So, post olypmics trauma

August 14, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Leave a comment

I am probably going to be slated for being too cynical but £9 billion!

What did you get out of the olypmics?, free marketing for the UK, the BBC broadcasted to the world for free but apart from the outdoor events there wasn’t really much marketing going on just self centred British chest beating by the commentators who spoke as if the olympics would bring proseperity to all. C’mon it’s a two week event were other countries do better than us and we celebrate effort of those who didn’t quite make it. A british athelete finished last in the 800m final, 4 seconds off the winner and the tv pundits were celebrating his success. What? really just because he ran a personal best! Stop that, his personal best is 4 seconds the guy he’s supposed to beat, there is nothing to celebrate there.

Some amazing stuff did happen in the olympic fortnight though, Daniel Rudisha made me go all emotional watching him destroy the field. Someone on radio said that performance will be remembered as the day the 800m was transformed from being a middle distance race into a sprint! His laps were 5 second slower than the 4X100m relay world record, Amazing. Mo Farah, emotional stuff I cried! especially in the 10000m final, Amazing. Usain Bolt is still the King! and boy does he know it! What gets me is how the press hang on his every word and make headlines out of craziness without a hint of mockery. Usain loves united and jokes about playing for united = headline, c’mon he’s just playing, its not news!!

The premiership is back this weekend! life can resume normal service for us footy lovers. As a gunner this off season has been spoilt by Robin van Persie’s public diarrhea. Really dude? all of a sudden he is better than Arsenal, well move on then because just like you did, someone else will carry the torch and the gunners will carry on. I think we will do big things this term, big things, the team is settled, we don’t really need RvP coz we have cover and some people who got over dominated by him might come out and shine! Maybe Theo will play up front, its been on the card for a while now. Arsene knows!

More about more in the next instalment.

What’s on for the weekend

July 27, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!2012, Al Assad, Dr Dre, God forgives but I don't, Illmatic, Jay Z, London, mapfumo, music, Nas, Olypmpics, Rick Ross, Syria, three kiings, ZimbabweLeave a comment

I thought I’d bring back this part of the blog because sometimes talking business can be a little boring and we all need to zone out of that for a moment!

So what’s on this weekend? I am going to the Mukanya’s show, it has been all of 20 years since I last seen the Mukanya live in concert. If you are in England I would recommend the show as well because judging by his

latest live in concert Youtube Videos it looks like it will be a good show.

Formula 1 is also on this weekned but if you are like me and you are support Lewis Hamilton the week promises to be a difficult one again. The last 3 races haven’t gone well at all and Lewis’ private life being in the papers for his alleged transgressions doesn’t help either but he’s led both practice sessions today so maybe it could be a good weekend after all.

New music wise check out Nas’ Life is Good album, Nas is back to illmatic goodness on this baby!!, my stand out tune of the album right now is Daughters. Rick Ross is also close to releasing a new album and the track doing the rounds from that piece is Three Kings with Dr Dre and Jay Z partaking in some chest beating for all their achievements in the rap game. I haven’t really taken to the song as some have but maybe if I put it on repeat this weeken it will grow on me!

Elsewhere, it’s Olympic season in London and if it wasn’t for piles of marking I might have gone down to soak up the atmosphere, it threatens to be a once in a life time event tonight around London. Speaking of the Olympics, I have a bad feeling about Usain Bolt, that dude might ruin his legacy this term coz it don’t seem like he is dialled in physically yet but you never know!.

Remember when Gadhaffi was caught and I wondered why he hadn’t ran away when they caught him. Al Assad needs to start making exit plans coz the tide is rising and when the people ain’t scared to die for a cause anymore then time is up. But I am sure he is still convincing himself that the Syrian people really want him and it’s only foreigners causing problems so he will stick around until we see some big ass soldier putting hands on him live on telly! And we will all ask, why didn’t he run away? They never learn, someone said dictators are power drunk so they can’t see trouble brewing.

May the sun keep shining and your cups keep over flowing, be safe and have fun!!

Spending to get out of trouble, where should the money go?

July 26, 2012July 26, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Leave a comment

It’s the making of a tug of war when organisations are struggling to survive and being faced with only two options, spending out of trouble or buttoning down the hatches and riding out the bad times. Managers and business leaders of today are dealing with the realities of going out of business more than any in previous times but whatever methods they are using, it is a case damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

For those who choose to invest out of trouble the question is where to invest? innovation, marketing, organisation restructuring (including redundancies because they cost money) or in operational effeciencies. Each area of business is plausible in their potential to move a business forward and create new opportunities. Innovation could help an organisation become more efficient, create more products and bring in new customers. All of which could be a source of additional earnings and growth out of the troubles but what about the risk? Risks lie in every opportunity that exists in investing further into innovation because there is no guarantee that customers will buy the new product or employees will work more efficiently. Consider the case of Microsoft’s venture into mobile phone handsets or VW’s $80000 luxury sedan the Phaeton, both plausible ideas with potential gaps to fill inthe market but total failures when they were put on the market! Risk is a real possiblity but should it be avoided at the cost of loosing a business?

