Harare

The problem with unstructured entrepreneurship

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This is probably more of a problem in Harare more than the other cities but the explosion of on-street vendors in the CBD is interesting and worrying at the same time. Surely there is some money to be made otherwise why would all these people congregate there every day but when we say there is money to be made. How much is enough?

The laws of economics dictate that ultra-competitive markets selling homogenous products have little to no profit for the players of the market. So, by all being in the same place the traders are pushing their own prices before the market even demands low prices. This is a perfect scenario for bargain hunters but not for the traders. What’s the solution?

Here is a radical idea! Instead of 25 vendors all sitting on the same street selling the same things how about we think smart and form cooperatives and use our collective resources to widen the product range, economies of scale to lower prices and sell more and ultimately make more money. By reducing competitiveness from the market the cooperatives will be able to claw back some power in terms of setting prices on the market. Tomatoes can gain 10-15% margin by simply selling from 1 sales point instead of 25 points. But what will the other 24 members of the cooperative do?

Well the cooperative will need to be structured. People will be allocated different roles to match their skill sets. The traders have already show they have skills in sourcing, pricing, market scanning, administration and a host of other skills needed to operate on the streets successfully enough to make a living from it. Some of these skills will not be obviously know to them but they are there they just need sign posting. People will earn consistent wages, partake in profit sharing and benefit from a collective pool of resources to expand the scope of their business.

Once the cooperative is fully functional it can then look into market expansion, taking on more members and developing a retail model that is sustainable and profitable. I foresee green grocers developing from this idea but can we convince the traders to formalize their operations?

What are some of the barriers to selling the cooperative idea?

Single mindedness of Zimbabweans in general
Lack of trust
Short term thinking
Lack of Resources to cover incomes in the short term
Lack of Organizational thinking

But most of these barriers can be easily overcome if there is desire and determination to break new ground.

This can’t be happening!!!

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Another week and loads more experiences to talk about!

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So this week I won’t complain about AirZim, even though it was the same old apologies routine from them. Unfortunately for me, I left my travel arrangements for the last minute and couldn’t get a seat from Harare to BYO so I booked myself onto Pathfinder. I have used it before and it went well so it wasn’t a terrible alternative to have. Well everything went as well as usual until 60kms from the destination. The bus ground to a halt and the attendant announced that there was a fault and the driver has gone to get a mechanic to get it fixed. Zimbabweans are a very patient bunch so we all waited waited without complaining and those that couldn’t wait got off the bus and jumped onto whatever stopped for them. I couldn’t bare the annoyance after the an hour and half so I asked for a number to call and rang everyone and their uncle at Pathfinder only to be told that the fault would be fixed in 20-30 minutes so we should wait! Never mind about a contingency plan should the mechanic fail to fix the fault. 2 hours later the driver comes back, pours diesel into the bus and off we went. Hang on!, did the bus just run out of diesel? Imagine that, the premier bus company in Zimbabwe which does 2 trips 2 times a day, everyday of the year and their bus runs out of diesel!!! How does that happen, Pathfinder?

And the big event of the week was some personal possessions of mine have finally arrived from England after sailing dates were cancelled, chopped and changed! They arrived in Namibia so my driver went to fetch my van laden with the said possessions and drove it to Plumtree. I had to meet him there so I could clear it and boy was it an education!!. The day was long, stressful and could have been expensive! Well it was expensive but could have been much worse. The first lesson was you need a good driver first of all, one who is well known at the border otherwise it could be 2-3 days there. Secondly, unlike what I had been told, claiming returning residency is not easy at all. You must prove all manner of things before they accept it so it’s not an option. Thirdly they don’t care what you say your vehicle is worth, it depends on what they find on Autotrader at that point that remotely resembles your car and is more expensive. The final lesson is even if you have been given the last stamp to get out, you can still be searched and be asked to pay more! You will need a lot of patience because you wait for everything and everyone! And you won’t make it anywhere without paying a bribe. Sometimes it’s the only way out and thank you to the officers at the border who took bribes from me, it was worth it!!! Yes, it does happen!

Lastly, some work related goings on. I have spent all week meeting people with potential projects for me to consider for funding and there is a death of meeting etiquette in this place. People don’t take serious shit seriously, I have grown tired of under dressed, under prepared and downright uninspiring people coming into share their dreams with me. The great shame is that some of the projects have a lot of potential. So I have been teaching people how to present themselves, their ideas and to think 360 degrees about the impact of their projects. Now, where else in the world would the person with the money tell them person who wants the money how to get the money? I want to help my kin folk but come on! Who do we blame though, for grossly under prepared graduates leaving university with degrees but little to offer the world? Is the government, the lecturers or the students? Why is this happening?

