How free haircuts could revolutionise the economy...

No, I haven't lost it [just yet]. Just following a train of thought that has challenged me every time I've had a haircut over the last three or four months -

What do you pay for a haircut? R20? R50? R100. Whatever you pay, the price they charge must be worth it to you.

I challenged my barber to really test the value of the service he delivers - what if, for just a month, they stopped charging a fixed price for haircuts, and instead asked customers to pay them what the customer believes the service is worth?

Needless to say, he hasn't yet taken me up on it. I can't really blame him either, because the results would reflect the purest form of honesty regarding the value of his service... and good or bad, this would be quite a pill to swallow. Some customers might not pay a cent and get a free haircut... good for them. Some might pay more than you charge... HEY!

Think about the benefits for a second:

• you know exactly where you stand with all your customers
• customers can never complain about prices or inflation ever again
• the potential for free marketing [word-of-mouth or other media exposure for having the guts to do this] - HUGE
• how can your "competitors" compete with this?

The million dollar question: What if all other businesses ran this way too? Okay so this is just a haircut. How about cellphone service providers. Garden services. Security companies.

The billion dollar question: How could this revolutionise the economy, taking away "pricing-parity" excuses and really delivering value to all people in the country at a relatively affordable price?

And the trillion dollar question: What happens when your competitor starts doing this? How will that change your business? Are you in any way prepared for it?



We can laugh at this now. I can too. But who'll be laughing in 20 [or 10, or maybe even 5] years time when "Freevest" is the JSE's largest company?

Forget % growth, exponential growth is in

Many companies' realities [and budgets] reflect % growth. And sure, there's practicality in this. After all, growth off a high base can be more difficult than growth off a small base [20% growth on R100 million is much more to achieve than 20% growth on R1 million].

But why think in %'s. Yes, 20% growth on R100 million is probably very difficult. It probably requires thinking about a number of challenging initiatives, streamlining the business, adding a few new products... blah, blah, blah.

Thinking about exponential growth will change your reality! Not 30% more profit - how about tripling profit? A few new products probably won't help, nor will cutting some costs, or relocating. This requires a major mindshift.

The QTCE here: What can our company do to triple our profits in the next year?

The answers will not be easy. The question might even be too much for any manager or director to ask [fear, perhaps?]. But in exploring the possibilities, you may just stumble on something far bigger than you could ever achieve chasing after mere % growth.

So what if you fail trying... so what if you only grow profits by 47.6% instead of by 3x? Imagine the lessons learned.


Follow this thread here -> The question that changes everything

The question that changes everything

How often have you said something or been asked something, and all of a sudden.. a light goes on?

They say that words can change lives. We all know the power of the tongue... one of mankind's greatest assets [and weapons].

As I've been going on about in this blog for a while now, I believe change is an absolute, unequivocal necessity for our country to flourish to its true potential. And with that... I'm interested to see whether the power of words can truly challenge and change realities.

Open your mind. Consider - the question that changes everything...

...one question, asked with sincerity, that digs to the heart of an issue and challenges the reality that we accept on a daily basis - and then turns it upside down!!

On that note, can we unlock the right questions for us to move forward and innovate? Any contributions are welcome, and I'll be looking at the best forum to make this more accessible and collaborative in the near future, but for now it starts here.

So I'll get the ball rolling with one of the better questions I've heard recently, one which many companies should be asking themselves [particularly as SA plays catch up in the global technology game]:

What would you do to survive if your competitors' products were free?

Yes, there are certainly follow up questions to this, and no - I don't expect you to answer the question here. Just think about it.

Please. Business leaders. Young entrepreneurs. Experienced innovators. Just think about it.