Regator, what's up???

Today we were hit with this news about Regator.com, which appears to be a not-very-well disguised clone of SA's own Afrigator.com [Justin, Mike, Stii, Mark... we know it's yours, so forgive me calling it SA's for purposes of this post].

On one hand it's absolutely terrible, in that the idea is clearly based on Afrigator [admittedly I have not seen the inner-workings or functioning of Regator, since I'm not going to sign on for the beta - the welcome page is clear enough], but c'mon, how likely is it that someone else would put alligator and aggregator together? And I won't comment on the name.

Okay, now the positive side... this little matter is definite proof that SA has leaders in the field of online development that others globally are now following. I've been saying for a while that SA needs more focus on our opportunities arising from technology, and this to me is one of the early signs that the world is starting to take notice of good ideas coming from our part of the world.

I'm also glad that people are making some noise about it. If Regator is legit, hopefully they will have the decency to at least address the issue and comment on the inane similarities. Well gents, what do you say?

Update: Regator has replied to Justin on his post - here. Great to see it is being addressed.

South Africa's global brain bank

Despite the "brain drain", with so many talented South Africans leaving our shores to start new lives overseas, there is a network that is trying to harness all this brain power and direct its energy toward our shores - some good news.

It's not just a flash in the pan either, as membership in the US is already up to 120 and includes finance experts, doctors, lawyers and entertainers, amongst others.

Let's be honest, we as a country are struggling because we cannot provide an inviting atmosphere suitable to retain these talented people, but at least this effort will help maintain ties with these individuals and allow South Africa to benefit in some way from their international experience.

While I can say that we should try create a conducive environment to attracting these and others like them back here, it's not as simple as that, since some of them require a larger challenge than South Africa is able to offer, purely because of its size.

And surely there is benefit to South Africa in being able to draw on experienced international resources when we need them? I certainly don't like the thought of people going from SA, but when they are growing and developing in this manner, it's possible that the benefit SA derives is greater than what it loses.

It's great to know that we are producing people of this calibre who have gone on to become global leaders, and it's also good to know that they still want to be involved with South Africa. Congratulations to all involved in the Global South Africans project - I wish you all the best with the project.

You can read the full article here.

South Africa. Life after gold.

Does it feel like South Africa is settling for second best? Perhaps South Africa [and Africa, actually] needs to wake up and see the new opportunities in front of us.

After being the world's top gold producer for about 105 years, China supplanted South Africa during 2007 as the world's number one, proving that we can never take anything for granted.

Africa, including South Africa, has always been rich in natural resources such as gold, diamonds and platinum, and it is on the back of this that much of Africa has grown. We've have relied a lot on this, and evidence thereof is the resource companies like Anglo American and BHP Billiton among the SA Giants. In the back of our minds, we know these resources won't last forever. But even if they last for a very long time, is it right for us to continue to rely on these as our key to the world?

And is it possible to really change our focus?

I would say that it's not just a good idea, but an absolute necessity!

For starters, consider the Dubai success story. Dubai could easily have taken its own primary resource - oil - for granted. But they haven't, and they have successfully ensured their own longevity by changing their strategy. If Dubai had continued to pursue its old ways, it's probably fair to say that they would not be in the position they currently are in, and most of their economic success and growth would still be highly reliant on oil.

For South Africa and Africa, where would our greatest opportunities lie? Consider this:

Technology currently presents South Africa [and Africa] with our greatest opportunity to-date to truly compete on a global stage. This is our chance to change the playing field!

How? Globally, the rules have changed and location is not critical in many industries already. The most obvious example of this is the trend towards outsourcing call-centres to India, and also outsourcing IT to China.

So surely then, even if Africa as a whole makes up about 2% of global GDP, less than Brazil's contribution, it doesn't actually matter...

The world is waiting to reward the great innovators and thinkers. Even though "technological innovation was the heart of the industrial revolution", that was led by physical technology and mass-production. Now mass innovation and mass creativity takes preference, and it removes the physical barriers that have always restricted nations such as ours.

