[Interview] Mitchell Prather, Managing Director, Djembe Communications
In this exclusive interview with Africa Business Communities, Mitchell Prather, Managing Director of Djembe Communications speaks on how he made it in the Public Relations industry and shares an insight on how technology as become a part of Public Relations.
Would you please introduce Djembe Communications?
Djembe Communications is a global communications consultancy with a focus on Africa. We have offices in five countries across the African continent as well as offices in the U.K, U.S and Switzerland. Djembe Communications was initially founded to support a targeted number of Angolan clients and initiatives starting with the Angolan Sovereign Wealth Fund, or FSDEA. This changed when, just over three years ago, a strategic decision was made to expand Djembe’s offerings to support additional Sub-Saharan African clients. The vision to make Djembe the communications partner of choice for Africa was created. We recognized this vision can only be realized by building a team of communicators who are passionate about their careers and passionate about Africa. It is a multifaceted vision; We are committed to ensuring global best practices while also always executing with the African perspective central to our work. With this in mind, Djembe Communications is uniquely qualified to realize the vision of becoming the communications partner of choice for Africa.
What is your focus and how different and better is Djembe Communications to other PR Agencies in Africa?
Djembe’s focus is to be a well-rounded niche communications consultancy for the African market. In the current climate, PR agencies typically include the full gamut of traditional media work such as building relationships with global opinion formers and media, but there is also a growing need for internal training and capacity building. Social media has also transformed communications around the world and as a frontier market, Sub-Saharan Africa has its own unique challenges from a technological perspective. Building integrated campaigns that communicate through traditional and new digital channels to a diverse social and economic populace is critical, particularly when communicating developments on crucial issues such as job creation, capital market development and social development progress like clean drinking water access and improved educational opportunities.
What is your definition of a good communications firm?
A good communications firm can offer a number of advantages in addition to strong creative talent. It will also include professionals who are highly skilled in at least three different agency capability offerings and have the following:
- Djembe values respect above all else. As we have offices across borders with different time zones and cultures, we have learned how to collaborate and work effectively to fulfill all of our clients’ needs
- Eye for detail
- Deadline oriented
- Multi-tasking ability
- Technical aptitude
In your opinion, what is the state of the Public Relations/ Communications Industry in Africa? Is it competitive?
I do not think the African Public Relations (PR) sector differs too much in comparison to other PR sectors around the world. However, to succeed you must have a different approach that is based, first and foremost, on African insights. To gain such insights, we recognize that Djembe’s African team must be an essential part of the strategic development process to ensure success for our clients. There is vast potential in Sub-Saharan Africa where the need for more strategic communications is great.
Historically, you have agencies in South Africa that go north or you have communications agencies in London that place a mid-level professional in Africa. It is often quite clear that this person doesn’t really have an interest in Africa and that doesn’t work for clients. Just like in the U.S., the way you do business in the south is very different than the way you do business in the north. Dubai is a useful hub and has become a base for African business because of its transport links.
Furthermore, from a customer behavior perspective, while Sub-Saharan countries face similar challenges, they all have unique communications requirements. There is no one-size-fits-all approach and a solely local approach will not ensure success either. That is why we believe Djembe Communications is well positioned to help clients build and manage their reputations as they work to realize Africa’s potential.
How did Djembe Communications get through as a leading Pan-African Communications Consultancy?
It has been an interesting journey for us, to say the least. Angola and Africa at-large clearly have fascinating stories for us to cultivate as communicators. We are successful because we have a deep understanding of stakeholder issues and we work very hard with our clients to address these issues by providing greater context to the opportunities and challenges. While issues across the region undeniably remain, it is important to provide the right context; Africa has colossal long-term potential. In fact, the pace of change has been so frenetic over the past decade that many of the region’s countries are growing at a rate that most western countries can only dream of. These are clearly exciting and thought-provoking times for Africa.
With digital being a much integrated part of modern communication services, will you say the role of PR professional has changed?
Absolutely! Corporate blogs have become an integral part of building and enhancing reputations and relations with external bloggers are important as well. Now, you do not have to depend solely on journalists to get your story out. Blogging has taken off in the last few years and now sustaining relations with bloggers is just as significant as sustaining relationships with journalists. Social media has also been one of the most important changes for public relations within the last 20 years. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and many more social media platforms are relatively new to the public relations world but they have become crucial channels for reaching audiences and sharing important stories.
What unique strategies has your agency put in place to forestall anticipated risks?
Every consultancy is susceptible to crisis. The days of playing ostrich are gone. You can play, but your clients will not be sympathetic or lenient because they have watched what happened with Fukushima, Penn State/Sandusky, BP/Deepwater and Wikileaks. However, at Djembe we believe in effective communications and aligning our strategies with our clients’ brief. Before we put together our key messages, we consider these four broad principles: action, context, empathy and transparency. With these principles in mind, our strategies for crises are as follows:
- Identifying our crisis team
- Anticipating crises in planning a vulnerability pre-audit
- Establishing notification and monitoring systems
- Spokesperson identification and training
- Assessing the crisis situation
- Developing statements
- Identifying and knowing our stakeholders
- Finalizing and adapting key messages
- Post-crisis analysis
In five years, how do you see yourself as creating a big change for the company and still maintaining your leading status.
Over the next five years, Djembe will continue to remain passionately committed to Africa and the field of communications. We believe by nurturing and growing our team of Djembe Drummers, we are building a powerful consultancy offering, giving us a unique competitive advantage in our drive to play a significant role in helping Africa reach its full potential. Additionally, through Djembe’s Centre of Excellence approach for building communications strategies, Djembe Communications is fast becoming the communications partner of choice for Africa.
What makes a good Managing Director of such a niche Communications Consultancy?
There are simple yet powerful approaches to delivering for clients while managing your agency team. For clients, you need to invest time into the relationship so that you can closely manage expectations. For your agency team, the key to being a successful MD is knowing when to be a leader and when to be a manager. By truly listening to each team member you can gain an understanding of their potential, which has allowed me to create an inspiring professional growth environment. I also strongly believe you need to have fun along the way; Some of my best friends in the world are former clients or colleagues.
Economically, which African countries will perform best in 2016?
Keeping up with current affairs and all of the reports that are being published internationally, I would say Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia and Tanzania are expected to develop the fastest this year. In the middle of the other major economies in the region, Kenya and Nigeria will expand respectively.
The continent’s economy will likely continue to be susceptible even though mild growth is forecasted. The main peripheral challenges that the region faced last year such as subdued commodity prices, China’s slowdown, currency depreciations, political improbability and security threats will likely threaten growth this year as well.
