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1 month to christmas!

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One month to christmas!

This is the point when it hits you that this has been a long year , what have we done with all the days that have gone by?

Well the world of business has got itself in all kinds of knots again thinking about the recession, will it won’t it but still nothing. Some even said the Euro will be dead, but still nothing. What has happened for sure is that somehow the business world has scared regular people into thinking their leaders are rubbish and must be kicked out! So across europe there has been a carnage of leaders with only Sarkozy and Merkel still hanging in there. Silvio Berlusconi got carried off in the tide and is probably sorting out a bunga bunga party as I speak! And his parting shot, “I will be back!” which he has managed to do for the last 20 years or so, I wouldn’t bet 1 penny in a billion that he won’t be back!

Elsewhere Steve Jobs died and his spirit jammed the Blackberry network, reminded me of Africa superstitions I heard growing up! but I won’t get into that. So what will be the future of Apple? time will reveal all, but maybe we will all be on Nokia Lumia so it won’t matter anyway, I genuinely hope they get started again. Just the other was speaking to me MSc students and we came across a lecture slide with a list of the world’s most influential leaders in business, all men no women on this list but even more interesting no Steve Jobs and it got us talking trying to understand why he wasn’t on this particular list. One of the students said ” I think to be on that list someone has to have changed people’s lives like Bill Gates and his Windows software, Steve Jobs didn’t change lives he just made a few people’s live better!” Where is the news report when you need one!!

I am trying to get media files to play on here because I here a hauntingly briliant song.

My gunners are still doing it, keep on keeping on!

Some friends paid this weekend and I am sponge bob!

Blame the foreigners season!

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So the economy is going to the dogs, more people are now unemployed than at any time in the last 17 years and to top it all 1 million youths are out of a education, employment or training! The cause for this, according to the Daily Mail, is foreigners!

I hate the head in the sand mentality of some of the British press sometimes, how irresponsible is that. In a day when racism is could possibly cost Sepp Blatter his job for is “solution” to racism, how can these rags get away with such inflamatory headlines. So I got upset listening to the radio driving into work and had 1 question for the xenophobics, “Who is giving foreigner those jobs?” beside how is it that foreigners are coming into the country and the British people all stand by and watch them take their jobs without recourse?

I am not going to write this piece and suggest that I have all the solutions but I think there is a need for the media and all the British people whose jobs are being taken by foreigners to ask themselves why their fellow British people are giving jobs to foreigners instead of them. WORK ETHIC, CAN DO ATTITUDE and RELIABILITY.

Foreigners have a purpose and goals to achieve from their jobs, it is not day to day life as it is for the British, for foreigners a job is an opportunity to change their life and those of their dependents so they have focus and determination from the very beginning and it filters through in their application at work, in getting to work and in presenting themselves for work. And not all British people are lazy, choosy or unwilling to work but obviously there are gaps to fill in the labour market and employers will hire people that fit within the company’s expectations.

Ask any employer or person whose responsibility it is to employee people on behalf of any company and they will tell you that there is a certain clarity in the dealings between foreigners and the employer that is sometimes missing with locals. I can testify to this, I employed a middle aged british man who hadn’t worked for 4 years to teach accounts at a good wage and he lasted 4 weeks, turned around and sued for being overworked! Out of 54 British and foreign staff he is the only one but it is not too difficult to choose to leave work because the welfare system will ensure that he has a roof over his head, healthcare and food. Others, like foreigners, are not so lucky so their relationship with work is different.

No business here!

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There will be no talk of business here, well it’s like saying I don’t do politics but I hate how the government is doing things! I really don’t weant to talk busines but at the same time getting things off my chest about managing people especially those with over inflated sense of self is my business. That’s what I do, so it’s not really business but business all the same.

