Diaspora Matters

There is so much to learn from the music scene by entrepreneurs. When it comes to stiff competition then look at the FCMG sector ( Fast Moving Consumer Goods)—your OK, TM, Spars etc. We used to have kombis too and who still remembers kombis stopping in the middle of the road blocking traffic in order to pick passengers? We hope when they return-they will be disciplined.

The music scene is one hell of a tough industry—talent is not enough! Getting regular airplay an impossible feat as more than a million songs are recorded each year and yet we have a few radio stations. For new artists, most of their recordings never get airplay.

Enter Van Choga;

A weirdo artist who rose to prominence during the lockdown—I wasn’t impressed when I bumped into his videos—perhaps passage of time. More comfortable with more mature music….Thomas Mapfumo, Tobias Areketa, Ndolwane Super Sounds, Mokis Connection, Bhundu Boys etc

But in my youth we once had a weirdo song from Papa San-look for the song ‘I cant take it nomore’It is a dancehall song from the 90s that rocked the airwaves. In Kenya they have an artist Victor Ongengo-check out for his song Amani. Van Choga is cut from the same cloth.

The Ruwa based artist got signed by Seh Calaz, a leading Zimdancehall artist who recorded and promoted his early works and it paid dividends with the release of his first album.

We expected more collaborations from his mentor but fate had other ideas. Immediately after releasing his album, the 2 parted ways attracting the ire of music followers who thought Van Choga was in ingrate who had cut the hand that feedeth!

Everyone expected doom for Van Choga who had joined a new team.

A few weeks after the acrimonious exit, Choga collaborated with a rising hip hop artist from Ghana called Ay Poyoo and they detonated a bomb! Expect their hit to be a party anthem in the coming weeks with young ones dancing to the fancy beat and lyrics. In 2 days the song has attracted more than 112,000 views.

He becomes the first Zimbabwean to collaborate with a Ghanaian musician….something established musicians failed to do, even his previous mentor never crossed the borders!

From an unknown musician a few weeks ago, Van Choga is now trending in 2 countries. Now this is what we call scale up on steroids!

In your business, are you operating alone? You may need a team that thinks in other terms like the new Van Choga team.

Horticulture is one of the most lucrative fields in Zimbabwe but can be challenging for most new entrants. In this article we explore some of the most common mistakes which you need to be aware of;

1. Poor site selection: Badly drained soils– soils in the selected site should be free draining to 1.5m depth. Gravelly soils: The more stones /pebbles present the smaller is the water holding capacity of soil. Too close to trees or buildings or too steep a slope with excess run off of irrigation water? This can affect the yield of your crops.

2. Poor choice of variety for the market, time of the year, day length, and area. Lack of proper crop planning.

3. Poor soil preparation: The soil must be porous, aggregated, oxygenated to a depth of 0.5M for top yields. See Charter Seeds soil preparation technique to convert badly compacted soil into an excellent tilth in a matter of weeks.

4. Badly planned rotations: Subsequent crops must not be in the same family or group of plants.

5. Inadequate isolation distances between crops.

6. Temperatures and humidity levels are very important for many crops especially in greenhouses. The most frequent fault seen in greenhouses is lack of temperature control.

7. Poor Irrigation: Too much water in winter – especially March – April in Zimbabwe. Too little water in summer – especially September – October. Affects both the nursery and the field. Often the case with drip irrigation which is not really understood by many farmers. If you have a white efflorescence of salt on the surface of the soil it is likely you will be under watering. Examination of the soil will show the subsoil is dry.

8. Poor seedlings: A good well prepared, well hardened seedling is the foundation of a good crop and vice versa. Not too large or not too small and no excess leaf. Must be of the right size, 12-15cm tall, with strong, sturdy stems to prevent post planting shock, and a good root structure. The plugs must hold enough water to carry the seedling in the time before it starts to use soil water. Seedlings of cucurbits for instance need a larger volume of medium than seedlings with a smaller leaf area like cabbages and tomatoes. Use sleeves for cucurbit seedlings, especially watermelons and cucumbers.

9. Poor fertilization: Fertilize according to soil analysis taking both nutrient intensity and nutrient capacity into account. The fertilizer must be carefully placed in the soil so that it coincides with root development at critical periods of growth like vegetative growth, flowering and fruit development. Know your variety so that in a well prepared soil you know where the roots will be in the soil at a given time.

