Archive for the 'The Quick and the Dead - case studies' Category

Activists and companies can co-operate

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 10, 2008
in Environmental Issues, Ethics, Future Trends and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The Economist recently ran a fascinating little piece on how activists and companies need to work towards a common outcome and goal. Read it here (subscription may be required) - or an extract below. It may be idealistic, but it is a wonderful goal to have, and certainly is a requirement if we are really going to change the world.

Strange bedfellows

Companies as activists
May 22nd 2008

LAST month Tom Katzenmeyer, vice-president of investor relations at Limited Brands, met representatives of the government of the Canadian province of Alberta. Limited Brands is an American apparel firm with sales of $10.1 billion last year; its best-known division is Victoria’s Secret, which sells lingerie. And what was the topic of discussion? The firm’s worries over threatened caribou habitats.

Continue reading ‘Activists and companies can co-operate’

Developing a good business culture is like making fine wine

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 14, 2008
in Organisational Design and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

I recently read a fantastic interview with Management consultant, Ralph Sink. He has been a lifelong believer in high-performance systems, also known as self-organizing teams and participative management. These require employees to take ownership of their jobs, to collaborate with one another to establish control over their work, to be innovative, and to deliver results — to maintain accountability for the business and be treated with corresponding respect, regardless of their level within the organizational hierarchy.

You can read the full interview here at Strategy+Business.

Here are some of the gems from the interview:

  • On attempts to create attractive corporate cultures without all the hard work: It’s like making wine. Managers who operate by metrics, paperwork, and numbers say, “OK, we’ve analyzed wine. It has sugar in it. It has pulp. It has yeast. It has grapes.” So, they dump those ingredients in a pot, stir it, drink it, and say, “but this doesn’t taste like wine,” and wonder why. It’s because the wine had to go through a process. They may have had the components right, but they overlooked the principles for transforming grapes and water into wine. These managers will look at our approach and say, “Oh, I see what this is. You operate with 20 percent fewer people. You eliminate the supervisors, and everybody is self-managed.” So without any development process, principles, or leadership, they go in and cut head counts. And when they end up with a catastrophe, they say, “This approach didn’t work.” From their perspective, they analyzed the pot and put the elements in and stirred it up, so when it failed, they weren’t to blame.

Continue reading ‘Developing a good business culture is like making fine wine’

Competing for Eco tourists

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 25, 2008
in Environmental Issues, On the Move - Travel and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The Strategy+Business blog and website always has insightful content. It’s the online moutpiece of consulting giant, Booz Allen Hamilton, so that should be no surprise. Subscribe to their e-zine here.

This month’s “Leading Idea” was about eco tourism, and how to maintain a competitive advantage in this space. There are lessons for every business trying to use corporate social responsibility as a strategic tool. Read the full article here, or see a summary below.

Competing on the Eco Front
by Jürgen Ringbeck and Stephan Gross

4/01/08
Environmentally friendly countries have a leg up in the competition for international travelers, but sustaining that advantage takes work.

Eco tourismWhy do travelers — be they on business or just visiting — prefer to go to Switzerland rather than, say, Ukraine? It’s no surprise: Switzerland offers a much more attractive combination of factors. It’s easy to get there and to travel within the country, it’s clean and visitors feel safe there, and Switzerland’s combination of traditional culture and natural beauty is justly famed all over the world. Yet the continued popularity of Switzerland and other desirable destinations is by no means a given. Maintaining the relative purity of the environment while promoting and growing tourism is critical as competition intensifies among regions to attract the ever-growing number of travelers.

A recent study by Booz Allen Hamilton (part of the World Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2008) found that environmental factors may determine whether travel and tourism sectors thrive or falter in the coming years. The report evaluated the health of the tourism industry in 130 countries based on 14 pillars important to travelers, private operators, and public authorities — including regulatory framework, infrastructure, and cost to natural, cultural, and human resources. This year, for the first time, the index also ranked each country according to its environmental sustainability. Among the items examined were the stringency of environmental regulations and the extent to which they are enforced, carbon dioxide emission levels, and the percentage of the country’s species that are endangered.

