Today I am Reco - the employees role in corporate branding

It is Friday. I am wearing the Reco brand. I am wearing the blue Reco branded t-shirt. And the same is my colleague. I feel that we kind of belong together, my colleague and I. We are "family", and we are proud to wear our t-shirt. Today we are Reco. Do the employees feel this way every day? or is it just on Fridays? and is it just since a few weeks ago, when we got our t-shirts?

My colleague Albert and I wearing our new Reco t-shirts.

Employees importance in corporate brand building
Employees who are proud of the company they work for and feel like they belong together like a "family", are very important contributors to the corporate identity brand building.

According to Wikipedia, corporate identity consists of 3 factors:

1. Corporate design (logos, uniforms, corporate colors etc.)
2. Corporate communication (advertising, public relations, information, etc.)
3. Corporate behavior (internal values, norms, etc.)

Number 1 and 2 are quite obvious and most companies have clear policies here, but how about number 3? How is the company's corporate behavior? And how does the employees feel about the company's behavior? Are they familiar and comfortable with the company's values and norms? And do they feel ownership and pride when they represent and talk about the company?


Reco and HIPS - Health Initiative Private Sector
In August Reco organized a health fair, as part of their participation in HIPS, the Health Initiative for Private Sector in Uganda. The health fair was held on a Saturday in Kasese, the town in the west of Uganda where Reco's factory is based. The fair was addressing health issues like HIV and malaria prevention. Reco employees and the surrounding community was invited to take HIV tests for free, was offered mosquito nets at a subsidized price as well as getting counseling in regards to HIV and malaria prevention. The turnup of people was overwhelming. Reco even ran out of HIV testing kits.

Advise in regards to HIV prevention.

Malaria information and prevention. Reco employees could buy mosquito nets at a subsidized price.

Showing and promoting the products, also part of corporate identity work.

Reco's management introducing the HIV/Aids work policy.

Reco's HIV/AIDS work place policy.

No event in Africa without singing and dancing!

And last but not least: the food!

Events like these are so important, both for the corporate identity and the corporate culture. They bring together the company employees to a "family" and make them feel proud about their employer. By also involving the community and giving them free services, they are improving the company image.  With this initiative Reco has moved one step further in creating a strong and positive corporate culture, and this will in the long term also affect the corporate brand!

The brand can also "create" the culture!
The same way corporate culture can build the corporate brand, the brand can also build the culture. Creating a new corporate identity in the form of a strong visual identity (logo, colors, branding), clear communication and good values and norms for the employees, can improve the corporate culture. As a designer, this is very interesting for me. How can the Reco re-branding process influence on the corporate culture? Well, that reamins to see!

High heels and sharp brains! - women in business and setting goals for your success.

On Friday I attended my first "Women in Business Lunch" in Kampala. This was together with approximately 30 other lovely, intelligent, talented and determined women (a well balanced mix of Ugandans and ex-paths). I was grateful to be invited by the founder of this great initiative, Tracy Hathorn.

Tracy Hathorn, an inspiration for women in business in Uganda.

Tracy Hathorn is the CEO of Uganda Meat Producers Cooperative Union Ltd., and has been involved in setting up the Norwegian Business Centre in Kampala. She has for several years, been a recourse person for Norwegian businesses and projects who wants to work or establish themselves in Uganda. I met her in my job as a Project Manager for Design without Borders where she assisted us and gave us access to her wide network of businesses, organizations and recourse people in Uganda.

Moving down here, I realize that Tracy also inspires and brings together women who are in business in Uganda. What a woman! And what an important work she is doing uniting clever talented business women!


A color splash of inspiration - the pink table.
When we arrived we got a colored "stone", almost like a "diamond". I got pink, and was joining the other pink ladies and the pink table. The purple ladies sat on the purple table and so on. A great idea to mix people, so you don't go and sit with your friends or colleagues only. You meet new people, you learn new things and get new inspiration.

Our colored "diamonds". I got pink and sat on the pink table.

The pink table: Yodit Angsom, Brenda Mugwerwa and me.

Goal friends Africa

During the lunch Maddy Rice gave us an introduction to goal setting and encouraged us to join the group she has started, "Goal friends Africa". After leaving my "Goal Friend" Eva back in Norway, I was so happy to find new Goal friends here in Uganda.

