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Diaspora Matters

Diaspora Matters

New Suburb=New Opportunities

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One of our objectives is to equip our members with opportunity identification skills. A ZBIN member should have a competitive advantage over others when it comes to spotting investment opportunities. Before others realise what is happening, a ZBIN member should have taken up all opportunities!

Let me tell you of this interesting story that happened a few years back. Legend has it that a Nigerian brother visited Harare for the first time. When he was being driven from Harare International Airport, she shocked the cab driver when he started shouting ‘I can see money, I can see money-money, money money’. Our brother from West Africa kept on repeating the money, money much to the bewilderment of the cab driver. The local cab driver initially thought he had collected a mad person because it did not make sense- How does one see invisible money?

So when they reached the Coke Corner, the cab driver who had kept quiet all long driving from the airport,  decided to inquire about this ‘money’ that our brother kept referring to?

Do you want to know his answer? His answer was that the many cars that he saw on the road represented nothing but Money! To him cars meant more business in terms of car parts or service kits! So it is very easy to overlook investment opportunities when you are a resident of a particular area. So we would like our members to think like our brother from West Africa who was seeing ‘money’ which was invisible to the cab driver.

I have already provided you with a post where I talked about having an investment mind-set. You can search the post on our website-brilliant article about having a positive mind-set that helps in identifying opportunities.

New Suburb –New Opportunities

So what do I have to share with you this evening? Well I would like to notify you of a simple way of identifying opportunities in your area-opportunities that are mostly noticed by visitors to an area. The opportunity lies in identifying new residential areas, new developments.

Many people ignore new areas especially when you are not interested in buying residential stands or homes. There is a breed of entrepreneurs who follow new suburbs with the intention of setting up businesses. They will not be interested in buying residential stands nor building homes-their interest is simply in providing business services such as real estate construction, provision of building materials, setting up of tuckshops to sell food and groceries. Some will rush with a view to build creches, setting up car washes or any commercial business.

In 2 week’s time, I hope to cover new suburbs in Harare as a lot is happening in terms of new developments. So take an interest in all new developments in your local area and think about how you can benefit in a commercial sense.

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Diaspora Matters

Case Study Of The Week: Kodak

kodik

We have a good case study this week from Kodak, a famous American Company that is well known for its photographic films. Kodak was founded by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong on September 4, 1888. During most of the 20th century, Kodak held a dominant position in photographic film. The company’s ubiquity was such that its “Kodak moment” tagline entered the common lexicon to describe a personal event that was demanded to be recorded for posterity. Kodak began to struggle financially in the late 1990s, as a result of the decline in sales of photographic film and its slowness in transitioning to digital technology.

So why have we chosen Kodak? We have chosen it because it provides a classic case of a company that failed to adjust to the fast changing world of digital technology. They had the some of best engineers and other professionals at the time but still failed! Kodak got caught looking backward when it should have been looking forward and taking risks to reinvent the company.

The company had very talented executives along with the best engineers and chemists. But all its smart people focused on Walmart gaining market share with its single-use film camera when wireless operators were enabling consumers to send digital photos over mobile devices, which reinvented what consumers could do and wanted to do with photography. As a result, while Apple was reinventing the mobile phone with multimedia capabilities that matched what was going on in the big picture, the world’s best brand in photography spent billions expanding its investment in an old technology.

We thought that you could also benefit by studying the analysis below. Try and apply this to your company or business, are you in the same boat? Are you adjusting quickly to the changes in the external environment?


By Nitin Pangarkar

You press the button, we do the rest.”

So went the advertising slogan coined by Kodak in the late 19th century.

It was a motto that opened the door to mass-market consumer photography – a popular culture pioneered by Kodak, but which its recent sorry decline has shown it failed to keep pace with.

The habit of button-pressing is of course more popular then ever – see Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr et al. But for Kodak, recently forced to file for bankruptcy protection, the company’s failure to reinvent itself to the instant gratification realities of the digital era meant there was increasingly little of “the rest” for it to do.

Founded by inventor and philanthropist George Eastman, Kodak’s little yellow film packages became one of the world’s most recognised brands. Indeed for much of the twentieth century Kodak was an American industrial icon – at one point enjoying a similar status as tech giant Apple does today.

Since the turn of the century however, the fortunes of the once mighty photographic firm have plummeted. By early 2012 Kodak’s shares were trading at around 40 cents, down from $40-45 just seven years earlier. The NYSE even went as far as to warn the company that it risked being delisted.

So where did it go wrong?

One common explanation about Kodak’s demise is that it missed the digital revolution – or simply that the ubiquity of digital cameras made photographic film redundant while Kodak bosses buried their heads in the sand. While that explanation has some merits, it is far from the full picture. In fact Kodak was a pioneer in the development of digital cameras, producing the first prototype megapixel digital camera in 1975.

Presented to sceptical Kodak executives, the bulky device was powered by no less than 16 batteries and took a full 23 seconds to record a single image, using a cassette tape as the equivalent of today’s memory card. (You can see a picture of the camera on this Kodak blog, the title of which is a story in itself: “We had no idea”)

Even when digital cameras reached the consumer market in the mid- to late-1990s, some of Kodak’s early models vied with models from Olympus and Sony for top-selling spots.  In fact, the early cameras made by Canon, the current global leader in digital cameras, lagged well behind those of Kodak in terms of consumer acceptance as well as critical reviews.