Continue reading ‘Competing for Eco tourists’

Olympics, controversy and you

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 8, 2008
in Environmental Issues, Ethics, Future Trends, Global View and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The Olympic torch has left Athens, Greece on its traditional torch run around the world until it eventually arrives at the Beijing Olympic stadium during the opening ceremony. Right from the first day, it has been met with something that the Chinese officials did not anticipate: protestors. In an unprecendented move, the torch was actually extinguished in Paris so that it could be loaded onto a bus and rushed away from growing violence amongst the protestors. TV news scenes from London, Paris and San Francisco show police beating protestors, dragging them into prison vans and frog marching them away - none of these are scenes that add to the Olympic brand and mythos.

This is becoming a major news story - a BAD news story. It’s China Inc that’s on the receiving end. But it could be you and your company next. We have been saying for some time now that there is a new generation of young people and global citizens that are going to rise up and become activist customers and ethical consumers. This Olympics needs to be YOUR company’s wake up call that this can happen anytime, anywhere. You have been warned - get your act together, and ensure that all the skeletons in your closet are well sorted out!

To err is Terminal 5

Published
by
Barrie Bramley
on March 28, 2008
in Connection Economy, Global View, On the Move - Travel and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Heathrow Terminal 5 chaosI write this entry as a South African. I say that because we’re extremely hard on ourselves on this end of the planet. We often compare ourselves to the resources, experience and might of the ‘developed world’ when we open our world class attractions. And when things don’t work the way they’ve been billed to, we simply blame our ‘African-ess’ on our inability to deliver to the standards and levels that were expected.

This week British Airways opened Terminal 5. Since the opening it’s been on the news, flighted as the greatest travel achievement the world has ever seen.

You can imagine my amusement at the e-mail I got from our travel agent this afternoon. Even with truck loads of cash, and wheelbarrows of experience, getting it right isn’t as easy as one imagines. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from : )

Continue reading ‘To err is Terminal 5′

V-day

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on March 27, 2008
in Boomers RetYrement, Innovation and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Viagra pillToday is the tenth anniversary of the little purple pill. Although I personally think that big pharmaceuticals should spend more time trying to cure diseases that are part of the scourge of poverty (like malaria and TB), it is noteworthy that one of the biggest money spinners over the past decade has been Viagra - the erectile dysfunction pill developed by Pfizer.

Viagra is one the best case studies for what companies must do to benefit from the ageing Boomer generation. As the generation born after World War II, who came of age in the swinging 60s, they were never going to be coy about sex, and certainly did not want a mere biological issue like “getting old” stand in the way of their preferred lifestyle. They are a generation that believes in choice - their choice! So, medicines that deal with hair loss, sagging skin, sexual slowdown and other age-related conditions were always going to be successful. Pfizer got there first. Others have - and will continue to - follow.

The Boomers are the “youngest”, healthiest, richest and most powerful retiring generation of all time.

Continue reading ‘V-day’

Green Homes Concierge

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on March 14, 2008
in Environmental Issues and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

At last, some smaller entrepreneurs are beginning to understand that there is a growing market for environmental products and services. One of the easiest and obvious ones is to help people who want to be greener to, well, be greener… with minimal fuss. It’s a simple concept, but not many people are doing it. I just picked up info on one such service in the UK, called Green Home Concierge. It looks good.

They’re not the first. They won’t be the last. But, at least they’re doing it. Well done!

Conferences with no power

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on March 5, 2008
in Education, Future Trends, Innovation, Technology and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Here I sit, at another conference without power. Don’t get me wrong - I am not talking about the content. I am at Gary Hamel’s latest thing: “The Future of Management”, a full day session with the innovation guru himself. “Live and in person”, just as the advertising promised! The guy is good, and probably the best academic on the issue of innovation in business. So, the content is great.

But in just a few minutes, my laptop is going to die, because I don’t have a power supply near my table. I came prepared - I have two extension cables, and if there was a power outlet within about 20m of my table, I’d be OK (maybe creating a few health and safety issues, but nevertheless I could finish this blog entry without worrying about my battery). But once again the conference organisers have just not thought about people who don’t use paper. I have been given a deskpad and another pen. I don’t use those things. I want to be able to type notes directly into my laptop. I want to be able to work on my computer. I want power!

This needs to be standard practice at conferences! It is the 21st century, after all. AND, today, it is a conference on innovation! If only….

