Why To Empower Entrepreneurs Is To Rebuild A Country

I remember attending a talk given by Clem Sunter, the exceptional scenario planner, futurologist and author, during which he spoke about various scenarios facing South Africa.

One specific statement he made stuck with me. He said (and, I paraphrase here): “For South Africa to revive and strengthen its economy, a million entrepreneurs are needed to create the five million jobs that the politicians are talking about.”

Following the global pandemic, this statement is true, now more than ever.

Governments’ responses to COVID-19 hit economies around the world hard as whole industries (and countries) shut down and companies shed job losses. These job losses, however, sparked a new global trend, the growth of the micropreneur. More out of necessity than choice, side hustles and embryonic ideas have transformed into fully-fledged businesses as many have turned to entrepreneurship as their next career move. In South Africa, and elsewhere around the globe, for those lucky enough to keep their jobs, many saw pay reductions or reduced working hours. To supplement their income, side hustles were born.

And while many South African SMMEs were forced to close their doors (the SMME quarterly update issued by SEDA in August 2021 showed a decline in the number of SMMEs year-on-year from 2.61 million to 2.33 million), those who managed to survive showed their tenacity in that they provided an additional 688 000 jobs over the period and maintained their total share of total turnover at around 37.5%.

To empower these new and existing entrepreneurs, we need to develop a fresh new perspective to building this critical sector.

In 2019, South Africa ranked 49th out of 54 economies on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s (GEM) National Entrepreneurship Context Index, ahead of only Croatia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Iran. Sadly, according to its report, South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem was one of the most challenging in the sample of participating economies in 2019 and has exhibited little sign of improvement over the past few years.

GEM cited a number of issues hampering entrepreneurship ranging from access to markets and funding to restrictive policies to access to mentorship. Many entrepreneurs will espouse that only an entrepreneur can truly understand the needs and challenges of an entrepreneur.

To this point, Clem Sunter suggested at a recent University of Cape Town (UCT) Summer School lecture, that “President Cyril Ramaphosa establish an entrepreneurship council that consists of successful entrepreneurs who regularly advise him on how best to lift the economy from the brink of ruins.” I wholeheartedly agree.

Another critical aspect is access. We need to rethink how entrepreneurs access certain key necessities. These include access to funding and infrastructure but extends to more non-traditional elements such as access to time, to the city and to mentorship. Each aspect requires an innovative approach to problem-solving and requires built in collaboration between those people successful in each sphere of the related industries.

I believe that we could relook the way:

Entrepreneurial Funding Is Evaluated

It should not be according to a business plan and estimated figures as so many are, but on discipline, tenacity, work ethic and accountability. So many institutions evaluate entrepreneurs on a track record of success prior to them even being given a chance to build one. Others evaluate them on success or failure but not on how they reacted to previous failures and how they managed the resultant fallout.

Cities Operate

Many aspiring entrepreneurs start their businesses working after hours. The challenge is that many cities within South Africa don’t operate after hours. Having been an entrepreneur in both South Africa and internationally, I can personally stand testament to the value of a ’24-hour city’ and the ability to build a business therein.

We Provide Mentorship

Mentorship is probably one of the most valuable assets an entrepreneur has access to providing the opportunity to learn from another’s life lessons and avoid making mistakes within your own. I believe that every funding agreement with an entrepreneur should have a mentor allocated to it. This would accelerate the path to success, reduce the risk and in many cases avoid the lack of experience leading to failure. Many would argue that entrepreneurs and successful business people just don’t have the time. I believe that this could be addressed by building an innovative approach to mentorship within our country which looks to not only incentivise existing professionals to mentor another but also tap into retired professionals who have the spare time and experience built over a lifetime of success and failures.

We Provide Access Technology

In a world where the digital revolution has moved 5-10 years in the past 18 months, we should be prioritising the democratisation of the internet in South Africa. I have seen first-hand how a determined young entrepreneur taught himself coding and digital marketing utilising youtube videos he watched during his lunch break while working in a call centre. I have also watched that same young man, go on to launch and run a successful marketing agency which now employs 18 people. By providing access to information to a generation hungry for the opportunity we can change the way they learn and grow.

The reality is that being an entrepreneur is hard and so the decision to become one is not taken lightly. Thankfully, according to the GEM SA study, there has been a substantial increase, from 43.2% to 60.4%, in the number of individuals who perceive that there are good entrepreneurial opportunities in South Africa and believe that they have the skills and capabilities to start a business. This number is relatively high compared to many other economies.

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Parenting The Boss: How You Can Support Your Child's Entrepreneurship Dreams

Parenting is not an easy job. Most parents want to raise children who grow up to become respected members of society and adults that are passionate about serving their communities. So, for many parents, a successful career, especially within commonly respected fields such as medicine, engineering and perhaps a job in the public sector, is one way of attaining respect from their communities. And, entrepreneurship as a career on the other hand is generally not seen as a viable choice because of the risks associated with it.

Yet, entrepreneurship is just as important a career choice as any other, for some people. When a child decides to take an entrepreneurial leap, they'll need constant motivation from themselves and those around them. According to the Executive Director of Africa’s premier entrepreneurship initiative, the Anzisha Prize, Josh Adler, parents and guardians are actually integral to this, playing an important role that contributes to the success of the journey of entrepreneurship.

“But unfortunately, most parents do not know exactly how to support their entrepreneurial children in their journey. This is because of decades of societal conscientisation around the idea of basic education and employment, which are systematically designed to favour job-seeking rather than job-creation. It is also the fear of the risk of financial losses that makes parents more likely to encourage their children to go through school and find a job, instead of opting for entrepreneurship as a career,” said Adler.

He emphasises that this way of parenting simply does not cut it anymore: “In Africa where the labour population grows faster than the economy is able to maintain jobs or create new opportunities, this way of thinking is rather unsustainable. The World Bank’s The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017 projected that the continent’s labour population will grow by 450 million people by 2030 but the continent’s economy may only produce a mere 100 million jobs. And, the report did not anticipate the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bank’s recent report on Africa released in 2021 has thus revised the projection on the size of the potential labour population to at least half a billion (50 million more). This growth is still within an economy that was barely recovering from recession by 2020 when the pandemic hit.”

It has never been more important for the continent to produce an entrepreneurial population than it is today. And, while it is equally important for everyone to play their part in realising this - from governments, policymakers and teachers; to parents, guardians and society in general - parents are at the heart of this challenge.

So, how should African parents play this role? Adler borrows from the Anzisha Prize’s recently published book ‘Think Like a Parent, Act like a Coach: Parenting the Boss’, to provide ways to support your child’s entrepreneurship dreams.

Once a teenage entrepreneur himself, he believes that it was the support of his own parents that helped him start and build his own business: “My very first business venture was started while attending university and living at home. By the time I left home, I had no need to look for a job because my business had secured me and my colleagues (my friends, actually!) a regular income. The business grew and so did we, just like any other career.”

As a parent today, Josh shares the tips below for parents to help their children’s entrepreneurial ventures in this day and age.

Understand Entrepreneurship For Yourself

The concept of entrepreneurship means a number of different things to different people. But it is commonly associated with the idea that it is an alternative solution for people struggling to secure employment. And as a parent, you do not want these difficulties for your child. But when we look at entrepreneurship differently, these fears fade. Entrepreneurship is in fact our inherent ability as humans to identify societal needs and socio-economic challenges and therefore apply innovative thinking to address them - and generate revenue and employment opportunities while at it.

So, if your child demonstrates any such characteristics of entrepreneurship, show them that it is okay to choose this path as a career choice. Africa needs more such people. And the Entrepreneurship for Parents course is just the right place to begin. The course aims to help parents achieve this by providing concrete strategies that they can immediately put into practice.

Care About Entrepreneurship

The continent’s unemployment rates continue to rise unabated. The labour population of the African continent is growing faster than the economy is able to generate jobs. This is not necessarily due to stagnation, because African economies have been growing faster than the rest of their global counterparts in recent years. It is rather because the economies were not job-generative.

“This phenomenon points to the need for an entrepreneurial population capable of growing businesses and creating jobs”, stresses Uzo Agyare-Kumi, Dean of Global Programs and Parents at the Africa Leadership Academy, adding: “Entrepreneurship, therefore, offers the continent the best and most sustainable solution to ending high unemployment rates.”

Don’t Let Fear Of The Unknown Dim Your Child’s Entrepreneurial Light

Many parents to this day consider certain careers a safer bet to a secure future. Careers in engineering, medicine, law and education, for example, are seen as such. But what if the economy is no longer able to create any new opportunities in these fields? Shouldn’t children be taught to create their own income opportunities instead?

“While the fear of the challenges and uncertainties that come with entrepreneurship is understandable, it should be acknowledged that the potential rewards are equally massive. And for children being raised to become important members of society, a career in entrepreneurship creates that opportunity in this day and age”, says Nolizwe Mhlaba, Community and Project Manager at the Anzisha Prize.

Lastly, while it is expected that these fears will at some point set in due to the concerns around instability, uncertainty and hardships, it is important to also remember that entrepreneurship offers more independence, freedoms and flexibility. Parents should also, therefore, where possible, find ways to demonstrate to their children by being entrepreneurial themselves.

“Your actions should show them that it is okay to choose this as a viable career path”, Mhlaba concludes.

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What Is The Opportunity for Africa's Youth In The Great Resignation?

You can hardly open a magazine, a newspaper or a web page right now without a headline leaping out at you about The Great Resignation. It’s like a mass stampede of people leaving their jobs, all at the same time. The experts say people ‘are rethinking their relationship with work’, or looking to work remotely, or simply looking for something better.

How big is the Great Resignation? The Boston Consulting Group estimates up to 75% of digital workers are looking to change their jobs in the next couple of years. Some are looking for new opportunities abroad. Others want to become ‘digital nomads’. Bottom line: there are lots of jobs out there looking for people to fill them.

I just see one thing: Opportunity. With a Capital O.

I’d go so far as to say The Great Resignation is an opportunity for Africa like few before it. And here’s why.

