If I were the boss?

Everybody has an idea of what they would do if they were the boss. We all criticise and think we could do better in one way or another. The truth is that it is easier to idealise a perfect boss then to be one.

As a Public Relations Practitioner I see communication as the most important tool in a Manager/Staff relationship. Naturally there are other components that are important when “being the boss” but in order to run a department or a company good communication is the key.

If I were the boss I would try my upmost to communicate effectively, good and bad news. This can solve a lot of issues from miss understanding a task to staff motivation and productivity. Being the boss I would also bring the outside world inside the company giving my staff an “out of the box” view of the organization. Knowing what is happening outside can motivate the people inside to be better.

As a boss it is important to have good communication skills and with it give clear directions, complements, boundaries and not least listen effectively.

Paying back to the community

In an ideal situation, people pay tax and tax fund is used to serve the people. As we all know the real situation is not like that. The funds collected are not allocated effectively and together with corruption it makes it impossible to provide a good service to the community. As a result there are NGOs all around trying to help their communities, some being successful and others not so much. This lack of public service is also opening up Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) opportunities for companies which now invest on the community in order to have a good reputation with the community. Now a days with all the busy lives everybody have NGOs are everyday more dependant of CSI as less people have time or willingness to volunteer.


My business, Little Brazil, has recently started its CSR activities where 10% of the profit of every event is converted into goods to donate to charity. This Year we are also participating in the Community Chest Carnival where we will have a Brazilian stall and all the profits will go to the NGO. All of this got me thinking about what we give back to the community as individuals.


I believe that if everybody picked a cause to dedicate to, even just one event a year, it would make a great difference. It would not only be good for the community but also for the volunteers themselves making them fell as part of a community.

Nature or Nurture?

During my Social Psychology studies we had a look at the nature or nurture question. For some reason it popped into my mind this week on a personal level.

It has always been very easy for me to become familiar with new electronic technology and design. Would it be because of nature or nurture?

The nature

My father is a systems analyst and programme developer. Going a bit further back, his father used to work with engineers to develop pieces for machinery in a key factory. Hence the IT side.

From my mother’s side I would say that there is the design component since both her parents were hairdressers and she and her sisters all learnt the trade. As a result, until I turned eighteen, nobody outside of my family had ever cut my hair.

The nurture

As my father has always been in the IT field, my siblings and I grew up with computers all around. At the age of twelve (1996) I had already chatted on the internet and submitted my school assignments in computer generated format. At that time my older brother started to play around with design programmes such as CorelDraw and also programmes that my dad used to design programmes for his clients.  Eventually my brother became a web designer. My little sister, who at the time was seven, is now studying design at university.

All of us (my siblings and I) come from the same nature and been nurtured in the same environment. Our professions of choice are related and can be linked to both our nature and nurture.

In my opinion it is always both nature and nurture. It is impossible for someone not be affected by one of them. Everything in our lives adds to what we become.

Two people come out of a building and into a story

Like any other day, Alice and Julia left their work building to have lunch at their favourite restaurant. As always, they sat at their favourite table facing the street where they had a good view of the people passing by. The two friends would talk about what the passing strangers are wearing, what they would be thinking about and what their lives might be like. Today was like any other day, but what they didn’t know was that something was going to happen to change their lunch routine forever.

They were specifically focussed on commenting on the fitness levels of the passing people. It is not that they were particularly fit; Alice was overweight and Julia was extra skinny. They then spot an extremely skinny woman and they start to talk about how she must be bulimic and how bad that is. Then suddenly the woman turns around and it is Sam, their co-worker, who had quit a month ago.

Sam saw them and came to their table to say hi. That was when they found out that she was going through chemotherapy and all the changes in her life from the time she found out about her condition. When she left, Alice and Julia were immersed in Sam’s story, thinking how fortunate they were. And from that day their lunch outings had new meaning for them.

Designer PR?

Individuals wants to be individuals and be treated as such. People want to express themselves and be able to be supplied with tailor-maid products. This trend can also be seen in Corporates. Not every company operates the same way, for this reason they have different needs and want to be treated diferently.

In our time the media channels are just multiplying everywhere and as a consequence the need of a Public Relation Practitioner is rising. A business can’t just count on newspapers and magazine articles in order to promote and evaluate its reputation; they also need to keep up with the new channels of communications. This doesn’t mean that all businesses need to use all channels or know how to use them effectively. This raises a need for tailor-made solutions therefore Designer PR.

The Designer PR idea leads PR practioners to design projects aiming to be more accurate and specific to each client instead of using the same recipe to all companies. It is expected that as a result the messages communicated will reach the target market more effectively acomplishing the business goals. It will also improve the delivery time and cost effectiveness on the long run as the resources will be used to develop the right tools and messages.

Brazilian “Rio Carnaval”, what you don’t know about it…

Most of people think that Brazilian carnival is all about girls half naked dancing on the streets. Well, to a certain extent… but it is not only that, there is a lot of culture to it.

Northeast "Carnaval"

Different parts of Brazil celebrate the “Carnaval” differently; in the Northeast, for example, they have big sound trucks that go around the city with a band singing from the top of it while the public follows. These bands usually sing “Axe” music, which is very typical of that region.

The “Carnaval” known around the world happens in Rio de Janeiro where Schools of Samba compete every year. The schools prepare the whole year for that one night where they will be judged in various aspects such as music, harmony, clothing and band. Each school have about five thousand people that live in the community participating in the event and helping to prepare the school, all to just to enjoy that one night. 

Rio "Carnaval"

What most people don’t know is that all schools choose a theme a year before the time and these themes have to be of historical significance. The participants are divided into sections and each section represents a part of that historical topic. After that, there is a competition within the school to choose the samba song for the show. The schools have prerequisites that they have to comply with such as an elderly and a special needs section.

In my opinion, the beauty of the “Carnaval” is the way that it brings the community together. The passion of the people for the event is indescribable, one can only truly experience it by being there.

Is Social Media improving your social life?

Nowadays we have various different ways to get hold of family and friends, most of these mediums are instant. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut are some of the most used at the moment, but do they really improve our relationships?

I am glad for social media, as it allows me to know better what is happening to my family and friends who live faraway. I can get updated anytime I want (at least in what they want everybody to know) instead of a five minutes call once a week that just let me know that everything is ok.

However there is also a down side to social media, as it is slowly replacing some of the social activities people would have with the ones that are close by. Instead of going out for a coffee with a friend you might just poke him on facebook. Few people actually realise that this is happening. For instance Andrew October found out he had cancer and decided to use facebook to update his family and friends of his progress. People then stop visiting, calling and sending messages to him as they had the facebook updates. (Full story on http://tiny.cc/gg1le)

I always say that social media has the power of bringing people that are far closer and the close ones far away. So my message to you is: Call a friend for a coffee and enjoy the human warmth.

I am

My Name is Carolina Werner de Araujo, Brazilian, 26 years old, Btech student at CPUT. But who am I really?

Once I heard that everyone is made of three facets: The person the others think you are, the one you think you are, and the one you really are. I agree with it and I believe that all these three facets are always under construction.

To get a view of the person the others think I am I asked some family members, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to give me a quick feedback of what they think of me. They used words such as sweet, distracted, crazy, creative, extrovert, pedantic, overachiever and exuberant.

In my perception I am a perfectionist, sincere, a little tiny bit inpatient sometimes, agitated and at the same time calm. I am someone that spends a lot of time with my own thoughts. I am also very proudly Brazilian happy to live in Cape Town.

Now who I really am? I guess it is a mix of both, hopefully the best of both, and a little bit more. I guess following me here will help you and I to get closer to the answer.