freed thin king

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freedthinkingmike freedman

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Coco Chanel

Published by

Johannesburg and Cape Town

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freedthinkers

www.freedthinkers.com

[email protected]

First edition 2008

(c) Mike Freedman

Cover design & Back Cover Photograph by Jade Freedman

Typesetting by Jade Freedman

ISBN 978-0-620-42476-9 Freedthinking

Printed in Johannesburg by Molale Print (Pty) Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner or publisher .

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Contents

CULTURE

The Whole Avocado 01

On the Road to Abilene 05

On Choosing a Leader 08

Develop your 3D Vision 17

The Width of a Horse’s Ass 21

True Organisational Power 25 ETHICS

5 Circles of Social Vision 28

An Economist’s View of HIV & AIDS 32

War of the Words 36

Curse my Cotton Socks 39

Seduction with Soul 43 STRATEGY

No War is Ever Won in a Swivel Chair 48

A Finger Pointing to the Moon 53

Alive with Creativity 56

The Wisdom in Not Knowing 59

Cape Town in Wonderland 62

BRAND

10 Year Ideas 66

Ads, Mantras & Zen 71

A Field of Dreams, Plots & Schemes 73

Beyond the Glitz 75

Window-Shopping with Marlboro’s Cowboy 79

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made scriptwriter logic, but the public didn’t buy it, the ratingswent down and advertisers found greener pastures.

When Bobby Ewing, after a year of being dead turned up in the shower and 12 months of Dallas was only Pam’s dream, the most popular television show of all lost the plot. Most TV shows go through their Jumping the Shark moments (Fawlty Towers being a noble exception) – so do many brands and people.

Lion Lager was the brightest star in the SAB galaxy. Then to halt a decade of declining sales, Breweries changed the can and bottle labels from gold to blue and silver; and gave Lion a taste more like a lamb. They jumped the shark and downed the Lion. Gold was the colour of the beer, the colour of lions, of African sunsets it was the spirit of the brand.

SAB ignored this in the misguided belief that a traditional brand in new clothes would appeal to the young and trendy.

When Coca-Cola messed with their brand, offering a sweeter taste, consumer reaction caused them to backtrack double-quick. SAB had other beers to brew, so 115 years of brand-building went down the drain.

Lion needed to rediscover its relevance. Going back to your roots, with judicious pruning, makes far more sense than violent transformation. SAB forgot that Lion the brand belonged to consumers, not the corporate.

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5 Circles of Social Vision

If social responsibility is seen as corporate charity, all you need is an able administrator. If it is seen as something deeper – a mutually rewarding relationship with your society – you will also need a social vision.

Your social vision is your contribution to a better life for all. It is also a potent marketing weapon that allows you to strengthen your stakeholder relationships and brand. How do you come up with a strong social vision? Think in circles.

circle 1: employees

Research in the United States, conducted over a decade came up with a blindingly obvious revelation. We know that loyal customers create corporate profits. But what creates loyal customers? Loyal staff. As charity begins at home, so social vision starts with your employees.

Does your share-scheme include the tea-lady who has been with you for 10 years, as well as the MBA who hopped aboard last month? Do you have training schemes, an AIDS policy, an in-house crèche? Are you seen as a corporation that values self-esteem, or as a manipulative employer, trampling on dignity for the sake of a buck?

At Rosenbluth International, America’s premier travel agency for business-people, they say, “the customer comes second”. As Hal Rosenbluth explains, “we treat our front-line employees well and they treat the customers well”. When you experience appalling service in South Africa, reflect on how those service-givers may be treated.

On a personal level, time spent assisting a community based AIDS initiative led, some years later, to two new clients. If every South African corporation encouraged, on company time, each employee to give 20

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hours a year to a worthwhile cause, the country would be far better off; and so, by networking and social awareness, would the companies.

circle 2: customers

Customers respond to more than advertising messages. Nedbank credit card holders feel good about lunch in Nelson Mandela Square because they are saving a hippo or sending a South African athlete to the Olympics. And research indicates that Nedbank customers with Affinity cards and chequebooks (which sponsor causes) are more loyal than Nedbank customers without.