According to the UN’s World Population Prospects, sub-Saharan Africa’s working-age population is growing faster than other age groups. Way faster. In fact, the average age of an African in 2020 was 18.7 years. How old do you think the average European is right now? Get this: 42.5 years old. The average age in the world right now is 30.9 years of age.

By 2100, the average age in Africa will be just over 34. Slap bang in the middle of the ideal working-age population. So while the rest of the world is getting older, Africa is young and ready to work. The UN calls this opportunity for accelerated economic growth the ‘demographic dividend’. I call it time for the continent to rock and roll.

I could argue that the data says we could rule the world by 2100 – and the Great Resignation can help us to fast-track this process, and rethink our future position. But we have to catch it now.

A fundamental truth that many people miss in the broader discussion around the Great Resignation, digital nomadism and untethered workers is this: Jobs that can be done remotely can also be done offshore. The significance of a nomadic workforce isn’t middle-class workers moving to Estonia or Hawaii for a year. It’s a sign of a broader global redistribution of work following the pandemic.

The Boston Consulting Group says creating an ecosystem of contractors, gig workers, and agencies is an additional valuable tool for sourcing talent in a highly competitive market. Its report suggests that 80% of African digital talent would be willing to work for a remote employer. I’d suggest that number could be even higher.

The question is: are we as African businesses leveraging outsourcing as much as we can? Last year, the company I have the privilege of working for, TransUnion, launched a Global Capability Centre (GCC) in South Africa to service clients around the world. What’s different about this GCC is that it’s 100% virtual. Every single employee works from home – but the experience that the company’s clients get is no different to what they would have got from a conventional contact centre... and their service portfolio is significant and growing!

In South Africa, government sees BPO as a priority sector to help grow the economy and alleviate the country’s unemployment crisis. The sector has a target of creating 100,000 additional jobs by 2023 and 500,000 by 2030.

And that’s just in one country, and one sector. Imagine if we could position Africa as the skills hub of the world, providing a series of increasingly valuable services to companies across the globe, and creating jobs for millions of young Africans in the process.

So how do we, as African businesses, organize better to be alive to this opportunity? We should be asking ourselves:

• Are we are making the tough choices to make our businesses more resilient? Are we leveraging the gig economy and other specialist third parties to deliver services? Are we exploiting our business limitations by partnering in the sharing economy?

• Are we seeking out new revenue streams linked to the fast-tracked demographic dividend we talked about earlier, and finding ways to bring the demographic window forward?

• What kind of leadership is needed in this new world? How does it change the way we run our businesses?

• How do we evolve the employee value proposition to attract and retain hot young talent? And figure-proof our revenues in the process?

Four years ago, The Africa Competitiveness Report 2017, released by the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank, and the World Bank Group, kicked off with these words: “Looking ahead, the continent’s young and increasing population presents an unprecedented opportunity to spur rapid development … a growing labour force and a large and emerging consumer market hold the promise of significant growth opportunities.”

We’ve got the people. We own the future. The Great Resignation has given us the chance to accelerate this. We, as African leaders and business people, must move fast to grab the opportunity. It may not come by again soon.

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About The Author

Lee Naik was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology and is recognized as one of SA’s leading digital and technology transformation experts. Lee is presently the CEO of TransUnion Africa where he leads a portfolio of big data, digital and information services businesses that help organizations make more informed decisions and consumers manage their personal information to lead to a higher quality of life. 

Check out more articles and blog from Lee on LinkedIn and ITWeb follow him on @naikl for his latest commentary.

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How Small Businesses Can Reset For 2022

Who’d want to be an entrepreneur or small business owner right now?

COVID-19 has changed the economy dramatically. In South Africa, GDP is down sharply, and unemployment is at an all-time high. I know of numerous small businesses that have been forced to close this year. Those that have survived have had to adjust to a different business climate, a world of remote and hybrid work, and clients who are spending less but wanting more.

But, to answer the question: Me! I’d absolutely still want to be an entrepreneur.

I still want to surround myself with entrepreneurs every day. Their energy is infectious, their ability to recognize and conquer challenges unrivalled.

We know small businesses are the largest employer in practically every country in Africa, and the engine of our continent’s economy. And thankfully, there are millions of people across Africa who feel exactly the same way I do.

So as 2021 draws to a close, what advice could I possibly give to small business owners? What have I learnt this year that is helping me mentor the many small business owners I talk to every day? What can business owners focus on? What should they start doing, and just as importantly, stop doing?

Here are six things I think you can do now to hit the ground running in 2022:

Prepare For A Future With COVID

Let’s not fool ourselves. COVID-19’s not going away any time soon. But it’s been around long enough for us to have a baseline for how the world works in a time of pandemic. Think about how you can build a sustainable small business with the future in mind. Where there are problems, there are solutions. Look for opportunity in the mayhem.

Review Your Business Plan

Take time over the festive season to think, evaluate and refocus. Even the smallest business should have a business plan that you update as market conditions change. And if ever there’s been a time when conditions have changed, the past couple of years have been it. Right now, forecasting and planning should be something you do almost monthly. Keep it simple – in product, in process, in go-to-market. Be obsessive about the costs of acquisition and retention. Get the basics right.

Forget About The Old Rules

I’ve been saying this since 2013: when digital stops being a thing, it becomes everything. As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you can’t be doing things in old ways and expect to succeed in the digital economy. Everything today is about the consumer. They call the shots, and you need to make it easy for them to find you and use your products and services. Recognize who you are serving, and find ways to be essential to your customers.

Know Who You Are And What You’re Good At

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. You can’t be good at everything, or do everything yourself. I love to see entrepreneurs who are prepared to learn, but in general, you should be spending most of your time in 2022 playing to your strengths. Can you partner with someone who has better efficiencies in certain areas? Is what you do complementary to another business? As we move into 2022, find ways to become part of the ‘sharing’ economy.

Do The Hard Work

Do the admin often and early. I call these tasks the ‘industrialized’ part of your business: the tasks that are repetitive, but necessary. Get them done with the least amount of fuss possible. Your primary job as an entrepreneur or small business owner is to align yourself to tasks that ‘move the needle’.

Price Right

This is an area where I see many small businesses getting it wrong. Don’t underprice: you must know your worth and your value. Don’t scale on freebies: it’s just not sustainable. Never, but never, accept exposure as payment. It doesn’t pay the bills.

Finally, take the time to recognize what you and your business have achieved this year. Savor your successes. And get ready for 2022 – I know it will be memorable!

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About The Author

Lee Naik was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology and is recognized as one of SA’s leading digital and technology transformation experts. Lee is presently the CEO of TransUnion Africa where he leads a portfolio of big data, digital and information services businesses that help organizations make more informed decisions and consumers manage their personal information to lead to a higher quality of life. 

Check out more articles and blog from Lee on LinkedIn and ITWeb follow him on @naikl for his latest commentary.

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Surviving And Thriving In A Hyper-Connected World

• We live in a highly-connected society.

• It’s not just people that are connected - machines, devices, networks and apps talk to each other.

• The benefits of this increased digital maturity are well documented.

• Still, how much do we understand about the magnitude and finality of this era we’re entering?

• TransUnion CEO Lee Naik unpacks.

COVID-19 didn’t change the way we live and work. It just speeded things up. What’s changing everything is the digital first default status of the world. But are we, and our businesses, ready for a hyper-connected world, where people, machines, devices and networks are increasingly linked?

A recent Bloomberg Opinion article suggested ‘We Must Start Planning For a Permanent Pandemic’. Essentially, the writer suggests that the coronavirus is mutating faster than we can develop effective vaccines, and we may never go back to ‘normal’. My first reaction? This can work.

Fact is, we already live in a highly-connected society. Fibre and 5G connectivity are booming across Africa. The World Bank aims to achieve universal affordable and good quality broadband access on the continent by the end of the decade, adding nearly 1.1 billion new users to the continent's network. And it’s not just people that are connected: our machines, devices, networks and apps talk to each other all the time. Welcome to the Internet of Everything.

Most of the businesses I speak to nowadays have made tremendous strides in changing the way they operate in the past 12 months. They’re more customer-focused, more resilient, and more effective. With nearly 15 months of experience of working from home, many have been contemplating fundamental changes to the way they, and their people, work forever. In our company, TransUnion, some of our people will never go to the office again – instead, permanently working from home, remotely as part of a hybrid operating model.

Here’s the thing. We’re not changing in response to a pandemic. The pandemic is speeding things along. What’s driving sustained change is the advent of 5G, advanced networking, and the spread of hyper-connectivity.

And as much as we talk about the benefits of this increased digital maturity, and the ability of African businesses to provide ‘blended experiences’ that combine the digital and physical worlds, I’m not sure we realise the magnitude – and finality – of the new era we’re entering.

Are The Machines Coming For Our Jobs?

As far back as 2013, the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford published a ground-breaking paper, The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation? The study suggested that as many as 47% of US jobs were at risk from automation over the course of the next two decades.

Let’s be crystal clear on this. That doesn’t mean half of all jobs in America – or Africa, for that matter – will be replaced by robots or machines by 2030. It simply won’t happen. But the point is that half of all jobs are theoretically automatable – and that’s something we as business people need to be thinking about.

Whether we like it or not, certain jobs are going to cease to exist because of technology in the coming years. They have been for ages. Mid-skilled factory workers have been losing their jobs to robots for decades already. It’s not just data entry clerks and dishwashers, either: jobs like paralegals and even accountants could find increasing portions of their jobs automated.

The challenge is, what will they do instead? What are we doing to drive reskilling of our workforce? What are the new jobs we can train people for? We don’t need the answers immediately. But we will need them sooner rather than later, as they will affect our ability to operate as effective businesses in this brave new world.

So how do you enable a hyper-connected reality in a business? Here are four ways.

Find Ways To Start Automating Your Business

Trying to pretend that things haven’t changed won’t work. Approach your business with a digital-as-default mindset. There are immense possibilities that technology and automation offer to put your customer at the centre of your business, break down the silos within your organisation, and reinvent yourself for success in the coming decades.

Embrace The Shared Economy More Than Ever

‘Learn how to see. Realise that everything connects to everything else.’ Leonardo da Vinci had this right back in the late 1400s. More than 500 years later, this isn’t something we should still be battling with. There are opportunities for the sharing economy everywhere: start thinking about how you could capitalise on your assets and spare capacity, and find new revenue streams.

