Iam one of those who reads Nathaniel Manheru’s column wearing a helmet and gas mask. But I have to admit that he sometimes makes sense, underline “sometimes.”
Lenox Mhlanga
Particularly his sentiments regarding the near-suicidal introduction of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 “whose imprecision and lack of forethought has been staggering.”
After a rambling monologue on King Lobengula and a bunch of white settlers, Manheru stumbles on a very rare stroke of genius where he laments the poor way the whole SI 64 of 2016 debacle was handled by the authorities.
He rightly observes that if there is one lesson to be drawn from the debacle, it is that public affairs and policy must come from government, never from a ministry.
It confirms what I have always said regarding the way government communicates. That the left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing or thinking. The often messy indigenisation debate starring one Patrick Zhuwao quickly comes to mind.
“Frankly, the rest of government, including the ‘ministry of persuasion’, only read about this well-intentioned but badly communicated SI in the press. That is not the way to handle public affairs. Experts in trade are not experts in communication,” Manheru writes.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
I would not agree with him more on this one. Save to say that after this masterstroke, Manheru relapses back to his usual mind-numbing, spine-jangling diatribes. Sigh!
In other news, Rolex supplanted BMW as the world’s most reputable company. The Swiss watchmaker jumped from its fourth place result last year in a list of internationally recognised companies that have captured the respect of global consumers.
BMW fell to fourth place, behind Walt Disney Company and Google. The ranking is the product Reputation Institute (RI), a reputation management consulting firm based in Boston that launched in 1997.
Since its founding, the firm has offered corporate clients strategies and insights into how they might gauge and improve their reputation among customers in various markets.
According to Forbes magazine, in putting together its annual list of the world’s most reputable companies, RI assigns each company a score — The RepTrak Pulse — ascertained by taking into account the esteem, trust, admiration and feelings the general public has for each company in seven categories.
Ratings are based on online polls of more than 240 000 people in 15 countries, such as China, the United States, Germany, Russia, Brazil and others.
Of the 100 companies in the survey (identified by taking the best-scoring companies from markets around the world that also score well worldwide), Rolex managed to get a place in the top 10 among poll respondents in 11 nations — more than any other company.
Sony (which came nineth overall) scored in the top 10 in 10 nations. Rolex has indeed been consistent as of late, placing in the top five most reputable companies for the past three years, as have other household-name firms like Google, Walt Disney and BMW.
“Around the world, (Rolex) has a consistently strong to excellent reputation,” says Kasper Ulf Nelsen, executive partner at RI.
“Being number one in the world, which is a summary of 15 countries, it shows that you are strong to excellent throughout the world. It’s not enough to be excellent in a few markets.”
The area where Rolex scored highest among respondents was in products and services, proving that the general population has high regard for the company’s wares and its willingness to stand behind its product.
Rolex also scored highly in performance, innovation, workplace and governance among other categories, generally getting high marks across the board.
Another strong performer on this year’s list was The Walt Disney Company, which scored higher in the citizenship and governance categories.
Says Nielsen: “The Walt Disney Company is number one in the world when it comes to being perceived as a good corporate citizen and also as a company with fair and ethical business practices.”
One firm that saw a drop off in reputation for obvious reasons was Volkswagen. The VW scandal was covered extensively in the global media and in this column. Following scandalous allegations of cheating on emissions testing and the subsequent resignation of its chief executive, Martin Winterkom, the company’s good name took a noticeable hit, dropping from 14th place last year, to 123rd place in 2016.
The question that company executives should be asking is how do a strong reputation and the admiration of the general populace translate to sales?
According to RI, companies with higher scores are more likely to have their goods or services recommended by their customers. For a company on the list, improving a RepTrak Pulse score by five points can increase the likelihood of customer recommendations by 8,5%.
Also, companies that rated average on RI’s score chart (with a RepTrak Pulse score of between 60 and 69) saw only about 35% of respondents willing to buy their products. Companies that scored between 70 and 79 saw that willingness to buy jump up to an average of 55%.
“In a world where companies are fighting for market share,” says Nielsen, “this is showing us that reputation is an avenue to improve the recommendations you get from consumers.”
Nielsen confirms that the importance of the personal recommendation has grown in recent years, likely because people have generally lost trust in institutions like governments and corporations. They expect to be disappointed and hold quality in higher regard when they find it.
“And that means that if you’re able to stand out as a company that is trusted, you get an accelerated level of support. That support can translate to increased sales and profit.”
These are lessons Zimbabwe companies should hold dear in our competitive and uncertain economic environment.
l Lenox Mhlanga is a specialist communications consultant with a global financial institution. Your comments are welcome at [email protected]