Kellogg’s in Australia has an annual promotion in which a few cents of every packet bought contributes to a child emergency help-line. Most of us want to be on the side of the angels. The product or service that allows us to, without obviously costing anything, has a strong advantage.

circle 3: peers

The Tokyo answer to the Sydney Opera House is Suntory Hall, sponsored by a Japanese liquor conglomerate. Suntory also has a Museum of Art, with over 2 000 works by traditional Japanese artists. This cultural largesse benefits the brand by appealing to an elite target market. Why were music and art chosen? The Suntory mission statement gives a very Japanese answer: “Harmony is not a word limited to the world of music. It also describes an essential component in the creation of our universe, an interweaving of people and things. At Suntory, harmony is basic to the Company’s operations and its corporate mission to provide the products that enrich people’s lives.”

circle 4: society

The Socially Responsible Banking Fund started by Vermont National Bank, uses investor deposits for loans in areas like low-cost housing and dual bottom line businesses (companies with a financial and social

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bottom line; preferably run by women or underprivileged minorities). The fund has attracted more new investments than any other fund the bank offers; its bad debt is very low, the investors enjoy a good return and the bank has won international acclaim.

An American entrepreneur and philanthropist once said, “You can’t do business in a society that’s burning”. Helping society is a profitable business opportunity.

circle 5: environment

Ben & Jerry’s make delicious ice-cream. But ice-cream waste is environmentally unfriendly. Ben & Jerry found a solution. Pigs love ice-cream slop (every flavour it seems, except choc-chip mint). Although there were no pigs anywhere near their ice-ream factories in Vermont, Ben & Jerry were unfazed. They provided soft loans to local farmers on condition they started piggeries. They also provided the main course and dessert. The intended result: Ben & Jerry would not pollute the environment, the pigs would grow fat and happy, local farmers could enjoy new revenue streams and eating ice-cream is suddenly socially responsible.

But the best-laid plans can turn to bacon… Although the pigs lapped up the ice-cream, their digestive systems didn’t. They developed arteriosclerosis, many dying young, others too thin and wasted to become Sunday’s pork chops. It was a disaster, the piggeries closed and Ben & Jerry wrote off the loans. Social visions are easier conceived than executed.

Most social visions impact upon more than one circle – some impact on all five. The good ones start with the first circle and target at least one other. In today’s world social and environmental upliftment create improved financial returns.

You do better, by doing good.

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Marketing in a Nutshell

Ivan told me he was writing a book called “Marketing in a Nutshell”. A few years later, I asked Ivan how the book was going. It’s finished he told me – but no publisher would touch it. Why?

Because it’s only 14 words long.

Ivan was a big bear of a man with a marvellous mind; he made and lost fortunes; then earned and lost them again. In grateful memory, for I use his 14 words often, here is the slightly amended version of Marketing in a Nutshell -

Offer your prime prospects, a worthwhile experience, that is well distributed and well communicated.

It’s that simple.

Look after the inside – and the inside will look after the outside. That’s branding in a nutshell - and a book two words shorter than Ivan’s.

With fond memories of Ivan Weltman

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An Economist’s View of HIV and AIDS

Some time ago I attended a chilling presentation given by an economist on the effects of HIV and AIDS on South Africa.

Using statistics drawn from other African countries, he concluded that the death rate from AIDS would depress the GDP, but not in a direct proportion.

As the average fatality was poor and more than likely unemployed, the GDP would not suffer as much as the victim.

His conclusion: the average South African would economically be better off.

He then analysed various industries. In food, while mealie-meal makers would suffer, bread makers benefit. So companies providing for the mass poor should buy into businesses serving those further up the income chain

He then turned his attention to government. He looked at the backlog in housing – in some municipalities, according to their own calculations, it will take 50 years to clear the current housing shortage. Of course, with a 20% plus infection rate, the backlog will be cleared far sooner. A similar story is told for the unbuilt classrooms that are needed and shortages of water and electricity.

He ended by quoting from an essay published by Thomas Malthus in 1798:

The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in

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some shape or other visit the human race. The vices of mankind are active and able ministers of depopulation. They are the precursors in the great army of destruction, and often finish the dreadful work themselves. But should they fail in this war of extermination, sickly seasons, epidemics, pestilence, and plague advance in terrific array, and sweep off their thousands and tens of thousands. Should success be still incomplete, gigantic inevitable famine stalks in the rear, and with one mighty blow levels the population with the food of the world.

In the economist’s view of the world, HIV and AIDS, while fatal for millions, is an inevitable and necessary antidote to unproductive overpopulation. Ultimately it will benefit more than it destroys. It provides new opportunities for nimble businesses and is an escape hatch for beleaguered governments.

What’s missing from the picture?

beware management mantras

When I facilitate corporate and government visions, the time and motion men shuffle uneasily. When we move to the objectives, they come into their own, with the mantra:

What gets measured gets done.

