The Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) recently hosted a masterclass for its subscribing agencies to give insight on broad based black economic empowerment and how its new codes will affect the marketing, advertising, and communications (MAC) industry in South Africa.
The masterclass was facilitated by Deon Oberholzer the co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Veri-Com, a SANAS accredited BEE Verification agency with accreditation in all gazetted sector codes. He has been involved with Black Economic Empowerment since 2004.
“The codes are going to be stricter and will have a great impact on non compliant agencies in South Africa. Scoring and weightings have changed in the new drafted codes, which make it difficult to retain the level of B-BBEE scores that an agency enjoyed previously. It has become more important than ever to ensure that agencies meet the specified criteria outlined by the B-BBEE codes,” Oberholzer says.
Oberholzer made it clear that there are three priority elements in the draft BEE Codes and if organisations do not meet set minimum criteria, it would seriously impact their scorecards:
· Ownership
· Skills Development
· Enterprise and supplier development
Oberholzer believes a media, advertising and communications (MAC) BEE Charter is still on the cards and could be gazetted as a sector code. He reckons this could happen in the near future. The MAC industry would then be required to comply with the MAC Code until it is aligned with the requirements of the new draft BEE Codes.
A BEE score card is an important aspect of conducting business in South Africa and cascades through the whole economy. It is also standard measurement that gives organisations credibility with its suppliers and associates and it is important to ensure that a business has a verified BEE scorecard. This makes it important for agencies to know how B-BBEE can affect the way they conduct their business.
“Our work within the marketing, advertising and communications industry exposes us to the importance of complying with the standards and policies that B-BBEE codes have outlined. The majority of pitch processes that we facilitate, automatically disqualify agencies that do not meet the clients B-BBEE requirements, so it was important that our subscribing agencies were given a closer view of what the B-BBEE forecast is,” says Johanna McDowell, managing director of the IAS.
