They know their customers. They know what their customers want. They know how to present their products so that their customers will purchase from them. They know the ideal pricing for their products so that they clear their goods daily. ‘Fresh’, ‘freshly cooked’ and ‘relevant’ are the maxims by which they operate. These are the…
Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads (Back to the Future – 1985) The world is quite different now – the very concept of “team” has been challenged, revised and reconstructed. On the one hand, globalisation has accelerated the employ of diverse and remote teams, where team members operate from many different countries in…
The worldwide rush to secure a suitable and effective vaccine to counter the COVID-19 pandemic’s reach has reached frenzied proportions. Governments are jockeying to be first in the queue – unfortunately, with some wealthy countries playing geo-political games to outmanoeuvre other less wealthy neighbours, probably to their own demise. Cross-border travellers carrying the virus will…
Employee wellbeing and employee engagement are both critical ingredients of individual and organisational performance. The two concepts are inextricably interlinked, like two trees growing intertwined. When one is damaged, the other also suffers. This concept has become particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has not only impacted so many people physically, but, too, has…
The temptation to set stretch targets to achieve company goals within a short period of time is indeed something that the most realistic of leaders cannot resist. There is, however, a certain limit to which such change initiatives can be actualised as real solutions, as most complex problems are hardly going to be solved within…
Globalisation, made possible over the past half-century through more speedy and efficient forms of travel (commuting intercontinentally) and telecommunications (mobile technology and fast data transfer through the internet), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies and governments all over the world. S Guttal (Globalisation, Development in Practice) notes: “As a complex and…
‘Force-multiplication’ is a term used in military science and warfare and refers to an attribute or a combination of attributes that dramatically increases (hence multiplies) the effectiveness of an item or group, giving the troops the ability to accomplish greater things than without it. The expected size increase required to have the same effectiveness without…
The word “genius” perhaps brings to mind a prodigy or mastermind of the past, either in the musical, scientific or mathematical fields – Bach, Einstein, Mozart, Aristotle, Beethoven and Da Vinci, to name a few. There are conflicting ideas, however, on how a genius is developed. John Dryden (English poet, literary critic, translator and playwright)…
Millennials, those born after 1980 and before 2000 and representing well over 35% of the world’s population, are a largely talented and versatile group. For many companies with rigid structures and systems, this generation can be incredibly frustrating, illusive and highly challenging. In terms of employing millennials, the best are hard to find and even…
They know their customers. They know what their customers want. They know how to present their products so that their customers will purchase from them. They know the ideal pricing for their products so that they clear their goods daily. ‘Fresh’, ‘freshly cooked’ and ‘relevant’ are the maxims by which they operate. These are the…
It is often said that flexibility and adaptability are the hallmarks of a good employee, but what exactly does that mean and why are these skills so important? Risk and instability have always been present in any growing business, but today’s hyper-competitive and fast-paced environment has turned the workplace into a much more turbulent and…
