Blog Archives

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Employee Volunteer Programmes (EVP) are a relatively new concept in South Africa, but there are many excellent reasons to implement them. An increasing demand for businesses to be more socially conscious is a global trend, and South Africa is no exception. Today, 5 September, marks the UN’s International Day of Charity. It serves to promote the UN’s number…

Traditional change management is on its way out. And for very good reasons.  It is just too slow to keep up. Constant change that defies start and end dates, rapid advances in technology such as AI and process automation, and increasing workforce flexibility mean that businesses have to adapt their approach to managing change. Or…

The human capital revolution is already underway. Its impact on company culture and people’s sense of purpose as employees of an organisation will be profound. And this is part of the reason that these changes are being implemented. In a recent interview with Emily He at Forbes John Jersin, vice president of product management for…

Few would argue that a healthy company culture is critical to keeping people engaged and able to deliver their best in their workplace. As Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Former CEO of IBM, once said: “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the…

Because change is an inescapable reality of our world today, and because company culture is so seldom a consciously considered and managed factor in change management, you might think change itself is to blame for your company’s ailing culture. But there are less obvious culprits; factors that can cause cultural decay regardless of whether an…

To me, it seems that alignment between a company’s brand and it’s culture – or the lack thereof – makes all the difference between getting the customer or employee experience you were expecting, or not getting it.   We’ve all had the experience of dealing with an organisation that doesn’t live up to its promises.…

Brand duplicity happens when brand promises don’t align to customer or employee experience. There are five top factors that contribute to this misalignment.   Customer service – the B2C space spends fortunes on ensuring the best possible customer service, but B2B often misses the mark. It shouldn’t. Leadership – leaders that don’t live up to…