John Madejski Centre for Reputation launches sister centre in Cape Town, Africa

The new centre will advance research into reputation and relationships in an African context.

After 20 years of working with the not-for-profit sector in Cape Town, the John Madejski Centre for Reputation (JMCR) at Henley Business School opens a dedicated sister centre.

JMCR Africa will be based at Henley’s Cape Town campus which will provide a physical space for the JMCR’s growing African network to connect. The centre will drive new African research into how organisations can build and maintain stakeholder relationships for sustainable impact.

“Understanding what the relationships are that drive business and how you build and protect these is crucial for any sustainability strategy, especially in an increasingly divided, post-COVID world,” says Professor Kevin Money, Director of the John Madejski Centre for Reputation. “This is true whether you are UK or South Africa based company, or a not-for-profit.”

According to the World Bank, the building blocks of social sustainability are inclusive, just, and resilient societies where citizens have voice and governments listen and respond. But this depends on the quality of relationships between these stakeholders.

“We live in a fracturing world, and it is only by building better relationships that we can hope to bridge these divides,” says Professor Money.

He adds, “At the JMCR we’ve developed a model that has been used successfully by numerous companies, governments and charities globally to build trust in stakeholder relationships. By expanding our knowledge of how we do this in African contexts, and integrating this wisdom into existing practices and models, the world as a whole can only benefit.”

Henley Business School has been active in Africa for the past three decades with a campus in Johannesburg. In 2023, it is launching another campus in Cape Town.

All of the NGOs that have worked with Henley Africa and JMCR are offered a complementary place on one of the school’s executive development programmes on leading for sustainability and societal impact. This ensures NGO leaders are now alumni of Henley’s 90,000-strong global alumni network.

They are also connected into Henley’s global John Madejski Impact Partnership that was launched during the pandemic as a virtual hub to connect global leaders from all sectors to focus on issues of reputation and relationship.

Picture: Tarisai Mchuchu-MacMillan of MOSAIC shares a story on the importance of collaboration as a tool for fundraising.