Global Entrepreneurship Week in Harare.

Regular readers of this column will know a few things about me by now. Firstly entrepreneurship is like life blood to me, secondly, I am a firm believer in the power of relationships. This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) which hits both those chords strong and hard. GEW is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare. During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

 

Like most—if not all—new ventures, Global Entrepreneurship Week started with an idea. What if there was a global movement to inspire people everywhere to unleash their ideas and take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey? The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation launched GEW in to connect aspiring entrepreneurs and others who can help them take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey.

 

More than 130 countries now celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week each November from Guyana to Zimbabwe. Global Entrepreneurship Week is not one single event--it is tens of thousands of events, activities and competitions happening around the world.

 

"Countries around the world are embracing their entrepreneurs as significant drivers of economic activity and growth," said Jonathan Ortmans, president of Global Entrepreneurship Week and a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. "Through GEW, we are instilling an entrepreneurial mindset in millions and helping them unleash their ideas."

 

Hundreds, if not thousands, of new startups will square off in competitions that offer prizes of startup capital, support and services to help them grow to scale. Policymakers and researchers in dozens of countries will examine best practices in accelerating efforts to support high-growth entrepreneurship. And millions of aspiring entrepreneurs will make connections with potential collaborators and mentors through a wide range of events and activities that provide inspiration as well as practical support.

 

A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation, "Getting the Bug: Is (Growth) Entrepreneurship Contagious," suggests that there is a significant link between knowing an entrepreneur and becoming one. Global Entrepreneurship Week exposes individuals to entrepreneurs and others in the startup ecosystem—encouraging them to start their own ventures, spurring increased economic activity and growth. Relationships matter.

 

In Harare there is the Global Entrepreneurship Meet-Up on Friday 22nd of November (that’s tomorrow) at the well-known Celebration Centre. Free coffee, trendy start up pitches that you didn't even know existed in the city, and high level connecting over a genuine interest in building the creative ideas of entrepreneurs. There'll be 3 riveting start-ups that talk for 4 minutes. From a tech company that's facing Apple and Samsung Head-on to a brick and mortar guru who has the first batch of funding on building a new city. Lots of questions and answers, and lots of coffee. Starting at 630pm you can learn more at http://zw.unleashingideas.org . You can also join in online and discuss Zimbabwe’s Entrepreneurial Landscape by using the hashtag #GEWZim on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

As most businesses are thinking of winding down for the year or preparing for the Christmas rush, this week represents a chance to rekindle the fire of entrepreneurship within, to network with like minded people, and take a step in the direction of skyrocketing Zimbabwe’s economy once more.

Doing More in Order Do Do Less

Morning to all , I am of course making the possibly false assumption you are reading this in the morning.
I want you to take part in yet another challenge. Put down the paper and stare at the watch or cellphone for an entire minute.
Do not do anything during this minute, except maybe sip coffee. After a minute continue reading. Go!
Would you look at that, I got you to spend an entire minute doing nothing. I just made you spend a precious minute of your life on a random and futile task.
The sense of urgency associated with time usage is so deeply engrained in us that you are probably experiencing a mini-apoplectic fit at the fact that I made you “lose” a minute of your time. Some of you will probably never forget this lesson. That is probably worth the minute you spent doing nothing.
We spend our lives trying to fill our time with meaningful activities. We start each day with a precious 24 hours and try to cram as much into it as possible.
We are taught that you can never recover time once you have lost it, that time is money or time is important. Above all, we are told to manage time wisely.
You cannot manage time. Think about it; you cannot tell it to slow down or speed up, you cannot tell it what to do neither can you place it somewhere else.
Time is the immutable trundle of seconds flowing past you into the waste basket of “then”. You cannot waste time either, you merely waste yourself.
What we term as “wasting time” is merely our failure to achieve more or to be better people during our lives. You cannot manage time. You can only manage yourself.
Today, I would like to share with you two tricks to enhancing self-management. I learnt these from Todd Henry’s book ‘‘Accidental Creative” and have found that when I engage in both regularly I am much more relaxed and effective.
Both come out of the fact that due to our pre-conceived training on time usage we feel the need to fill every available moment with productivity.
We cram our time with tasks and projects. Most of these are aimed at fulfilling some deadline at work or the appearance of being busy (checking emails every 10 minutes falls under this category).
We get to the end of a day with checklists that are incomplete, actions that will occur again tomorrow and a false satisfaction that comes from being busy.
Busy does not mean productive, nor does it mean money.
What I am sharing with you will not make you less busy, but it may make you more productive. A warning though, these are not quick fixes. They will not work unless routinely applied. The first thing is set time aside each week to think. Diarise it, stick to it and use this time to be creative and to think about solutions to problems.
This is not a time to plan, do that elsewhere. This is thinking time not design time. Take a problem or problems and think about creative solutions. One way to look at this is to outline the current problem, describe it. Then flip it and describe what it would look or feel like if it were not there or solved. Then let your mind churn through creative and innovative solutions.
For example, how can a supermarket improve the checkout experience of its clients? What does the presence experience look like bored customers, long queues, tellers looking sour, card machines often offline.
What would it look like if solved: smiling customers leaving the shop feeling happy, short queues with quick turnaround?
Solutions, there are hundreds, give away random prizes at the till, put up televisions with fun stuff to watch, jazz up the waiting zone with lights on the floor that change colour when you walk over them, hire a random celebrity to come chat to customers for the day, have a trolley queue race. Creative time is important.
We all know this. How many of you believe that ideas are key to your business’ survival? So why aren’t you taking the time to generate them not as a group either.
You need your own thinking time not a company brainstorming session. The second thing is to do something for yourself. I’m not talking about treating yourself to a shopping spree.
Take up a hobby or activity that requires you to be creative, not for anyone else’s satisfaction but yourself. Find something you can lose yourself in for hours.
I said earlier that most of our tasks are aimed at fulfilling some deadline at work. They are aimed at fulfilling something external to us, for an organisation, company or client. Pick something you can enjoy for you. Now it needs to involve creativity or something challenging, preferably something using your hands.
Watching television does not count. Take up writing, art, pottery, do jigsaw puzzles, take dance lessons, woodwork, gardening, learn to code a computer game.
There is an endless list. Why is this important?
Firstly, it makes you value time spent on you. It also allows your brain to meander and flow while you engage in something with no deadlines and no external pressures. It helps to foster and stimulate creativity.
I know that I seem to be asking you to do more in order to do less, but if you can engage in these two activities on a regular (think weekly) basis you will find that your creativity and idea generation is enhanced, your management of yourself will improve, you will be more effective and more fulfilled.

Zach's Two Planning Universes

Today was an experiment. Depending on your point of view, the experiment was a total success, but only because today went so badly. Confused yet? Allow me to elaborate.

The experiment was to see how my day would go if I didn’t take time to plan it, answered all calls to my phone myself (no secretary answering, no voicemail, no missed calls allowed), and if anyone wanted me I had to deal with them. This was despite having a full diary of appointments to keep, and to top it all it was a Monday.

By midday I had received a dozen calls, been interrupted by staff five times (at least two of which required leaving the room I was in), was mentally in a spin and no longer in control of my day. Due to the increased chaos I found myself degenerating in other areas as well, I checked my emails at least hourly, and replied to them.
Lunch was eaten on the run while two clients sat in my reception.

I had no focus, no direction, and got very little meaningful done at the end of the day. My mania was saved by my gym session at the end of the day, which serves as a buffer that allows me to mindlessly vent any trauma from the day into unfeeling mental and get it out of my system, rather than in- advertently unleashing aggravation in the direction of the beautiful lady in my life.

Perhaps my day sounds normal to you? There was a time when it was normal for me, when I was at the mercy of the flood of life.

Life was simpler once in the pre- cyber days, if you were out the office, no one could reach you.

If they wanted your opinion on something they wrote a letter or made an appointment. People kept appointments on time because you could not phone from your car to say you were running late.
Well, that last point is debatable.

Then the cellphone appeared and email became the norm.

We became connected and the world demanded our attention all the time. We can access mail from home, while on holiday in the Bahamas, and not just at work. Roaming means that we can be contacted anywhere at any time in theory.
I know some people who never switch their phones off; even when asleep they put them on silent so at least they can see your missed calls and texts when they wake up. There is more to distract us from our productivity than ever.
Life went from being a gentle stream to a raging river bursting its banks at every opportunity.

Here is another alternative to my Monday from a parallel universe, where Zach chose not to engage in an experiment just because he needed material for an article.

Zach arrives at his office at 8am, despite having to start the day with a pre-arranged earlier meeting.

The next hour is Zach’s time.

