Building Zimbabwe to greatness

Zimbabwe have been experience some rough patch over the years, the main cause of this issues have been because of lack foreign direct investment and shutdown of many industries. This have led to slowing down of the economic growth which was facilitated by our poor policies. The policies were adopted in the late 90s caused a stir to foreign direct investment. Some of these policies are Indigestion policy, land reform policy and the rampant raise of corruption within the country. According to African Development Bank Group cited that the reason why Zimbabwe is in this predicament is because of, " economy continues to face structural challenges from high informality, weak domestic demand, high public debt, weak investor confidence, and a challenging political environment."

The economy have become more of retail economy as the mushrooming of shops selling imported groceries have become the order of the day. There are very few companies that are still manufacturing for export therefore as a result the countries have got a 'Negative GDP' resulting in trade deficit. Oxford Dictionary had this to say about trade deficit, "The amount by which the cost of a country's imports exceeds the value of its exports." Most of this companies that are still manufacturing there have dilapidated machinery that render their produce very noncompetitive in the global village we now live in. Due to weak investor confidence has resulted in most of the companies finding it hard to find external source credit lines as most of the investors afraid to loose their money as there is high risk of unfair policies being enforced on them.

The lack of proper governance and accountability by most of the officers who holds top offices have resulted in the country experiencing high level of corruption. This have led to few individuals getting rich at the expense of the public, a good example of the factor mentioned about can be the disappearance of the $15 billion dollars that was realized from the sale of diamonds. According to the Herald of 28 April 2016, there was an article which talked about the government launching an investigation in the disappearance of the money. The high volume of unemployment have led to high level of vendors in the Central Business District as they seek to make a living.

Zimbabwe need a lot effort to facilitate turnaround strategies that should first start with our culture of conducting business. This can only be effective if we have a shared vision as a country and the desire to pursue the vision as one. For instance the United State of America that unite the states in the pursuit of better livelihood for their citizens which they call "the American dream". Our laws should not have loopholes where you find out that certain individuals above the law. There ems that forces should be system that forces accountability to the highest level and proper corporate governance. In turn this two will bring about the necessary development required in these country to start having a direction. We need to come up with investor friend policies that shows clear where we stand what we want to achieve and also promoting other source of foreign currencies from citizens outside the country.

Eyeglass gaze into asbestos and the global market: A Shabani Mashava case study

Over the years the global trends in mining shifted, some of the minerals that used to be of value have lost their value because of advancement of new technology. Some minerals we have subdued due to research being done in developing countries that have led to discovery of the health hazards associated with them. Asbestos is one of those minerals that have been found to be hazardous to health of humans. This issue have resulted in some of the mines that used to be profitable downsizing as result of decline of the demand for the product. In Zimbabwe we had one such mine which sustained the livelihood of the people of the town the mine operated in.

According to Coakley .G.J (2004) pointed out that asbestos was providing about 5.4% out of 804.3 million which was being contributed by the mining sector of Zimbabwe. However the shift and banning of the use of products in some countries began as early as 1998 and in 2003 South Africa joined the block of countries that banned asbestos due to health hazard it presented. Between the period of 2003 to 2004 Shabani Mashava Mine employed about 3 500 people and was a major source of welfare in Zvishavane.

This is a case study of Shabani Mashava mine located in Zvishavane and the relation to the global trend. In the early 2000 the government of Zimbabwe placed the mine under judicial management which led to the collapse of the operation of the entire organisation and resulting the retrenchment of the mine workers. This had a negative impact of the welfare of the people who live in Zvishavane that heavily depended on the organisation. There was a lot of confrontation between the government and the shareholder. The core business of the mine was mining of asbestos and exporting the minerals to various countries.

The advert of tiles and zinc sheets reduced the market share of asbestos which further worsened by the discovery of it harmful nature to human health. Recently the community in Zvishavane aged the current government to resuscitate the operations of the mine. This research is to figure out whether it is worth it for the government of Zimbabwe and also figure out whether there is still a viable market for the mineral. As we seek to understand the impact the reopening of the mine to relation to the local and global markets and the extent to which the mining of the mineral.

Joshi .T.K and Gupta .R.K(2004) said, “Aggressive marketing of asbestos is continuing in these regions after shrinkage of the market due to restrictions and bans imposed on the use of asbestos in many developed regions where its use is down to insignificant levels." This was in reference to developing countries that have embarked in major strive to keep promoting the use of asbestos despite the fact that most countries  from Europe and Some part of Asia have banned the use of asbestos to protect their citizens and reduces the health bills. As been outlined in the research the resuscitation of the Shabani Mashava Mine is not really viable as it may lead to the advent of health problems in the town which in the long run may prove costly for the country.

The United Kingdom have moved to ban the use of asbestos in construction of building there are in the process of removing asbestos that was already on buildings. This have a negative impact on the mining operations as they will have to downsize business also with the consideration that the use of asbestos in the UK is now indeed strict control. United State of America in there geological survey conducted in 2017 shows that the domestic use of asbestos products was banned in the country and have been encouraging the use of alternative products that does not contain asbestos.

