When my grandfather was dishing out good career advice, ‘getting a job in a big company and staying there, and working your way up patiently’ would have been a theme he’d have followed. In fact my father didn’t stray much from that kind of thinking. But sitting next to an obviously talented 25 year old (and some may argue that at 25 there surely can’t be much talent evident at 25) on the plane last night didn’t surprise me that he’d recently left his first job in a very large blue chip consultancy after just 3.5 years, to join another large blue chip company.
The world has changed. Approaches to companies and your career has changed along with it. 25 year olds with talent can expect to have had several jobs in various industries before 35. In fact that kind of work experience is a sign of talent rather than a sign of lack of focus and commitment.
So how do you attract and retain yojur young talent today? The 25 year old I sat with thought it was a simple task, but this from someone who was onto job number two in industry number 2 in year number 4. Clearly he hasn’t seen any evidence that anyone’s got it right yet.
The world has changed, and any company taking a traditional approach to attraction and retention is in for a big surprise. But this is not news, this is their reality.
Nuf Sed
I’m sitting with the crew from SABC’s Business focus, doing a spot on corporate blogging.
One of the growing forces that is contributing to the talent wars in South Africa is “demand�. We know that Xers in their early careers aim to increase their marketability by building a portfolio as opposed to a CV. Bigger packages, flexible hours, freedom and the like all have an important part to play in the rate at which BYTs jump ship (or stay), but I have a hunch (if I have to look at myself as a BYT) that being in demand is one of the biggest factors. We want to be in demand – it boosts our ego and it proves to us that our marketability is working. This is especially true of young black BYTs in South Africa – the prices on their heads are exorbitant and it is all based on demand (much like share prices).
One of the major problems of the AIDS epidemic in Africa (and soon in Asia, Russia, China and India, too), is that it hits the middle age people most (mainly because in Africa, AIDS is sexually transmitted between heterosexuals). This has the effect of removing parents from society. Its hard to write that blandly, without feeling the impact of it in your gut - especially if you live in Africa at the moment. For example, 
A sign of the times…. ?
In a move that’s sure to unsettle 
Seth recently launched 
While many of us speculate, comment and muse on the future, there is a 50/50 chance we could be right, more likely an 80/20 chance we could be wrong, who predicted blogging would be so big?, or that the web would become so pervasive or even, more sinister, who could have predicted that the 9/11 attacks would take place (Funny thing, Clem Sunter actually DID predict this in one of his books on scenario planning!!) However, being a futurist is not an exact science!
Seth Godin is undoubtedly one of the gurus of online marketing. His ideas never seem to age and he seems to often be one step ahead of the rest. In his latest move, he has set up a service called squidoo. In his words, this is what it is about:
As I left for an overseas trip, I rummaged through my bookcase of “books to be read” and selected the clean, white cover of The Leadership Pipeline, by James Noel, Stephen Drotter and Steven Drotter (Buy it at 
This week, the Liberal Australian government has started a massive public awareness campaign for its new labour law revisions, entitled: WorkChoices (
Picked this up from DK’s (his 
Many people tend to confuse the term with any skilled or trained worker, especially in the ICT sector, but this is not the case.
The Dilbert Principle refers to a 1990s satirical theory stating that companies should promote their worst employees to managerial positions so as to prevent them from directly affecting the consumer’s experience. (source: 
TomorrowToday.biz uses 
I found a link to the 
Maybe not in Africa, but 
“According to the philosopher Ly Tin Wheedle, chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.� (Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett)
There I was yesterday, needing an “urgent” haircut, and finally only being able to get an appointment at the salon where my wife usually goes. They charge a fortune at this place, but they give a bit extra, too. I get a back and shoulder massage before they start, and while having my hair cut, they do a hand massage and cream - nice touch, I thought.
Came across an interesting piece of information today. According to an article on IT Web (Paul Vecchiatto - 28 July 2005 ), Knysna is poised to become the first South African town to become fully WiFi connected. 
In a similar vein to Jotspot, another collaborative tool is writeboard. The difference is that it seems that writeboard has quite a bit more functionality and it is completely free, no matter how many “boards” you put up. Also, it has some pretty good organising functions, so take a look around. The company that has developed this is called 37 signals and they have developed a few other collboration tools such as:
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