Okuhle Media, Cape Town-based television production and media experts, has announced a restructuring of its senior management team as a result of the company’s continued growth over the past five years and their impending expansion with the new Okuhle Studios opening in November.
Joint CEOs, Louise van Hoff (McClelland) and Paula Brown, have strategically realigned their roles to work to their individual strengths and best fulfill the needs of the business. Historically a part of her portfolio, Louise will head up the fastest growing business unit, servicing both local and international markets as executive director of Production and Development.
Paula Brown will fill the role of managing director, with a continuing responsibility towards business development and marketing until the appointment of a marketing director in the near future.
Over the past 18 months, Okuhle has undertaken a series of measures to maintain momentum and ensure the continued growth of its business across all areas. This includes the business’s core offerings of television production, marketing, communications and digital being consolidated into distinct business units.
“In keeping with international trends of integrated service marketing and the provision of a multi-platform approach to all productions, media strategies and campaigns, it is our intention to be geared to take full advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in a fast changing world, thus creating a stronger and more versatile company,’ says Van Hoff.
Although the company will have focused business units and will continue to deliver content for multiple platforms and markets, a single strategy with shared goals and a common vision will provide the solid foundation from which to move into the future. As part of this strategy, resource optimisation has been highlighted as a fundamental need to achieving the five-year vision.
Van Hoff continues: “Okuhle will continue to allocate appropriate resources to tangibly and aggressively drive the creation and delivery of compelling content and integrated productions and marketing campaigns that are supported by digital and PR.’
For a period, the company considered the option of repositioning itself to focus entirely on production. After much consideration, this was rejected as the true value of Okuhle Media, since inception in 2003, has been its ability to combine strategic marketing insight with production excellence to create viable content.
In line with international trends that indicate a move towards content being conceptualised, created and executed under one roof, Okuhle as a true cross-media company, is able to offer a broad range of integrated content services allowing customers, broadcasters and brands the satisfaction of knowing that all their media touch points are being taken into account, adding value to their bottom-line.
“Managing change in a business takes time and effort to ensure that everyone feels supported and valued. It is common knowledge that, at Okuhle, the people are at the core of our success,’ says Brown.
“As a result, Louise and I needed to ensure that we were geared to manage change and expectations. This required exploring individual strengths and drilling down on what was truly in the interests of the business for future growth. I am very excited about the future.
“We have an incredibly talented and driven group of people working at Okuhle and believe that, with a streamlined, efficient workflow in place and a structure geared to the future we can only expect even greater rewards and opportunities in the years ahead,’ Brown concludes.