His phone is left with his secretary with a strict no disturb rule as he plans his week. Taking into account the total picture of his life, his current goals for the month, quarter and year, Zach checks where his time and energy can best be spent.

He knows that there is a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, that it is Avril’s birthday, lunch on Thursday, and that he needs to spend at least one evening this week with the beautiful lady in his life on a “Date Night”.

Juggling all this into his schedule (Zach is a little old fashioned and writes his in a diary rather than a new fandangled iPad thingy) by the end of the hour, Zach knows what is happening this week.

• The next hour is spent with his secretary re-arranging any meetings that have to be shifted, seeing what he needs from her this week, replying to weekend emails and returning any calls that have come in.

Rather than simply drifting from crisis to crisis, Zach now has specific goals that he can achieve.

He has a list of the top three priorities for the rest of the week. Now Zach is not stupid, he knows that disasters may occur during the week that could hamstring his best laid plans.

Instead of being rigid, Zach is flexible enough to be able to adapt to curve balls. The only thing that Zach is lacking at this point is an idea, for a really cool article that can inspire others because he chose not to turn his life into an experiment.
Somewhere between being totally unplanned and at the mercy of life’s ebb and flow and, at the other extreme, being so rigid in our regime, that we eventually snap when the pressure is too much, somewhere there is the ability to bend and recover from the unexpected yet still have a structure and system to our life.
There is no perfect system to achieving this but here are a few tips.

• Plan your week at the start of it. This planning time is to be uninterrupted and inviolate.
• Pick three top priorities for the week that have a degree of specifics to them.
• Consider the whole of your life when you are planning.
• If you know you have an energy-sapping meeting on Tuesday afternoon then do not plan a romantic dinner with your wife that night.
• Group similar smaller tasks together, the energy from one will carry over into the other.
• Split up unpleasant tasks with buffers; a coffee break, an email check, small things that allow you to recover your energy. Consider leaving a blank slot to fill with emergencies, you can always drop something else into it later if it is free.
• Consider using “cloud based” tools like a Google calendar, that can be accessed by both you and your secretary to help fill in appointments without clashing.
• This may also save you having to phone her to tell her about a new, urgent meeting you have just created.
• Diaries can still work but need a slightly different dynamic of chunking time that your secretary can play with and not double book you.

You can if you wish still choose not to plan things a bit better.

You can just go with the flow and try surf the waves of life.

Of course, sooner or later one of those waves is going to dump you in the ocean and you will have no say in which beach it spews you up in.

The Right Questions

The ability to ask the right questions is crucial when solving a problem. To many people simply start a brain storming session with an undefined problem. E.g. writing on a board “Market Share” and going “any ideas?”. What about it? Do you want it up or down or sideways? Whose market share even? Which Product?

Rather take it a step further. Keep “Market Share” on the board, but ask..

“How can we increase our market share from x%?

“Which of our products can we lever effectively to impact the market more?”

“What is our current target market and how can we increase it?”

“What new markets can we get into?”

These are sample questions, each scenario will have its own. But now it is easy to discuss each one.

Moving Forward

MOVEMENT, it is always happening. Even now as you sit reading you are moving, your eyes are scanning the page, a breeze may ruffle your hair, there is movement.
Our lives reflect this. There is always momentum in our lives, it can be forward or backwards momentum. As individuals we are never really static.
Even a person, who is stationary while the rest of the world moves forward, is in fact going backwards think of sitting in a moving vehicle while you leave your house, the car goes forwards but you leave the “stationary” house behind.
Enough on the theory of relativity, suffice to say you need to be moving forward or else you will naturally fall behind.
Moving forward generally means hitting your deadlines, setting and achieving your goals, improving your quality of life, improving the environment around you, promotions at work, raises, growth in all areas of your life.
You get the idea? Great. Today I would like to examine some of the hindrances to movement in our lives. I want to take a closer look at the ones that we have control over, I see little point in bemoaning things that we are unable to change.
Being comfortable with where you are has to be possibly the biggest single limit to going forward. You get home at the end of a long day, collapse into the sofa, put your feet up and settle there.
You are comfortable. You do not really feel the urge to move, in fact come bedtime the thought of getting up is just too much.
Even though there is a better, more restful bed awaiting you, would rather just stay put on the couch. Now extrapolate that on a larger scale to the rest of your life.
There is nothing wrong with sleeping on the couch, if that is where you want to stay, but there is a much better solution.
We all reach “couch points” in our lives in different areas. Perhaps you are comfortable with your current income, with the neighbourhood you are living in or your attitude towards life in general.
The question is are you stuck in the couch or have you reached the bed? Related to the comfort issue, yet subtly different is the limitation of apathy.
With apathy you may not be comfortable, but you just cannot be bothered any more. You have been dulled and worn out to the point where change no longer matters.
You find fault with anything that could be better, unable to be pleased, using your excuses to justify your laziness and stinking attitude.
Apathetic people refuse to take responsibility for their movement, they expect the world to be handed to them on a silver plate as though they have earned the right by their mere existence.

They blame their employers, their upbringing, the government, the church . . . in fact they blame anything but themselves for their status quo. When you shift blame you shift responsibility and no longer have to move.
Another way of generating a significant amount of apathy is to become preoccupied with time suckers and mind numbers.
Go ahead spend a few hours on Facebook or any other social media. Surf the web randomly. Play computer games for hours.
Read drivel rather than substance. Catch up seven seasons of a series. Go on waste your time. Each of the listed activities is not inherently bad, if done in small doses they may even be beneficial, but there comes a point where they just sap your creativity and will.
It is like getting fat, evidence suggests that there comes a point where the substances produced by fat cells sap your energy, affect your appetite and end up making you grow fatter as you eat more and drop your will to exercise.
While apathy is the extreme, it is safe to say that we all have an internal resistance to movement. In the same way that the initial inertia of a heavy object makes it harder to start pushing than to keep it moving (think of pushing your car).
There is a part of our brain that seeks to keep us where we are. It will make excuses for you, encourage self-sabotage and point out every reason for failure.
Recognise that this is part of you, put it in its little corner to rant, and move forward anyway by recognising all the benefits to moving.
Your resistance feeds off two great stimuli. The first is the voices of other people. Any criticism by others, any negativity, sets your internal resistance off with an “I told you so” and “what if”.
The “what ifs” are fuelled by the second stimulus to your resistance, the fear of the unknown. The future can be guessed at, predicted and imagined but it still remains an unknown factor.
Regardless of how accurate your predictions there is always the element of doubt that things may not go according to plan. Fear can be paralytic, stops you moving.
Alongside the unknown is the fear of apparent lack. This manifests in the waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect before starting a project.
While you wait someone else is going ahead to do the same process. Now I am not talking about recklessness or stupidity, you still need a solid business plan fleshed out with market research before venturing out.
However, there comes a moment when you just need to bite the bullet and go for it, working the details out as you go, correcting mistakes and continuing to go forward.
Why point out all these reasons Zach? Once you can recognise the enemy you can combat it better. Recognising the hindrances to your progress enables you to take charge and over come them. Stop making excuses and move forward lest you find yourself left behind

Its A Kinda Magic

Wonderful! It exists after all! I could fill this article with superlatives to describe a recent shopping experience. I am currently padding around in my new Actos skin shoes (they are a minimalist footwear that basically resembles a latex sock with a thin sole), they are comfortable, funky, and trendy. The best part though was the incredible service experience I had obtaining them. I found an advert in a fitness magazine, looked up the website (www.actos.co.za) and contacted the South African company that distributes them (getting them into Zimbabwe would entail a little more than standard shipping arrangements). From the outset there was a swift response to my query. The real crunch for me came when I emailed a proof of payment to them. It was 8pm at night, I had just got in from a long and social day and was tidying up a few personal odds and ends before bedtime. Sending the email, I expected a reply the next morning when business hours resumed. No such luck. Rather I had a reply 10 minutes later! That was a dedication to service. The supplier would have been well within their rights to deal with it in the morning but they made a choice to deal with it there and then. That little instance has made me a fan for life.

What I have experienced with my shoes it called 'Brand Crush' by Seth Godin. It is the interaction of the magic of the brand and generosity. The magic is the excitement of a new experience with a product or service, in this case the concept of skin shoes; the epic feeling of walking around almost barefoot. The generosity is the giving aspect, for me the sacrifice of Kathy on the other end of an email late at night to deal with my order. I'm sold, I'm hooked, I never want to wear another shoe (well not quite).

