The Icarus Deception

So I am a couple of chapters into Seth Godin's new book (as promised Amazon dropped it into my Kindle this morning) and I am already gripped with excitement. By his own admission he stepped out of his comfort zone to write this, but it is already hitting a chord. He is pointing out a simple truth that we all miss; the world has changed but we have not changed with it, and if we do then it is a liberating experience.

During my childhood I remember a cartoon where the technology of the world failed and a time of magic began. The world today is akin to that. The industrial revolution set boundaries on how like should be and what 'the dream' should be. Those boundaries no longer exist but we still act as though they do.

Now excuse me while I go back to reading.

Happy New Year!

Seth Godin's New Books.

Seth Godin brings out three new books at the end of this year. Rather than try tell you about a book I havn't read yet I'll let his do that here. Preordering mine took 30 seconds on Amazon. Epic. Roll on New Year's Eve.

A good reason not to sue.

How to run into trouble in business.

1. Find a way of creating a cheaper processed food product (think beef).
2. Don't tell the public about it.
3. Sell it to schools, hamburger chains etc who will sell it to an unsuspecting public as 'normal' food
4. Wait for someone else to tell the public about it-especially how it is made
5. Watch someone else make your production process look really really bad
6. Wait for negative public reaction
7. Watch sales plummet
8. Try sue
9. Watch even more negative public reaction

With last weeks news of a worker suing Jamie Oliver for his expose on Lean Finely Textured Beef, otherwise generally called 'pink slime' by its haters, the process has once again been foisted into the limelight. Now people get to read about it all over again, reprocess the feelings of revulsion they felt the first time, and reinforce the decision not to ever buy it again.

How To Avoid Taking Responsibility

Seeing as we are all so good at avoiding responsibility I thought I would help make it easier for you by collecting some of the best ways of blame shifting for us all to use.

Committees, action groups, and investigative boards are a great way to avoid responsibility. Set one up, deliberately do not name a head, give them a vague enough frame of reference (nice technical term that, throwing technical terms around that no one understands is also a great way to shift blame), and when they fail to deliver after consuming a nice padded budget there is no one to blame because the committee will go round in circles pointing fingers at each other.

If you cannot get on a committee or use technical jargon here are a few other ways of avoiding people blaming you for something you should have done. Always have a scapegoat, pick on someone else in the organisation who you can blame, preferably in a different department. Practice the shrug, shrugging your shoulders with a vacant expression on your face is a great way to ignore an issue. It is the non verbal equivalent of “I am not the one” and is guaranteed to send people storming off in a rage, and if they are storming away from you then they are not bothering you are they. Never pick up litter, you did not put it there, you are not the cleaner, it is not your job. Likewise never actually mention to the person littering that the bin is five meters away, again its his litter not yours. Practise the turnabout argument, shift the blame back to the other person like a rapist blaming the rape victim for wearing clothes that were too alluring with an “I raped her because her skirt was too short” type excuse. Blame the equipment, it cannot fight back. Blame Econet/Netone/Telecel, everyone has cellphone issues at some point. Create long and arduous, bureaucratic chains of command. The more steps there are to doing something, the more likely someone else can be blamed. Never, never, never work through a tea break or lunch break to meet a deadline, these are your God given right and must never be sacrificed, you can always blame the poor work hours though cause there is never enough time to do everything.

Acting Out Responsibility

After writing a nice little spiel about taking responsibility and avoiding excuse making I had to put my words into practice in order to hit the deadline. My work internet had crashed for some odd reason so I had to fly to a coffee shop to use their wifi. The irony of writing about a similar scenario and then having to act it out. At least I got a good coffee out of the experience.

Standards vs Expectations

There was a time when having electricity all day was the norm in Zimbabwe, when running water flowed out of all our taps, all the time. That was the expectation and no one questioned it until things started to go wrong. Standards, we all have them. Well at least I think we all have them. For many what passes as a standard is mere millimetres away from not having any at all. There is a difference between standards and expectations. Expectations are assumed, standards are set. Where standards exceed or meet pre-existing expectations then people are happy, where they do not there is work to be done. Standards are the phrases that promise you how the job will be done, the level of quality, the validity of quotes, and the duration of guarantees.
Set standards, then stick to them. Standards create and clarify expectation. One of my favourite “standards” in the country is the department that promises a 24-hour turnaround for a particular service. That is eight working hours today, eight working hours tomorrow, and eight hours the next day. Their ‘24-hour service’ takes three working days to actually deliver (e-mail me if you can guess the department). That is not a true standard. If you can only deliver in three days then advertise a three-day standard, keep to it, and then try to improve on it.