At last, intellectual property can be created and sold without borders. Just think, using the internet and technology available today, we can create products and ideas here in South Africa and sell them globally almost instantaneously.

We have many talented individuals with great ideas. We have technology available to us which opens up a global market to us. We just need to understand how to use this to our advantage. We know that this would not be without it's challenges [see Erik's good post on Africa's technology gap], but the risks are larger - see this post by Tycoon's Geoff Candy about SA falling behind in the Internet stakes.

This is too good an opportunity for us to miss! So what do we do?
Let's promote the growth of leaders in this sphere.
Let's promote investment in creative and/or technology businesses.
Let's promote a greater understanding of how creativity and technology can revolutionise all of our industries here at home - and globally.

I believe this country needs to seriously focus on the development of valuable [globe-shaking] intellectual property!

What do you think?

At long last... I'm LinkedIn

After deliberating and procrastinating for a while, at long last I have updated my profile on LinkedIn. [see the nice blue button in the right sidebar for link too]

What is LinkedIn, you ask?

Very briefly, it is a social tool that allows you to create a network of professional connections online. This differs from facebook which is far more focused on the creation of a network of friends. So while you would not want that investment professional you met at the Sandton Convention Centre to join your facebook friends list, it may be worthwhile having him as a connection on LinkedIn.

Honestly, I was always hesitant to create this profile, mainly because of online privacy concerns. However, after becoming increasingly involved in and exposed to developments online, meeting more and more people with LinkedIn profiles, and then also finding this excellent post by Guy Kawasaki explaining top ways to increase the value you get out of LinkedIn, I made the decision to go ahead. So here we are. It's a first attempt and I'll probably refine and change it as I go along, but for now it will do nicely. And although I start off with just one connection, every journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

It holds definite benefits to professionals and business people, and while it's true that here in SA, we're not as socially advanced [from an online perspective] as other countries, and therefore its not often that we come across someone with a LinkedIn profile, my guess is that with reducing broadband costs and increasing levels of broadband penetration over the next year or so as we ramp up to the 2010 World Cup [with some cities even promising complete wireless coverage by that date], this will change rapidly in the coming year or two.

In fact, I think soon we'll see a lot of professionals walking around with LinkedIn profile url's on their business cards [this is on my to-do list], as well as seeing these links included in tenders and proposals submitted to prospective clients, to give them more information about the team that will be serving them.

Face it, if you're involved in business [and in some cases, even if you aren't] more and more people will be looking for you online. And they will find you. Yes, there is some info that you can control and some that you can't. This is one you can control and target at the appropriate audience, so why not do just that?

For those interested, here is some more comprehensive info:

• Top ten Linked-In Do's and Dont's
• 100+ Smart ways to use Linked-In
  

Five things business leaders can learn from Michael Jordan

One thing that many people in business struggle with is a constant battle to keep your mind open to new and innovative ways of doing things.

The reason this happens is simple - we get caught up in day-to-day reality and worrying about the details that take up all our valuable time. To be successful, we have to rise above this and take our "game" to a new level.

I have great respect for Michael Jordan as an athlete, one who embodies success. Here are five traits he exhibited which can teach us a lot about how we conduct ourselves and our businesses:

1. Keep your eye on the end goal - by focusing on one thing, in his case winning the NBA championship, MJ was able to remove the other distractions and make critical decisions in all types of circumstances. On the way he also garnered many individual accolades, but these were never his goal - they were merely a by-product of the success he generated for the team by pursuing that one goal.
2. Make others around you better - MJ was always able to make his team better. With the exception of Scottie Pippen, his team-mates were not superstars. Not even close. Although he could easily have complained about the quality of people around him, he instead chose to lead them, inspire them and take them all to a new level by understanding each of their strengths and weaknesses, respecting them and winning as a team. You often hear that he carried his team, but you never hear that he was the team. The team always played a role, and he never tried to take all the glory for himself.
   
