John Mauldin on South Africa

John Mauldin, one of the US’s top investment advisors – recently voted second only to Warren Buffet as an investment guru – was in South Africa last week. On his return to the US, he wrote this remarkable article on his visit…

I start this week’s letter somewhere over the Atlantic, halfway through an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to Dallas. It has been an altogether marvellous 11 days in South Africa, speaking to over 1,000 people at 12 venues, giving a half dozen media interviews, and meeting with many individuals.

This week, I want to give you some impressions of not only South Africa, but talk a little about emerging markets in general.

Finding Value in South Africa

I realized about halfway through my recent trip that it had been some time since I was in an emerging-market country. I have been to over 50 countries over the past 20 years, but recently most of my travels have been to Europe and Canada, with the occasional vacation trip to Mexico.

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The Future of Publishing’s History

I am not the greatest fan of the publishing industry. The first paperback book, a massive innovation in the industry, was published this week in 1935, and sometimes it seems that was the last innovation the industry has seen. As a published author, the lead times in the industry are seriously frustrating and the processes archaic. But, hey, I suppose I shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds me (well, part feeds me – in a world dominated by the increasing valuation of intellectual capital and decreasing value of manual labour and intermediation, the publishing industry, with their paltry standard 12-15% of wholesale price paid in royalties stands as a bastion of anochronism).

But, today, I read of something that inspires some hope in me that the wonderful people of the publishing industry do have an eye on the future. Faber are going to be publishing out of print books on a once-off, on-demand basis. They have started with a limited catalog, but the concept itself could (and should) easily be extended to all books everywhere. With digital printing and even e-books, it should be very little extra work to take any book anywhere and reproduce it. Check out the announcement and details here. A nice idea, and one that I hope is copied, and inspires further innovation.

Just do It turns 20

Sometimes a product name, a slogan or an advertising campaign becomes lodged in societal consciousness, and embedded in our language forever. To generations of young people, such key phrases can instantly bring back memories of childhood and another time. I was recently listening to a radio phone in show in South Africa, and being reminded of “it’s not inside, it’s on top” and Panasonic’s “quest for zero defect”. You can do a fun test on your memories here. And there is a great list (that you can add to, of course) at Wikipedia.

Anyway, this is a short post to say that Nike’s “Just Do It” is 20 years old. Nice one!

Reflections on Africa

I suppose Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday is as good a time as any to briefly reflect on Africa. As an African by both birth and choice, I must admit that my heart is often broken by this continent. Albeit that Africans are resilient, remarkably adaptable and generally hospitable and friendly (among the black languages of South Africa, for example, there is no indigenous word for “stranger”), there never seems to be a week without some tragic tale emerging from the 52 nations of this mighty continent. I am not saying that everything is as bad as the global news headlines often make it out to be. But, Africa nevertheless seems to have massive problems when compared to the issues facing other regions of the world. Why is this?

One thing that has helped me recently is reading Jeffrey Sach’s “The End of Poverty” in which he lists the major causes of extreme poverty (and most of Africa is in this category), showing that many of the factors that cause African poverty are beyond the control of people. Africa’s mosquitoes carry malaria, whereas India’s do not, for example. Africa has no major navigable rivers (OK, there is one, but that is all within the DRC). Africa has the worst top soil of any continent (except, I suppose, Antarctica). And Africa’s tribes are more divided by culture and language than any other continent (in South Africa, for example, there are eleven official languages. In Nigeria, there are over 100 unique, indigenous languages). So, Africa is partly as it is due simply to the lottery of geography.

But, in the 21st century, that does not explain the whole story. It does not explain Sudan, for example. And, it most certainly does not explain Zimbabwe.

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Marketing with a WOW factor

Radiohead have used some fantastic new technology to record their latest single. Creativity-online.com says this about the new video “Radiohead’s latest video, for the track “House of Cards” from the In Rainbows album, uses real time 3D recording instead of cameras, utilizing highly technical structured light and Lidar laser-enhanced scanners to model lead singer Thom Yorke and provide an otherworldly narrative accompaniment to the song.”

This is cutting edge stuff and if any marketers want to do something to impress Generation X and the Millennial generation then this is it. But don’t wait as it is notoriously difficult to impress these two generations and it won’t be long before the use of this technology becomes “so like yesterday.” Act fast the application of this technology has some WOW factor something that is very difficult to create in marketing these days.

Have a look at the video

Is this the future design for companies?

I came across an interesting article in the Mckinsey Quarterly today which argues that companies need to take the power behind informal networks and create formal networks. Their consultants state that:

- Most large corporations have dozens if not hundreds of informal networks, in which human nature, including self-interest, leads people to share ideas and collaborate.
- Informal networks are a powerful source of horizontal collaboration across thick silo walls, but as ad hoc structures their performance depends on serendipity and they can’t be managed.
- By creating formal networks, companies can harness the advantages of informal ones and give management much more control over networking across the organization.
- The steps needed to formalize a network include giving it a “leader,” focusing interactions in it on specific topics, and building an infrastructure that stimulates the ongoing exchange of ideas.

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