qnomore – gotta love the free market

Anyone who knows me will know that I am irrationally exuberant about South Africa’s future. I believe my home country has a rich legacy, a wonderful heritage to share with the world, and a bright future. Of course, there are problems – but we’re sorting many of them out. We need more houses – but we’ve built close to 2 million in the last 10 years (can’t ask for much more, can you?). We need a better AIDS policy – that seems to be happening, now that the health minister (in an ironic twist) has fallen ill, and is on long term sick leave. Every decent economist I know is confident our economy’s fundamentals are solid – and our finance department and tax office are absolutely top drawer! Crime is a HUGE problem, and must be sorted out. We need more political will in this area.

But my friends at SA The Good News, and Guy Lundy, author of Reasons to Believe, and the great crew at HomeComing Revolution and the official crowd at the International Marketing Council all help me to be positive.

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Space pens

At a recent event, I was given a gift. This happens quite regularly, and always makes me smile – I mean, aren’t they paying my invoice? Its not like I speak for free… But, anyway – its a nice gesture, and besides the odd bit of rubbish corporate gift you get, most of the gifts are interesting and/or useful.

This one was a space pen. A small (half BIC size) ballpoint pen, with some serious technology in it. Invented in 1965 in response to the US’s need for a pen that work in zero gravity in space, this pen has a gas ball in the ink well, that expands as the ink is used, and therefore pushes the ink towards the nib. The pen can write upside down, in space and anywhere. It can write on anything that can be written on in ink. The Space pen company is rightly proud of this brilliant technology and innovation.

The Russians, however, had a similar problem as they were part of the space race. They came up with a different solution for writing in zero gravity. They used pencils!!

Sometimes, we can over-innovate.

Winning the Talent Wars (part 2)

Dr Graeme Codrington continues from last month’s e-zine article looking at creating an attractive culture for talented young people. In this second of two articles on the subject, he focuses the spotlight on four key areas companies have to manage in order to attract and retain talented young people, and develop loyalty in their staff and customers.

… Continue Reading

Defining Talent – objective assessment in the War for Talent

Raymond de Villiers, director of Talent at TomorrowToday.biz, asks corporate leaders to define talent. Its not good enough to answer: “I’ll know it when I see it”. Raymond then provides a framework for understanding who is talented, how to identify them, and what will engage them most effectively. This is one of the most important articles you will ever read on the issue of Talent.

… Continue Reading

A is for Apple, BEE is for Business (part 2)

John Maxwell, co-founder and administrator of the Nkomazi Community Trust, examines Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and points out some flaws within the current implementation. Telling the story of a BEE deal gone wrong John shows that BBBEE is much more than merely black ownership and control. He then discusses two difficulties: attracting black investors and finding the right ones.

This is the second article in a series by John on BEE. The first article can be found at http://www.tmtd.biz/2006/09/27/bee-part-1/ … Continue Reading

Is Talent Holding the Workforce Hostage?

Aloysias Maimane, TomorrowToday’s resident expert on young talent, especially young black South African talent, questions whether companies truly understand what these young people see as perks and what they just expect to receive by default. Knowing the difference is a key component to talent retention.
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The airport bestseller – the role and emergence of corporate autobiographies

Aiden Choles, an expert in the use of narrative techniques in the corporate world, argues that the rise of the corporate autobiography as bestseller is proof that we need stories, rather than benchmarks, and human connection rather than policy and procedure manuals. In his usual insightful way, Aiden highlights the leadership implications faced by corporates today.

… Continue Reading

Newsweek’s Boomer Files

I have just stumbled on possibly the most comprehensive Boomer website I have yet seen. Its hosted by Newsweek, and seems to contain a complete archive of all the stuff they’ve ever done on Boomers (and they’ve done a lot!!). You can find the “Boomer Files” here.

The site has indepth reporting, fun quizzes and lots more.

Investigate how Boomers have impacted everything from music to spirituality, from business to politics. The only downside is that it is very American-centric.

