How, when and why I Tweet and Blog
I'm often asked how I use social media, so I thought it might be helpful to do a quick blog about it. Not because you really care about me, but because it might help spark some thoughts about how you use social media and because it might help you get more out of this...
Entrepreneurial Edge – CNBC Africa
If you're watching CNBC Africa this evening (15 October) at around 20:30, you can catch Entrepreneurial Edge (hosted by Chris Bishop), with at least one of it's guests being me : ) The focus of the programme is future trends impacting entrepreneurs, and we chatted...
Surprise! Creating experiences for your customers
For many years now, we've been telling our clients that one of the keys to connecting with younger customers (Generations X and Y) is to add an experience to your offering. No longer are the traditional "Ps" of marketing (product, price, placement and promotion - and...
Power of Mobile Money
In the early 1990's I started work for one of South Africa's largest banks. The most innovative project I worked on was the use of smart card/chip technology to enable people to purchase items using the smart chip inside their mobile phones. I thought it was the best...
Big news in Outer space and Cyber Space
Over the past two months there have been a number of huge developments in both outer space and cyberspace. Developments which could change the world we live in forever. Outer space first... On the 24th September it was officially announced that water was found on the...
Stop Tweeting about these…
Had to smile as this post from The Oatmeal this morning. It it Monday morning, and if anything it's bound to give you a little smile. 10 Things you need to stop Tweeting about. It's a large and often question I'm hearing these days: what is Twitter all about? I've got...
WTF, Google?
FastCompany has a great post, with the same title as this post, on some of Google's glitches. Of course, as they point out, when you're processing the volume of stuff they are, they're bound to make a few glitches. They mostly relate to attempts to return searches and...
Is the economy in for a V, a U or a W? HSBC Chief thinks it's a W
There is a lot of talk about recovery from the recession, greenshoots and even a new bull market. So I've been talking to a few heads of business about how business is going. There are a few outstanding results. A Pharma company that we work with is ahead of target...
Building your own healthcare community
Many years ago when I was in community development, some of the cutting edge thinkers were promoting the idea of less professionals and more community involvement in ensuring the growth, development, safety, etc of family. It was a simple but profound concept of...
Newspapers and Blogs. A great conversation
It's not often I get sent a read like this one. And I follow a truck load of 'reads' everyday. Twitter, RSS, e-mail links, etc, etc. There is a lot of stuff that flows through my browser (is anyone else frustrated by Flash and Safari with the new Snow Leopard...
Social Networks and how we communicate
On Friday 2 October 2009, I was interviewed by Rueben Goldberg on Classic FM on his show, The Internet Economy. I'd not met him before we recorded the show. He's a good guy, fairly active on Twitter, and interesting and interested to talk to. Our PR company, SimonSays...
Good to Great… to Gone!
Jim Collins got it wrong. Not totally wrong, but wrong enough that we need to be careful (as always) about who we listen to when designing companies for future success. Too often, leaders take a shortcut and blindly apply models they find somewhere else, without doing...
A happiness bank – connecting helpers with those who need help
I am doing some work in Estonia in a few days time, and so have been watching the wires for news reports from that country. One of these really jumped out at me. "Estonians to lauch world’s first e-Bank of Happiness" - read the story here. The concept is simple: bring...
Marcus Buckingham takes aim at women
The guy is no fool. Marcus Buckingham, author and strengths uber-guru, knows what he is doing. He first shot to prominence with a series of books about personal strengths. I think that his book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" (also sold under the title of "Strengths...
Star Workplace Article
I was published in The Star (South African newspaper) earlier this week on 'diversity'. I've had a few requests from people who wanted to read it, but couldn't find it online. Our PR company (SimonSays Communications) scanned a copy and sent it through today. It's...
VWV Red Plug on Generation 2.0
VWV is an interesting company, that I still don't know enough about. Take a visit to their web site to see some of the 'interesting' I encounter when I meet with their people (wherever they may be). Tomorrow I'm spending the afternoon with them as part of their 'Red...
How will history view Labour's and Brown's legacy?
"It is the fighters and believers who change the world. We've changed the world before and we will change it again." I'm listening to Gordon Brown's conference speech in Brighton, using the wonder of internet streaming. Brown has come out fighting and I have to say a...
Two innovations that will change the world
Two technological innovations are giving me great optimism for future sustainability, reduction in our reliability on fossil fuels (and therefore hopefully less conflict in the middle east) and lower emissions of hothouse gasses. They are the exciting developments of...
From Hawaii: Four Things About Globalization
The stated goal of the East-West Center’s International Forum for Education 2020 is, ”to address the need for new paradigms in higher education that will respond to transforming economic, social and cultural changes”. The belief is that the capacity to address these...
From Hawaii: The Real Learning for Teams
Had an insightful conversation today. As with any education programme orientated around leadership, standard practice is to have participants work in groups, teams or in business-speak, cohorts. Where do they come up with this terminology, some of which is part of the...