By Abey Mokgwatsane. Identified as one of Africa’s top 12 cities with the highest growth potential according to the MasterCard African Cities Growth Index, Cape Town has everything going for it to continue to attract the world’s travellers. The City of Cape Town is one of the most exciting cities in destination marketing these days.…
2014 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) provides an annual assessment of the quality of governance in African countries. The 2014 Ibrahim Index of African Governance rankings are as follows: (1) Mauritius (2) Cabo Verde (3) Botswana (4) South Africa (5) Seychelles (6) Namibia (7) Ghana (8) Tunisia (9) Senegal (10) Lesotho (11) Rwanda (12)…
Eating The Big Fish – Apple Inc #EatingBigFish
In every field of business there are always the big players who dominate the industry (we always refer to them as the big five or big four). For instance in construction, you will find: Murray and Roberts, WBHO, Aveng, Basil Read and Group Five, in the audit industry there is the big five: Pricewaterhousecoopers, Ernst…
“You look ridiculous in that outfit”
This is always the case. Something new is always used first by people who are willing to look ridiculous, at least for a few minutes. Every once in a while, we adopt something because it's truly a better technology, a new taste sensation, a productivity shortcut that pays for itself regardless of what people think…
Love and Respect
It's nice when someone loves your brand or your restaurant or your project. We always strive to get our offerings loved, we want to be loved. But we don't get to love without respect, first. If you cannot earn my respect, don't even bother delivering that product out the door. Respect is insufficient by itself,…
The Scars We Carry, Carry Us…
Every morning, I make some time to open up Scripture and soak in some wisdom. Typically, sometimes I will pull a verse or two from the passage I’m reading and post on Facebook and Twitter. Recently, I posted the particular passage above from Matthew 5, and it seemed to resonate with several friends and followers…
Fighting with vs. fighting for
When there's a change in your industry or your business or your trusted circle, you face two choices: You can fight with the person creating the change, push back against them and defend the status quo. Or you can fight for the person, double down on the cause, the tribe and the relationship, and refocus…
The Rule of High School
Any sufficiently overheated industry will eventually resemble high school. High school is filled with insecurity, social climbing, backbiting, false friends, false achievements, high drama and not much content. Much of this insecurity comes from a market that doesn't make good judgments, that doesn't understand how to reliably choose between alternatives. So it turns into a…
Failure Redefined
Success is what we all strive for. But it is not Success that helps you move forward. If you analyse Success, you are looking in a rear view mirror and will only try to duplicate your previous actions. But as Heraclitus observed 2500 years ago, you cannot step twice into the same river. The real…
Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Used part of today's public holiday (South Africa's Heritage Day) to finish off reading this amazing book by Simon Sinek, Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. In my upcoming book The Start-Up Revolution, I am of the view that Start-Up ventures that will compete successfully are those that will be able…
Beauty vs. specs
There are two kinds of users/creators/customers. Some can't understand why a product or service doesn't catch on. They can prove that it's better. They can quote specs and performance and utility. It's obvious. The other might be willing to look at the specs, but he really doesn't understand them enough to care. All he knows…
“Jump in, I’ll drive.”
Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn't mean you have to take it. In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it's reassuring when the other person offers to drive. "Leave it to me," they might say, or, "I'm socialising this through the organisation... be patient, I've done this before and we need to…