Kodak didn’t lack technical expertise either and, even today, has considerable intellectual property in the digital imaging space with its thousands of patents worth several billion dollars.  Why then is Kodak struggling to survive despite a strong start in the promising – and still rapidly growing – arena of digital imaging?

Bridging the gap

In my recent book High Performance Companies: Successful Strategies from the World’s Top Achievers I suggest that successful innovators must be able to integrate (as in combine) external and internal knowledge.  An excellent example of this is the case of Fanuc, the Japanese maker of machine tool controls.

Based near the foot of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, Fanuc used to make mechanical and hydraulic controls in the 1970s. But after the first oil shock in 1973, operating costs of those controls became prohibitive because they consumed a lot of oil.

In response, Fanuc began a huge effort to shift to computer controls.  It overcame gaps in its own knowledge by partnering with diverse sources including the University of Tokyo, its customers, end-users and sometimes even existing as well as potential competitors, such as GE and Siemens which had their own aspirations in this industry.

The external knowledge from these partnerships was combined with a number of other elements including its own internal knowledge, some bold strategic bets (being the first to use an Intel microprocessor in a dusty, dirty and hot factory environment) and a far-sighted leadership which had the vision of global leadership.

Not only did Fanuc manage to successfully adopt new electronic technology, it also became a dominant leader. Indeed a recent Bloomberg article recently called it “The Microsoft of machine tools” – a company whose products effectively run the world’s factories.

Kodak’s failure to adapt to the new technology stands in stark contrast to Fanuc’s case because Kodak had greater resources in terms of its brand reputation, its finances and its technological prowess in digital imaging. Kodak’s failure lay in its strongly inward focus.

Although it was a pioneer in the technical aspects of digital imaging, it lacked skills in areas such as lens making and manufacturing (making efficient and reliable electronic devices) to successfully commercialise products based on its innovations in digital imaging.

Critical integration

While  Kodak did make efforts to outsource its camera manufacturing (and thus fill some gaps in expertise), the outsourcing arrangement did not achieve the integration of external knowledge with Kodak’s own internal knowledge that was so critical to continued innovation. As a result, Kodak remained stuck in the lower end of the digital camera spectrum and could never compete in the high end of the spectrum, which is where the bulk of the profits are.

That all begs the question: Why did Kodak fail to achieve the integration of external and internal knowledge?  After all, Kodak was for decades a greatly admired company which owned an iconic brand.  It had mastered all aspects of the film business including R&D, manufacturing, marketing and worldwide distribution.

The answer lies in the quality of management. Unlike Fanuc which had the towering figure of Dr Inaba, a key scientist in his field of robotics and numerical controls; in its effort to provide the visions needed to adapt to the new technologies and then lead the world market, Kodak went through a number of CEOs – it is on its fourth CEO since 1990.

The short tenure of each CEO made working towards a distant goal of industry leadership in the fast evolving technology of digital imaging rather difficult.

Very often, when CEOs change, they bring new priorities and the pursuit of a distant goal can be easily ‘misplaced’ in these reshuffles, or, worse yet, the goals themselves may be changed.  Kodak also went through numerous restructurings which were traumatic for the employees and sometimes also taking it into unfamiliar and hypercompetitive markets such as printers, again diluting its focus.

The key stumbling block was its inability to convert its technical expertise into tangible products that could be sold profitably

Complacency also played its part. Kodak is based in Rochester, New York, where it was the largest employer and has a towering influence. It has helped many local causes – in fact of one of the premier music schools in the world (the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester) bears the name of Kodak’s founder.

Possibly, in its efforts to continue to be good to the local community, Kodak let its costs get out of control.  Like many corporate peers such as GM, legacy costs (funding generous retirement packages) became a huge burden, especially when revenues started to decline.

So what lessons do Kodak’s problems hold for others?

From my perspective, the key stumbling block was its inability to convert its technical expertise into tangible products that could be sold profitably (in other words a sustainable business model). Kodak had several gaps in its expertise to design a complete business model but lacked the clarity of vision or the continuity of leadership to acquire the resources in a systematic fashion, let alone integrate them with its considerable internal knowledge of digital imaging.

Other companies facing similar technological discontinuities would do well to remember the critical role of integration of internal and external knowledge to achieve innovation, which would, in turn, improve their chances of successful adaptation.

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Diaspora Matters

Developing Your Website Marketing Plan

poli
ZBIN Mozambique Group Members

Strive Masiyiwa calls internet the ‘most  valuable real estate in the world’. He says the internet is more valuable than land. He goes on to say ‘Every entrepreneur needs to “see” the Internet as “valuable real estate,” in much the same way you would see a piece of land for building something like a hotel’

So this afternoon we continue with websites reviews and do tackle the marketing and promotion side of websites. Our first question is ‘Have you seen our  new improved ZBIN website? It looks much better doesn’t it? I give credit to SKT Website Design, a Harare based Web Design Company operated by a small team of brilliant youngsters with offices in Southerton.

