Despite Zimbabwe and South Africa being neighbours, there are some stark contrasts in culture divided by the Limpopo River. Take for instance in South Africa—passengers can calmly wait for taxis (kombis) and when they arrive—you board and greet everyone. In Zimbabwe you just board and greetings not necessary.
In South Africa, a stationary taxi can easily fill out with passengers before the driver revs the engine and driving off. In Zimbabwe a stationary bus or kombi is likely to face huge challenges in attracting passengers. A stationary bus resembles a broken down or dead bus.
So we can safely trace the culture of revving engines in Zimbabwe. Go to any bus rank and a lot of fuel is wasted as buses rev engines interminably. At major bus ranks such as in Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge—a bus can have a running engine for hours before departure.
This has forced buses plying the Harare-Bulawayo route to pick up passengers headed to Bulawayo and pretending to be going to Bulawayo and only to perform u-turns and return to pick up more passengers till they have filled out the bus.
Remaining stationary is technically suicide as no one will board the bus. Revving the bus now not enough—pretend to be finally driving to the destination and in the process fooling passengers.
In vernacular—Hatikwire Bhazi Risati Rofamba (We do not board stationary buses).
And this culture permeates across the country and business strategists can study and implement innovations in business.
- Market Entry—have sufficient numbers of influencers to help in launch of products. Show ACTION.
- Selling Vehicles—post images of vehicles on roads (shows it is a runner), including video footage.
- Travel Agents—show evidence of clients who have benefited.
- Whatsapp Group—you will need a good number in your group before others join.The fewer the numbers, the harder it is for new members to join.
- New app launch—have a good number of downloads before launch. Show ACTION.
- A business seminar—have a core team that attends first and showcase to those with questions. In most cases those who miss the first event, will attend the next one.
A lot to be learnt from the streets—do take your time to analyze developments and they help you in appreciating consumer behaviour. You want to reboot your business strategies? Take a short trip to Mbare Musika Bus Terminus, spend a few hours observing the environment and asking yourselves a lot of critical questions, and return to the boardroom.
