Of Dubious Awards & Recognitions


Whilst generally awards are positive, the proliferation of awards in Zimbabwe and internationally brings the whole merit of awards into question and dare I say into disrepute.

Admittedly while it is everyone's democratic right to start their own awards, it is the credibility which is important. My personal experience is that my organisation would receive numerous letters advising us of winning some awards that we didn't even  know existed. In the interest of our own reputation we quietly turned down such funny awards, local and international.

Just to illustrate how far these go is I was offered a doctorate by a dubious  international university which I politely turned down. How attractive, Dr Shoniwa!!! That's not all, we were invited to receive awards in Washington, Zurich, you name it. Our corporate executive was always alert to these funny awards which we knew we had done nothing to deserve or the criteria was plain dubious.

So what is my point. My point is that most of these awards must simply be ignored as they damage good brands. It is easy to gullibly fall for these especially for non deserving companies and individuals. Instead companies must evaluate these awards and decide which ones are worth it and which ones are not.

For example I would recommend awards offered by professional institutions, eg Super Brands by Marketers Association, Director of the Year by Institute of Directors, Safety awards by NSSA, environment awards by EMA, employer awards by IPMZ, corporate governance by internal auditors board, employee of the year by ZCTU, etc, etc. More like ensuring that your new coins are backed by gold or hard currency reserves.

Contrast this to the various personality of the year awards from personal organisations (none-entities) that we see bent on fund raising or raising own image by being associated with big brands (recipients). So next time you are invited to receive an award, think twice.

Remember we have all been millionaires and billionaires ( even more) before. Sadly it was in Zim Currency.

So you won an award! What award?!

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