2000 - 1997

• Kashan Group Finalist
  November 2000
• World First SAEF On-line Assessment Model Goes Live
  November 2000
• SME On-line Assessment Model - World First
  August 2000
• People On The Move
  July 2000
• Joint Venture Announcement
  December 1999
• Industrial Theatre Works for BMW
  March 1999
• Kashan Group Web Site Goes Live
  November 1998
• Marketer of the Year Award
  October 1998
• Top Marks to BMW for Imagination
  July 1998
• New Premises
  September 1998
• Full Agency Accreditation
  August 1997

Kashan Group Finalist

At a prestigious event held at the African Window Art Museum on 9 November, The Kashan Group was declared one of five finalists in the South African Excellence Foundation’s (SAEF) Annual Business Excellence Awards.

The comprehensive list of finalists across the four categories were:

• Level 1 Business Sector: Honeywell Southern Africa
• Level 2 Business Sector: DaimlerChrysler Parts Division
• Level 3 Business Sector: The Kashan Group and ABSA Bank Card Division
• Level 3 Local Government Sector: Kempton Park Tembisa Metropolitan Local Counciil

Of the finalists, Honeywell Southern Africa received the coveted SAEF Business of the Year trophy. Honeywell is the first SA Company ever to win the prestigious award.

What makes this so significant for Kashan is firstly, the fact that this is the first external excellence audit which the company has undergone and secondly, the fact that, unlike most awards where the winner is simply the one with the most points, the SAEF Business Award requires a basic minimum number of points before a company is even considered. For The Kashan Group, it is a proud moment to be associated with companies of the calibre of the other finalists.

The Kashan Group is the only Communications Agency in the country that is currently a member of the SAEF and subscribes to the South African Business Excellence Model.
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Pretoria based communications specialist, the Kashan Group, officially launched the world first South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF) On-line SME Self Assessment Model on the occasion of the SAEF’s Annual Excellence Awards Ceremony this week.

The Kashan Group was commissioned to develop the Model by the SAEF, with the full endorsement and support of the Department of Trade and Industry.

Available free of charge on the SAEF’s web site at www.saef.co.za, the model is seen as a landmark for the empowerment of South Africa’s Small and Medium Enterprises. Easy to use, it allows SMEs to assess the excellence of their businesses, identify their strengths and weaknesses, compare their performance against that of others in the same field of business in their province or in the country as a whole, and then focus their efforts on improvement where necessary. Potential clients, both locally and abroad, are then able to evaluate these companies as potential suppliers, based on internationally recognised standards.

What this really means is that smaller businesses are able to manage their own success and position themselves within the global business environment.

As a symbolic gesture, Michael Wood and Suzette Mafuna of The Kashan Group presented Mr Ed van den Heever, CEO of the SAEF and Dr Alistair Ruiters, Director General of the DTI with a certificate signifying the official handing over of the site.
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The South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF) was founded some years ago to provide a framework and direction, which would create a culture of performance excellence in South African businesses. The ultimate vision was to enhance overall competitiveness locally, so that South African businesses could become globally competitive. At the outset, the organisation focussed extensively on the larger Corporates, using the internationally recognised South African Performance Excellence Model (one of only four in the world) that is derived from the US-based Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the EU-based EFQM Excellence Model.

The nature of businesses in South Africa has changed dramatically in the last few years, however, with the emphasis moving away from large businesses to a vast number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are playing an increasingly valuable role in the business arena. In keeping with this trend, and acknowledging the vital role of SMEs in South Africa's economic future, the SAEF developed a performance excellence assessment model specifically geared to SMEs.

This model, like the formal SA Excellence Award Model, allows SMEs to assess their performance in terms of 11 criteria including: leadership, strategy and planning, customer and market focus, people management, resources and information management processes, social responsibility, customer satisfaction, people satisfaction, supplier and partnership performance and results.

These criteria are then benchmarked against companies in the same industry, internationally recognised standards and then in the future against the previous performance of the company. In this way a culture of continuous improvement and innovation towards the achievement of 'best practice' is encouraged and enabled.

The SAEF has now taken the SME assessment model a step further with the commissioning of the development of an on-line SME version. "On-line performance excellence assessment in itself is not a new concept," says SAEF CEO, Ed van den Heever, "but the development of an on-line SME version is a world first."