But it’s not all doom though, I have been compiling a catalogue so business opportunities for some of your to consider, I am just working on an investment vehicle that will manage the venture on behalf of investors. And, no! I don’t want to steal anyone’s money! You can keep your money if you don’t trust the scheme but there are areas in which a little investment and long term thinking can bring good returns to investors. We are capable of building businesses that are ethical and founded on trust. If you are into get rich quick, this won’t be for you.

Maybe I am being naive!

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Over the last two weeks I have encountered different types of services, private and public and on all occasions I have been left wondering, “what is the reason behind this never ending relationship between customer service and the ball point pen in Zimbabwe?”. In almost all instances there is always a computer at every service desk! Sometimes both the pen and the computer are used to record the same event, meaning I have to wait twice as long to be served without any real improvement to my experience of that service.

Am I expecting too much, does anyone else not see that, for time and age that we are living in at this very moment, we are not equipped to be effective and efficient? One colleague reminded me that my problem is I have diaspora expectations, I should accept that things are different here but what is the real difficult in producing customer service provisions that exceed current levels? Surely it is not because investing in information technology is expensive, the technology is already there!. Could it be a lack of training or is it management myopia holding back the development of better service provision quality?

Here are two examples of why I am complaining, at my previous hotel, I had some dirty laundry washed, my details and the list of items to be washed where added onto my room information on the hotel’s computer system, later as I came to collect laundry I was asked to pay cash, even though this was midway through my stay, I produced the money to pay. Payment details were added onto my room information and a receipt book with ball point pen attached was produced to duplicate the very same information for which I was given a copy but only after a 20 minute wait. Upon checking out I was given a 4 page folio copy printed by the system detailing every single thing I had done that week including the laundry business! why do I need it again or why did I have to wait for all that 20 minutes in the first instance when I could have just got the information on checking out?!

The same goes to my mobile phone provider who made me wait in three queues to be saved at 3 desks in order to change my micro sim to a nano sim! on all three occasions I was asked to repeat the same information for which three different colour hand written receipts were produced while the information was simultaneously added onto the information technology system! After 45 minutes waiting for this elaborate process to be completed I got to the payment station and I was told the cashier didn’t have change for $20 so now I had to find that in order to pay! Life is way too short for this BS!

But all is not lost, as I discovered at Harare Airport where I arrived to check in for my flight to Bulawayo, my first with the airline for 14 years!, with nothing but an emailed e-ticket on my iphone. You can forgive the nervous ball of anxiety in my stomach as I got to the check-in desk but the helpful gentleman checked me in with a smile and without asking any further question or even an ID!

Isn’t it a scary world when anything related to AirZim is an example of best practise! Ahh, its supplier of handling services at the airport should get the applause instead, well done to the NHS for not using a ball point pen! (No!, it stands for National Handling Services, not that other NHS!). As for AirZim, we left on time, well 20 minutes late is no reason to complain when the national airline is the service provider on any trip!

I am sure some will have a counter point and an explantion or rationale for all my complaints, maybe I am just being naive but, come on!
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Update from Zimbabwe

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Hello world!

I-Love-Zimbabwe-T-Shirts

My first ever blog as UK returnee, that’s what people like me are called out here. Throw into that my work life and business life, its been an eye opening week. I have drifted into a new world here, I am now into art, culture, development work and value creation. It’s a fascinating departure from teaching global marketing strategy! But I am relishing the prospects of what is in store in both lives. I am getting to grips with working with limited amounts of very expensive internet, pay as you go calls, $2.55 tins of Heinz Baked Beans and $11 for 500g of Kerry Gold butter. The trip to the shops was a proper “shit just got real moment”. Actually that trip explained why nearly all fridges I open here are just water coolers!

But, from a business perspectives the prospects are seemingly unlimited. It’s just a matter of how innovative one is in identifying projects, financing them and planning that could be a limiting factor. Innovative and creative solutions to problems are few here. This market is very short term in its outlook, pricing is unrealistic with every business looking to make as much money as possible today. I feel its unsustainable in the long term especially if a new player enters the market with a different pricing strategy. It will take a shift in culture across all sectors to steer businesses towards a different perspective.