I am not happy about the way things go sometimes and especially when it ruins my week! I can’t say more because this is open forum so maybe I should stop before I get myself in all kinds of mess but I will end by saying “people are strange things”

Apart from that I got a little worried that Asimo, Honda’s Robot person, is evolving at a shockingly fast rate and becomes more human like in gestures and actions that he will probably start replacing human beings for those that can afford it. I urge you to look at what is doing, if you haven’t seen it before perhaps look through youtube to build a historical context of the developments he has made. you will be amazed. I love technology and what it allows me to do but that’s how far I want it to go, allow me to do stuff not replace me in doing stuff!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHT_3cG_UI

Elsewhere there was that boring story about the English football team and the Poppy, I am not berating or belittling the reasons for wearing a poppy but please! Really? 

If you are into dancehall check out Busy Signal’s New money ol money, banger!! I got some of the new singles outta JA in the last fortnight and caught the dancehall bug over again, all the way back to Sarah’s!  I want to get that feeling again maybe there is a side thing to do in H-town when I get there. Beenie and Bounty still hate each other! dudes, get over it and get paid!! Those two are possible the biggest thing to raggae since Bob Marley in terms of prominance but the bitchiness held them back especially Bounty, they coulda been bigger and better but men and their nuts.. the rest is history.

I think a trip to the dance is in order this weekend,  me and fi me baby!

Be loved, give love and live love!

 

Forget junk mail and emails, get into the customers’ pockets

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Random marketing and its effectiveness was a side topics at one of my meetings today. Some people feel annoyed and often presssured into looking at the junk emails that clog up their email addresss. I never open mine but I understand why companies do it. It’s in the hope that they will grab a second of you time to make themselves known so that maybe you me buy whatever it is they are selling.

But this strategy is seriously flawed because no one I know opens let alone read junk mail or emails so it’s a pointless investment of marketing resources. Apart from the recipients not opening their enails, the idea that random marketing works goes against the concepts taught in fundamental marketing, it ignores segmentation, targeting and positioning! With all the tracking power modern internet technology has, companies can pretty much track  everyone who uses the internet looks at, buys and ignores so there is no excuse for spending money on random marketing. Get forcused and start targeting customers with the right offers at the right time.

Has anyone with a smart phone ever wondered why no company ever sends adverts to your phone? They know all the website you visit, with the location service they even know where you are at what time and with people’s phones always emitting signals it is easy to get into their pockets and send messages or news flashes about product offers, updates ets. My feeling is that junk mail/ emails needs to be more cunning and intrusive especially targeted to the customers who need to get that information being the only ones who get it. There are even some people carrying phones with their bluetooth always switched on and sending message to that is dead easy.

The beauty of getting into the target’s phone is that the message arrives as a sms or mms, people read that because it might be important. It could annoy some people but if the offer is for a product they use there is possibility that they could become a customer. The important thing to remember is that there has to be a benefit for the customers, empty messages should not be sent to customers, avoid wasting their time so that everytime you send a message it is worth reading and it engages the customers to an extent that they consider buying or at the very list the product being advertised occupy a part of the customers’ brain for future references.

This is where marketing should be going and I think it is already 18 months late!

 

People and their ways!

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So we are back from the weekend, everyone around me seems to be finding a little harder to cope with their lives, they are stressed out, tempers being easily tempered with. Why can’t we all just get along?!

Speaking of which, I am not one for celebrity gossip but some people take being a business too far. Celebrities are, essentially, who they are because of who they are but if you take celebrity and make a business out of it then wonder why everyone is in you business, maybe you don’t like who you are because everyone is in your business because of that. We all have pressures but being married for 72 days and then realising that you didn’t like it after all somehow seems to me like it was all a bit of a wind up. Then we come to find out that the wedding pictures were sold for $6.5million it becomes harder to understand the ingenuity of the whole marriage in the first place. People want to know how it is that people can do such kinds of things, 72 days!

Today I was discussing corporate governance with a group of future managers from around the world and it was striking to hear that in the 8 countries that are represented in the group bribes and bribing is considered part and parcel of the business environment in their country. Which led me to ask ” is corruption a common factors amongst all nations?” How do you feel about it? Having been in a society were corruption is not as commonly practiced for the last 11 years, I have come to realise that everything runs smoother when there is transperancy in the access, allocation and use of resources. The ties to my mother land confirms this opinion even more so, we watch people speaking of how Zimbabwe has the best resources per capita ratio in the world but that is only fantasy because the reality that the ratio of resources per capita on the ground is heavily skewed in favour of the rich minority. If only the resources were evenly allocated across the population, only then would the people of Zimbabwe benefit from this glorious statistic that politician use to lace their speeches with.