The biggest killers in the world

I am sitting at the Liquified Petroleum Gas South African annual convention. The global marketing head, Michael Kelly, from the World body just presented a fascinating study of indoor pollution in Africa. I thought I wouldn’t be interested, but then he started with this fact:

Indoor smoke inhalation kills one person every 30 seconds in Africa. 1.9 million people are killed worldwide by smoke inhalation every year. Put another way, smoke inhalation and its complications account for more deaths than malaria, which is the biggest killer disease in Africa. It is the fourth biggest cause of death in developing nations.

LP Gas advocates the use of gas rather than wood/coal/oil (carbon/biomass)-based fuels. Its easy to use, easy to transport and store, and safe (much safer than paraffin/kerosene). It seems that a lot of work has to be done to get this fuel to Africa.

Just one of the ways we could upgrade Africa to be world class…

The Financial Case for Leadership Development

Its one thing to all agree that it would be “a good thing” to have better leaders. At TomorrowLeaders.biz, Keith Coats, our resident leadership guru, calls these types of leaders Savvy Leaders. But, the typical business wants to know, “what’s the bottom line?” – how will having better leaders improve the profit line of the company.

The problem is that leadership development is often seen as just a cost. In the competitive world of business, companies sometimes decide to forgo leadership training in order to cut costs – especially in lean times. In a recent USA Bureau of Labor Statistics Report, the United States Department of Labor stated that the median tenure of employees aged 25 to 34 was 2.9 years. They also reported that management and professional occupations was only 5.0 years. Alarmingly, this was the highest median tenure among major occupational groups.

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Virtual Earth

Virtual Earth is Microsoft’s answer to Google Earth. Google’s product is free, and download takes just a few minutes. I cannot find out how much Microsoft’s product costs, or where to get it (can’t be downloaded from their site). Well, it is Microsoft…

Anyway, MS’s product is in version 4, and now comes in 3D. The new 3D version of Virtual Earth is currently available for the following US cities: San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, San Jose, Phoenix and Houston. But Microsoft says it will expand to more than 100 cities internationally by the summer of 2007.

To build their 3D models, Microsoft contractors travelled around these cities in cars and planes capturing many images in rapid succession. These were automatically stamped with GPS co-ordinates. The images overlap by 90%, to ensure that each building is captured from multiple different angles. Each virtual cityscape requires approximately 10 million photos. Looks cool, if only I could find out how to get a copy…

Cyber Bullying?

There is increasing work being done looking into the effect games have in the real world. One one level it seems like a waste of time, effort and money. The stuff of Hollywood.

Aparently not. South Korea is the most connected country in the world, and online gaming and social networks are presenting a dark side. A very dark side. Gamers, whose task it is to destroy fellow online gamers in the virtual world are finding their antics ‘bleeding’ through to the real world, sometimes unconsciously, and sometimes very deliberately.

 See here for full article.

“They are very serious. They said ‘I’m going to kill you’, that they’d pray for me. It was a kind of curse. It was the worst day I’ve ever had.”

The spiteful comments and threats continued for 12 months. This is a mild case of a growing phenomenon Koreans call cyber violence.

Resentment in the wake of Affirmative Action

There is a unique situation in South Africa as the white Baby Boomer generation head towards retirement in the next few years.

Instead of wanting to leave a legacy behind them (which is probably the global Boomer desire), South African white Boomers just can’t wait to get the hell out of the organisations that have sidelined them over the last 15 years in the wake of Affirmative Action and Empowerment policies. This is a precarious position as businesses begin to realise that there are not enough Xers to replace them and they run the risk of losing core skills, experience and wisdom. This risk is compounded by the reluctance to engage in transferring their wisdom prior to leaving the organisation.

It was a telling moment when sitting with a client in the electricity industry yesterday who told me directly that we won’t get anything out of these guys – in terms of transferring their wisdom to younger employees – until someone from the organisation stands up and says, “Guys, we’re sorry … we’ve f&*ked this Affirmative Action thing up and messed you around”.

I wonder if the Corporate Ego will allow this to happen?

The Flying Mango

South African Airways (SAA) launched its new low-cost airline, Mango, this week. Today (2 Nov) there were rumours that the site had crashed, and then I came across this amusing article from the Mail & Gaurdian.

Mango has registered a list of derogatory variations on its internet domain name, Flymango.com, in an attempt to ward off websites that could be launched by its competitors.