Towards a 97% Sucess Rate

I came across a statistic this week that showed that 97 percent of women would swoon if their boyfriend gave them a mixtape (a personal collection of meaningful music). My second thought (the first being to see if it actually works) was to ask what if 97 percent of your clients had a high-emotion, positive response to your product. Not just a “that is nice” but a “wow that is totally amazing I want it now” response to your offering. Not just one or two of your clients, but nearly every single one. That would be a pretty impressive track record.

Impossible I hear you say. There is the first problem. You think it is impossible.
Realism is well and good, but a lot of our excuses not to do something are not based on realism.
They are based on false assumptions about the way things are done and erroneous perceptions about how people will react. Until you have tested and tried it, do not tell me that it cannot be done. Time and time again, I have been shocked at how successful, an idea that I thought would fail, has actually been.

Doubling Productivity

So I write a weekly column for The Herald newspaper in Zimbabwe. Had a thought this week, if every time I write a column I write a second one at the same time. That way I will have a group of extra articles that I can either publish elsewhere or turn into a book. It just takes an extra bit of time a week and I double productivity in that area.

Emerging Ideas

Emerging Ideas are a group of young entrepreneurs and businessmen from Southern Africa and the USA that get their hands dirty with every investment and startup that they’re a part of. Using local methods and implementing international standards to build ideas and cultivate opportunities. Check them out at www.emergingideas.com

Headed up by the fun and dynamic duo of Tommy Deuschle and Tim Bickers, they are worth a look for anyone wanting to start up a company.

Holiday Shopping

So USA retailers have their hands full over the next few months: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all provide an opportunity to cash in on the holiday bandwagon. With fancy, themed decor and sales bargains it is no wonder that shoppers are enticed to parting with their cash.

Africa, while not blessed with as many holidays as close together, could learn a little about attracting in shoppers through a little clever marketing. With two months till Christmas your strategy better be pretty clear by now.

Bring Back Freedom

Even if you are not American you will find this inspirational video strikes a chord. Reassess your dreams and if they have died, bring them back to life.

The Minion Balance

Minions of the universe, greetings and salutations! As of 0914 hours it is decreed that screw number R6 will now be inserted into Hole 23 with the left hand and not the right. Immediate compliance is expected. Minions found in violation of this decree will be terminated with maximum brutality.

All “Hail the Chief Officer!” Throughout the factory the voices of a thousand brainwashed slaves plaintively cry out “Hail the Chief Officer” as they continue the mundane task of assembling parts in the minion pool.
Sounds like I have been watching one too many sci-fi movies or spending time in a sweatshop in backwater India.
Not really, all I’ve been doing is reminiscing on how some people run their offices.
Now I have nothing against checklists, they simplify your life.
I do, however, take umbrage with workplaces that are so bureaucratic that you cannot make a decision to sneeze without consulting a manual. On the other extreme facing a person who is incapable of a single independent thought drives me insane, especially if they are working for me. Somewhere, there is a delicate balance between allowing staff the freedom to perform and being able to trust that they will perform in the manner you desire.

The Curious Case of The Skipping Waiter

My eyes were bloodshot and I was sitting with two men that were twice my age. We were solving their organizations issues on 5 pieces of paper and 3 different coloured pens. It was a frenzy of power struggle and politics. I was dodging the undercurrents of tyranny and hoping to bring about an amicable solution that would catapult the organization the the next global level. I was rigid, intense, trying so hard to add value and hoping that when I did it would be given a medal.

Then after hearing the two of them talk back on forth on an idea I presented about "simple internal systems" I lost track of everything. I consciously fell asleep and drifted into my coffee cup. And took a big sip. I looked up all of a sudden and saw a waiter coming to work. He was skipping in to work. SKIPPING! Excited to serve people croissants and coffee. His face had a slapped-on smile that wouldn't go away. He probably rode to work on a bicycle.

I had never skipped to my office. I didn't smile when I greeted my secretary. I didn't care about serving coffee. My accountants had thrown me into the pit of the "bottom line". It's all I could see and pretty much all I could think of. Why didn't I SKIP to work. I mean after all despite the sheer extra physical exertion involved and the fact that skipping has the potential to look undignified there was something about this guy that excited him about his work. He just looked like he wanted to be there.

It got me thinking about my attitude.

Let your attitude be one of giving value. Giving a smile that costs you no more than allowing a few muscles to work. Incidentally the act of smiling has been scientifically validated to improve your happiness. Go on, try it. Smile for 30 seconds. See the emotional change in you? You serve people because you are making their life better, not because you are trying to fill some impossible quota set by the accounts department. You work because you are making a difference in the universe, making it a better place for the rest of us to enjoy with you. That is the sort of attitude that will get you skipping to work.

Declutter Your Life

Eliminate the waste.

Declutter everything; business, home, your equity spread.

Go through your schedule. Cut the meetings that achieve nothing and where you have no contribution.

Keep a travel diary for a week. See where trips can be combined or cut.

