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?

Selling cars the Vodacom way

...aka "How to irritate Eskom and vehicle manufacturers in one easy step"

How do you make cars a commodity like cellphones have now become? Yip, you guessed it - buy the [alternative] fuel, get the car free.

Here's the low-down on Free cars by The Long Tail. How long before it actually takes off is anyone's guess. However, while SA has not always been an early adopter of technology or ideas, we've often been a very quick adopter once it gets going.

This may sound ridiculous right now, but think about what a problem this is becoming throughout the world. And for SA, we all know the high levels of traffic that currently exist [ie a huge car market] as well as the deep impact of the petrol price on each of us.

Maybe its not so far away after all.

The beauty of collaboration

We've all heard of 'collaboration', the current buzzword for teamwork, and a word which stirs visions [in my mind, at least] of exciting partnerships and collective brainpower which unleashes countless volumes of great ideas... and more importantly significant action [through accountability]. You can read more about my thoughts on 'collaborative business model engineering', which explains a bit of where I believe this, combined with free sharing of information, can lead to.

Well, I've always been a big believer in team - that there's more power in you and me, than there is just in me.

But it's only recently that I've realised how incredibly important it is to 'see' mind-to-mind with someone. You can be surrounded by interesting people with a variety of skills all day and yet never be truly challenged within yourself. Don't get me wrong, I think there is GREAT value in all the people that I am surrounded by, and its always invigorating to learn from family, friends and colleagues. But when you can find someone like-minded who shares similar perspectives... it's absolutely awesome to be stretching the limits of my own imagination [in a good way] due to the positive influence of such a person, rather than being stretched [in a bad way] by people with little regard for my abilities, weaknesses and with very little regard for my own well-being or aspirations at all.

The thing is, as wonderful as collaboration is, if you don't find the right people to collaborate with, you'll probably just end up highly frustrated, more confused and certainly doubtful of any ability you [and they] may have to really impact on society in any meaningful way.

For me, conversations I've had over the past few weeks have brought new insight, challenged existing preconceptions and - on the whole, taken me to a new level of thinking. And amongst the madness of day-to-day living, where lifting your sights to see bigger things is difficult at best, its so refreshing.

Sure, most of the challenging thoughts and ideas are inherently long-term, but that to me is the best part - because long-term benefits are almost always much more valuable than short-term ones.

So I'm looking forward to more mind-bending conversations, perhaps a collaboration that can rock the status-quo a bit... and who knows what we could build from there! The possibilities are just stunning!

To the idea magician who has challenged me in this way - THANK YOU! And see ya later, innovator!

Are technological advances good for us?

I'm sure anyone hearing that would say "What a moronic question! Of course they are.", but there's a little bit more to it than meets the eye.

I'm sure you've been to a shopping mall, most of which have paid parking with those fancy little machines that only take certain coins and notes [and usually not the ones I happen to have on hand]. One thing I saw the other day, which I haven't seen in a while, is a place with paid parking that still has the little booth with someone sitting inside taking your payment as you leave.

The technology [being the electronic ticketing machine] has almost entirely replaced manual parking attendants, in the space of a few years. But is this a good thing?

Yes, the electronic system has its benefits, but I would have to say these are mostly for the business concerned and not for its customers. Lets look at the facts:

What does the company [I'm referring to the venue, eg a shopping mall] gain?
- More reliability? Yes - machines don't take sick days or days off
- Less labour issues? Yes - no pay disputes, etc
- Information? Yes - reporting on ticket sales, capacity, etc [surely]
- Admin relief? Yes - generally outsourced

So its obvious to say better technology is great for the business!

What does the customer gain?
- Security? No - safer to have people at the booms
- Enjoyment? No - queues to pay can be long, and no smiling face at the booth
- Cheaper? No - not that I've ever seen. Have you?
- Less hassles? No - a person can sort problems out on the spot, a machine can't

We all know - customers are key to the business! So exactly what do customers get from this wonderful technological advance?

And in this lies the hidden value destruction - whereas I might not mind going to a mall and paying for parking when things run smoothly [ie someone in a booth; manual process], I can get incredibly upset when dealing with machines and tickets that don't work. The people add something... something intangible, that the machine can never replace, and in the end, that affects my [as the customer] view of that shopping mall/business/whatever.

And what about for our economy?

Three words - forty percent unemployment.

I accept this is not the only answer. Technology also creates jobs, creates opportunities for growth, changes lives. All I'm saying is, we need to think it through carefully before just pushing ahead.