And they’re right. The unfortunate corollary is that the immeasurables – like ethics, values, happiness and humanity, are too easily ignored when it comes to strategies and action plans. Where are the spreadsheets for pain, isolation, personal tragedy and the loss of parental guidance?

This mantra is a symptom of a bigger malaise – the world perceived as an economic model.

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It has been the driving force of globalism, international politics and transnational business. We latch onto economic theories and try them out with the poorest countries on the planet like scientists testing a vaccine on supposedly dumb animals. Davos is our New Jerusalem where private jets ferry the new high priests who say Africa must pay its debts while profligate corporates declare bankruptcy then carry on appeasing the gods of capitalism.

In the words of Oscar Wilde these days men know the price of everything but the value of nothing. And we watch as the economist chokes the humanitarian.

Economics makes a good servant but a bad master. It is the oil in the machine – not the machine, still less the purpose of the machine.

melting self doubt

When ethics become our guiding light, we will value human life beyond its contribution to the GDP. We will question whether we can be civilised while disease and war, poverty and starvation ride among us. We will question whether its progress when we leave a poorer world for our children’s children.

Ethics require a value system that benefits the individual as well as society. Generosity, courage and justice become filters for economic decisions.

To be effective, in a country or a corporate, the value system must be championed by leadership. And the message must be consistent, in the best and worst of times. As a successful, battle-scarred leader told me a principle isn’t a principle until it’s cost you money.

Then when confronted with a confusion of spreadsheets in the pursuit of wealth we can recall these words from Mahatma Gandhi:

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Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test.

Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him?

Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.

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Curse my Cotton Socks

In my ad days I had a collection of many-hued socks. Op & pop-art, lizards and elephants, superheroes, Tom & Jerry, yachts & steam trains, I walked on hidden worlds & converted others, most notably a lawyer who felt the need to take off his earring before he entered court, but could take a subtle kick at convention with his Superman socks.

Now my sock drawer is more conservative & I thought as I put on a pair of Pringle cotton socks that I had traded unconventional style for comfort. Then I read “Confessions of an Eco-Sinner” by Fred Pearce & found out I could be responsible for desertification, child labour & infant mortality. (I’m writing this in a plane & thought that was bad enough.)

the shrinking aral sea

Muynak was a thriving seaside resort, with a huge fishing fleet. Now it is stranded because the Aral Sea is 100 kilometres away.

The rivers do not feed it any more. Until recently the Amu Darya carried more water than the Nile. In recent years, rarely a trickle of water reaches the sea. The culprit is cotton. Uzbekistan is the second largest producer of cotton in the world, after the USA. Cotton employs 40% of the Uzbek workforce, including hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren. It is a graveyard of human rights.

Cotton is an incredibly thirsty crop & Uzbekistan consumes more water per person than any other nation (bar a small adjacent ex-Soviet satellite, also a cotton producer). Yet Uzbeks can only drink heavily polluted water from irrigation canals that have dried up the rivers. Anaemia is endemic, infant mortality is soaring; life expectancy has fallen from 64 under Soviet rule to 51 today.

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Most of Uzbekistan’s cotton goes to South-East Asia, where it is made into yarn, then becomes my cotton socks and shirts, possibly in Bangladesh sweatshops. Pearce says 25% of cotton garments for sale in the UK come from Uzbek cotton. Who knows the figure for South Africa – especially when a reassuring brand name can cover a multitude of environmental & societal sins?

in search of sin-free socks

I would like to be proudly South African, but currently much of the cotton produced here is genetically modified and that makes me uneasy. Woolworth’s offer a ray of hope with their organic cotton range, grown in Uganda, although my socks probably still take a round trip to Asia to be made.

So what do I do, short of following Fred Pearce’s footsteps and travelling the world to find out the provenance of my clothes & food?

In this new eco-awakening world, more aware brands will differentiate themselves by telling us where their products come from, their carbon & other emissions, their sustainability credentials. Amongst larger companies, Timberland already does this, amongst smaller organisations, Flocks tell you exactly what sheep, goat or rabbit produced the raw material for your cardigan, hat or mittens (see www.theseflocks.com).

Most brands however will rely on an endorsement from a supply chain version of the Fair Trade brand. Like tracking a parcel, you will be able to track your pair of socks and their impact on society and environment, from cotton field to point of purchase.

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The rival to the endorsement brand will be the ethical retailer, itself an endorsement. Internationally, Tesco’s & Wal-Mart are fighting for the ethical high ground, whilst Woolworth’s in South Africa is the world’s third largest buyer of organic cotton – behind Nike & Wal-Mart

Also in the green battlefield will be Nike & Timberland (hopefully Pringle too), as well as brand new brands that are born ethical.