Corruption is the reasons why the villagers in Marange live in fear because their homes are built on the richest deposit of diamonds the world has discovered in recent times instead of being hopeful that their lives will improve because of those diamonds. Corruption is the reason why there is fuel shortage in Nigeria when the country produces oil for the rest of the world. How is it that only a handful of people hold nations at ransom, have we all bee bribed to accept this mediocre state of affairs or are we too busy paying the bribes for short term gains. Politics!

How about the football?, I told you we would beat chelsea! Now onto the next

Payday weekend!!

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Whatcu all up to this weekend? I am checking out Tim Westwood in Birmingham tomorrow got a fever for it while driving from Manchester last weekend, listening to the “Big Dawg’s” radio show on Radio. No-one does hip-hop in the UK like Tim Westwood, so that’s me for the weekend.

I caught Johnny English last saturday, watch it if you have some time to spare, as long as you keep in mind that Mr Bean is one gesture from being cringe worthy or hilarious! It has it’s moments. It was also my first trip to the movies for days so the whole experiences was a moment in its own right.

Football is on too, my beloved Gunners are off to Chelsea and unlike seaSOns past, I am rather hopeful about the about the outcome. We are doing good, never mind what the league table says, it’s only the end of October, there is no way Newcastle, Liverpool and Spurs are going to finish ahead of us. Put your house on that, well don’t, but you can quote me on that one.

Music wise I have become a fan of Beyonce’s Countdown those first 20 seconds a banging!! but also check out Rick Ross – You’re the Boss, Torch’s version of Beres Hammond’s Freedom, DJ Khaled – I’m on one is still good. And on artist going to jail – Vybz Cartel is lighter, brighter and probably on the way to jail, they say he turn murderer!

Stay safe wherever you go, be back next week!

Nokia, still relevant????

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So Nokia are advertinsing the “real windows moible phone” to borrow from the words of their CEO, I watched the promo materials and the phone looks nice, their differentiation to the usual Windows Mobile user interface looks nice but should they really be as excited as they are about the market potential of this modile and their union with Microsoft?

Why am I sceptical? Well here we have 2 brands that are the weakest in the compititve smartphone market, Nokia has the lowest performance in terms of units sold and Microsoft can’t sell any phones on their own and HTC is regretting creating phones for Windows 7 put briefly Windows Mobile is even worse in the market that NOKIA’s Symbian software!!. Why are they excited?

I think Nokia needs to review its strategic thrust at the moment, this new relationship with Microsoft is at least 3 years too late and the consumer has moved on, the Windows Mobile platform’s unique proposition to the customer is social newtorking connectivity my problem with that is haven’t they heard of BBM? Social networking was all the rage 2 years ago, not its all about augmented reality, BBM and Facebook where does NOKIA  fit into all that?. Another question is, does NOKIA really need to be relevant in the smartphone market and how much of that effort takes their resources from their core market, low income people and cheap mobile phones?

I think NOKIA are getting spooked by the events around them but they are not strategically ready to respond to these new players taking over their upmarket customers. But, why should they fight on their competitors’ terms, they are still selling the most number of mobile phones in the world, cheap phones but still the most units in the industry. I would suggest, if anyone asked me, that NOKIA focuses on its bread and butter market, the cheap phone market, there are still enough lower income people in the world to make good business for NOKIA. Developing smartpones need not be an obsession for NOKIA but running a strategical sound business is more important. Smartphones for the lower income market, now that’s were the real money lies imagine a $100 simfree Apple phone or a $50 Android phone,that is were the marketers need to go next. Simfree phones or pay as you go phone still account for the large users on mobile telephony.

I’m just saying, stop fighting Apple and Google on their patch, go scratch your own new market and this applies to any other business fighting to survive against dominant rivals

How much experience is enough to get that “big” appointment?

