Read Chris every week in the African press.
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Category Archives: Human Relations
Change of purpose
Someone recently amused me with a story about a new CEO taking post. She began with a short handover meeting with her predecessor. Short because all her predecessor did was to give her three sealed envelopes. “Take these” he said, … Continue reading
Posted in African Business, African Leadership, African marketing, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crisis Management, Culture change, Direct marketing, Human Relations, Internal brand, Market Research, Social Media, The Brand Inside
Tagged Business, CEO, Company, enterprise, Leadership, Reorganisation
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Let it shine
As every day passes there are fewer places to hide what a former American Vice President called ‘an inconvenient truth’. Al Gore was referring to climate change, but I’d like to put a fresh twist on his adage. It’s time … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, African Business, African ingenuity, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Human Relations, Internal brand
Tagged advertising, American Vice President, Climate change, Consultants, Consumer rights, Corporate leader, Corporate value statements, Fair employer, Financial services industry, Market, Nation builder, Organisational culture change, social media, Trade Unions
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Control is the enemy of culture
When I worked in advertising, cleverer people than I were preoccupied with setting higher aspirations for our global company. One genius came up with the line’ good is the enemy of great.’ By which he meant that we who were … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, African Business, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Human Relations, The Brand Inside
Tagged accountants. Organisation, Accounts Department, advertising, Aga Khan, Christmas party, corporate brand, Culture, enterprise, Kenyan business, Leaders, Middle management, Millennials, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Staff Survey, teambuilding
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The Three E’s
All businesses rely on a combination of three drivers of value creation, the ‘3Es’ of efficiency, effectiveness, and experience. Efficiency has been and remains a dominant driver of profitability since the industrial revolution, Taylorism, invention of the assembly line, and … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, Behaviour change, Billboards, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Global Brands, Human Relations, ICT, Internal brand, Machine and human, Market Research, Social marketing, The Brand Inside
Tagged Brand behaviour, Businesses, CEO's, competitor, Customer, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Experience, Gillette Fusion’s, Global world, Industrial revolution, Invention, iPhone, iTunes, Kaizen, Market appeal, Price, Reengineering, Taylorism, website
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Bridging another divide
Econsultancy’s latest report ‘The future of HR in the digital age’, finds that HR teams in many global organisations are repositioning themselves to be more customer centric. Making sure the actions they take in hiring, retaining and developing human capital are aligned … Continue reading
Posted in African Business, African Leadership, African marketing, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Empowerment, Global Brands, Growth, Human Relations, Internal brand, Kenyan Market, Local Brands, Machine and human, The Brand Inside
Tagged administrative, brand, Bridging, Commercial, Company culture, Customer, Customer services representative, east africa, Econsultancy, Employees, global, HR, marketers, Marketing Week Magazine, Organisations
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TV or not TV
Regular readers will know that Kenya recently revived its Advertising Awards after a gap of twelve years. It gave one a pretty good idea of the state of the advertising nation. Radio ads were terrible and print has gone flat. … Continue reading
Posted in Advertising, African beer, African Leadership, African marketing, Behaviour change, Billboards, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Direct marketing, Human Relations, Internal brand, The Brand Inside
Tagged Advertiser, Advertising Awards, Airtel, America, Audiences, Brand building, Budgets, Communication, Companies, Cytonn, east africa, global, Insurance, KBL, Kenya, Madaraka Day, Mosquito nets, Newspapers, radio, Safaricom, TV, WhatsApp
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Make training purposeful.
I’m often surprised by how much irrelevant training goes on in East Africa. I don’t mean lacking in general value. I have no doubt that people need to be taught customer service; qualified on specific technology; or given management training. … Continue reading
Posted in African Business, African marketing, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Global Brands, Global Statistics, Human Relations, Market Research, Marketing Strategy, Talent Development, The Brand Inside
Tagged budgeted, CEO's, Company, Corporate, customer service, east africa, Economies, Governance Mechanisms, HR, investment, Learning, management, Markets, MIT Sloan, Organisations, Programmes, Survey, technology, training
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The entitlement culture
“Just because you feel good, doesn’t make you right, oh no.” So go the lyrics of Hedonism, catchy track from the band Skunk Anansie, to which I am sure you all listen. The name Skunk Anansie is taken from the folklore … Continue reading
Posted in African Business, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Direct marketing, Human Relations, Internal brand, Internal Communication, Kenya Government, Kenyan Market, Local Brands, Machine and human, The Brand Inside
Tagged Boards, brand, Brand promises, Commerce, COMMUNITY, Consumer, Corporations, Culture, Employment, Environment, Financial Management, Ghana, Human Resources, logos, Markets, Networks, Non-profit, People, Society, target audience
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Time to talk
Ok so here’s an insight for you. Drawn from my work inside twelve organisations in East Africa in the first seven months of this year. So it’s current and relevant. The number one barrier to productive company cultures is poor … Continue reading
Posted in Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Direct marketing, Growth, Human Relations, Internal brand, Machine and human, Market Research, Marketing Strategy, The Brand Inside
Tagged Audience, brand, Cloud technology, Company cultures, Customers, east africa, Economy, Financiers, Google Drive, internal communication, Millennials, Organisations, Slack, Succinct, talk, Time, work, Yammer or HipChat
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How not to engage staff
Leadership teams in Africa would be the first to admit that employee engagement is still a relatively new area of competence. Great strides are being made, but from a very low base. One might say this is inevitable on a … Continue reading
Posted in African Business, African entertainment, African marketing, Behaviour change, Brand Marketing, Brand Reputation, Branded behaviours, Chris Harrison Africa, Culture change, Direct marketing, Human Relations, Internal brand, Internal Communication, Machine and human, Social marketing, The Brand Inside
Tagged Africa, African, Bank tellers, brand, Business, CEO, Champions, committees, Companies, Culture, Customer, DSTV, Engineering, entertainment, Healthcare, Insurance, internet, Leadership, legislation, Minions, MNET, Organisation, Scientific, Siemens, social media, South African, Staff, target audience, TV
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