I remember the first time I saw a colour television. It was a bulky number that my grandmother had splashed out on. We gathered at the house the weekend it arrived, a bunch of excited kids and adults. It was carefully unpacked, studied, assembled. We waited as it performed the channel search. Then as the screen exploded into colour we were wowed and amazed. Comments about clarity were bandied about the room. We were in love with the magic, with the experience. A few months later we took it for granted. It took flatscreens, LCD's, and retinal displays to recreate a new level of magic for the television.

The magic part will fade a little over time, I will get used to the experience of wearing the new shoes. The generosity has the capacity to keep me there. Generosity can manifest itself in many ways. At a very basic level by giving something away for free. Facebook gave itself away to users. Now those users are getting a little annoyed by the inevitable commercialisation that has come with the need to please shareholders in a public listing. Generosity wins every time you give a service that is above and beyond the perceived value you are paying. It is not always free; the shoes cost me money but the service I received was priceless.

Fed up with Last Minute Stuff?

So much last minute drama, or letting stuff get on top of you?
Check out this post from fastcompany.com

http://www.fastcompany.com/3003586/6-simple-rituals-reach-your-potential-every-day

Where did all the fun go?

Let's get real for a minute, everyone wants to have fun at work, and everyone wants a cool office. If you are a client you do not want to step into dull boredom when you walk into a building, you want to appreciate life, colour, and have a great time. If you include anything in your business culture make sure that you include fun and honesty. You have a culture by default. Every action, interaction, smile or frown adds to the customer's view of who you are. There is no escaping that fact. Everything you do reflects on your core culture. Think of the opposite of these traits - boring and dishonest. No one wants to be friends with someone who's boring or dishonest let alone do business with them. You remember Jim from the cocktail party, the guy who with the monotone who bored you to tears for half an hour while he described the inner workings of his ant farm, imagine doing business with him, sitting for hours in a boardroom while he drones on about an unimportant technical issue. No one likes boring.

 

These two important aspects of a personal outlook on life work hand in hand.

Separating them would be like taking the fizz out of Coke. Ever been talking to someone and realize they are being dishonest? Even though there might be burst of laughter, lots of free drinks and some extra caviar it destroys trust and the dishonest component destroys the "fun" leaving you with flat Coke. Switch it up. An honest person that never has fun is like going to the moon with a soapstone statue. They weigh you down and when you get there there's no one to share champagne with. There's no enthusiasm in the accomplishment. It's terrible. Add fun and honesty to your corporate culture.

 

Let's talk about the bit fun for now. How to add fun: find the sore and mundane practices and make sure they're no longer mundane.

 

Start with your business card. I have a cool party trick for boring business cards I don't want to keep, I throw them away with a flick of the wrist. If you get it right you can send that card soaring about twenty feet into the dustbin. Business cards can be boring. So mix it up a little, create a job-title for yourself that incorporates humour. Instead of 'Personal Trainer' try 'Torture Specialist', instead of 'Accountant' try 'Number Cruncher'. Get people to have a double take when they glance at it. Use that as the springboard for building a relationship.

 

Think of the process that your clients have to go through. Now liven it up a bit. Take the 'transaction' aspect out of the procedure and get it done with a bit of relationship. Think good quality coffee on entering the building so they have something to drink while they queue, chocolates on leaving. Out of the ordinary quotes like Nando's did with their napkins. Think takeaway coffee cups with smiley faces drawn on them. In fact let us break this down to a simple mundane task of going to the bank to get a withdrawal. It has all the potential for boredom; clinical self-grandiosing décor, queueing for an indeterminate time, bureaucracy, oh yes going to the bank ranks highly on my boredom scale.

 

Imagine going to the bank like this. You enter the bank and the first thing that strikes you is the décor. Yes there are security features tucked away here and there, but for a start the bank is not advertising itself. There are massive wallscapes mounted around the hall for you to admire. As you look closely you realise that they are cartoon comic strips. A fellow client sees you noticing and points out that they change them every fortnight. A smiling barista hands you a fresh cup of coffee. The cup is not plain but has a designer quote on it. You fill in the required form and head over to the teller, there is a quote on the slip to remind you that life is not just about transactions but relationships. Someone got the design right, there are enough tellers on duty to ensure your wait time is minimal. The teller is dressed in collar shirt and jeans, formal yet relaxed. She smiles. Your cash is handed to you in an envelope that says 'Most banks give you cold hard cash. But we are a different bank. And so we are giving you warm, caring cash! Use it wisely!' How different is that. Now I wish I could claim originality for that system but Missouri Bank beat me to it (except the comic strip bit, that was me).

 

I can see some people shaking their heads in disbelief; all that effort, all that extra expense, why should we even bother? Here is why. Competition is real. People will remember you more for the fun service they had than the actual product they got from you. They will keep coming back and they will tell their friends. 'But Zach its hardly professional, people want us to be professional'. I never said it was not. Do not mistake fun for unprofessional. Crude would be unprofessional. But when did being professional become synonymous with boredom?

 

Next excuse please? 'Oh but that was an American example.' We live in a global market, get over it. If you want fun, local, and professional then go have a look at Printworks in Mount Pleasant where the coffee shop is right next to the area you place your order. Or get local company CMedia to do a presentation for you. Local companies, right here that are changing it up.

 

It's to easy to slip into a monotonous, transactional business system where laughter had left the building, and smiles have turned upside down. It is easy to settle for cold, grey, and clinical and be happy with it.

 

It's also easy to slip in a few dishonest comments in today's society. It doesn't last. Broken trust is hardly recoverable. The honesty bit in your culture, do what you say you will. Deliver on time. Keep your word. Fun and honesty promotes trust and gives everyone you interact with positive memory. When becomes your culture you no longer even have to try.

BBC Business

Here are a couple of posts from the BBC business section. It worth keeping your tabs on this section of the news giant.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23447529

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20130729-funny-business-at-the-office

The Real Tale of The Three Little Pigs

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. There names were Albert, Herbert and Fansidor (their father being a progressive man had named the last one after surviving a bout of malaria but the clerk at the births registry had spelt the name of the antimalarial wrong). Their names are not really essential to the story. On being kicked out the pigsty they set out into the big wide world and decided to build themselves houses (please in the efforts of literary creativity suspend reality for a bit, I know pigs don't build houses. Unleash your inner child and just play along). Exploiting loopholes in the local building bylaws the first pig managed to build his house of straw. Seeing how easy it was for his sibling to bypass the regional building inspectorate, but wanting to look a little better, the second pig built his of twigs. The third pig turned his nose up at his brothers' endeavours and spend a lot of hours of sweat and labour building his out of bricks. Some time after this the Big Bad Wolf came along. Mr BBW Esq. knocked on the door of the first pig. Peeking through a crack in the wall the pig saw the wolf and, realising the foolishness of letting a hungry carnivore into his home, told him to go away. Mr Wolf being persistant replied 'Little pig, little pig, let me come in or I will huff and I'll puff and blow your house in.' He then proceeded to blow the straw house down and the first pig became bacon. Moving on down the street the wolf repeated the saga with pig two with the same results, although he turned him into ham instead of bacon. Feeling a little more peckish the wolf launched his speech about huffing and puffing at the door of the third pig. Brick, however, is a bit sturdier than straw, and the wolf soon found himself in the throes of an exercise induced asthma attack and having forgotten his inhaler died of shortness of breath. The third pig realising he was onto something went into construction, pitching his sales to clients while seated on a nice wolf-skin fur rug. Here ends the tale of the three little pigs.

The nursery tale of the three little pigs, like most children's stories, has nothing to do with the superiority of brick as a building material. It addresses the far more fundamental issue of character. You can spend your life cutting corners on deals, pulling fast ones on your clients, padding your expense bill at the expense of the company, but you may not be building a character that will last under pressure. Nor will you be the sort of dependable, honest person people want to trust with their dealings. Think back on the times you have been cheated, lied too and swindled. It was not particularly pleasant was it now. So why do it to others.

Periodically I like to glance through the adverts of health magazines. Most of them are about dubiously priced supplements but I found one the other day that astounded me. It promised instant 'abs'. You could, in one short surgical procedure, have your fat liposuctioned and sculpted in such a way that would leave you looking like you had the 'six-pack' of every man's dream. You would not have to lift a single weight. The only snag is that it would not be real. It would still be fat and have no strength behind it. If someone asked you to lift a weight, your crafted flab would be exposed for the fraud it really was. There would be no substance behind the way you looked.

It is no wonder that many people who win the lottery end up as poor as they were beforehand. They do not have the character to cope with the sudden increase in wealth and squander it, much in the same way they would squander the little they had before their windfall.

