Dr. Pascal Brenya, an HR Consultant for the United Nations and the British Council, has stated that individuals who create personal brand are positioned as unique selling points for their enterprises. He says people in business need to be confident and assertive in their individual roles in organizations if they are to make any exceptional mark in the 21st Century. Branding is a marketing function that differentiates a product from others. Dr. Brenya says personality branding can be a tool to boost an individual’s market value for the overall good of an organization. He was speaking to Luv FM at a seminar on Personality Branding, organized by the Graduate Students Association of the KNUST School of Business. Dr. Brenya says people should learn to be confident as a first step to branding “because our identity is our self-wealth. The level of passiveness, over-apologetic and timidity is so high amongst us that even expressing yourself to let your brother know this is how I feel about a situation, you prefer to behave otherwise. When it comes to team building, its either you all swim or sink together, that simply means that I can express my opinion and if you disagree with me, all I need is to back my opinion with facts.” The HR Consultant observed that being distinct in products and services is key to surviving the competition of today’s marketplace. “We cannot adopt the method of yesterday in today’s business and be in business tomorrow. So we need to sit back and ask ourselves few questions – what is it that I’m doing that is different from everybody else? And sometimes we need to even interact with our competitors; we can’t run away from them. Unless you are selling a product that is different from your competitor, a customer doesn’t have a reason to leave what they’re used to and come to you. “And this takes us to personal branding; you need to brand yourself to make sure you are doing it differently. Even it its oranges you’re selling in the market, they way you peel it is different, the joy and the smile, the customer service, the quality of it that you give to people makes it so different from the other person who sells the same thing over there”, Dr. Brenya emphasized. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh