About

Hello there,

Thank you for visiting our blog. My name is Clare Stewart Munn. I founded tcg: The Communication Group in 2004, an award- winning social media company headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York City, the UK and South Africa. tcg develops social media strategies and social media sites, simplifying the complicated and building scalable, modular social media technologies such as our tcg: SocMe™ Platform. Our clients include AOL, Cisco, Ebay, McKesson, AMD, Hitachi, along with brand personalities and start-ups and large non-profit organizations. I currently hold Board, Advisory Board and Honorary Committee seats with various NGOs around the world, including Pangea Day, WHP (Women’s HIV Program), Cool The World, and Artists for Literacy.

Why Social Media, or what I refer to as Integrated Conversations?
My personal passion has always been around the integration of different learning styles into any form of communication. Technology and multi-media allow the dynamic, mobile and participatory nature of communication to occur. Even though we didn’t call it Social Media, I suppose I’ve been ‘fiddling’ with this since I was twelve.

tcg was conceived unintentionally. In the early 2000s, I had just been part of a sale of a company and began the next hunt for innovative ideas about the next online technology products. During a few consulting projects, I kept on hearing the same requests and noticed a gap in the marketplace for an effective mixture of business, creativity and technology. Shortly thereafter, clients began to call us their ‘Communication Group,’ thus tcg was born. To me People (Society), Communication and Technology Choices = Social Media.

I have learned that it is always about what message is relevant to whom, and which media is best to reach them. We now live in an age where we have the capability to pull web technologies together in a more thoughtful and engaging manner.

Coming from a large publishing family, I/we have been influenced by all forms of communication and media for as long as I can remember. There were always at least two languages spoken around us, and multiple and disparate forms of communication devices/methods— drums, newspapers, telephones, wireless, music, television, etc. My entire family is involved with communication and design. For example on this blog my partner and brother, Alasdair Munn, generates a lot of interest with his posts. I adore working with Alasdair – his background in industrial and sociology causes great debates with my more left+right+? side thinking.

The tcg team is a global, resourceful and disruptive group. All of us have various interests and ALL are curious and rather different; however I would say our common aspects include strategic thinking, high IQ and even higher EQ= empathy, transparency, drive and consideration and our continued learning path is how to express our intelligence through something I coined awhile ago called, CQ – communication intelligence or expressive + receptive intelligence.

In short, strategic thinking and respect for communication, design, different learning styles and smart technologies will continue to foster tcg’s sustainable social media initiatives.

My Sustainable Life
I suppose one could say that I’m a ‘natural,’ resourceful conservationist of sorts. I was born in Zimbabwe, Africa (3rd or 4th generation depending on which side of the family you ask), and the diversity I grew up with was not limited to just black and white. A few miles from our capital city, Harare, lions stalk wild game and elephants walk their thousand-year-old trails. From growing up in a place where wild life and city life share such intimate close quarters, I developed an appreciation of the relationship between environmental sustainability and modern business practices. With my father, I co-founded an NGO called Environment Africa in 1990 and I initiated the creation of Eco-Labeling. The Eco-Labeling program invited corporations to follow a set of standards in order to receive the Green Logo (eco friendly) or Blue Seal (eco conscious) on their products. A percentage of each product with either seal would go towards Environment 2000 for specific non-profit work (e.g. Johnson & Johnson built the J&J School from proceeds of this program). Also, in 1991 I created and developed characters and stories for children’s games based on the global environment called Chip & Beri that were later licensed to Paramount Corp in 1993.

Sustainability is really about awareness coupled with balance, which isn’t easy to achieve; however, it makes a lot of sense/cents when we do. I believe having a genuine curiosity of life is an essential characteristic to own before one can truly embrace sustainable practice.

Inspirations:

Apart from getting distracted sometimes by family problems, work responsibilities and the thousand+ emails I receive on a daily basis, I consider myself a pretty attentive listener and a great storyteller will always have my attention. My inspiration to form a relationship with any organization is usually based on one simple thing – their story. If someone pitches me with an inspiring, compelling story, I absolutely can’t say ‘no.’ And I know that most CEOs, executives, investors and end-users think the same way.

Here are some of my current inspirations:

Artists for Literacy
Richard Branson
Richard Goldman Prize

Thank you for your time, and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require additional information.

Be well.

Sincerely,

-C