Diaspora Matters

Successful people solve problems.  Look at any great fortune, whether it be Carnegie, Ford or Gates and you find that the source of their vast accomplishment was a problem solved.  Even more prosaic executives spend most of their time solving one problem or another, with greater or lesser skill.

The contrast in outcomes can be attributed to the scale and difficulty of the problems they tackled.  All too often, we get so mired down in day-to-day challenges that the bigger issues fall by the wayside, being left for another day which never seems to come.  That, in the final analysis, is the difference between the mundane and the sublime.

So we should pay special attention to those whose ideas had impact far beyond their own lifespan.  It is they who were able to see not only the problems of their day but ones that, although they seemed minor or trivial at the time, would become consequential—even determinant—in years to come.  Here are four such men and what we can learn from them.

Vannevar Bush and the Emerging Frontier of Science

By any measure, Vannevar Bush was a man of immense accomplishment.  A professor at MIT who invented one of the first working computers, he also co-founded Raytheon, a $30 billion dollar company that prospers to this day.

Yet even these outsized achievements pale in comparison to how Bush fundamentally changed the relationship of science to greater society.  In the late 1930’s, as the winds of war began to stir in Europe, Bush saw that the coming conflict would not be won by bullets and bombs alone.  Science, he saw, would likely tip the balance between victory and defeat.

It was that insight which led to the establishment of Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).  With Bush at its helm, the agency led the development of the proximity fuze, guided missiles, radar, more advanced battlefield medicine and, not least of all, the Manhattan Project which led to the atomic bomb.

As the war came to a close, President Roosevelt asked Bush to write a report on how the success of the OSRD could be replicated in peacetime.  That report, Science: The Endless Frontier, outlined a new vision of the relationship between public and private investment, with government expanding scientific horizons and industry developing new applications.

He wrote:

Basic research leads to new knowledge. It provides scientific capital. It creates the fund from which the practical applications of knowledge must be drawn. New products and new processes do not appear full-grown. They are founded on new principles and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developed by research in the purest realms of science

Bush’s report led to the foundation of the NSF, NIH, DARPA and other agencies, which have funded early research in everything from the Internet and GPS, to the Human Genome Project and many of our most important cures.  It has been Bush’s vision, perhaps more than almost anything else, that has made America an exceptional nation.

Oh, and he also wrote an essay in 1945 that not only laid out what would become the Internet, but influenced many of the key pioneers who designed it.

Marshall McLuhan and the Global Village

Where Vannevar Bush saw the transformative potential of science, Marshall McLuhan was one of the first to see the subtle, but undeniable influence of popular culture.  While many at the time thought of mass media as merely the flotsam and jetsam of the modern age, he saw that the study of things like newspapers, radio and TV could yield important insights.

Central to his ideas about culture was his concept of media as “extensions of man.”  Following this line of thought, he argued that Gutenberg’s printing press not only played a role in spreading information but also in shaping human thought. Essentially, the medium is the message.  Interestingly, these ideas led him to very much the same place as Bush.

As he wrote in 1962*, nearly 30 years before the invention of the World Wide Web:

The next medium, whatever it is—it may be the extension of consciousness—will include television as its content, not as its environment, and will transform television into an art form. A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organization, retrieve the individual’s encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.

McLuhan argued further that the new age of electronic media would disrupt the private experience and specialization that the dominance of printed media brought about and usher in a new era of collective, transnational experience that he called the global village.  Anybody who watches global news networks or surfs the Web can see what he meant.

Importantly, however, he did not see the global village as a peaceful place.  Rather than promoting widespread harmony and understanding, he predicted that the ability to share experiences across vast chasms of time and space would lead to a new form of tribalism, a result in a “release of human power and aggressive violence” greater than ever in history.

It has become all too clear what he meant by that as well.

Richard Feynman Sees “Plenty of Room at the Bottom”

When Richard Feynman stepped up to the podium to address the American Physical Society in 1959, he had already gained a reputation as both an accomplished scientist and an iconoclast (during his tenure at the the Manhattan project, he became famous for his safecracking and other pranks).

His talk, modestly titled There’s Plenty of Room At The Bottom would launch a revolution in physics and engineering that continues to play out to this day.  Starting from a seemingly innocent question about shrinking an encyclopedia down to the size of a postage stamp, he proceeded over the next hour to invent the new field of nanotechnology.

The talk, which is surprisingly easy and fun to read, also gives a fascinating window into how a genius thinks.  After pondering the problem of shrinking things down to the size of molecules, he proposes some solutions, then thinks some more about what issues those ideas would create, proposes some more fixes and on and on until a full picture emerged.

One of the most astounding things about Feynman is that his creation of nanotechnology was not a one-off, but part of a larger trend.  He was also a pioneer in parallel computing and did important work in virology.  All of this in addition to his day job as a physicist, for which he won the Nobel prize in 1965.