There is no quick fix to character flaws, but they can be changed. Listen hard to the things people continually complain to you about, take a look at your life and find the area that needs change. Make yourself accountable to someone for your change, they will not change you but are there to be a sounding board if they see you falling apart again. Then pick the character trait that you want to embrace (usually the opposite of the one you are trying to correct). Now, imagine yourself in a situation later today where you would usually fall, and rework it in your mind so it reflects the new trait. Now go and do it like that. Repeat again and again and again until it becomes natural. It is not enough to stop lying, you have to tell the truth. Being on time is not the opposite of being late, being early is the real 'on-time'. Instead of stealing, give something. Instead of being negative all the time, do not just shut your mouth, rather speak words of affirmation. Redig your foundations and create a house out of brick. It takes time, sacrifice, hard work and effort. But you will withstand the storms of life better in a house with a sure foundation.

Do Degrees Matter (or The Art of Dunking Cookies).

I dunked a biscuit in my coffee today. It is an act that may seem trivial but it is the reason for the act that matters rather than the actual earth shattering news that I placed the end of a cookie into a piping hot beverage. My dunking endeavour was inspired by the glorious description of the experience in the film 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', a wonderful movie depicting the trials of a group of elderly British pensioners in India. The dunking description scene takes place as Evelyn, superbly portrayed by Judi Dench, attempts to get a job at a call centre. It is pointed out to her that the group of young people busy fielding and making calls are all university graduates. That point hit home more than the bit about tea and biscuits. A group of university graduates and the best they can manage is a job answering the phone and making scripted sales calls. Apologies to call centre workers everywhere, but it does not take a degree to answer the phone when all you need is common sense and a good take on the language being spoken.

More people than ever are pursuing a university or college career. More and more places are demanding paper behind your name before they will employ you. More and more people are looking at the letters after your name as a sign of your credibility. But is it really all worth it? Does a university degree set you up for success, especially when there is a glut of university graduates on the market?

There is a very powerful statistic bandied about showing that, as recently as 2009, income levels were strongly correlated with education level in the USA. However, as many analysts are quick to point out, correlation does not equal causation. It could just be that the drive and work ethic required to get a degree is the same work ethic that gets you to a place of success in life. I know a number of recent graduates from college both locally and overseas who cannot obtain a job in today's crunch economy.

People who are quick to promote the 'no-degree' path eagerly point out a long list of successful college dropouts who went on to make it big, including people like Bill Gates. What you may miss is that Bill Gates dropped out with the idea to start a company, he already had the idea and a fair amount of the skills, and was positioned at the right place and time to achieve the success he did. I also know a few people locally who have managed just fine without completing a tertiary education. It has not been easy for them; they still needed a vision, strong work ethic and desire to succeed.

The style of education offered in the USA and UK is so expensive that you can graduate with a massive debt hanging over your head that will take you a lifetime to pay off. Yes your degree may get you earning more, it also has you paying off more to the people who funded your degree. At the end of ten years I am not sure if the person who has a four year start on the working pathway will be any worse off than the post-graduate. Fortunately tertiary education in Zimbabwe is still cheaper than most, for now.

I would like to introduce you to the idea of Full Sail University. Specialising in entertainment industry education (think music, film, computer game design), they operate modular, full-time, online and classroom based education. When I say full-time I mean 24-7 operation with two weeks off for good behaviour over Christmas. You graduate with a degree after 2 years of hard work with eight hours of lectures a day. None of this summer break nonsense for three months, you do not get that in the working world so why get it at University.

The world is in a state of flux. Economies are under strain, the corporate system is under criticism, connections and relationships are coming to the fore. With this change comes great opportunity and a need to adapt. Education styles are shifting (or should be) to compensate for the new ways of obtaining information.

So where does the answer lie? Perhaps the answer lies in more thinktank, mentorship style practical programs akin to the apprentice system. Perhaps universities need to rethink their current options. Ultimately education should teach you how to think, how to obtain and process information, how to problem solve based on first principles. For some there will always be a need for skill acquisition, doctors for example will need to practice surgery somewhere. More than skills though it is the impartation of an attitude that will set you on the path to success. It matters not so much whether you get a degree or not, nor how you get it, but hard work will always be required to obtain success. Hiring for attitude is way more important than hiring for qualification. You can have a nice set of letters after your name, but if you are basically lazy or unwilling to serve clients I am not interested in employing you. If your degree has meant that you have spent the last three years of your life attending four lectures a day and doing little else constructive I may worry, just a little, that you expect the working world to be that easy.

Regardless of your education, if you think that you can set up a company and just walk away without attending to it on a frequent basis then you are either gifted or seriously deluded. Growing a vision into reality, building a reputation, setting up systems, monitoring and correction all take an effort that stems from the right attitude. Sure you can buy a 'kombi' and set it on the street with the demand for a hundred dollars a day from the driver and have it run around without you thinking about it till day end and call it a business. All you have to do is take a ride on the joke of a public transport system we have in Harare to realise the result of an uncontrolled system. All it will take is a well operated, friendly, reliable system that cares about its travellers to be introduced and bang will go the kombi business (of course it is easy to write that, the reality is much harder). Attitude matters.

Learning should be a lifestyle regardless of formal or on-the-job training. Read. Write. Debate. Learn to argue a point. Learn to question the status quo, to explore and come up with alternatives. If the only job you can get with your degree is a call centre operative it better be a stepping stone for you to greater things, not the final destination.

Expand your business by being an access point

Africa is poised to grow at a rate of 5% per year. The World Economic Forum discussed it in great length in Cape-town, where I was honoured to be one of the moderators. “Can Africa live up to it’s promise?’ It’s the question in the room at the moment. What does this boil down to; lots and lots of opportunity needs lots and lots of cooperation and trust. Many times at the WEF the talks were about spring board platforms for talent and new ideas. Such platforms need cooperation and trust. Does politics or economics drive Africa?

In the past Africa has had a reputation of being “difficult.” I’m not just talking about local laws or government policies but the overall supportive culture of BIG ideas.

Are there opportunities in Africa? Yes massive ones and it’s no secret, but the better question is “Where are the access points?”

There are opportunities in China right now that will blow your mind. There are opportunities in Tete, Mozambique, the fastest growing city in the world. There are opportunities in Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Bolivia-and you probably know of a few more. We’ve had the conversations and they go like this… “You know what city is absolutely booming with opportunity…” Then it goes into a long story that you heard from some guy, that CNN picked up and did a short story on and so on. The only problem is you have no idea how to get involved or how to reach there.

We all know there’s opportunity, but not all of us have the access. You might be someone that has an “access point’ and not even know it? Do you have a good reputation in your city, a positive stream of endorsements, and do you trust yourself with people and introductions? Do you relate well with people, are you trustworthy, can you keep a secret if you need? If the answer is yes you could very well be an owner of an “access point.” If you don’t have a good reputation then you might want to start mending the bridges, repaying your debts, and start being this link for people who know there’s opportunity but can’t get to them.

How to be an access point:

People will pay a lot for trust - be honest and trustworthy.

Trust is earned over time. If you are willing to breach contracts, sell out to a higher bidder when you already gave your word, or just blatantly lie, then forget being trusted, and do not expect to be an access point.

Be accessible.

Nothing is worse then having an access point that you can’t access. Answer your phone, answer emails, create a good reputation when it comes to communication.

Connect people up even when you don’t get paid.

It’ll add to your reputation which will in the end lead you to more opportunities. Be a networker of ideas. Think about how you heard about your current mechanic, your current doctor, your accountant, your lawyer. Chances are it was through word of mouth. Someone connected you with them. Now take that concept and expand it beyond the sharing of professional services to connecting people in different spheres, different parts of the world.

Open up your world.

There might not be an immediate opportunity but if you’ve met someone with confidence and high values then finding a connection point might be around the corner. Be attentive to conversation. It will be in the seeming random, non-formal communication that you can pick up people are looking for. Some of the greatest opportunities may lie waiting at the office coffee dispenser. Many times we focus on where we are at and what we’re doing and by default only see opportunities where we are looking. Lift up your head from your desk and look around you. See what is available.

Churchill said 'You make a living by what you get, but you create a life by what you give'.

Being an access point often means being a giver. Connecting people is at its core an act of giving, you are giving away an opportunity that you may not be able to take advantage of on your own. But the result is so much bigger than anything that you could do individually that it is too good not to. Remember the hosepipe, that as it connects the tap to the plants, it too gets wet.

