Loeries 2004 kicked off Friday with the marketing and communications conference at Sun City. In lacklustre speeches, both Marketing Federation of SA (MFSA) CEO, Mpho Makwana and Board Chair, Jabu Mabuza, explained away the current turmoil in the organization as a necessary part of organizational change and the reframing of the mindset of the industry.However, the very public debate being played out regarding the recent MFSA retrenchment and perceived lack of organization, leaves a bitter taste in the craw of everyone involved in Loeries this year - from sponsors, to organizers, to employees and the media. Rumours of lawsuits abound and there is an air that whatever happens, this Loeries may not go down in the annals as one of the most well run or successful.
But, to give the MFSA its due, to have pulled off a three-day Loerie Festival in the face of a year of transformation labour pains and a couple of months of retrenchments, resignations, threats of sponsors pulling out, is due to the MFSA staff who worked through the night to make sure everything was ready.
For their sakes, and the industry, let's hope the weekend goes off as planned and the behind-the-scenes machinations are largely unnoticed by the majority of the industry that are here to learn, be rewarded for their efforts, and have a good time.
Mabuza, who caused such an outcry at Loeries last time for his vehement castigating of the industry for its lack of transformation, warned that the industry should not be found "wanting" at its report back to parliament on 19 October.
"We indicated at the Loerie awards 17 months ago that it was 'un-South African' to pander to lily white creatives that made black professionals feel foreign in their own country. Last year we focused on the ad industry, it is imperative to turn our attention to marketers.
"This century belongs to the marketers - they control the purse strings of the value chain. As drivers of the industry value chain, we have not been driving. We have been driven by other needs... and we have failed to fully embrace transformation. We should work hard to recover lost ground. This conference has to seize the moment and ensure that we all emerge with one common goal: a programme of action that will guide us in building a new organization and a new industry."
In his 'State of the industry' address, Makwana, while sincere in his vision to build an organization that is truly representative of a transformed industry, missed an opportunity to state his case and reassure the industry that the MFSA has not 'lost the plot'.
With crowds of dissenters gathering on the MFSA's very doorstep, focusing on the global leadership paradigm and its influence on local business was somewhat inappropriate when the industry needs to have the future role of the MFSA unpacked for all stakeholders and the marketing industry.
Makwana did explain that any organisation that attempts to drive strategy and shape its destiny in isolation of the face of the nation, sets itself on the path to obscurity.
"We have built a great nation. To become change agents, we marketers need to become pioneers... even if it means standing alone. Leadership is not about bulldozing people, but about defining the future. It is up to us what kind of a dawn we have as marketers..."
Good business is impossible without good marketing, said Makwana, and on this quest, he alluded to the role of the MFSA:
The most important item on the agenda is transformation and Makwana will address the industry on the BEE Scorecard on Saturday, 2 October at the conference. Makwana reiterated: "black members need to feel this is a place they belong - the marketing profession is seen as too exclusive and too white."
However, he cautioned: "Often we do not seem to have a shared understanding of transformation."
He quoted former US President Lyndon Johnson (June 1965): "You do not take person who for years has been hobbled by chains, bring them up to the starting line of a race and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."
Said Makwana: "You as marketers need to be those gatekeepers that open the door to others. That is what leadership is about, particularly in transformation. We need to keep that door open to others. How do we transform ourselves? There is nothing wrong with being white in SA... or with being black... or with being a woman... transformation is about changing systems in South Africa that shape rewards, that shape growth."
As they say in showbusiness... let's all hope it's all alright on the night!