My background is Finance and Risk Management and had never designed a website before. So when i developed our initial ZBIN website, I turned to Youtube for assistance and took several hours studying how to develop a website. After 6 hours of studying, trial and error, I did it…I produced the fastest growing business website in Zimbabwe and the region!

The quality was not the best but I had used my innovation to create a site that attracted 20,000 hits in the first month of operation. I had made history, a finance person with little website development experience ndini uyo zvatoita! Website yombobuda yakapidiguka, kana kuti mamwe maposts ombotiza lol

There is something special though that happened during the development of the website, I developed an attachment to it. The stress, the curiosity, the pain, the headaches and finally the joy of having the site up and running is indescribable. This is the greatest advantage of developing your own site versus having one developed for you.

My own researches of why most websites fail is due to the fact that there is no attachment during production and also the fact that website development is being done by IT Professionals only. They are very good at what they do but in developing most exclude the key users of the website-Finance, Marketing and Management- as a result a website produced is owned by IT and yet most forget that these guys are strictly technical in the field of Information Technology. This is why you often find websites with no new updates-in most cases users would have forgotten the website passwords or run out of ideas on what to put on the site.

So after developing a standard website I approached SKT for support. I knew the site was not the best ( it is still work in progress). I did spend half a day to talking to these brilliant youngsters. They showed me a couple of websites that they did, files of work that they have in progress. We discussed about my vision for the group, what I had done to date and what is missing. A great partnership was born on the day because we would like to develop a formidable team that works on website development and maintenance. They bring strong technical IT knowledge and skills and I bring the business side of website including E-commerce. During our partnership, we will try and fill the void that exist in the field-the absence of the business side to website issues.

Website Marketing Plan

One of the most important factor in a website is traffic! Getting traffic to your site is the difficult part especially when you are new. Getting 5 views on your site is not an easy process –the site owner has to work hard in marketing the site and also ensuring that visitors do come back again.

Google provides free analytics which show the number of people visiting your site. The analytics also come in graph form and a number of extra features. Apart from number of site visitors there is also data on how much time are they spending on the site, what are they doing? Are they returning? Are you turning them into business?

So anyone can get a site and prices range from $150 to $600 for small businesses and this depends on the number of features you would like your site to have-some may want to have an online store or databases of customers, this may need extra costs. Its therefore important to discuss what you need when you need a website. ZBIN will provide you with an important checklist for new business people interested in setting a site for the first time…a checklist will be important so that you do not end up getting a website that does not provide you with enough value or return on investment.

Marketing Plan for your website

A website without a marketing plan is as useful as a free phone  number that no one knows about.

It is important to consider  the following factors when developing your website:

  1. Websites without traffic offer no business or organisational purpose: Sad but true, the myth is just pure myth. If you build a beautiful website and nobody comes, no matter how useful or artistic the website, it is useless. Think of a website as a new version of the freephone telephone number; just like a freephone number is useless if nobody dials it, so too a website is useless if nobody visits it.
  2. Websites don’t get traffic by themselves: If you build it, and do nothing else, they will come. That’s also a myth. Websites don’t generate traffic anymore just because they are good, or useful.
  3. Traffic takes marketing: It takes marketing to generate traffic on a website. Successful websites generate traffic by new applications of old-fashioned marketing, including advertising, public relations, and word of mouth. They also generate traffic through new Internet marketing, highlighted by careful management of searcher strategies such as search engine optimisation and CPC (cost per click) advertising on the likes of Google, Espotting and Overture.

Your competitive edge

What is your website’s competitive edge? How are you different from all others? In what way does it stand out? Is there sustainable value that you can maintain and develop over time?

The most classic of the competitive edges are those based on proprietary technology and protected by patents. A patent, an algorithm, even deeply entrenched know-how, can be a solid competitive edge.

Sometimes market share and brand acceptance are just as important. Know-how does not have to be protected by patent to offer a competitive edge. For example, some of these values might lead to competitive edge:

  • Quick loading pages–2 seconds vs. 12 seconds, 8 seconds being the average. For example, Buy.com’s average load time is 2-4 seconds. This has certainly been the case with Yahoo!, it consistently loads in a very quick amount of time.
  • Fresh content. e.g., major news sites. This is less of a concern to readers of bbc.com where the expectation is that content will be updated on a daily basis.
  • Trust. A community where people feel free to post their thoughts and concerns will have a competitive advantage based on trust. New posts and new ideas bring them back to your site. Fool.co.uk, for example, has mastered the art of building a network of users. They have dozens of custom email newsletters, some of which feature the most popular message board posts for that day.

The competitive edge might be different for any given company, even between one company and another in the same industry. You don’t have to have a competitive edge to run a successful business–hard work, integrity, and customer satisfaction can substitute for it–but any edge will certainly give you a head start if you need to bring in new investment. Maybe it’s your customer base, as in the case with Hewlett-Packard’s traditional relationship with engineers and technicians, or maybe it’s image and awareness, such as with Compaq. Maybe your competitive edge is quality control and consistency, like that of IBM.