Tim Berners-Lee Creates a Web of Data

Tim Berners-Lee is most famous for his creation of the World Wide Web.  In November 1989, he created the three protocols—HTTP, URL, and HTML—that we now know as the “Web” and released his creation to the world, refusing to patent it.  Later, he helped set up the W3C consortium that continues to govern and manage its growth and further development.

The truth is, however, that the Web wasn’t a product of any great vision, but rather a solution to a particular problem that he encountered at CERN.  Physicists would come there from all over the world, work for a period of time and then leave.  Unfortunately, they recorded their work in a labyrinth of different platforms and protocols that didn’t work well together.

So Berners-Lee set out to solve that problem by creating a universal medium that could link information together.  He never dreamed it would grow into what it did.  If he had, he would have built it differently.  He wrote at length about these frustrations in his memoir, Weaving The Web.  Chief among them was the fact that while the Web-connected people, it did little for data.

So he envisioned a second web, which he called the Semantic Web.  Much like his earlier creation, the idea outstripped even what he imagined for it.  New protocols, such as Hadoop and Spark, have made data central to how today’s technology functions.  Increasingly, we’re living in a semantic economy, where information knows no bounds and everything connects.

The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create it

Take a hard look at these four visionaries and some common themes emerge.  First, all except McLuhan took an active role in bringing their ideas into realities.  Bush played a central role in implementing the scientific architecture he designed.  Feynman offered prizes for people who could make things at nanoscale and Berners-Lee continues to take an active role at W3C.

Another commonality is that, while their ideas didn’t meet with immediate acceptance, they stuck with them.  McLuhan’s ideas made him an outcast for much of his career until he became an international celebrity in his fifties.  Berners-Lee created the Web partly out of frustration after the hypertext community wouldn’t pursue it.  Bush and Feynman met less resistance but were already prominent in their fields.

Probably most importantly, none of them were following trends.  Rather, they set out to uncover fundamental forces.  It was that quest for basic understanding that led them to ask questions and find answers that nobody else could imagine at the time.  They weren’t just looking to solve the problems of their day but sought out problems that transcended time.

In effect, they were able to see the future because they cared about it.  Their motivation wasn’t to beat the market, impress a client or attract funding for a startup, but to understand more about how the universe functions and what could be made possible.  In doing so, they helped us see it too so that we could also join in and make the world a better place.

by Jeffrey Phillips

 

We tend to be very short-sighted, we corporate executives. Our lifespans are relatively brief, all things considered. There are over 240 years since the founding of the United States, and using a 20-year cycle for generations that suggest approximately 12 generations of people during that brief window.

Most of us work for approximately 40 years, but we rarely consider the events or recent history before we started working.

In fact, there’s very little rationale to think about history in many cases, except for some hoary old stories about the founding of a company and its emergent culture. Most of our waking, productive time is focused on the now, the current quarter, the next quarter, because that’s what we are evaluated on, compensated for. There’s little time to worry about what might happen in the future and even less time to worry about what happened in the recent past.

It’s this lack of context and historical appreciation that makes innovation so interesting because our short-term focus convinces us that the way things are right now is a permanent condition when in reality it’s a fleeting experience that will change again shortly.

A brief innovation history lesson of the US

From its founding in the early 17th century until well after the US Civil War, the vast majority of people lived in small, rural settlements. Many of the people who lived in that period grew the food they ate, raised the beef or chicken they consumed and had little financial resources. Very few companies existed and most “innovation” was in the realm of transportation – primarily moving goods and/or people on waterways (canals, steamships) or rail. Other than the military and the emerging railroad business, there were few large organizations and even fewer models for how to build and manage a business.

After the Civil War and up to the Great Depression there was a significant flowering of major industries, building on the transportation infrastructure built earlier and on the idea of mass production. Oil, steel, railroads and other monopolies emerged, and banking and financial services grew alongside these emerging industries. Yet still the vast majority of people lived hand to mouth in rural settings. Innovation in these days was often focused on communication – Marconi, the “wireless”, radio and other devices reduced the distances and built common stories for the American public.

World War Two changed everything. Washington DC, formerly a very small, sleepy city, grew dramatically during the war, and the federal government grew in importance. As we entered the Cold War, the growth that the World War created was sustained by fears of Russia and a new emerging Cold war. Innovation during this time was focused on technology – especially weaponry. The nuclear bomb, the ability to deliver weapons at a distance, the space race.

The 1960s through the 1990s were boom years (discounting the Oil embargo) mostly due to dividends we reaped from the investments in technology and the space race. The US emerged as the sole large economy undamaged by the Second World War and grew to dominate its allies. The space race with Russia and military investments created a range of new technologies that were quickly converted into consumer technologies. Innovation during this period was found in consumer goods, especially electronics and technology, along with software – much of it spawned by previous government research and investment. DARPANET became the basis for the internet. Transistors and electronics research fueled the rise of handheld devices.

