Diaspora Matters

In February 2016,  I once wrote about my Passport Office Experience, I talked about my surprise at the exceptional customer service at the office. So last Friday I was back again at the offices to apply for passports for my family members. Is Customer Service still exceptional? What has changed in roughly a year?

Well I can confirm that Customer Service at the Passport Office in Harare is still High. What has changed is that the queues are longer-more Zimbos are applying for passports. Perhaps it could be due to the Festive Holidays? We may never know as we need official statistics from the Passport Office.

So on Friday I arrived at the Passport Office at 6:30am and was given number 220. I did not mind to be number 220 knowing that the Passport Office is efficient in processing passport applications. So how did it go?

1. My biggest frustration came from the receipting of funds using the swipe machine. There was only one swipe machine and this led to my 1 hour delay in getting application forms
2. Folks with cash to buy application forms did not endure any frustrating delays
3. Excellent rating for the ladies who work in Rooms 4 and 5. Very patient and helpful ladies. The lady in Room 5 is responsible for taking and processing photos. The lady in Room 4 is responsible for final checking of documents and authorisation.
4. How long did it take me? I left the offices at 11:30am. I had unnecessary delays because my young kids needed photos to be taken (The Office does not take photos of minors). My time could have been less had I brought cash to pay for the passport forms.
5. By the time I left at 11:30am, more folks were still flocking in. My own estimate is that close to a thousand people came to the offices.
6. The Bond note is accepted for passport forms applications
7. In February 2016 the offices were open during the weekend (Saturday)-this is no longer the case-they only open during the working week.

So my overall rating is still high for the office although a few areas need to be improved on such as:

1.Bring more swipe machines for use. Also advise members of public on use of bank cards because I witnessed folks who brought other people’s cards being turned away.

2.Enable payments through the Eco Cash platform

3.Put a Suggestions Box

4.Put  Anti-Fraud Posters

5.Have contingent plans for the rain season

6.Improve on ventilation

7.Your website is down

8. Establish a Help Desk

If you are visiting the Passport Office to apply for a passport then take note of the following issues:

a) If you are an adult, no need to bring photos, the office does this for you for free

b) Bring photo copies of your documents-Photocopying outside the Passport Office is pricey-$1 for two copies!

So have fun next time you visit the Passport Office, we encourage them to keep up the high standards of course they have a few areas that they need to improve on. I witnessed a good number of people submitting forms for Diaspora relatives –perhaps not necessary, how about decentralising the process to all Embassies or even online?

To other Government Departments-you surely need to visit the Passport Office and learn about efficiency. To the Private Sector-you too need to visit the Passport Office and learn about Customer Service because the Passport Office is our ZBIN 2016 Customer Service Award Winner.

So we already know of the current selling prices of Broiler chickens-they range from $5.5 to $7 in Zimbabwe. Now some have been asking us about the cost of raising each bird so that they can calculate the profitability of Broiler chickens. The good news is that we now have a rough guide which was submitted by one of the ZBIN members from the ZBIN Poultry Group Number 4. Please note that this is a general guide, feel free to edit it if you feel we missed certain key information or provided wrong information.

Thank you

At ZBIN we like to focus on success business stories from across Africa especially countries in East and Central Africa. Today we feature key business lessons from Uganda which is promoting its tourism brand. We look at what the Pearl of Africa has done to promote tourism in 2016 and their plans in 2017 and beyond.

Lesson Number 1: Refined marketing strategy in 2016

For the first time in Uganda’s history, they hired three firms to market the Pearl of Africa in United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Uganda is increasingly receiving continued coverage worth millions of dollars in leading media houses in these markets. To date Uganda has already received media publicity worth nearly $4 million. A lot more is expected by the end of 12 months for which the firms were hired. From this intervention,  tourists from US to increase from 49,414 in 2015 to at least 60,000 in the year 2017; tourists from United to increase from 40,851 in 2015 to 60,000 in 2017 and tourists from Germany to increase from 9,585 in 2015 to at least 15,000.

Lesson Number 2: Ugandans encouraged to prepare for increased tourist arrivals. Expected increase in Germany tourists means that there is need to learn the Germany language, quality of service to be improved by increased investment and monitoring by the Uganda Tourism Board.

