Come back Joan Joffe! Whither art thou O Dot Field? Why on earth Fathima Beckmann as Group Executive Corporate Communications, Vodacom? (Vodacom is South Africa's leading mobile phone network provider). She may be the nicest possible person but dear God, if her response to Moneyweb (
http://www.moneyweb.co.za) about last week's Vodacom network signal failure was anything to go by, she's a media disaster waiting for a place to happen.
When choosing a media spokesperson for a company, it's not just the technical expertise of that person which should be taken into account. Neither is it their official designation or seniority of status - or the need for an affirmative action voice. What's paramount is that the person has linguistic intelligence and enjoys fluidity and fluency in the tongue in which they're going to address the media. And that they understand the cardinal principles of PR issues containment or reputation management. Which are: 1) Acknowledge that there's a problem, apologise and don't go circumcising mosquitoes on the exact number of fairies that can actually dance on a mobile phone mast-head. 2) Tell us what you're doing immediately and short-term to rectify the problem. 3) What are you doing to prevent or minimise the possibility of a recurrence?
If the charming and competent Dot Field has found greener pastures, is indisposed or is unavailable, then why don't we know about it? In a corporation of the stature of Vodacom there are any number of silver-tongued individuals who could talk to the media in a crunch. Alan Knott-Craig himself is a media whiz, Peter Matlare, a gifted media 'smoothie' springs to mind, Pieter Uys the Vodacom COO is empathic, credible and engaging. 'Empowering' and growing media spokespeople is one thing - but this is not the way to do it.
So how did Fathima Beckmann get to respond to this issue of the pooped-out signals of last week? Why did she 'filibuster' on what time what sector did or didn't have a signal? Why (if the radio interview transcript is to be evaluated) would Vodacom subject us to someone speaking borderline pidgin English on the issue? This is plain reckless endangerment of the very valuable Vodacom brand name and reputation.
The words and voice of a media spokesperson are the 'face' of an organization at crisis time. If you add together your marketing, advertising, communications, PR and promotions budgets - in Vodacom's case a serious dollop of money - would you really want to put that all at risk in the hands of an incompetent-sounding person? Fathima's mutilation of the language along with her 'Can I rather get back to you on that question?' response, are cringe-inducing faux pas of an unacceptable order.
If I were the brand custodian of Vodacom (Alan Knott-Craig!) I'd do something pronto about this lapse and ensure that it doesn't happen in a hurry again. As the notoriously irascible Denis Smith of radio fame in this country once said to me: 'Don't do on-air rehearsals!' This was an on-air rehearsal of the most unfortunate kind. Please spare us a repeat broadcast.
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About the Author
Clive Simpkins is a change architect and stategist.
http://www.imbizo.com