Tag Archives: business

‘MUST HAVES’ FOR BOSSES REVEALS NEED FOR LOCAL STUDY

REAL Communication Consulting’s Desiray Viney ran a workshop entitled, ‘Must Haves’ for The New Age Executive at Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business this week.

Attended by managers and directors of business, industry and NGOs, it produced much discussion around the qualities, attributes, skills and actions of an effective manager or leader in this volatile, uncertain and fast-paced world.

Participants were asked to work through a given list of twelve (from leading writers) and to select and rank their own Six ‘Must Haves’ for Executives list. It culminated in this list:

Have the courage and skills needed to lead an organisation in today’s environment – To build the confidence of your people to achieve the impossible: constant improvement, growth against a backdrop of extraordinary challenges and growing stakeholder expectations.
Know that all people in your organisation are important – make the effort to be in their presence. Don’t be too far removed from those who matter most – within boundaries. People at the “bottom” are more informed and empowered than ever. Respect them. While they need your wisdom and direction, you should draw on their input in your decision-making.
Ask the difficult questions and have the tough conversations on all levels of the organisation. Know the facts crucial to making wise decisions, and make a conscious decision that knowing the truth, being respected and doing what is right is most important, more so than being liked or avoiding conflict.
Communicate purposefully! Don’t allow an information vacuum. Give feedback. Muzzle your voice, listen to what others think, and schedule face-to-face interactions.
Know that values drive people’s behaviour, strive to create a values driven organisation. Remain true to your own values, which should match those of your organisation. Enable people to strive for excellence, and celebrate when they achieve. Have fun too.
Have a Plan, acknowledging the speed of socio-political and economic change and how these interact and impact your business. The rate of change is very fast and it’s becoming more difficult to predict these forces in society, but you still need to strive to understand them.

Taki Anastasis, Sunshine Bakery’s chief executive, distinguished between the leader and the manager roles and explained how sometimes there’s a gap in their understanding of certain issues and how they communicate their understanding of values and instructions etc.

Kai Steinfeld, MD of Pfisterer, maintained that “In a global production-based company, having a vision and planning is essential.”

This workshop raised a number of issues in Business. Clearly, every business is unique and requires leadership appropriate to its operational environment. It also highlighted the need for more research on how local company bosses communicate and implement their vision, values and strategies. Information collected would provide the appropriate data and findings to advance leadership in South Africa.

Let’s have Conversations about your Business

NGOs a site for PR skills development

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Earlier this month a jubilant Department of Education announced the 78% pass rate for the 2013 Matriculants. But hot on the heels of the release came questions, criticisms and expressions of concern regarding the lack of jobs, the skills deficit, and the relevance of a university degree when there was dire need for artisans (who actually earn more than graduates). We all know the problems but what about solutions?

On 9 January Rowan Philp wrote a piece in The Witness entitled “Volunteer or Bust!”
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=112563

What caught my attention were the following:

• pupils had “fixed and unrealistic ideas” about jobs
• “Young people have to change their mind-set from ‘What can I get from employers?’, to ‘What can I give to employers?’ They should draw up a list of all the employed adults they know – and ask to work-shadow, intern, or just volunteer.”
• gain on-the-job experience, even if it meant no pay.
• there was “increasing concern” over viable careers for matrics.
• the country needed artisans and entrepreneurs.

The matric results have focused the nation’s attention on the desperate need to address the problems of unemployment and skills shortage. For me, the NGO environment is an ideal one for developing volunteers into skilled workers and entrepreneurs over a wide range of activities while building the capacity of communities. I have been involved in CESL (Community engagement with Student Learning) projects and seen the positive impact on young people working with NGOs.

There are so many NGOs with uplifting projects needing staff and funding. In conversation with Michael Deegan, CEO of the PMB Community Chest, he mentioned the need for NGOs to think of new ways of doing things, and to rework their corporate identity, image and communication strategies to create more awareness and draw more donors, corporate sponsors and volunteers.

Clearly the new audience is the youth and so NGOs and charities need to change the perception that charity and community work is only for the older generation. Already the Community Chest has a programme directed at the youth called the “@Generation” to address this. Having young volunteers working in NGOs would go a long way to improve their understanding and perceptions of ‘charity’ work.

NGOs are multi-dimensional too in that they operate on so many levels and with so many stakeholders – from government departments, communities, business, international donors and aid organisations to local educators, women’s groups, healthcare givers and of course the media. Volunteers would leave with a range of skills, abilities and interests to offer the world of business.