10. Poor planting. Water plant into a soil at field capacity. Never plant into dry soil. Make sure the seedling is full of water when transplanting. Water the night before pulling. Shade cucurbit seedlings after transplanting to minimize water loss.

11. Badly planned pest and disease control. Before the crop is planted have a spraying program planned based on previous experience. Start spraying before the problem occurs and rotate chemicals to prevent a build- up of resistance and stick to your planned program.

 Finally, horticulture is a business: Inputs must be governed by the likely gross return – but the more you put in the more you will get out.In modern horticulture absolute attention to detail is necessary in all aspects of production to make use of the factors incorporated into modern vegetable varieties.

All Credit: Charter seeds, distributors of Stark Ayres in Zimbabwe.

Emmanuel is a qualified Agronomist and development practitionerwith more than a decade’s experience working in the agri-business industry and development sector. You can contact him on edndsep@gmail.com or whatsapp on 0783495396

Brilliant business plans, a lot of enthusiasm, you have attended many seminars, followed role models, read plenty of books and you have mastered the basics—you look forward to launching a successful business project. Good luck to you, thorough researches done—you can do it!

In soccer the coaches would also have followed the same approach. A lot of practice, watched videos of competitors, done self analysis—got psychologists to psyche you up. Confidence full to the brim—bring it on!

Come match day, you enter the pitch and as soon as the referee whistle goes off, its game on!

Then you find the conditions totally different from what you had been taught and practised for.You concede many goals than targeted, you make life difficult for you in the second half. How can you reverse the 4-0 score line?

In entrepreneurship, you learn that the economic environment is not as predicted. New statutory instruments come from nowhere, Covid-19 comes, inflation conspires to make your life difficult. All the business plans and researches rendered useless.

Meanwhile you have sunk a lot of capital into your project, some employees involved in fraudulent activities, some debtors not paying up, currency changes and money stuck in banks or Ecocash banned.

Hold on, all of these events did not appear in your business plans! Like in soccer, you have a 4-0 loss and you are considering quitting to save the little capital that still exist.

Welcome to the second half

Your coach has been studying the opponents, their strengths and weaknesses. Analysing too your own performance vs the opponents and coming up with a remedial plan to overturn the first half losses and record a draw or a win!

For entrepreneurs, there is no coach who was observing your performance and if you do not pause and self reflect then you are headed in the familiar direction travelled by 95% of entrepreneurs—doom!

In soccer teams that finish last get relegated and we can track all the teams that got relegated across the world. The statistics are easy to get…

In the Zimbabwean context, statistics are hard to come by and the absence of the statistics mean thousands to millions of people keep falling into the same trap.

Even when we follow popular entrepreneurs in the country. We only read of successful case studies but how they made losses in the first half and then miraculously survived in the second half to win the match is classified information!

Some of the first half experiences are so embarrassing that many are not comfortable to share them. The education system taught us to be proud of success and be embarrassed by failures and this extends to the business sector.

How to survive the second half

• Complete the match, do not flee due to adverse performance in the first half.
• Bruised, beaten, angry—seek half time expertise. Those who have played the match before—seasoned coaches. They will assist to point areas of weakness and strengths. They will analyse the industry too and other contributing factors. Together you will come up with a plan that also involves working on your deflated ego.
• Draft a second half business plan: Chances of your first business plan failing are more than 90% especially for first timers. Yes its well researched, Yes the same business plan has worked perfectly well for others but that business plan is bound to fail in spectacular fashion too.
• It’s a team sport: Serena Williams only has a team of experts behind her but she performs on the tennis court alone against competitors. Entrepreneurship is a team effort and not golf, boxing, motorsport or chess. You need a team for various roles (Financial Management, Strategic Management, Marketing, Risk Management, Business Management and more)
• The founder can have the passion to succeed but recruiting a competent team that shares the same vision is an almost impossible task in the Zimbabwean context. Refer to those who have operated kombis where in most cases the drivers and assistants have their own selfish objectives. How do you recruit and work with a team that is interested in starting their own businesses using your resources? Your business plan is not going to adequately cover this agency problem—you will have to experience it to appreciate the complexities. The biggest risk is seasoned employees working for a first timer!
• Don’t invest 100% capital in the first half instead craft your business plan such that its creates more cashflows for reinvestment and therefore adding up to your initial targeted capital. Do not invest too much when you entrepreneurship resume is at zero. This is akin to a coach using all substitute players in the first half.
• Success is anchored on experience (80% negative) and (20% positive). You know where you have lost money and how and you avoid making similar mistakes. You now know of events that lead to a statutory instrument being formulated and introduced. You know the type of employees to avoid, your own weaknesses and strengths too.