Features and benefits statements

A good website strategy first identifies a market need, which indicates a target market, and then fills that need. Your strategy usually has to add an element of basic business revenue, considering who will pay how much to have that need filled.

Features and benefits statements are classics of standard marketing. For every product and every service you sell, develop your features and benefits statements.

Conclusion

Most people relax after setting up a site, they get training from website developers and initially run the site but lose interest in the long run. Some lose passwords or simply run out of what to update. This is the reason why most websites are not updated. Our advice is that enterprenuers should view websites as a precious investment that can drive business growth, you should look at your website as a source of competitive advantage over your competitors. We will cover online stores in the next article and how small businesses can take advantage of online stores.


Are you interested in setting up a website? Do you want your existing site to be reviewed or upgraded? If your answer is yes then contact SKT Website Design on +263 772 922 265

 

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Diaspora Matters

Introduction To Business Plans

juli

One of the ZBIN members has asked me to write about business plans. Defining them and providing a few examples. This should not be a challenge since i have helped a few members from the community in drafting and reviewing them.

I would say a business plan is a simple document where you write down a brief history of your business and what you plan to do in future. I would like to emphasize the word simple here because most people think it is a complicated document which can only be compiled by experts whereas in reality anyone can draft a business plan.

Why draft a Business Plan?

Clarify Direction:  The primary purpose of a business plan is to define what the business is or what it intends to be over time. Clarifying the purpose and direction of your business allows you to understand what needs to be done for forward movement. Clarifying can consist of a simple description of your business and its products or services, or it can specify the exact product lines and services you’ll offer, as well as a detailed description of your ideal customer.

Attract Funding: Perhaps the reason why most people prepare business plans-to seek funding! Businesses evolve and adapt over time, and factoring future growth and direction into the business plan can be an effective way to plan for changes in the market, growing or slowing trends, and new innovations or directions to take as the company grows. Although clarifying direction in the business plan lets you know where you’re starting, future vision allows you to have goals to reach for.

Attract Team members: Business plans can be designed as a sale tool to attract partners, secure supplier accounts and attract executive level employees into the new venture. Business plans can be shared with the executive candidates or desired partners to help convince them of the potential for the business, and persuade them to join the team.

Company Management: A business plan is one solid document which defines who the company is. A business plan conveys the organizational structure of your business, including titles of directors or officers and their individual duties. It also acts as a management tool that can be referred to regularly to ensure the business is on course with meeting goals, sales targets or operational milestones.

What does a Business Plan contain?

They can range in size from a simple few sentences to more than 100 pages with formal sections, a table of contents and a title page. Typical business plans average 15 to 20 pages. Comprehensive business plans have three sections–business concept, marketplace and financial–and these are broken down into seven components that include the overview or summary of the plan, a description of the business, market strategies, competition analysis, design and development, operations and management, and financial information.

I would in simple terms say a business plan should answer the question, who are you and why should i be interested in you? For potential funders the question is why should we fund you? So clearly illustrate a business plan allow me to provide you with an example below of

Below I have quickly drafted a Business Plan Outline to help our members to appreciate what a business plan is. In this plan you would like to tell a potential funder who you are as a company, who the owners are, why you exist, your competitive edge, your management team. This is pretty straightforward.

You would like to analyse the environment that you work in. For instance in the current environment in Zimbabwe you may like to refer to the Economic Outlook and impact on your company and the industry that you operate in.

Proposed Investment Description should be fairy straight forward, what do you intend to invest in? How much and is it going to be a profitable venture? Can you back it up with financial calculations? You may need a finance expert to do some Capital Budget calculations but for the purposes of illustration here, we are doing it ourselves. You will also need to describe the industry that you work in, the level of competition and your strategy for survival and competing.

Finances, this can be a small headache for Non- Finance Professionals but guess what? The good news is that there are a lot of templates where you can simply plug in figures and produce results. I have a friend who is an IT Manager whom I failed to help in drafting and reviewing his Business Plan, he produced a simple cashflow statement in excel which was accepted by a bank who gave him a loan.

 

1. Organisation
Mission Statement
Key to Success/Competitive Edge
Management Team
Ownership structure
2.Economic, Cultural and Environmental Factors
Economic outlook
Current trends in tastes
3. Proposed Investment
Description of the proposed investment
Competitive edge
3.1 Products/Services
Product/service description
Market Analysis and Plan
3.2 Competition
SWOT Analysis
Competitor Analysis and buying patterns
3.3 Finances
Current financial operations-Breakeven Analysis, Profit and Loss, Balance sheet, Cash flows and key ratios
Projected financials –Breakeven Analysis, Profit and Loss, Balance sheet, Cash flows and key rations

 

So this is just an introduction to Business Plans which I drafted with the intention to demystify business plans. It is not rocket science, you too can draft one if you take time to learn more about them. I will provide you with examples of detailed business plans and also checklists to use when reviewing business plans.

If you are drafting one with the intention of applying for funding remember this golden rule…Is it a profitable venture? This is the bottom line and a business plan will simply help in backing a profitable venture.