3. Attempt and practice the impossible - MJ made the impossible happen on a regular basis. Although there were others before him that made spectacular plays, he turned amazing into the ordinary, and he did this by practising the impossible. Just have a look at these top 10 amazing plays by MJ and you'll see what I mean. We all get stuck doing the same regular things each day, and doing the same things over and over and over. Why not set time aside to practice doing amazing things. When you first start, you might only succeed once every 100 times, but over time that will improve to a point where you could make the impossible seem normal.
   



4. What you're doing is a thing of beauty - Basketball is just a game, like business is just business. MJ didn't just play basketball, he was an artist creating a masterpiece everytime he stepped out on the court, and watching him play was absolutely breath-taking. He didn't just go out to play basketball, he went out to create something of beauty that the world could look to and appreciate. He took pride in doing what he did exceedingly well, not just doing it to get by.
   
5. Believe [have no fear] - The only time you really need to believe is when it seems there is no hope. The greatest example was in game five of the 1998 Finals against the Utah Jazz, where MJ was incredibly ill, and not only played, but led his team to a win with a spectacular performance. What made him great wasn't the fact that he believed and played hard when things were going well - its that he gave his all when circumstances seemed totally against him and that there was no way to win.

Yes, Michael Jordan had great abilities and skills, but so do many people. It's what he did with them and the way he conducted himself that makes me respect him.

These are just five things that stood out to me, but I'm sure there are many more. If there are others you think should be here too, please leave a comment and let us all know about it.

On the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement

This morning's brekkie run saw the second inaugural [second overall but the first one I attended] reunion of the old Sunninghill team at Doppio Zero, a generally agreed "central" location [other than for those coming from Rustenburg, Australia and Pretoria...]. The breakfast was quite good, thanks Doppio. We'll come again.

Sadly, all hopes of a monthly Friday morning breakfast club were dashed yesterday by Jamie, who pulled out due to petty matters such as work commitments [!] - Jamie, where are your priorities? Now we'll have to settle for one of the other less-interesting days of the week.


It was great to see friendly faces again, even if it was only four this time around [G, Siya, Sjoerd and myself] and interesting to hear how things are moving. It's always fun trying to balance casual chat and banter with professional confidentiality requirements and we had much of that as we tried to fill in the blanks in our own minds and unravel the vagaries of each others' war stories. I could easily believe we all left there with completely different corporate scandals in mind.


So, to borrow the lingo from yesteryear, it was largely on the origin of diamonds, deals and dermatological advancement that we applied our minds this morning.

• Diamonds - well, opportunities abound and even in the dark recesses of big holes in our country, large fortunes are made seemingly overnight by people just like you and me. Eye opening, to say the least.
• Deals - how the plethora of deals has been affected by the sudden knee-jerk reaction by markets to emerging market fears. Hmmm, who would've thought that raising R8 billion could be so difficult.
• Dermatological advancement - without going in to detail, suffice it to say that Vereeniging will never be the same as it has just received a [much needed?] boost to its citizens' aesthetic development potential. Sjoerd has more details for anyone interested...

We also had a quick rundown on the virtues of technological development in South Africa [by yours truly] which I'm trusting we can all explore together as this grows. Thankfully, not only were there no pink shirts present, but the pink-graphed report that Siya requested never showed its face either. Phew.

We missed those who couldn't make it and hope to see you all for the next one.

Looking forward to next time guys, when we delve into more possibilities and opportunities available all around us. Perhaps for the next theme we could also borrow from Mr Adam Smith and ruminate on the wealth of nations.

[And please, if I have missed something major here, leave your comment]

Later.

When knowledge becomes a commodity

I was fortunate enough to work in one of the largest professional services firms in the world for a number of years. As legislation changed, I watched as specialisation became a necessity, and technical issues were discussed and debated to death, and just as a decision was about to be made, one small new fact often caused the whole process to start from scratch. Tedious. Pain-stakingly so. Time consuming too. And the value was [is] debatable.