Pretoria based Communications Agency, The Kashan Group, itself an SME, has undertaken the development of the on-line version. "The major considerations which needed to be addressed were structure, functionality and 'front end' design," says Michael Wood of The Kashan Group. Once complete, says Wood, the SME assessment model will be a fully customised, user friendly, active web site with 24 hour national and international accessibility; on-line information and guidelines; on-line answering, assessment and reporting; off-line answering and submission capabilities; direct on-line reporting to the SAEF; industry benchmarking; on-line updating; and the provision of immediate feedback and action steps for SAEF members.

The Kashan Group has adapted the structure of the existing SME model for web application and is project managing the development process, incorporating the expertise and skills of sub-contractors - Michael Neumann and Associates, a specialist IT consultancy and GLI, electronic design specialists.

"In terms of functionality," says Marius Fleischmann, of Africon IT Division, "one of the most critical aspects has been the evaluation of available technologies and adaptation in terms of the most popular operating systems." This is crucial in ensuring that the on-line model is not only accessible, but also fast, modular and easy to use.

According to Gardiol Lamberts of GLI, creating a corporate identity for use in electronic media, or combining a very strong and well-established brand with a typical off the shelf software package, are not new challenges. The challenge arises when one is dealing with on-line access as opposed to CD-ROM based programs. When a program or software runs from a CD, support software can be incorporated and the design options are close to endless. In the case of web sites, however, a downloading time of only 10-15 seconds is considered acceptable and with something like the assessment model, where the user is potentially operating on line, even this is unacceptable. "Although the challenge is greater", says Lamberts, "it is not necessary to forfeit corporate identity or branding to facilitate alternate media platforms".

Working closely with the DTI, the SAEF will launch the on-line model only once it has been thoroughly tested and evaluated. Furthermore, the decision has been taken to make selected levels of access and assessment available free of charge to all in a concerted effort to improve business practice in South Africa.

"We are extremely excited about the on-line version," says the SAEF's van den Heever. "The modular design of the model allows for future phases in the development and we are confident of the value which this model will add in the greater South African context."
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Never let it be said that the times aren't interesting! Just as we believed that we had our Pretoria office management streamlined with the appointment of Charmaine Geldenhuys to manage our Client Service and Administration and Elza Maree competently in charge of Production and Logistics ------- everything changed.

Elza, much to our flattery (on the one hand) and our huge disappointment (on the other), was poached by a large Cape Town Agency. She took up her appointment yesterday and we wish her well in her new challenge.

In the meantime we've consolidated functions and have no doubt that we will continue to provide the service which adds measurable value to your marketing initiatives.
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Please be advised that, in our on-going effort to provide a fully integrated communications service to our clients, The Kashan Group and Classic Communication (a Johannesburg based PR and Event Management company) have decided to formalise their existing relationship by way of a joint venture. To this end the two companies have merged, with the new company operating from two branches, Classic-Kashan (Pretoria) and Classic-Kashan (Johannesburg).

Classic-Kashan combines The Kashan Group's strategic communications expertise with the Public Relations expertise of Classic, including competent and efficient event management as well as strong links with the popular media.

The Kashan Group's relationship with your organisation will remain unchanged and we look forward to continuing to add value to your communication initiatives.
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A communications strategy, designed by Pretoria-based agency Kashan Communication and based on industrial theatre, has played a role in reducing damage to vehicles during production at BMW's Rosslyn plant.

Kashan's Michael Wood said the challenge lay in devising a communications campaign which took into account the attitude, awareness, perceptions and practices of the assembly staff at a level which appealed across the diversity of language, literacy and skills bases.

While industrial theatre is not a new response to such a challenge, most campaigns will offer a performance and then plunge into more serious workshops, motivational courses, seminars or lectures.

With the Kashan campaign however, months of investigation, testing and adaptation preceded the launch of the campaign - first with a directly targeted phase aimed at immediately minimising damage on the assembly line.