Why is market research important in business?

Market research is one of the most important activity one have to do before engaging in any business activity when starting up or introducing a new product or service. According to the University of Salford Manchester(2016) defined market research as "the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of useful information about the market for planning and growth of the business activity." Market research is when an entrepreneur investigates whether the desired venture is favourable. It is also necessary when coming up with a business plan. It assist potential investors to see whether it is worth while for them to invest their money in the projects. This is because the market research outline the potential the proposed venture have to succeed in the current market. The research assist the entrepreneur to see their potential market segment they could penetrate and the readiness of the potential customers to purchase your products and services. Thus the target market, which we define as the segment of people we expect to sale our product or service. Some scholars like G Zaltman(1997), have argued that market research is one of the most important initiative that an entrepreneurs or individuals have to engage in before investing any resources in a project.

Market research help an entrepreneur to identify whether there are other players(competitors) in the industry that (s)he want to venture into or whether there are substitute products or services for what they want to offer. The presence of competitors will also change the dynamics of the proposed entity as they have to consider what they will bring that is unique from the products or services existing in the market. The understanding of the existence of competitors will lead into the research of the potential market share the proposed venture might pose when it start operating. Which will outline the potential strategies that the entrepreneur will use when launching the product or service. These strategies will include the level of marketing that the entrepreneur will need to engage in order to make their product or service to appeal to they intended customers.

Market research also shows the entrepreneur how spread out (geographical dispensation) the target customer are which will also assist incoming up with marketing strategy. The entrepreneur will be able to identify whether to use online marketing or to use traditional marketing as part of marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is sometimes referred to as Strategic marketing. Peter Drucker(1973) said,“ Strategic marketing as seen as a process consisting of: analyzing environmental, market competitive and business factors affecting the corporation and its business units, identifying market opportunities and threats and forecasting future trends in business areas of interest for the enterprise , and participating in setting objectives and formulating corporate and business unit strategies. Selecting market target strategies for the product-markets in each business unit, establishing marketing objectives as well as developing , implementing and managing the marketing program positioning strategies in order to meet market target needs”.

 A marketing strategy is the a initiative(policy) that a firm or entrepreneur adopt in order reach the their intend customer. This only possible when you are able to identify your target customers, customer behaviour, the places they love to hangout, and their age. For instance when establishing a college one of the strategies that the entrepreneur will end considering in their marketing strategy may include using social media as marketing tool due to the fact that most of their potential customers are students who spend most of their time online.

 The market research will also help the entrepreneur identify the most suitable pricing strategy that can be implemented for the venture to have successfully launch. This strategy will be determine by the type of customer you are targeting. Thus if you target customers are up scale if you use price penetration strategy they may end up not engaging in the product or service as they might be perceive to be of low quality.In that regard the entrepreneur would have better of use price premier in that type of a market segment. Market research is the foundation that is necessary in setting strategies that guarantee the success of the products or services as it identifies a couple of elements that have the potential of affecting them.

Business plan is an essential tool for success

Over the years we have seen people who have brilliant business ideas who throw them in the drain or poorly implement them which led to failure of the initiative. Some of the people either had no idea on how to write a business plan while others did not see the importance of writing one. In this article we are going to seek to try and outline the importance of having a business plan. A business plan is like a traveling plan. One can not embark on a journey without making logistic on how much it will cost for them to reach their intended destination. A business plan is document that outlines the idea of venture an individual seek to pursue. It  outlines the necessary resources that mighty be required for the venture to be successful. 

According to Entrepreneur.com defined a business plan as "a road map that provides directions so a business can plan its future and helps it avoid bumps in the road." This shows that a business plan is a crucial document that help the entrepreneur have direction and help them to keep focus on the attainment of successful implementation of the business idea. In this direction it include the future milestone the organization would seek to achieve thus setting future growth that is intended to be followed in the pursuit of growing the business idea.

We have already pointed out that it gives organisation direction, which helps in the identifying the necessary resources that will be required for the venture to grow. Thus it will assist the entrepreneur to avoid either over stuffing or under sourcing of materials necessary for the operations of the entity. A business plan clearly shows the entrepreneur of the skills that the entity will require initially together with what the organization already have before it commences operation. The skills that will be required is to complement the one the founder have with others so that organizational success can be attained.

It also shows the potential threats the institution would face that create amply time for the group to be prepared for the occurrence of the threat. Chapman S argued that a business plan assist the entrepreneur in convincing others to join him or her as the individual seek to pursue the idea. Thus the document will contain information that clearly outline the vision, goals, objective, market and objective that will have been identified. As a result it will act as tool that the individual will use to source for investors who would love to see the idea grow into a full fleshed business. Most small business do not have business plans because they were born out of opportunity but lacks the vision that they seek to achieve. With this in mind the entrepreneur will not be ready for any changes that might occur in the industry and will not see the need to reinvest profit to facilitate growth.