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Loeries Special Section

#Loeries2018: Profit and purpose - uneasy bedfellows?

Today, Thursday, 16 August marks the third annual Loeries Masterclasses featuring industry leaders and experts speaking on a range of topics targeting various audiences within the creative industry.

These take place the day before the Seminar and the first Awards night and they comprise eight sessions throughout the day.

Tiekie Barnard
Tiekie Barnard

I interviewed Tiekie Barnard, CEO and founder of Shift Social Development and the Shared Value Africa Initiative (SVAI) to find out what one could expect to learn from her masterclass, the last session of the day.

Barnard will be speaking about profit and purpose, addressing the concept of shared value and how this approach creates value for both business and society...

BizcommunityWhat is your involvement in the Loeries this year?
The Loerie Awards appointed Shift in 2016 as the independent assessor of the Shared Value and Service design awards. Our job at the Loeries, as the founder of the Shared Value Africa Initiative and as the regional partner of the global Shared Value Initiative and community custodians in our region, is to assess the validity and verify content claims and eligibility of the shared value category entries, as set out in the entry requirements.

BizcommunityWhy are you looking forward to presenting a Loeries masterclass this year?
Shared value is a business concept still not understood by many and the idea this year is to share information, case studies and provide more clarity on the concept. The advertising and marketing industry has an enormous responsibility when taking product to market with their clients and it is a responsibility that should never be taken lightly, so I would really like to shift mindsets as far as this is concerned.

BizcommunityWhat are you going to be discussing and why?
Our speaker will be sharing their organisations shared value and social impact journeys and provide some insights on how these organisations have successfully implemented a business and social agenda. Profit with purpose. We as the Shared Value Africa Initiative will be talking shared value, the 2019 Arica Shared Value Summit in Kenya, the Shared Value Africa Initiative’s and the UN Sustainable Development Goals and why they are important.

BizcommunityWhat are your thoughts on the subject?
Shared value acknowledges that in order to be sustainable, a business must generate a profit. A shared value approach generates economic value for the company in a way that also produces value for society.
Capitalism, long regarded by many as the enemy of true social progress, can be harnessed to become a key driver of the achievements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
BizcommunityWhat’s the bottom line?

An understanding of shared value and that the shared value business approach reconnects business success with social progress, posing that it is not only possible but indeed preferable from a business perspective to focus business on creating both economic value for its shareholders and society – summed up succinctly as profit with purpose.

BizcommunityKey takeout for the marketing and advertising sector?
You have the responsibility and ability to be a changemaker.

About Tiekie Barnard: Tiekie heads up the all-women team at Shift and SVAI. She has over 22 years’ experience in the advertising and marketing industry, of which eight years were as a Director at Net#work BBDO. After leaving the advertising industry, she joined the social development arm of Kagiso as COO and used her advertising experience to create and develop strategies and programmes to address the plight of marginalised communities and work together with private sector, government NPOs and civil society to bring about change. In 2012, she started her own consultancy business, which resulted in the creation of Shift in 2016. The Shared Value Africa Initiative was launched in 2018, becoming the regional partner of the global Shared Value Initiative.

The masterclasses are currently under way at the Durban ICC. For more info on these, go to Loeries.com.

Follow our Loeries Creative Week special section and social handles for updates on everything Loeries-related, to find out the actual winners on Friday and Saturday night. Watch this space!

About Jessica Tennant

Jess is Senior Editor: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com. She is also a contributing writer. moc.ytinummoczib@swengnitekram
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