The 2000s and onward are less about product innovation and more about business model innovation and financial engineering. Increasingly the US is becoming a high-cost country in terms of labor and manufacturing, and outsourcing jobs to less costly locations. We are focused on changing the terms of compensation and payment for services (Google funded by ads rather than licenses) and financial engineering in banking, financial services, and other industries. GM for a long time was profitable not because it built cars but because it financed them.

Up until the 1880’s, the vast majority of people were farmers, mechanics, craftsmen. They worked with their hands, with deep, innate knowledge about their services and skills. This model changed as Henry Ford and others created the mass production line, which has in many cases reached its logical conclusion, at least as far as human workers on the line are concerned. We retain many of the measures and metrics of an agrarian economy – taking vacations in the summer, planning and budgeting around an annual cycle, reporting on a quarterly basis – that have no real meaning in today’s knowledge-based economy that competes on a global basis.

What emerges about innovation from this review of history?

1. In the past, a lot of innovation was driven by the most important impediment or challenge in a specific timeframe: transportation of goods and people in the colonial era, banking and communications during the dawn of larger enterprises, communication technologies as the country grew, defense and technology as the country fought and was threatened with a cold war, business models and financial engineering as the technology investment petered out.
2. Innovation comes in waves and as one wave is peaking, another wave is just starting to emerge.Innovations take time to proliferate but almost always proliferate faster than we might expect.
3. There is a cyclical, repetitive nature to innovation, which we ignore at our peril. Take for example the nature of retail. Sears grew because it had a huge selection and could deliver goods anywhere. The Sears catalog is an analog to today’s Amazon website. Sears modified its business model to move toward a physical retailing model as the US expanded and as people moved to the suburbs and seems to have forgotten its mass, virtual retailer roots. Today, Amazon and other virtual retailers dominate, but we can imagine a future where hyperlocal retailers blending virtual and physical stores and delivery emerge.
4. Business models and business conditions are temporary. The concept of mass production is an idea that may be relevant to exactly one century – the 20th century – for the US. The fact that mass production worked then, in those conditions, does not mean that it should and must continue to work as an operative model now because many conditions have changed. The internet and e-commerce make it much more possible for individuals to be craftsmen (Etsy for example) or self-employed (Uber, AirBnB), which is simply a return to an earlier model, with much more technology underpinning.
5. Technology introduces change, customers and innovators change technologies into solutions that change the market. Technologies change but unless they can be harnessed and adapted to create benefits and solutions that customers need and want, they aren’t meaningful. The transistor by itself is interesting, a smaller, cheaper portable radio provides a huge benefit to consumers. We innovators fall in love with technology but fail to understand that it is the customer need and benefit that is paramount.
6. Much innovation in one era is built on the investments of a previous era. Mass production isn’t all that useful unless there is a good transportation infrastructure, as an example. The dot-com boom was based on research and technologies that were sparked during the Cold War. Currently, those technologies are reaching end of life, and we see far more innovation in services, business models and customer experiences than in technologies, and far more financial engineering than is probably good for the economy. This is because we haven’t had a real flourishing of either new technologies, new infrastructure or a real competitive threat like the Soviet space race. In other words, we’ve coasted for the past 20 years, harvesting previous investments without laying a foundation that future generations can build on unless they want to bet on sub-prime mortgages.
7. A lot of innovation was created by those outside the status quo – new immigrants (Andrew Carnegie as an example) or those outside the establishment, typically on the frontiers, who sought to solve problems faced by the emerging population, while the establishment was relatively comfortable. The median age of the US was relatively low, and few people lived into old age.

What can we predict about innovation in the near future based on the past?

1. We should be on the cusp of some significant new emerging innovation, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what that is. It could be a continuing evolution of business models and customer experiences. We lack a real compelling burning platform like the Soviet Space race and are more distracted and less unified than in previous generations. Also, corporations spend less on R&D than in the past and the government is spending less on a percentage basis on technology and R&D. This means that future innovation is less likely to be technology driven and more focused on experiences, services and hopefully business models.
2. The older command and control hierarchies and mass production thinking may give way to new organizational models, new governance and new ways of building companies. As we move from an agrarian calendar and mass production models, new business models, relationships and organization models will emerge and may drive new innovation in organizational structures and customer relationships.
3. The individual or small business becomes as important to the economy as large corporations. More people can work as craftsmen or knowledge workers on their own, leveraging virtual workspace technologies and the increasing value of knowledge work. Larger business increasingly wants to outsource work to find the best value for their money, retaining only the mission-critical or activities that reflect competitive advantage. The infrastructure in terms of software and ancillary services exists to support a larger workforce of independent contractors and small businesses.
4.  Past innovations were often launched by public works or investments by the government. Transportation was either privately financed by large groups or by the government. Defense, aerospace, and technology were funded in response to the Cold War. Future innovations will emerge from customer needs and those that can aggregate them quickly, and less from technologies or challenges identified by the government. Indeed the government is becoming a consumer of commercial innovations rather than a springboard for future innovation, with the possible exception of healthcare, aging and green technologies. This means a more distributed and diversified innovation future, less focused on one large population or government challenge and more competition over standards and protocols.
5. Immigration, like it or not, will play an important role in future innovation. The resident population is aging, and less likely to be as active innovating and solving problems because of the wealth transfer to older populations through retirement savings and health care transfers. More innovation is likely to come from immigrants who refresh the population at the lower end of the age scale, who face more challenges and difficulties than some of the native born population. Aging populations by definition are less innovative, so to refresh the innovation spirit and energy we need to recruit immigrants who can create compelling new innovations. As the country ages, and boomers retire, there will be far more emphasis on innovation in terms of products and services for the boomers, who are used to having their own way and will demand far better products and services than their parents did when they retired.
6. The pace and nature of innovation will accelerate as more people in more places become part of the global economy and more consumers achieve middle-class status for the first time. There are far more competitors in far more regions and geographies, which means more competition. However, there are far more people entering the middle class who have buying power and will want new products and services. This means, though, that innovations must be conceived for global consumers, as the markets for new innovations will be in many more markets than just the US. Our understanding of the needs and expectations of the US-based customer is poor; our understanding of needs and expectations of newly emerging customers in other countries is virtually non-existent. We need to move faster, with greater urgency, to create innovations that meet global needs, not just US needs.