Domain names such as Mangosucks.co.za, Vrotmango.co.za and Rotten-mango.co.za have been registered by the company.

It even registered Neverflymango.co.za, clearly having learnt from South African Airways’ (SAA) ordeal with an annoyed American passenger, Vernon E Six, who started the now-discontinued Neverflysaa.com in 2002 to air his views on SAA’s alleged poor service.

For why I used the image I did, check this link

We keep asking, ‘how big is blogging?’

This question has been around about as long as blogging has. Is blogging just another fad, another fringe happening, and does it have the momentum to make it into the realm of main stream? Of course anecdotes abound to illustrate just how much gravitas it has. Perhaps it’ll be a case of ’slowly slowly catch the monkey’ as these seemingly light-weight anecdotes band together to create the kind of splash blogging enthusiasts have always predicted?

Here’s another of those stories. This one isn’t as light weight as others, and one wonders if this is just Microsoft spin, or whether they really would re-consider their China policy over the persecution of bloggers?

World’s Biggest Skateboard Ramp

You gotta read about it to believe it. So large pilots apparently adjust their flight paths to take a little look.

Approximately 360 feet long, the ramp is 75 feet high at its apex. That is where riders begin their run, speeding down a 180-foot-long roll-in to a ramp that launches them across a 70-foot gap with trapeze netting below.