Enjoy and see you tomorrow at the ZBIN Poultry meeting at 3:00pm

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Diaspora Matters

Are you ready for HIFA Business?

ifa

The good news for art and music lovers is that the Harare International Festive of Arts is back! Some will be looking at enjoying themselves at the festival by checking out artists from the continent, a few will however be looking at the festival with different lenses-business!

ZBIN is therefore looking at the few folks who are interested in the business side brought about by the festival which draws thousands of followers. If you are a follower of HIFA, you may have seen that a few people from the event and they include the following:

1. Vendors selling food and drinks inside the HIFA venue

2. Hotels and lodges

3. Transport providers such as taxi cabs

The list can expand if one takes time to study who really attends this event as a lot of tourists visit Zimbabwe for the event. So what does a ZBIN need to do for now? Nothing complicated, just go to HIFA website www.hifa.co.zw and make inquiries. You may also need to be aware of all upcoming major events in your local area and find out how you can benefit.

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Diaspora Engagement-Lessons from India

welo welo

We have been reviewing the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) looking for many areas such as the Small to Medium Enterprise Enterprises (SMEs)as well as the Diaspora issues. Iam happy that there is coverage of the SME sector, disappointed to some extent by the ommission of the Diaspora. There is no Diaspora acknowledgement as an important sector that contributes to the economic development of the country. Perhaps this is an oversight that would be redressed in future government policies.

Today we wanted to highlight success stories from India where there is a Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. The vision of the Ministry is detailed below:

‘India’s engagement with its diaspora is symbiotic, the strands of both sides of the relationship are equally important to create a resilient and robust bond. To engage with the diaspora in a sustainable and mutually rewarding manner across the economic, social and cultural space is at the heart of the policy of the Ministry. To create conditions, partnerships and institutions that will best enable India to connect with its diaspora comprehensively is central to all our programs and activities. As a new India seeks to become a global player of significance, the time has come for a strong and sustained engagement between India and overseas Indians. The time has also come for overseas Indians to benefit from the exciting opportunities that India provides.’ Government of India, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs.

How did they come up with the above mentioned vision? We can look at the Report to the Prime Minister of  India below:

The Diaspora is very special to India. Residing in distant lands, its members have succeeded spectacularly in their chosen professions by dint of their single-minded dedication and hard work. What is more, they have retained their emotional, cultural and spiritual links with the country of their origin. This strikes a reciprocal chord in the hearts of people of India. It is to nurture this symbiotic relationship to mutual advantage that the Government of India, following the express directions of the Prime Minister, had established a High Level Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. L.M Singhvi, MP, with the mandate to make an in-depth study of the problems and difficulties, the hopes and expectations of the overseas Indian communities. Given the great diversity and global spread of the Indian Diaspora, it was a mammoth task. The Committee completed it within the timeframe set for it, with the active cooperation of NRIs and PIOs and submitted the Report to the Prime Minister on 8th January, 2002.

  The Diaspora is very special to India. Residing in distant lands, its members have succeeded spectacularly in their chosen professions by dint of their single-minded dedication and hard work. What is more, they have retained their emotional, cultural and spiritual links with the country of their origin. This strikes a reciprocal chord in the hearts of people of India. It is to nurture this symbiotic relationship to mutual advantage that the Government of India, following the express directions of the Prime Minister, had established a High Level Committee under the chairmanship of Dr. L.M Singhvi, MP, with the mandate to make an in-depth study of the problems and difficulties, the hopes and expectations of the overseas Indian communities. Given the great diversity and global spread of the Indian Diaspora, it was a mammoth task. The Committee completed it within the timeframe set for it, with the active cooperation of NRIs and PIOs and submitted the Report to the Prime Minister on 8th January, 2002.

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The History of Networking for Business Success

hepi

ZBIN is the second biggest community in Zimbabwe and our key strength is in networking and free business information and resources sharing. We actively encourage our community to network for business success through meetings, business tours and workshops. Networking is also happening especially on our WhatsApp platform where more than 5,000 members interact daily sharing business ideas and tips. We have also lined up a number of business meetings and tours which should benefit members and also be a good platform for networking.

 The best example of networking in Zimbabwe has to be the case of Mutumwa Mawere who became the richest black Zimbabwean in 1995 when he acquired Shabanie and Mashaba Mine (SMM). How much did he pay for the acquisition? He did not pay a penny, just got the business empire through effective networking!

There is a downward side to networking which people need to be aware-A lot of fraudsters take advantage of networking, you develop trust with a stranger and before long you would have been convinced to part with money in a get rich quick scheme and losing all of your investment.

 So there are a lot of benefits that comes from networking and your favourite business forum will be providing you with various platforms for networking. In 2017 we hope to have several networking events in Sandton, Capetown, Bulawayo and Harare. As per ZBIN Policy, no fees will be required to attend these events. This coming Saturday we have our first ZBIN meeting which will look at solving the Poultry Marketing headache. We will look at various options available to the forum in terms of finding markets for our poultry farmers, one possible solution is the formation of one central company that sells poultry on behalf of members.

 

More on networking to come, you can refer to our Scorecard for reference of what is to come in 2017. For now we would like our members to appreciate the History of Networking-how it all started. Information below comes from www.changingminds.org

Long ago

Long ago, there was no need for networking as we now understand it. People lived in stable communities where their social position and role did not change very much over a lifetime. They would know at most around 150 people (which is known as ‘Dunbar’s number‘).

