Mark – first cover

Mark magazine - first cover

This is the cover for the first issue of Mark magazine. Mark is a new business magazine about people and how business. Art Director Candice Turvey designed the cover around our theme for this issue – ‘Identity.’

The challenger

From Brand April/May 2008

Given recent negative comments by Julius Malema and others on Desmond Tutu I thought I would reprint an opinion piece that ran in the April/May 08 edition of Brand magazine.

The mood has changed. Talk to almost any South African and you will notice the negative nuance when they talk about the economy, our democracy and the future. The country, plagued by uncertainty around the presidential succession, declining economic growth and power outages, and little tangible success against violent crime, no longer seems to inhabit the noble space it once laid claim to.

Our great man – Madiba – is growing ever more silent, removed from public life by the fragility wrought by age and decades of imprisonment and forced labour. His presence has always smoothed the nation’s mood and he continues to embody, for many people, the face and spirit of our constitutional democracy, both here but also particularly abroad. But there is another whose voice has always been the conscience of our people.

He is Desmond Mpilo Tutu (76), Nobel laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, and possibly the man most consistently vilified by the politically powerful in this country. Those in power, both old guard and new, have shown their disregard for, and yet at the same time their agitation at, the message of forgiveness, clean government and human rights that Tutu uncompromisingly communicates.

During Apartheid he rejected violence perpetrated by both sides of the divide. He has angered Thabo Mbeki for saying that his government’s failure to address poverty in post-Apartheid South Africa puts the country at risk, and for saying that the new politicos “stopped the gravy train just long enough to get on themselves”. He has publicly called for Jacob Zuma to drop out of the presidential succession race because of his corruption trial. He has opposed both xenophobia and homophobia, thus challenging most average South Africans to rethink their prejudices. He opposes the death penalty, saying it encourages the doctrine of revenge, calling it government-sanctioned violence. In return he has been called a “loose cannon” and a “scandalous man”.

His message is courageous: passionately pro-South African, but not afraid of calling something by its name, and has more value than any internal Proudly South African branding campaign could ever hope for. Frankly, Desmond Tutu captures why we are proud to be South African.
A society as brutalized as ours can still manage to produce somebody like Tutu – this is a message of hope if ever there was one.

Taking up his message ourselves remains a list of missed opportunities. After the racist University of the Free State video surfaced, Tutu said the students involved showed they needed to be helped to become more human. His message was left by the wayside the day after he uttered it.

Last year, I witnessed how this stooped, frail man (he was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, with a recurrence in 2005) got an entire concert audience to their feet and applauding as he was assisted in slowly making his way out of the hall after the performance. It was a heartfelt outpouring of respect that none of the performers that night could hope to match.

The politically powerful continue to make light of his contribution to the dialogue within our society and his consistent vilification has affected how many view him. But he continues to proclaim his challenge to our loss of faith in our fellow man – a loss of faith so great that many find it unbearable to embrace the essence of what Desmond Tutu stands for: “Good is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death.”

South Africans proved this true no less than 14 years ago and Tutu serves us greatly by challenging us not to forget.

King James gets Unconventional

From MarkLives.com22 October 2008

When Alistair King and James Barty founded their very well regarded agency King James ten years ago they agreed it was going to be an unconventional venture. They set out building King James sideways, expanding into digital, eventing and public relations amongst others, and now the group is pushing into book and magazine publishing.

The group recently partnered with Shaun Johnson to launch a new book publishing house and has bought a substantial stake in pop magazine One Small Seed. It’s not a gimmick either. Alistair, who sat down with MarkLives to discuss the new ventures, insists that the business aims to transform how books, especially fiction is published in SA. He is currently investigating alternative printing methods, packaging formats, pricing models and distributions channels. In March next year the group will publish the South African PEN, a collection of short stories, followed by a collection of South African literature. He hints that the collection of short stories might reveal the talent he requires for building a stable of new South African writers.

One Small Seed is the first magazine King James has bought into. Alistair believes the pop culture title will allow his agency a window into the world of pop culture. Forget about focus groups – he is plugging his agency into the cutting edge. Further investments will be announced in the months ahead to build critical mass and to ensure the new ventures contribute to the bottom line of the King James Group.

Taking an ad agency into media ownership might sound odd to many executives but Alistair explains it wasalistair king from king james born from a personal and professional need not to come stuck in a single medium and from frustration with the general state of the ad industry. Tired of being forced to grow at breakneck speed and to win the maximum number of awards possible or risk being described as losing its edge the group decided not to pitch for any accounts in 2007. Instead the focus shifted to building relationships with employees and customers. “I wanted to build a more sustainable business and a happier agency,” says Alistair.

The results has been dramatic, with the agency becoming one of the most awarded in the country this year (for achievement with real client accounts, he notes). Business is growing at a speed that suits the group, and so is its people.

Alistair’s belief in multiple careers is driving the business to look beyond the obvious niches an ad agency could expand into. His privately owned record label has produced eight records to date. The expanded King James is exciting enough to keep him in the business, provides King James with access to a diverse group of people, and adds color to the agency. Time will tell how media ownership impacts on the group. In the meantime life at King James just got a lot more interesting – not to mention creative.

My Top 5 Magazines for busy executives

Periodicals time hungry managers should make time for!
From Moneyweb 18 July 2008 00:00

1. The Economist
www.economist.com

The Economist might be intimating with its small fonts and reams of information but remains an essential source of information on what is happening in the world. One critic once derisively described it as “a kind of Reader’s Digest for the upper classes” in the New Republic, a leading if conservative American political weekly. Pure envy. While America’s own BusinessWeek, Fortune & Forbes remain essentially America obsessed, The Economist goes truly global in the stories it covers.

2. Noseweek
www.noseweek.co.za

Features published in Noseweek are case studies in how not to do business. How not to talk to the media. How not to engage with your customers. Your HR department should be buying bulk subscriptions for staff members. As magazine circulations trend downward Noseweek’s are going up – an indication that consumer activism is gaining ground also in South Africa. Finally – knowing your staffers read this magazine might be just the pause for thought you need when offered that too good to be true deal with the dodgy municipal manager.

3. The Ecologist
www.theecologist.org

The Ecologist is a UK-based environmental affairs magazine. So what’s it doing on this list? Simple – they are where your market is headed.

Sustainability, an unorthodox take on social and business trends and a cynical view of brands. A marketing managers’ nightmare in short – but increasingly business reality.

4. Financial Mail

The magazine for the new business elite. To know who is who and what they are up to – you have to read this magazine – thanks to editor Barney Mthombothi that gave a dull read back its buzz. It’s the business magazine everybody reads. At least you’ll know as much as the next guy.

5. Maverick [update: Maverick has since ceased publication]
www.maverick.co.za

Maverick forced FM and Finweek to jack up their game and that alone would be enough reason to take a closer look. The publisher loves publishing – a rare thing in a time which bean counters run most magazines. You can still read the business stories here that other magazines would have killed rather than risk advertiser displeasure. Kudos.