Packed
with real life case studies, inspirational quotes and insights, the
book is a must-read for marketers, team leaders and anyone who wants to
take their business to the next level.
The impetus for the book
was a need to unravel the mystery of what drives an individual to
perform well in a team. Rachelson reveals the mystery not through
intangible theories but with real-life revelations gained from spending
time with a number of South Africa’s high-performing teams.
Rachelson
spent many hours with these teams, which include Microsoft Services
Management, MTN-Qhubeka, Protea Hotels Group, Sanlam Personal Finance,
Gift of the Givers and Demographica.
With a chapter dedicated to
each company, the lessons are presented as conversations which are not
only easy to follow but provide eye-opening learnings into what,
exactly, makes for team brilliance.
Chris Moerdyk says this
about Rachelson’s book: “There is no greater way in my opinion, of
illustrating the power of marketing and particularly its branding
component, than through the use of case histories. And this is what
Rachelson does so well. She avoids all the clichés and airy-fairy theory
that pervades and obfuscates the marketing industry today and just gets
right to where the proof of the marketing pudding lies.”
Rachelson
asks the questions that get to nitty-gritty of what excellent teams are
all about – across personality types, innate ability to work with
others, emotional intelligence and leadership. The insights that struck
me the most were the ones from Microsoft and Gift of the Givers.
Microsoft’s approach is an anti-hero one, they don’t condone a hero
culture where one individual takes the credit.
The Microsoft
Services Management team works towards the greater good of the client,
even if it means bringing in a competitor to do the work, a concept that
throws out the notion of competition and embraces and practices the
concept of “co-opetition”. These individuals truly understand the
meaning of client service.
Gift of the Givers practices the
ideology of total transparency. Even in the media. Founder and chairman
Dr Imtiaz Sooliman has a “tell in like it is” approach to media. He
repeatedly tells members of the press, “Report what you want to report.
Good or bad”.
It is not a provocation, but another example of
the organisations’ totally transparent approach. Another salient point
that allows the NGO to stand out of the “donation clutter” is to do
things quickly. The team shares a common purpose and vision and
volunteers for the crisis team are selected with care.
No matter
how qualified a person is, selection depends on whether they have the
psychological, emotional and physical resilience to deal with trauma,
tragedy and disaster response and if that person can truly function as
part of a team.
With regards to marketing, the brand identity
is one of professionalism and visibility. Each volunteer team member
wears a custom-made shirt with the South African flag on the left
sleeve. Gift of the Givers functions as a professional organisation
where “perfection is not good enough” - the team needs to go beyond
this, even in its branding.
Rachelson believes that a good
“outro” is as important as a good “intro” and she therefore leaves the
reader with an extensive list of her learnings from the teams she
interviewed.
Branding & Marketing You through Teams is not
only a quintessential guide to creating and maintaining a great team but
a guide on how to market a company through that team. Valuable reading
indeed.
Branding & Marketing You through Teams by Rachelson is available at all good bookstores across South Africa as well as
www.kalahari.com and as an eBook on
www.amazon.com.