And the politics keeps everyone guessing but I suppose the less said about that the better, there is a lot of guessing to keep everyone entertained without me adding to the rumour mill! We all wait patiently, what other option do we really have? What is more fascinating for me is how politics influences areas that I had never thought could cause discomfort to the political agenda of the day! I have so much to learn here.

As for now I am sitting in a hotel room watching a TV on mute and listening to music as I write. This is going to be the hardest part of the transition, the darkness of the night consumes daylight by 1715 and time drags on slowly until morning. I have 13 channels of nothing I would like to watch and BBC iplayer seems to have been told I moved from England because it now says I am not allowed to watch stuff I have missed! I might need saving from myself soon!

The premiership is back, Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis are lucky to be living in country where the people and regimes are tolerant, if it were a different country someone would have been shot by now. I will have more on everything next week, albeit from a different hotel room!

Calling processes by clever names will not improve Zimbabwe Tourism, Mr Mzembi!

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The right honorable Minister of Tourism in Zimbabwe thinks the solution to revitalising the tourism industry and re-establishing Zimbabwe’s presence in the international tourism market is “Tourism Engineering” Really? He goes on to define this process as follows “Tourism engineering takes a broad, long-term perspective, while focusing on details and identifying the potential that the country has,”

I wish we would stop inventing new names for a critical process that must be carried out urgently, it is simply a matter of asking ourselves three questions as far as Zimbabwe Tourism is concerned “Where are we positioned in minds of the customer as a tourist destination?, Where do we want to be positioned? and how do we get there?” I worked 5 years in Zimbabwean Tourism during its glory days of the late 90s, there was pride and excitement in working in the industry, we kept at pace with developments in customer service, marketing and promotion as well as our international competitors. We won recognition and awards from our peers but more importantly we had a recognisable brand.

Sadly today I personally feel we were left behind in the first part of the last decade. I have regularly attended international tourism  marketing events and the state of tourism marketing in Zimbabwe  at the these events gives a worrying insight into the state of the industry at home. There is no excitement and belief in the product they are selling. The stand itself is a reflection of a lack of ambition especially if presentation is considered against our immediate rivals and those further afield. Year on year we turn up at the World Travel Market (WTM) underprepared and without conviction of what we want to achieve. I personally feel the companies that attend do so out of formality, the tourism attache to the UK also contributeS to this sorry state of affairs by pretending that the market is excited by what she and the exhibitors are doing. Numbers don’t lie, show us the direct impact of participating at WTM  through an increase in tourist arrivals or future bookings.

The solutions is not Tourism Engineering RHM Mzembi, it is being honest about what needs to be done and putting together a strategy to do so, the tourism industry was one of the hardest hit in terms of  the post 2000 brain drain  that decimated Zimbabwe because we had transferrable skills to work anywhere in the world, we had the right training, enthusiasm and belief in our contribution to tourism which made us employeable around the world. So first off, what has been done to replace these skills, Mr Mzembi? Tourism training must take place, bring back exprienced practinioners into the planning process so they can contribute to the development of up to date training that equips those working on the tourism frontline with skills to serve today’s customer in facilities that meet the expectations of today’s customer. Invest in training, bring in exhiled tourism practitioners to foster a new belief and excitement in Zimbabwe Tourism

Secondly, do we really know how the market feels about Zimbabwe, Mr Mzembi? While we train tourism workers, let us go into the markets and ask the customers, agents, wholesalers et al., what do they think of when when they here about Zimbabwe and going there on holiday, what do they know about Zimbabwe? Do their perceptions match with what we would like our customers think about us? Only when we are able to answer these question will we be able to start marketing to the world because we will be able to bridge the gap between expectation and reality on both sides. We will be in a position to speak a language our market understands in formats that are accessible to all of them. Only then can we start to constructiely build a brand that represents us in the way we would like the market to feel about us because through expansive market research we would have collected information that help to bridge the gap between perception and reality. Regardless of how we feel internally about Zimbabwe, tourism thrives on the arrivals of tourist from foreign markets and it is how “THEY” feel about us that determines whether they come or not, which is why knowing their feelings, worries and expectations must form the base of all our tourism strategiec planning.

Lastly, some food for thought, “What is Zimbabwe’s brand image, how has it evolved and is it up to the time, today’s time?”

Here is the article that inspired my thoughts today –