It makes me think of that old primary school maths riddle about the frog that gets stuck in a well and wants to get out, and for every three bricks he jumps up, he slides down two. The well is twenty one bricks high, and the riddle asks how many jumps he must make to get out of the well. For now, the answer is irrelevant. Suffice it to say that he would get out a lot faster if he only slid back one brick rather than two on each jump.

Think about all of the firms doing this [in all different fields]… working so hard to be a bit ahead of the game, but in actual fact everyone is working on similar problems at the same time. They call this little bit of knowledge “competitive advantage”, but just think if they all worked together on a single platform, everyone could move forward as an industry at a much more rapid pace.

Why do they [we] keep re-inventing the wheel? [over and over and over]

John Taylor Gatto said something ludicrously true: “Professional interest is served by making what is easy seem hard.”

People often point fingers at lawyers, but now its true for every profession, seemingly without exception. In the stand-off between competition and collaboration, all we get is professional cannibalism, since the great race not only results in a much slower overall pace forward, but also often confusion.

It's a tough one, that. If necessity is the father of invention, perhaps competition is the mother. Competition is lauded as one of the great drivers of innovation, but this really looks to me like a case where competition slows down or totally derails the real possibilities of innovation...

... and sadly, when competition is the be-all and end-all, if often ends up in one place - commoditising the product. In this case, that would be knowledge.

So if knowledge truly is becoming a commodity, how long before knowledge also attains that critical price of free? [whether or not collaboration would change that is debatable too, since it may just relegate the knowledge to free as it would be much more freely available]

And what happens when it does?

The results, particularly in professional service firms, will be startling!!!

In case you were wondering, I’m sure the frog got out of the well just fine. But I wonder if his professional adviser ever did…

Links
[listen to Chris Anderson discuss critical price here at TED]

[read about Tom Peters' take on Professional Service Firms here - I love it, btw]

[Interesting information about free worth reading:

• Local free thinking summary at Huddlemind Labs
• ReadWriteWeb discusses the danger of free
• Keep up with some of Chris Anderson’s latest free news here]

OpenID/SDSN ID’s for the real world

Hash wrote a good summary of efforts underway locally to eliminate the pain and hassle of maintaining your identity online in fifty different locations [sometimes it feels like you’re living fifty different lives]
However, sitting somewhere the other day filling in application forms made me wonder how easily this solution could be applied “offline”.

How about this:

• a chip in your ID book [which is apparently on the way already] linked to…


• an online database that you maintain yourself with all your personal details [with varying levels of authorisation, allowing you to set how much of your information a vendor can see, from just name and telephone number for the local video store, to comprehensive family and medical aid information for a hospital/chemist]
  You can give any vendor all the information that they require by just a swipe and pin number.

No more ridiculously long forms. No more wondering what your work postal address is. Not having to arrive half an hour before your first appointment to make sure you can somehow scribble down all that information, particularly when you feel terrible and just want to get home to bed.

I think this would be great. So guys, once SDSN is done, please make sure this on your to-do list. It would save us all a lot of hassle. Thanks!

Further opportunities for excellent SA developers and startups

By now, most SA developers will have heard of Hasso Plattner [founder of enterprise software giant SAP] and his new R350 million venture capital fund launched in South Africa recently.

In fact, I imagine many will be incredibly keen to somehow get in on the action and spearhead South Africa's revolutionary development arena [after all, a little financial backing never hurt anyone, did it?]. Hopefully HP Ventures Africa will generate more innovation and provide a more sound international platform than other local venture capital funds have done.

For those interested, I suggest listening to this iinnovate interview with Mr Plattner. It's not too long and touches on how he started SAP, as well as giving a little bit of insight into their approach to keeping a growing company innovative. At about 10 minutes in gets to probably the most interesting part of the talk. Worth listening to once - you never know when you might run into Mr Plattner in an elevator...