How about people who are employed and they resign or are retrenched and enter the entrepreneurship sector? You may have been a CEO or Director with a lot of perks and associated prestige and society expects you to continue living at the same level. You cannot all of a sudden be seen getting your hands dirty working at Siyaso.

Unfortunately entrepreneurship starts from the bottom, if you are entering the mealie meal production then you need experience of being a mugaisi. If you own trucks, then you need to sometimes drive the trucks. Starting a soap making business? Then you need to know how to make the soaps yourself. Because of self esteem, employed professionals just want to transfer their positions to the entrepreneurship sector with disastrous consequences.

Once those below you know that the founder knows very little about the nitty gritties, then they will craft strategies to start their own companies within your company.

So get experience—negative and positive and win the match in the second half.

The Newsday reported last week of a Mutarean based businessman Mr Simbarashe Charamba who launched a program to supply retailers in Manicaland with goods for resale and save them spiralling transport costs.

The concept is called Wholesale Van Selling which is a moving vehicle delivering different sort of goods to all peri-urban and rural areas. It will cover all the 7 districts of Manicaland.

What can we learn from this?

Economic challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic have opened new opportunities for some.

Entrepreneurs solve problems at a premium: What are the top problems we need to solve as a nation?

• Energy: We do not have sufficient energy for the whole country: Solutions? Solar power opportunities.
• Transport: Kombis not able to operate: Solution: ZBIN Ride, Vaya, Hwindi etc
• Drought: Second consecutive season with below average rainfalls. Solution? Borehole drilling, water tanks, water tank stands, dam construction and irrigation systems.
• Access to capital: More than 8 million entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe but facing challenges of access to capital from banks. Solution? Crowdfunding.

Homework for the week

What other challenges do you see around you? What innovative strategies can you employ to solve them?

ZBIN Ride Members

Sterling job going on in terms of parcels movements across the country. Our forum initiative has become the leading small courier startup in the country. We will upscale the model in the coming months.

How about lessons learnt from the province of the wise—Manicaland? Members should think in other terms and introduce more services. What are the needs of the remote areas? How about arbitrage opportunities of goods that can be sourced cheaply in other areas and fetching a great profit margin in others? This should not only be restricted to Zimbabwe but should be regional in nature.

We hope our members innovate and unlock opportunities during these economic challenging times.

Later during the week, we hope to cover mining opportunities.

Kea leboga

We witnessed the talented Barcelona star Lionel scoring his 700^th goal this week and coincidentally we also posted our 700^th article on this website….what a feat!

We formed the forum after realising that there was no effective platform for small businesses in Zimbabwe where entrepreneurs would easily access opportunities resources. No platform for small businesses discussions, resource sharing and networking.

Our first port of call was the creation of a Facebook platform which was anchored on business ideas or opportunities. The rest of the business Facebook pages focused on adverts, members posting as many ads as possible with no platform for business discussions.

Our forum has now grown to 75, 000 in Zimbabwe and 95,000 in South Arica. We linked the website to the Facebook platforms and also created various Whatsapp groups with more than 10,000. A complete cycle of information was therefore formed linking active platforms allowing members to have access to information and other resources, market places and networking.

The biggest small businesses forum in Zimbabwe was therefore formed and the forum is growing at a rate of 1000 new members in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

When we launched the forum in October 2014, only the ZBIN Mozambique members preparing for a tour of Mozambique attended and we are sure they did not know of the future impact of the website not only in Zimbabwe but across the region. When we redesigned the forum in 2015, we lost more than 300.000 views but if we are to add the tally to the current one—we have close to a million views of the website from 2016-2020!

We would like to thank everyone who supported the website which attracts hundreds of readers every day. Our innovation on Facebook of consolidated ads has resulted in monthly views of more than 700,000 with top posts attracting a viewership of 20,000.

The future of the website

• We are now ramping up our Youtube channel so that we can convert most of the articles into visuals and audios. This means readers will take less time viewing them than written content.
• We are also in the process of creating a mobile app and an E-commerce platform so that our members can have a secure market place for their products and services.
• Creation of a ZBIN Approved member list to reduce risks of scammers on the forum
• We have selected the top viewed posts and compiled them into 3 books
• Creation of a subscribed section with polished articles.