Do you really need a sugar filled dessert every night, letting that go may declutter you waistline.

 Go through your investments; where can you cash in those odd little percentages that are doing nothing for you.

Shift through your wardrobe and toss out everything you have not worn in the last year.

 A warning, do not throw out the wife or children during this exercise (unless perhaps the children are 34, drive a better car than you, and still stay at home).

NBC Olympic coverage fail.

In the USA at the moment, failing to enjoy the Olympics because of the time delay coverage. I am however reveling in the internet barrage of NBC on various social media over their coverage (or rather lack of it) for the games. You can read a bunch of their glorious bloopers here .

Due to the massive US bias on broadcasting here (which is probably not a bad thing for a compan broadcasting to a US audience) it is rather difficult to find broadcasts that showcase athletes from home in Zimbabwe (unless there is an American in the race of course). I don't object to the American bias on NBC, I just object to not being able to get a second opinion. Almost all other sources are blocked out including the normally pervasive Youtube. I cannot access a BBC, or a European Olympic broadcast at all (unless of course i go throught the pain of trying to work through a proxy server). Reminds me of George Orwell's 1984 when the only veiwpoint you can access is that of the 'official' channels.

The way I see it is that it is pretty much a form of censorship, but one that has been paid for rather than implemented by a government body.

Villan or Hero

You never hang out with people that hate you, why would you do that? People that hate you are wrong, right? We love to surround ourselves with people that tell us how good we are, not how bad we are. No one ever wakes up and says, “I’m a bad guy”. When you take your kids to the movies your son doesn’t walk away saying that he wants to grow up and be the villan; of course not. No, we all want to be the rescuing hero – the one who everyone applauds. So we constantly surround ourselves with those who affirm us as good people. Unfortunately we rarely take a candid introspective look at ourselves and ask, “Am I a bad guy?”  Maybe you wake up saying, “I’m not a bad guy.” Well, I beg to differ if you do any of the following.

You’re a bad guy…

1. If you’re giving people a reason to sue you. If you’ve signed a contract and haven’t kept to it, changed the terms, or haven’t paid. If you’re not answering your phone, you’ve changed your address and you’re in process of changing your name too, then you’re a yellow bellied bad guy. You’re the villain in that movie.
2. If you are suing 2 or more people right now for the wrong reasons. Be the bigger man, cut your losses. Improve your judgements of people and business deals. Where you can try solve issues out of court.
3. If you give poor customer service. You own a restaurant and charge $4 for a rock-shandy, you serve crappy coffee, your workplace is dirty and your receptionist is rude and addicted to Facebook. Jack up your act!
4. If you have said in the past week, “It’s not personal it’s just business” as you take someone for a ride. People are business and business is people. If you take advantage of someone’s helplessness or ignorance and sell something with a 200% mark up, you are plain greedy.
5. If you are trying to get a large cut of every deal that you come across. Understand your value. For a change, try helping people with no expectation of getting anything back.
6. If you are offering loans at more than 15% per month. Even if it's legal, high interest rates are crippling us, especially when inflation figures are reported as much lower.
7. If you litter. Disease spreading vermin leave rubbish everywhere so unless you are a rodent just stop leaving trash lying around. While you are at it, stop your friend next to you. Have a little pride and keep things beautiful.
8. If you’re not a security guard yet you demand money for “watching cars.” Although you’ll probably never read this, get a real job you lazy beggar. Stop hassling productive citizens.

If you get offended reading the list, perhaps you should have a look at what you can change. I can hear another self-righteous idealist chiding me saying, “Why aren’t you talking about anything good? Why aren’t you talking about all the good guys?” Well, I actually am. If you’re not doing these bad things, you’re probably a good guy. I like you well done!

Business on the Moon

Starting a business is a lot like landing a man on the moon; many will say it can't be done and even when you succeed there will be many who still think it a scam and a rip off.

Zimbabwean Transport Trends

This post marks the start of a new photo gallery on this blog. Zimbabwean 'kombis' , as public transport is known, have started broadcasting their names on the back of their vehicles. In the light of this we want to capture the best names and place them up here. Our first candidate is 'Cherry'

Note the improvised back door closer.

Feel free to subit photos to our email boardmilkshake@gmail.com

Check out the latest video from Mbichana Boys.