Actually ‘long ago’ is not really that long ago. Up to the 18th century, there was a largely agrarian society with a much smaller trade sector than we know now and although it benefited some to build a wide network, for most people it was an unknown concept.

The industrial revolution

With the rise of the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries came the need for businesses to collaborate and trust a wider range of people and other businesses. It was not enough to develop a few partners and customers then work with them for the rest of your life, as often happened with simple artisans and craftspeople.

In business, risk sharing and resource pooling became more common as a way of ‘expanding the pie’ and making more profit for everyone involved.

Expanding overseas trade needed people to take the longer view and trust others more. Investors had to trust sea captains. Manufacturers had to trust their suppliers. And business partners needed to trust one another in order to reduce transaction cost and so increase competitive advantage. Business also led to a huge increase in insurance, starting with maritime protection and moving on to other business interests. To insure a person you need to trust them and insurance agents can safely give lower premiums to those they trust.

In late eighteenth-century Britain, business people created capital and credit networks. The consequent increase in trust and decrease in transaction cost led to credit expansion and various collective forms of economic diversification, as well as an increasing use of the joint-stock form of business organization.

Kinship ties were extended by social, religious, political, and cultural connections which led to the development of a common values system among business people who formed the new and extended middle class. Business became a way of life and common rules reduced conflict and eased the many transactions. People lived more transparent and open lives with their charitable works, cultural patronage, civic ceremonies, and voluntary subscription societies, which again helped develop trust.

Developing networks

As information costs change, so also does the institutional structure of the economy and so the whole way that businesses worked and interacted evolved to a system where both collaboration and competition could effectively coexist. As mentioned, trust is central to collaboration and business where you may be trusting large sums of money with other people.

The way a person developed trust was by how they (and in business then it was mostly men) act. A great deal was placed upon general conduct including personal integrity, keeping promises, paying debts and having a general sense of solidity and respectability. What clubs and institutions you belonged to made a further difference as they gave additional strong indication of your underlying values and concern. The codes of how one dressed and treated others were not written but became widely understood.

These factors became even more important than political or religious affiliation as the rules of doing business grew, including working well with others and building an effective and worthwhile network of associates. In this way the industrial revolution also became a social revolution that spawned networking far and wide as a way of working.

These days

These days, the interconnectedness of the industrial revolution has intensified into the knowledge economy, where jobs are increasingly mobile and flexible.

In all this, who you know is still hugely important and can be important than what you know and many jobs come through contacts (your author, for example, has changed jobs quite a few times but has not applied through an advert for over 25 years).

And the internet has facilitated networking to a new and frenetic level, where people tweet and post many times per day. With cell phones and social networking we can have endless ‘friends’, though Dunbar’s number still constrains the number of people we can realistically know.

There is now a ‘Millennial Generation’ who have known nothing but being permanently connected and how they will continue to live their lives and the impact of this connectedness has yet to be played out.

 

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How to reduce costs for families

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Today we  tackle cost cutting measures or cost containment measures by families. Our intention was to dive straight into cost cutting by business but decided to start with  families first and business last. They say good things start at home, in business we can trace a lot of qualities about a business person right from his or her doorstep! We cannot expect one to manage business finances well when they struggle with own home  finances. This is why we have decided to start at family level before moving to business level. So how do you ensure your costs remain low in an ever changing environment of price increases? How do you survive in a challenging economy where prices keep rising but income remaining constant?

One of the toughest things on earth is to adjust to a low income life when you would have been used to good life. To start drinking scuds when you have been used to drinking my favourite Castle Lite or Amstel. The other time i attended a Prize Giving Day at Tynwald Primary School where the Headmaster Mr Mujeri was telling parents of the difficult period parents face when they have to transfer kids from private schools to government schools-it can be real torture!

We  recently witnessed the increase in the price of beef and a few other goods due to the increase in Value Added Tax. Fortunately the increase was reversed although the order to reverse the price increases is still to be witnessed by consumers-Economists say ‘Prices are Sticky Downward’ and may help explain why prices have not gone down. The only price to go down seems to be the internet charges from Telone, Thank you Mrs Chipo Mutasa and Telone!

Anyway so how do we manage to stay within our means? There is no clear formula for this but we will try our best in helping our members and followers.  We believe that the key to survival is in how you manage costs. You can also add how to increase your income during your spare time. We are currently witnessing various strategies  by our members  such as buying groceries in bulk, transport pools,growing own food and  buying second hand clothes.  We will cover supplementary income ideas in future but for now lets look closely at cost containment measures.

Ideally one should not just begin by drafting cost cutting measures. You need to have a look at the big picture, why should you cut costs? Where is the economy going? Any lessons from the past? What is the make up of your monthly budget? What are the major cost drivers of your family budget?How are other families copying? Who is involved in cost cutting, should it be parents or the bread winner only leading the cost containment exercise?

There are a lot of questions involved in belt tightening measures. It is not an easy process to see your income going down but costs remaining the same or even increasing. So we have started with the family first and next time we will cover in detail cost cutting measures at your business. Your homework is to google search a business process called Value Analysis.