An Inconvenient Truth

'For every dollar you spend, 10c will go to poor starving children somewhere in the world.' 'Shoes, let's give shoes to the poor children in Africa so they can walk to school.' 'Our product comes from sustainably harvested forests where we pour back into local communities every time you buy a bag of our over priced offering.' Corporate social responsibility has invoked some of the biggest load of marketing hogwash ever dreamed up by Wall Street spin doctors. It is another layer of gloss in the facade dreamed up to help you not think that your brand new jersey might just have paid the annual wage for some poor barefoot machinist in a Bangladesh sweatshop. Hey wait a minute, we live in Africa, surely we are immune to the fabrications and machinations of Big Brother capitalist empires. Nah not really. If anything we are to be pitied all the more for allowing ourselves to be made into the unwilling victim in grandiose schemes, created to placate to consciences of the stupid consumer elsewhere.

Now that I have stood on a few toes I can see people perking up and going, 'Wait a minute do not these community schemes work? Are not the recipients of all this aid, welfare, and exchange better off than they were before we got involved in their lives?' Perhaps. But why do you have the need to broadcast your philanthropy to the world? Could you not just do the work, engage in the schemes anyway, and if the occasional discerning patron inquires then you can point out that 'hey we really are doing some good work in the world.'

My problem with corporate social programs is that I wonder if, more often than not, they are motivated by what they can get out of the deal rather than what they can give. That this is not charitable work at all but simply another transaction to be benefited from and marketed to the level of stupidity. Why should we invite the local politician to the opening of a new borehole in a rural community? Is it in the hope of currying favour with his party by giving him a soapbox to stand on? What ever happened to the idea of seeing a need and filling it, without any extra reward, thanks, or gratification, apart from the knowing in your soul that you changed lives today.

I question whether sometimes the 'we give back' slogans are not just a way of tapping into the emotions of a client who gets a little buzz every time he buys the product. That you are selling a convenient form of giving that makes a customer feel better because he no longer has to think about making a real difference in his community because 'I gave to Africa today'. And that 'little buzz' is capitalised on to make him keep buying the product. I question if we have got it all wrong.

That the wrongness stems from the very start of our companies, from the very core of our being. We all have dreams. That is Lesson One from any book on self actualisation that 'You Have a BIG Dream that YOU can Achieve.' Then we spend the next twenty five chapters learning how to make OUR dream become a reality, a reality that benefits US. That our visions for our company, for our lives ignore the real needs of those around us. Because we are so focused on ourselves when a need comes along we immediately view it through the tinted glasses of 'how WE can benefit from our own act of charity'. That the prosperity gospel often comes across as 'Give so YOU can receive'. That the focus of our giving becomes about us and what we can get, not about the recipient, forgetting that in any harvest part of the harvest is sown again to perpetuate the cycle.

Vision is not a bad thing. Dreams are not a bad thing. But they should be tools rather than the real end goal. What point is there in building a great company but failing to build a great nation in the process? At the end of your career how different will the housing that your workers live in be compared to now? What would it take to improve the lives of those that work for you, and in a manner that does not result in them being in indebted servitude to you, but in a way that equips them to get up the rung one extra step? Housing is one example, but there is electricity, sanitation, education, health care. Then there is the non-humanitarian aspect of the planet we live in; our wildlife, flora, and aquatic systems.

Our giving back needs to be part of who we are and what we do. It does not need to be publicised or advertised. It should be done in a manner that allows maximum benefit (think above 90 percent of the proceeds) to reach the intended target, not wasted on advertising, fancy stage hire, or salaries of executives managing the process. It should be well targeted; take care of your own community. Where is the benefit of building a rural education centre if your own staff cannot afford to send their own children to school?

There will always be need. While no one person can solve every problem or give to every need, there is something each of us can do. With pure motives and sucking up the inconvenience of the actions, we can all find a way to quietly and genuinely help with no obvious reward.

Make things better. Not for the pomp and circumstance but because it is the right thing to do.

Time Marches On

DO you hear it? Listen carefully. It is very, very faint and easily drowned out by the louder random noises that clutter your life. There it is the subtle sound of sand running through the hourglass of
your life. It is the invisible, inevitable process of time ticking away never to be regained, never to be reused.
This morning, unless you are one of the unfortunate souls whose time was permanently cut short, you woke to 86 400 seconds of precious time to be spent in any way you see fit.
Here is a nasty experiment, subtract your age from 70. Now take that number, divide it by 0,7. The answer is the average percentage of your life you have left.
If you are on the other side of 35 the answer is a real shocker.
We do not really have a lot of time. So I get rather annoyed when someone tries to waste it.
I spent some time on the doingbusiness.org  website, part of the World Bank Group, after someone suggested I look at it.
If you google “doing business in Zimbabwe” the first search result is our national profile so I would say it is worth having a look.
The results were not very encouraging: 90 days to register a business from scratch, 106 days to get electricity to a new factory, 53 days on exports.
It was a painful read. Ninety days to register a business is only three months, but compared to South Africa’s 19, America’s six, and China’s just over 30, it looks like a living hell.
Did you know that there are 49 taxes and rates to be paid during a business year?
It is all there giving potential investors a snapshot of business in our nation and the burden of bureaucracy that snares us up.
The burden that wastes the little precious time that we all have.
Now you may question the accuracy of the results on the website all you like, but that is what the world sees and reads.
The real question is anyone doing anything about it?
As consumers are we demanding better services from our authorities or are we all blindly fetching the municipal inspector when we have already paid a fee that would cover his transport.
Inefficiency costs us. We can rant at the authorities all we like for the lengthy processes they put us through, but we then proceed to put our clients through the same pain.
Why should we wait for more than 20 minutes at the doctor’s office for a scheduled appointment?
If the meeting is from eight to 10, why does it start at 8.30? We have a culture that tolerates tardiness and excuses late delivery.
How much quicker would you get things done if I deducted 10 percent from your fee for every day you failed to deliver on time?
You cannot manage time. You know this. You cannot speed it up, you cannot slow it down.
You cannot command the sun to set earlier or later, or the seasons to halt their progress from one to the other.
You cannot manage time, but you can manage yourself.
Time management is self-governance.
Plan
Use “spare” time to plan your day. Spare time includes that increasingly long drive to work.
Reschedule your daily programme if it makes you more effective. If getting to work takes you an hour, try leaving earlier to beat the traffic.

Explore different routes to home and work
I take a different route home in the evening to my morning trip simply because it is so much quicker.
Under promise and over deliver. Leave a little margin for error on the end of every shipment, but personally ship within the time-frame.
Do not use your margin as an excuse but use it as a way of showing great service when your product arrives “early”.
Show up early for meetings
Include travel time when planning meetings. Do not set a meeting for 10am when you know that you have one earlier that only ends at that time.
It is so easy to overlook this when staring at your diary that works in one hour long blocks.
Leave a margin for travel if you are not hosting consecutive meetings at the same location (anyone doing business in Johannesburg knows this).
If someone is 15 minutes late for an hour long meeting then they only get 45 minutes of your time.
If you are 15 minutes late and have not had the decency to call or reschedule give them the whole hour, but make sure you call before your next meeting to reschedule.
Listen carefully. Do you hear that? The sand of time is still flowing away in the hourglass, you had better do something with it.

Busy and Productivity : The Great Myth

'Bingity bingty beep' goes your phone as yet another Whattsapp text from some random group pops onto your screen. 'Boip' another email enters your inbox. 'Plop' the messenger drops a REAL letter on your desk. Your Skype notification informs you that Adam in America has come online (you never speak to him, but it is good to know he is online). The ticker on your twitter feed keeps going as another one of the important people you follow (in case they ever actually bothered to notice your own posts) spews out some random comment about their breakup/new single/world peace. Perhaps it is time to check Facebook again and see if your news feed has changed in the last ten minutes. What about Instagram and Linked In? 'Boig' goes your email...or was it the phone? So busy. There is no time. So distracted. So unfocused.

We live in this illusion of being busy and think that being busy equals results. Then when an opportunity presents itself we are too busy to give it a second glance. But are we busy or are we just distracted. With all the extra sources of information and distraction in our lives it is easy to think that we are solving the world's problems when in fact we are getting nothing done. Being busy and working hard is only half the equation. You should also be effective. Unless Facebook is an effective part of your work (and you better have a good measure of how much revenue you generate from spending time on it) save it for another time or deactivate your account and watch what happens to your time.

Rare are the humans that can truly multitask. Sorry to break it to you there but your mind is capable of a single chain of thought at one time. Need proof? Think of the happiest event of your life. Now simultaneously think of the worst. See you can't., flip flopping between the two does not count. You can jump chains of thought but you can only ride the train of your mind on one piece of rail at a time. That means every time your phone rings while you are focused on your computer screen you have to leave what you are doing, answer the phone, and then try to recapture that molecule of neuronal firing you had five minutes earlier. Voltaire said that no problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. Sustained thinking people, he did not say 'the assault of broken thinking'. If you find yourself jumping from task to task every five minutes you will probably never get any of them done effectively.