We would like to thank you all for the support including the ZBIN Board which funds the operation of the site. Our first website registered locally was inexplicably pulled down but this did not damper our spirits as we created another one.

As for the diaspora, we realised that there was no site to update you of local opportunities development….therefore this site came in handy.

Posting 700 articles on a constant basis for 4 years is not any easy feat as there is no rumeneration associated with it BUT we did it anyway as a patriotic way to uplift and inspire not only Zimbabweans but a lot of African entrepreneurs dotted across the globe.

Thank you all, keep visiting your site and giving us feedback. We also welcome talented correspondents to be part of our team as we upscale to the next level.

Zikomo

We witnessed the talented Barcelona star Lionel scoring his 700^th goal this week and coincidentally we also posted our 700^th article on this website….what a feat!

We formed the forum after realising that there was no effective platform for small businesses in Zimbabwe where entrepreneurs would easily access opportunities resources. No platform for small businesses discussions, resource sharing and networking.

Our first port of call was the creation of a Facebook platform which was anchored on business ideas or opportunities. The rest of the business Facebook pages focused on adverts, members posting as many ads as possible with no platform for business discussions.

Our forum has now grown to 75, 000 in Zimbabwe and 95,000 in South Arica. We linked the website to the Facebook platforms and also created various Whatsapp groups with more than 10,000. A complete cycle of information was therefore formed linking active platforms allowing members to have access to information and other resources, market places and networking.

The biggest small businesses forum in Zimbabwe was therefore formed and the forum is growing at a rate of 1000 new members in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

When we launched the forum in October 2014, only the ZBIN Mozambique members preparing for a tour of Mozambique attended and we are sure they did not know of the future impact of the website not only in Zimbabwe but across the region. When we redesigned the forum in 2015, we lost more than 300.000 views but if we are to add the tally to the current one—we have close to a million views of the website from 2016-2020!

We would like to thank everyone who supported the website which attracts hundreds of readers every day. Our innovation on Facebook of consolidated ads has resulted in monthly views of more than 700,000 with top posts attracting a viewership of 20,000.

The future of the website

• We are now ramping up our Youtube channel so that we can convert most of the articles into visuals and audios. This means readers will take less time viewing them than written content.
• We are also in the process of creating a mobile app and an E-commerce platform so that our members can have a secure market place for their products and services.
• Creation of a ZBIN Approved member list to reduce risks of scammers on the forum
• We have selected the top viewed posts and compiled them into 3 books
• Creation of a subscribed section with polished articles.

We would like to thank you all for the support including the ZBIN Board which funds the operation of the site. Our first website registered locally was inexplicably pulled down but this did not damper our spirits as we created another one.

As for the diaspora, we realised that there was no site to update you of local opportunities development….therefore this site came in handy.

Posting 700 articles on a constant basis for 4 years is not any easy feat as there is no rumeneration associated with it BUT we did it anyway as a patriotic way to uplift and inspire not only Zimbabweans but a lot of African entrepreneurs dotted across the globe.

Thank you all, keep visiting your site and giving us feedback. We also welcome talented correspondents to be part of our team as we upscale to the next level.

Zikomo Kwambili

Kwambili

You would expect no one to be investing in a challenging economy like ours but guess what? There are some who are setting up businesses or even expanding!

In Graniteside opposite Sunningdale, a new wholesale is almost complete with the opening date expected soon. In Norton a Chinese tile making plant is ramping up production. Of course the previous article covered what is trending in Mbare!

Now lets look closely at interesting insights into those who are investing despite the headwinds.

First Key Insight: Entrepreneurship support—are you supplying goods to the ultimate consumer for consumption or you have incentives for entrepreneurs ingrained in your business model? The Peach Metro wholesaler is targeting entrepreneurs and a few ordinary consumers. They know entrepreneurship is the fastest expanding sector in the country and are targeting it.

The Mbare water tanks are mostly targeting farmers interested in making an extra dollar. Seed houses in Zimbabwe are opening new branches, veterinary products distributors are expanding in every town. In this tough economy, can you assist others to make money? If yes then you have plenty of room for expansion. Selling trucks, tractors or sedans?

Second Key Insight: Basic goods—the time for luxury goods is essentially not now. The population is going back to basics such as food, accommodation, clothes, transport and education.

