Another shocking result, Spain is out of the 2018 world cup qualifiers. Really shocking? Perhaps not, we have seen powerhouses such as Germany, Portugal and Argentina packing their bags and heading straight home from Russia. For Russia, however this is history in the making as they are advancing to the quarterfinals of the world cup for the first time.

What entrepreneurship lessons can we learn from this?

Home Support and Confidence: There is no substitute for home support in sport and entrepreneurship. If the match bad been played away from Russia, chances are high they would have been eliminated from the competition. Do you have an entrepreneur at home, in your street, at your workplace or at your church? Support, encourage, do all you can to make them win the world cup.

Recover: Russia had an own goal earlier during the match-this is very common in sport that sometimes in doing your best, you can make mistakes. Do not despair, learn from the mistakes-do not repeat them and continue pushing forward. Never give Up!

 Confidence: There are many ‘Spanish hurdles’ in business, the big boys enjoying all the market share, the access to capital and market challenges, the lack of office space or premises. The competitors stealing your business secrets, the new entrants with big buying power. Your response? Do not be intimidated…you too can overcome the challenges and qualify for the quarterfinals. Keep pushing, keep your head up. If Russia can do it?

Team work: Lets admit, Russia does not meet the class of the Spaniards. The gulf in class can be equated for the distance between Beatrice Road and Seke Rd. If you have ever travelled along the Masotcha Road, you know what Iam talking about. Where Russia lacked in terms of class or quality..they compensated in terms of team work. In business, are you operating as a lone ranger? Do you buy alone? Are you part of a business association? Then you are going to lose out from rivals in the game….find trusted business people, pool resources and match the Spains in your industry.

Maintain Competitive Advantage: I only watched the dying minutes of the match, did see Russia defending heavily and frustrating Spain and relying on counter attacks. I thought that was a mistake because I had watched my favourite African teams losing in dying minutes because of desperate defending and making mistakes. How about Russia? They were playing for the penalties, wanted to drag the match and drive it towards their strength…penalties! At the end of the match, I saw Russian fans celebrating and as they say…the rest is history! In business wait for your opportune moment, be prepared for the right time and grab opportunities. Are you aware some have solid business plans or startup plans just waiting for the elections to be certified free and fair and grab all the opportunities before others come? Yes some have made investment decisions, they have provisional hiring plans, have identified premises and are slowly counting the days and heading for the penalty shoot outs. Like Russians, they know their strengths and will be merciless during the penult shoot outs and proceed to the quarter finals.

There are more lessons learnt from this event that  is sure gonna see Russians celebrating for the whole week. Everything went according to the script…they deserve the victory!

The transport business is a highly competitive field where you find a lot of operators fighting for passengers. Our business forum has been to Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Lesotho and South Africa where we found out common traits that can be used by many entrepreneurs. Of course the industry is well known for breaking road rules and causing all sorts of evil on our roads but behind the controversy, there are some good points to learn from the industry.

1. They compete : There is strong competition for passengers, this competition is good for the industry-you snooze, you lose.
2. They complement: Does this not go against the first point? No it does not, they compete and complement each other. Any taxi that breaks down is likely to be supported by another.
3. Organised : It is difficult to find organised groups of black entrepreneurs in South Africa but taxi owners win the trophy when it comes to organisation. When at Park Station in Jozi or Renkini in Bulawayo-taxis will be parked in an orderly way and everyone follows the rules-you wait for your turn.
4. Innovative: They know all their routes well, all the corners-peak hours and how to maximise on revenue.
5. Market for everyone: The philosophy in the industry is there is market for everyone, if you lose one passenger, keep going and find the next.

So there you are, add or subtract from the list. We have a good case study of organised black owned business model. What is now required is to refine this model and cascade it across all economic sectors. You should be able to mobilise resources, form businesses and compete at the same time. The Somali owned spaza shops use the same model. Pool resources and enjoy economies of scale -buy goods and share and then operate from the same street fighting for the same clients.