Those who don’t study the past are doomed to repeat it

I began this post commenting on the lifecycle of the average manager, and how narrow their time focus is. While we live out our work lives over 40 years we do so in 90-day increments, often failing to appreciate how repetitive and cyclical business and innovation are. The more we understand about how innovation has unfolded in the past, the more we are likely to be able to predict how innovation will emerge in the future. There are two great quotes that are relevant here.

The first is Spinoza’s quote: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. And we do, quite often, repeat the experience and mistakes of the past.

The second is Faulkner’s: The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

We can learn from the past about how innovation unfolds, and use that insight to determine how innovation is likely to emerge, and what the key drivers will be. Doing so makes us smarter and more prepared to engage innovation as it occurs, and to use those innovation drivers to our benefit.

Some years back when I wanted to build my first home a good friend of mine Wilfred gave me good advice. He said when building your first home don’t go for fancy stuff, don’t go for big house plans which you may end up struggling to complete.

He said your first project should be simple and yet classy-your chief aim being to stop paying anyone rent! Once your starter home is complete then start strategizing for a bigger project where you will use experience gained from the starter home. You have to keep moving and therefore improve in terms of number of rooms, number of features-perhaps a bigger bathroom, more bedrooms, swimming pools,tennis courts etc.

He said look at the white community in Zim especially Harare, most of them started by living in areas such as Haig Park,Hillside,Waterfalls, Mabelreign, Sentosa, Greencroft. Most of these areas had starter homes for the white community and most of the homes were basic…a few bedrooms,bathroom,kitchen,dining and lounge etc. With time the white community moved to bigger places such as Mt Pleasant,Highlands,Glenlorne,Vainona and Borrowdale.

So you too can do it, start small and keep moving. A home in Kuwadzana, you sell it and buy a residential stand in Tynwald, you build and sell and move on to Glen Lorne or Chishawasha. The trick here is to be mobile-you have to keep moving. Do not look down upon an area like what some say when talking about high density areas, just grab a property improve, sell and keep moving.

Starter home versus Massive Projects

I urge you to visit some new developments in Harare- drive along Harare Drive where you can see incomplete housing projects. Some would have skipped the housing stages and instead of starter homes, you just move straight to Mt Pleasant, Glen Lorne or Borrowdale. The problem with being too ambitious is that sometimes you can build massive homes that you do not complete resulting in you selling the incomplete houses. Harare has a lot of such projects and I have copied below a couple of such projects. The problem with selling incomplete projects is that you end up selling at a discount!

A ZBIN member based in Maputo has a poultry project where he keeps more than 20,000 chickens. He is urgently looking for 2 people to employ on his poultry project. He needs someone to work in the abattoir and another one who can feed chickens.

Experience in the Poultry Industry a must and remuneration will depend on qualifications and experience. You must be ready to start work in January 2016.

If interested WhatsApp Munemo  on 0774081808 (No phone calls please)

The article below from Newsday is quite sad, a man lost close to $20k in a botched real estate deal. If you remember our article on Real Estate Fraud which we covered here last month, then you should be able to avoid such scams.

Lets analyse the following facts from the article;

1. The residential stand is in a build up area in Tynawald-INFILL STAND?
2. The residential stand was sold by an INDIVIDUAL
3. Deal of Sale concluded OUT OF TOWN in Rusape
4. Transaction concluded without engagement of a LAWYER

Now dear reader, tis adverts had too many red flags. If you read our first post on real estate then you should remember what I said about INFILL STANDS. Ma infill stands haatengwe nekuti all of them are fake! I also mentioned that avoid buying residential stands from Individuals as individuals have proven to be high risk in the Real Estate industry, rather buy from established real estate agents or financial institutions with a reputation to protect. I remember saying that there is no one who has ever been conned money by financial institutions such as CABS, Old Mutual, FBC and Fidelity.