Lesson Number 3: Working with Uganda Foreign Missions in key source markets to publicise the Pearl of Africa and to link  tour operators to tour operators from established markets where Uganda has have foreign missions.

Lesson Number 4: Uganda to continue promoting domestic tourism.

Below is a statement from the Uganda Tourism Board….

The Uganda Tourism Board appreciates the increased interest from all Ugandans in tourist sites all over Uganda. Ugandans are surely rediscovering the Pearl of Africa. During the Christmas period, we closely observed as Ugandans and expatriates filled tourism sites all over Uganda. We appreciate the lead role played by outstanding domestic tourists such as Rotaract and Rotary, rally fans, sports fans, culture enthusiasts, The Slayers, Mr Dibo and friends, Mr Kyamutetera and many others. Going forward, we shall continue supporting domestic campaigns including Tulambule and others. We strongly wish to encourage the private sector to design such initiatives that will encourage more Ugandans to explore Uganda.

Lesson Number 5: New Tourism Products

For the first time in Africa, Uganda hosted Africa’s first ever birding expo at the Botanical Gardens Entebbe. This exposed Uganda as the world’s premium birders’ destination, boasting of 50 per cent of Africa’s bird species and 10 per cent of the world’s species. This expo will continue to grow and be Africa’s and Uganda’s signature birding event.

Lesson Number 6: Uganda divided into 13 tourism destinations

Uganda has been organised into 13 tourism destinations namely Busoga, Far Eastern, Lango, Acholi, West Nile, Bunyoro, Toro, Rwenzori, Kigezi, Greater Ankole, Ssese Islands and Buganda; most of our domestic interventions will aim at promoting these unbelievably gifted destinations.

Lesson Number 7: Quality Review

Uganda continues to regulate the tourism industry to improve the quality of service .To date they have classified 61 hotels all over the country; five of which have received five star rating. This exercise is continuing and they encourage all tourist accommodations to have their facilities classified as it shall amplify their credibility. The service is currently done free of charge. Tour operators received training as well. The board will continue to provide training to staff employed by tourism facilities such as accommodation facilities, tour operators, tour guides, and many others, free of charge.

Lesson Number 8: Brand Promotion in 2017

The Uganda Tourism Board has the following statement

In 2017, our major effort will be placed on strengthening our brand promise – The Pearl of Africa. Building a strong national destination brand will require the involvement as well as the support of every Ugandan and Ugandan institution including Parliament, police, army, sports teams, media houses, Opposition, boda bodas, etc. We shall be at your door step to guide you on how best you too can participate and benefit from a stronger destination brand

Lesson Number 9: Identification of Undeveloped Sites in Rural Areas

The board encourage individuals that know about or possess undeveloped sites, as well as communities that own or live nearby sites associated with rich heritage to contact then  for assistance and guidance. Uganda has more than wildlife – it is blessed with centuries-old stories that have to be told and sold. Do not hesitate to seek guidance on how best to convert rich heritage/history into dollars. Together, we can tap into tourism to create jobs for our especially rural populations.

By Kuda Celestial, Editor at Celestial Publications

As technology continue to grow, the world continue to shrink. Communication that used to be very slow, now by just one click, instantly you can reach anyone from anywhere in the world. Still that same click can reach millions if not billions of people in a small space of time. The emergency of social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, WhatsApp and many others has made it possible for communication to be super-fast.

In a technological era entrepreneurs must not lag behind in exploiting these facilities for their own benefits. You know what? If you haven’t begun social media marketing you are not only lagging behind, slowly but surely you are getting out of business. In this article I will show you five top reasons why every entrepreneur must leverage social media marketing. Let’s straightway get into the minutiae thereof.