‘Reboard’ Your Employees

If you haven’t already, prepare your people for life in a new world of work. Reimagine the employee experience, from how you on-board new starters to how you help existing employees meet the unique challenges of working from home. Ask yourself: how do you create culture and performance in hybrid models, where you haven’t seen your colleagues for 15 months or longer?

Lego-fy Yourself

In this hyper-connected world, we’re increasingly being asked to do business wherever someone has a browser. That’s why I talk about the importance of a composable digital enterprise, that allows businesses to be able to set up operations like Lego sets according to where and what they’re needed for. We’re not talking siloes: we’re talking mini-operations that use automation, micro-services, APIs, and the cloud. This way, businesses can pivot beyond their core competencies and traditional marketplaces to thrive in this new world.

There’s no doubt that hyper-connectivity comes with huge challenges – but it also brings with it transformative opportunities. It’s up to us to not squander this potential.

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About The Author

Lee Naik was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology and is recognized as one of SA’s leading digital and technology transformation experts. Lee is presently the CEO of TransUnion Africa where he leads a portfolio of big data, digital and information services businesses that help organizations make more informed decisions and consumers manage their personal information to lead to a higher quality of life. 

Check out more articles and blog from Lee on LinkedIn and ITWeb follow him on @naikl for his latest commentary.

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The Age Of Hybrid Work Is Here. Are We Ready?

• The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us the next big disruptor: the move to ‘hybrid work’.

• Companies are grappling with the idea of what the future of work looks like.

• Many are trying to balance employees returning to the workplace while others work from home.

• Some are pledging to allow their employees to work from home ‘forever’.

• TransUnion’s Lee Naik explores the age of hybrid work and whether we’re actually ready.

Just over a year ago, the world of work closed down. For millions of employees around the world, remote work became a reality – for many, literally overnight.

At the time, many people thought it would be a 21-day lockdown, and we’d be back in the office again in no time. 12 months later, we’re wrestling with the next big disruptor: the move to ‘hybrid work’, where we try and balance some employees returning to the workplace while others work from home (WFH).

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out this month, it’s not as easy as it seems. An article headlined Companies Wrestle With Hybrid Work Plans—Awkward Meetings and Midweek Crowding talked about the challenges involved in deciding who goes back to the office (and when), how to reconfigure offices to ensure socially distanced working, and how to conduct meetings when half the people are in a room and the other half are dialling in. We know the pain.

Some People May Never Go Back To The Office

At the height of the pandemic last year, many companies were quick to announce permanent WFH plans. E-commerce giant Shopify said it would allow its 5,000 employees to continue working remotely after its offices reopen in 2021. Facebook is steaming ahead with its plans to transition thousands of jobs out of the office over the next decade. Companies like Dropbox, Atlassian and Twitter said they would allow most employees to work from home forever.

Some workers may never return to the office – and we need to start wrapping our heads around that. In fact, as I wrote in February, remote work is creating new job opportunities for millions of people in the new digital-first, virtual economy. In a hybrid work world, talent is everywhere. This is a massive inflection point.

Finding The Best Of Both Worlds

But here’s the challenge. Lots of people want to go back to the office, for at least some of the time. They’re hungry for the human connection and camaraderie of the workplace. They want the best of both worlds: a survey of more than 2,000 office workers found more than 70 percent of workers want flexible remote work options to continue, while over 65 percent are craving more in-person time with their teams. Software company Salesforce found that 80% of its workers want to maintain a connection to a physical office space.

For Salesforce, the solution has been to permanently switch to three ways of working: fully-remote, office-based or flex, with most employees set to work in the office one to three days a week for team collaboration, customer meetings and presentations.

Microsoft has developed a Hybrid Workplace Dial that defines six stages based on current health conditions: Closed; Mandatory WFH; WFH Encouraged; Soft Open; Open with Restrictions; Open. It’s just moved to Stage 4, Soft Open, where people can choose to go to the office, but are still encouraged to WFH.

Google said in December that it would be testing a flexible workweek once it’s safe to return to the office, with employees required to work in the office at least three days a week.

At TransUnion, we’ve long promoted working from home as part of an inexorable shift towards a flexible working model. This is what the future looks like. But this only works when we make a clear mindset shift to a workplace that focuses on the health and wellbeing of its people, and is committed to giving them the best employee experience possible.

The Way Forward

So what does this all mean? The fact that every company is developing its own approach and guidelines shows that none of us has the definitive answer yet. We’re all learning as we go. What we do know is this: the world of work has shifted fundamentally, and we need to be more flexible and open to hybrid work environments than ever.

For me, this is the perfect time for us as business leaders to revisit our workplaces and explore ways to accelerate our transition to a digital workforce while keeping our culture and social capital alive and thriving. What remote working did was make us all more human: we met each others’ children, spouses and pets. We saw into our colleagues’ homes. We have the opportunity to bridge the physical and digital worlds in a way that keeps us authentic, engaged and innovative. We must not waste this chance.

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About The Author

Lee Naik was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology and is recognized as one of SA’s leading digital and technology transformation experts. Lee is presently the CEO of TransUnion Africa where he leads a portfolio of big data, digital and information services businesses that help organizations make more informed decisions and consumers manage their personal information to lead to a higher quality of life. 

Check out more articles and blog from Lee on LinkedIn and ITWeb follow him on @naikl for his latest commentary.

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What The Future Of Working From The Office Looks Like Post-Pandemic

• It’s just over a year since the COVID-19 became a global crisis.

• Since then, the pandemic has dictated how we go about our lives.

• Shopping, exercise, school and work have moved online.

• Remote working, in particular, has really changed the way we do work and life.

• Major shifts can be expected in the way we work even after the pandemic - WizzPass Director Ulrich Stark unpacks.

Almost exactly one year ago, the South African government implemented the first lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strict Level-5 restrictions were put in place to assist in flattening the curve and to reduce infection rates. During this time, many businesses were forced to close down, while the majority of the remaining workforce packed up their desks and prepared to work from home.

At the time the expectation was that this protocol would last for a short, and somewhat exciting, two week period. Little did we know that one year later the virus would still be dictating the reality of our now adjusted working world.

The pandemic changed the manner of our social interactions drastically, with the majority of people now operating from their homes and connecting via various meeting apps. Now that we are finally in lockdown Level-1, afternoon traffic has built up, shops have removed rental boards and people are starting to return to their offices.

Despite the positive atmosphere and eagerness to get back to “normal”, there is still a feeling of scepticism and fear when it comes to safety, especially with the chatter of the much dreaded third wave starting to circulate.

We have become so aware of social distancing, what we touch, and wearing of masks, that safety has become second nature and that isn’t going anywhere soon. As a result, companies need to embrace change and handle this adjustment period in the best and least disruptive way possible.

Below are three actions to help your business adapt to a new way of working while keeping safety top of mind.

Create Guidelines

Every office is different, so start by asking the important questions about how working from home and in the office can now look. Through these answers a natural set of guidelines will form and will help you find the ideal solution for your office space. Start with the basics:

1. Are you open to offering employees the opportunity to work from home?

2. Are you open to allowing flexible working hours?

3. Which teams or employees are required to collaborate regularly?

4. How many people can the office accommodate responsibility at one time?

Once the basic guidelines have been established these need to be communicated to employees in a clear and precise manner.

Let Employees Choose

Give employees the power to manage their days and times within the office according to the set guidelines. This not only allows for accountability and higher rates of productivity but also ensures that the highest safety protocols are being practised. The ability to administer seating plans effectively and quickly with cloud-based software is going to be instrumental in how businesses manage their offices – now and in the future. These software systems should allow for immediate bookings and cancellations, thereby shifting the burden of administration away from office managers.

Administrators should have oversight on which employees intend to be in the office at a particular time and should be able to allocate certain employees to book only in certain areas. This allows for effective planning and increased collaboration on projects between different departments and people.

Implement The Right Systems

By having workspace-booking measures in place, it provides for more structure and control, but also fosters a democratic and transparent operating environment that allows employees to easily book and choose their own workspaces. At the same time, the company is setting itself up to optimise and streamline its workplace effectively, both for current and future needs.

The concepts of “smart desking” or “hot desking” are not new, and have been around for many years. However, when these concepts were created before the COVID-19 pandemic, the first systems were built for a large and mobile workforce that would want the ability to book a space in different offices from day-to-day.

The challenges of COVID-19 and the new “hybrid model” of alternating workdays between the home and the office, have provided a resurgence for the need for workspace booking systems. Office-space booking has quickly evolved and now allows business owners to allocate office-spaces according to COVID-19 social-distancing regulations, and present booking options to employees based on their seating preference, via real-time cloud-based software.

In recent years we have seen a natural move towards more flexibility in the workplace. The pandemic has just sped up a natural process while encouraging more safety measures. These decisions can be difficult to make, and they require input from different stakeholders to find the ideal solution for each office space. Don’t look at this as a challenge but rather an opportunity to streamline processes and ultimately increase productivity in the long run.

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How COVID-19 Has Impacted The Township Economy

• The pandemic has had a massive impact on businesses.

• Some businesses have been able to get some level of support from government.

• The businesses that need support the most, sadly, have not been able to qualify for it.

• In a survey, UNISA Press and Township Entrepreneur’s Alliance explore the impact of the pandemic on formal and informal businesses in the township.

More than three-quarters of township entrepreneurs suffered a blow during the lockdown stages caused by COVID-19 in South Africa, with lack of income, businesses closing down and facing struggles to maintain a normal lifestyle under the abnormal circumstances.

To get a better understanding of this impact, UNISA Press and Township Entrepreneur’s Alliance (TEA) have collaborated and put resources together to conduct the Lockdown Economic Impact Survey. The common goal is to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic and, consequently, the national lockdown have affected the township economy - in particular the formal and informal micro-enterprises. The results of this survey are not intended to be used in any scientific or academic publication.

The survey was solely intended for individuals who are running business activity in the township. The aim of the survey was to understand the experiences of township entities during the lockdown, as well as how the lockdown might have impacted (positively or negatively) their economic activity.