Out of Town Deals: If you are buying a car, buying a residential stand or any deal where you initially meet in your area but later on encouraged to finalise the deal and payment out of town then do one thing-Run with your money, cancel the deal because its FAKE! The fraudsters do not want you to possibly bring knowledgeable people to the conclusion of the deal. A friend of mine who wants bough a fake stand had to travel to Bulawayo where the deal was concluded! When OUT OF TOWN crops up then immediately cancel the deal or risk becoming a statistic like what happened in the article below.

Residential Stands and Lawyers: Do not conclude the purchase of real estate on your own as if you are buying a vehicle. Get legal help by engaging registered lawyers, we also have dubious lawyers around so make sure that they are registered. Doing such deals on your own will result in you being at the mercy of con artists.

So there you are readers, share this article with friends and relatives so that they cannot be victims like Philemon below.

Man loses $18 000 in bogus house deal

ZBIN Continues to cover Diaspora Strategies and to date we have given you the importance of this important sector. We have covered the benefits that can accrue to a country that implements a successful Diaspora Strategy. Below we look at Diaspora Networks

Some diasporas are vast and global. For example, there are an estimated 70 million in the Irish diaspora, 25 million non-resident Indians and 60 million overseas Chinese, including significant numbers in nearly all countries. They create a web of cross-border connections.39 Some countries have cast the net wide in terms of engaging diaspora members and have developed global diaspora networks. The global networks may be just country-specific or they may be specialized global networks for particular professions in the diaspora. As noted by Ancien, Boyle and Kitchin, ‘Global knowledge networks are transnational networks linking global regions with the homeland, including trade missions, business forums, philanthropy, mentoring, advice and access to decision makers.’

Kutznetsov has set out several important points to consider when establishing global diaspora networks:

1. It is essential that there is a formal framework in place to maintain relationships and make sure that ideas are followed through.

2.However, if you formalise a network too much, you can kill it off. That has also been a common mistake of many developing countries – they try to put together a program that is very formal and it kills all the spirit of entrepreneurship and intrinsic motivation. People will only get involved in a network like this if they want to, not because someone tells them to.

Organizations should avoid launching a network in a blaze of publicity with a big conference before it has been tried and produced some successes. Rather, a conference should be a way of celebrating credibility through showcasing proven successes.

3. Furthermore, he suggests that successful diaspora networks combine the following three main features:

Networks bring together people with strong intrinsic motivation.

Members play both direct roles (implementing projects in the home country) and indirect roles (serving as bridges and antennae for the development of projects in the home country).

Successful initiatives move from discussions on how to get involved with the home country to transactions (tangible outcomes).

Examples of leading global networks include Advance Australia, GlobalScots, ChileGlobal, The Ireland Funds and KEA New Zealand. For further information on these networks please see the section entitled ‘Learn from others: Diaspora organizations share their stories.’ Other examples of global diaspora networks include: NLBorrels which is a global network of Dutch expatriate professionals and entrepreneurs, dedicated to facilitating social interaction, career advancement and exchange of information of interest to the Dutch community living abroad. It currently has 5,500 members in the US and an additional 6,500 members in 81 countries worldwide;43 International Council of Russian Compatriots (ICRC) was founded at the end of 2002 and its main aim is to consolidate the Russian diaspora and to attract the intellectual, economic and financial resources of Russian compatriots who are living abroad;44 Organization of the Swiss Abroad (OSA) represents Swiss expatriates’ interests in Switzerland and is supported by 750 Swiss expatriate associations  and Swiss institutions all over the world.

Every year, several hundred Swiss living all over the world meet at the OSA’s Congress of the Swiss Abroad; and Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) which is a non-profit organization with its current focus is on professional networking, social advocacy, education, healthcare, technological and economic empowerment, as well as skills and cultural exchange projects in Canada and Nigeria. NIDO is recognized by the Nigerian government as the umbrella organization for all Nigerians around the world and as the vanguard of Nigeria in the international community, promoting the country’s image abroad. NIDO also assists in promoting Nigeria as an investment destination in Africa.
Regional diaspora networks Given the amount of resources and time needed to establish a successful global diaspora network, some organizations have decided to focus on connecting with diaspora members in particular regions.

The benefit of regional diaspora networks is that they allow for a more personalized and focused engagement with diaspora members within a smaller geographical framework. Regional diaspora networks can also act as a catalyst to creating global diaspora networks by building on the success of the regional network. The ‘Ireland Reaching Out Project’ (www.irelandxo.org) is an example of how local areas can develop their own targeted diaspora initiatives and is based on a simple idea – instead of waiting for people of Irish descent to come to Ireland to trace their roots, local Irish regions go the other way. At town land, village and parish level, local Irish communities identify who left their neighborhoods and trace them and their descendants worldwide and engage with them and invite them to become part of an extended ‘virtual community’ with their place of ancestral origin. Part of this program is an annual ‘Week of Welcomes’ which is held in each parish or community in which these newly identified people are invited to return.