So how can we take our 'busy' and translate it into 'effective'.

You should have a priority strategy. There are a number of strategies that work for different people from simple numerical ranking of your to-do-list to more complex time framed algorithms. I do not really care about what you use but decide what is important and what is not. Here is one that I use regularly. Take a piece of paper and divide it into four squares. Label them: High Priority/High Urgency, High Priority/Low Urgency, Low Priority/High Urgency, Low Priority/Low Urgency. Put what you need to do into one of the boxes. Then start tackling the first box. Not sure about what is high priority, here is a list of things that should take priority from Emergingideas.com . Priority: thanking people, doing the biggest task first, reading and writing more, connecting people, producing results, being helpful, being present, brainstorming, following up and following through, finishing assigned responsibilities.

Invest time into activities. Chunk out time to do things, enough time to bring you to completion of the activity or to a set point. In order to get this article out I need to chunk at least an uninterrupted hour to write it out (that does not include the other chunks set aside for brainstorming, the research, and conceptualising of the article). For that hour my phone is on silent (real silent and not vibrate), my secretary knows not to interrupt me unless the world is ending, and I am alone in my little world focused on producing the best possible article for you to read. See you didn't know that you were that special.

If you absolutely have to use social media then chunk it as well. Set aside the time to do it, and set an alarm so you only spend the allocated amount of time to the task of gossiping through news feeds. Treat emails with the same contempt. Check them twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and less on weekends if at all. If it is really that urgent the person will call you. Turn off your smart phone feeds (it will save you internet cap), or switch them onto silent at least. Control the volume of information coming at you, come up with reporting strategies that allow you to keep tabs on your business without micromanaging every order and task.

The successful are busy but they never respond 'I've been busy'. Shift your perspective to being effective. You will probably still be busy, but you will get what matters done.

Leave and Work

THE Easter break has come and gone and if you are like me you are back at work relishing the idea of a short week due to the past long weekend.
My calender resembles Swiss cheese the way the next two months are peppered through with breaks.
We have pretty good leave and holiday terms here in Zimbabwe and unless you are paid hourly or facing a crippling overtime bill there are no complaints about the extra time off.
Seeing as we have all this free time floating around I thought we could address it a bit, the good and the bad.
Breaks are important. There is no doubt about that. Humans need regular rest time, physically, mentally and spiritually.
Across the world we have weekends, time off and holidays of various lengths, most of it enshrined in legislation and contract.
Keeping the Sabbath holy has been around for thousands of years. So here is the good part.
Take a day off once a week and do nothing. Nothing is not quite true.
Keep physical exertion to a minimum but take the day to reflect and recharge.
Engage in spiritual activity, the Sabbath is not so much about rest as about honouring God. Meditate. Think or read. Now for the part no worker really wants to hear.
The flip side of taking one day off a week is you have to work the other six! What, work six days a week and not five?
That is correct. What about the weekend? Is not the two days off at the end of the week entrenched in the core of our very souls?
No it’s not, now work. I am not just talking about office work you munchkin.
Work on your home, your garden, your family or your vehicle (if you wash it with your kids you get to hit car and family at the same time).
And if you want, work on your business. Make your day productive, not just spent vegetating in front of the “idiot box”.
“But you don’t understand I am so tired after Friday”. No I understand perfectly, you are lazy.
Working that extra day is a 20 percent boost to your life’s productivity.
So I had a job. I got a month vacation leave, 12 days annual leave, 11 public holidays, three months sick leave, periodic compassion leave, and weekends.
It is a wonder I got anything done. Between the first three alone that works out at over 15 percent of my time off work while I got paid for doing nothing.
I am not against leave.
I just think we need to be a little smarter about it, both as employers and employees.
Would two weeks leave a year be enough? Perhaps not, but it is a question worth asking.
I can see mental cogs turning, employers going “but we would need to increase salaries to make up for the extra time worked”, employees going “work more you got to be kidding me right”.
The real issue is that we need to shift away from a mentality that seeks to screw over the system for everything it has got, to one that values productivity and fosters growth.
In the organisation that offered me the job above no one worked overtime, people would stop working 30 minutes before the end of the day in order to pack their bags so that they could leave right on time.
Any attempt to put in any extra effort earned you the wrath of your colleagues.
It was a very destructive community and I got out as soon as possible.
Now I believe in breaks and vacations. There is nothing more energising than an extended time away from your desk.
But use the time wisely. Rest a lot but also use the time to achieve things you would not normally be able to do.
Too many people go on leave and just sit at home and do nothing more than wear out a path between the fridge and the sofa.
It is fine to do that once in a while, but not for an entire month. Plan your leave time. Go away.
Travel and expose yourself to other ideas. Even if you cannot get out of the country, head somewhere locally and not so you can just sit in your hotel room the whole time either.
Google things to do and see in the area. Use your holiday to expand yourself, take books to read, plot family activities, explore a different culture.
Do not do so much that it tires you out, but stay productive all the same.
Keep a journal, jot down ideas for the office that may come up so you can put them into practice when you get back to work.
Switch off your phone, forget your email, and remember what it is like to live without interruptions (see how much you can actually get done without interrupting your chain of thought to check your Facebook account every half hour).
Make it a memorable time in building relationships within your family.
Take the concept of productivity and expand it beyond the boundaries of your office.
I went through two and a half books this weekend, they were fun, easy reading but expanded me a little bit more in terms of exposure to good writing.
There is a balance between work and play. Too much work and you will have an early heart attack.
Too little and you may not have enough money and starve to death.
In the words of ancient wisdom “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a thief and want like an armed man”.

The Great Gym Deception

Gyms have to be filled with the biggest load of body dysmorphics in
the world; each trying to achieve some Adonis inspired impossibility
of perfection and becoming even more dysmorphic in the process. Last
week, if you remember, I griped about my gym subscription, I thought I
would carry on with the trend. Many people go to gym essentially out
of fear; fear of rejection by the girl across the room, fear of the
fat-induced heart attack, fear that you do not live up to the
photoshopped expectations of the Men's Health cover guy. Others go to
satisfy the macho-image of bench pressing a ludicrous amount of metal
in the name of manhood. Seriously when else do you ever lie on your
back and push a weight off your chest. Unless you are a mechanic and a
VW golf falls on top of you I fail to see the practical benefit of the
bench press. “Ah but bru it gives you better pecs.” Sure, that's a
great reason for performing a non-functional exercise with massive
shoulder wrecking capabilities if done wrong. Despite all this I
really love gym. A convenient way (not the only way) to get some
exercise in and a great endorphin release. I still cannot justify the
expense at the new subscription rates though.

Here is my problem with gyms. They are a luxury experience at the high
end of my expense bill. Like most businesses in Zimbabwe they are
targeting the small minority of people with an above average income.
All the gyms are basically competing for the same, finite pool of
individuals. It is like being in a room of starving people and
fighting over the same small pot of sadza instead of cooking up
another batch from the ingredients in the kitchen. Only one gym in
recent history came into the local market with a strategy of targeting
new clients and even then I do not see it happening any more. What we
have is a pool of professional gym hoppers, people who shift from one
gym to the other. What we do not have is large numbers of people who
have never done gym before trying it out and sticking with it. What we
do not have is a sustained marketing strategy aimed at converting
people over to the product, no one is increasing the size of the sadza
pot.

It takes effort to come up with a way of targeting new clients and
building a relationship with them. The process can be scripted and
systematic, but it needs to be intentional. As a business you cannot
sit around and expect clients to fall into your lap. You have to be
intentional about targeting them, reaching out, and keeping them. Nor
should you be waiting for a lull before you jump into action. It needs
to be part of your process from the opening all the way through. If
you focus on enriching the lives of the client rather than lining your
pocket you will probably do a better job at keeping them. So for the
gym, that means being a little more concerned about my health and
fitness than about just increasing your fees, because if you take care
of me well enough I may just bring a friend along to train.

This is not a gym unique problem. It affects almost any business in
the country right now.

I was reminded this last week of a quote from the 1954 movie Sabrina,
where Linus Larrabee is explaining to his brother his motivation for
business;

'A new product has been found, something of use to the world. A new
industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines go
in and you're in business. It's coincidental that people who've never
seen a dime now have a dollar and barefooted kids wear shoes and have
their faces washed. What's wrong with an urge that gives people
libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday
night?'

If we keep fighting over the same pot of food we will never grow as a
nation. If we never bother to grow other people and enrich their lives
we will never grow as a nation. If our business is all about just us
getting money, getting fat, and never giving anything back we will
never grow as a nation. It is that simple. We will become a bunch of
greedy, corrupt people, happy to screw each other over in the name of
gain; a bunch of people the rest of the world will never want to deal
with because all we ever do is take.