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Looking at the job market recently I thought were could I fit in given my experience and education. I see myselfas in senior managment in any business, I am in senior management in a global education provider but if I look to transfer to other industries I see they are asking for 10 years, 15 years!!, i’m in mid 30s when would have managed to get 10 – 15 years in senior management?? But I know I can do the job, I was once told that the people below me would struggle to work for me because I am young enough to be their son!

How does a person with 10 years who was last in education 20 years ago add value to today’s business with the current challenges that businesses are facing in the environment today. After 10-15 years in work I suspect there is very little you can tell that person, old dogs new tricks and all that.

The age of senior managers in many of the top 100 firms in developed countries is falling year on year, it is not uncommon to find 40 year olds leading these organisations, when did they get 10 – 15 years in senior management experience? I think those organisations that have set these parametres are missing out on fresh minds with ambition to make a mark in the business world  but chose to go withan old timer using out date academic training and skills from the 1990 to solve today’s problems.

As you can probably tell, it pisses me off when I see such adverts, how about you?

Why was he still there?!!

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I caught on to Gadhaffi’s demise rather late in the day compared to everyone else but I was quite surprised that he was actually still in Libya. It has to be down right stupidity or the most optimistic act ever, I mean really! Did he not have tv, radio or even the internet to learn how change had swept through Libya and that they would be no way back for him? Or when all his sons took off into the desert didn’t the penny drop then that it was time to go.

It is not bravery or galantry but we see it all the time, Mubarak, Gbagbo and now this dude! they never run away when it is clear to everyone that it’s time to run away, didn’t Gadhaffi see Gbagbo getting bitch slapped on world TV after hiding in a bunker when he really should have just run away? or the image of Mubarak being wheeled into court in a hospital bed after refusing to leave Egypt when the people asked him to leave. I suppose it takes a long time for them to forget that they no longer have any power and also they seem to forget that African politics is exceedingly cruel to the opposition.

If i could tell all these iron fist type leaders anything I would tell them it’s never too early to run away once the people catch the buzz and are mobilising to kick you out, just run, as far a you can and forget about the power and money because if they get their hands on you it will be a different Africa that you experience.

Incidently anyone know what happened to Gbagbo? last time I saw him his future didn’t look too bright!

Making money in a recession; will you seize the opportunity?

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Michael O’Leary of Ryanair startled a British reporter once by saying ” I love the recession, that is when real clever people make money, the men stand out from the boys not when times are good, because then anybody can make money” So supposing what seems inevitable now actually happens and the Euro goes bust and the world sinks into another recession are we ready to capitalise on that sad state  of affairs and make money. How do you make money in a recession?

Good strategic management suggests that you look for recession proof markets, these are markets were demand does not fall because of a cash crisis in the economy or even just on consumers. Recession proof markets in my opinion are food retail, health services, education services, undertaking and the sex industry. People will always need to buy from one of more of these markets because they are amongst the most basic of all human needs, not buying them could kill especially those that haven’t already died and even if they are dead they still need to be buried or cremeted so the demand is a given. But there are propbaby thousands of other people, companies or even nations thinking the same thing albeit on different scales.

Thinking of and choosing a market of the ones listed above is probably the easiest part, the challenge lies in how to turn an idea into a viable business, first and foremost make sure your business idea has a unique characteristic that will earn it a place in the customers minds otherwise it will be like opening a corner shop in the same street as TESCO. Even though demand is not affected by the recession as much as other markets whoever chooses to do business in the markets I have listed will need to be creative and innovative to capture the customer’s imagination.

KFC did it in the last recession by tweeking their menus and food combinations which gave them higher than ever profits which in turn allowed them to something unimaginable in a recession, creating 1500 jobs and opening new stores. Ryanair also tweeked their product offering and continued to grow, becoming the largest airline in Europe in terms of passenger numbers. Stubbonly sticking to old strategies saw Woolworths’ long heritage wiped out in a few short months, British Airways lost £400 million over the same period by failing to realise the times had changed  and more of the same was no longer and option