Many thanks to Vera Ng’oma, who interviewed me for SheDistinction, a platform to inspire and enable young women learn to lead and flourish professional. Full interview available here and some highlights below:
Most people associate marketing and communications with products/private sector but you use it for social impact. How does that work in practice?
91% of global consumers expect companies to do more than make a profit but also operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. But how do they hear about it? That’s where marketing and communications come in — storytelling is a fundamental part of social impact. Successful stakeholder engagement requires communicating what you as an organization have been doing to both internal and external stakeholders such as employees, policymakers, and customers. Brand storytelling is multi-layered. From messages from marketing to product innovation and customer interaction, it’s critical to tell genuine stories that are anchored around messages of community. For that story to resonate, the tone can’t be too promotional or self-congratulatory — it has to be honest, balanced, and most critically, transparent.
You work across business, culture, politics, etc with quite a wide range of stakeholders. What’s your ‘success-kit’ for working with groupings as diverse as for example farmers on the one hand and multinationals on the other?
Learning how to communicate with different cultures and personalities can go a long way not just in the workplace but outside it, too. In a multicultural, global society, code-switching is becoming a more regular occurrence. But to do this genuinely and credibly, it’s important to take time to understand the culture you are operating in — from history to etiquette, and more. Remember that people appreciate the details, and respectful curiosity about another person’s culture not only demonstrates your commitment to learning about their working environment and cultural context but it can also be a great icebreaker!