I want to leave you with another quote from Sabrina, “Making money
isn't the main point of business. Money is a by-product.” Have a great
week.

What Really Matters

Grey's Anatomy has to be one of the most emotional television series in the world (well the current season anyway).
It is a behind the scenes, dramatic look at the world of emergency medicine. It still, however, gets it wrong.

It really fails to get across just how much effort goes into performing a surgery.
Yes, they show the cutting and sewing, but in the essence of high moving drama they leave out a whole chunk of the administration bits.
They leave out the sterilising of equipment, the major disinfecting and cleaning, the often numerous trays of theatre equipment that are on standby, the systems of booking theatre time, of ordering and pumping anaesthetic into the theatre, the waste disposal.
Unless you are in the medical field you have no idea what the real goings on in a theatre are, you just don’t see the complexity of the backend.
Primarily an IT term in website design, the backend refers to the whole bunch of stuff that takes place behind the scenes that the client never gets to see. And for the most part the client does not really care.
Most clients only care about the front-end, the bit that they interact with and that they see.
For the most part the client doesn’t even think about what happens at the back, unless you are like me, of course, and are fascinated by what makes things tick.
I am the sort of guy that will fly into a new city and be intrigued by how they dispose of the daily waste of 10 million people without you really noticing that the rubbish disappears every week never to be seen again.
This is probably an intrigue that is fuelled perhaps by the failure of my rubbish to vanish more than twice a month. But then Zach is a bit of an oddity.
As a client, if you think about it hard enough it makes sense that there are systems that happen behind the scenes, that there must be banking, billing, accounting, stock ordering, tracking, data capture and storage etc.
But in all reality it never really crosses your mind. For a patient in theatre all that matters is that they go in, are operated on and resuscitated with their problem solved and preferably without pain.
And that is the crux of any client interaction in any business, I go in with a problem and you solve it for me as painlessly as possible with a perceived cost-benefit in my favour.
It is only when the backend has a problem that interferes with the front-end that the client may actually care.
So how do you build a great front-end and a solid backend to support it?
Well start at the beginning of the problem-painfree solution-cost benefit idea.
Learn to identify what your clients really want. The man who walks into a sports shop asking for a new set of golf clubs does not just want a new piece of sporting equipment, what he wants is to better his game of golf.
If you just sell him a set of clubs he may be happy, if you sell him a set of clubs that improves his handicap he will be ecstatic, and will tell his mates on the green what a difference you made in his life.
That may require a better sales pitch, better research into what each club does, a little scientific application into what the best club length to golfer height ratio is, and an indoor driving range to practice his swing on so he can see the benefit while in your store.
But I am getting ahead of myself. First really ask what the client wants experientially. Once you know the problem you can accurately identify the solution.
Solution solving if more of us did this our lives would be better. Now for a little application of the KISS principle. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid.
Fifty step solutions help no one. Both in the front-end where your client will hate it and in the backend where some poor staff member has to work the magic.
The more steps there are, the greater the chance that something may go wrong.
The more parts, the less the chance of perfection and (not always) greater the cost.
Building a simple system takes as much, and if not more, time as a building a complicated one because you have to cut through the crap.
ZBC changed strategy from giving fines to offering solutions. You can buy your radio licence disc there in the car park.
You are no longer penalised on the street. They cut out a whole system that was open to circumvention, which annoyed people on end and involved a lot of administration. They identified the problem and found an answer for it.
Now the last bit, perceived cost benefit. At the end of this month I will be cancelling my gym subscription.
It just went up by 50 percent and no explanation given. Whatever backend processes created this decision I could not care.
I can find better ways of spending US$1 000 a year (new prices) than on fitness, and I can find cheaper ways of keeping fit.
There is no change in terms of benefits for me after this massive cost increase beyond the level of inflation.
So for them to make money at the new rates they have to hope that one in three current members do leave.
Cost benefit is difficult to gauge at times and requires a chunk of research (more that “wow we need more money”).
However, if you can correctly identify and simply solve your client’s problem they will probably be willing to pay a little bit more.

The Best Return on Investment Ever

Ladies and gentlemen, abandon all your other endeavours! Forget diamonds, I have found it!
I have found the best possible return you can get on an investment, one that will give
you up to 100 000 percent return on your money.
All you need is a piece of paper and be in a position to offer a legally required service that no one else can possibly offer.
It is the beginning of the year and like most businesses I needed to renew my City of Harare health certificate (nice little paper that allows me to do business in the city).
So I sent for the application form (no it is not available online). It cost me US$20 to just get the form, a single A4 printed piece of paper. Now a piece of blank A4 paper costs less than two cents. This translates into over a 100 000 percent return. Even with the printing on it, it is unlikely that the price per sheet will come to more than 20 cents (and that is a very generous estimate), that is still a 100 times mark-up on the cost of the paper.
I am obviously in the wrong business. Not only that, after filling out the paper I was then informed that I would have to fetch the inspector and bring him to the premises to inspect them.
Let us pause and examine this once again, I have just paid US$20 for a piece of paper and I now have to fork out transport for the inspector to come to my offices!
There is something very wrong with this picture. I’m sorry City Council but I fail to see why you cannot take a few dollars from the 20 that I have just paid and send the inspector yourselves!
It is just wrong.
For those of you unaware of the process, once approved I then have to cough up the rest of the annual fee (somewhere in excess of US$300).

Now don’t get me wrong, I am happy to pay US$20 for a health inspection fee.
The way the system is structured, however, makes it look to me like I am paying an exorbitant price for a piece of paper. Perhaps paying for the form is to stop people walking into the department and picking up 50 application forms to use as free note taking paper at home?
I don’t know and honestly I don’t care. What I care about is the perceived injustice of the whole situation.
The fact that this is one of three statutory registrations I have to do annually in this particular field (one of them is a duplicate health inspection) is another bone of contention. But enough ranting about City of Harare et al, let’s talk about us.

Perception
It is what our clients think about us. It is what makes us pay US$800 for an unlocked iPhone and think we are getting the better part of the deal (well double that if you live in Zimbabwe, that is if you are crazy enough not to make a plan to get it outside the country).
It is why you shop at one supermarket and not another (because it fits your status and price level). It is why you have still not left the country in search of a perpetually “greener pasture” and rather rave about our weather and the benefits of cheap domestic help.
Perceptions are complex little things based on current and previous experience, and emotion.
I had blood tests last week. It took me three days to get the courage to go to the labs, simply because my perception was “needle equals pain”.
This was based on past experiences punctured by less than wonderful situations involving syringes and blood when I was 10.
My heart was racing as I handed over the form, my palms were sweaty and my throat dry and no needle had even been produced.
That is the power of perception - it is so powerful that if you hate needles merely reading my description probably has set off a sinking feeling in your gut.
Creating a positive perception in the minds of your client is important.
Fortunately, my bloody ordeal ended well, an ex-ICU nurse bled me with only a minor prick, I did not pass out and have recalibrated my perception (but only to that lab, mind you).

Imagine this scenario on renewing a licence/annual fee. A month before renewal I get a polite email reminder that the time to embark on the process is due.
It clearly outlines the next steps including the amount due. I can either log onto a website or visit the offices where I can fill in a free form and THEN pay electronically or in cash for my application fee.
This fee includes the cost of the inspector’s transport.
When he visits within the next week (after receiving an appointment notice from him so that I am present when he arrives) it is a pleasant experience pointing out areas I need to stay on top of.
I can then pay the annual fee via the website or through the swipe machine that the inspector brought along. Now for some parts of the world this is normal. If you are reading this from the USA or UK you are probably amazed that something so simple can go so strangely wrong.

Much has been said in the past about looking through the customer’s eyes. But we rarely do that in our bid to rip people off. If we do, it is likely that we fail to really see through the client’s eyes, we see through our own biased opinion.
It takes a lot of effort to step back, watch clients objectively, and change things to make a difference.
Planting secret shoppers and reviewers is one way of achieving this while hiring of consultants is another.
Simple cold logic works as well, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that putting products meant for the elderly on the bottom shelf where they cannot reach without bending down is rather stupid.
But none of this matters unless it results in change. Real meaningful change. Fortunately, I have to wait a year before dealing with the City Council again.

