MD Raun Smythe says exhibiting at the inaugural HR Indaba was totally worth it.
The inaugural HR Indaba featured Emergence Growth, a specialist Human Capital, Reward & Learning solutions provider which specialises in enabling greater performance by assisting organisations to better attract, reward, engage, develop and retain highly talented people. In this article, we speak to the company’s managing director Raun Smythe about what his impression of last year’s event was and what they have planned for 2019.
What was your overall impression of the inaugural HR Indaba?
CHRO South Africa has to be complimented on their first conference at the Sandton Convention centre. From the speaker line-up to the refreshing way the talks were hosted, we definitely found value in being there and look forward to attending this year’s conference. Some of the delegates felt the speaker venues were a bit small and could not attend the presentations of their choice.
What was it that convinced you to sign up for next year’s event?
It was a combination of the value that was created for our brand just by being there, and for the value that was created in meeting new people from a variety of organisations. It’s rare to go to a conference and get such quick ROI.
How did HR professionals at the Indaba respond to your unique service/product offering and to what extent were you able to generate promising sales leads?
Extremely positively – granted there are some things we do that are unique to Emergence. The leads were not just positive, but 
have generated actual sales in excess of 20x the amount we invested in being there. The combination of speaking and exhibiting was a big win.
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Provide one example of a conversation you had at the Indaba that stood out. It could be a conversation with a potential client, a conversation that changed your perspective about the HR landscape or a conversation that led to an idea on how to improve/grow your business.
Starting out, many of the conversations go along the lines of what we do for businesses, and gravitate toward what makes us different (normally around our Salary survey & Engagement data, Gallup affiliation, HR Technology and Specialised learning interventions). People get excited to know that there are local players with global insight and that we can assist in areas that have typically been served by very few organisations that are far less cost effective and client centric.
What are your company’s strategic objectives and goals for the coming year, i.e., what are your plans for 2019 and what should your existing and potential future clients look forward to seeing from you?
Our plans for 2019 match our ambition to be a dominant consultancy in the African market: we are consolidating our presence across Southern Africa and delivering more work than ever. Future clients will hear about us from others we have done work for – that’s how we secure many of our new clients.
We’ve also just launched two new exciting programmes in the market: the Certificate in Compensation Management (CCM) and the Certified Global Compensation Professional (CGCP). These are market leading courses that have been accredited by the SABPP, making them more attractive to participate in from a skills spend perspective. We have also recently upgraded our salary survey and skills audit technology.