Brilliant and creative initiative by Stormhoek. Well done!

Please read this: Own a vine. Save a job.

What a fantastic initiative by the team down at Stormhoek to address a very real problem. They have taken a suitably creative approach to solving an issue rather than just sitting back and complaining about it. I salute you, gentlemen.

Along with many others, I look forward to seeing the successful fruits of your efforts!

There is a lot that South African business can learn from Stormhoek. Perhaps once they've worked through this issue, they can start the Stormhoek consultancy and help move SA forward!

Microsoft top dog heads for professional sports. Is Mr Gates next?

If you were to ask me what Microsoft and the NBA [the National Basketball Association in the US] had in common a little while ago, I would have probably just looked at you funny. But since the NBA announced their formation of NBA China, they have decided to dig into Microsoft’s pockets [skills pockets, not financial pockets] and appointed Microsoft Greater China CEO Tim Chen as CEO of NBA China. Yes, I know the NBA won’t be competing against Microsoft in the computing field anytime soon, but its interesting to see that they’ve managed to lure away a key player in such an …. unrelated… industry.

I can’t help wondering whether Mr Gates himself appears on the list for potential NBA Commissioner replacements after current Commissioner David Stern retires... [I bet you were picturing Mr Gates playing professional football or ice-hockey. Sadly, I don't have photoshop to add a pic of what that could look like]

With most of the known world flocking to the hugely appealing Indian and Chinese markets recently, its not surprising to see professional sports also taking the leap. As it stands, China has not only provided the NBA with one of its tallest superstars ever [Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, standing 7’6 tall], but now also provides its greatest growth opportunity as a new market.

According to the article above, Tim Chen has a sparkling history in corporate China, as Microsoft sales grew more rapidly in the Greater China region than in any other market in the world in his time there, and before that he helped Motorola become the leader in the competitive Chinese mobile phone industry. It will be interesting to see how Tim handles a career in professional sports and whether he can repeat these past successes there.


[Yes its true, I’m writing about this because I love basketball and the NBA, and have done so since I can remember. And for this reason, I have to drop a note about the South African link to one of the best players in the NBA…for those of you who aren’t aware of South Africa’s influence in one of the world’s greatest professional sports, here’s a little known trivia fact – Steve Nash [currently with the Phoenix Suns] was the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for two consecutive years [2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons], following in the footsteps of greats like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley. Steve was born in Johannesburg and spent several years here while his dad played professional soccer. He later moved to Canada, and is now sadly billed as Canadian. So while it is officially a Canadian that was the NBA MVP two years in a row, we know better – he’s South African!]

Service. Everywhere except where you need it

If you watched “Gone in 60 seconds” you’ll know about the elusive Eleanor [Nicolas Cage plays Memphis Rains who has to steal 50 cars. Among them is a Shelby GT500 which has always eluded him, even when he thinks he has “her” - this car is nicknamed Eleanor].

In South Africa, good service has become our “Eleanor”. You know it exists, you know others have had it, but you just can’t quite seem to get a hold of it yourself.

There are few things I dislike more than complaining, but bad service is definitely one of those things. And I really don’t like complaining – I can think of far better ways to use my time and energy. Sadly, I know this is wrong, as the only way to communicate to those companies with bad service just how bad it really is, is to complain.

In the last few months, one particular company in the security industry has driven me to the depths of despair, ignoring my pleas for action and just seemingly losing sight of the fact that its customers safety is its primary objective. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences with other companies [haven’t we all]. It’s quite ironic that companies have changed the names of their “complaints departments” to “customer services departments” – there is fairly often no customer service in sight, making me believe that the former name is often far more appropriate.


An interesting industry has started up in companies that help consumers to formally address this through an intermediary. getclosure.co.za is one of the additions to this stable, and hopefully they will be able to contribute to the eradication of the “poor service” stigma associated with many of our countries companies.