The study focused on three specific areas, namely; the economic activity of enterprises; financial implications and obligations of enterprises and finally the socio-economic impact.

The entrepreneurs who participated in the survey are mostly African youth across the country. The Impact of the Lockdown caused them to not be able to fully operate their businesses and some had to continue their operations from home.

The entrepreneurs that do live in the townships, are either owners or renting dwellings within the townships, many have responsibilities of extended family members 3 to 6 people in their households. The type of enterprises span across many business categories, most traded in the services industries followed by transportation, tourism and the retail industry thereafter. The liquor business accounted for the smallest percentage of business activities in the township.

“Despite the uncertainty of the current situation, most entrepreneurs are still determined to continue with their businesses even during COVID-19 as most don’t have any other option available to them but to make it work,” says Bulelani Balabala, founder of the Township Entrepreneur’s Alliance (TEA). “This impact wasn’t just on the entrepreneurs and their families but also on the people these enterprises employed as most of the enterprises employed between 2 and 5 people.”

The statistics showed that most of the entrepreneurs felt that there should be a more co-ordinated central point/body that could be used to access relief funds for township businesses, more than half of the entrepreneurs felt left to fend for themselves and felt that enterprises shouldn’t fend for themselves in accessing relief. Many entrepreneurs were not optimistic about the government’s relief intervention to assist township businesses.

You can download the survey here.

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Why Entrepreneurs Need To Be Part Of Communities

• The entrepreneur grind can be all-consuming.

• Creating positive habits is one way to avoid being completely sucked in.

• Joining a community of like-minds is another.

• Regularly interacting with people with similar experiences can only enrich you and your business.

• Gugulethu Rajuili explains why being part of a community is beneficial to your business.

Being an entrepreneur is a fantastic experience. The sense of control and the possibility you are given, knowing that you are actively dedicating your time and effort to making your business dreams come true, is unmatched.

Being in control, however, also means being responsible when things get out of control. This state of precariousness can lead to feelings of anxiety, lack of motivation and even isolation. That is why it is fundamental to have a support system around you. A network of individuals with whom you share similar experiences, ideas and struggles; a community.

Whether you support a particular sports team, are part of a running club or are even part of a group of quirky comic book fanatics, communities are a place to exchange, support and grow your insights and knowledge.

With this in mind, I have created a list of reasons why you, as an entrepreneur, should be part of a community.

Support

Having a business comes with its own set of ups and downs. The environment can be volatile and, often, unstable. It is important to have a space that you can reach out to for support. A place of solace wherein you can share and support, as well as be supported. Research has shown just how important an entrepreneur’s social networks are for their performance. What is key in these social networks is the support that is given through empathy, encouragement, familiarity and closeness.

Having others who have or are going through what you are going through around you is consoling and encouraging. Being vulnerable and sharing is beneficial to your wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the business.

Reinforcement

Entrepreneurship is a test of your passion and your endurance - it requires a degree of grit and resilience. In the face of adversity and misfortune, it also requires faith, and it is in these moments that these fundamental traits are put on trial. It’s natural that as a human being, one sometimes falls short of the consistency that running a business requires. This is why it is key to have a community that can offer to pick you up when you are down and provide the necessary reinforcement.

Reinforcement can be beneficial for encouraging the right behaviours and yielding motivation. A strong community of people with a positive, collective mindset builds an environment that reinforces positive attitudes and experiences, creating positive outcomes. Having this kind of energy around you will motivate you to work harder on your objectives and follow through on your commitments, even when facing adversity.

Resources

‘Your network is your net worth’. With a strong network of individuals around you comes empowerment. A community of entrepreneurs can be a rich pool of resources to tap into. Expertise, relationships, access to finance, information and potential collaborations are just some of the resources that can potentially be accessed. Access to these resources can open you and your business up to the right opportunities for growth and prosperity.

Learning

Learning is essential to an entrepreneur’s existence. Learning is an indispensable tool that every entrepreneur can use in their professional and personal lives because it allows them to understand and navigate their world more effectively. Being part of a community of knowledgeable individuals gives us the chance to learn from various sources - different individuals have their knowledge, expertise as well as know-how, to impart. As a group, you can systemise the learning experience by having a book you read every month, discussing a set topic or inviting an industry expert to have a presentation. The list is endless.

Passion

Passion is crucial in ensuring that perseverance, learning and overall development are always taking place. It encourages your team to devote themselves to the venture, attracts potential investment and encourages customers to buy your product or service. But what happens when the day to day struggles of the business erode your energy and zeal? As a business leader, it is essential to keep the same strength and vigour, even when things do not go your way. This is where your community comes in.

Having a community gives you an outlet for your passion as a business owner. Surrounding yourself with people you share the same passions with helps you sustain your confidence and motivation, and encourages your perseverance. Being in a community can make you feel as though you are part of something bigger than yourself. It is a place where you can get support for your wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of your business.

So, I encourage you to join a community of individuals such as yourself. Join that Facebook page, start that WhatsApp group, get a plug to invite you to into Clubhouse and be part of a network of individuals that will grow and evolve together.

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About The Author

Gugulethu Rajuili is the founder and managing director of Pull Incorporated. Pull Incorporated is a management consultancy that focuses on functional areas of SMMEs and offers products and business services in Marketing, Business Strategy and Operations Management. Gugulethu holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and is a co-founder of two start-ups, A Notion and Olet.

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Tom Fels On Why It’s Time To Usher In The B Economy

• COVID-19 caught us unaware and unprepared as a country.

• It’s also created a sense of urgency around some of our more pressing issues.

• The pandemic’s impact has been so dire because of the state we were already in.

• Plan A has long failed - it’s time to try other avenues.

• Tom Fels, an evangelist for conscious business and the founder of Animarem, explains.

Tom Fels is a mission-driven brand expert, keynote speaker and an evangelist for conscious business.

COVID-19 has laid bare the harsh reality of the cards we hold today: a stagnant economy, youth unemployment at an estimated 59%, an archaically carbon-dependent power grid and rampant corruption. Without a better plan, we are bluffing our way into 2021, destined to produce more of the same.

Given that Plan A has not served us, it is high time that we put our heads together to explore a better way towards a brighter future. As a nation of dogged optimists, the desire for unity and cohesion remains strong, but the economic framework to pave the path ahead is marred with potholes.

A revived Rainbow Nation must be grounded in an economic mentality that serves a broader purpose than enriching the few at the expense of the financially disconnected many. We need to imagine a benefit economy into being – a B Economy, if you will.

Seeking A Better Way

There is a growing movement of business leaders around the world that are turning their dissatisfaction with the status quo into a demonstrated provocation for change. They see the true nature of our system failures and seek ways to enhance the positive impact of their organisations, not only in how they serve their customers, but also their staff, suppliers, communities and the planet.

At the highest level, the World Economic Forum convened at Davos in January 2020 under the theme “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” Little did they know how telling this call to action would become, as rolling lockdowns ripped at the fabric of societies on every continent only weeks later.

Since then, open collaboration between 120 of the world’s largest companies led to the release in September of a common set of metrics for alignment of reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators and contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

During the same month, Imperative 21 launched a business-led network driving economic systems change, emblazoned on the impressive screen of the Nasdaq building in New York. This coalition of for-good organisations represents more than 70,000 businesses, 20 million employees, $6.6-trillion in revenue, and $15-trillion in assets under management. Yet it did not even make the news in South Africa.

A Collective Movement For Change

While the UK, Europe and many South American countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, along with the US, see the shared-value meta movement gaining mainstream traction, we still suffer relegation of the notion to NGOs, corporate social responsibility programmes and the public sector here on home soil.

The question I ask is, why?

Are we tripping blindly over immediate business continuity, political instability and the dire impact of COVID-19 at the expense of seeing the long-ranging picture of even greater strife? I would hypothesise that it is exactly the sum of these parts that in fact calls us to seek a regenerative route forward.

It could be argued that the size and systemic nature of the challenge are stumbling blocks for grounding this change into our industries and individual organisations; however, there is a stronger support structure in place to sustain this change than ever before – by way of collective will, available expertise, business initiatives and funding.

Culturally, the idea of stakeholder centricity is deeply embedded in the African notion of ubuntu. Now is the time to challenge apathetic leadership and bring it to life in the workplace, and not just at home in our communities.

The Measure Of Doing Good

One of the co-founders of Imperative 21 is B Lab, the 13-year-old non-profit behind B Corporation Certification – a community of leaders for a global movement of “business as a force for good.” Today there are over 3,500 businesses (among them, the likes of Patagonia) certified to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

With a fledgling but rapidly growing presence in Southern Africa, the B Corp framework offers a holistic and challenging standard for purpose-driven businesses to aspire to. The free B Impact Assessment tool offers impact measurement across five core dimensions, enabling any business owner to assess and improve in key areas of stakeholder accountability.

Recent data published by PwC in the UK points to strong resilience demonstrated by national B Corps, only 33% of whom had implemented the furlough scheme and just 20% of whom had abandoned planned social and environmental impact initiatives between March 2020 to July 2020.

The Long Game

We need an economic policy that encourages entrepreneurship and consolidates support for social entrepreneurs and our mid-tier independent businesses. We need to change the dialogue inside business from “quick wins” and dogmatic demands for “quarterly performance” toward a sustained commitment to growing deep-rooted organisations with a wider remit.

Our economic and social woes cannot be reversed by miraculous governmental alchemy, nor can they be solved by cash-strapped NGOs.

We need businesses big and small to embrace the idea of using the full leverage of their resources – not just their corporate social investment spend, but a broader vision of their ethos and focus – to create the groundswell for change that recognises and respects people, profit and the planet, thriving in unison. It is time to usher in the B Economy.

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About The Author

Tom Fels is a mission-driven brand expert, keynote speaker and an evangelist for conscious business. He is founder and CEO of Animarem, a boutique impact advisory that guides and powers the shift toward conscious business. More recently, he oversaw local and global award-winning communications, digital and hospitality businesses as CEO of Hospitality at Singita, CEO at Nurun and group MD of Publicis Machine.