Third Key Insight: Local manufacturing—the Covid-19 lockdown has severely impacted our South African supply chains. Goods are taking longer to arrive and therefore inconveniencing clients. South Africa is also prioritising locals first before exports. China which had become the leading supplier of goods to the region is still hamstrung by transport logistics.

To plug the gap, locals involved in small scale production such as soaps and other detergents. Some are taking advantage of the mealie meal shortages to set up grinding mills and supply local tuckshops.

Fourth Key Insight: Mining Industry Support—One of the fastest growing industries in the country is the mining sector especially gold and chrome. Some of our forum members are involved in the sector directly mining or supporting the sector with critical inputs such as power, processing chemicals, surveys and more. Some are even providing food and clothing to the hard cash rich mining entrepreneurs.

Fifth Key Insight: Construction—You need to conduct a visit to Mt Hampden if you are in Harare. Most brick making plants are operating at full throttle! Even small brick manufacturers in Chitungwiza are working over time! Does it make sense why the Chinese are setting up brick making and tile making plants in the country? No hardware store has closed shop over the past few months…infact more new hardware shops are being opened! The Covid-19 has taught locals about the importance of owning homes—urban, peri-urban and rural.

We hope this information inspires you and that you can add more insights through following the logic in the article. Our books on Business Opportunities and Digital Marketing give you further insights into local opportunities and include experiences from those in the sector.

Mbare gives you a snap shot of opportunities in Harare-trending, changes or new opportunities and you do not need a lot of time studying this-you just need to pass through the area. So what is new at the popular Siyaso?  What is keeping entrepreneurs busy even during the Covid-19 lockdown?

The answer lies in water tank stands! Climatic change is a reality and the effects are being felt countrywide. Most urban councils are not able to pump sufficient water for residents therefore driving many to sink boreholes. The rise in entrepreneurship is the second push factor as many are sinking boreholes at plots, farms and rural areas.

A whole value chain of water supply has been created which involves the following:

• Water tanks,
• Water tank stands,
• Irrigation systems,
• Borehole drilling,
• Borehole water for sale,
• Borehole service kits and
• Solar power installations,

Some with wells are deepening them by hiring experts with handheld drilling machines. Perhaps to confirm this we need to look at our top 2019 imports where an interesting line item caught our attention-importation of plastics and plastic materials.

Do you know how to manufacture water tanks?

Entrepreneurs solve problems at a premium and our current challenges as a nation are climatic, lack of formal employment, energy, food and others. Water opportunities seek to solve them at once-water for consumption and entrepreneurship through food production.

The missing link

There are no companies with one stop shops for the entire water support value chain support. A walk in shop with water tanks and stands, solar systems, irrigation systems, green houses and more.

Demonstration sites where prospective clients can walk in and observe various irrigation models in use allowing them to choose systems that suit their pockets.

The art of selling is a complicated one—a lot of studies have been put into it over the past centuries but still there is some inexplicable stuff that defies science. For instance how do you explain that there are some random clients who when they buy from you, they open floodgates?

Of course we are not talking of influencers who are public figures with a lot of following who can be engaged as brand ambassadors. For instance Trevor Noah, Shasha, Beyonce, Jah Prayzer, Casper Nyovest, Eddy Kenzo and Diamond  Platinumz.

Dear forumite, we are talking about Gogo Mthembu in Motsulu, Nelspruit who buys fresh vegetables from a market and opens up floodgates for Mpho. She buys shoes from a boutique and again opens up the sales valves.

Janet buying chickens from Nomusa and after the sale, Nomusa goes on to sell all of her chickens!

Janet goes on to buy face masks from Tinotenda and Tino sells all of her stock in record time.

Researchers call such people mavens according to the book Outliers. Mavens just have the Midas Touch and in most cases they do not even know that whatever they touch moves.

In a discussion on the forum, we had forum members who witnessed this phenomenon. Sales moving Northwards after certain people have placed orders. We had plenty of case studies and these were ordinary mavens.

In another instance a former icecream man identified certain clients who when they buy, he was assured of a great day of sales. If they do not then a tough day of moving sales.

Yours truly observed this several times whenever he stopped icecream men, stood in front of shops for window shopping or entering an empty shop and within a few minutes more people following suit. Of course iam not inviting freebies from the forum lol

Identify mavens for your business

In 2017 we advertised a forum initiative (tapestry) in 6 countries at the same time. The adverts went viral in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi sparking a scramble across SADC. Was it a fluke? We tested again in 2018 with a hat-making initiative and got similar results! So for the forum, we have identified these 3 countries as mavens that open floodgates to the region. It saves us time when launching new products.

