Employers, appreciate your employees. Employees, appreciate your employers. I command you. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 September 2018. Continue reading
– #Employers, appreciate your employees. #Employees, appreciate your employers
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Category Archives: Business Administration
– Be careful of partnerships you enter into, your expansion could be stunted by them
Let’s get first things out of the way. In South Africa, if you are a start-up targeting bigger businesses than yours as clients, you are more likely to fail in making any meaningful inroads towards your business success.
To make it as a start-up or small-business in acquiring bigger businesses as clients, you’d need to partner with bigger businesses already doing business with your targeted bigger business clients. Or you could expand your business by targeting ordinary consumers.
Targeting consumers can able your company “grow organically” and later become attractive to bigger businesses owing to yours having a solid customer base.
These expansion challenges are usually felt by small-businesses in the knowledge-based advisory consultancy service sector. However, smaller companies having a tangible physical product may not necessarily face the same challenges as those in the knowledge sector. Big business is more readily available to deal directly with them than they would be willing to do with smaller consultancies. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 29 August 2018. Continue reading
– Need a safety net for the good guys
I don’t understand how it is that evil deeds can be sustained for years without legal institutions or leaders able to undo its proliferation in a short time. How could an evil system of apartheid go on for centuries without a critical mass of former leaders revolting against it? Likewise, on private and public-sector corruption, how could it be that so many good people seem to have been a drop in the ocean to counter the activities of those pursuing graft?
Thanks to John Stuart Mill, said to have originally coined the saying in 1867 that: “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” Paraphrased to its common phrase used today and as attributed to John F Kennedy’s speech among others, it is said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
How are perpetrators of evil able to proliferate their evil unabated for so long? Could it be that there are many in powerful positions agreeing with them, that evil is sustained? Or could it be that many are benefitting directly out of fear of loss of being expelled for standing out against evil, that they choose to turn a blind eye against evil? For the latter, we need a safety net to ensure good guys are protected and their losses minimised. We need a system that ensures promoters of good are protected and more rewarded than perpetrators of evil. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 June 2018. Continue reading
– The Small Business Pricing Conundrum
The biggest undoing of small businesses is their inability to configure, package and price products into different offerings. Of greatest concern even, is the failure to publish prices of their offerings, preferring, instead, to treat every sale as a special deal and quoting the price separately. Generally, there are times when it would be appropriate to adopt the auction-styled pricing strategy and others where upfront display of the price would be preferable. The key to success is in knowing and understanding the company’s target market and the appropriate response to meeting their needs. Growing small business managers need to perfect their pricing strategy to avoid inadvertently turning away potential customers. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 January 2018. Continue reading
– Business Technological Hierarchy Of Needs
No doubt barriers to entry for any business have been raised unless you are content with your business remaining a small outfit and settling for crumbs. But those with a vision to expand their businesses to reach wider geographical coverage cannot avoid investing in capacity increase to attain that growth. Although technology increases the agility of businesses to grow and lowers barriers to entry, the savvy are best positioned to make it. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 29 November 2016. Continue reading
– Lessons We Could Learn From Tata And Geely based on BMW And Ford Failures
The success of Land Rover, a company originally spawned off and owned by British carmaker Rover Company, saw its successes in the 70s dwindling owing to the parent company, British Leyland Motor Corporation’s financial troubles. As declines caused one takeover after another, the brand was then bought by BMW in the mid-1990s. But that too didn’t save the carmaker from its troubles. It was given another lease on life when Ford acquired the brand as part of its then Premier Automotive Group (PAG) in 2000, which then also included Jaguar, Volvo and Aston Martin.
The car manufacturer soon experienced financial performance troubles under Ford. The troubles compelled Ford to offload Jaguar and Land Rover to the Indian owned Tata Motors, and the Volvo brand to Geely Automobile of China.
Why couldn’t such previously successful brands be rescued by more successful and formidable carmakers like BMW and Ford? And why have the initially much “deplored” Chinese and Indian carmakers such as Geely and Tata, do the unbelievable and turn these companies around so quickly?
What lessons can we, as owners of small companies, learn from the history of Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo to ensure our growth and development isn’t stunted by the same challenges they experienced? By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 October 2016. Continue reading
> PERILS OF ILL-TIMED UPFRONT PAYMENT DEMANDS
It’s very rare interacting with emerging or small businesses and not face requests for upfront payment before any delivery of service or product is made. It’s quite refreshing, on the one hand, seeing small businesses focusing on the problem and related solution without first mentioning upfront payment.
I feel for small businesses and their need to increase working capital to fund business operations. I have found that many customers are turned off by upfront discussions of payment. When is it the right time to discuss matters about money? By Nimroth Gwetsa, 30 September 2016. Continue reading
– STARTING OWN BUSINESS – DOs and DON’Ts
What an explosive start to 2016 we have had! The highly charged atmosphere at the beginning of the year was a continuation of the prior explosive end to 2015 when massive outflow of funds left our shores, the outcome attributed to “surprise” leadership changes in the government’s finance ministry.
The recent repo rate hike may spell doom for some. To those planning to become new business owners in partial fulfilment of their 2016 New Year resolutions, do not allow unpleasant events like these deter you from your resolve. With the dawn of February, this is a good time to reflect on progress achieved against your entrepreneurship New Year Resolutions.
By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 January 2016. Continue reading
– The Joy and Pain of Entrepreneurship
By Nimroth Gwetsa, 15 December 2015.
Summer holidays are upon us. Whether one is on vacation elsewhere or is enjoying the tranquility of the local environment, summertime is the season expected to bring good fortune. It’s as if living things are doing their best to show off their appreciation of summer: with flowers blossoming, birds singing their early morning glorious melodies, succulent fruits falling-off trees, people getting together and strengthening their relationships. Continue reading
#When Giants Fall
By Nimroth Gwetsa, 26 November 2015.
In the article “How To Detect Shady Deals Masqueraded As Good Deals”, we noted how developing companies could learn from and adopt sound principles from big businesses.
Not all big business behaviour should be copied owing to their destructive nature.
This article aims to identify some deplorable behaviour by big business to be avoided by emerging companies. This, to ensure emerging companies could one day rely on the power of their brand to attract business opportunities. Continue reading