The opposite of investing out of trouble is austerity. Possibly THE buzz word for 2011 and the David Cameron premiership, austerity has been touted to mean making cuts and finding savings from the operations then using those efficiencies to drive growth without any further investments. While this prudent approach to business sounds plausible, I feel the costs and implications of those costs to the future of the business or economy have been disregarded. A major aspect of the austerity is redundancies which removes people from their posts and with them goes all their knowledge on the organisations and on their jobs. Knowledge management has become increasingly important as organisations become of cognisant of the investment they put in training people to the levels required to work effectively and efficiently in the organisation. So knowing that organisation can easily write off this investment is astounding, maybe it is because they don’t have a monetary value of the investment because if they did, I am sure there would be a strategic rethink around redundancies. Honda and Toyota are good examples of avoiding redundancies when they went into reduced production and prolonged holidays to preserve employment for their staff during the aoutomotive industry down turn in 2008. Today, the strategy is vindicated because all staff are back working and applying their knowledge to help the organisations respond to increasing demand from the market.

I am sure other will find hole is my thinking but it is not hard to tell where my preferences lie!

Is it time to change the tune on ownership of strategic resources

July 11, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!airline, electricity, goernment, power, services, solar energy, trains, water, Zimbabwe1 Comment

Not a week a passes without someone from Zimbabwe talking about the problems with services being delivered by the electricity company, water company, train operator or the bain of every Zimbabwean in the diaspora, the national airline!. Not since the middle of the 1990s has there been consitent supply of service from any of these government owned companies and some attribute the fall in quality and supply of these utilities to the economic restructuring programme, the referendum and sanctions levelled against the country for a variety of reasons. But, and this is a big but no one seems to label any blame on the government ownership of the these services, why?. Is it because Zimbabweans expect the government to produce and provide the service. It appears not many people have thought about how the government can afford to provide consistent supply of the services given all that has gone on since the mid 1990s.

While there are differing opinions on who should own strategic services such as water, electricity, trains and the national airline, I feel there is need for internal assessment and honesty in all parties that have a vested interest in the consistent supply of these resources, be they government, lay men, businesses or community services providers. There are examples within Zmbabwe that show private ownership of strategic resources can be a good thing, look no further than the health industry and the education industry. Private operators have consistently supplied these services through all the problems and the challenges experienced by the country in the last 16 years. In health and education the government and private enterprise are operating in the same sectors without much friction, while this is a simplistic view of the issues that lie within the daily operations and provision of those serives, I feel there is enugh evidence for me to think that it is time for the government to seriously consider liberalising the provision of water, electricity, trains and aviation.

There is enough wealth within the people of Zimbabwe at home or abroad to bring consistency back to the supply of electricity, water, trains and aviation through expertise and financial resources that seem to elude the government at present. The roadmap to recovery must give freedom to private enterprise, must strive to adopt clean and sustainable technology as well as being affordable to the common man on the street. Achieving affordability will require significant change in the mindset of Zimbabwean business thinkers which will entail adopting a long term view to profitability rather than the current short term gains driven mentality which has led to local milk being more expensive than imported milk. Effectiveness and efficiency should be the sources of profitability rather than supernormal mark ups of 65% on cost which is the norm in Zimbabwe at the moment. The long term approach to profitability will require government support in creating an economic environment that is consistent in decision making, authorisation of permission to operate in the strategic sectors and the transperancy as a business culture.

Change of tune is not only the responsibility of the government, Zimbabweans in general must also change and look amongst themselves to find the solutions to the supply of strategic resources, maybe we should start seeing ourselves as airline operators, train operators and energy suppliers. Impossible is nothing for a determined people

What should companies use Facebook for?

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!advertising, advertising on Facebook, capital, consumers, customers, Facebook, marketers, marketing, sales, selling, socialLeave a comment

Much of the hype behind the actual value of Facebook was to an extent based on the business potential of the site in terms of it being used as a market platform for companies. But, a big but, the transformation of facebook from being a free service for individual user to a site that companies use to target the free service users has many obstacles to over come, firstly how will customers react to deliberate commercialisation of their social capital? there are lessons to learn from the experiences at myspace and capitalisation of social interaction, it didn’t work too well. The next question is how can companies guarantee that their investment will receive coverage that justifies the expanditure on advertising on facebook? There are already several conspiracy theories regarding coverage, exposure and publicity limitations being imposed, randomly or otherwise, by facebook. So, investment on advertising might only produce a fraction of expected market outcomes afterall.

