Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - June 12, 2005
Chris Barron

Yvonne Johnston

International Marketing Council CEO

YVONNE Johnston, chief executive of the International Marketing Council of South Africa and Businesswoman of the Year finalist, says that whatever the fate of Deputy President Jacob Zuma, South Africa has earned major brownie points from its handling of the Schabir Shaik corruption case.

"The trial would have done our reputation a lot of good. It has shown that we have an independent judiciary. It was a fair and transparent trial."

She won't be drawn on the effect it might have on South Africa's image if Zuma stays.

"I'm not sure the deputy president was on trial. Shaik was on trial, and Shaik has been found guilty. I don't know that you can fire somebody who has not been on trial."

Johnston became head of the IMC soon after it was started in 2001 at the instigation of the then Unilever boss Niall FitzGerald. A member of President Thabo Mbeki's investment council, FitzGerald told the President it was time to start marketing South Africa because perceptions about the country were not the reality.

FitzGerald, of course, was the head of Unilever's detergent division before becoming the big boss, but Johnston says her job is not about removing stains.

She bridles at the suggestion that she is paid to put a positive spin on things.

"I'm not a spin doctor at all. If you become a spin doctor your brand has no credibility. You have to tell the truth. What we do do, though, is maybe tell the positive truth."

And, with a career in advertising behind her, she is very good at extracting positive truth from even the most dire circumstances.

Take HIV/Aids, for instance.

Johnston says perceptions about South Africa have changed "dramatically" since 2001 when "international perceptions of South Africa were apartheid, crime, Zimbabwe, HIV/Aids. That's what we stood for."

We're no longer hampered as much by the first three, but what of HIV/Aids?

As it happens, her man in Washington, former journalist Simon Barber, has just sent her an e-mail with the exciting news that finally the message about HIV/Aids is getting through.

And what message would that be, I wonder?

"That we are doing probably better than anyone else in the world."

My look of disbelief prompts her to qualify: "That our attitude to how we are handling the process is better than anyone else in the world."

She admits that the roll-out of anti-retrovirals has been "pathetic", but insists that "it is being managed better than anywhere else in the world".

But the problem is much bigger here than anywhere else, surely?

"Well, I don't know. The infection rate in Russia is horrendous."

It sounds like a Monty Python skit but she's not laughing.

With HIV/Aids crossed off their list of reasons why starting a business in South Africa might be quite challenging, the next biggest issue for potential investors is black economic empowerment.

"Understanding BEE is the biggest challenge at the moment."

It's the question she gets asked about most often, says Johnston.

"If one of the things you look at as an investor is how safe am I in the long term, BEE is going to ensure that safety," she tells them. "The political risk of not having a strategy like BEE is more dangerous."

What does she say to a company wondering whether to invest in South Africa, with BEE to worry about, or Eastern Europe?

"In South Africa you've got access to 500million people."

In other words, it's the ideal place from which to launch operations in Africa.

"We now have proof that there is greater return on investment in Africa than anywhere else in the world."

Presumably she does not tell them about companies like AngloGold Ashanti, which have to pay protection money to warlords in order to do business in Africa, and then have human rights groups trashing them?

For the first time Johnston, at 47 a real dynamo of a woman, betrays a note of exasperation.

"What can I say to that? Marketing a country is a very complex thing because you don't own the brand. All we can hope to do is create a future vision which says, if we get all the stepping stones into place this is what we can achieve. We will never get everything right. Not even if you're marketing soap will you get everything right.

"Marketing a continent has 49 layers of complexity."

While Johnston pushes the "positive truth" about investing in South Africa and Africa, South African analysts in London are telling their clients the negative truth.

"A lot of the major analysts in London are South African, and they're largely negative."

They're advising clients not to touch the place, she says.

"Their message is: 'There are easier places to do business. There is less risk in Brazil or Eastern Europe.'"

As for other analysts, South Africa doesn't register at all.

"Part of our problem is that we're not even on the radar screen. In many cases, when an analyst turns on his screen we're not even there."

The IMC is now embarking on a strategy of "high-level interaction with some of the top financial analysts in London", she says.

"We are trying to find out what their mind-set is, what are they thinking. Are they up to date with their information, are they familiar with what is happening in the country?"

The "single biggest story" from South Africa, she says, the country's biggest selling point, is the way the economy is being managed.

"It's a big story, because people want the reward, they know they're going to get a return on investment in South Africa but they're a little bit worried about the risk.

"What we're finding is that the risk is being minimised through good fiscal management."

Although brand South Africa is her life, Johnston was born in Kenya.

Her father was a pilot for East African Airways. He loved South Africa and the family moved when she was 11. Six weeks later he was killed in an air crash at Rand Airport.

She went to St Dominic's convent in Boksburg, where the nuns taught her to be a drum majorette.

It's fitting, perhaps, that she should now be a cheerleader.

050612
ST050610