Today I
had the honour and privilege of being the guest speaker at the University of
Pretoria’s Communication Management Department’s Awards Ceremony.
(*Congratulations to Lara de Stadler one of Reputation Matters’ newest
recruits who was awarded the top student and top project for 2013 – very proud
to have such talent on the team!)
Below is
my speech that I gave:
Prof Loots, Prof Rensburg, fellow Alumni,
graduates, ladies and gentlemen - good morning.
Thank you very much for the privilege to be here
with you this morning. It feels like yesterday that I was here graduating with
the world at my feet.
Reputation really does matter in all spheres of
life and with that all the decisions you make and actions you take- this
morning I will share my journey with you and what my degree from the University
of Pretoria has meant to me…
While growing up, I had no doubt in my mind at all
the after high school that I would be going to University. Art was one of the
only subjects at school that I had the slightest interest in, so I did my
research and the University of Pretoria was one of the only places offering a
degree in graphic art with a limited number of entrants that they accepted each
year – challenge accepted…
However, after a less successful year of studying
graphic design just a couple of buildings down from here, I was devastated when
after all the long evenings, sweat, tears and an incredibly subjective course
meant that my career as an ‘artiste’ was not going to take off – so it was off
to the career guidance councillor – something I should have done after matric.
It was quite a mind-set and culture shock when the results
came back and it was clear that I should pursue a commercial / business path.
I signed up for BCom (I decided that instead of
being the designer, telling the designer what to design sounded a lot more
appealing) – having been surrounded by subjectivity of colour and form, the
very rigid objectivity of financial management 101, economics and stats was
quite an eye opener.
I must admit it was only in about my third year
that all the subjects started making sense to me and when I did honours all the
puzzle pieces started falling into place. We were an incredibly dynamic group
that worked together, and I remember one of my group members saying that we
should all start our own business together – and I thought to myself NEVER –
never do I want to run my own business, the safety and sanctuary of a corporate
with a stable income sounds right to me…I have learnt that there is no such
thing as never say never…
During that honours year, while tutoring a job
opportunity at a research and business consulting firm was sent through to the
Department. I will be the first to admit that research methodology was not the
most exciting of subjects, but… I did think to myself that research is crucial
in everything that we do, and it’s a good way to get your foot into the ‘grown
up’ world of working. So my life as a research analyst started – wow, seeing
the theory in practice was incredibly exciting. On the one hand you had the
cold hard facts of the research, and on the other hand, the ability to still be
creative with recommendations for clients. One of the most exciting projects
that crossed my path was measuring the reputation within the information
technology industry. It was such a successful project, that I was allowed to
convert it into an MCom degree – thanks Prof Grobler!
Being involved in this project, I realised that I
had to get more involved within the communication industry – as much as I loved
what I was doing, I was not doing what I had studied – and so my endeavour to
enter the PR & event management field started. It was not an easy entry
point – it is a nasty catch22 scenario of not having enough experience in the
field, but no one is willing to give you a chance –
Adele Lucas – doyenne of PR gave me my first gap,
and gave me the opportunity to be the project manager for the Soweto Festival
that she re-launched in 2004 and I thought this is it! Can’t get any better
than this!
Event management for me is a bit like a running
race, there is a lot of preparation and training and lists of things that need
to be done beforehand that needs to be in place. Then leading up the event /
race you think to yourself, why am I doing this!? Never again! You have a
successful event/ race and think oooo when is the next one?
During my time at Adele Lucas, as much as I was
really enjoying the PR and event management opportunities, it did feel as if
there was something more within the field of communication. I loved PR but was
missing my days at the research and management consultancy.
I saw a gap of bringing business consulting and the communication world together – I shared my goals with Adele, and she was incredibly supportive. So many problems get solved when there is the right communication happening. If only we all communicated more!
in 2005 Reputation Matters was borne. Wow and what
a learning curve / roller coaster ride the first couple of years were. Without
going into too much detail with each – my personal edicts that I govern my
business decisions on these days – invest in a proper accountant and make sure
you pay SARS – they are not going to go away – ever. Don’t do business with
family and friends. Don’t go into partnership. Make sure you have the right
processes including audit trails in place – you can’t prove a conversation. And
finally when you decide to start a business, work on the business and not in
the business –
One of our key focus areas that I am very proud of
is our Repudometer that scientifically measures a reputation, we look at the
whole organisation and what is impacting positively and negatively on its
reputation, and which area of the business is important to which stakeholder
group – from this we develop communication strategies and plans to help improve
the business communication, be it internal communication e.g. a newsletter, so
at last telling a designer what to do, media liaison or relationship building
to help take the reputation of the business to the next level. Interestingly,
we are seeing more and more the need for aligning internal communication –
employees are crucial when it comes to building an organisation’s reputation.
There are five dimensions that we believe have an
impact on an organisation’s reputation- these dimensions can also be translated
into an individual’s reputation - and can apply to each and everyone here.
Corporate Management – we all need a vision and goals and need to be the masters of our own universe – we need to be the CEO of our own life and responsible for steering it towards that vision.
Corporate dialogue – communication on all levels of
one’s life is so important. Verbalising and sharing your goals are so important
– if you don’t how will those around you know where you are heading to and how
to support you. If I had not shared my vision with Adele who knows where I
would have been today.
Corporate Capital – and with this I mean doing the
right work with your qualification – your first job may not be what you had
initially envisaged, but there is a lesson to be learnt in every experience –
saviour it and learn the lesson. Importantly continually improve yourself –
getting your degree today is the end of one journey, but it is the start of
another exciting path – you need to make sure that you continuously learn.
Apart from motivating everyone on my team to go on regular training, everyone
is challenged to read at least one business-relevant book a month – why not
learn from the likes of Richard Branson and Donald Trump!?
Corporate performance – relates to profitability
and finances, but the important element that I want to touch on here is always
remembering to give back to those that are less fortunate –it definitely is not
about writing a cheque so that you can sleep well at night – but about making a
sustainable, meaningful difference. As a graduate you may wonder what you can
do – but even being a tutor and helping the younger fellow students will help a
lot.
Finally Corporate Positioning – is all about how
you look and perceived visually, but it also relates to the partners and allies
that you have – who are you seen with? That is why the ally of the University of Pretoria is so
important to me. Five out of eight of our ladies on the team have a BCom
Communication Management Honours Cum Laude degree – I have hired A LOT of
people in the past, and the Communication Management students stand out head
and shoulders above the rest. There is an unspoken understanding, work ethic and work pride which resonates
with the company’s ethos. We have a rigorous recruitment process – we want the
best of the best – how else can we look after reputations if we don’t look
after our own? But those who apply from University of Pretoria definitely has
an edge.
What has honours meant? It has definitely opened
doors that I would never even have thought to be a fare through – never in a
million years did I think I would become a research analyst, which then opened
the door to developing our own research tool-
There definitely is prestige and respect about
obtaining a BCOM Honours Cum Laude, and even more so from the University of
Pretoria – I present and speak to a number of corporate organisations almost on
a daily basis, and when I discuss the team – I LOVE MY DYNAMIC TEAM, I am very
proud of them, it has taken quite some time to build up the dream team – you
can see the nod of “of wow” when I introduce them.
I will end off with the words of Red Adair an American oil well fire fighter, notable as an innovator in the
specialized and extremely hazardous profession of extinguishing and capping
blazing, erupting oil well blowouts
“If you think it's
expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”
With that I thank you, University of Pretoria, for
helping me realise my dream and the talent that you keep producing!