November 2006 ezine

Edition: November 2006 Available online at: http://www.tmtd.biz/articles This month at a glance… more details below :: Is Talent holding the workforce hostage? (by Aloysias Maimane) :: Defining Talent – objective assessment in the War for Talent (by Raymond de Villiers) :: Winning the Talent Wars (part 2) (by Graeme Codrington) :: The airport bestseller – the role and emergence of corporate autobiographies (by Aiden Choles) :: A is for Apple, BEE is for Business (part 2) (by JohnMaxwell) :: Retyrement Breakfast, 25 January 2007, Johannesburg, South Africa :: TomorrowTraining – three public courses in December 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa: :: Train-the-trainer :: Sales skills for generations :: Talent management :: Featured Articles in November AloysiasMaimane – Is Talent Holding the Workforce Hostage? Aloysias Maimane, TomorrowToday’s resident expert on young talent, especially young black South African talent, questions whether companies truly understand what these young people see as perks and what they just expect to receive by default. Knowing the difference is a key component to talent retention. Click here to read the rest of this article RaymonddeVilliers – Defining Talent – objective assessment in the War for Talent Raymond de Villiers, director of Talent at TomorrowToday.biz, asks corporate leaders to define talent. Its not good enough to answer: “I’ll know it when I see it”. Raymond then provides a framework for understanding who is talented, how to identify them, and what will engage them most effectively. This is one of the most important articles you will ever read on the issue of Talent. Click here to read the rest of this article GraemeCodrington – Winning the Talent Wars (part 2) Dr Graeme Codrington continues from last month’s e-zine article, looking at creating an attractive culture for talented young people.  In this second of two articles on the subject, he focuses the spotlight on four key areas companies have to manage in order to attract and retain talented young people, and develop loyalty in their staff and customers. Click here to read the rest of this article AidenCholes – The airport bestseller – the role and emergence of corporate autobiographies Aiden Choles, an expert in the use of narrative techniques in the corporate world, argues that the rise of the corporate autobiography as bestseller is proof that we need stories, rather than benchmarks, and human connection rather than policy and procedure manuals. In his usual insightful way, Aiden highlights the leadership implications faced by corporates today. Click here to read the rest of this article JohnMaxwell – A is for Apple, BEE is for Business (part 2) John Maxwell, co-founder and administrator of the Nkomazi Community Trust, examines Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and points out some flaws within the current implementation. Telling the story of a BEE deal gone wrong John shows that BBBEE is much more than merely black ownership and control. He then discusses two difficulties: attracting black investors and finding the right ones. Click here to read the rest of this article   We now have a full-time UK and European office in London.  For details of our offerings and availability in the UK and Europe, please contact one of the team: JackieRonson – jackie@tomorrowtoday.uk.com, +44 7718 344 552 DeanvanLeeuwen – dean@tomorrowtoday.uk.com, +44 7887 622 853 Events in South Africa: At this critical dawning of a new era in retirement, Pete Laburn will be presenting PrimeTime. As Boomers reach the Prime Time in their careers they need to discover how to maximise their effectiveness and happiness. This will require new skills. This framework will help all Boomers to look at multiple potential interventions that will assist them to make decisions about their futures – their own and their company’s – and leave a legacy. Date: 25th January 2007 Venue: SPORTRON House, 2 Eaton Ave, Bryanston , Johannesburg, South Africa Time: 07h30 for registration and a light breakfast. The function will end at 09h30. Cost: R200 RSVP: Lynda Smith at lynda@tomorrowwisdom.biz or +27 82 490 2822 Click here for more details Exploring Retyrement – an ezine Calling Boomers and all interested parties who want to know what the future will look like for this generation. We predict that Retirement is an Industrial Age concept and individuals, marketers and corporations should understand what this new world may look like. Subscribe here to receive a monthly online magazine with reviews, stories and trends about the future. http://www.tomorrowwisdom.biz/newsletter.html Please send this on to anyone you know who may be interested in this subject. Contact Lynda on lynda@tomorrowwisdom.biz for any further details. Presents: Upcoming Public training courses Train-the-Trainer programme (or How Not to Get Shot) It has been said that the best trainers are not born, merely experienced. This programme aims to provide trainers and facilitators with the tips, tools and techniques that experienced trainers and facilitators rely on. No prior experience necessary! Outcomes: At the end of this programme, participants will be able to… :: Facilitate learning in groups :: Apply adult learning principles :: Apply the latest research on interactive learning :: Create an environment which supports learning Duration: 2 days Date: 04 / 05 December 2006 Time: 08:30am – 4:30pm Cost: R1600.00 per delegate (includes all course material and catering) http://www.tomorrowtraining.biz/ Sales Skills for Generations TomorrowTraining.biz, co-founded by Dr Graeme Codrington of TomorrowToday.biz, is proud to announce a NEW Sales Skills programme. This offering unpacks the concept of a "generation gap" and looks at the influence that this gap has on the planning and execution of successful sales strategies. By examining sales skills through the perspectives of the different generations, we are able to look at the attitudes of the different generations to new or ‘foreign’ products and services, and know what kind of communication styles and selling techniques will be successful in each generational context. Understanding these generational differences is critical to those who are willing to adapt their personal styles to meet their customers’ needs. The key is understanding how to adapt your particular sales message so that it sells successfully to all generations. Duration: 1 day Date: 07 December 2006 Time: 08:30am – 4:30pm Cost: R900.00 per delegate (includes all course material and catering) http://www.tomorrowtraining.biz/ Talent Management As seen recently on Carte Blanche ("Best Companies" featuring Graeme Codrington on 16 July 2006), arguably one of the biggest challenges facing companies today is the retention and management of their people. Especially of the new generation of talent entering the workplace as super-empowered employees. This offering specifically targets organisations who need these bright young things. It helps these organisations to understand them, attract them, retain them, motivate them, and get the best out of them. This programme looks at the following: :: Who are the ‘Bright Young Things’ that are redefining the business world? :: How do we define Talent? :: How to attract talented people. :: How to retain and develop talented people. :: How to manage talented people. Date: 06 December 2006 Time: 08:30am – 4:30pm Cost: R900.00 per delegate (includes all course material and catering) http://www.tomorrowtraining.biz/ Presentations and Presenters: Check out our top rated presentations and presenters at: http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz   © TomorrowToday.Biz 2006

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TomorrowTraining

Finally, after years of our clients asking us to convert our presentations into skills-based, practical-focused modules, we have been able to partner with some talented trainers, and start a Training Company. As a joint-venture with iEti, TomorrowTraining offers a wide range of innovative learning interventions, designed to ensure that attitudes are changed, behaviours learnt and skills honed for effectiveness and sustained success. For more information, see http://www.tomorrowtraining.biz.

Book Recommendation

We’re all reading: Results: Keep What’s Good, Fix What’s Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance, by Bruce Pasternack; Gary Neilson. Click here to buy it at Kalahari.net

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