As the world warms up, oceans rise & seas shrink, global consumers will be bombarded with greener than thou messages. My bet is that the retailers and endorsers will win out, with some traditional brands losing their footing.

In the Long Term Mitigation Scenarios around climate change prepared for the South African Government, it was shown that technology can only take us part way to the reductions in carbon emissions needed. The rest of the way is behaviour change. And that’s what brands set out to do.

There will be a lot of greenwashing and a lot of genuine change up and down the value chain. To begin with only a minority of consumers will care. But it will be more than the tree & bunny-hugging fringe. Green is becoming the new black – and as the fashionistas adopt the mantra, so it will spread through the mainstream. So will our buying habits fundamentally change? You can bet your cotton socks on it.

Notes: ‘Bless your cotton socks’ apparently comes from George Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta in the mid 19th century. He believed that the ills of the sub-continent would be cured if children had warm feet & so appealed to the women of England to knit socks, which he would bless and then disperse. Grannies and maiden aunts responded to the call & boxes upon boxes arrived in India labelled “Socks for Cotton’s

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blessing”. Now they make the return journey.

“Confessions of an Eco-Sinner” by Fred Pearce is published by Eden Project Books

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A finger pointing to the moon

An ad appeared in Fortune magazine for a consultancy that proclaimed I am your idea. That could be interpreted to mean that the poor souls who used this consultancy’s services had no ideas of their own and entrusted their company to a bunch of overworked MBA’s who pick strategy 6.3.2 from the rulebook, turn the organisation inside out and dance away from the mess.

new millennial gurus

Two thousand years ago we followed leaders with religious insights. In the last thousand years leaders gave nationalist dreams. In the new millennium gurus have swapped mountain-tops for laptops. Business is the new religion of the global middle class, complete with visionaries, leaders and false gods.

Millions have worshipped at the altars of Gates, Buffet, Anderson and Enron, studied the memoirs of Jack Welch and Sir Richard Branson more often than the bible and believe that earning a billion dollars for selling flavoured water is a sign of true greatness.

The arch-priests are management consultants who study success to find the magic formula. A few have deep insights, some develop interesting techniques, many are repackagers and more than a few thrive on the lunatic fringe.

Corporations lurch from one panacea to the next, changing paradigms faster than Madonna changes her persona, while employees receive yet another t-shirt telling them to re-engineer the seven habits of total quality learning organisations.

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buddhism and revolution

An ancient eastern wisdom tells us: the Buddha is like a finger pointing to the moon, a raft crossing the river. But never confuse the finger with the moon, or the raft with the further shore. In our business world, accumulated wisdoms and learnings are tools to use, not truths to revere.

As part of Freedthinkers services, I am often invited to facilitate organisational vision and values processes. During these sessions I have been privileged to witness some of the most memorable moments of my career; when a group of people co-create a destiny, thinking, acting and reacting like a single organism. It is as if the room is full of ideas and individuals are simply vessels through which they are expressed. Sports teams talk of being in the zone when communication and passes flow from one to another with amazing grace.

One company was an uneasy mix of an international organisation, with set ways of doing things and a group of young black South African lions. After the merger, business was lost, staff were demotivated. And so they decided to interrogate their organizational vision and values processes. During this many hard truths were exposed and this honesty propelled everyone to a shared realisation; the difficulties they experienced were a microcosm of the new South Africa in the global marketplace.

We are revolutionaries said one and this theme spread around the table – enlarged upon by some, tested and teased by others, until suddenly a unifying philosophy was born. The company has since gained far more business than it lost, staff know they are on a mission to change things and industry publications express their amazement at the turnaround. It happened – and is still happening - because it was co-created.

co-creativity and impermanence

Co-creativity demands a high degree of trust between team members.

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It is exciting, quite magical and humbling.

Few of us achieve dizzying heights by ourselves, yet together Everest can be scaled. Studying English at Oxford University, I was introduced to the four greats of English literature - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth. The Canterbury Tales came from stories told by pilgrims; Shakespeare co-created his works with the players of the Globe Theatre and Wordsworth wouldn’t have been Wordsworth without Coleridge and sister Dorothy. Only Milton created without human help, although he claimed divine intervention.

Ideas that come from one person are rarely accepted – even if that person is the boss. Co-creativity has no owner, no territory to defend or attack. Ideas and insights that are co-created will be challenged on their merits, rather than the status of individuals. And challenge becomes the incubator of original thought.

