CSR Africa Consulting Partners

11/10/2021

Contact us to learn how we can help your business to manage risk, leverage enabling decisions and mobilize supportive actions from stakeholders.

Enquire about our Optimising Stajehokder Relationships Masterclass.

07/10/2021

Contact us to learn how we can help your business to manage risk, leverage enabling decisions and mobilize supportive actions from stakeholders.

15/09/2021

According to Deloitte "the challenges of responding to a crisis event involve having to understand and arrange numerous concerns in real time, including defining the crisis, determining the cause, and generating options to stop and address impacts."

This is why a history of positive relationships with stakeholders is the backbone of any crisis management plan. It underpins the organisation's ability to have informed insights about stakeholder concerns, the ability to gather such insights in real time and when required, and with that confidence from stakeholders, the time and cooperation it will need to prevent/stop/address negative impacts.

Join us to discuss how this would work for your business.

Teboho Seretlo Business Consultant, Mentor, ImpactHER Ambassador
Rami Makete

12/09/2021

At the end of July, we hosted a Webinar on business resilience, with a special focus on Crisis Management. We promised we would be back, and here we are. Business Resilience, especially during these challenging times that have been made more challenging, by the COVID19 pandemic, is becoming more than a "nice-to-have" but a must.

Join us for Part2 (of 3) of the webinars - this time we focus on Stakeholder Management & Stakeholder Relations. What role does this have to play in business resilience? I look forward to seeing you there and to having some robust discussions.

22/07/2021

Business Resiliency in Times of Crisis: How Corporates Prepare?

CSR Africa Consulting Partners and their partners Strategic Solomons and TL Seretlo Business Consulting bring you this complimentary webinar to discuss response to the ever changing environment in South Africa which will go down as one of the most difficult times in the history of our constitutional democracy. Between political unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic we have been powerfully awakened to just how connected businesses are to the environments in which they operate.

Every part of the value chain is impacted - your business, suppliers, their suppliers and/service providers, logistics companies, intermediaries and distribution partners and ultimately customers/clients, shareholders and employees. This, as some companies are yet to implement Covid19 recovery plans.

There is increased pressure on corporates to respond quickly to trends that are transforming the economy, their respective industries, and acutely their own strategy ex*****on.

This complimentary webinar covers the following discussion points:
• Business Resilience – setting the context; why is it important especially in today’s conditions;
• A case study on crisis management in the current business operating environment, demonstrating reputation risk management planning and activation in the past few months;
• Staying one step ahead of a crisis by proactively building and maintaining key stakeholder relationships, adopting a systematic and informed approach before they are needed, ahead of crisis management.

https://www.linkedin.com/events/businessresiliencyintimesofcris6823564739667341312/

07/07/2021

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/performance-metrics-stakeholder-relationship-management-lusanda-jiya

Published: July 7, 2021. Since 2009 South African companies have been required to report of the quality of their relationships with critical stakeholders as part of assurance to the Board. This report is tabled to the Social and Ethics Committee - quarterly to the Board and annually in the Integrate...

30/06/2021

When South Africa went into lockdown at the end of March 2020, it looked like we were a step ahead and would manage this pandemic with relative ease and manageable stress. lt looked like the 6 weeks proposed was achievable, and by the end of it we believed we had well nigh dodged the proverbial bullet. The numbers did not skyrocket as predicted. Despite talk of a "next normal" we were pretty certain we WOULD get back to normal. No one I spoke to at the time was actually making post-Covid19 recovery plans.

A 1st wave in June 2020, after we reopened the economy, was warning that we needed to plan. A 2nd wave 6 months later confirmed this, and businesses started strategy reviews - a look in rearview mirror made it clear we would not meet annual targets. This 3rd wave should convince us that the recovery plans must be robust and help us build in resilience to our planning.

We will not achieve this if we do not embed stakeholder concerns in our strategy.

Some industries face the real possibility of regulatory and funding changes that threaten their core operating and revenue models. All stakeholders across the value chain are impacted - from suppliers/service providers, to distribution partners/intermediaries to the clients themselves. Employees have borne the brunt of collapsing businesses as they've lost both lives and livelihoods. No single stakeholder is unaffected. We can only win if we work to win together.

22/04/2021

When institutional relationships are left entirely at the mercy of individuals and their personal connections, they never reach the level of maturity that enables organizations to systematically manage risk and mobilise support for ex*****on.

Individuals fall ill; or suffer personal tragedy at critical points. They leave organisations. In the worst case, they may have interests that lead them to creating suboptimal outcomes for the organisation.

Organisations are left to start afresh every time a valuable expert leaves the company, sometimes delaying or even derailing key implementation. The damage to institutional relationships may be irreversible, or the cost of repairing/resetting too high.

We need to be intentional about creating the culture shift we need and about building skills and capability to manage in our organisations.

05/04/2021

As we roll past the 1 year mark of the Covid19 pandemic, organisations are clearer that the old plan may be obsolete, and are currently at various stages of strategy review or strategic planning.

My observation is that we are going about the process pretty much the way we have always done. Executive leadership withdraws/convenes and returns with a plan, presents it to board, then announces it to employees and the world.

It seems to me that we still have not understood that the announcement is the easy part; it makes the leadership look bold, decisive.

Much more difficult is the implementation, because no matter how compelling the plan, there will be a need to mobilize collective action.

We seem largely to assume regulators will amend the enabling policy/regulations; our suppliers/service providers will accept the new SLA or commission structure. We assume our investors/owners will fund the new strategy and our customers will buy the new product or pay the new price. We assume our employees will just flow with the new structure, the new roles, the new processes.

On projects we assume local leaders, businesses/suppliers/unions and the community will support the project and come on board.

We have not asked them or involved them; we don't know their interests or expectations. We assume that telling will be enough to kickstart and maintain momentum.

We assume stakeholders owe leadership a debt of cooperation. We have not planned to earn it; nor to be intentional and systematic in going about it.

Your thoughts?

01/03/2021

As Covid19 restrictions are relaxed and we prepare to return to full economic activity, we need to be mindful of the fact that our reality has changed. Leaders have the task of navigating their organisations out of a traumatic upheaval and through unprecedented change. More than ever before, there is a need for leaders that understand how to create mutual value for and with their stakeholders.

15/02/2021

Contact us at [email protected]

12/02/2021