Personally, I think I’ll give it a whirl. Like I said, I have little interest in wasting time complaining more, but I would love to see this particular security company realise how far away they are from any level of decent service. Let’s see if they finally get the message, and I finally getclosure.

Why customers really are the only thing that matters

We’ve all heard the phrase “The customer is always right”. I’ve seen many business people getting very upset at the mention of this, and in some cases where customers totally abuse their relationship with a company, it is justified. After all, how can the customer always be right when it’s our business. Our product. Our vision!

Admittedly, I like the idea of “firing bad customers” [and there are definitely instances where this is called for], but all I’m saying is that, before you go ahead and do this, ask yourself whether that really is the best or only solution to the problem.

The bottom line is this – customers are the only thing that matters.

[The rest of the business merely consists of details required in fulfilling the company’s services to its customers.]

Without customers, there is no revenue. Without revenue, there is no business. Simple.


But if we’re talking about innovation, perhaps then it’s an entirely different story…

Customers vs end-users: who hid my revenue?

Many of today’s tech and internet business are gearing themselves totally towards their end-users, and seem to be forgetting about their customers [the guys who bring in the revenue]… resulting in awesome, well-loved businesses with business models that just don’t work.

The reason for this could be simply confusing the two. With traditional products, very often your users are your customers, therefore it’s much easier to keep both happy.

Take these examples:

1. As a traditional company, you build a great lawnmower, price it well and sell it to your customer who is then [hopefully] reasonably happy with the price and the performance. Customer and user in one – your efforts are easy to target and the results will speak for themselves.
2. As a tech business, you develop an awesome system to store, tag and find e-mails. The system is online, free and works amazingly well. Your users are ecstatic and use it frequently. But are your customers happy? Well, maybe the first question should be “Who are your customers?” If you follow the traditional internet-advertising marriage route, you sell advertising space on your pages for your customers to reach your users. And if you don’t make it attractive for those customers [however you may choose to do that], don’t expect your customers to be very happy or very willing to part with their money.

Despite what I’ve said above, we can learn from those who’ve been there and done that:
“The company isn’t run for the long-term value of our shareholders but for the long-term value of our end users.” – Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google in Time Magazine, 20 February 2006

Very interesting one. Perhaps Eric’s point is that if they are always aiming to keep their end-users happy, everything else will fall into place. Which it has done so far, so I won’t argue that – but there is one stark difference between Google’s business model and that of other world-wide-wannabees – Google has found an effective way to generate revenue [in their case, also to place adverts] that keeps both users and customers happy. Which is something that many young startups cannot yet lay claim to.

So please keep in mind that there is a difference between customers and users – there’s no point only trying to keep end-users happy when you need to make it work for your customers too. If not, end result = no revenue. Simple.

For some interesting reading on this topic, have a look at the Long Tail post: "What does the 'Media Business Model' mean?", which includes a list of revenue models you can find in the media industry.

KYC III – are companies with split personalities the future of marketing?

I believe that the next wave of personalised marketing is coming, where the main ingredient, put simply is KYC [Know Your Client] and the consistency of the packaging really doesn’t matter as long as you package each message in the right way for the individual it is being targeted at.

Think of advertising sms’s – what an infringement of personal space! I dislike them immensely, not necessarily for the fact that they’re useless [most are, but some aren’t], but because I know that about 100,000 other people probably received the same sms at the same time, and that the sender doesn’t care whether I got the message or not, they just care whether 100,001 people got the message or not – and they play the odds from there. Imagine a company sending you an sms in your own spoken language, addressed to you and in a tone and pitch that communicates to you, just like your best friend would.

Seth Godin said this in his blog recently – “The more people you reach the more likely it is you’re reaching the wrong people”, and this in itself is very true. Without detracting from this statement, I would add that the more people you communicate with, the more difficult [and important] it becomes to communicate with them personally.