In Bad Taste: A Case of the Selfish Joker

The body of Oscar Pistorius’ girlfriend had barely reached the morgue and the jokes were already flying around the web.
Many of them making reference to his lack of lower limbs or Nike’s sponsorship record
with disgraced athletes.
And we all laughed at them and went on with our lives.
A woman was shot! She died! It is not funny! Yet we laugh.
When the Challenger space shuttle blew up, when Princess Diana died, when Discovery exploded, the jokes flew around the world turning a tragedy into a trivial bit of harmless fun.
It doesn’t seem so funny now, does it? Why though, why our insensitive ability as humans to create memes and jokes at the misfortune of others?
One of the reasons is that we are distant from the event; I don’t know Oscar, why should I care.
There is another reason, one that cannot be so flippantly disregarded.
We use the opportunity to make ourselves feel better about our situation and lives.
Birthed out of selfishness, the idea of belittling someone else takes the focus off our failings and inadequacies.
That is why reality television does so well, the greater the stuff ups by the performers the better we feel about our poor, snivelling situation.
We are selfish. Sorry, there is no getting away from it.
We care more about what we can get and how we can get ahead of everyone else than about making a real difference.

How can we be less selfish? How can we be more outward looking and care a little more for others?
There are two ways to make yourself feel good.
One is to belittle someone, to make fun at their expense and be satisfied that you are “better than them”.
The other is to genuinely help them out, make a positive contribution in their life to help them get out of their situation.
That generates a different feeling inside; one that, despite the cost of time and effort, lightens your soul. I am so glad that someone took the time to help me learn to dress well, rather than laughing at my outdated fashion sense.
The great advantage you have if you run a business is the capacity to expand this ability to reach and build the lives of thousands.
Your product expands your reach, one client at a time, far beyond what you can do merely as an individual.
I remember a story about the supermarket chain Tesco’s that tells of how rather than cramming as many checkout counters in as possible into stores they decided to keep the aisles wide enough for people to comfortably move through them.
A small change but a meaningful one for a harried and flustered customer at the end of the day who does not need the added aggravation of frequent shopping trolley accidents.
What does it take to donate goods to a worthwhile cause, not because you want the publicity, but because you desire to make a difference?
Or unpretentiously and quietly building up the lives of those who supply your raw materials (think grocery store and supporting rural fresh vegetable production).
It takes a change in mindset to look a little more outside our small and cloistered wor

An exercise in colouring for business

Take the picture below.
Print it out.
Colour it in before reading on.

Chances are you coloured in the lines like you were taught when you were grade one. Being in the lines is safe. It is also boring and involves no risk.
Our conditioning to stay in the lines (risk free and avoiding punishment) does not serve us well when we need to take risks.
Go on, reprint it, scribble, scrawl, tear it up outside the lines, enjoy the satisfaction of breaking the nonexistant rule.
PS While you at it dont use green for the grass either.
PPS The origional pic can be found at http://www.myfreecolouringpages.com/zoo_animals_coloring_pages/moose1.htm

The News : Richard the Who

Do you suffer from news addiction? Checking Google News or Yahoo's main page every hour (at least). Keeping the news channels on permanently in the background. Panicking about the slightest change in policy. I can sympathize, I used to be there.

This week in the UK news the world of British archaeology raged about the discovery of Richard III's body and confirmation that it was him. Great detective work and a well executed plan to discover it (seriously they planned the whole thing and succeeded..that's impressive). BUT WHO CARES! Really, a tainted history portrays him as a throne stealing king whose greatest feat seems to be being the last king to die in battle on British soil. It may be news, but my life will go on regardless. I am none the richer for the discovery (then again I'm not really British now am I).

Make news that matters. What matters in the lives of your clients and customers? What can you do that will bring them real, positive emotion and enrich their day. That is the newsworthy you should be aiming for. The therapist that spends an extra uncharged 15 minutes with their client because they will benefit from it, the cashier who smiles at each customer and suggests options for them to buy the next time, the lawyer who delivers a manifest containing some of his best work early. Creating art. Going the extra mile. Making news. You may not get on CNN with it, but you can get some great word of mouth.

Revisitation

Imagine if I published the same article each week. You would give up reading after a while.
What if everyday was just like yesterday, exactly the same second for aching second, 24 hours of monotony with your only consolation being that it will be repeated again tomorrow.
Same food, same bad jokes, same mistakes, never moving forward, stuck in an endless cycle of repetition, revisiting where you have already been.

For more on revisitation have a look at http://emergingideas.com/the-revisitation

Break the cycle in your business that keeps going over the same ground.

Expand!

You would not rate the death of a loved one on the same scale as say breaking a cup. The emotion is different; the intensity of the pain varies hugely. Yet when your life is filled with small things the scope for level of intensity narrows immensely.
Everything is so small that the same emotion gets attached to everything. That is why people can become paralysed by the smallest infraction in their little world.
A few years back in the UK a drivers’ strike caused panic buying by people who feared massive food shortages (they obviously knew nothing about Zimbabwe).
A woman in the supermarket was overheard complaining that “there is no butter!” because her particular brand had run out, despite there being 10 brands available. Small thing. Narrow world.
It is the perspective that matters. You can choose to focus on the pebbles on the path or you can look to the top of the mountain you are climbing and imagine the view from the top. Keep small in its place. And let the small help you accomplish the big, not the other way around.

A Coffee Experience

Follow the story of Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters as reported by Emerging Ideas. Some great lessons on bootstrapping, a vision and some excellent coffee.

How to Build an Oscar Winning Business

It was with tumultuous joy and celebration that I went off to the newly refurbished Eastgate movie house to watch a 3D movie. Not just any movie, mind you, but a recent release less than a month after its US release date. Well done to the crew at Ster-Kinekor. They not perfect yet (I had a glitch at the ticketing system) but they are making a stand for the way things should be. The movie was excellent, the theatres clean and the popcorn good. It is with great pleasure that I shall watch their effect on the pirate movie scene. I had already spotted a copy of the film I watched at the flea market happily promising an impossible 'DVDrip' quality. I don't know about you, but I would much rather pay a dollar extra to watch a flick on the big screen than trying to make out the sound on a poorly-recorded, ripped version. Ster-Kinekor have set their pricing most competitively and are using social media to market what is coming out. Should they continue to provide up-to-date movies they will continue to have my support.

The movie in question that I went to see was the much acclaimed, first instalment of 'The Hobbit'. Based on the book by J. R. R. Tolkein, at the time of writing it has generated nearly USD500 million in revenue (against an estimated budget of 300 million) and has lived up to the hype and expectation surrounding it. Which brings us to the question 'What makes a successful movie?' Note that I said successful and not great, sorry to all the 'Twi-hard' fans in the world but the Twilight franchise is successful, not great (but that is a matter of personal opinion). Many great ideas often fall short because they never go on to be a success and generate enough income to sustain their viability.

Well a successful movie has a good story (well usually). A storyline that can be followed easily, and sustains the suspense till the last credit has rolled off the screen. Basic stories involve a protagonist (the good guy), the antagonist (the bad guy) and a problem to be solved (which creates suspense or you would stop watching). The product you sell is the protagonist in your personal story to solve a problem that your client has (which usually doubles at the antagonist). Include a bit of emotion and you have a potential best seller.

Movie makers have a plan. Most movies have a long planning stage. Budgets, scripts, casting, location choice, shooting schedules, costume design, set design, the list goes on. Too many people start a business with a half-baked plan and then wonder why they end up with a half baked business. Plan properly. If you have never done this before then ask someone.

Successful movies develop a cult following. Once in a while what is considered a 'B grade' film captures a niche market's attention, the first 'Underworld' managed this and was able to spew out sequels based on the initial success. You have a group of core believers that utilise your product to the exclusion of all else. This clique are your best sneezers and the people you can market to. 'The Hobbit''s success can be attributed perhaps to the legion of 'Lord of the Rings' fans that have been awaiting the release date for the last year. In many ways the groundwork for 'The Hobbit' was laid when Peter Jackson first started filming 'The Fellowship of the Ring' a dozen years ago. Which brings us to the next point.

Successful films have an appropriate marketing strategy. The trailer timeline for Jackson's latest saga started nearly a year ago. There has been a year of ingraining the fact that the movie is coming into the world's subconscious for a year or more. The best unexpected marketing however was the disputes over directors and acting guilds that gave the film free publicity in the press. Go study their website and examine all the little bits that are thrown in not just to give you something to do, but to help sustain the image of the movie in your mind. Free ringtones that reinforce anticipation everytime you hear them. Games targeted at people who will appreciate the story. Games targeted at people who won't appreciate the story. Smart marketing. Smart design. It is a SIMPLE website that offers, for the ease of navigation, a huge amount. Has it been a successful website....well USD500 million in under a month tells me that it probably has been.

Success, even the overnight version, is based on conscientious planning and hard-work and some good choices. Let us engage in some more of that this coming year. All the best for 2013 and Happy New Year.