Transforming advertising is about heart and doing the right thing

Nothing I am going to say here is new. It is nothing you have not heard before and nothing you have not thought about in those quiet moments. But I am going to say it anyway, because I believe the more often more people talk about it, the more receptive we become.

I attended an interesting talk on Africa in the 21st century by Prof Nicholas Biekpe and the one thing he said which stuck in my mind was, don't judge the development of a country by the new high rise buildings, but rather by the increased level of literacy because all big buildings do is increase the divide between the squatter camp down the road. We are in essence ignoring the most obvious solution: education.

At the moment our advertising schools are doing a good job of increasing, year by year, the amount of students graduating into the industry. The problem is still that demand far exceeds what they are able to produce each year.

So then do we sit back because it's easier to just moan? Well unfortunately a good chunk of us do. For anyone else who really wants to make a difference, then just look around your office. Here, there are teachers in plentiful supply. We have the ability staring us in the face; after all, not every new employee needs to be a graduate. What's more, there are learnership programmes with SETA that are funded by the Skills Development Levy, that are able to assist with development.

I recently read a comment that after a one year learnership, some of these individuals are not employed by agencies and left jobless. Sorry, but those are the challenges life will occasionally throw at you. Whether you give these individuals jobs or not after a year of training, they still have some form of experience and at the end of the day, any form of education counts.

I believe the biggest injustice is done by empowerment deals. These are companies doing whatever they have to, to make this 'problem' go away. Lets get in the minimum black ownership that we need and everything will be okay. Nothing really changes does it?

The approach by most companies is all wrong. It is not about sitting around a boardroom table with issue 1 on the agenda: 'how do we become BEE?' It should be: 'there are changes happening in this country, what are we doing as an economic contributor to make this a better place or what can we do to ensure the long term sustainability of this place we love so much and call home?'

I know this is all soppy and emotional, but change must come from the heart and not because it is a dictated requirement.

And fingers should be pointed everywhere. In the Business Day recently there was an article on some black big shot who was being appointed to the exec of some multi-national, he was also MD of some group, silent director in another, Chairman of something else and more. Now unless he has found a reliable way to clone himself, there is simply no way in hell he can actually be adding value to all these companies. But, does he take fat salaries from them? Probably yes.

To all the clients out there, there is just as much responsibility on your shoulders and keeping your house tidy should extend to your suppliers. Government and non-privatised companies seem to be pretty good at it, but it should be every company's responsibility. Even the little guys.

Issue a challenge - If your agency is not BEE then threaten to pull the business. This is the one real threat to make, because an agency will do anything not to lose the business. I know this is not in tone with everything up until now, but clients out there are the biggest influencers within the advertising industry. Clients need to evaluate their agencies on an ongoing basis, set targets and if these are not met, take the appropriate action.

So to conclude then, you may feel I may have said absolutely nothing or everything, but it is not my place to tell you what you should or should not be doing. Instead I leave it your conscience. Agencies out there should be doing what they believe is right and if they aren't then there is a very real danger of it catching up with them.

To those agencies and clients out there that are really trying to make a difference, then good on you and I wish you the best of luck in business, because being driven by good ethics and heart, is what will differentiate you in the long term.