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Cyber Threats Facing The Tech Industry And Top Strategies To Secure Your Startup

• Cyber-attacks are targeting the tech industry in increasing numbers.

• Startups are an easy target as they usually don’t have proficient security.

• If you’re running a startup, you should care.

In March of 2019, a software update system from Asus was compromised, and hackers used it to distribute malware to at least 1 million computers using Windows.

In February of the same year, two hackers associated with the Chinese government were criminally indicted. The charge was conspiring to commit computer fraud against tens of US-based and global companies. Their target was MSPs (Managed Service Providers) since these are companies that manage and store data and intellectual property for companies. This threat extended to the possibility of losing proprietary data from different businesses and even governments.

In 2014, up to 3 billion yahoo clients were affected by account breaches. More than 500 million users fell victim to identity theft, where their names, dates of birth, email addresses, and telephone numbers were compromised. This was after a similar breach occurred in 2013 where 3 billion accounts were compromised.

When it comes to cybersecurity threats, the main targets are usually cloud computing services, cloud storage providers, cybersecurity software developers, and file-sharing solution developers. When such an attack is successful, the damage can stretch far beyond the issue of recovering compromised data.

If you are running a tech startup, you are probably aware of the increase in attacks targeting the tech industry. Startups are usually an easy job for hackers because most companies do not have the best security infrastructure.

Types of cyber threats facing the tech industry

• Social engineered fraud - This includes the use of phishing attempts using emails that seem legitimate from vendors.

• Ransomware – this type of threat locks and encrypts data, affecting a computer or a server. A ransomware attack makes it impossible to access the computer or server until a ransom is paid.

• Wi-Fi connections – connecting to public Wi-Fi networks can compromise the security of your startup company. Public Wi-Fi connections are some of the easiest avenues used by hackers to access company profiles and websites.

• Data breach – this refers to incidences where company information is accessed without authorization. Data breach attacks mostly target documents, digital data, as well as user information.

Whether your business model is to offer cloud service, develop business apps, or build cybersecurity products, cyber-security cannot be overlooked if you want your new business to thrive. Here are steps to take to improve your IT security.

Use a VPN

A Virtual Private Network is a service used to secure your connection whenever you are using the internet. Whether you run your tech startup from your phone, laptop, or desktop, you can use a VPN app to improve security. You can safely use public Wi-Fi networks anywhere with your traffic encrypted.

Antivirus

You will need to invest in a good antivirus for your startup computers and system to protect your business from malware and virus attacks, including spyware, Trojans, and worms. This is an essential component of any cybersecurity strategy if you want to protect your startup from imminent attacks.

Risk assessment

This is a comprehensive audit of your company system. It checks for vulnerabilities and risks by looking for possible entry points. This gives you an idea of the vulnerable points in your business cyber space, making it easier to develop security patches to cover these entry points. This is one of the most effective ways of protecting company data.

Backup

Having a backup strategy is an important part of protecting your startup from cybersecurity threats. Ensure your mission-critical data is always backed up, making it easier to restore in case of a ransomware or data breach.

Multi-factor authentication

From AWS production infrastructure to Google apps, ensure you use multi-factor authentication for all your business connections and services. MFA adds an extra security requirement for all logins, using a password and a security code. Ensure you have MFA for all your cloud services.

Cybersecurity is complex. As your business grows, your need for improved security grows. Investing in threat intelligence and using the latest security tools to ensure you are always ahead of potential breaches.

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5 Ways To Balance Your Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

• The entrepreneur grind can be all-consuming.

• If not managed right, it can eat right through what you care about most.

• While work-life balance seems like a myth, it’s possible to get pretty close to living a healthy life.

• Creating positive habits is one way to get there.

• Heavy Chef contributor Gugulethu Rajuili has some tips.

The road to entrepreneurial success is a long and winding one. There are times when your venture will demand so much time and energy from you. These will take the shape of late-night working sessions, very early mornings, working over weekends and even dipping into the time that you would’ve otherwise spent with your loved ones.

There is no denying the importance of the grind, that all-important rite of passage. However, not being able to balance your entrepreneurial lifestyle is a problem that many novice and seasoned entrepreneurs face. Not doing so may have negative mental, physical and emotional effects on you. It could also negatively affect the relationships that are most important to you.

It’s safe to say no one wants a one-way ticket to burn out. So I have created this list of habits that you can adopt in your efforts of achieving a healthier balance.

You’ll know you’re doing it right when you get back into the swing of things, ready and able to apply your mind to even the most challenging of tasks.

Find Your Daily Centre

The world is full of noise. Beyond the daily hustle and bustle, there are external pull factors like social media, news, and the like. These are all things that can slowly gnaw at your sanity. Exercise being mindful and aware of your mind. Doing so will allow you to recognise when your mind wanders off and will guide you back to what your focus should be.

Standardise Your Day

Being an entrepreneur often means wearing many hats within your company - your job is simply never ‘done.’ Try to set tasks that you need to do and weed out anything else that may hinder peak productivity. Which leads us to our next point...

Learn To Say No

Just because you are busy doesn’t mean you are productive. A commonality among new entrepreneurs is to take on every client that can contribute to cash flow. However, this is not a sustainable business model as you may not be giving the best value that you can, and the customer may not be getting the best out of you. This may result in a wasted opportunity cost. Try curating offerings that are in line with your company vision and mission to get the best value out of the experience and do the same for your clientele.

Find Time To Exercise

Exercise is a great way to relieve stress, increase energy levels and improve both relaxation and quality of sleep. There are too many benefits for you not to be exercising. Exercising is also a keystone habit - a habit that leads to other positive habits.

Downtime

Resting is imperative. Exercise the art of switching off from time-to-time, you’ll find that this is a healthy practice to inhabit. Use the free time to catch up on your hobbies and spend quality time with the people who are most important in your life. It is also an opportunity to sit back and reflect. You’ll know you’re doing it right when you get back into the swing of things, ready and able to apply your mind to even the most challenging of tasks.

It is essential to have a healthy and balanced working and personal life. Our habits shape our lives and we become what we do. It is, therefore, crucial that we adopt healthy, positive habits to live out healthy, positive lifestyles. So, next time you decide to carve out a new routine, think of this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson; “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny”.

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Diversity In The Crucible Of 2020

• Shocking as it may be, diversity is still a challenge in most workplaces.

• This despite the fact that it helps a business innovate and grow.

• The more kinds of different you have in the workplace, the bigger the variety of ideas you can draw from.

• Still, being a woman in a male-dominated space is no walk in the park.

• Measurement specialist Dr Mariheca Otto shares one woman’s experience in the space sector.

As often highlighted by culture and people specialists, racial inclusion and diversity is essential for business success. Diverse teams are proven to out-perform homogenous teams 2:1 because they have a wealth of ideas and perspectives to draw from that culminate in more innovation and a better understanding of potential markets.

In advanced organisational cultures, men are more accepting and receptive to the input of women, compared to the lack of confidence levels women display around innovation, sharing their views and participating. Women often hold themselves back. They are not as confident and risk-taking as men in general - they pull back. We have to encourage women on an individual level to participate.

In some diverse teams, women end up overcompensating by using their voices. Some young dynamic women have strong opinions to the point of being overbearing. That’s because they are used to not being heard and have fought hard to get to the professional level. They have to unlearn this behaviour and start listening better as leaders.

Diverse teams have robust conversations if they are managed in a safe and mature way, resulting in the best solutions, offering creativity, energy and hope.

I spoke to Andiswa Mlisa, MD of the South African National Space Agency, about her experience as a woman in a very much male-dominated space. Mlisa believes that diversity is only achieved by design, it’s not accidental. As often the only woman in the room, and a black woman at that, Mlisa has experienced very little workplace diversity.

“In my technical field, I am often the only woman and South African men especially tend to treat women as just a ‘gal’, flirt and not take them seriously,” said Mlisa. “When I worked in Geneva there was a 50/50 gender balance in our team, an international community representing people from all over the globe. One thing that struck me was how my skin colour did not set me apart. Rather, being a foreigner, an African, did.”

Mlisa believes that two camps tend to emerge around diversity:

• Those that want to keep the status quo, regardless if it’s all black, all white, all women or all men.

• Those that point fingers towards others saying you must change, I don’t have to change.

There is little acceptance and buy-in of what diversity actually is. People still see diversity as “something for others to do and not for me”.

Embracing diversity in the workplace and doing activities that enable diversity are what changes this. The local space sector has very little diversity and is still very much male-dominated. We need to change the narrative that the only ones who are worthy, capable and belong are the ones who are the same as us. This perpetuates the same behaviours and notions we are trying to move away from.

“In such a male-dominated field, some men undermine and are not equipped to recognise a woman’s value and promote women into leadership. I have struggled to find mentors who don’t have ulterior motives. There are a few gems that have shown a genuine intention to mentor and acknowledge my capability,” added Mlisa.

“I remember being in a workshop in West Africa, I was assigned to chair a break-away session and the rapporteur was a male. The delegates were shocked I was the chair. ‘You’re a girl, you can’t be the chair of our session.’ I had to break the sad news to the 90% male audience, I was the chair. We had an interesting conversation about gender perceptions and biases stemming from the different cultural backgrounds in the room,” she concluded, smiling. “I recall this encounter with fondness as I believe there was a shift in behaviour, at least for some, after that discussion.”

In a male-dominated world, it’s often a lose-lose for women – when you show femininity, you’re criticised for being weak, when you take the masculine approach, you’re accused of trying to be a man. We say forget gender, just look at the capabilities.

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About The Author

Dr Mariheca Otto, the measurement guru, founded Motto Business Consulting in 2005. She consults in the field of organisation development and internal marketing (creating buy-in into vision). She works in association with independent OD consultants. She completed a B.Com (Hons: Industrial Psychology and Sociology), HED, M.Com and PhD in Business Management at the North-West University (Potchefstroom University). She has delivered papers at both national and international academic and business conferences. She has almost 20 years of lecturing, training and facilitation experience and is seen as the leader in her field thanks to her groundbreaking work.

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Four Reasons Why Diverse Teams Are More Effective

• Diversity is important in any situation, and especially productive in teams.

• Different people from different backgrounds offer a wider range of ideas and experiences to draw from.