Lets hear  what our members have to say about managing costs at family level:


Yvonne Wadzanai Matyatya boiling beans dzakawanda then toisa mumapackets mufridge(saves electricity)

Missy Ree Ree Nyatananga We cld start nekudzinyika mumvura overnight dzokasika kuibva (more saving)

Micheal Tafadzwa Mapfumo Using public transport for going to wrk instead of using own car everyday. Convertung airtime into bundles,buying maize and make it done at a local mill,adopt a health diet calender which doesn’t include meat everyday.

Chloe Razemba Forming transport clubs that car pool together so you give each other a ride to and from work/town/church. You save on fuel and tollgate fees. Also car pooling for school run. Also using delivery services like District Services to get groceries bought and delivered home to you. Way cheaper than driving

Mai Anashe Tagwirei Family planning methods eg depo provera, loop, jadell

Taonga Taonga Family planning yes, but have you done an independent research on the negative effects of all these products

Prince Jay Ngwadzayi Work up early and use public transport to work.

Howard Takura Tsvangirayi there is a paraffin heaters I saw them mostly in S.A. heat the home in winter whilst you are cooking. they are not smelly at all or use marasha

Mabhiya Oxman use gas for cooking, its cheaper and no electricity cuts. use solar to power your entertainment, solar geyser and fridges, its very cheap in the long run. you can cut your electricity bill to zero. if you have space at your place, grow your own vegetables and save those coins for other pressing issues. if you use better roads to work, its time to downgrade from that 3l engine to a 1l engine, you may cut your fuel cost by half. also if you happen to have many girlfriends madhara, reduce to one girlfriend your wife, the savings will surprise you kkkk

Chloe Razemba Oh and I forgot we only iron clothes as they are worn in my household. You waste electricity ironing them after washing and then packing them, then ironing again before wearing. Once is enough. Also don’t carry cash whenever you leave the house, sesu madzimai hushayi chekutengera vana kumba. If you don’t need the cash, leave it at home.

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Diaspora Matters

Partnership problems and how to avoid them

partnership

One of our key focus this year will be the promotion of partnerhips by our members. Partnerships by locals as well as locals and Diasporans. Partnership is not an easy field because in most cases it results in the other party being shortchanged. Diasporans have already been partnering with relatives back home and wee have heard many sad stories where locals abused funds received for partnership projects.

Below we cover advice from www.entrepreneur.com for the benefit of our members

Pitfalls abound when entrepreneurs decide to become partners. Know what they are ahead of time so you can set up guidelines that allow people to walk away if things go wrong.

From powerhouse financiers like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to retailers like Baskin-Robbins to IT pioneers like Hewlett-Packard, business partnerships have been an important part of entrepreneurship and startup success. The reasons are simple: complementary skill sets, shared equipment or expenses, and the idea that one person with “hard” money capital can create synergy with the intellectual capital of another person so both can profit from their venture.

In theory, a partnership is a great way to start in business. In my experience, however, it’s not always the best way for the typical entrepreneur to organize a business.

The tough thing about most partnerships is that they are just like marriages, and if you know anything about those statistics, you know half of all marriages don’t survive. Making a marriage work involves handling a volatile mix of partnership issues: ego, money, stress, monthly overhead and day-to-day expenses. Throw in some employees you must manage, and you have a good idea of the work required to make a business partnership successful.

If you’re thinking about a partnership, consider the following list and avoid the potential pitfalls:

1. Sharing capital instead of expenses: Whenever you share your own capital–be it money, resources, information or property–you automatically give away your enterprise ability. In a perfect world, the person you are partnering with is upright, full of integrity, and not at all tempted to take this gift and run with it as his own. However, the world’s not perfect. So be careful. Instead, work out an arrangement where expenses are shared in an “associative” arrangement. It also makes it easier to walk away if things go wrong.

2. Partnering with someone because you can’t afford to hire: This is a partnership killer right from the start. The scene is always the same: Bob has a business idea and Fred has the business skills, but Bob can’t afford to hire Fred as an employee, so they decide to share duties, expenses and profits. What happens is both Bob and Fred end up working against each other, and Bob finds himself liable for Fred’s obligations (financial and otherwise) under the partnership agreement. If you’ve got the idea and someone else has the skill, simply hire him or work out an independent contractor agreement. Don’t give away what you don’t have to.

3. Lacking a written and signed partnership agreement: Due to the nature of partnerships, every detail and obligation must be clearly defined and written out, and agreed upon by all parties. This is best done with a written legal agreement drafted by a well-qualified, mutually agreed-upon lawyer. Just make sure the attorney is well-versed in business partnerships, and be sure to keep her card handy at all times. You may need that person again when things go wrong.

4. Overlooking a limited partnership: One of the main downfalls of a partnership agreement is the assumption of liability each partner makes for the other. A way around this is a limited partnership, where the limited partner is not liable for the actions or obligations of the general partner. Again, make sure an attorney well-versed in partnership agreements writes this arrangement.