In the words of Buddha:

Doubt everything. Find your own light.

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Alive with Creativity

In Bali I saw wooden giraffes by the thousand, waiting to be shipped to South Africa to be sold on our road-sides. From fashion to fine art, nations of the East are copyists supreme.

Globally, the creative industries are seen as vehicles of strong economic growth but South Africa lags in promoting and advancing these opportunities.

london and ponytails

Cities in the UK have been counting creatives, a ponytail and shaved head at a time. In London, 650 000 people are involved in the creative industries – that’s more than the financial industry; more than manufacturing and construction combined or health and education.

The creative industries in London generate £20 billion a year. Between 1995 -2001 the creative sector was responsible for 1 in every 5 new jobs created.

London has a support resource for creative industries that:

identifies the value chains•

encourages clusters of specialisation•

protects intellectual property.•

Other cities in England, from Gateshead to Brighton are also clustering their creative blessings. Brighton discovered that they create 30% of the educational software produced in the UK which led the council to encourage subsidiary services. As Fred Astaire said: accentuate the positive.

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african fireflies

The biggest exhibition of contemporary African Art, Africa Remix, toured Europe and Japan in 2007. At the same time, New York gaped as South African artists turned St John’s, the largest neo-gothic cathedral in the world, into a palette of inspiration.

South African movies were awarded a Golden Bear and an Oscar. We have more Nobel prize winners for literature and Cannes winners for commercials than most of Asia. A retail concept from the Natal Midlands pops up at Liberty’s London.

There are many points of light, yet no general illumination.

creative destruction

South Africa is a creative work in progress. We have one of the greatest living playwrights and a few movies gaining critical applause but our world class artists are not a movement. Our most successful fashion designer employs less than 30 people. Carlos Miele from Brazil gives work to more than 1 500.

There is little public art to treasure, few distinctly modern and proudly African architectural statements. We have a rich cultural heritage but it can be a straitjacket as well as an inspiration. Picasso said every act of creation is first an act of destruction, yet we are too timid, or too politically correct to vigorously critique our traditions.

Unless we throw paint at the old masters, smash some guitars on stage and outrage the new establishment, we are in danger of speeding down a creative cul-de-sac of our own making.

We are so busy looking at what was, that we do not see what is and what can be.

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welcome the iconoclasts

Abraham’s father was a maker of icons. Abraham smashed them and left the city of Ur to find his own truth. He destroyed to create. The Impressionists were rejected by the French establishment and created the Salon of Rejected Art. Presley dissed Sinatra and Bing Crosby, Punk scorned over-engineered, overblown concept albums. Iconoclasts become enemies of the state before being accepted.

Creative pioneers disturb us, they confuse us; we cannot tell the difference between posers and the genuine article. They force us to re-evaluate. They break before they make. Shakespeare put the lunatic, the lover and the poet in the same boat. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry says no-one has ever discovered new lands without first having the courage to let old horizons fade completely from view.

South Africa needs to cluster our talents and find the courage to break the mould. It is far better to live dangerously than to die quietly.

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Cape Town in Wonderland

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to Alice: I don’t much care where. Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.

Cape Town is a modern Wonderland. Startlingly beautiful, yet a place where nothing is quite normal. Full of promise, yet lacking direction and racked by political squabbles.

Tweedledum and TweedledeeAgreed to have a battle;For Tweedledum said TweedledeeHad spoiled his nice new rattle.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee believed fighting is more fun than harmony, until the monstrous crow flies down:

Which frightened both the heroes so,They quite forgot their quarrel.

We have a few monstrous crows on the Cape horizon, with a few wonderful opportunities.

beyond the mountain

Ravi Naidoo, CEO of Interactive Africa and founder of the Design Indaba, looks beyond the mountain and two oceans:

Cape Town has a serious risk of becoming a festival city – like Cannes, compared to Paris... The world descends on it for a few weeks for gigs like the Film Festival, but by and large it’s populated by purple rinses – and nearly every youngster with an idea has left…

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Cape Town has been haemorrhaging in the last few years – many businesses have moved their headquarters or engine rooms to Jo’burg....it’s going to face a serious challenge to get its mojo back.

A week after he sent me this note, Old Mutual announced it was relocating 200 of its most senior staff to Joburg. A large stone has been thrown into a rather small pond. The ripples spread from their consultancies of choice, to the suppliers of their suppliers; from the luxury home market to the corner café. Their management consultants may move too or become frequent flyers, while some sandwich ladies will be out of work. The ecosystem starts to implode.

