People Trends for 2006
Watson Wyatt Worldwide (NYSE:WW) is a global human capital and financial management consulting firm. The firm specializes in employee benefits, human capital strategies, technology solutions, and insurance and financial services and has 6,000 associates in 30...
The Young & the Restless
As I sit here a day before Christmas, rain falling, birds in the feeder right outside my window and a sense of peace and goodwill pervading the atmosphere I am witness to another phenomena about to unfold: Roadtrip 2006. My about-to-be-20 year old son and several of...
Million Dollar Homepage
And so, you're sitting around one day as a broke 21yr old student pondering how you'll pay for your university tuition fees. It's really simple - host an advertising site where you sell space. Alex Tew is the brains behind www.milliondollarhomepage.com. At a premium...
Has Google sold its soul?
So has Google's purchase of AOL for $1Billion brought it it into the fully capitalist fold, thereby undermining its "Do No Evil" motto? Matt Asay would have us believe so in this post at InfoWorld's blog. December 17, 2005 Google sells its soul for a mess of pottage...
Store layout for Gen X
We all know why milk and bread is found at the back of food retail store? It's because they're two things that everyone needs more often that almost anything else. By putting it at the rear of the store you get 'dragged' past hundreds of other items to tempt you to...
Change is easier when you are healthy
I was reading an article on church growth and leadership (we have a lot to learn from non profit leadership), and came across a few gem quotations that I think are important (read the full article here), from H. Dale Burke, senior pastor of First Evangelical Free...
An African Christmas: Awesome customer service
Ed Jordan is fairly well known in South African music circles. Together with some business mates, he has produced a few albums of kids music with a distinctly African flavour - you can get them here. Their latest album is "An African Christmas". Its traditional...
Cricket in the 21st century
One of the greatest things about southern hemisphere summer holidays is that it is also cricket season. And I am a cricket fanatic (for more on cricket read a serious summary and a humurous summary of the rules). I was up at 4:30am this morning to continue watching SA...
Outside of effective media strategies where else do monopolies hurt
South Africa is home to only one fixed-line-operator. It's name is Telkom and it's enjoyed this status for long enough to have generated a fair amount of frustrated customers. Screw the public! Do we care? NO! Why? Look how much money we're making! As from today, I'll...
Airlines and their pricing issues
One of the biggest problems for the airline industry right now is that not one of their millions of customers around the world understands their pricing policies. And I'd venture to suggest that their staff don't either. In fact, their pricing policies are just so...
BrainReactions: smart entrepreneurship
Anand Chatpar was recently acknowledged by BusinessWeek as one of the top 5 entrepreneurs of 2005 (under the age of 25). His company, BrainReactions, "helps companies innovate new products, services and marketing concepts by conducting brainstorming sessions with the...
Social Software and Citizen Marketing
PVR was recently introduced into South Africa for the first time. MyPVR.co.za is a website built by an individual (Jason), completely dedicated to glorifying DStv’s new product. According to Jason, he does not get paid for the site or for his positive...
A fresh approach to Organisational Development
by Sonja Blignaut, Aiden Choles, Jean Cooper We live in a world where things, people and ideas are better connected than ever before. A world where work can flow across the globe as fast and as cheap as it doesin your home office. We live in an increasingly complex...
Looking to Tomorrow – 2005 and Beyond
Synthesized from the futureneering work of the storytellers and organisational alchemists in the Business Intelligence Unit (BIU) of TomorrowToday.biz. - http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz During December and January every year, magazines and websites are filled with...
If you really believe your values…
Any organisation - any group of people working together - needs to have a shared view of what they are trying to achieve, the structures through which this will be achieved and a guiding set of operational and environmental ‘rules of engagement’ to guide behaviour...
Why teams? To adapt, learn and relate
It is no secret that we are living in a fast-paced world that requires new skills, attitudes and approaches from individuals and organisations. A world where the ability to adapt, learn and relate is critical for survival and success. Adapt, learn, relate three...
Seven bribes for severance brothers
They’re leaving in their droves – this new breed of employees, and there seems little anyone can do about it. You invest time, money and effort into training them, only to be rewarded with: “Thanks for everything, I’m leaving.� And all you have to show for...
If you’re not on Google, you can’t possibly be alive
As I sat there scratching my head, for how can you be alive and not be found on Google.com, I realised that a new criteria for existence has been born, and I had just tripped over it. A credit history is still mighty important but if you have no web history can you...
The Dead: A Case in Point
Walk into The Chatterbox, a coffee shop in Westville, KZN, South Africa (now you know exactly where it is!). Only having about 30 minutes, I order a muffin and coffee. Settle back and switch on my laptop. Damn... need power but no problem, my table has a plug point...
Black Marketing
Not like the name suggests, this is a strand of marketing that is being borne out of how the Smoking Co's have been cornered by global health legislation (and soon too the breweries!). Now that they're no longer able to utlise the 'tried and tested' marketing...