2013 PR found him. As with many things in his life, it was thanks to cosmic coincidence. And for the record, he is not nearly as biblically literate as he might seem.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Who handled the first communications crisis in history?
    \nSpoiler: It wasn\u2019t a PR guru from Geneva or Zurich.
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