When icecream men plan their suburb rounds, the experienced know which street to move first, which households open floodgates and they ensure maximum results this way.

Zimbabweans should be familiar with the hero Oliver Mtukudzi launching his albums in certain countries first before doing so in his home land. We hope it now makes sense!

What made your sales move so fast? Is it the time, location, season or certain clients? Document and analyse why sales move so fast. Repeat the process continuously till you get to the bottom of the story.

Why are sales low? Who bought or did not buy? Come up with incentives for mavens and assess progress.

There are also certain social media groups where you post and make the most sales. Have you captured this? It could be possible that you make the most sales when everyone else is struggling. Same advert design, same products and prices but someone making 5x sales than others.

How well do you know your clients? Do you capture their contact details? Do you regularly engage them? Have you identified the mavens? They can be clients, location, digital platforms or more.

Knowing them may make the difference between survival and closing shop.

In finance we have a term called VUCAH meaning Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambigous and Hostile environment. It is one of the toughest environments to operate in and clearly it’s difficult to seasoned skills and expertise with solid track records.

Most financial experts are trained to operate in stable environments. Predictable environments where you can plan for a period of year or more. Most corporate plans and budgets span for a period of a year or more.

Fresh from the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 which plunged the world into a recession, Zimbabweans got shock news of the suspension of the mobile money platform and the stock exchange—no better definition of VUCAH!

Did you see this coming? Had you factored VUCAH in your corporate strategies? It is an open secret we were all caught flat footed hence the outrage by the business sector.

What is the impact on business confidence and operations? This is a long analysis and will need an in-depth research which is evidence based. What is as clear as mud is this latest move will severely impact the business sector. Perhaps the bigger picture is this is a good move which will ultimately benefit the nation at large but only time will tell.

Developing VUCAH skills

Appreciation of Economic History: Unless you have studied Economics at college or other advanced finance subjects at college level, chances are high that you are thin on economic history knowledge. For instance an accountant is likely to study Principles of Economics and to some extend Macro-Economics at college and post grad level but this is not enough. How was the Rhodesian Economy structured? How did they deal with economic challenges? Post Independence how did we fare economically? How did we deal with economic challenges? What are the common trends? How have we dealt with VUCAH challenges in the past?

Political Economics: Our economy is intertwined with politics. What has been the link over the past 100 years? What are the lessons learnt? What keeps repeating ad infinitum?

Benchmarking: Apart from the appreciation of the internal environment, what are the lessons learnt from across the globe? What can we learn from countries that have travelled the similar path? Inflation in Germany or South America? How did other countries dollarize? Did they successfully return to local currencies? What measures did they put in place and are they comparable to local ones?

Financial Modelling: Now that you fully appreciate the historical perspective of Zimbabwe, what are the developing issues? In resolving them, what are the chances of plucking some strategies from history books? What are the scenarios for solving inflation and forex challenges? Book strategies and off the hook? It is not the first time to suspend the Stock Exchange, it is also not the first time to close banks. What are the signs that led to closures in the past decade? Did we notice similarities in the run up to the latest closures? How many corporate companies developed financial models so as to guard them against economic shocks?

VUCAH Skills are the missing link in Zimbabwe—missing at college level and also professional levels. Financial newspapers in the country concentrate more on historical analysis and do not use the past data for future analysis. What does it mean when small scale gold farmers are paid in local currency? What is the impact on gold deliveries and forex earned?

What is the impact of the Covid-19 on the local economy especially the business sector? Was there ever an analysis of mobile money especially the risks?

The Covid-19 pandemic was a once in a 100 years event and the world can be excused for being caught in six and sevens but some local shocks should not come as a surprise. Its almost impossible to eliminate risks but they can be reduced through forward planning and analysis.

Do you have VUCAH skills on the board? Were they spot on in predicting the latest move? Do your corporate strategies incorporate VUCAH too?

As leading financial analysts scramble to write lengthy articles analysing the implications of the latest policy move perhaps the public should be asking them where they were in the first place? The world is interested in the future….did you predict this latest move? If not-you need VUCAH skills too like the rest of the population. Your historical analysis not good enough!

After this latest move, what other shocks await us?

Food for thought

On a weekly basis the forum has small newsletters which are mostly shared on all of our Whatsapp groups as well as on our Telegram account. On a monthly basis we compile a newsletter covering all events in the month and plans for the following month.