Just imagine what could happen if a 1.2 billion people spread across 54 countries in Africa all choose to share one positive story about their country or the continent every single day? That’s 365 positive stories per person, per year with a profound impact on the narrative of our precious continent!
Why is this positive African narrative so important? The narrative of a company and even a country is important as it directly impacts how it is perceived and its resultant reputation.
But why is a reputation so important, especially for a continent?
Let’s take a step back; what exactly is a reputation? It is something that is built on consistency, you are either going to be consistently good or consistently bad at something and that behaviour will impact how you are perceived by others.
So, why is a reputation important? As the leader of a company, your organisation’s reputation has an impact on the people you attract to work for you, this in turn impacts your outputs, be it a product or service. The quality and perceived value of those outputs plays a role in determining whether people are willing to part with their hard-earned cash to buy your offering, and that ultimately impacts your bottom-line profit. The same is true for a country or continent; countries with a positive image generally have a much stronger economy, making foreign direct investment a lot more appealing, this can also positively impact tourism which further stimulates the economy, allowing for investment in social upliftment projects and education programs that can take the country and continent’s well-being to the next level.
Reputations are built on perceptions. These perceptions are not necessarily the truth, they are however someone’s idea of reality and it is that reality which shapes their worldview and what they communicate to others.
As the President of African Public Relations Association (APRA), Yomi Badejo-Okusanya says, “For too long we’ve allowed the narrative of Africa to be determined from those outside the continent, looking in. It is time that we start changing perceptions and start rebuilding the reputation of Africa; we can only do that if every single person takes responsibility for what they do and communicate on a daily basis.”
Ethics and reputation research
We have recently completed an incredibly interesting research study, asking the question, ‘Do ethics matter on the African continent?’ on behalf of APRA. We identified what ethics and reputation means to respondents at an individual, company and country level.
Our research, although unfortunately not statistically representative, provided valuable insights. The almost 120 respondents included Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and senior executives in the communication, Public Relations and marketing industry. These insights will be used to support the partnership between APRA and the African Union (AU) to assist them in building a prosperous image and reputation that is authentic to Africa. Of the 12 countries represented in the survey, 71% of respondents reside in South Africa with Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Namibia and Angola also being represented.
The research proved overwhelmingly that ethics and reputation are interwoven and one cannot exist without the other.
The AU theme for 2018 is “Combatting corruption – a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation”. This correlates well with the data on country level where respondents indicated that the meaning of ethics mainly refers to anti-corruption in government. Respondents indicated that Botswana sets the example as the most reputable and ethical country in Africa.
Respondents felt that behaviour and core values such as honesty, transparency and credibility are the most important elements of a reputation. On an organisational level, respondents felt that their brand’s reputation is actively managed, communicated and prioritised by their leaders. Once again this tells us how important it is for organisations to focus on getting the internal building blocks in place before engaging in external communication.
Lessons from Botswana
Botswana was identified as the most ethical and reputable country in Africa. What made this result very interesting was that there were no respondents identified from Botswana who answered the questionnaire. Both the Botswanan flag and national anthem reflect the peaceful nation that it is, and you can truly see and feel it when you arrive in Gaborone. There is a great sense of dignity amongst the people who embrace the country’s core values of peace and harmony, and live out these values on a daily basis. It is no wonder they have such a strong and stable economy.
Overview of the results
On an individual and company level, ethics and reputation scored a very high average of 86.5%. In contrast, at a country level the score was an average of 34.5% for both ethics and reputation. “The research confirms that it is at this level where work needs to be done. These results do however indicate a huge opportunity for growth. Now we have a results base line in place from which we can measure and track annually,” adds Badejo-Okusanya.
Vice President of APRA, and CEO of Burson Cohn & Wolfe Africa, Robyn de Villiers adds, “It is no longer just about ‘walking the talk’, we need to be talking the walk too; our behaviour impacts what we say, and what we say impacts what we do.”
The question we are left with is, what can we do to re-write the African narrative? The first step is to go back to the basics and get the internal messaging right. We need to make sure that core values are in place and reflected in our daily behaviour. This will help to make our communication initiatives more authentic. As communication professionals, we should strive for a code of ethics which resonates with the real and positive story we’re here to tell about Africa to the world.
If you want to participate in our annual APRA research, or you are interested in how your organisation measures up, please contact research@reputationmatters.co.za.
We can change the African narrative, one individual, organisation and country at a time!
For more information about Reputation Matters, visit www.reputationmatters.co.za or call +27 (0)11 317 3861 (Jhb) | 021 790 0208 (Cpt). Reputation Matters is also on Facebook www.facebook.com/yourreputationmatters and Twitter @ReputationIsKey
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