What will be the political response? For the last 12 years Cape Town has mirrored Senator John Kerry’s view of America: Politics has always been the art of the possible. Today it’s too often the art of the probable - tinkering around the edges without any greater vision, without a sense of optimism and imagination.

Will the politicians shift the deck-chairs on the beaches, or will they rise above their differences, ally with business and the community to get our mojo back?

cheshire cat vision

Is there an ideal vision for Cape Town? The Mother City cannot rely on tourism. It will never be a 12 month tourist paradise. We can promote the green season all we like – few would exchange a northern hemisphere summer for a chilly, windy and wet Cape winter.

Here are some other options, arising from ongoing dialogues:

• creative heart The creative industries - ranging from advertising, architecture and fashion, to movies, software and web-site design - are a significant growth sector around the world. In London,

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they are second only to the financial sector in revenue generation. Ideas give birth to significant job opportunities downstream – for instance, if Cape Town became world renowned for yacht design, thousands would be employed in building boats.

• a thinking city In World Class, Elizabeth Moss Kantor defines three kinds of winning cities – thinking, making and trading. Thinking cities (such as Boston and Oxford) now attract commercial partnerships in fields that include medicine, information technology and biotechnology. Cape Town has the potential to develop a similar global competence. The University of Cape Town has international respect. A maths centre for post PhD boffs has started in Muizenberg, sponsored amongst others by Steven Hawking. Our best private schools have world class facilities and teachers. But a few kilometres down the track, schools suffer from a dearth of resources. A local primary school had 49 teachers for 1 000 pupils; now there are 26 teachers. The school fees are R150 per annum; yet in an area of 50% unemployment, most are unpaid. The school struggles to do the basics – extras from a football pitch to somewhere to sit at break are unaffordable.

• shelter from the storm The three rules of retail - position, position and position - work for cities too. Cape Town was established as the way to somewhere else. Can we re-define a port city in the 21st century? A place of entry and departure for goods and people. A global melting pot defined by two oceans and the African continent. An essential part of the global logistics chains. The city is about to assess a study making Cape Town a gateway to Antarctica. It is a gateway to Africa, too.

• sun, wind, moon The Cape has four natural powers in abundance – solar, wind, waves & brains. How about combining these resources to become a global hub that researches affordable

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solutions? This will be a magnet for international funding and could spawn an industry providing low-cost renewable energy for a city, a country, a continent and an energy-hungry world.

Without a vision the bible says, the people shall perish.

twice as fast

Stephen Covey tells us not to sacrifice the important tasks for the urgent ones. A vision will not solve immediate problems, yet firefighting without building up fire resistance is ultimately a losing strategy.

The economic importance of cities is recognised by Helen Zille, Cape Town’s mayor: Cities need to be seen as engines of national growth, not just units of delivery.

Turning theory into practice will take considerable positive energy. As the Red Queen advises Alice - Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

Ready… steady…

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10-Year Ideas

Award winning commercials come and go; ideas that grow with time are rare and far more valuable. What are 10-year ideas? In a word, simple. Here are four paths to the brand gold-mine:

promise, large promise•

larger than life characters•

a big attitude•

a big social vision•

promise, large promise

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Dr. Samuel Johnson proclaimed that “Promise, large promise is the soul of an advertisement.”

During the last quarter of the 20th century, The international passport to smoking pleasure propelled Peter Stuyvesant to brand leadership with big-screen extravaganzas of beautiful young people having a wonderful time in desirable places. To an isolated bioscope public, the ultimate dream was to be transported from Parys to Paris in a single puff.

Large promise also propels many successful car manufacturers – everything keeps going right... sheer driving pleasure… vorsprung durch technik…

British humour makes the large promise in ironic ways, often playing with words - wotalotigot… Beanz Meanz Heinz… Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach. Americans cut to the chase: we try harder… just do it.

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While South African sport has Bafana Bafana and Amabokke, few pay-off lines synthesize our rich diversity of culture and language. Perhaps we are a more visual nation, because we have several larger than life characters who pass the ten-year test.

just say Charles

“Why does that poster just say Charles?” asked a bemused overseas visitor in a box at FNB Stadium. As the packed house of soccer fans could have told him, it was an ad for Castle Lager. The story of Charles Glass, a 19th century Englishman in Southern Africa, who reportedly invented the brew, was celebrated across media.

A Charles Glass Society became part of the mythmaking with Castle drinkers solemnly toasting Charles. They lifted Castle to a dominant market share during most of the 80’s and 90’s.