1.  Affordability
Social Media marketing is cost effective. Most of these platforms wont charge you anything to place an ad unless if you want to make it an sponsored ad. All you will pay for is internet connections or data bundles only. While the traditional marketing platforms such as newspapers will charge an average of $8 for an 11 words ad. Now you don’t need an accountant to come and tell you that this is very expensive compared to social media marketing. You don’t only save your pocket, you save time as well.
2.  Minimum restrictions To say they’re no restrictions in social media marketing that will be too louse. Restrictions can be there but very minimum. You can market almost anything, from anywhere, anytime on social media. Unlike on traditional platforms, each ad undergo a scrutiny process where it can either pass or fail.

3.  Social media is a growing industry
According to TechZim as of July 2013 they were about 1.1 million active Facebook users in Zimbabwe only. According to statista.com they were about 1.79 billion active Facebook users in the first quarter of 2016. From the above statistics it simply means placing an Ad on Facebook has a potential of reaching millions of people. Obviously we may talk of the target market but it is still possible to make sure your Ads reach the right people.
Let’s compare this with traditional platforms like radios.
Now a lot of people have retired from listening to the radio. A few who does follow specific programs. What does this Imply? Every business now need to have a strong presence on social media.
The history of Facebook shows that they were no sponsored ads on Facebook but now Facebook offer a service where you can boost your ads. We decide what to see. We can see the innovative side of Mark Zuckerberg but I decide to look at the business aspect on that move. It only means that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook Team noticed that now and in future business will be run more on social media platforms.

Did you know you can now start a very cheap online store that directly sell on Facebook? Ooh yeah! Yes you can. I will explore this on my future articles. For now let’s seal the fact that social media marketing is now and the future.

4.  User Friendly:  Facebook and LinkedIn offer auto posts and even auto messages. This reduces labour on your part as an entrepreneur. The system doesn’t need pro knowledge. Just basic knowledge on how to use a computer or a smartphone you are good to go.

5.  World coverage: A person in Madagascar, Uganda, New York or any other part of the world will not have access to read Zim Newspapers. Yes there are now online Newspapers but they just give top stories only with no classifieds. That limit Ads on Newspapers to local natives only, on the contrary social media knows no boundary. Just one post is enough to reach the entire world. With the major upside that it will last as long as you need it while Newspapers are valid for only 24hrs.

So if you are in business then chances are very high that you will have  competitors who will be competing with you for a piece of the market share. Competition is likely to be stronger if the industry is highly profitable. The more the profits, the stronger the competition! Good examples exist in industries such as the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and   the Telecommunication industry. Competition is everywhere even at growth points-at the tuck shop next door or the ladies cooking sadza and braaing meat at Mereki (Mai George). In the NGO world they are also competing against each other for funding and other resources. Governments compete for investment, churches compete for congregants-so competition is something we have to live with and learn how to manage.

One important area in business management is that of knowing who your competitors are. How strong are they? What are the risks that they pose to your business? What are they up to? Have they been taking your customers lately? Are they investing in advanced machinery?

We can add a thousand more questions about competitors but the bottom line is that you should be aware of your competitors-be clued up with every move that they take so that you are not caught unaware. We urge you to be cautious though-do not spend all of your time analysing and focusing on them. You should spend more time executing your own strategy!

Below we look at systematic ways of analyzing your Competitors and information has been taken from Wikipedia.

Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context to identify opportunities and threats. Profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment.

Competitor analysis is an essential component of corporate strategy. It is argued that most firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead, many enterprises operate on what is called “informal impressions, conjectures, and intuition gained through the tidbits of information about competitors every manager continually receives.” As a result, traditional environmental scanning places many firms at risk of dangerous competitive blindspots due to a lack of robust competitor analysis.

Competitor analysis

One common and useful technique is constructing a competitor array. The steps include:

• Define your industry – scope and nature of the industry.
• Determine who your competitors are.
• Determine who your customers are and what benefits they expect.
• Determine what the key strengths for example price, service, convenience, inventory, etc.
• Rank the key success factors by giving each one a weighting – The sum of all the weightings must add up to one.
• Rate each competitor on each of the key success factors.
• Multiply each cell in the matrix by the factor weighting.