This phase created the platform from which various icons and characters were developed and incorporated into the second phase, where a mix of elements was used to retain the fun, the surprise and the entertainment value of the first phase. Whereas Rosslyn showed the highest incidence of damage among BMW plants worldwide in February last year, this became the lowest by October.
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Pretoria based communications specialist, the Kashan Group has recently launched its company web site, www.kashangroup.com. Says Director, Caro Heard, "The saying goes that the plumber's house always has the leaking taps and in this spirit, our own web site inevitably received attention only in between or long after those of our clients! '

We strongly subscribe to the principle of obtaining input on what one's clients expect from one's site, so our launch included direct e-mails to our clients to invite input. As a result we have already embarked on a process of refining the site. There's no doubt that a successful website is a 'metamorphosis' and our own site is proving no different."
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Michael Wood, Director of the Pretoria based communications Group, Kashan, has been named as one of three finalists in the Emergent Marketer Category of the Annual IMM Marketing Awards.

The prestigious award is made at a regional level, with regional finalists ultimately competing country wide for the coveted national trophy.

Whilst the awards are revered in marketing circles, the IMM itself institutes a rigorous evaluation process to assess winners. These include whether the venture was established to meet a measured customer need; the uniqueness of the product or service offered; the marketing strategy and techniques used to present and deliver the product or service offered; marketing flair and innovation of the marketer; initial growth and reasonably sustained viability of the venture and contribution to the broader community.

An independent panel, appointed by the IMM to reflect a diversity of expertise in the marketing environment, undertakes adjudication.
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One of the problems facing multinational companies operating in South Africa is how to explain the concept of world quality to a workforce that has been deprived of a decent education and which is often illiterate.

One such company facing exactly that problem is BMW, whose Rosslyn factory is currently building a large number of 3-series cars for export.

So what the boffins at BeeEm have done is to introduce their workers to the concept of industrial theatre, in which a live show is scripted and actors used to convey the message in an entertaining and instructional manner.

Earlier this year, BMW commissioned a specialist communications company - Kashan Communications - to devise a production which would concentrate n what the company calls its Scratches and Damages Campaign, in which they try to educate workers to eliminate any poor working habits which might lead to the damaging of cars under construction.

So earlier this week I accompanied Caro Heard of Kashan to one of the shows at Rosslyn, produced by a company called Hecate, which specialises in this kind of thing.

It's quite a tricky thing producing industrial theatre for workers such as those at BMW. It has to be instructive without being prescriptive and it has to be educational without being boring.

And I must say that the people at Hecate hit the jackpot, with a wonderful little half-hour show about preventing scratches and damage that was entertaining, illuminating, witty and worthwhile. Using three actors, one white and two black, the script illustrated just why it is that quality and care are so vital in the building of a car like Lebava - which is the local lingo for a BMW.

The process involved in producing a little piece of theatre like this, however, is quite complicated. The communications company needed to spend time in the factory studying the working methods of the company. Then they needed to find a scriptwriter who also had to spend time in the factory. And finally they needed to cast actors who again were encouraged to learn all about conditions in the factory.

On top of that, both the management and the unions had to be consulted on the final script in order not to offend either party or send the wrong message. In all, the industrial theatre process itself was a microcosm of the problem facing most big companies - the need to communicate with all workers at all levels.

As we South Africans attempt to be come more globally competitive, it's going to need all our imagination and ingenuity to improve our quality and communications skills. BMW's entertaining little exercise certainly earned top marks on that score. It gave the workers food for thought and entertained them too.
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Kashan Communication has moved. It's happened so often we're beginning to feel nomadic; a price one probably has to pay for growth. To accommodate our expansion, and to better serve our clients and suppliers, premises have been purchased in Hatfield. We took occupation on 7 September and apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.
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As one of Pretoria's first 'one-stop' agencies offering a comprehensive range of communications and advertising services, we are pleased to advise of our accreditation by, and registration with the Print Media Association of Southern Africa (PMA). This includes registration with the following organisations:

• Newspaper Press Union of SA (NPU)
• Community Press Association of SA (CPA)
• Magazine Publishers Association (MPA)
• Specialist Press Association (SPA) and
• Electronic Media Network (M-Net)

Kashan Communication now offers a more cost-effective media scheduling and placement service, in addition to its regular services, to all clients and potential clients.
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