That I did. I took the audience through a range of brand management ideas, much of it drawn from Tom Peters's 1997 article which directly addressed the subject of personal brand management for the first time. The concept was initially implied by Napoleon Hill in his 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich, however Tom Peters'1997 article became the first published instalment to coin the word 'personal branding'. In the middle of my presentation, my audience was startled as I introduced to them the concept I call professional osmosis. Many of them could relate with the word 'osmosis' from their high school biology lessons. But they have never heard of this word put next to the word 'professional' and therefore would not expect that there is a concept out there known as 'professional omosis'. They were correct. There was never such a concept, but allow me, for the sake of driving my point home to coin this word 'professional osmosis'. The word osmosis was first coined by Ren Henri Joachim Dutrochet (1776-1847), a French physician and naturalist. To explain it, Dutrochet used the words 'endosmose' meaning within, and 'exosmose', meaning outside. Let me not bombard you with biological etymology for now. Simply put, osmosis refers to the movement of particles from a highly concentrated area to a less concentrated area through a semi-permeable membrane. Now, by professional osmosis, I refer to the movement of knowledge and experience from highly experienced professionals to young and developing professionals. Professional bodies are 'the semi-permeable membrane' by which this process occurs. Professional bodies bring like-minded professionals under one roof, thereby creating a platform under which professional networking can ensue. The purpose of this instalment is to make a case for professional bodies in Botswana.
What is a professional body
Harvey L, et al (1995) defines a professional body as 'a group of people in a learned occupation who are entrusted with maintaining control or oversight of the legitimate practice of the occupation'. These are societies, usually non profit organizations, which are formed for the sole purpose of furthering or advancing the interests of a certain profession. In Botswana, examples will include: The Institute Of Human Resource Management Of Botswana (IHRMB)- for HR practitioners, Botswana Institute Of Chartered Accountants (BICA)- for accountants, Botswana Institute of Engineers (BIE)- for engineers, etc. Professional bodies are not unions. Whereas they can have advocacy mandates, their priority is professional development of their members. Continuous professional development is their life blood. They are the custodians of ethical practice. The development of codes of ethics and practice is a priority of every professional institute.