Boet and Swaer (later joined by Fats) for 12 years gave Castrol an affinity high-ground in a grudge purchase arena. Outspent by all the other oil companies, the can of the best campaign became part of South African folklore. So were the two characters for Vodacom - the archetypal loser and winner.

Charles, Boet and Swaer and the Vodacom duo have been retired by their brand-owners – unlike diamonds, ad ideas are not forever. The huge challenge is to create a mythic replacement. Castle has been trending downwards as ad campaign follows ad campaign, Castrol is just another oil again and the Vodacom cartoon meerkat enjoyed notoriety on Facebook before leaving the stage.

In the UK, chimps had tea-parties promoting PG Tips for 45 years before activists convinced Unilever that animal rights come before branded tea-bags. Their replacements are animated birds that display

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20-something angst. The jury is out.

a big attitude

Leo Burnett started life in Chicago, and redefined this unhip city to start an ad agency by claiming his hometown was closer to the United States heartland. He presented enduring ideas like equating a red and white pack of cigarettes with the most emotive of heroes – the American cowboy.

Marlboro County became the legendary part of America, Marlboro became the world’s best selling cigarette and Burnett can lay claim to having the first multi-billion dollar ad idea.

The enduring idea for Nike is victory. It was created by Phil Knight, founder, CEO and chairman. He saw a sport-shoe company as a metaphor for competing and winning. Nike has three core values – honesty - competitiveness – teamwork. The culture inside percolates out by tick-tattooed staff, in-your-face ads and a modern pantheon of sporting heroes.

big social change

Since 2000, Coca-Cola has helped the Indian government eradicate polio throughout the sub-continent’s rural villages. This support includes raising awareness through outdoor advertising, public announcements on the company’s distribution vehicles, employee volunteers mobilizing communities and employees at vaccination centres.

“Rather than just handing over a cheque, we believe that active grassroots support of our system is how we can add the most value” said Coca Cola.

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In 2003 the local company weathered a pesticide controversy, a sexual harassment charge and a regional government ban. Despite this, Coca-Cola India posted 22% volume growth at year-end. Much of this came from rural markets, now accounting for 28% of sales revenues, jumping from 8% a few years before.

In May 2004, Coca-Cola India publicly identified rural markets for volume growth. The company has a localised marketing strategy with grass-roots brand ambassadors and campaigns. These range from community events to rainwater harvesting and eradicating polio.

When the well of goodwill is filled, a company thrives, even in the face of adversity. Coca-Cola has a 10-year idea in the making.

Tesco Computers for Schools began in 1992 donating more than £120 million worth of computer equipment to schools, including almost 61 500 computers and over one million items of additional equipment, such as scanners, printers and software.

It began with Tesco wanting to develop a customer loyalty programme that benefits the wider community. Research amongst customers identified computers as the key need in schools across the UK.

The objectives of Tesco Computers for Schools are:

reward customer loyalty•

strengthen community relationships•

attract new shoppers into stores•

ensure the computer literacy of school leavers and potential • employees

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During a 10-week promotional period customers are given one voucher for every £10 spent with Tesco. Schools collect these tokens then redeem them for computers and related equipment from a catalogue.

It is the most successful sales promotion Tesco has ever run, increasing customer loyalty and enhancing the profile of Tesco as an innovative, caring retailer. Tesco online offerings now include computers for sale.

finding the idea

First request ideas. Then test them: do you have a baseline, characters, an attitude or social vision that will inspire employees and customers. Is the idea simple? Is it relevant? Can you imagine it being around in 10 years time?

When you purchase capital equipment, you expect to know its life span. Do you expect anything less when you invest in your brand - the most valuable property you own?

Good is not so common

Villages were once marked by common land. On this land you and your neighbour could put a cow or horse to graze. This worked well until one guy put two horses on the commons, then three, his neighbours emulated his example until the commons was overgrazed. And so laws were passed that said no animal could graze on the commons for free. It is known as the tragedy of the commons - when enough is never enough, when envy drives us, we all lose out.

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Ads, Mantras & Zen

Many great brands have brand mantras that in a few words capture their spirit. The mantra is not a slogan - it is the golden thread that holds everything together, from what a company makes, to its hiring policies.