(Let’s not even talk about the fact that there is no free wifi available here. They are giving us free toilet facilities, free water on every desk, free pens and deskpads, free coffee and tea, but no wifi connectivity!)
Continue reading ‘Conferences with no power’

Lessons in attitude for the talented (or Ricky Ponting gets his just desserts)

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on February 24, 2008
in Global View, Talent - Bright Young Things and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Regular readers of this blog will know that many of the contributors are passionate cricket fans. (For our American readers, that’s the mysterious game that, in its purest form lasts five days and can end in an exciting draw!) Our fanaticism for the game is shared by at least 1 billion Indians. The world’s largest democracy has just had an unprecedented auction for international cricket stars, for the newly formed Indian Professional League. In the league, a number of Indian provincial teams get to “buy” international super stars to play with them. Each team can only have a maximum of 4 of these stars on the field at any time. They must also have four players under the age of 22 from India in the teams. The rest of the team is Indian. The bids in the auction will be paid to the player as a salary (I think I saw correctly that the Indian players in each team will be paid the same as the top paid international super star in their team). The contract is for three years.

Nice idea. It’s for 20-20 cricket, so will be a great spectacle too. I can’t wait.

Continue reading ‘Lessons in attitude for the talented (or Ricky Ponting gets his just desserts)’

The Most Expensive Oil

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on February 20, 2008
in Global View, Talent - Bright Young Things and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Today the world wakes up to the most expensive oil ever. Those who believe in market dynamics of supply and demand will have an interesting time explaining this. The problem with oil is not that there isn’t enough oil around, but rather to do with where the available oil is to be found.

Of course, supply and demand does have something to do with the record price. High growth rates around the world, in places as far flung as China, India, the Middle East and Africa, have seen demand for oil grow as their economies fly. At the same time, oil firms, in particular Western oil firms, are struggling to increase production - mane still producing at the same levels as they did two or three years ago. That has left little spare production capacity and, in America and other countries, dwindling stocks. Whenever storms brew in the Gulf of Mexico or chaos erupts in the Middle East or Africa, or Russia talks nasty, jittery markets push prices higher. Part of this has to do with speculators, rather than customers.

But there are other reasons for the higher oil prices, and the lack of supply.

Continue reading ‘The Most Expensive Oil’

Just Good Business

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on February 18, 2008
in Environmental Issues and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 1 Comment

In The Economist on 17 January 2008, this article on corporate social responsibility, “Just good business” appeared. It is one of the best summaries of the current state of play in the CSR world. A must read. See the original article, or read an edited version below.

IN THE lobby at the London headquarters of Marks & Spencer, one of Britain’s leading retailers, the words scroll relentlessly across a giant electronic ticker. They describe progress against “Plan A”, a set of 100 worthy targets over five years. The company will help to give 15,000 children in Uganda a better education; it is saving 55,000 tonnes of CO2 in a year; it has recycled 48m clothes hangers; it is tripling sales of organic food; it aims to convert over 20m garments to Fairtrade cotton; every store has a dedicated “Plan A” champion.

The M&S ticker says a lot about the current state of what is commonly known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). First, nobody much likes the CSR label. A year ago M&S launched not a CSR plan but Plan A (“because there is no Plan B”). The chief executive’s committee that monitors this plan is called the “How We Do Business Committee”. Other companies prefer to describe this kind of thing as “corporate responsibility” (dropping the “social” as too narrow), or “corporate citizenship”, or “building a sustainable business”. One Nordic executive glories in the job title of director, accountability and triple-bottom-line leadership. All this is convoluted code for something simple: companies meaning (or seeming) to be good.

Continue reading ‘Just Good Business’

Click here to get someone else to do this work

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on February 6, 2008
in Organisational Design, Talent - Bright Young Things, Technology and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Pfizer logoPfizer has recently launched a wonderful new initiative for their most talented staff: the outsourcing of the drudge work associated with most jobs. It’s quite a simple concept, really - top end, talented staff spend a fair proportion of their time doing admin or dreary work that does not best utilise their talents. If you could someone else to do that work for them, you’d free up your top talent, keep them focused (and excited) and get more out of them. Nice.

