Ravi Naidoo (YES CEO); Tracey Czakan (YES Chief Commercial Officer); Jacinta Roest-Tshidzumba (Co-founder & CFO youth@WORK); Bronwyn Slater (Mercedes-Benz South Africa General Manager, Transformation & DEI)
You already have a brand. You may not have built it on purpose, but it’s there.
That was the message we carried home from the East London Manufacturing Plant, where we joined Mercedes-Benz South Africa and the Youth Employment Service (YES) for the annual YES Youth event. The theme said it all: Build Your Brand. Command Your Future.
It was a day of firsts. An AMG driving experience. A raw, honest story of perseverance from Mayur “Miles” Bhana. And a conversation with global icon and Friend of the Brand, DJ Shimza.
I took the stage alongside Mercedes-Benz SA CEO Taryn Woodbridge and YES CEO Ravi Naidoo.
My point to the room was simple. When we hear “brand”, we think of company logos and reputation. But there’s another brand that matters just as much: yours. And it isn’t your follower count. It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Are you reliable? Do you keep your word? Can people trust you with something important?
I left the 97 young people placed at Mercedes-Benz this year with three things to focus on:
- be known for something,
- build relationships before you need them, and
- take ownership of what happens next.
Then I tied it back to the car brand they’d spent the day admiring:
“Don’t wait for somebody else to design your career for you. You are the only one in the driver’s seat.”
Mercedes-Benz’s reputation was never built by its logo. It was built through thousands of small decisions about quality, engineering and innovation. Personal brands work exactly the same way; not in one big moment, but in hundreds of small ones – arriving early; asking the clarifying question; doing what you said you would do.
The numbers behind days like this matter too. Since 2022, Mercedes-Benz SA has funded more than 6500 first-time work experiences. Of the 97 young people placed internally this year, 65% are female. And since 2019, y@W has moved more than 18,000 young people into work opportunities and put nearly R1 billion into the pockets of young people.
But behind every one of those numbers is a manager who made space, a colleague who said “come with me,” and someone who saw potential before a young person could see it themselves. That’s the human part of this work and where lives actually change.
To the 97 young people who walked through those doors: use the next six months well. Don’t leave with only twelve months of experience. Leave with people who’ll recommend you and the confidence to create your next opportunity yourself.
Thank you to Mercedes-Benz South Africa and Youth Employment Service (YES) for making days like this possible.