Competitor profiling

The strategic rationale of competitor profiling is powerfully simple. Superior knowledge of rivals offers a legitimate source of competitive advantage. The raw material of competitive advantage consists of offering superior customer value in the firm’s chosen market. The definitive characteristic of customer value is the adjective, superior. Customer value is defined relative to rival offerings making competitor knowledge an intrinsic component of corporate strategy. Profiling facilitates this strategic objective in three important ways. First, profiling can reveal strategic weaknesses in rivals that the firm may exploit. Second, the proactive stance of competitor profiling will allow the firm to anticipate the strategic response of their rivals to the firm’s planned strategies, the strategies of other competing firms, and changes in the environment. Third, this proactive knowledge will give the firms strategic agility. Offensive strategy can be implemented more quickly in order to exploit opportunities and capitalize on strengths. Similarly, defensive strategy can be employed more deftly in order to counter the threat of rival firms from exploiting the firm’s own weaknesses.

Clearly, those firms practicing systematic and advanced competitor profiling have a significant advantage. As such, a comprehensive profiling capability is rapidly becoming a core competence required for successful competition. An appropriate analogy is to consider this advantage as akin to having a good idea of the next move that your opponent in a chess match will make. By staying one move ahead, checkmate is one step closer. Indeed, as in chess, a good offense is the best defense in the game of business as well.

A common technique is to create detailed profiles on each of your major competitors. These profiles give an in-depth description of the competitor’s background, finances, products, markets, facilities, personnel, and strategies. This involves:

• Background
  • location of offices, plants, and online presences
  • history – key personalities, dates, events, and trends
  • ownership, corporate governance, and organizational structure
• Financials
  • P-E ratios, dividend policy, and profitability
  • various financial ratios, liquidity, and cash flow
  • profit growth profile; method of growth (organic or acquisitive)
• Products
  • products offered, depth and breadth of product line, and product portfolio balance
  • new products developed, new product success rate, and R&D strengths
  • brands, strength of brand portfolio, brand loyalty and brand awareness
  • patents and licenses
  • quality control conformance
  • reverse engineering or deformulation
• Marketing
  • segments served, market shares, customer base, growth rate, and customer loyalty
  • promotional mix, promotional budgets, advertising themes, ad agency used, sales force success rate, online promotional strategy
  • distribution channels used (direct & indirect), exclusivity agreements, alliances, and geographical coverage
  • pricing, discounts, and allowances
• Facilities
  • plant capacity, capacity utilization rate, age of plant, plant efficiency, capital investment
  • location, shipping logistics, and product mix by plant
• Personnel
  • number of employees, key employees, and skill sets
  • strength of management, and management style
  • compensation, benefits, and employee morale & retention rates
• Corporate and marketing strategies
  • objectives, mission statement, growth plans, acquisitions, and divestitures
  • marketing strategies

Media scanning

Scanning competitor’s ads can reveal much about what that competitor believes about marketing and their target market. Changes in a competitor’s advertising message can reveal new product offerings, new production processes, a new branding strategy, a new positioning strategy, a new segmentation strategy, line extensions and contractions, problems with previous positions, insights from recent marketing or product research, a new strategic direction, a new source of sustainable competitive advantage, or value migrations within the industry. It might also indicate a new pricing strategy such as penetration, price discrimination, price skimming, product bundling, joint product pricing, discounts, or loss leaders. It may also indicate a new promotion strategy such as push, pull, balanced, short term sales generation, long term image creation, informational, comparative, affective, reminder, new creative objectives, new unique selling proposition, new creative concepts, appeals, tone, and themes, or a new advertising agency. It might also indicate a new distribution strategy, new distribution partners, more extensive distribution, more intensive distribution, a change in geographical focus, or exclusive distribution. Similar techniques can be used by observing a competitor’s search engine optimization targets and practices.^[7] For example, by conducting keyword research, one may be able to determine a competitor’s target market, keywords, or products. Other metrics allow for detection of a competitor’s success.^[8] Little of this intelligence is definitive: additional information is needed before conclusions should be drawn.

A competitor’s media strategy reveals budget allocation, segmentation and targeting strategy, and selectivity and focus. From a tactical perspective, it can also be used to help a manager implement his own media plan. By knowing the competitor’s media buy, media selection, frequency, reach, continuity, schedules, and flights, the manager can arrange his own media plan so that they do not coincide.