• It’s simple - the more colours in a crayon box, the more colourful the picture.

• Measurement specialist Dr Mariheca Otto expands on why diverse teams are a no-brainer.

Smart leaders know they need diversity of backgrounds, characteristics and ideas on all levels so that they can attract, retain and make the most of people’s abilities. Diverse teams are proven to out-perform homogenic teams 2:1. That’s because diverse teams have a wealth of different ideas and perspectives that lead to innovation and understanding of potential markets.

Although women make up more than 50% of the population, in 2018, it was recorded that only 32% of them are managers. Additionally, only 31.5% of senior management positions are occupied by people of colour.

Increased Bottom Line

Time and again, evidence supports the theory that gender diversity has a positive impact on the bottom line. According to McKinsey, the most gender-diverse companies are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.

Studies have shown that a more gender-equal private sector correlates with better business performance and greater economic growth. On average, there is a 27% higher return on equity in women-owned and led businesses, and an 18% increase in sales.

Creativity And Solutions

Every individual brings a fresh perspective to a problem and different racial, gender, political, religious and cultural perspectives add richness to a solution. Diverse teams produce more creative results than teams in which all members are similar.

Creativity is bringing something new by combining two or more pieces of information together to form something useful to solve a problem. It makes sense that the more diverse the ideas available, the more creative the solutions will be.

A Boston Consulting Group study in 2018 found that organisations with more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenues due to innovation.

Better Place To Work

Women are generally team players and women on teams can help improve team processes and boost group collaboration. Researchers have observed that women have stronger skills reading non-verbal cues.

Women don’t generally hog the mike. Groups with more women were better at taking turns in conversation and ensuring that all voices are heard, which helps them make the most of the group’s combined knowledge and skills. Diverse teams aren’t built by themselves, they are achieved by design, not accident.

Diverse teams have robust conversations if they are managed in a safe and mature way, resulting in the best solutions, offering creativity, energy and hope.

Customer Insights

It makes sense that a workforce that best reflects an organisation’s customer base will have greater insight into customer needs and expectations. If you know your customers, you communicate with them better, enlisting customer loyalty and satisfaction.

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About The Author

Dr Mariheca Otto, the measurement guru, founded Motto Business Consulting in 2005. She consults in the field of organisation development and internal marketing (creating buy-in into vision). She works in association with independent OD consultants. She completed a B.Com (Hons: Industrial Psychology and Sociology), HED, M.Com and PhD in Business Management at the North-West University (Potchefstroom University). She has delivered papers at both national and international academic and business conferences. She has almost 20 years of lecturing, training and facilitation experience and is seen as the leader in her field thanks to her groundbreaking work.

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Why It's Important To Have Women In Leadership Positions

• Put simply, women make awesome leaders.

• They bring empathy and heart to an organisation in a way that men leaders can’t.

• In fact, it’s the very attributes that supposedly make them unsuited to leading that make them great leaders.

• Dr Mariheca Otto expands on exactly why women are so kickass at heading a team.

“Duh, Mama, why would you want all the same kind of people in a leadership team: women bring things that men don’t have?”

This was my 14-year old son’s response when I bounced the idea of men-only teams in business off him.

My observation and experiences are that women are generally raised to be ‘less than’. It’s not assumed we’re going to be something in life. In most cultures, girls are second grade. So when we land up in leadership positions, women are far more humble and question their decision-making.

Despite our common insecurities surrounding being in charge, we are far more engaging and participative as leaders; we include people before a decision is made. It’s very rare that you find an authoritarian female leader - they usually employ a participative leadership style. In my more than twenty years of consulting, I have never come across an authoritarian female leader.

Empathy comes easily for women. Empathetic and compassionate leadership is highly valuable in a collaborative world. Leaders drive the culture of an organisation, so when women are included in your leadership team, your culture will be inclusive.

When you include empathy and compassion in an organisation, humanity is a result. You create a space of belonging and belonging is a critical driver for most individuals. The world lacks belonging and there is a hunger for it.

I work in the measurement space, so evidence and data are my thing.

If you look at data on staff satisfaction and engagement, there is plus-minus a 17% increase in productivity when people engage. If you move from engagement to inspiration, there is a further 50% improvement in productivity. Organisations that have an environment where there is belonging and inspiration outperform those that don’t almost 2:1.

Female leaders are naturally more inclusive. Teams in an inclusive environment outperform homogenous teams 2:1. Data shows that organisations that include women in leadership, creating a diverse team, out-perform those that don’t. This doesn’t take success related to innovation into consideration. Women tend to be innovative and open-minded in their problem-solving styles. A lack of arrogance means they are open to group contributions. In general, women are able to hold vulnerability far more easily than men.

I am involved in change projects and they are often painful. If organisations don’t change, they die. In this time of COVID-19, that is happening right now. Organisations have to be agile and nimble and sometimes take a 180 degree to survive. When you drive change, one of the keys to success is communication. Speak to your people often, telling the same message simply and emotionally. These are very female characteristics. We talk a lot, we repeat ourselves and we’re emotional. We understand and have empathy for people who are struggling. Women are able to drive change messages because they are generally more emotional. They can feel their own struggles. This gives an organisation the opportunity to reinvent their cultures and to be more agile for the future.

I have always worked independently, but always formed part of my clients’ leadership teams. True leadership is influence, and not power and authority. A shop steward that is strong is so because of influence, not authority and power. I have always used my influence when being part of a leadership team. I use my influence to ask questions. I ask questions to drive change and shift mindsets. People move forward when they discover the answers themselves. I could come in and tell people what to do, but that’s arrogant, and full of the assumption that I know the answers. When you understand people’s mindsets, when they share their perceptions, feelings and thinking, you can predict their behaviour. If you’re clear on the organisation’s strategy, you can influence their stories with other information and knowledge, leading to change. If we help people to understand the stories they tell themselves, we can change perceptions, we can change their minds, we can change behaviour.

If you want a sustainable organisation, then you need women on your leadership team to ensure innovation, adaptability, influence, belonging and engagement. Data proves this.

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About The Author

Dr Mariheca Otto, the measurement guru, founded Motto Business Consulting in 2005. She consults in the field of organisation development and internal marketing (creating buy-in into vision). She works in association with independent OD consultants. She completed a B.Com (Hons: Industrial Psychology and Sociology), HED, M.Com and PhD in Business Management at the North-West University (Potchefstroom University). She has delivered papers at both national and international academic and business conferences. She has almost 20 years of lecturing, training and facilitation experience and is seen as the leader in her field thanks to her groundbreaking work.

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Where My Entrepreneurial Journey In Wine Began

• Dawn Mambalu is a wine consultant and the owner of Dawnellar.

• She has the unique experience of being one of the few black women in wine locally.

• Dawn didn’t grow up with wine but that hasn’t stopped her passion from growing.

• She shares her love story with wine, as well as some interesting info on the history of the practice in SA.

I didn't grow up with wine at the dinner table.

I remember, being at a family birthday in the ‘90s, among all the festivities the one thing that captured my attention was a bottle of bubbles being opened. It was the drama centred around it. The whole party came to a pause - the focus was on this J C Le ROUX bottle, cork soaring through the air, bubbles in suit.

What a moment for 5-year-old Dawn.

Wine would not be a part of my life until I was a second-year student at the University of Cape Town. A friend and I would take evening strolls to a neighbourhood coffee shop, where we would have a glass or two of their wine by the glass coupled with their homemade cheesecake. It became a delicious ritual. I decided then that I wanted to know more about wine - ten Good Taste magazines later and I was sold. I knew enough about wine from reading Malu Lambert articles in the magazine to secure an entry-level job in a wine club. I never looked back.

Wine in South Africa dates back to 1659, with the first wine estate being established in the Constantia region.

The first batch of wine was made from French Muscadel grapes and was a roaring success. Twenty years, later Simon van der Stel, at that time the governor of the Cape, took a keen interest in good quality wine making and began to “import" french winemakers as well as a variety of grapes, namely Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Palomino and more Muscat. This dedication to quality and variety would later gain the respect of Europe and is why our wine industry is one of the best in the world.

Today there are five main wine regions in the Western Cape and they employ more than 400 000 workers. I may have to stand corrected at this number - the alcohol ban has had a massively negative impact on the industry.

So, as I was saying, I didn't grow up with wine on the dinner table. Growing up in a black home, alcohol was never a part of my every day experience. We were shown enough of how alcohol destroyed our future. The alcoholic down the street who spent most of his days drinking and cursing. The uncle in the family who didn't get to study further and is now the family alcoholic (today, he's the go-to guy when we have family functions and want to drink wine from coffee mugs or hide to smoke - he doesn't judge.)

One of my favourite memories of home is the Sunday ritual, where women and men come to the house after church for gossip, tea and biscuits Tea! I love the tea bit because that's exactly how tannin is described today in the wine industry. You know that dry feeling you get on your tongue when you are drinking tea? It's the same dryness you get from the tannin in red wine.

I eventually left the homestead for university where a new experience with drink and food ensued. Wine became an essential. I knew that I wanted to be an active part of the rich history of my country. Wine was a way for me to do that. Wine was it for me. I enrolled and completed a wine making programme, worked in a couple of restaurants as a sommelier and part-time at wine estates. I had no interest in making wine at the time, and in a way still don't. I think there are more than enough winemakers, what the industry needs now is more wine drinkers.

This is especially true now. The economy is growing (humour me please) and people who could not afford a particular lifestyle before, can now. Our collective culture as a nation is changing - we drink now, we dine out and we want to know more about wine.

This is where sommeliers like myself come in the picture. Sommeliers are qualified wine servers and educators with a focus on pairing wine and food. We are mostly found in five-star restaurants and hotels, or like me, offering private tasting lessons and wine selection. Trained professionals like myself can teach you about wine and help you to build your wine confidence - when you're confident, you ask the right questions and make better choices.

I thrive in the sommelier space because I genuinely enjoy the wine education. Every meal has the right wine that goes with it. It's also empowering to be able to tell, just from tasting it, whether a wine is good or not despite the price.

With 10 years of experience in the industry, I have chosen to go the wine education route. I am now a personal wine buyer and will be setting up a pop-up tasting room in the next few months.

