All posts by rachel_eaton

WOMEN LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY: NARDA SHIRLEY, GONG COMMUNICATIONS

December 1, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

WOMEN LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY: NARDA SHIRLEY, GONG COMMUNICATIONS

Narda Shirley, managing director, Gong Communications

Narda Shirley is the Founder and Managing Director of Gong Communications, a business to business agency with offices in London and Nairobi. Gong is focused on 3 areas; human capital, natural capital and private capital.

She is a serial public relations agency entrepreneur having founded an agency prior to Gong called Gnash, that rode the internet boom (and bust) helping establish some of the enduring brands from that digital decade including lastminute.com and Match.com. She was the founding Chair of the PRCA’s sustainability group and is committed to driving sustainability engagement across the sector today.

1. What are the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome to get you where you are today? (what tips can you share from that experience?)

I think the biggest challenge in getting to where we are today has been figuring out how to become an international business and getting our Nairobi office on its feet. It’s been a stretch for me personally but a welcome opportunity to learn about a new cultural context for doing business after two decades of PR experience in more developed economies. For example, navigating local norms that don’t fit with ours, but it can also mean that culturally people in Africa sometimes don’t want to say ‘no’ which can be tricky to interpret when it comes to getting decisions over the line. But ultimately it’s about respecting the culture that you are operating in and programming in some patience. If you try to make everything go at top speed, you will just buckle under the weight of frustration.

View the full article here

Insight, Small Grid

#BTHECHANGE: GONG’S JOURNEY TO B CORP CERTIFICATION

November 23, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

#BTHECHANGE: GONG’S JOURNEY TO B CORP CERTIFICATION

Sara Bonafair, senior account executive, Gong Communications

Up until 2016, I’d never given much thought to toilet paper. That was until I was assigned the task of taking my company through the B Corp certification process. Now I am a stickler for upholding the small changes, like eco-friendly toilet paper, that helped us achieve the highest standard of overall social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability required to become a certified B Corporation.

We set certification as a goal for ourselves in the summer of 2016. I was not familiar with the B Corp movement previously, but what attracted me to Gong in the first place, its mission to help purpose-driven businesses do extraordinary things for people, planet and profit, is exactly what made Gong eligible for certification.

Certified B Corps, which also count Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, and Etsy among their number, aspire to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. There are more than 2,000 certified B Corporations in over 120 industries and 50 countries with 1 unifying goal – to redefine success in business. To become certified, a company must satisfactorily answer 166 questions covering a company’s business model, governance, workers, community, and environment (that’s where the toilet paper comes in).

The process is rigorous but companies starting the journey may find that they don’t need to change a whole lot. Some small changes for us included switching to recycled printer paper, implementing quarterly company-wide financial performance meetings, and formalising existing practices into company policies, such as client feedback forms, preferred supplier lists, and a diversity and inclusion policy; practices that existed but just needed formalising. Committing ourselves to our values in this way has helped us bake our mission into our DNA.

After about six months of answering questions and making small changes to help us put our best foot forward, we submitted our questionnaire to the reviewers, who would randomly select answers for us to prove. In June of 2017, we finally made it! From beyond the finish line it is easy to see how much the B Corp certification process has helped Gong grow and we now have two non-executive directors to enable us to lead the charge as one of only a handful of marketing and communications B Corps in the UK.

As for me, after diving deep into every detail of how Gong does what it does, and coming out on the other side with an official B Corp certification, I’m impressed with how the team lives out the company values every day, and am proud to have helped create a legacy that will help uphold this commitment for years to come.

Insight, Small Grid

CAN PRIVATE EQUITY EMBRACE PURPOSE POWERED BUSINESS?

August 25, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

CAN PRIVATE EQUITY EMBRACE PURPOSE POWERED BUSINESS?

Narda Shirley, managing director, Gong Communications

The subject of purpose powered business and the issues that inspire CEOs and entrepreneurs alike have been keeping us occupied for a while here at Gong as we’ve worked on the Purpose Powered Business book for John O’Brien and Andy Cave and joined the B Corps community. Our other big focus is private equity, so it felt natural to think hard about the appeal and challenges of one to the other. Chatting to experts in leadership search and assessment helped crystallise an insight that purpose in business is really a people issue. Read our article here on why we think talent will be the reason that private equity allows purpose to sit alongside profit as one of its key objectives.