I believe that companies need different ways to speak to different types of customers. And for some companies, this might mean having three or four different marketing campaigns running at the same time. They would need to be carefully targeted, being sure not to overlap them and dilute the impact [as well as confuse the customers]. Let me put it this way - you can speak to a white teenager, an asian 20-something, a black middle-class manager and a retired foreign professional at the same time about the same thing [assuming they would all utilise your product/service/solution]. But you can’t speak to them the same way.

You might say that this will become too complex and expensive, and I would agree with you if we approach it in a traditional way. That’s why we need to look at this problem in new, different ways… it will happen, of that I’m sure. And the prize will go to those who solve the problem soonest, because they will be able to communicate far more effectively to a much larger audience than you or I can imagine.

You’ll also increasingly find companies that totally revolutionise their entire beings, having several different names, logos and ways of communicating just to show their customers that they do understand them and they do care. Sounds a bit crazy, but some car manufacturers have already done this to a certain degree [think Toyota – Lexus], as have some retailers [Pick n Pay – Boardmans] and product manufacturers .

The old saying goes “It doesn’t matter what you say, but how you say it”. I disagree with the first bit. There is great value to be obtained from finding the right way to say the right thing to the right person, and all three of these are key, not just how you say it.

KYC II – say what?

Carrying on from where I last left off, once we’re sure that we know who our client really is, I would ask what we’re actually trying to achieve in our marketing efforts.

If marketing equals communication, and we are constantly trying to market and sell our products or services or solutions to our clients, the main question then becomes “What are we communicating?” As a customer, what I want to know about is the essence of the company – why does it really exist and how do I know that you really care about me [because if I understand these reasons, I am far more likely to believe that your product/service/solution is the best one for me].

Does this then mean that it doesn’t matter how we communicate, as long as what we communicate is right? I’m inclined to think that this is increasingly true, and I’m also inclined to believe that this has always been the case – it is not just something that happened overnight when we entered the new millennium.

So if this is true, and I’m assuming it is, why do most companies talk the same language to everyone they try to reach? I’m not talking about English versus Chinese here – I mean personal communication that speaks to individuals rather than to population groups or target markets.

Here’s another personal example which is relevant here – for whatever reason, I am a Cell C client. One thing Cell C has done very well is market itself to a very specific population group. Sadly [for me more than for them], I don’t fall into their target market [or at least what I perceive their target market to be]. So despite cool terms like “juice”, “woza weekend” and “hola 7”, and despite the fact that they pay a lot of attention to branding and communication, I feel excluded, and for these reasons, as with ABSA, when they try to communicate with me, I do an Eskom and just switch off.

My point here is not to attack existing marketing efforts of established companies, but instead I have to wonder how we have ended up in this place, where large companies with great products cannot make a client feel comfortable. This wondering leads me to the logical conclusion that there must be more than this.

To carry on from the earlier point then, if its more about what we communicate than how we communicate, will we soon find companies communicating to all their different target markets in different ways? Or would a company doing this just be perceived as contradictory, turning its different customer groups on each other and the company itself in the process?

The reality is that you can’t please all the people all the time, but in an environment where competition is increasing at heart-racing speed every day, getting through to each person is becoming increasingly critical to survival.

Doing it? Ah, well that’s another matter entirely.

To be concluded...

KYC I – they love me, they love me not

Banks are not the most creative environments to work in, but they have one fantastic concept – KYC, or Know Your Client. Sadly, thanks to insatiable legal requirements, they have totally lost the plot and want to know all the wrong things. Well, the right things from a legal point of view, but the wrong things from a business point of view.

Here’s a personal example - ABSA [yes, I’m picking on ABSA and banks in general here, but only because the example is a good illustration of what I’m trying to get across]. I have had a bank account with ABSA since I was about seven years old [in the days when it was still called Volkskas]. That’s a long time [I won’t say how many years], plenty of time to collect information, ask questions and generally get to know your client. To me, though, it feels like they know as much about me now as they did then.