Over time the objective of this program, which was founded by returned Irish emigrant, Mike Feerick in 2011, is to systematically identify and unify members of the diaspora, based on their ancestral origins and engage them in terms of them being advisors, investors and promoters of Irish products. Other examples of regional diaspora networks include: BayBrazil which fosters communication and entrepreneurship among professionals in the San Francisco Bay area who work with or wish to develop connections with Brazil; The Lansdowne Club in Sydney, Australia which has over 2,000 members made up of business professionals who are Irish and living in Australia and Australians who have business interests in Ireland. It is now a vibrant and active business network which has spread to other cities in Australia and New Zealand and runs a series of events annually with their St. Patrick’s Day lunch now the largest of its kind in the world and is attended by the Prime Minister of Australia and other leading political and business leaders; Uhollanzi Kenya Association which is the only registered Kenyan diaspora association in the Netherlands. Its goals are to support and promote the welfare of Kenyans in the Netherlands in collaboration with local authorities and partners as well as to enhance Kenyan migrants’ capacity to meaningfully give back to their country of origin; and United Haitians in the United Kingdom network is made up of a group of Haitians, Haitian descendants, and friends of Haiti, living in the United Kingdom. Its main goal is to make a positive contribution in the development of Haiti and to keep the Haitian culture alive in the United Kingdom. They financially support worthwhile non-governmental and sustainable educational projects throughout Haiti with an emphasis on children’s school fees, uniforms and supplies.

City diaspora networks

A number of organizations around the world are now focusing on connecting with their diaspora members and, moreover, affinity diaspora members by launching city diaspora networks. Indeed, the affinity diaspora is an important segment of the diaspora to engage in building such networks, as so many people move to cities to work or study for certain periods or take repeated city breaks. Take the United States, for example, while many people have an affinity to the country as a result of spending time there, typically, it is with a particular city that people identity as their place of affinity. New Orleans is a great example of this and the power of the affinity diaspora network in connecting with the city. These ‘affinity diaspora’ are people, for whom, as the song goes ‘know what it means to miss New Orleans’ and return to the city for one season, reason or another and ‘let the good times roll.’ The other New Orleans diaspora refers to the population evacuated or forced to flee from New Orleans, Louisiana, by the effects of Hurricane Katrina in the late summer of 2005. Drawing from these two different diasporas (a displaced one within its own country and a large affinity diaspora)

New Orleans is an interesting case study on attracting and engaging diaspora populations. Famous playwright, Tennessee Williams himself could be considered an affinity diaspora member of New Orleans, (Mississippi born, Missouri raised and later lifetime traveler) he considered New Orleans his ‘spiritual home’ and was a resident of the city many times throughout his life. It is here that he is honored by an annual literary festival which brings Williams and literary fans from around the country and world to celebrate. These same ‘friends’ of the city and festival were much of the affinity diaspora who have contributed to a continued festival and its subsequent successes (particularly after 2005). The cultural branding of New Orleans has been responsible in no small part for the success of its rebuilding. Programs geared at drawing the affinity diaspora into the city (whether in support for events or to invest) have been invaluable during the five years of rebuilding and reshaping the city. The New Orleans Football team (The Saints) also provide a diaspora meeting point and especially at games in Atlanta and Houston (where many New Orleaneans resettled) have become a time of both cheering the team but also the city itself. Specific festivals such as Essence, Decadence, VooDoo, French Quarter and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festivals (to name a few) all annually re-engage the affinity diasporas’ interest and economy. Furthermore, people are often extremely proud of the particular area that they are from within a country, and city diaspora networks allow them to connect directly with that area. An example of such a network is the ‘Friends of Belfast City’ network. This is an initiative, started in 1998, which promotes partnerships between Belfast and North America, primarily in the areas of business and investment. With almost 600 members from the areas of business, law, academia and government, including individuals from organizations such as Liberty Mutual Insurance, Lehman Brothers, McKinsey & Company, Harvard University and Columbia University, the Friends of Belfast network offers a range of contacts for Belfast organizations working in the US and Canada.

Women and diaspora networks

Female migrants represent a significant portion of total migration, making up 49 per cent of the total in 2010.47 As a result, women’s diaspora networks are increasingly being created as a way of uniting women from the homeland with other women from the diaspora. ‘All over the world there is an important and wide-spread presence of migrant women’s networks … These networks are very active in supporting women, in promoting their needs, their rights, and in simply bringing women together. These are more formal and institutionalised types of networks.’