5. Lacking an out or an exit strategy: Big-time marriages start with a pre-nuptial agreement. In business and contractual terms, a pre-nup is analogous to an exit agreement. In any partnership agreement, define the terms of an exit strategy that allows you or your partner to walk away from the partnership, or that provides options to buy out the other party. This can be done very clearly and simply–and without imploding the operations of a successful business.

6. Expecting the friendship to outlast the breakup of the partnership: Again, from the perspective of a marriage, how many ex-couples do you know who are truly friends? Not many, I suspect. So don’t go into any partnership with a friend expecting to remain friends after a partnership breakup. It may sound great to do business with your friends, but remember, in the business world, it’s always business first and friendships second. Also remember, most times when the business ends, so does the friendship.

7. Having a 50/50 partnership: Every business, including partnerships, needs a boss. If you decide to go the partnership route, make it a 60/40 or 70/30 split. Then you and the business have a point person for accountability and overall operational control. Also, keep your buyout or exit strategy clear and in your favor–benefitting you and saving problems down the road.

As a final note, I leave you with an interesting solution to the partnership issue from one of the companies mentioned earlier: Baskin-Robbins. Hopefully, it provides additional perspective.

When Burton Baskin and Irvine Robbins first considered partnering in the ice cream business, Robbins’ father advised against it, thinking the compromises each man would make in getting the partnership to work would kill the product’s potential. So the men each worked on their own businesses for two years before combining Robbins’ five shops with Baskin’s three stores under one name decided by the flip of a coin. Only after successfully launching and running their own separate businesses did the subsequent partnership actually work.

That’s one partnership formula I do know of that proved effective. And if it worked for those two pioneers of retail success, it just may work for you.

 

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Diaspora Matters

Business Opportunities in Angola

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Angola Market Survey Angola has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world with an annual growth rate of 11.1% being observed for the period 2001-2010. There is significant foreign direct investment and the economy is dominated by oil which is exported mostly in its crude form and lesser quantities in the refined form. The country offers a wide range of trade and investment opportunities as it is undergoing a re-building phase following the civil war.

i. Government priority setting The Angolan Government is keen on diversifying into other economic activities in order to reduce dependence on oil, which currently contributes at least 80% to government revenue. The target sector for diversification is agriculture due to the existing potential.

ii. Resource endowment Angola is a resource rich country with oil, fertile soils, huge water bodies and unexploited deposits of various minerals, fish, forests and a growing population. These offer opportunities for mineral exploitation and processing, agriculture and timber and furniture manufacture.

iii. Opportunities in Angola There are trade and investment opportunities in Angola for Zimbabwean companies and Zimbabwe as a nation.

One of the key trade opportunities lies in the focus of the Angolan government on agricultural production and processing in that despite interventions in the agricultural sector by the government, there is still need for further investment. Investment in agriculture has presented an opportunity to the imports of farm implements especially those ox-driven. Meat and dairy products have export potential in Angola. Potential exists for pharmaceuticals, nonetheless with need to be aware of stiff competition; partnering with locals presents better avenues for market entry and export opportunity exploitation.

Clothing has potential although noted that the common fashion trends follow those of Brazil in addition to the preference of international brands and labels. Future prospects exist forprotective clothing exports to Angola. Very few construction companies currently use protective clothing although plans are underway by government to streamline and enforce health and safety regulations at work places.

Products with potential in the Angolan market include among others meat (fresh beef, pork, chicken), processed meat products, dairy products, farm implements, designer clothes, protective clothing and building materials.

There is also a gap in Angola in respect of human capital availability. Generally there is a shortage of English tutors/schools and artisanal skills. There are opportunities to establish English language training institutions and translation services for Government, diplomatic services, business and tourism activities.
Despite the availability of a wide range of opportunities, market entry into Angola has its own fair share of challenges and weaknesses.

iv. Import sources Angola imports about 90% of all its consumer goods and utilities. Currently trade is dominated by Portugal, Brazil, China and South Africa being the only main exporter from the SADC region. These countries have established their own niche markets, which to some extent are difficult to penetrate.

v. Trade prospects and opportunities for Zimbabwe There are generally good relations between Zimbabwe and Angola. It remains for Zimbabwe to take advantage of these good relations in accessing the market. There is work-in-progress towards finalization and implementation of a bilateral, economic and technical cooperation trade agreement which has been in the pipeline for some time; it is anticipated will pave way for future trade and investment initiatives.

vi. Investment opportunities Investment opportunities derive from the fact that Angola is still in need of infrastructural development which includes, road construction, housing and industrial development. Thecountry is endowed with a wide range of natural resources to support this sector including raw materials especially for the manufacture of bricks and cement.

There are a wide range of investment opportunities in Angola with countries like Brazil, Portugal, Spain and China having made significant market penetration in most economic and social sectors. Opportunities for investment are in agriculture (horticulture, poultry), animal husbandry, property development (residential, commercial and industrial), production of cement, schools that can teach English and skills development.

For Zimbabwean companies to make a breakthrough into the Angolan market, a medium to longterm strategy coupled with local partnerships is recommended. In addition to this, enterprises need to collaborate for them to have the financial edge for market penetration and also understand the business culture of the country.

Credit : ZIMTRADE

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