I didn't grow up with wine at the table.

I am, however, passionate about the beautiful grape and, for me, it's imperative to keep learning and perfecting my craft in an industry where people who look like me are a rare sighting. I am also passionate about sharing that knowledge, so look out for my next segment where I will explain the various grape varietals, tannins, terroir, ageing wine and a lot more.

Dawn.

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Turning Your Kids Into Young Entrepreneurs

• Employment has quickly become a less than desirable option, particularly as there is so little of it available.

• To prepare our children for the future, it’s important that we expose them to entrepreneurship now.

• Children are fast learners so the time to teach them anything is now.

• Retail Capital’s Cate Williams has these suggestions for introducing your kids to the value of running a business.

Turning job seekers into youth entrepreneurs and job creators doesn’t happen overnight. Youth entrepreneurship requires an attitudinal shift that needs to be inculcated among our children from a very early age.

Positively there has been much support for including entrepreneurship in the school curriculum, with President Cyril Ramaphosa adding his thoughts at the Investment Conference last year when he publicly said he would like to see entrepreneurship taught in schools to develop a culture of self-employment from an early age.

With jobs becoming scarcer and scarcer, it is essential that young people are equipped with how to create employment options for themselves. While the debate to include entrepreneurship as a subject continues, caregivers and parents can step in and teach their children how to become self-sufficient, creative, innovative and resilient – all top traits of an entrepreneur.

Here are my top tips on how to encourage youth entrepreneurship:

Teach Them To Set Goals

No matter your age, setting goals is a powerful tool that provides a sense of accomplishment and can also build self-esteem. They are also an integral part to entrepreneurial success and research has shown that written goals are 80 percent more likely to be achieved. The sooner a child learns how to set a realistic goal, plan and follow-through in implementation, the better.

Engaging kids in goal-setting can be as simple as asking them to write down their top 10 goals, and to then choose one that will have the most impact on their life. Next, encourage them to create mini-goals or steps that will help them accomplish the goals, and get them going on their tasks straight away. This will impact the child’s self-worth, self-drive and sense of achievement. The sooner a child learns how to set a realistic goal, plan and follow-through in implementation, the better.

Kids are known for not understanding the value of money, so teaching them about finances from an early age gives them a foundation that they are unlikely to get at school. The most effective way to develop financial skills is to give them incentives to save.

Let Them Manage The Transaction From Start To Finish

Parents can also empower them to pay at the till point by giving them cash to give to the cashier. Or older children can be given the responsibility of going into a shop to buy a few items, and manage the payment too.

Giving a child tasks to do at home, in return for a small pay, it also works wonders as they will learn the value of money by having to work for it.

Let Them Practice Their Selling Skills

This is an ability we should all learn as it applies to almost every business interaction. From selling goods and services, to raising capital from investors, this is a lifelong skill for all youth entrepreneurs.

Get the kids involved in selling early on. For instance, work with them to sell their old toys or clothes on Gumtree in return for a small profit. Or help them bake homemade treats to sell at school.

Whatever the product, get them to decide on a price, sell to the customer – whether on or offline – and let them manage the transaction from start to finish. This will not only give them confidence in their abilities, but will double-up in teaching them about money.

Help To Develop Their Communication Skills

Children and adults alike are losing the ability to talk to each other thanks to social media and text messaging. Correct this at home: teach kids how to be confident in their communication whether in person, or on the phone (encourage them to actually call someone and not WhatsApp).

Tell them to speak boldly, slowly and to articulate their points convincingly and encourage situations in which your child needs to speak to others. Teaching children to talk properly will put them in good stead in business and in their personal relationships, especially as the art of conversation is being lost thanks to the impact of technology.

Encourage Them To See The Value In Teamwork

Being able to work in a team is also a critical skill that needs to be encouraged from a young age. No-one is entirely self-sufficient so learning how to engage with and even rely on others is an important strategy to learn.

Successful entrepreneurs are renowned for delegating tasks – Sir Richard Branson is a case in point – so encouraging kids to play with others with a view to reaching a common goal is good practice. Teaching children to talk properly will put them in good stead in business.

Playing sport is an effective way to teach teamwork too as it allows players to deal with successes and losses, a key trait of being an entrepreneur especially when failure is part for the course. In fact, failure is a great thing if a positive lesson is learned from the process. Allowing kids to fail will help them create new ways to accomplish their goals and learn from their mistakes.

These are just a few top tips on how to teach your children to be self-sufficient, confident and independent, all skills that will put them in good stead on the (entrepreneurship) journey to being an entrepreneur.

As a parent, you play a vital role in shaping your child for their future. With jobs becoming scarcer and scarcer, it is essential that young people are equipped with how to create employment options for themselves – their training starts at home.

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5 Ways For Entrepreneurs To Benefit From Flexible Office Solutions

• Coworking has seriously caught on in the last decade.

• And with reason - it simply makes startup sense.

• You get to save on so many operational costs compared to renting an office.

• It’s also super valuable for entrepreneurs to be surrounded by other entrepreneurs through their business journey.

• Workshop17’s Ashleigh Veitch shares the top five reasons why people in business can benefit from flexible office solutions.

Entrepreneurs work hard to come up with winning business ideas. Not to mention, the sheer grit and perseverance it takes to cultivate that idea into a functioning business. Even so, one of the best things about being an entrepreneur is the freedom to make your own rules. Set your own working hours, business norms, and most importantly, your place of work.

Until recently, traditional offices had a reputation for being an entrepreneur’s dream. Big office = big success. However, we’re now seeing a significant shift to the flexibility and scalability of coworking spaces. So, what does a coworking space offer entrepreneurs that a fixed-office can’t?

Cost-Effective And Flexible Memberships

Saving on expenses is key, especially when developing a business from scratch. It’s also common for startups to fluctuate in size as you’re finding your feet. For this reason, locking into a long-term lease in a fixed-space restricts your ability to scale or downsize. Not to mention, paying for space you may not need just yet.

Coworking spaces, on the other hand, are membership-based. This means there are unlimited options available to suit your needs. If you’re looking to get an intern part-time for only 3 months, there’s a membership that can accommodate you. Or, you can even decide to limit your membership to one location - it’s all possible.

Essentially, coworking spaces offer every opportunity to design your business space around what you really need. It opens up doors and keeps you in control of your costs.

Access To Equipment

Fixed-office costs don’t just involve rent. There’s an endless array of things to consider including printers, WiFi, security, furniture and more. Luckily, coworking spaces have you covered. Equipment is shared between members and is maintained by the technical staff.

Suddenly, it doesn’t become your responsibility. And, as a result, allows you to focus on day-to-day business instead of whether the printer has ink. As well as technical equipment, coworking spaces like our own also offer eventing facilities, private offices, treadmill desks, standing desks and more. Ultimately, there’s something for everyone and it’s there for you should you need it.

Collaboration And Synergy

Unlike traditional office spaces, coworking spaces aren’t limited to your immediate employees or colleagues. There’s a focus on collaborating and building a repertoire with other entrepreneurs. At Workshop17, one of our greatest values is building a community and emphasising the importance of wellness.

As an entrepreneur, it can be isolating to work alone or even from home. With this in mind, coworking spaces provide a platform that encourages interaction. As simple as it sounds, the feeling of being part of a community has positive effects on motivation. Besides, meeting like-minded people is also a great way to share ideas and experiences as business owners.

Networking Opportunities

One of the greatest benefits of shared office spaces is the opportunity to network. Connections that were once difficult to make, are now possible as business owners from all walks of life end up in the same space.

Many of our members have built partnerships and even onboarded members as clients. In a traditional office space, this would be almost impossible to come by. On top of this, Workshop17 hosts multiple networking events and activities that promote new business connections. These include our successful ‘Speed Dating’ activity that succeeded in bringing new businesses together for productive conversations.

Gain A Business Address

Lastly, coworking spaces give entrepreneurs a physical business address. It may not seem that critical, but having a reliable space to direct deliveries, potential employees, clients etc. is a simple way to legitimise your business.

Potential customers tend to look at where a company is based for added confidence. Consequently, a business address versus a home address may be the defining line between gaining a new client and not.

Overall, coworking spaces tick the boxes for entrepreneurs needing flexibility, credibility and scalability. Visit https://workshop17.co.za/ to see our flexible workspace solutions and get in touch!

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Step-By-Step Guidelines For Setting Up A Website For Your Business

• In 2020, and especially during a pandemic, your business needs an online presence.

• Building a website may seem like a daunting task but it doesn't have to be.

• A step-by-step guide to setting up a website is exactly what you need and our friends at xneelo are exactly the right people to deliver it.

• Go off and spread your online wings then - your business will thank you!

There’s no disputing that having an online presence in 2020 is essential.

But if you haven’t yet built your business website, it can seem like an intimidating task. Where do you start? What do you need to do? How do you make the right choices? Here is a step-by-step guide to getting your business online, tried and tested by myself and my team at xneelo.

Choose Your Domain Name

Your domain name is the name of your website: what customers will type in or click on. Your domain name is often your customer’s first interaction with your brand. If the domain name doesn’t match your brand, or if a brand only has a Facebook page and not a website, it lacks credibility.

Your domain name will also be added to all your marketing material – online and offline. Choosing the right domain name is a long-term investment in your brand.

In an ideal world, your company name will be short, easy to spell and the domain name will be available. Sadly, that doesn’t happen often. Finding the right domain name is a process that essentially involves finding a creative, on-brand representation of your business that will be simple to spell and easy to remember. No small task! We’ve outlined the steps to follow here.

It is one of the first steps of your online branding journey, though, and can be a fun exercise in how you want to see your business represented on the internet.

Choose Your Web Host

Once you’ve found the right domain, it’s time to choose your web host. A web hosting company provides the foundation on which your website is built. Hosting includes the storage your website uses, the traffic, email addresses and databases. Here’s more info on what small businesses need to know about web hosting.

Building a website is one of the first steps of your online branding journey and can be a fun exercise in how you want to see your business represented on the internet.

