MR PETER MANN'S PUBLIC LECTURE

The 22^nd of June marked the first ever public lecture for Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Department of Public Relations and Communication Studies together with Meropa Communications, with the guest lecture Mr Peter Mann. Peter Mann is one of the most senior and respected Public Relations and marketing authorities in South Africa.  He is the Chief Executive of Meropa Communications, South Africa’s largest independent PR firm with offices in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Durban and Cape Town. 

The public lecture, hosted at the Athenaeum in Belmont Terrace, Central, was titled: EFFECTIVE STAKEHOLDER ENGAEMENT FOR: ORGANIZATIONAL GROWTH, SUCCESS AND SUSTAINABILITY It spoke to the imperative challenges that organizations are faced with on a daily basis. It was by highlighting the importance of treating the cause and not the symptoms presented by the problems that the audience was able to understand and thus further engage on the harsh conditions that come with stakeholder engagement. While drawing the understanding that traditional media like newspapers and television are not enough to communicate the organization’s message, he drew a closer and unpixelated view of the solutions to the problem.

One primary solution that Mr Mann proposed was classifying the stakeholders within ones organization, from internal to external. Thereafter, classify the communication methods most suitable to communicate with that specific audience as opposed to exhausting funds by doing what everyone is doing for every stakeholder you have. He further highlighted the importance of viewing stakeholders as third-party endorsers as it is in this view that one will be enabled to complement the value they place on their stakeholders, thus “managing them closely”.

The lecture, hosted by Meropa together with the Department, proved to be a success as it presented the practitioners as well as the students within the field with an opportunity to network and simultaneously draw fundamental reasoning for why it is important to engage effectively with stakeholders.