They know my address but they don’t care where I live. They know what language I speak but they don’t care what my language preference is. They know my birthdate but they don’t care how old I am. They know that I’ve studied but they don’t care about what I do. They know all these things and more, but they don’t really care about who I am.

The most frustratingly obvious example of this is when I walk up to an ATM [even an ABSA one], insert my bank card and then get asked to select a language. Once, fine. Twice, maybe. But every single time, after being a client for too many years?

How come business seems to be going backwards, despite the many tools at our fingertips? Technology is a great tool and enabler, but it borders on totally obliterating personal relationships from many aspects of life. Case in point - ABSA have a fairly good banking website where you can enter your personal information and keep it up to date. A good thing in itself, and it should be convenient too, but isn’t this just a nice way of saying “We don’t care enough to find out, so either you come to us and tell us or we just won’t bother”? I mean, really, it’s not so difficult. I’m male, white, English, over 20… those are just the basics. And if this is how I perceive they feel about me, guess what happens inside my mind every single time they try to communicate with me?

How can you build a good business without selling something?
How can you sell something without having a product or service to provide?
How can you provide a service or product without a real need?
How can you identify a real need without finding a potential client?
How can you find a potential client without understanding them first?

Do you really care? As a business, your clients’ loyalty to you is only as strong as you allow it to be, and if you don’t care, chances are very good that they won’t either.

To be continued...

At last, a Hollywood movie about South African business

Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring some great celebrities. Look out for guest appearances by Cyril, Tokyo and Patrice.

Hey, you never know...

Don't take it too seriously, its just business after all...

How do you talk to your clients?

Probably not like Flickr does:



I love that line... makes me smile everytime I log in [even though there's an outside chance it might not be true].

And I get the funny feeling that if many other businesses out there who want my custom didn't take themselves so damn seriously, I'd enjoy them just as much.

Note to self:

• business is serious.


• but BUSINESS SHOULD ALSO BE FUN!!!

Just look at this beautifully written piece from Mindvalley. [That is, hands down, the best job application page I have ever read. The guy/girl who wrote that deserves a Nobel prize, or at least some other similar award which tells the world - this is how you're supposed to attract top talent - and retain it!]

Now that's one excellent way to make business fun!

Any other ideas?

Web 2.0 vs Business - where love and hate collide

Although you would think this title is ridiculous, there are many times when I think its absolutely true. Just looking at the interaction between the new media bloggers here on the web compared to the steps being taken by their "traditional business" counterparts... there seems to be an eery gap, and I can't work out whether its widening or shrinking.

Obviously there are many brilliant active social media / new media specialists [and some not-so-specialists] - hence the popularity of tags like "blogging", "facebook", "social" and the rise and change of the bigger media sites [M&G's Thought Leader springs to mind]. I was pleasantly surprised to see my old high school mate, Marc Forrest, making waves down in Durbs [no pun intended] in this sphere.

And then there's traditional business... lagging behind [it seems to me] and not really creating much of a stir [admittedly some are making a go of it, such as Jacaranda FM and Jacobsen Attorneys]

The business of web 2.0 is pushing ahead, as evidenced by all the thrilling activity and the real community that you can see being built! So why can't business push ahead with web 2.0? In that world, I see some of the unbelievable talents present online revolutionising the way traditional business is done.

Guys, you know who you are [some appear here]... the time is coming [SOONER than we think] where the big business opportunities won't be called "internet businesses" or "e-commerce" or "dot com's", and won't be laughed at by anyone who doesn't have 'vc' in their title or job description. Where business models won't be hugely reliant on the infamous "advertising revenue" [case in point from Guy Berger at newmedialab]. Are you ready for it?

Is business ready for it?

He, he, he.

[Just for the record... my skills and training are in business while internet opportunities are part of what I love - yep, I feel rather stranded in the middle of these two gargantuan powers battling it out, hence this post. And for the record, I still see the existing web opportunities as awesome too, and much like "The Colony", I'm looking at how to get involved and best utilise my skills in this environment to add value]