It’s important to choose a web hosting company with solid infrastructure and reliable 24/7 support - they’re the ones you call if something goes wrong with your website and you’re not sure what to do. Having a hosting partner who is sensitive to your needs and always available to assist ensures that you’ll have the support you need on your business journey.

Security is another thing you want to check with your web hosting company. A secure website is essential to protect your business against hackers. Ideally, you want a hosting provider that provides:

• Spam filtering

• Blocking against unwanted traffic and DDoS attacks

• Integrated SSL to encrypt your user’s information

• Firewalls and server security

Not sure how to choose a web hosting company? HelloPeter is always a good option, as are Google reviews as they give real customer feedback.

Choose Your Website Platform

There are a number of CMS (Content Management Systems) to choose from - WordPress, Joomla and more. We prefer WordPress because it offers a lot of options to customise your site, and it’s really flexible - you can take your website with you wherever you go. Another thing to consider is whether you want your website to be an e-commerce platform. If so, you’ll either want to use an e-commerce-only solution like Shopify, or a plugin like WooCommerce that turns your WordPress website into a full-blown e-commerce store.

Once you’ve chosen your platform, you install it and you’re ready to start building your site!

Customise Your Site

This is the fun part. You now have a blank website template to fill with your content and make your own. Before you begin, take some time to plan out your content. Think about your target market and how they will interact with your website - on mobile or desktop? Are they looking for something in particular - a number so they can call you, information about your product, such as pricing? How can you make their journey through your website as simple and straightforward as possible? If you take the time to map out the user journey (the path you want visitors to take from when they land on your homepage to when they engage your services), your website will make a lot more sense.

When you’re ready, you can choose a theme that suits your business, and start filling in the blanks. These blanks will include visual elements like your logo, images of your product or service, information about your team and perhaps images of your physical working space. Written elements include information about your company and your origins, what you offer and what makes you different. Once you’ve got the basics down, you can start thinking about what kind of content you want to offer your visitors - how you want to use content marketing.

Content marketing is the process of creating authoritative, relevant, and specific content to attract visitors. This should make up the bulk of your SEO marketing strategy. You can distribute content via multiple channels, such as a blog, social media accounts, or even email. Thoughtful, informative content that provides value to your target market has a strong chance to rank well with search engines and draw customers to your site.

Connect The Dots

So now you have a brand-new website. Well done! Job (almost) done.

What comes next? Connecting the dots… Do you already have a Facebook page, Instagram account or Twitter feed? Make sure you add them to your website, and add your website to your social media profiles. Are you on LinkedIn? Create a company page and add your details. Have you been publishing videos to YouTube? Make sure to embed them into your website, and add your site details to your YouTube channel.

The goal here is to make your brand smashable: to ensure that no matter where people interact with your business, the experience feels the same. The idea of a smashable brand dates back to 1915 when Coca Cola asked for a bottle that would be recognisable as a Coke bottle even if it was in a hundred pieces. If you removed the logo from your website/Facebook posts/Instagram posts/newsletters/printed materials, would it still be instantly recognisable? Ideally, you want people to have a consistent experience of your brand no matter where they see it.

Building a solid foundation by creating a well-connected, easy-to-use website is the first step to growing your business online. At xneelo, we focus on empowering our customers to grow their businesses online. Find out more at www.xneelo.co.za

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Raizcorp CEO Allon Raiz's Framework For Hard Decisions

The scale of the national COVID-19 lockdown is unprecedented in living memory. The repercussions – personal, professional, national and international – will reverberate for years to come. As entrepreneurs, we need to be making the right decisions for right now to ensure that our businesses and our people’s livelihoods do not become another casualty of the virus. In this series of articles, Allon Raiz, CEO of top business incubator Raizcorp, shares his views and insights on weathering the storm and even thriving after it.

A system shock, by definition, alters the status quo of the system. The status quo is a complex web of negotiated “contracts” – social, legal, cultural and other – that over time settles into a common understanding of the way in which things operate. A system shock either breaks those contracts or pressurises them to be broken or modified. There is often elasticity in a system and so there is some level of rebound to the previous status quo – but never completely. And so, a new status quo, a new normal, a new way-things-work is born.

In practical terms, this means that if an organisation is going to survive or thrive in a new status quo, the structure of the organisation needs to change, the number of people in the organisation will likely change (up or down), client needs will begin to change and consequently the products and services the organisation sells need to change, the supporting processes and systems for these new products will need to be created (change), and so on. In short, everything needs to change to some extent to adapt to the new new.

Before a new status quo is achieved, the system experiences “waves” moving through it – shocks and aftershock, peaks and troughs.

The question is how do you break a contract in whatever form it may present (legal, social, cultural, other) and introduce a new contract that is more suitable in a context where conditions are evolving and a new equilibrium has still not been achieved?

As the waves from the system shock move through time, there are peaks and troughs that require vastly different responses.

An example to illustrate the complexity of this quandary is a factory that manufactures perfume. Based on demand dropping for perfume during COVID-19 but spiking tremendously for hand sanitisers, the perfume factory has a hard decision to make. Does it continue to manufacture perfume and hope that things return to normal production levels quite soon, or does it repurpose its operations (with relative ease) to manufacture hand sanitisers? This is not an easy decision to make since the answer to the question “How long will it last?” is unanswerable at the current time. If the decision is made to repurpose the factory for hand sanitiser, what will happen subsequently when other producers enter the hand-sanitiser market? Will the demand for hand sanitiser begin to decrease over time as well? Even though the perfume manufacturer can convert its plant relatively easily, there is still a cost (time, money, opportunity) of conversion. Another question to consider is if that cost will or can be completely amortised? Over what period do we consider amortisation? What if the demand for hand sanitiser starts to decrease yet the demand for perfume does not correspondingly increase to a sufficient level for the factory to replace production capacity? What if there is price pressure on the hand- sanitiser market owing to oversupply, and a corresponding price pressure on perfume owing to market affordability? Does the factory look for other products to replace the demand and margin? And the list of questions goes on …

This example serves to illustrate the difficulty of the decision making required during a system shock. The height and depth of the peaks and troughs are unknown. The length of time they will endure is unknown, as is the nature of the aftershocks. What is known is that a new equilibrium will be created and the companies that will thrive will need to make decisions that serve them well, both during the period of shock (so they can survive the shock) and into the time of the new equilibrium.

This is much easier said than done.

A framework for making hard decisions is very important as it allows you to think rationally through the types of decisions you need to make from two perspectives – the immediate and the medium term. With a system shock such as the current one, I think it is incredibly difficult to think long term as there are bound to be continued seismic shifts in the system for years to come which will make it even more difficult to predict long- term scenarios with much accuracy. The luxury of long-term thinking will need to wait for a while. For now, the majority of us just need to get through today and the next two years.

My proposed framework for making hard decisions is to firstly break down every factor of your decision making into a short- and medium-term view. Secondly, and more importantly, begin to think through other factors you may not naturally have previously considered as factors but which, owing to COVID-19, have now become conceivable factors to include in your decision making.

Short- And Medium-Term Scenario Planning

Create a three-column table. Head the first column “Factors”, the second column “Short term” and the third column “Medium-term”. Begin to populate the obvious factors and your hypotheses of the movement or direction of these factors. Once completed, this will give you a strong visual expression of the probable short and medium term. So, to continue with the perfume factory example, here is an illustration of how you would go about populating the table. First, capture your factors and scenarios in sentences as below, then break these down into the requisite columns – factor, short term and long term.

• The likelihood of the demand curve for hand sanitisers perpetuating in the short and medium-term is high but slightly diminishing in the medium term.

• The likelihood of more players entering the hand-sanitiser market (competition) in the short term is equally high and diminishes in the medium term.

• This means there is likely to be a short-term spike in prices than a medium-term decrease as thousands of new players enter the market to appease demand.

• An argument might be made that the demand for luxury perfume will remain low in the short and medium-term as the economic ramifications of the current shock mean fewer people can afford luxury goods.

• Your cash flow in the short term is fine but, in the medium term, diminishing.

Pause And Expand The Number Of Factors In Your Decision Making

Adding new factors of choice into the decision-making equation increases the complexity of your decision making but also makes it more effective. Initially, you might have just been making a decision between investing in converting all or part of your perfume factory into a hand-sanitiser manufacturer or remaining as you are. A binary decision; this or that. Or perhaps a more complex decision; this or that, or this and that. Under status quo scenarios, where the rules are mostly known and the pieces in the puzzle pretty stable, entrepreneurs generally resort to binary-type decision making as it is efficient and effective. Our daily lives are filled with yeses and nos, pick from a short list of logos, approve the budget or reject the budget. We make thousands of these decisions, many instinctively and confidently. Bringing in additional factors of choice may create better decisions but, when you are moving at breakneck speed in a competitive environment, there is more efficiency in fast, less complex binary-type decisions.

In a system shock, we naturally resort to our old decision-making process or try to make quick binary-type decisions. The speed at which the external world is changing puts pressure on us to do so. The only difference in these times, as mentioned in previous articles, is that we have less time and less data to make those decisions. I see many knee-jerk decisions being made, many of which are detrimental to the medium- term prospects of businesses.

Of course, there are exceptions but it is best in a fluid system shock to do two things: firstly, delay the decision for as long as possible so that more data can reveal itself; and secondly, force yourself to add more factors of choice to your decision-making table.

In our perfume factory example, the decision is effectively ‘do we convert our plant to manufacturing hand sanitiser or do we stay as we are?’ Or perhaps a bit of both? This or that, or this and that.

Let’s add another factor such a buying a competitor or selling out to a competitor (or perhaps a combination). By adding competitors as a factor in your decision-making matrix, your choices now include spending money on converting your plant or using that cash on buying a competitor and thus increasing your market share.

• Competitors X and Y are likely to go out of business owing to COVID-19 in the medium term but remain in business in the short term.

• Competitors A and B are likely to go out of business in the short term.

A system shock loosens possibilities, loosens factors so to speak, to be added to your decision-making matrix that would not previously have been viewed as considerations. Factors of choice that would have seemed impossible just a few months ago are plausible today. Make sure you do not resort to your old yet efficient binary decision-making process when the system shock has gifted you factors of choice that you could never have even dreamed of just weeks ago.