Here is a report from the latest Fast Company magazine. Read it here, or below.
Continue reading ‘Click here to get someone else to do this work’

A car for the people of the world

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on January 10, 2008
in Environmental Issues, Future Trends, Global View, Innovation and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Tata NanoThis is how new markets are made, and how worlds are changed! Today, Tata released their latest car. It was a car that all of their rivals said could not be made. About 5 years ago, Tata announced that were going to build a car that would cost less than 100,000 rupees, or US$ 2,500 (the price of a DVD player in most luxury cars).

Today, they unveiled it in India. See the early news reports here and here.

It is the Tata Nano. And, besides being a 5 door sedan, seating four, with just less than 650CC power, it also has remarkable fuel efficiency (20km/l), top speeds at 100km/h, meets all emissions standards and all safety standards, too. The deluxe model will have aircon. See the Reuters “factbox” for details. At this price, it is bound to be attractive to those who have not been able to enter the car market in the past.

It is no surprise that a car for the people in the “bottom half of the pyramid” should come out of India (see previous post on selling profitably to the world’s poor). For some, it may be a sad truth, but it is true nonetheless: unless companies make money out of supplying goods and services to the world’s poor, they won’t. But Tata shows yet another example of how this can be a win-win for everyone.

With a car like this, Tata will create a new market of car drivers, and are poised to conquer the world. I wish them well!

More lessons from SAS Institute

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on December 1, 2007
in Leadership, Talent - Bright Young Things and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

SAS Institute logoOver the years I have been doing presentations about attracting and retaining talent, I have watched global lists of “Best Companies to Work For”. Very consistently, SAS Institute, a privately owned software company based in the USA, has been rated as one of the very best.

One of my favourite quotes about the role of leadership in talent development comes from the CEO, Jim Goodknight, who has said, “Every afternoon at about 5pm, all of the assets of this company leave the building. It is my job to make sure they want to come back in the morning.” Nice!!

The Economist latest edition does a profile on SAS, and indicates that the approach of valuing staff is really reaping some great rewards for this company. Read it here (subscription may be required), or see extracts below.

PS - if I haven’t said so recently, then let me say it again - if you only have time to read one magazine a week, then it must be the Economist!

Continue reading ‘More lessons from SAS Institute’

50 Ways to Green Your Business

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on November 14, 2007
in Environmental Issues and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Fast Company is a brilliant magazine. Their website is equally superb.

They recently had a massive feature article on ways to make your business more environmentally friendly. From: Issue 120 | November 2007 | Page 90 | By: Mark Borden, Jeff Chu, Charles Fishman, Michael A. Prospero, and Danielle Sacks

You can find the online version here. Or scroll down.

Imagine asking today how the Internet affects business. It’s an absurd question, like asking how electricity changed business. Asking the same about sustainability, it turns out, is equally absurd. Like the Internet, sustainability spurs innovation in everything, from how you see your business model to whether you see your employees (why not let them work at home more?). Here are our favorite ways companies today are greening up–and saving money and making better widgets in the process.

Continue reading ‘50 Ways to Green Your Business’

The world’s worst products

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on November 3, 2007
in Ethics, Media tidbits and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

The world’s worst products, as voted for by Consumers International.

  • Coca-Cola – for continuing the international marketing of its bottled water, Dasani, despite admitting it comes from the same sources as local tap water.
  • Kellogg’s – for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and salt in their food products.
  • Mattel – for stonewalling US congressional investigations and avoiding overall responsibility for the global recall of 21 million products.
  • With the overall prize going to: Takeda Pharmaceuticals – for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about pediatric use.

Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said:

“These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible. In highlighting their short-comings Consumers International and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously.”

See a newspaper report with some details and commentary here.

The Airbus A380 is delivered - but will it deliver?

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on October 15, 2007
in Future Trends, Global View, Innovation, Marketing and sales, On the Move - Travel and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Singapore airlines Airbus A380The long awaited monster passenger plane, the Airbus A380, is now ready for delivery. In fact, Air Singapore today took delivery of their first plane with much pomp and ceremony. Read about it here at the international airlines news, and read about the financial details at Forbes.com.

Some people have said:

  • The plane is too late - the market has moved on, and there won’t be enough orders to pay for it.
  • Given the delays and increases in development costs, they need to sell almost double the estimated number of planes to turn a profit.
  • Its unlikely the market will be able to absorb the additional planes they need to sell.
  • The plane will become obsolete before they sell 400 units.
  • The plane is too big - no-one wants to fly with that many people.