Turn Your Story into a Purple Cow (apologies to Seth Godin)

I opened my email and I came across a brilliant little letter from cdbaby.com where I had recently purchased music online. The purpose of the email was to tell me where to go if I had any problems with the download. It could have easily read: Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your purchase. If you have any
trouble with it then please look here for our FAQ section.
Simple concise and it gets the information across. It is also as boring as watching paint dry. It is the same as every other email from any other online purchase outlet I buy from.
Instead I got a well crafted email from the fictional “e-gnome emissary” who resides in cyberspace and had “overseen” the shipment of my package. It told me how the whole cyberworld was so excited to see my electronic delivery go out and if I had any problems to check out the FAQ or contact him.
It was brilliant, and made me want to run back to the site to make another purchase just to get another email (I would happily put the whole text of the email up but rather go buy your own and get the pleasure of your own email).
Seth Godin affectionadoes will recognise this as a “purple cow”; something so exceptional that it stands out from the norm. To summarise Mr Godin, we all know what cows look like and as long as you look like other cows no one will ever notice you, but be a purple cow and everyone will notice how exceptional and amazing you are because you stand out.
The email was so unexpected and so different that it has made an incredible impact on my day, imagine if your product did the same thing to all your customers.
Music videos used to be boring shots of the band playing the songs with the odd flashing light, having stemmed from shows like “Top-of-the-Pops” they were not much to look at. Then Michael Jackson arrived on the scene and turned the music video into an art form. The first music video that involved dance and a story line left lasting impressions and the music world has never been the same.
People are drawn to what stands out. Watch a choir and you will either look at the person with the biggest smile or the person picking their nose in the second row. Great or revolting we notice the extremes.
Extremely bad happens naturally most of the time we don’t need much help there, extremely great takes deliberate effort and intention and an in-depth understanding of your market. Cdbaby sell independent music and not mainstream labels. They know that there is a small group of people who will take the time to find and buy indie music and the email they crafted caters to the “out-of-the-norm” type of customer they attract. They know their market.
It probably was not the first email that got drafted either. It may have been the first idea, but I doubt it. Deliberate, intentional planning and rewriting would have taken place to get just the right effect. You are aiming for the “Holy cow . . . Did I just see that” moment in your clients. The type of service, communication, product or experience that makes them tell everyone else about it. How can you make your product stand out?
Make your story exceptional and it will be remembered and retold.
Standing out takes effort but hit the right note and everyone will notice. There was a time when all you got in most Harare restaurants was sponge cake (throw back from the British influence) then one coffee shop started serving a richer German-type cake. People flocked to try it and soon nearly every other coffee shop had something similar on its menu.
So one last thing on the purple cow, sooner or later everyone else may start to copy your idea, then you have to create something even better to stand out.

Celebrate Young: Found Love

As a follow up to the previous post with the exceptional music video...Zimbabwe's inspirational Rock band "Celebrate Young" album titled
"Found Love" download the full abum here.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/celebrateyoung

This Place: Celebrate Young

This is what can be done with passion, drive and realising that a limited budget is no hinderance to making something great happen.

Relationships matter

Today I go to celebrate a friend's wedding. Weddings...a time of celebration and joy. The formalising of a union and the making of vows. Above all though it is about a relationship. Relationships are key to life, they are the building blocks which we use to colour our world. Without relationships we are poor souls, alone and cut off from contact. Relationships should be treasured, worked on and worked out. A broken relationship tears at the heart of who we are. Business or simple friendship-relationships count.

Permission Please

Wow blogger changed their user interface (the back end of writing this that you do not see). No warning, no option just change. Not very cool if you are a user and suddenly cannot find anything. But that is the price for using a free platform...or should it be, despite the fact that I am not paying for this service should I be given the option to decide if I want to use a potentially better interface or not? Food for thought.