A mantra instills in employees and marketing partners what the brand means to customers, giving all actions a common goal. It is a Sanskrit word, meaning an insight in the form of a chant that leads to the fulfillment of what is desired

At Nike the slogan is just do it – the mantra is Authentic Athletic Performance. As Scott Bedbury, who was chief marketing officer of both Nike and Starbucks, says in A New Brand World – the mantra was not written down, never framed on a wall – it was felt. The emphasis was on authenticity – Bedbury writes about pulling a golf catalogue from distribution when he saw a group of exquisite looking female models... rather than real golfers. Golfers hold their clubs a certain way; non golfers hold them like fireplace tongs or baseball bats. The brochure wasn’t authentic, so it was junked. It was also a $35 000 error we would never make again writes Bedbury.

At Disney the mantra is Fun Family Entertainment. A large financial services company approached Disney, wanting to use Disney characters to promote an endowment policy that began with the birth of a child and funded the education. It fitted in with ‘family’, but was neither ‘fun’ nor ‘entertainment’, so Disney turned down the multi-million dollar deal. Mantras help you to know when to say no.

Authentic Athletic Performance and Fun Family Entertainment have much in common. Start with the last word: ‘Performance’ and

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’Entertainment’ state what the organisation delivers. ‘Athletic’ and ‘Family’ describe performance and the type of entertainment, while ‘Authentic’ and ‘Fun’ are emotional descriptors.

every minute branding

Zen Buddhism teaches that enlightenment is not an event, but a heightened awareness that is ever-present, every minute of each day. Every minute Zen is the novitiate’s goal.

Branding similarly is a state of being. It is the architecture of your head office as well as the flower arrangement in a branch. It is your best salesman, your worst and all the moments of truth in-between. It is the five million buck television commercial and how your employees feel at the end of the day.

Every minute branding is the only way to create a timeless brand.

clothing your brand

Before you show the world who you are, know yourself. Discover your mantra and practise every minute Zen.

Advertising isn’t branding, but good ads define and grow the brand. Employees respond to Authentic Athletic Performance, the public buys Just do it! and the Nike swoosh.

The best advertising gives employees a reason to believe and customers a reason to buy.

Ads are the clothes the brand wears and help form first impressions as well as making the wearer feel good. You don’t need great ads to make a great brand – but they help.

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A field of dreams, plots & schemes

The Portuguese say we can’t call our ports port, the French say we can’t call our champagnes champagne, the Italians say we can’t call our grappas grappa; & now Americans say we can’t call our rooibos, rooibos. It’s brand colonialism.

Yogis brand and copyright their positions and breathing. Monsanto genetically modifies nature to brand staples like soya and maize. The South African government seeks judgment in Switzerland to overturn an American corporation’s right to own and exploit southafrica.com – in the war for the consumer’s mind, enter the battalion of lawyers.

alice in wonderbrand

We are spending millions, valuing South Africa as a brand. Let’s say brand South Africa is worth $100 million. Or $100 billion. And next year the valuation is doubled or halved. Does this give us one more foreign tourist or investor? And then Chile values itself at 30% more than South Africa. Do we go to the International Brands Court for justice?

In September 2008, Interbrand valued the Coca-Cola brand at almost $67 billion; during the same month, Brand Finance said almost $42 billion - a gap to make Enron proud. And just in case you feel Brand Finance is naturally more conservative, it values Google at $37 billon, whilst Interbrand says $25 billion Well, what’s a few billion dollars discrepancy between auditors?

Intangibles are... intangible. While valuing brands are negotiating positions in take-over deals, what do they mean in the real world? I fear that the brand is becoming the next dot com, a mysterious repository of quantum wealth that only the inner circle can truly appreciate.

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shades of blue

While many brand professionals agonise over whether the corporate colours are one shade of blue or another, Amazon changes its logo five times in six years.

After a few decades of buying the underarm deodorant Ego, South Africans are converted to Axe, in a display of the power and the economies of global rebranding.

Names can be substituted and logos change like Paris hemlines. As success creates the brand, so lack of innovation can destroy it. What made you great does not guarantee future fortunes.

Branding is a field of dreams, plots and schemes. It is a place of creativity and skulduggery. At its worst, branding is shot through with self-satisfaction, greed and hype. Yet, at it’s best, branding unites all stakeholders in a web of common values and expectations. Only by being true to itself, shall a brand shall endure.

Trend behind the trends

Brandlash – there is a growing distrust of labels, brands and globalisation. Fashion must be in touch with society – doing the right thing to get the right result. Among the developing countries, South Africa with its Constitution, labour laws and transparency is best positioned to display fashion with a conscience. Fashion designers need to think about the whole value chain – where do their fabrics come from, are their designs being manufactured in the right environment?

freed thin king

Documents

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traditional brand

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years of brand

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