African kids must dream big – Lucy Quist

CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year, Lucy Quist, has dedicated her award to ‘every African child who has a dream’.

“I dedicate this to every African child who dares to dream. Dream big, discern the voices that are for you, stay focused and enjoy the journey. The award is a testimony that the dream of every child in Africa is achievable,” she said on Starr FM’s Business Focus.

The Managing Director of the Telecommunication brand of the Year, Airtel Ghana has added another first to her repertoire of trailblazing feats for becoming the first Ghanaian MD of a telecom company to be crowned CIMG Marketing Woman of the Year. Coming from an engineering background makes this feat truly remarkable.

Lucy is the first Ghanaian woman to lead a multinational telecommunications company having had an illustrious career from engineering to investment banking to telecommunications. She was also the first female Chief Marketing Officer of a telecom company in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A little over a year since taking over as Managing Director of Airtel, the company has chalked many successes and milestones. Airtel Ghana has increased its data network speed from 21.6mbps up to 42mbps, making it the first to provide this service in the country and currently has the second widest coverage in the country and is still expanding. The company also attained the highest bonding ratings in 2014 and by that achieved its goal of becoming the most loved brand by 2015. Her leadership has also seen the business sweeping a great number of awards in the areas of Corporate Social Responsibility, Public relations, Telecommunications and Marketing.

“This award is clearly a recognition of the continuous effort we put in everyday at Airtel to raise the standards of marketing not only in the telecommunication sector, but across industry as a whole. To be recognised for this is truly inspiring,” she added.

Part of the citation by the CIMG indicated that the award is” in recognition of her excellence in strategic marketing in the areas of market insights, marketing strategy development, managing your corporate reputation right down to managing marketing teams and your CSR programmes for the year 2014”.

The CIMG Awards and Dinner Dance is Ghana’s number one marketing event. It is now emerging that there is an encouraging competition among organizations and industry as a result of the healthy competition the awards have generated.

Apart from the pleasantries associated with it, the National Awards Night affords attendees a good opportunity of meeting colleagues, discussing issues relating to marketing and business practice and networking among invited guests.

Under the theme: “THE FUTURE OF MARKETING: EVOLVE OR DIE”, this year’s event played host to renowned marketers and organisations who were acknowledged and celebrated for their marketing excellence and innovation.