An example of a women’s diaspora network is the Turkish Women’s International Network which is a global networking platform for women with family, cultural or professional ties to Turkey. The vision of the network is to build a global community of professional Turkish women to cross-pollinate ideas, inspiration and connections; start a mentorship program to mentor younger Turkish women in university programs across the globe; and launch the Turkish WIN ‘Angels and Advisors’ program to connect entrepreneurs to a capital and advice network. The founder of TurkishWIN,

Melek Pulatkonak, states that the motivation for establishing the network was because, ‘As a professional Turkish woman living abroad, I feel the need to connect to a platform where I can network, celebrate the successes of trailblazers, learn from experts in their fields and tap into the power of a large trust network within my community. I know many strong, successful and amazing Turkish women. I am confident there are hundreds or thousands whom I do not know. As an entrepreneur, I decided to do something about it and launched TurkishWIN.’ Examples of women’s diaspora networks include Swedish Women’s Educational Association, Indus Women Leaders, Diaspora African Women’s Network (DAWN) and the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN).

Next generation diaspora networks Countries and diaspora organizations are increasingly realising how important it is to attract the next generation of disapora leadership. Furthermore, younger members of the diaspora are leveraging networks with their diasporic peers as a way of building professional contacts. As a result,next generation diaspora networks are gaining increasing prominence. Examples of next generation diaspora networks include NEPOMAK (World Organization for Young Overseas Cypriots), The Ireland Funds Global Young Leaders Program and the Young Barbadian Professionals Society (YBPS). Members of the Young Barbadian Professionals Society were either born in Barbados or have Barbadian ancestry. YBPS is comprised of a group of individuals with diverse professional and social interests. Its identity is not only based on the professions and education of its members but is deeply rooted in their respect and love for the Barbadian and Caribbean heritage. The YBPS mission is to garner the intellectual capital of its members to further advance positive transformations in the global Barbadian and Caribbean communities, through the society’s economic development, education, and philanthropic programs.

Alumni diaspora networks

The business of international education, or export education as it is referred to in technical economic parlance, represents a major opportunity for countries to develop a network of affinity scholarly/alumni networks. Demand for education beyond boundaries has increased by 40 per cent over the past decade and is forecast to reach 6 million by 2020.49 In 1995, 90,000 US students went to college overseas; in 2007, 250,000 US students went to college overseas.50 In 2008, there were 300,000 international students in UK universities, paying more than £3.6 billion in fees. Britain attracts more students from abroad than any country outside the US.51 The US State Alumni is an example of a diaspora network seeking to engage international students who pursued studies in the US. Furthermore, scholarly networks are being established by diaspora members from the same home country who are studying abroad. These are important networks for countries to consider developing, as increasing numbers of graduates are emigrating. Through these networks graduates can still engage with the university and indeed the home country. Take for example, the alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology which is a group of 15 autonomous engineering and technology oriented institutes of higher education, established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. According to a recent study, the alumni of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), now in senior positions in industry and government across the world, have a total budgetary responsibility of $885 billion.

Credit: Diaspora Toolkit

As you stated above, there are more networks on Diaspora Associations, we hope to cover more. We will also review the existing Zimbo networks, key strengths and weaknesses and the way forward.

So the Diaspora Remittance market is worth a billion dollars per year? Big guys in the market include Western Union, Mukuru and a host of other players, Econet is a recent entry into the lucrative market.

Now to our question: Is there room for more entrants in the field of money transfers? The answer from ZBIN is YES there is room for more entrance in the  sector-one needs to look at the concept of Peer to Peer Money Transfers. A better option that reduces transfer costs drastically. So how does Peer to Peer P2P work?

We are therefore encouraging our members to do more research on the area especially the setting up and registrations of P2P Money Transfer Service Companies. More information on this topic to be shared in our online newsletter.

So we have covered Kids Business, we also brought you information on Online Forex Trading-how to join our group. We covered Diaspora Investment matters as well. What remains outstanding is the interviews with 2 sisters on the forum-one based in Germany and another one in Kenya. We are hoping to finalise them and share their stories next weekend.

Important Changes

We are slowly building a team that will manage the group. Iam proud that some of the best brains from the ZBIN Community will be providing leadership to the group as trustees, registration of the group is at an advanced stage, Ms Tariro Kutadza will be leading the registration process. We will follow the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and in the leadership position allocation and operations of the group. The good thing about our group is that we have been in existence for a long period of time; we have a strong and active membership and have representation in Zimbabwe and the Diaspora.

The following members will be part of the board:

1. Ms Martha Tholanah (Hre )-NGO field background
2. Mr Polite Ndlovu (Plumtree )-Business Management background
3. Ms Tariro Kutadza (Hre )-NGO field background
4. Mrs Rudo  Chaza Mataranyika (UK) -Medical field background
5. Mr C Chamakanda (US ) –Accounting background, CGMA
6. Mrs Laureen Munodaani Mushati (US )-Medical field background
7. Ms Hannah Tarindwa (Namibia ) –Business Management background
8. Mr Tavaziva Machigidi (UK )-Accounting background, CA
9. Ms Nyasha Gono (Hre ) –Accounting background, pending, CGMA membership
10. Ms Clara Mapfumo (Hre)-Engineering background
11. Mr Kiva Chiputu (Tete) –Transport and logistics background
12. Rodwell Mawoneke (Cape Town)-Entrepreneurship background

We believe that we have a strong team in place that is made up of locals and diasporans; it is also gender sensitive with 60% female board representation. We have a diverse team with different professional backgrounds. We have included the youth with Ms Nyasha Gono representing the young voice on the board. World Award winner in the HIV and Aids field, Ms Martha Tholanah will lead the board of trustees. Mr Polite Ndlovu from Plumtree will be our interim CEO. We will give you more updates once we have finalised our registration.