How to Sell Your Product With Passion

THE people who read newspapers on a regular basis can be divided into two main groups. There is a small group who read everything in the paper from cover to cover, often over a gently cooling cup of tannin infused water. The second, more larger group breeze through the paper looking for headlines that appeal and only read articles that they think are worthy of scrutiny.
This group of individuals makes up the larger percentage of your market.
They will not religiously examine every product on the shelf before making their choice (you are smiling because in your mind you can picture the person you know who does just that), rather they grab the one that has headlines that scream the loudest at them.
This is the same with salespersons or business owners; your voice needs to scream loud and clear if you are to effectively sell your product.
Twitter’s success astounds me. If you told me 10 years ago that allowing people 140 word posts would be a successful communication medium for any length of time I would have laughed at you.
Yet everyday people headline their stories to whoever will listen. Everyone has a story to tell, and amid the billions of stories being told each day yours has better chances of being read if it stands out.
Here are three pointers on making your story the best one possible. They apply to your investor pitches, your staff training, and your consumer interactions.
Firstly, you need to let people know that your product will make a difference to them.
It should be a real difference that they will appreciate. You need to ask yourself why your range of jam is better than the glowing, imported version next to it on the shelf.
What problem will you solve for your consumers? At the end of the day you need to answer the question “Why should people care about what you have to offer?”
You may be selling a steel-reinforced, prefabricated, storage location for vehicles, but what people want to hear is that you are offering car security at a click of a button.
As a customer I do not need to hear you tell me that our well-trained (possibly over trained) staff are on hand to assist you with anything you want at any time of day you want it.
Even though you may have the most amazing staff education programme, what I want to hear is something like “Finally, 24-hour shopping with minimal fuss”, or “Open 24 hours a day — a real convenience store”. Sell a difference people can appreciate.
Second, headline it. Try to tell your story in one sentence. Create a Twitter account and see if it fits in the little “tweet” box that counts down the number of letters you have left to use.
Now remember the first point while you do this, if you can tell me how your product will change my life in one, short sentence I may give you permission to tell me more about it, or, even better, show me how it actually works.
Finally, tell it to me with passion. If you do not believe in your product and the difference it will make then I am not going to believe in it either.
To me this is one of the biggest differentials in business today.
Zimbabweans are just not passionate about what they are selling (perhaps that is because we have been through 10 years of merely trading other country’s goods that we had no hand in creating).
A friend of mine sells hair extensions, he can tell at a glance the type of weave at a hundred yards, whether it is artificial or natural, and if it came from his factory or not.
To see him in action is fascinating, I have sat with him at coffee as he chats to a waitress about the pros and cons of her current style — free advice to make her look better.
He has a passion not just for the hair product, but for the effect it is making in the lives of his clients.
Be excited about what you are selling — not just the product but the revolutionary change it will make to someone.
Many restaurants have daily specials and waiters will regurgitate this information in a rapid monotone as they guide you to your table.
Ask a waiter which cake he or she thinks is the best to have and watch the change in his or her eyes as he or she extols why they enjoy it so much. Passion makes a difference.
The emotion you have for your product needs to be contagious enough to reflect in your staff.
You need to get buy-in from them as to the change you are making in your peculiar pocket of the universe.
If it does not filter down to your salesman then the results will be the same.
How do you sell it to your staff, the same way you sell it to me — sell the difference, keep it short, and tell it like it matters. At the end of the day, the best story wins.

Celebrating Each Other

Has the world forgotten how to celebrate each other? We have to bring our own cakes to work on birthdays. Perhaps Humpty Dumpty had it right-unbirthdays are worth celebrating-celebrating the random, quirky and unusual things that make us, well, us.

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Interactive Billboard Grows Hair with Facebook Likes

A billboard in Cape Town grows a beard based in the number of 'likes' on Facebook. This is a creative form of advertising that is causing a stir on the web and in the city. More important than the growth is the about of conversation being generated about it...and the company that put it up. The difference stands out...and gets them noticed.
http://www.facebook.com/BronxMensShoes
http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/if-you-like-it-it-will-grow-1.1272549

Keep Your Business Story Simple

Can you describe your business in a Twitter post? How about in 10 words or less? Be creative, play with the words and come up with a statement that encapsulates the experience you offer in one, simple sentence.

The Great Book Rip Off

So someone offered me 'The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs' for USD75 in a local, Zimbabwean bookstore. I just brought it on Kindle from Amazon for a fifth of that! Seriously, seriously overpriced in the bookstore. Guess where I won't be shopping again...

....can't wait to read it though.

The quick way

There are always two ways to do things...the quick or the correct. Occasionally they overlap but not often. Quick can be synonymous with lazy or not thinking through and occasionally darn right dangerous.

Is the writing on the wall for newspapers

Check out this article on the state of newspapers in Zimbabwe...another example of changes in the traditional way of doing things costing companies who won't shift.

http://www.techzim.co.zw/2012/03/the-internet-and-the-declining-newspaper-readership-in-zimbabwe/

GAME Retail Stores signal change in the way we do business.

So GAME, the game retail store has suspended trading. Facing a shift in the way people buy games-either as digital downloads or through online retailer-has forced them to face possible closure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17341994

What are we really teaching our kids?