News, Small Grid

FOCUS ON REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL

July 6, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

FOCUS ON REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL

Nairobi, Kenya. 6 July 2017

Beverly Amira, MD Gong Kenya

On 6 July Gong Kenya, Moody’s Investor Services and the Business Council for Africa (BCA) collaborated to stage a breakfast event on the subject of ‘Reputation Capital’ in Nairobi. The two speakers, Gong’s Group MD, Narda Shirley and Moody’s Head of Relationships in Africa, Sylvia Chahonyo, were introduced by Michael Monari, the BCA’s East Africa representative, who set out the membership body’s mission to help businesses make valuable new connections in Europe and in Africa among its community of 4000 members. The fifty-strong audience this morning included communications professionals and business leaders from industries as diverse as banking, insurance, technology, travel, real estate, private equity, government and energy. The breakfast discussion centred on the business value of reputation – how to crystallise, measure, manage, and protect it. Gong provided its 10 top tips for best practice in building and defending corporate reputations, giving a special shout out to B Labs East Africa and the certified B Corp community, which Gong has recently joined (B Corp certification is to business what fair trade is to coffee). Third party expert views and customer reviews, awards and accreditations were cited as key in building reputation ‘in peace time’ in the context of developing robust crisis communications strategies before trouble hits your business. Moody’s focused on the role of credit ratings agencies in risk management, explaining to the audience how this role is localised for the African continent. And the event wrapped with insightful questions from the audience on the role of internal communications in building workplace cultures that can withstand crises. Audience feedback was immediately positive to the point that Gong Kenya has already committed to host two more events in the series, one on ‘Cultural Capital’ and the other on ‘Social Capital’.

Download the Reputation Capital Presentation, Nairobi. 6 July 2017 here.

News

DON’T MISS GONG KENYA’S BREAKFAST BRIEFING ON REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

July 5, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

News

GONG COMMUNICATIONS BECOMES A CERTIFIED B CORPORATION

June 28, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

B2B comms agencies can be at the heart of the global movement using business as a force for good

Gong has become the UK’s newest B Corporation and part of a growing core of MarComs companies committed to ‘doing business better’. Following a rigorous assessment of Gong’s governance structures, employee culture and benefits, and our impact on community, the environment and our clients, the agency has successfully joined the ‘Year 2 cohort’ of B Corps in the UK.

B Corp is to business what Fair Trade is to bananas. The global movement is growing fast – with certified B Corporations around the world currently generating combined revenue of $36 billion. Companies like Patagonia in the US and Divine Chocolate and Ecover in the UK have achieved certification and entered a legally binding commitment to act in the interests of all stakeholders – not just shareholders.

Narda Shirley, managing director, Gong Communications said:

“Our core business is building reputations and relationships for clients who are doing extraordinary things for people, profit and planet. We are well versed in delivering effective PR with positive impact, but the B Corp process has formalised many of the things we took for granted as an agency in how we do business.”

Katie Hill, Executive Director, B Lab UK, said:

“B2B communications efforts are essential to the growth of the B Corp movement, raising the profile of the certification among the international business community as well as helping businesses to communicate their purpose to the wider world. It is great to have an award-winning corporate communications agency like Gong fully behind our mission both as part of the movement as well as supporting our own efforts to engage with more purpose-driven companies.”

Gong works with business to business clients of all shapes and sizes across the globe, with particular expertise in professional and financial services, agri-business, health, technology and energy sectors, as well as regional expertise in emerging markets and sub-Saharan Africa. The agency’s international briefs include sustainability communications, corporate purpose and positioning, employee engagement and diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Narda concludes: “What’s more, we will harness the knowledge, experience and networks we gain from being part of the B Corp community to deliver even greater value for the exceptional clients and transformative businesses we work with.”

Insight

MORE TO REPUTATION THAN A SHARE PRICE

April 21, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

MORE TO REPUTATION THAN A SHARE PRICE

Nikki Francis-Jones, associate director, Gong Communications

For decades to come, events on United Airlines Flight 3411 on Sunday 9th April and the aftermath will go down in the annals as a ‘how not to’ manage a PR crisis in the digital age.

But before students can get their hands on it Nikki Francis-Jones looks at the lessons that can be learned and what the full scale of the reputational damage might be.

View the full article here

Insight, Uncategorized

UK plc: Fit for Purpose?

February 27, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

UK PLC: FIT FOR PURPOSE?

Sarah Nicholas, account director, Gong Communications

Will ‘business as a force for good’ become part of UK company law?

“Companies should state precisely their purpose – their role in the world from which profit results – in their articles of association and regularly report on the delivery of that purpose.” This is the first recommendation to promote purposeful companies put forward by The Purposeful Company Task Force, a consortium of FTSE companies, investment houses, business schools, business consultancy firms and policy makers at The Big Innovation Centre.

Listening to the report’s authors debate with an audience at the London School of Economics last month (podcast of the event here), corporate law was firmly under the spotlight. How likely is this change? And will it really deliver the coveted sustainable long term value for stakeholders that it is pursuing?

At Gong Communications, we are firm believers in the power of purpose and how communicating this effectively can help companies to gain a competitive edge. Some question whether mandating businesses to declare their purpose undermines some of its potency. But whether it is written in law or – even better – engrained in company culture, having clarity of purpose can propel a business forward and bring many benefits beyond simply profit, although it has been shown to help with that too.