In fact, these things were all said of the Boeing 747 when it was introduced to the market in 1970. Some people are saying very similar things of the A380 today. They have obviously not looked at the past and learnt from it. That’s a problem everywhere today, isn’t it?

Prince for Free

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on July 13, 2007
in Future Trends, Ripping and burning - Digital entertainment and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

This Sunday, the Mail on Sunday newspaper in England will hand out free copies of Prince’s (The artist previously known as Symbol, previously known as Prince, etc) new album, Planet Earth. The album was self produced by Prince, and the Mail on Sunday hopes to sell in excess of 2.5 million copies of their newspaper on Sunday - the paper is sold for less than £ 1.50. As far as I can tell, they are not increasing the cover price for this week’s edition - this is a genuine free CD.

Prince stated that he wanted to send a message to the music industry - and this one is loud and clear. The album is a full album, and will not be carried in shops in the UK (not for now anyway). See the promo poster here.

It isn’t as altruistic as it sounds, and there is some solid economics behind the deal. Prince has been paid £ 500,000 by the Mail on Sunday. To earn that level of revenue in England, he would have had to sell about 5 million albums - and with all due respect the ageing rocker was unlikely to do that in England. So, he is winning. The paper should score from it. Everyone is smiling. Or are they?

Continue reading ‘Prince for Free’

URTrmn8d - Sacking employees by text message

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on July 12, 2007
in Ethics, Technology and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

Here’s an old story that I just picked up. Mainly from the humour list, Top5. See below for the funny side of this.

Text messageOver 2,500 people learned they’d lost their jobs when the British Amulet Group fired them by sending a text message to their cell phones. This happened in 2003 - read about it here. A similar incident occured in 2006. Read about it here.

At one stage I would have written, “you can’t believe that companies would be that stupid”. But I have been consulting to companies long enough to know that that isn’t true. Companies can indeed be very, very stupid.

So, if you were to send a text message to fire staff, what would you say? Here is what the crazy guys at Top 5 suggested:
Continue reading ‘URTrmn8d - Sacking employees by text message’

Transponders, airlines and the people who use them

Published
by
Barrie Bramley
on June 14, 2007
in General and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

I’m currently sitting on the tarmac of Durban’s Airport, on a 1Time flight having already taken off, circled and landed back where we started. Technical problem with a transponder they tell us? Whatever.

Nothing to do, so I thought I’d ask some questions that airlines don’t like to answer:

  • Why are problems with planes and airports always out of ‘our control’, someone else’s fault, or caused by God? And who is ‘our’?
  • Why don’t airlines take responsibility, through their employees, or employees for their airlines? I’d like the Captain or Head Stewardtron to one day just acknowledge that the airline has morons working for them, or that corners were cut, or maximising profits can lead to transponders not being changed as often as they should be?
  • Why don’t airlines teach their people how important communication is, and then how important communication is to their clients? I’m fairly certain if both those items were done well, airline employees would be able to join the dots? Or not?
  • Why do airlines think we’re interested in how ‘on-time’ their planes are? We don’t care about that statistic. We’d like them to publish how late their planes are when they’re late? If an airline is late 100% of the time but by only 5 minutes each time, that wouldn’t bother me at all. And if you’re late only 25% of the time but 45 minutes each time, that would matter big time.

Continue reading ‘Transponders, airlines and the people who use them’

IKEA Experience: We make men feel like men again

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on June 2, 2007
in Connection Economy and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

In a surplus world, filled with similar goods and services, sold in similar stores which reside in similar looking strip malls or warehouses, sold at similar prices by staff who swap companies every few years, we need to do more than just offer quality, fairly priced, convenient goods backed up by “customer service”. Its becoming harder and harder to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage.

One of the ways to do so is to create an experience around your product. There are many ways to do this, and the companies that use their creativity to do so are reaping huge rewards. One such company is IKEA, the ubiquitous furniture store. Whilst there products may fit perfectly into the “little boxes on a hillside” standardisation approach to modern life, some of their sales techniques are revolutionary. In particular, their understanding of the male shopper has helped raise them to one of the leading furniture retailers in the world. Here are a few ideas from the legend that is IKEA:

Continue reading ‘IKEA Experience: We make men feel like men again’

In flight education - consumer value shifts

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 15, 2007
in Global View, Marketing and sales, On the Move - Travel, Ripping and burning - Digital entertainment, Technology and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

A nice innovation is being experimented with by Air France, JAL, Singapore and Virgin airlines. They will now be offering in-flight language tutorials on selected routes, helping passengers to learn a few key words and phrases of the language of the country of their destination. This is based on an interactive audiovisual language program developed by Berlitz, the company that supplies many in-flight entertainment screens. The system currently supports 23 languages.