So here’s my suggestion for a possible solution:

Volunteerism as “giving to grow” – NGOs, Business and the Community can do it together

We need to develop a volunteer programme whereby unemployed matriculants go into NGOs to work and to train.
The types of skills they would learn is wide-ranging, from office admin, computer, financial and business to project management, government relations and funding policies, procedures and proposals.

However, my sphere of interest and expertise is corporate communication and public relations, so I will focus on NGOs and their dire need of strategic planning in this area. They are also perfect sites for potential learning and development of specific communication and PR skills, techniques and activities which are vital for their existence.
These include: Branding, copy writing, publicity, interpersonal communication skills, CSI – corporate social investment, community relations, media relations, sponsorship, integrated marketing, event management, and so on.

All they need is people to teach them! And funds to pay them.
So my proposal is that business contribute in money and in kind to enable NGOs to implement such a programme by covering the cost of willing professionals like me to deliver skill interventions and deliverables to achieve the outcomes – NGOs performing optimally, addressing socio-economic issues like healthcare, education, skills development, unemployment, whilst simultaneously building citizens, communities and the country.

It’s not impossible. It just takes concerned citizens and business to put their money where their mouths are! NGOs like The Community Chest are waiting for you…….

Putting humanity back into Business

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Putting humanity back into Business

People create businesses, people are businesses, people drive businesses and people break businesses. So why overlook people and the human aspect of business?

This is the information society and we need to change our tactics!
People know more than we think. People have more power than we think. So why should they choose you? It’s time to change how we communicate and connect with our people, change our marketing, advertising and PR practices and change the entire ‘ecosystem’ of our company.

Accessibility to technology and media saturation has informed people and empowered them to engage in the public sphere. If they feel strongly enough about an issue they can garner huge support to oppose or protest against it. The growth of this ‘civic’ power has seen the rise of advocacy and social pressure groups and, their actions could cause losses for a company. Consider, for example, the role of anti-alcohol-abuse groups to bring about a ban on alcohol advertising in SA.
Big business is beginning to acknowledge its interdependence with other groups; it can’t act irresponsibly or unethically and not be accountable – what it does affects others and if it impacts negatively on them, there could be negative consequences. Hence, as companies are part of society, they should act like social and economic entities, become corporate citizens and change how they do things.
To survive as part of a greater system: A business or organization should focus mindfully on the following:

1. Know why it exists. Get to its ‘source’ and develop a goal and values-driven mission which must be turned into a written statement by which it conducts itself. If a mission statement is only about sales and profit, customers will go to someone who CARES. It has been proven that people support companies not only for their prices, they choose them because they understand them and their needs.

2. Do some research and planning to develop strategies, objectives and tactics to guide your communication (SWOT and PEST analysis will help to set you on the right path). There is nothing haphazard about PR and integrated marketing communication. Plan and strategize to achieve your goals.

3. Develop an identity and brand that is unique to you and your goals, is recognisable & memorable. Based on cognitive psychology, visuals like logos and slogans can attract people and create associations that are positive, based on their own good experiences which are often emotional not rational.

4. Identify its key target groups or stakeholders, not only customers, but community, media and environmental groups. Understand them and their needs and connect with them based on this knowledge. Ask what information they need about your product and your company. And use all platforms, traditional and online, to share relevant and focussed information with them.

5. Connect proactively with your stakeholders or targets. Engage with key target groups thru’ managing the flow of relevant information sharing (not giving) to build relationships and reputation. Don’t engage in ad hoc marketing communication activities. It’s an ongoing dialogue to influence the perceptions people have of your company which impacts your image and company reputation.

6. Keep communicating, creating ‘stories’ for exposure, identification and image. Position your company within the stories. Add to the narrative regularly so as to attract attention and convince them of what makes you different from others and tell what you have been doing to make their perceptions of you better, or their lives better.
7. Manage your reputation – thru’ messages, behaviour, employees, CSR et cetera. Use the media (editorial not adverts) to create news and publicity about you and what you do. If people perceive you in a good light, your image improves and your reputation grows stronger.

8. Keep all the pieces of the Marketing Mix together. Plan for integrated campaigns that ensure that you speak with ONE voice and your products and services uphold your promises. Your actions and communication must be in unison. Contradictions confuse people. Don’t try to pull the wool over their eyes by giving information for your own ends, rather share it collaboratively. No longer are companies seen as the owners of information – there are no ‘fundis’ – everybody is a learner and a teacher.

Today people can access whatever information they want about a product or service and they can verify the information gathered. They ‘google’ a product or service, get thousands of companies doing similar things. But what makes them choose one and not the other?
Do things differently and see the difference!