New competitors

In addition to analysing current competitors, it is necessary to estimate future competitive threats. The most common sources of new competitors are:

• Companies competing in a related product/market
• Companies using related technologies
• Companies already targeting your prime market segment but with unrelated products
• Companies from other geographical areas and with similar products
• New start-up companies organized by former employees and/or managers of existing companies

The entrance of new competitors is likely when:

• There are high profit margins in the industry
• There is unmet demand (insufficient supply) in the industry
• There are no major barriers to entry
• There is future growth potential
• Competitive rivalry is not intense
• Gaining a competitive advantage over existing firms is feasible

ZBIN will be championing business partnerships in 2017 for our members. We already have a trial run in Bulawayo of sisters who are involved in agricultural projects. We will be promoting partnerships within Zimbabwe by locals. Lessons learnt from local partnership projects will be used to promote partnerships between locals and the Diasporas. So the ball is in the court of locals, PROVE THAT YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY PARTNER in business. If you can provide us with solid evidence then we will actively promote you to partner with the Diaspora.

Our strategy as ZBIN is to help promote partnerships by locals in stage one and this will be happening from January to September 2017, the last quarter of the year should be the selection of successful partnerships for possible funding and engagement with the Diaspora.

Before engaging in Partnership Arrangements its important to read the following Principles of Partnerships which we took from www.salfordcity.org

1. Collective understanding of the purpose of your partnership

This means:
• Being clear about the purpose of the partnership and its intended outcomes.
• Ensuring partners actively commit to working together.
• Ensuring members are responsible for the work of the partnership.
• Ensuring the partnership’s aims are consistent with other plans and priorities.

2. Performing effectively within clearly defined functions and roles

This means:
• Being clear about the functions and roles of the partnership ensuring effective delivery and implementation.
• Being clear about the partnership’s links to other partnerships.
• Being clear about the partnership’s lines of responsibility and ensuring these are made clear to the public.

3. Establishing and promoting the values of your partnership

This means:
• Putting the values of the partnership into practice.
• Partners show commitment to the partnership by ensuring the appropriate level of membership.
• The partnership communicates effectively to people outside the partnership and promotes what they do.

4. Taking informed, transparent decisions and managing risk

This means:
• Being rigorous and clear about how decisions are taken.
• Having and using good quality information, advice and support.
• Ensuring that an effective risk management system is in operation.

5. Developing skills, knowledge and experience in order to govern effectively

This means:
• Ensuring that all partners have the skills, knowledge and experience they need to perform well.
• Developing the skills of people with partnership responsibilities and judging the quality of their performance, both as individuals and as a group.
• The partnership has a learning culture which allows partners to gain knowledge and skills.

6. Engaging all partners equally and making accountability real

This means:
• Partners feel they have equal influence and power within the partnership.
• Partner members ensure their organisational plans reflect partnership priorities.
• Partners actively promote the principles of equality and diversity across the partnership.

In next instalment we will cover advantages of Partnerships and Risk Management in Partnerships.

As you plan one of the areas you may need to review is the networks that you are part of. Do they provide you with reliable and timely information for decision making? Do your existing networks provide well researched information that you can use in decision making? Do they provide trends and future predictions?

One of the areas that will give you a competitive advantage in 2017 is access to quality Business Information. For me one of my best networks is the British Council Library network. I have access to top quality business journals, books and other business resources.

Every month the British Council hosts leading Zimbabwean Academics both local and from the Diaspora. These leading Academics present topics on different issues such as Economic Predictions, SME Challenges, review of Economic Policies, Business operations etc. The presentations are hosted at Miekles Hotel every month end. A great networking opportunity to anyone who would like to improve their business knowledge in Zimbabwe.

My 2016 subscription was pegged at $50 and this allowed me access to the library, books and the monthly networking event.

This membership is definitely value for money and we encourage members to inquire about joining. The library is situated along Cork Road in Belgravia (opposite the South Africa Embassy)

Happy New Year to you all, the fact that you are reading this post means that you managed to make it into 2017! We wish you a peaceful and prosperous new year. The year 2017 should be much better than 2016, most of us would like to forget 2016 in hurry-terrible year.