This is an example of a massive trend - consumers are demonstrating a value shift from passive consumption to mastering skills. The smartest companies are offering their customers the opportunity to add to their skill set, not just consume a service or product.

Locking up information

Published
by
Barrie Bramley
on May 5, 2007
in Connection Economy and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 3 Comments

The first time I heard about the AACS ’secret’ code (AACS is the anti-copying system built into HD-DVDs) being aired on the net, was the user revolt on Digg that made news on the blogosphere.

Then this morning while browsing through BoingBoing I came across another post with images, songs, tatoos and other fun things people are doing to basically lift a middle finger to the establishment.

Whether you agree with what’s happening or not, the lesson sits in a changing business environment where you can’t behave like you used to. While officials were threatening to sue every web site that carried the code…..

“The AACS Licensing Authority, which controls the anti-copying technology underlying HD-DVD, sent out hundreds of legal threats to sites that had posted the key, including Digg.”

…the code was being spread everywhere.

“Right now, 368,000 pages contain the number, up from 36,000 yesterday. Good luck getting the food coloring out of the swimming pool!”

In the dark

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on May 3, 2007
in Connection Economy, Technology and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 2 Comments

You need to know that I am grumpy. At 1:29am this morning, my electricity was turned back on - after 3 days of being off. I mean completely off - nada, nothing - since Monday night at 3am. Then, as I dragged myself out of bed for a 4am wake up to get to the airport, I discovered that the municipality, in order to make up for actually supplying me electricity, had shut my water supply off. So, sitting on an airplane next to some poor soul, I have not yet had a morning shower. And, to top it all, when I arrived at Joburg airport, the check in system had crashed and the queues were out the building. Remarkably, it looks as if we land in Cape Town on schedule. But more of that below, with some lessons for everyone.

The facts

  • The suburb I live in (most of the time), Bedfordview - on the east of Johannesburg - is serviced by two major electrical supplies - a primary supply and a backup cable. These are underground cables, laid in 1978.
  • In February this year, the municipality was installing CCTV cables, and damaged the primary supply line. They informed Eskom, the electrical utility supplier, as they were meant to do. Eskom then added this cable to its maintenance list, but electricity was not disrupted as it was supplied via the backup line. That list is way too long, not being serviced enough and is a mess. I know this because we do work with one of the companies that is outsourced by Eskom to do the maintenance, and they have spoken of “disasters waiting to happen” because Eskom is running its maintenance too lean. This is a cost cutting exercise - and I have said much on that topic on this blog.
  • At 3am on Monday morning, the backup line faulted, with a major coupling being dislodged. Electricity to more than 100,000 people was instantly cut.
  • It was left to Radio stations to let the public know what had happened. It was just short of 3 days later that electricity was restored.
  • Eskom’s spokesmen consistently lied to the public and to journalists, and even when their lies were consistently shown to be false, they continued to reiterate them.
  • To date, Eskom has issued no apology.

So, what lessons can be learned…

Continue reading ‘In the dark’

The Pope’s Limbo

Published
by
Graeme Codrington
on April 24, 2007
in Future Trends, Innovation, Media tidbits and The Quick and the Dead - case studies
. 0 Comments

It’s official. After 800 years of being Catholic church policy, the theological construct of “limbo” has been abolished (read the International Herald Tribune on this). This was a place were unbaptised babies were said to go, awaiting some kind of final judgement at the end of times. It was “created” over 800 years ago, as a way of dealing with two competing theological factions in the Catholic Church. Last week, after a 3 year theological review, the Pope agreed that it was an error in judgement, and officially “abolished” it as a concept in Catholic dogma.

Good for him!

I suppose the lesson for us all is to ask what long held beliefs we each have that we need to be prepared to give up - no matter how embarrassing or life-changing it might be to do so. You can criticise the Vatican for this change. But you can’t argue with their guts to do something!

What do you need to change? And do you have the guts to do so?