Come Fly With Me
An Outsider's Analysis of SAA and the Airline Industry On a recent flight on South African Airways (SAA), I browsed through their in flight magazine (Feb 2005). The new CEO, Khaya Ngqula, wrote a short one page article on the launch of a new internal initiative to...
How not to succeed in China
No one said it was going to be easy. China is going to make and break many companies - internationally and internally. Following on from my entry a few days ago (Why you shouldn’t be too worried about India and China), here's a story from BusinessWeek on how not to...
Crazy Russian Gen X marketing
Here's one for the books... Its always great to see Gen Xers doing well. In every country around the world, young people born in the 1970s and 80s are making their mark, most often in the IT and Telecomms industries. Countries with large populations moving towards...
It can even make phone calls
My wife has just upgraded her cell phone. When faced with the choices, she was offered a staggering array of phones each with a plethora of functions. These phones can do everything: play videos or MP3s, take photos and videos, record voice files, keep your diary,...
How to get 100% turnout in a general election
The UK has just completed another general election. Not all of the results are in, but the initial estimate of how many people actually voted looks much the same as in every democracy around the world where voting is not compulsory. It's not unusual to see figures of...
Social Anthropology is becoming more important to business
The New Scientist of 18 December 2004 details the kula exchange of the Trobriand Islands, first documented in 1922 by Bronislaw Malinowski, a pioneer in social anthropology (read the whole story here). This exchange involves a series of islands passing a gift on in a...
Gartner Research: Disruptive Effects – Part 2
Intelligence magazine (South Africa), April 2005, published extract from a report by the Gartner Group (2005) which highlighted forces which will enhance or hamper workforce performance, productivity and leadership. Here follows a brief extract (not available online,...
Gartner Research: Disruptive Effects – Part 1
Intelligence magazine (South Africa), April 2005, published extract from a report by the Gartner Group (2005) which highlighted forces which will enhance or hamper workforce performance, productivity and leadership. Here follows a brief extract (not available online,...
Apple hooks on to the connection economy
Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) later this year is taking a connection-based approach to its attendees. Instead of top-down "here's our new technology" presentations, WWDC is sporting a wide variety of innovations, like in-depth hands-on sessions and...
The Digital Hospital
In BusinessWeek on 28 March, 2005, they profiled the Digital Hospital. This is a real, working existing hospital that has just made excellent use of existing technologies. You can see a slide show, which gives you a brief overview of what they have done. It ranges...
Another form of Network Marketing – will it work?
On Marketing Web this week, there was an article (click here for article)posted about companies paying people to be brand-ambassadors, wondering the aisles and petrol stations, cleverly convincing us in a 'not-the-usual-suspects' way to consider changing brands, or...
Advertising (to kids) just gets harder and harder
On June 28, 2004, Fortune magazine reported on a school in the USA where fourth graders were being trained in media awareness - basically being "ad proofed". (Read the story here - you need a subscription to Fortune). These children were given class assignments to...
Microsoft is in a war for survival
Linux - the Penguin that marches - is a free operating system designed and developed by an army of volunteers. Available free of charge, and now nearly useable by your (slightly above) average home user. This operating system has long been a lurking threat to...
Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen
This book, by By Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern, is highly recommended as a business text. Buy it at Amazon.com. It was reviewed by Stephen Baker, in BusinessWeek in 1997. Here is an edited version of his review (available online here). It was the kind of miscue that...
1,000 years of history
CNN did an excellent summary of the millennium during 1999. They gave each century a single entry summary, and then drilled down in huge detail. Check it out here. Their summary is as follows: 11 th century: sword 12th: axe 13th: stirrup 14th: scythe 15th: sail 16th:...
Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right
This book, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, was one of the most highly recommended of 2004. Click here for Business Week's review. I have ordered it, and will review it myself in a few weeks' time. Buy it online at: Amazon.com or Kalahari.net.
SAA, travel agents and me
Last week, I got an email from our travel agent (Flight Center, if you must kn0w). I was told that it was imperative to ensure that I completed all existing bookings before 1 May when prices would be increasing. On 1 May, and while travelling on SAA, I read in the...
Science Fiction and media speculation
Since Jules Verne put the science fiction genre on the map, these authors and movie makers have captured popular imaginations - with visions of boom and bust, glory and (mainly) terror in the future. Many of them (I would rate Asimov the best in this case) have been...
Leaving Boomers out of the loop
The other night I spoke at a Business School for 3 hours, focussing on Generational Theory in the workplace. There was lots of stimulating discussion, but the one thread that caught my attention was a comment made by an Xer around the Boomers in his office. He worked...
How long is too long for coffee?
One of the first things I learned at university was around customers and retail. My lecturer asked who was more valuable to a restaurant? The family that came in once each month for dinner, or the guy who came in every day for one cup of coffee? The answer was the...