To recover, brand South Africa needs institutions that work for all

I always remind my brand reputation management students of four crucial ingredients needed for a brand to be successful. This is irrespective of the kind of brand in question, be it a corporation, an NGO, a family, a church or, for this discussion, a destination brand, irrespective of it being a village, a town, a city, or a country.

The first ingredient for successfully managing brand reputation is Vision. Good brands are nurtured over time, like a tree that gets planted with the hope of it providing a good shade in the future, or quality fruit over time. Those who manage the brand must be clear in their minds about what they want it to look like and to be associated with, in 10/20/30 years’ time and beyond.

With a clear Vision in mind, brand managers must craft a path, a brand journey, towards realising its Vision. The journey towards realising the brand Vision will include its associations, commonly referred to as “stakeholders”. This is more important in a world where a shift must continue to be made from a historic ‘shareholder-centric’ focus to a more ‘stakeholder-centric’ one, with more groups having direct and indirect stakes in the brand and holding the power to make it succeed or fail.

The second ingredient is a set of Values. These define the rules of what is acceptable and what is not - along the brand’s journey to realise its Vision – and what is to be done when the unacceptable happens, to avoid impunity. They also encompass the ethical standing of the brand within the world in which it operates. The Values must be communicated and lived broadly within the brand and its value chain. Situations of some being more equal than others, in terms of application, must be avoided at all costs.

The Values are often enshrined in documents such as the Constitution, Charter of Rights (and Obligations), Bi-laws, Rules & Regulations, etc. Brands often go astray if the set rules seem to apply to some people and not to others. ?

The third ingredient is Leadership. All successful brands are led by visionary leaders who are armed with emotional intelligence, technical know-how, empathy, balance, and general maturity. By their words and action, they get to live the brand values and to set the tone from the front. Brand leadership requires far more than impressive academic qualification and must include the qualities just cited in this paragraph.

Many brands have focused solely on academic qualifications when selecting/electing leaders and, in no time, found themselves floundering in reputational quick sands that could have been avoided. There is a good number of country brand leaders from around the world who have led ethically from the front, mindful of the broader significance of the positions they occupied and the fact that they would not be there forever, and that others, especially those who relied on their leadership, looked up to them for guidance. The late former South African president, Nelson Mandela, was one such leader. He remains inimitable in many ways in his deep appreciation of the complexities of the country he was elected to lead, especially mindful of its painful, racially divided, past, the need to hold it together, as well as the journey it still had to travel to realise the promises enshrined in its (Preamble to the) Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Mandela was never shy to rebuke anyone whose conduct would hurt South Africa’s recovery journey, irrespective of whether such a person or group of people belong to his political camp or others. He was also never afraid to acknowledge and praise good on the side of his political opponents. But, a little more about Mandela later.

The fourth and last ingredient (in this series) to managing a successful brand is the ability of those tasked with managing its journey to have a 360° view of the operational environment in which it operates, internally, in the immediate external environment, i.e., within its (competitive) sector, and in the broader socio-cultural, economic, and political environment, including the global world. Such a 360° view is important because no brand exists on an island of its own, unaffected by the sentiments and actions of those who work in it or co-exist with it, as well as developments within its competitive, political, economic, and socio-cultural spaces. Brand leaders must be aware of these dynamics and ensure to maintain a sturdy hand as they navigate the brand along the journey to realise its Vision.

Now, back to Nelson Mandela. Despite the avalanche of criticism by young black South Africans who accuse him of allowing too many concessions during the multiparty negotiations, Mandela understood the historic and strategic importance of his role as leader of a country that had been divided and had been brought very close to what could have been a bloody, prolonged, civil war. Levels of distrust were elevated, and some groupings were armed and ready to attempt a break-away that would have made Biafra look like a picnic.

Black expectations were high, even impractical in parts, so was White fear. Mandela knew that he had to be a leader of all South Africans, White, Black, Coloured, and Indian, and to master the art of operating at a level above the political fray as often as he could – even if he was deployed into the presidency by his African National Congress, which he never shied away from declaring his love for. But we can only guess what his sentiments would be like at what it has become today. He must be turning in his grave.

He also knew that there should be no room for “zero-sum games/winners take all” if brand South Africa was to thrive. Even when he rebuked them, it can be argued that most South Africans knew that he always had the good of the country at heart, guided in his actions by the Values carefully enshrined in the country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights.

To recover, brand South Africa does not need a benevolent dictator à la Paul Kagame (Rwanda) and Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore), it needs a set of leaders with less powers and strengthened independent institutions of democracy, all guided by the rule of law in which no one gets to act as if the law doesn’t apply to them and no one party gets to dominate the system. ?