Marketing in a crisis, whether it’s a company-specific crisis or a country-wide one, always raises the question of whether to continue spending or cut the budget to alleviate some financial pressure. The COVID-19 pandemic, the national lockdown, and the fear that an unprecedented recession will follow, certainly constitutes a crisis for businesses. Many are under…
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COVID-19 and it’s rapid spread globally led to President Cyril Ramaphosa announcing a National State of Disaster in response to the pandemic on Sunday, 15 March 2020, and outlining Government’s measures to contain the spread of the virus. Since then, businesses in South Africa have responded quickly and comprehensively. This week I have received e-mails…
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Creativity at work is sometimes viewed as the exclusive purvue of ‘artsy’ careers – marketing, the arts, interior decorating, that sort of thing. But in this era of rapid change in technology, increasing need for understanding the human experience at work, customer satisfaction expectations and the arrival of AI and Machine Learning, this old-fashioned view…
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Low-cost employee engagement initiatives may sound like an oxymoron. So many of the approaches used by top employers can be expensive to develop, implement and maintain. In our recent South African Company Culture Health Index survey, we asked respondents to tell us which engagement initiatives really matter to them, and guess what? It wasn’t the…
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Employee engagement is a key concern for any purpose-driven business. In our South African Company Culture Health Index, we asked our respondents to tell us how their companies are trying to engage with them, and how important each engagement effort is to them. The results might surprise you. Employee engagement efforts and their value…
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These 20 qualities of leadership are cited most often in articles on the subject. We wanted to find out how well South Africa’s company leaders are performing in each area, according to the people that work for and with them. Using the responses from our South African Company Culture Health Index, we developed this infographic.…
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Culture-led brands represent the sweet-spot where a strong brand meets a clear purpose and a healthy culture. As customers and employees become more and more demanding – seeking employers with a purpose, brands with a conscience and above all customer or career experiences that raise the bar – finding this sweet-spot becomes increasingly important. In…
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28 October 2019, Johannesburg – In August 2019, simon-pure Consulting launched the first South African Company Culture Health Index survey. Born of the boutique consultancy’s belief that culture can make or break a business, the survey aims to generate insights into how healthy South Africa’s companies are in terms of culture, and what can be…
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A dysfunctional culture within a company can seriously hinder its success, or even break a business. As Peter Drucker said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Yet often, businesses focus on revising strategy again and again before they ever look at their culture as a possible reason for their struggles. As more and more organisations around…
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Many technical service businesses rely on a seller-doer model for sales. It makes sense because, for these types of professional services, salesmanship is about being a technical expert, and customer service is about offering the best possible design solution, at a reasonable cost. But not every engineer wants to sell, nor is every technical genius…
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