Will Hutton, the co-chair of the Purposeful Company Task Force, said: “The evidence is clear, companies with a declared purpose, adhered to by their leaders and understood by their employees, perform far better over time than their less purposeful peers.”

Going through the process of B Corporation certification ourselves, we had the fabulous Scott Drummond of B Lab UK join the Gong London team for a learning lunch and share the story of their successful efforts to define a new type of for-profit entity in the US. A Benefit Corporation, now legislated in 30 States, is a company that has a positive impact on society, workers, the community and the environment in addition to profit as legally defined goals.

Other countries, such as Italy and Australia are following suit. And with May’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee looking into how modern companies can better serve their shareholders, employees and wider society, it is not hard to imagine the UK being next in line.

Bring it on.

Look out for a follow-up blog on how stakeholder communications and employee engagement are vital to fully realise the potential of purpose in the private sector.

Insight

WHY SLOW BURNS CAN BE THE BRIGHTEST

February 2, 2017 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

WHY SLOW BURNS CAN BE THE BRIGHTEST

Amanda Lyons, associate director, Gong Communications

Much as I dislike most of the caricatures about PR folk, the image of the time-poor, plate-spinning, device-juggling communications professional isn’t much of an exaggeration. Whether agency or in-house, the demands of a permanently ‘on’ 24/7 media environment and satisfying the competing needs of multiple stakeholders mean that we constantly run in the fast lane.

Although brand building requires quick thinking and speedy delivery, it’s important to take the time to slow down for a moment and appreciate that not all great things happen in a flash. At Gong we’ve been reminded of this over the last few months. Some of our biggest and best ideas have literally taken years to come to fruition. For example, creating an anthology of perspectives from global leaders and a ground-breaking symposium to convene great minds to tackle some of the most challenging food security issues for one client. Both of these were a slow burn to progress from concept to reality – but the results were more than worth the wait.

Achieving industry change or engaging high profile thought leaders in a meaningful conversation is a different model to opportunistic activations to generate a quick win. For us, getting big ideas off the ground is a mastery of helping clients to secure buy-in from internal supporters and budget holders, securing the right people to participate, timing any outreach with the broader corporate strategy, as well as making sure the stars align with what’s going on in clients’ industries and the wider world.

We’re also reminded of this in business development. As with our personal lives, timing plays a great part in whether a relationship is going to get off the ground and grow into something beautiful. In January we supported The END Fund to communicate its inspiring agenda at Davos – a client that we started initial conversations with nearly three years ago and hope to work with for a long time to come.

So to everyone out there, whether you’re working in a corporate communications agency or building brands and reputations in-house, let’s remind ourselves that there’re more to results than short-term success. When we experience barriers to getting projects over the line or converting an opportunity into an outcome, we need to keep sight of the big vision. Let’s have faith that we’ll achieve it because patience (and determination) isn’t just virtuous, it’s valuable.

News

Welcoming fresh faces in to the fold

December 12, 2016 rachel_eaton Leave a comment

WELCOMING FRESH FACES IN TO THE FOLD

Award-winning agency prepares for further growth in 2017

Gong Communications has hired two corporate communications specialists, Libby Wyman and James Deacon, as senior account managers to support the firm’s rapid growth. The pair join at an exciting time for the agency, bolstered by six award wins for its diversity and inclusion work with long-standing client, Lloyd’s of London.

Libby joins from Forster Communications, her focus at Gong will be on delivering global corporate and sustainability communications for international clients and developing the agency’s sustainability and social purpose work. Libby commented: “I’m delighted to be part of such a strong and motivated team at Gong; an agency that clearly punches above its weight to deliver award-winning communications for clients as diverse as challenger brands and multinationals.”

After a successful stint at FleishmanHillard Fishburn, James’ focus at Gong will be primarily on the Lloyd’s of London account, centered around the hugely successful Dive In: The Festival for Diversity and Inclusion in Insurance. He’ll also be working with associate director Nikki Francis-Jones on UK focused marketing for the agency. “I’m thrilled to be joining such an inspiring team here at Gong. Delivering a strategy session with a solar energy social enterprise in Madagascar in my third week here is certainly confirmation that I’m in the right place,” James said.

Gong MD, Narda Shirley, added: “Libby and James bring a great range of experience combined with boundless enthusiasm and passion. During 2016 we did a lot of thinking about who we are as an agency and that has helped us attract two standout people who are drawn to the idea of working on clients with a strong purpose.”

The agency took a conceptual brief in early 2015 to create a festival for the promotion of diversity and inclusion within the insurance market, and has scooped a number of cross-practice awards; PRCA (employee engagement), Marketing Week and The British Insurance Awards (diversity champion), Corp Comms Magazine (best live event), Insurance Day (diversity & talent management initiative of the year) and Insurance Marketing and PR (best insurance event). The work was also shortlisted by Sabre Awards EMEA, Guardian Sustainable Business, Personnel Today, ENEI and Insurance Times.

See here for coverage on Gorkana PR News