I WAS fortunate that when the computer age first hit schools, I was still a scholar. I remember that in those days we spent hours working on machines that have long since disappeared into oblivion and the great hardware-junkyard-in-the-sky.
It was, at that time, possible to programme your own games in BASIC, the simplest language of the day.
These were, in the large, word based problems with a simple story line and no graphics (my first computer teacher was a tweed coat clad, 70-year-old professor who composed his own to pass the time (no excuses for age related computer illiteracy please).
Computer gaming and the languages used to encode them have come a long way since then and I could programme a word but it is now possible to obtain a Masters in Computer Game Design.
An entire set of jobs in programming, game development, graphic origination and animation that did not exist 15 years ago have come into being.
Cellphones are another entirely new technology that did not exist until recent times (remember those days when calling someone meant trying a landline in the hope that they were in).
Simultaneously the Internet has helped change the world. Each has given rise to businesses that 50 years ago were like a pie in the sky.
With those businesses come roles, responsibilities and jobs that did not exist until a few short decades ago.
Roles for which there were no degrees for when they first occurred, careers that you did not dream of doing “when you grew up”.
There is a theory that the cycle of new technology creation is shortening, kids today will probably do jobs that do not exist as yet.
You will be employing people to manage departments that will be created in response to technology (20 years ago the IT department fixed your fax machine and typewriters). Possibly you may even be responsible for the invention of some of that groundbreaking creativity.
Our staff now and in the future will need to be prepared for an ever-changing world.
This affects our education system, our staff training, and the attributes we should be hiring for.
While there will probably always be a need for some of the basic professions, the education trend of the world should not be to train you to do a specific job but to equip you with the principles to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow.
To be able to transition into a field or role that does not exist today — the “vibe manger” of a space resort for example.
With so much knowledge in the world learning to discern truth from the multitude of voices is key, as is the accurate identification of trends.
Picking out from the smorgasbord of new ideas and inventions which ones will work for your business, which will sell well, and which will become the next iPod.
An essential talent is the ability to acquire new skills. Technophobia has no place in today’s workplace.
Software will change, hardware will be upgraded, and someone will develop a new way of interacting with the environment.
Imagine if flying cars became a reality, or we replaced the steering wheel with a different control system — suddenly we have to adjust to a new way of getting around.
Children are inquisitive to the point of insanity — a six-month-old tastes everything it can lay its hands on.
Heaven have mercy on you once your child learns the word “why”. Somewhere along the way some adults lose this ability to explore (perhaps it is part of the boring classroom syndrome that suffocates this skill).
Inventions happen because people ask “why” and “what if”. Not only that they are proactive in finding out what happens.
The Wright brothers did not ask for permission to build a plane they just went out and did it.
Too often our systems and structures hamper our ability to get the job done. As an employer, how many more emails need to clog your inbox asking for permission to draw up a new marketing strategy, permission to approach a new client or permission to change the cleaning fluid used in the toilet for one that is healthier and more environmentally friendly.
How many more emails do you need before you can free your staff to be proactive in finding and implementing solutions with the trust that when they report back to you they will have done an exceptional job that fits with your vision. Encourage and foster proactivity and idea generation.
One last thing we should consider teaching our staff and children is a sense of moral principle.
This is not some dust-collecting values poster stuck on the wall, but a well ingrained way of governing your life.
If we fail in this then the new technology may end up being the software that siphons off extra money from your account.

Mbichana Boys - Mbichana Mvura Official Music Video

Check out this fun video. A creative example of how a great idea, a little networking and something different can get you noticed.

Mbichana Boys - Mbichana Mvura Official Music Video

Is the Education System Failing?

Are we teaching our children outdated skills designed to feed a factory based system when many jobs that exist today were not around 20 years ago? Perhaps we should focus on teaching them how to acquire new skills rather than remembering and regurgitating boring facts.

Kodak's Failure.

Every once in a while a brand becomes a household name where it is not used to refer to its own particular range of products but to refer to other similar products in the same range. Kleenex did it with tissues where the phrase "Pass me a Kleenex will you" was used to refer to any tissue paper, the Fedex brand was used in mail delivery "Just Fedex it to me" and more recently the ever pervasive Google with internet searches "Just Google this information".
One company, however, managed this in relation to the camera industry. Years after the slogan was first coined, people still refer to "A Kodak moment" as a memory worth capturing forever on camera.
Kodak, a pioneer and heavyweight in the film and camera enterprise, filed for bankruptcy recently due to massive debt.
As analysts examined every nook and cranny of Kodak's history to work out the reason for the failure, one reason cropped up again and again and that was the company's failure to realise and adequately cope with the change from film to digital photography.
The change in technology and the way people run their memory capture hit Kodak hard, and in an effort to compensate they made a few costly and ultimately very bad decisions.
Kodak actually developed the digital camera in the 1970s but, instead of using this early start to propel themselves into an untouchable market position, they chose to focus on film and got relegated to spending the next three decades trying to catch up with the competition.
They forgot that they were helping "capture memories" and focused on trying to just sell an increasingly redundant product. Also in the news a couple of weeks back was the shut down by the FBI of the world's largest internet file-sharing company Megaupload.
Megaupload provides a drop box type service for files that are too big to send by email, or files that you want to share with many others.
They were accused of fostering internet piracy and copyright violations (among several other issues).
Anyone who remembers the Napster debacle a few years ago (the fight over the digitalisation of music) can see the same trend playing out.
Movie companies are probably losing millions to piracy that enables free download of movies, but instead of using the technology to their benefit they are busy trying to sustain an old mode of media transmission.
Movie makers are more content with continuing to sell a DVD at US$30 rather than making it easy to download or live stream an online movie for under US$5.
Technology is offering filmmakers a great opportunity that few seem to want to take at the moment.
Anyone with a 3G compatible phone has probably heard about Whatsapp-the internet based messaging service that can be utilised to cut your communications costs.
Founded by two guys who wanted to build a better SMS alternative Whatsapp chews little of your bandwidth and less of your money.
The question to ask is why the application was independently developed instead of being made by a cellular network.
One answer is that networks are content to charge five to 10 cents for a text (depending where you are in the world) because it makes them more money in the short term than a less lucrative mobile application.
Numerous cash-strapped, local teenagers use the application-not to mention an increasing number of adults.
The most obvious, but not popular, solution for a network wanting to stay on the old money-making-off-texts model would be to block the application.
The downside of such a decision would be to see consumers flocking to a rival network that allows it.
Rather than seeking to destroy the software, find a way to harness its power - the small bandwidth usage multiplied by a couple of million users may add up to some pretty powerful economies of scale.
Offering the most reliable and cheapest bandwidth could guarantee you a lot of happy clients, especially when they start to use all the other communication applications that use a little more bandwidth (think Facebook, Skype, Gmail for phone).
So I guess the real question at the end of all this is "How can I prevent this from happening to my business?"
Technology changes all the time and there is a pretty good chance of you getting left behind - ask bookstores and publishing houses that are facing the e-book revolution.
Keep focused on what you do - your mandate to the world. Make sure this mandate is not based on selling a particular product and is focused on the client.
Perhaps if Kodak can focus on "helping you store and share your memories" rather than selling film and printing they will pull through the current crisis - at least I hope so because somehow "A Canon moment" does not have the same ring to it as "A Kodak moment".
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Isaac Asimov 1974 once said: "I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance . . . and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance . . . to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth.
"Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money . . . as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts."