Maddy Rice, calling herself a "goal addict", gave an inspirational speech.

I have now joined "Goal friends Africa".

I set goals!  and I believe thats the reason why I am now here in Uganda
In 2007 I made my first "goal board", and one of the first goals I put up was: "I will live and work in a warm country, at least in the winter". Maybe I was suffering from "winter blues" when I wrote it. I have never been a fan of the cold, and that has made it quite challenging for me to live in Norway. I always travel to a hot country in the winter, but I have never stayed for long. Until this year, when it was time for a change... 

Some of my first goals on my goal board. I have accomplished many of them! Africa must be a good place to learn how to play drums?

Get inspired to set goals!

The one who inspired me:
Anthony Robbins

Why set goals:
Why set goals?

Link up with Goal Friends here:
Web: Goal Friends
Facebook: GoalFriends Africa

Books recommended by Maddy Rice:
"Goals" - Brian Tracy
Finding happiness in the blue zones - Dan Buettner

Business women unite!
With my experience from being a woman in business in private industry in Europe for about 10 years, I know that it can often be challenging. And we have different challenges than men have. Having other women around us for support, motivation and discussions is so important. It can really give you that extra push that you need to materialize your ideas and your goals!

So women all over the world, I challenge you to:
1. Get together and start "women in business" networks.
2. Start setting goals for your life! if you are not doing it already.
3. Start "goal friends groups" to motivate you and celebrate the success when you reach your goals!

Stop production! - we are out of sugar...

... or out of mango... (they are not in season) .... or out of packaging material.... (it is too expensive, has to be ordered from China and it takes 4 months)...

It is not easy to run a manufacturing company based on natural raw materials. And it is not easy to run any business in a country that is landlocked and has to import almost everything, except from the natural raw materials. Welcome to Uganda!

The sugar crisis

The hot topic in the news in the last weeks has been the "sugar crisis". There is lack of sugar in the country and prices has doubled! And this despite Uganda being one of the most important sugar producers in Africa. And, I was wondering what's so important about that sugar?

What is all that fuzz about "sugar crisis" ?

That was until I realized that Reco, the company I work for, had to stop production because we had no sugar. All our products contains (a small amount of) sugar, and without it we can not produce anything. Orders are not being delivered, sales are going down, and we have a real crisis!

Fortunately last week, after being put on a waiting list for a few weeks, we were able to get sugar from one of the Ugandan sugar companies. Phu! Production could start again, and we are back in business!

Where things are not available all the time
But this gave me something to think about: I have almost never experienced that something is not available. In my home country, Norway, everything is available, - all the time! So, this is a new experience for me. It affects me in small scale in my daily life here in Uganda: if I see something in the shop that I like, I have to buy it there and then. Tomorrow it might not be there! One day there is cheese, another day there is no cheese. Thats life here. But, it is ok. It is good for me to learn to appreciate when the cheese is available ...

But, it really affects business here. And therefore also affects our project. The main raw materials needed for the products we are working with are fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are in season or out of season and they are depending on weather conditions. If the weather is not right, and the season is bad, there are no fruits and vegetables available until the next season.

We need mangoes NOW-NOW!
Like right now, we need mangoes for the development of the new products we are working on. But, there are no mangos in season until November, maybe December. Shame on you, mangoes! You are not not following the project time schedule!

Sarah Mundusu is a mango farmer, but she has no mango until November/December, only Guava. We need mangoes NOW to develop new products!

Peanut butter labels for the next 32 years
Other materials needed for our products are the packaging materials. Most packaging materials are not locally available in Uganda. They have to be ordered from China in big quantities, its expensive, delivery times are long and the transport cost to get them here are really high (even higher now, since the local currency it doing so badly). So, therefore it is "better to be safe than sorry". Let's make sure we have enough in stock, so we don't get a packaging material crisis.

Going through the stocks the other day shows that we have enough peanut butter labels for the next 32 years of production, if we continue our current production rate. And we want to redesign and launch the new labels this year. Means we have to destroy quite a lot of unused packaging material. Not good for environment. Not good for the company's economy. But, urgently necessary in order to "rescue" our product sales!

So, let the design of new packaging material begin! The design brief is ready. It is so exciting!


.... but the development of the new products has to wait for mango season...