Wolves in sheeps' clothing

Problems, problems, problems...

Every day seems to be greeted by volumes of new ones arriving on our doorstep, taking the wind out of our sails just as we seem to be seeing the end of our "old" problems.

Does this sound familiar to you. Certainly, an easy mindset to slip into in a challenging environment. But that's not what we're here for, is it?

As the old saying goes, problems are just opportunities in disguise. And how much more true is that here in South Africa, where [not problems, but] opportunities abound.

And where do strong business ideas stem from - opportunities, not so?

In my rose-tinted, opportunistic little mind, I can see three huge opportunities for South Africans right now [someone surely said this about the security industry several years back when all anybody else saw was violence - and look what the security industry has done].

1. Energy [alternative energy, to be precise. Yes its expensive right now, but it won't always be!]

2. Transport [my view, thanks largely to driving from Pretoria to Johannesburg on "the busiest highway in the Southern Hemisphere" for much of the past six years]

3. Education [with a total of about 45 million potential "customers", how can this not be an opportunity]

Here is Google Trends' results on searches for these items in SA [education coming up much stronger despite Eskom's not-so-recent um... shortcomings]:



The reason these are close to my heart? Each one has the possibility of significantly changing the quality of life for millions of people.

Next step... what are the AWESOME WOW opportunities in these areas that will make a difference? Anybody?

Here we grow again...

And on the subject of growth just discussed... it seems like one of the world's largest growth engines has found a working formula, although the road is not without its bumps.



For a company its size, Google has managed to generate phenomenal levels of growth. As this recent article on the company's results suggests, the company's investment in a key resource - staff - is the main driver behind this.

How else can a company of this size justify such a large increase in staff - they certainly break the mould be viewing their staff as an investment rather than a cost. Sure, lots of companies say they do this, and then they proceed to quibble over marginal inflation-based increases [really, what does inflation have to do with an individual company's growth or value generated?].

So yes, Google "blew it" on overspending on staff. I say WELL DONE! Profits are awesome, but they are building into the future rather than just trying to maximise their current results.

We as South African businesses [sadly we are not amongst the most innovative nations in the world - could this be why?] can certainly learn from this.