The way to live

Don't be conformist...let your work create the art that makes people cry without embarrassment.

Get Seth Godin's Lynchpin!

Where do your values lie?

The word "hustle" in business circles is often used to describe an aggressive use of borderline methods to gain additional business or money. In an emerging and healing market like Zimbabwe, "hustle" is an accurate thesis of most people attending meetings, seizing opportunities, and making a killing in the market. Coffee shops are seen as the most convenient places to discuss deals by dignified personas all hungry and intrigued with what each opportunity holds.
However, there is need to be cautious of the people you do business with.
The saying, "Don't go hunting with someone who's never shot a bear" is an interesting phrase that illustrates what I am talking about.
Basically, it means that if you go after an opportunity with someone who's never really accomplished anything before, he or she may take the shot themselves if they get the opportunity.
Part of this hustle and opportunistic mindset is being propagated by the numerous opportunities in this emerging economy.
Part of it is a culture that sometimes sacrifice moral and relational capital. I met a man this week who has built and run his retail business over the past 50 years.
Everyday for the past 50 years he has woken up, opened up his shop and created a personal business experience for loyal clients.
What struck me the most as he related the story was the sense of contentment that he had.
Contentment! His business has helped him educate his children right through university.
He has since helped his children to start their own companies, buy their own houses while he has travelled the world and at a time when most are thinking of retiring, he continues to work.
These were goals he set out to achieve and he managed to achieve them.
This "contentment" state of being somehow rivals the "hustle" mentality, which often seeks to spin every opportunity and eat as many "Opportunity Apple Pies" as possible.
Sure, perhaps this retailer could have developed a chain of stores and franchised out his experience.
He could have skyrocketed his prices as he had the opportunity to do so and also bought other businesses that he never had an interest or passion for in the first place.
Instead he chose to do what he loves and at the end of 50 years he is satisfied with what he has achieved and content with his inner being.
He has enough to meet his needs and is not going out of his way to milk his customers rather he fondly tells of regular clients who come in and discuss their families and diverse lives with him like old friends.
This man has an incredibly high value tagged onto his relationship capital.
Satisfaction and contentment are words that perhaps seem alien and elusive in our hectic societies.
Money, cars, impacted lives, legacy for the kids, social change . . . What is enough for you? Where do you stop hustling? Where do you start feeling content?
Comparing prices between Zimbabwe and South Africa probably gives you an insight into some people's train of thought.
The 40-inch HD screen radiating sleekness in my sister's UK lounge got me imagining what it would like in the empty space in my home.
So I went shopping here in Zimbabwe. The cheapest equivalent was three times the price she paid on Amazon.co.uk, and considerably more than twice the retail price in South Africa.
In one shop it was cheaper to fly to the UK and bring one back (never mind the saving if I went on the cheaper flight to South Africa).
Duty, transport and overheads aside -what is a reasonable mark-up? This is comparing retail prices mind you - not the warehouse or factory prices that the goods are procured at (well at least they should be - if you are buying for resale from a retail store and if this is not the case you should probably re-examine your source).
In the Zurich Axioms: Investment Secrets of the Swiss Bankers, Max Gunther outlines that you need to decide on what you want as a return before you invest, and when you reach that level you pull out.
No staying in to get an extra quick buck. No seeing if the upswing will continue.
If you set 10 percent as a target when you reach 10 percent you liquidate and reinvest in new targets.
Now this needs to be applied in the scope of all the axioms if you want to make his system work, the principle helps you avoid the emotional responses of greed that may land you, and others in trouble later.
It has to do with deciding what you want and what you are content with. If you never reach a place of contentment, with your financial goals, you will sacrifice your relational and moral capital banks.