My reservations against the investment in advertsing on Facebook, as shared by www.larrykwirirai.com, are based on two observations, one of which is that marketers are being opportunistic in trying to convert social interaction into commercial capital. And, the other is that, without complete control if this process, since Facebook will manage all the analytics, there are serious strategic gaps that bring up red flags to observers.

I personally think any company looking to use Facebook as an out and out marketing platform to sell products need to fire their marketing team. Selling and overtly capitalist conduct goes against the whole ethos of social media!. Facebook should be a relationship building platform used to develop brand affinity and general communications while giving customers access into the organisation. It’s all about interaction and whether or not this leads to increased sales is dependent on the use of the data gathered via these interactions with customers and strategic capability of the marketing department to convert brand awareness into brand loyalty.

Just because Facebook has hundreds of millions of people to sell things to doesn’t mean marketers should be lazy, there is still the need to be creative be proactive in responding to customers needs if marketers are to successfuly sell their products while using Facebook as part of an effective marketing strategy!

Everyone can be your customer, even your supplier!

June 20, 2012June 20, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!alliances, Apple, Austerity, iOS 6, linkages, networks, Tom TomLeave a comment

The pressure to sell is greater than ever in these austerity driven times because the more a company can sell the better it would be able to not only survive but also compete in an environment that has driven down profit margins to the bearest minimum. So where possible companies are finding that strategic alliances or strategic networks can also be fertile hunting grounds for sales generation.

Consider the case of Tom tom and Aple, until now Tom Tom has used the iOS App Store as platform to sell its products and profitably so, I might add. But, this postion is now compromised because over time other brands selling the same product have also joined the market place and have come with the benefit of learning from Tom Tom’s experiences which has enhanced their competitive strategies to levels where they are out selling Tom Tom with better products and lower prices. Tom Tom have had to look around for further opportunities to sell their product and realised that developments on the iOS have created sales opportunities. Apple have ditched the Google Maps for their own maps app in the next version of the iOS and it has been announced that Tom Tom will supply the maps for the new Apple Maps! The intricacies of the deal havent yet been published but the benefits will not be little especially if the deal pays on units installed and not on a flat fee. Click the link to drink from the source!

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/46081/tomtom-supplies-apple-maps-ios6

Commercializing your talents

June 8, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Artist, Bands, commercialisation, consumership, customers, Hip-hop, market research, marketing, music, music labels, producers, record sales, strategic planning, ZimbabweLeave a comment

Looking through Twitter this week I got caught up in a discussion about how Zimbabwean hip hop artist and producers are failing to grow consumership in the Zimbawean market or any other market for that matter. The discussion brought foward several issues that observers felt contributed to the lack of the development in the genre’s quest for recognition and market share. The aim for any artist is to be recognised for their craft and for the craft to be taken seriously but it seems achieving this or knowing how to achieve it is beyond the grasp of the players in the music industry. This is an which goes beyond just the artist because there are record labels investing in studio time and production of music which does not bring in much revenue.

The question amongst many participants in the Twitter discussion was what can be done to change the market position of hip hop music in the Zimbabwean market and then also package the music so that it can be sold to an international audiance? I think the starting point for everyone concerned with this product is to put themselves in the position of a customers and ask the following questions;

What value do I get from the product?

Why should I choose this product instead of the alternatives that are in the market?

It is also good practice at this point to do some market research with whoever the industry considers to be their target market. It is my opinion that most of the products that fail to gain any foot hold in their target market would have failed to answer these two questions. But these are very important questions for any customers and require an answer. That answer will be the reason customers buy the product.

Once those questions are answered all players should then look at their product in terms of attractiveness of the markets and this could be done by asking the following questions;

How much of the market is a potential market for our product?

Who are we competing with?

Who is the market leader and what are their core competencies and USPs?

How can we nullify their competitive advantage and convert their advantage into our own?

What resources to we need to achieve this?

It is my belief that in answering these questions honestly the musicians will come up with a product that is acceptible to the market, competitive against its rivals but more importantly the artists will be more aware of the value they give to their customers.

But some people will say good music or art does not need commercialisation or strategic planning, it sells itself….

Free advertising for NOKIA

May 16, 2012 Taura Khuluma Say it!!Leave a comment

Free advertising for NOKIA.

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Taf Masiye

It's just my imagination!!!

Author: Taura Khuluma Say it!!