Spokesperson for the Group

Ms Tariro Kutadza is going to be our interim spokesperson for group and will be developing materials to market the group; she will manage our twitter account, Youtube media, newspaper articles and our website. Do expect Munemo to slowly handover to Ms Kutadza in the coming few weeks.

Mozambique Trip

A lot of members have been inquiring about the next Mozambique trip and the answer is that its still on. After the Tete trip, the next one is to Beira or Chimoio-we are not looking for many members to join since this is our first tour to this place. We will update you in the coming weeks.

Diaspora Reception

Thank you to everyone who registered and special mention goes to Loveness from USA who donated funds for hosting this event. Its on this week in Queensdale, Harare and we are looking forward to a fruitful event.

ZBIN Wishes you

So this holiday I have all my kids at home, they have done well academically especially my first born who came top in five  out of eight subjects, unbelievable stuff from my first born who is at a top high school in town where competition to get form one places was stiff with every kid required to have four points. We have a trophy and certificates to show for the academic prowess. I also have my second born who quickly adjusted to the new school we transferred her to; she came top in a surprise Maths subject, all along I had known her  as a writer, a better writer than me because she produced a novel when she was in grade 5.  I only started writing when I was in form 3 writing articles for publishing to the Sunday Mail Magazine and also editing the school unofficial tabloid. My third kid also surprised me with a top notch performance at the HICC where she was leading a school dance. This one is also promising to be a poet!

So here iam with brilliant kids and am wondering what they will be doing this holiday, we cannot afford to visit this holiday-money too tight to mention and worries of school fees next year are obvious. Now being business minded iam tinkering with the idea of developing their business skills at a young age. How about 2 or 3 projects where they will all put their efforts together and produce a business plan and implement it?

My story as a kid

I must say I was born an entrepreneur, being an innovative youngster together with my friends we never ran out of money. I remember with my friend Robert selling tomatoes and onions, we sometimes ventured into selling sweets. Our biggest and most successful project was going to the Warren Park Dumpsite where we picked some new small bandages. We sold the bandages in all schools in Warren Park and beyond-the project went viral. Looking at it back I get uncomfortable that we were involved in an unethical business project. The discarded bandages posed a serious health hazard to other kids who were our clients. As excited kids we sold the bandages to all kids in the suburb and few knew where we sourced them.

My primary school teacher Mr Kamudzandu also realised the entrepreneurial skills and gave me milk and maputi to sell to other students during break time-I was one of the best marketers at the school!

Fast Forward to Adulthood

Somewhere along the way I lost the entrepreneurial skills. I went to college and studied finance and then got a job immediately after college and have been working in various sectors with my key strength being in risk management. I only wonder what would have happened had someone noticed this talent and nurtured it? What if the local university had a program where they identified students with entrepreneurial talent and nurtured them? Your guess is as good as mine.

Why Entrepreneurship is Important for Kids

Looking at my history, I believe I wasted my entrepreneurial talent maybe on a good side the fact that I write and offer free business information to others compensates for that? What if at college we had a Prof in the mould of Mr Kamudzandu who could identify business talent and nurture it?

I firmly believe that kids should learn about business from an early stage, they do not need to be forced though; they don’t need to be pressured to be successful. Every holiday should involve fun, relaxation and some business project. They need to learn from an early stage how to manage business, basic financial literacy, how the world works etc.

The sad part is that few schools are covering the business side of education-I doubt whether universities have improved too. My late Prof Mutiti tried to bring some business here and there but it was strictly commercial law from him, other lecturers stuck to their subjects and never veered off radar to talk about entrepreneurship. Maybe there was no need for that because their mandate was to produce learned graduates who can become successful employees?

So the benefits of developing, identifying and nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship at an early age for kids are plenty and include the following:

Risk taking skills -Developing self esteem-Decision making skills

Leadership skills-Global thinking-Trouble shooting skills

Finances and money awareness-Creative Innovation

Kids should undertake various projects at an early stage and discover their niche and this should be done in a friendly environment where failure is not frowned upon. There is need for fun games and business learning. Business tours for kids and interaction with some of the leading business people in the country.

I believe this is where guidance starts career! Career guidance should not start at high school or college level. By the time your child reaches form 2 you should both be knowing their key strengths and weaknesses.

So what is ZBIN Doing?

We are already late in the holiday but we will share a lot of information on business and the kids. We will share a couple of resources such as videos and articles. We hope to be prepared next term and invite teachers from the forum to register and deliver business classes for the young ones. Other countries have developed system in place to nurture business talent for youngsters and in Southern Africa we need not be left behind.

Kids Starting a Business