Deadline looms for completing marketing industry's BEE survey

The BEE Monitor was formed in March this year as an alliance between the Black Management Forum and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, in response to Government's call for transformation within these industries following racism hearings over the past few years. Says Makwana, "The BEE Monitor aims to gather and interpret industry data regarding black economic empowerment, and provide best-practice guidelines that will be effective in accelerating transformation in the sector."

The BEE Monitor's in-depth survey is now available for completion by members of the marketing, advertising and communications industries before 15th October. Angus Bowmaker-Falconer of the BEE Monitor has called on all relevant companies to take part. He says, "The results of this survey will set the path for transformation, and it is vital that as many companies as possible participate in order for us to get a balanced view." So far only a few completed questionnaires have been submitted to the BEE Monitor's website.

By virtue of the scale of its adspend, Government is also a key player in the industry and it is equally important that government participates in the survey.

Says Tony Trew, deputy CEO of Content and Strategy Management at Government Communications (GCIS),"National and Provincial government communications departments and metropolitan municipalities will also be participating in the process and will all be completing the survey in order to establish to what extent they are contributing to transformation in the industry. Their deadline is also 15 October 2004."

The Industry Working Group that is driving the process is represented by all industries within the broader marketing sector. Says Nina de Klerk, Executive Director of the Association of Communication and Advertising, "The Association for Communication and Advertising is also a participant in the survey in that it will be providing information from its own survey which is being modified to ensure a match. As the ACA has been annually monitoring members' progress in key empowerment variables for over five years, this is our opportunity to benchmark our progress against other stakeholders in the Marketing and Communications industries."

Johan Koster, Executive Director of the National Association of Broadcasters, comments, "One need only compare the media landscape of 2004 with that of pre-1994 to see that our industry has made commendable in-roads in addressing transformation, particularly in terms of black media ownership. However, there is still much to be done, and we encourage all of our members to participate in the BEE Monitor survey."

Veejay Archery, of the Graphic Design Council of SA, says, "We have been actively involved in this initiative on behalf of our members, and we now call on those members to play their part in the transformation of the graphic design industry."

The survey can be downloaded from the BEE Monitor website at www.beemonitor.com. After completing the survey, companies will receive a scorecard indicating their level of transformation, and this information will be incorporated anonymously into the overall data, the results of which will be published on the website following the October 15 cut-off.

These results will be presented to Parliament.