Developing Your Company Image

Recently I wanted to check how much Internet cap I still had left this month but the online portal to my ISP account was down (on reflection I am not sure if it has ever worked) so I tried the helpline.
After five attempts at the automated system, I finally got put through to someone who informed me that she could not assist over the phone but if I was to pop down to the nearby office they could assist me in person.
When I visited the office I was greeted by chaos. There were four different queues with no indication as to which served what.
There was no signage, no receptionist, just milling customers trying to have their problems resolved.
I quickly joined the shortest line (which turned out to be the cashier's - obviously business was not translating into sales) and asked where I should go.
I was directed to the wrong queue. Fortunately, a switched-on client informed me of my error and suggested I try one of the others.
After a 20-minute debacle I eventually made it to the front of the correct desk and was assisted by a young lady, who had to ask one of the other staff how to check my account status (this was after she completed her urgent personal call).
I did, to their credit, finally get the information I asked for, but left with the subtle feeling that perhaps I should change Internet Service Providers.
At the exit I gave a wan smile to the people being turned away by the security guard because it was now lunchtime. A poor image of the service provider was generated in my mind.
People sometimes talk about a company's image as if it should be this kind of facade projected to the unsuspecting public that hides the true nature of a business.
I am talking about something along the lines of "Yes we are an environment-wrecking oil-drilling business but let us project to the world that we are friendly and interested in green fuel and hope they never discover the truth."
Happy adverts and clever marketing campaigns put forward a picture in the public eye that cannot be filled in reality.
The true company "image" is the emotional residue left in your clients every time they encounter your product or use your service.
The closer this is to the adverts and slogans you display the less people will think you are a hypocrite (and deep down no one likes those).
You can desire to alter my world, but unless you do so for the better I am going to think twice every time I hear your name or see your billboard.
So how can you avoid this disparity from developing? Well, for a start take part of last week's article to heart and think a little less about "Me" and a little more about your clients.
Think more about how they feel when they interact with your company (either through your staff, your product, your website) rather than thinking about how you can empty their wallets.
If you have not done it recently, have a walk though your company from a client's perspective or hire someone to do so.
I know a restaurant that routinely gets people to eat at their establishment in order to get feedback on service issues.
Try calling your own help desk - especially if it has an automated component and do not do the obvious "this is the boss checking on how the help desk is running", create a problem and phone in anonymously.
Second, do not over promise and under-deliver. Doing so makes you a liar (they are not too popular either).
At the very least do exactly what you committed to - that will enable you to satisfy your customers.
Work on going one step beyond that and you will create raving fans. People like it when things go according to plan but they love it when confronted with a positive surprise.
The Ritz Carlton has your personal letterhead placed in your room - not just the generic hotel stationary, now that is a surprise for the first time guest.
What does your environment at work say about your service? Is the grass cut, the toilets clean, the windows sparkling?
Not as some "window-dressing" attempt to con, but because your company has a culture that says "we take care of stuff hence our offices look good".
At one of the schools I attended, pot plants would be put out only on days when there were large numbers of visitors, the rest of the time they were stored in a nursery some place far from potential schoolboy attacks.
As students we could never work out why such beautification was not part of the routine landscape, after all the plants grew, needed water and care regardless of where they spend most of the year.
You could buy the occasional new magazine for your waiting room (doctors take note here) or how about a dollar a day on a newspaper?
Finally, social awareness. Nearly every list on building a positive company image contains this one-community responsibility (which includes the giving of donations).
Starbucks happily spends a fortune on campaigns highlighting how they improve the lives of coffee growers in Third World countries.
That is praiseworthy and long may it continue, but it does detract a little from the real community change that they bring the provision of good-quality beverages in a clean, friendly environment where ever you find one of their stores.
The provision of a place where people can meet, chat and physically interact in a world that is increasingly electronic as a point of contact is surely as commendable as providing clean water to a village.
The smell and sensation of drinking a well-crafted, tall, hazelnut latte leaves a better impression in my mind than reading the small print on where their bean comes from.
By all means help the impoverished, but also remember to ask yourself how your product is helping change people's lives directly.
I am all for bettering the world, but is that not what we should be doing anyway.