I have travelled on but a few of the great and sometimes famous rivers of our world – the Zambezi (near the Victoria Falls) and the Orange Rivers in Africa, the Colorado and Mississippi in the USA and the Thames in the UK. I still need to get to the Amazon, Nile, Volga, Danube, Yangtze…
All of us make mistakes – we are “human” after all! Some of us make really stupid errors – a moment when no thought is given to a particular action, when no real thinking is applied to the possible consequences that could eventuate from a chosen path and the hurt that can be caused if…
I have always been fascinated by the squirrels that live and forage in our neighbourhood, playfully scurrying backwards and forwards to collect sufficient food for the winter, having petty squabbles over titbits and seemingly having more serious disagreements over mates. I was walking in the garden one evening enjoying their company and discovered about 25…
A lady friend of mine went to go and do her regular shopping in one of the many malls that dot our cities and on this particular day, she was mugged and her handbag was snatched by an opportunist thief. She was devastated and although physically unharmed, felt scared and emotionally distraught. She was also…
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, an eminent Russian novelist, historian and tireless critic of Communist Totalitarianism, Nobel Prize in Literature (1970), when delivering a Harvard Commencement Address in June 1978, referred to the calamity of a de-spiritualised and irreligious humanistic consciousness and noted: “To such consciousness, man is the touchstone in judging and evaluating everything on earth –…
I travel to some countries where things don’t really work. The roads are sub-standard, the drainage is poor if it exists at all, the power supply is intermittent, sewerage systems are less than optimal, water supply is dubious in terms of quality and security is an issue. Huge amounts of money need to be invested…
Entrepreneurs can certainly be admired, quite apart from any injection of personal cash, for the courage, zeal and creativity they invest in a start-up company. Hours of tenacity-characterised effort and many late nights working on administration often mark the long day of the entrepreneur. As the company grows and gains more clients, however, there is…
“To Do” lists are created as helpful reminders of what needs to be done, the stuff that is still outstanding and the activities that need our attention. They find their way on to refrigerator doors, pieces of paper that clutter our desks or on to digital and other electronic devices as “prompts” demanding our attention….
A friend of mine told me about one of his employees who repeatedly came late to work. The young man was hard-working and focused, so performance was no issue. He just started work late each day and if unaddressed by management, would send all the wrong messages to the rest of the staff. His manager…
I have recently almost completed a culture change/change management process with a group of beverage companies in an African country – three companies, with a total of seven production facilities dotted around some of the cities. In summary, one of the companies makes clear beer (with a 6 month shelf life) and bottles carbonated drinks,…
There have only been a few of them – country leaders who have managed to impart vision to the people to bring changes to attitudes and behaviour and thus create a better life for all citizens. Maybe selfishness, power and greed have stood in the way of most of the others attaining lofty impact. In…
International sport is fascinating, especially to note the trends, changes in approach and changes to the rules of whichever game is being played and the dominance of certain countries in the respective sport expressions that are national favourites. In soccer, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany and now Spain have all had their moments. With cricket, Australia…
