Could this be it?
Ever since I can remember (although in reality its probably only since the late 1980s), I have lived with the grim warnings about the scourge of HIV/AIDS. Futurists have been warning of the dire consequences of having as much as 20% of the workforce taken out. Health care professionals have been warning of the dangers of such a communicable disease and have been trying to change sexual habits (remember when condoms were used to stop life? Now they’re used to safe life!). (Aside: not everyone has maintained this line – South Africa’s Minister of Health has rather spent her time increasing the sales of beetroot, garlic and onion). Churches have used the disease as an excuse to spread their own brand of sexual health (“sex is dirty, so keep it for marriage”). And NGO’s the world over have proliferated, as they try to deal with the health issues, the “dying with dignity” issues and the problem of orphans (2 million orphans expected by 2010 in South Africa alone).
Yet, with all this fuss, I must confess that I have been relatively untouched by AIDS at the moment. It is true that anyone CAN get AIDS, but the reality is that rich, educated people are unlikely to actually contract it, except if we’re exceptionally stupid or amazingly unlucky. AIDS continues to be the scourge of the lower class and the most vulnerable.
The first person that I actually knew who died of AIDS passed away about 10 years ago. She was the vivacious and upbeat receptionist at a computer training company I worked for. In a six month period she wasted away in front of our eyes, to a mere shadow of herself, and then the end came swiftly. Since then, I have known only a few people who have died of AIDS. Most of them have been contractors who have worked in my home.
But now, in the past few weeks, the spectre of a killer has emerged. XDR TB (Extra Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) has been diagnosed in South Africa. This strain is the result of people not following through with their full 6 month course of treatment. People do not die of AIDS. They die when HIV/AIDS has destroyed their immune system, and then they get hit with what would otherwise be a curable disease. The biggest such killer is TB. Its curable, even if you have AIDS, as long as take the drugs for 6 months. However, after 3 or 4 months, you feel 100% better. Some people therefore stopped the treatment, and TB developed immunity to these drugs and mutated into a horrible, untreatable disease. Already over 50 people have died.
Could this be it? Could this be the time bomb that explodes and rips through the HIV+ community, destroying all in its wake? It certainly looks as if it has the potential to bring the devastastion we have all feared since I was a child.
News broke this past week that HP board chairperson, Patricia Dunn, had ordered a probe into how information was being leaked to the press. This investigation led to the obtaining of personal phone records of some directors, and at least two reporters covering HP. The investigation conducted by a company hired by HP used a controversial technique called “pretexting” to obtain the personal phone records of silicon.com sister site CNET News.com reporters Dawn Kawamoto and Tom Krazit, California state prosecutors said. Pretexting is an illegal method of obtaining personal records through misrepresentation of someone’s identity.
There are more and more cars on the road, and the complexity of these cars is ever increasing. Who is going to service them? Who is going to fix them when they break? Already, you have to book a few weeks in advance to get your upper-end car in for its regular service. And the quality of the servicing leaves something to be desired. This is a worldwide problem, as a report in “Tire Review online” suggests. Its in the 11 Sep 2006 edition, and is entitled: “Shops in Crisis? The Tech Shortage”, by Steve LaFerre. 
Every marketer says that they do. Companies swear that they know their customers. But, as a fantastic article from Fast Company shows, most organisations are just fooling themselves. Its a long read, but well worth it – from Fast Company, Issue 34, April 2000. 
I am a serious fan of the magazine, “Fast Company”. Its one of the best out there. There is a fantastic new book that is a selection of their choice of the top articles from the last ten years of the magazine. Highly, highly recommended. “Fast Company’s Greatest Hits: Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business” (get it 
Today is another anniversay. It is 29 years since Steve Biko died in police detention in South Africa. Steve Biko was a leader who focused on helping black people in South Africa to gain self esteem. He founded the Black Consciousness movement, and talked about Black is Beautiful. Of all the lives lost during apartheid, for me personally, his is the most tragic. I really wish I could have met him. By all accounts he was a brilliant human being.
Amazing how our burdens change over time. A few years back, some of the questions you’d ask when moving around were: will there be a road, will petrol be avialable, will there be a telephone, with there be a fax machine, will there be cellphone reception and now today … will there be a plug point available to aid my ailing battery. Bump into me at any Wifi hotspot and you’ll find me appendaged to a plugpoint charging my laptop, cell phone and iPod. It’s no secret that I’m not an HP fan. Currently adding to my PC-woes is the fact that the battery life on my laptop is nearing a max of 45 minutes. Working virtually, I demand a lot from a power supply. But I do wonder if a battery that is just shy of 1 year old should detoriate as quickly as it has? So, I best make this post a quick one lest my time is cut short.
Sue Grant-Marshall, co-author with me of “Mind the Gap”, our book about the generation gap, has written a nice primer on generational attitudes to health. It was published in the Business Day on 30 August 2006 – 
In the 31 Aug 06 edition of strategy+business, Michael Schrage wrote an excellent article about using the power of Web 2.0 type thinking to involve customers in innovation processes. 
Lynda Smith, trained Retirement Coach and Wisdom Continuity expert, shares some insights into the options facing those who will reach retirement age in the next 10 years. Its fairly clear that this generation of retirees are not going to give up work completely and disappear to the coast or golf courses. But what options do they have?
Aiden Choles looks at the business critical issue of retaining talent, highlighting some of the mistakes that companies make when trying to manage their talent. He argues that a certain amount of churn is inevitable, and possibly even healthy if managed properly. But that requires a shift in perspective on what talent is.
Aloysias Maimane wonders how we can shift today’s talented young employees from a Sprint mentality to a Marathon mentality. How can we get them to stay for the long haul, and stick it out? He suggest three simple solutions that provide some of the pieces of the puzzle.
Dr Graeme Codrington suggest that traditional segmentation models aimed at understanding the youth market fall short because they fail to see the impact of generational value shifts. In fact, he goes further to suggest that by combining lifestage theory, socio-economic indicators and generational overlays, you are able to gain insights into your market that would otherwise have been hidden. Sound complex? It’s actually remarkably simple.
Eventually, you will have to manage Generation Y staff. These are people who were born after 1978, who will in time become the backbone of our labor force. It will require a real understanding on your part of what causes their behavior and what they want to get out of the workplace. Generation Y’s behavior and motivation are much different than Generation X and baby boomers.
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