So most of you should be in a planning mode-new year resolutions, dropping off  bad habits, upskilling, new job hunting, new relationships etc. Planning is good as it enables you to measure progress against set targets, it gives you control over events, it allows you to put aside resources for certain activities. Planning helps to reduce surprises and in some cases planning brings peace of mind.

Fear of Planning

Now despite the many advantages that come from planning why are many people afraid of planning? It is tough to get an answer but the common reason is that most people are afraid of failing! The fear of failing is the number one reason why some would rather sail through the next 365 days taking each day as it comes. In some cases it can even work that you just live from day to day taking advantage of opportunities and risks as they arise but its a very risky way of living.

Factors to consider in your 2017 planning

1. Global Events: Do not plan in isolation, consider global events or issues. What does the victory by Trump mean for your country, area and community? What are the predictions in terms of climatic changes? Are we going to have good rains in 2018? Will it be Elnino or its opposite?
2. Election Period: Zimbabwe will be entering an election mode with temperatures expected to rise in the coming few months, how is it going to affect you? Do you have any lessons learnt from previous elections?
3. The Economy: The Economy is closely related to Politics mentioned above, what is going to be the impact on your resolutions? What are Economists saying not only about Zimbabwe but about Africa and our region?
4. New Trends: What are the emerging trends that are still to come to your country? For instance in Nigeria Bitcoin fraud has taken the country by storm, it is slowly coming this side. What are the new gadgets that  are coming up and making an impact in other countries but yet to come to Zimbabwe?
5. New issues that came up in 2016: So what is totally new that cropped up in 2016 that caught everyone by surprise? Is it the emergence of bank queues? Is it the new electronic way of registering new students at schools? Is it the new instrument that banned imports? Is it the banning of the Quails? You may need to create your own list of possible new issues that will take everyone by surprise.
6. What is missing? The above 5 factors could have missed important issues, brainstorm and find out what it is that I have missed.

Planning as a Family

One of the reasons why some plans fail is due to the fact that most people plan alone. Do not work in isolation if you have a family then take time  to sit down and plan together. What do you want to achieve in 2017? How are you going to do that? Its important to have a family goal where everyone within the family shares the same vision. Do not forget to include your children too in the planning session. They are key stakeholders and decisions being made affect them. They need to know of challenges expected, they need to pull in the same direction. The advantage of including children is that they learn about planning at an early stage.

Risks and Opportunities

What were the top 5 risks that cropped up in 2016 for you? Were you affected? Are there any lessons learnt? Will the same risks crop up in 2017? What new opportunities came up in 2016? Did you grab opportunities that came up in 2016? What other regional opportunities exist? Do you have a plan to take advantage of them in 2017?

So ZBIN wishes you success in your planning sessions as you set your 2017 targets. Don’t worry about failing as studies in the USA have shown that most people do set new year resolutions but only 8% achieve them. In the follow up article, we will cover planning at corporate level.

All the best in 2017

This is second from  last music compilation for 2016.  We have given you unique music selections from Haiti, Cape Verde, Angola and Uganda. We are now back in our homeland and we select our  best 10 Sungura songs ever! We cover the period when Sungura was at its best in the 80s up to the mid 90s.

Enjoy

Number 1

Number 2

Number 2

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

Number 10

Little is known about Ugandan music in Southern Africa. Here and there you may find folks playing Eddy Kenzo hit song Sitya Loss(Iam not afraid of losses) but that will be it. Do not expect to hear your local radio Dj to cover UG music and yet Uganda has some of the best music artists. Top female musician Juliana Kanyomozi’s voice was voted Africa’s best! Jose Chameleon is Africa’s 12th richest musician. The only UG musician to perform in Zimbabwe is Bebe Cool who outclassed Dbanj at the City Sports Centre a few years ago. Uganda does well in African music but never get any recognition. All awards and credit go to Naija or Southern Africa. Below is our random top 10 songs from Uganda.

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QFJVcI_tss

Number 4

Number 5

Number 6

Number 7

Number 8

Number 9

Number 10