What’s wrong (and right) with “best company to work for” lists
I have never been a big fan of "best company to work for" lists. They exist in many countries, and are normally sponsored by a high profile entity (Fortune magazine in the US, The Sunday Times in the UK and Deloitte in South Africa, for example). Companies normally...
The End of Control
Recently I was part of an innovative process design to explore how a business could either make or save money through the use of using social technology. The participants were put into groups and the process involved incubating and hatching ideas with lots of...
Disruptive business models – look east
I recently got back from a business trip to Singapore, where I spoke about the TIDES of Change - five disruptive forces changing businesses and industries across the globe at the Sea Asia conference. Two things amazed me while I was there. Firstly, the degree of...
Identifying Talent In A Knowledge Economy?
Identifying Talent is a top priority in any organistion today. Daniel Pink, in his TED talk on The Surprising Science of Motivation, suggests the most valuable people in a knowledge economy organizations are the people thinking about solutions to to questions we...
Hearing God Thinking: Journeying Towards the New World of Work.
“In the beautiful complexity of a new universe that Einstein has shown us, I for one, have no doubt I can hear God thinking” – the words of Arthur Eddington, the British scientist, in the wake of him having proved Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Eddington’s...
Recruitment Trend Shifts in South Africa
The recruitment industry in South Africa looks like it is on the rise for the first time in two and a half years. Human Resources South Africa reported "employment grew by 5.6% during March." As business slowly starts to find its feet again after a rough few years in...
From customer service to customer experience
In July of 2010 I decided I was old enough to buy my first grown-up car. I began by thinking though what my lifestyle was like; and therefore what car I might need. I considered that I lived along a dirt road, the fact that I rode a horse and spend a lot of time...
This for that – the effect of technology and virtual distance.
We are now living in a world where distance and time apart from our loved ones is not as challenging as it used to be. Through the use of technology, we are not only able to speak to our loved ones in the same time zone, but we are now developing relationships with...
Green is the New Black: why sustainable business should be on everyone’s agenda
Business leaders know the importance of being “green” these days, and almost every company is doing something about it. But too many think of sustainability as a “nice to have”, leaving it mainly to a PR effort by a corporate social responsibility team with a limited...
How much time do you spend on Social Media? Probably not enough!
How much time spent on your social media space is enough, too much or not enough? It's the magic million dollar question, if there even is such a number. Certainly it helps to assess whether you even can do it on your own, or if you need to bring more of your team in,...
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
On Wednesday 13 April 2011 in Fiksburg, the Free State, South Africa, a service delivery protest turned ugly and an unarmed man named Andries Tatane, a breadwinner and father, was allegedly beaten and then shot with rubber bullets by members of the South African...
Just tweet
We blogged about the Twitter Blanket Drive yesterday and it’s made me think about the sheer power that Social Media has for charities and NGO's. We’ve all heard of the power of social media for business, how it’s the next, or rather, current big thing that we need to...
Delivering profits by delivering happiness
A few months ago I read the book Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos an online shoe and clothing retailer in the United States. It’s a great read and was number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Tony together with his team at Zappos has built...
Ten distinct strategies to creating profits through pleasing customers
Peter Drucker, the famous management guru, once said that “the purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” In today's new world of work these words are even more relevant than every before. Increased competition and pressure on margins is making customer...
Making Profit with Purpose for a Better Customer Experience
This podcast is expanding on our previous discussion on Customer Experience Driving Profits with Purpose. We need to continue to examine the impact the creating shared value movement offers those of us that are helping shape customer experience transformations. One...
Trapped in Kulula Limbo Hell
Kulula owe me 18 hours of my life back. That is the delayed time that they have cost me over the past couple of weeks as a frequent flyer on their carrier. In addition to this did I mention the two canceled flights that led to havoc with my schedule? Enough is enough....
Cities of the future
Urbanisation will be a massive demographic and powerful trends over the next decade. The world population growth is decreasing but it is still going to peak at around 9 billion people by 2050. In that time our cities will double in size as a further 3 billion people...
Exploitation of Natural Resources
Pete Laburn, one of this blog's contributors and an associate of TomorrowToday, is one of the clearest thinkers on strategy we know. He's developing a new talk on the key issues facing the world and business leaders today, and what we should do about it. He's...
A David v Goliath lesson from The Cloud (@BantamLive and @ConstantContact)
My colleague, Graeme Codrington, beat me to the punch with his post last week (Incomprehensible business decisions that alienate customers) about Constant Contact and their decision to put Bantam Live on ice for a period of time (a long period of time) while they...
A deeper consciousness: What Knut’s death might teach us about the life choices facing us soon
Just a few days ago, one of the world's most famous animals died. Knut was a polar bear who was born in captivity at the Berlin Zoological Garden. Rejected by his mother at birth, he was raised by zookeepers. He became a celebrity, even making it onto the cover of...