Business vs The masses

 Photo credit: mandie©2019

 "Where the crowd is.

Is where money at."

 This have been the misconception held by many. As the society have held close on the belief that the masses are the major sign of something that is working. However most of the time when you realise that the masses are rushing in a certain direction it is always good to go the opposite direction." Better yet chart your own route and destination."As usually where the mass congregate, they will copy each other thereby diluting the market share in turn might as well damage the profitability of the venture.

A very great example to Zimbabwe is the fowl project. Back in the days only hand few people were running the fowl project and it was really lucrative. And there was the issue of quality conformances which were at par with big organization. Due to this many people entered into this space and a lot started to be lost as it became a competition on the pricing. Which was good at first until the competition became toxic and the use of GMO became a reality. As a result unfair practice became rampant and chickens began to be sold at  six weeks.

The case study above highlight some of the two major impact of following the crowd. As from its inception it begins as a good thing and create much need competition that drives business growth however it becomes problematic when the masses join. For the emergence of ill practices will surge for everybody will be trying to get an edge of another leading to cutting corners. The moment cutting corner trend emerge the customer is most likely to suffer as they might end being sold a poor quality product or service.

As an individual pursuing entrepreneur activities, you should try to create trends that the mass will try follow. But when they do that you would have created your authority in the area. This will make the standard and you will have an edge from your competitors. This can be visible seen in the paint industry how people view Plascon and Dulux as the standards of quality.

"Escape competition through authenticity. In business, the masses are never right." (Micheal Makasi 2021) The Above quote highlights how one can be differentiated in business. This will give you an advantage over your competitors in the long run.

The Power Validation When Marketing Your Products Or Services.

 Of late I have been going through alot of documents trying to figure out why sometimes we buy things at the words of our peers. It might seem funny to most us that our friends can influence how we choose to spend money. This is the reason why most businesses us testimonials as part of their marketing campaigns.

 Do not underestimate the power that this marketing strategy carries. As it stand to appeal to our human nature of wanting to belong to socitial grouping. This need is what they seek to use to get us buying different products.

However when using this strategy they is a lot of things one have to consider. First and foremost, one need to define their target group or groups. Two need to figureout the norms that glue the group together. This enable the entrepreneur to know how best to craft his or her message not to offend the targeted clientele(in this instance group) effectively.

Once this two things are clearly defined, the entrepreneur will need to move on to finding out the people who are influential onto those groups settings. These are the people that they target first to use their products or service and ask for their feedback. Once they have them the entreprenuer can us this feedback as testimonies. which in turn (s)he use to appeal to the rest of targeted grouping. Thereby appealing to the egos of those groups and having a validation that stand as a stamp of approval for them to trust the brand.

What is the role of mission and vision statement in business

Entrepreneurs need to write down there mission and vision statement when establishing new entities or realigning existing business that have shifted there focus. The statement helps in creating a road map which the organization will seek to follow as it tries to address problems or opportunities that might have encouraged the establishment of that entity. Bain & Company (2017) defined a mission statement as "the company’s business, its objectives and its approach to reach those objectives." This outlines that in the mission statement the entrepreneur will reveal what the entity will be all about and also what they want to achieve or address in pursuing the idea together with the action that need to be in place for the success implementation of those ideas.  The desired future position of the company was regarded as the vision by Bain & Company(2017). Both vision and mission statement work hand in hand as the mission statement addresses the now factor while the  vision creates a clear picture of where you want to go.

The two statement will help in the establishment of the objectives and goals that the entity will seek to follow. Thus the strategies that will be used by the company will determined by the mission and vision statement. The entity will have an overall mission and vision statement which will be used to formulate mission and vision statement of functional departments within the organization with soul purpose of creating enabling environment to the success of the business. The mission statement is the one that addresses the creation of the corporate identity that will be used to  build the culture of the organization. This is because the objectives that a used on the day to day running of the organization are directly derived from the mission statement. Corporate culture is how the organization relate and operate within the internally  and the external environment. Thus there conduct of business and interactions with the internal and external environment.  According to Investopedia, "Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.

SERVANT-LEADERSHIP APPLICABILITY ZIMBABWE ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES

Servant-leadership is term which was first pointed out by Robert K Greenleaf in 1970. However if we go into history we will discover that this leadership system was already there though it is predominately found in the religious cycles. The leadership system assist in the motivation and also promoting the fulfillment of job satisfaction for subordinates. ".... The great leader is seen as servant first..." Robert K Greenleaf. The practise of the

leadership strategy is when the manage become the servant of the subordinates and serves them so that they can do better. Thus the manager assist the subordinates in doing his or her task so that better result are produced instead of the manager just revealing the tasks that will have been conducted by the subordinate. According to Larry Spears (1996) defined servant-leadership as; "…A new kind of leadership model – a model which puts serving others as the number one priority. Servant-leadership emphasizes increased service to others; a holistic approach to work; promoting a sense of community; and the sharing of power in decision-making."

This leadership helps the organization to grow through the encouragement by the leader for the achievement of greatness by his or her subordinates. Therefore for the management style to work properly there is need for the leader to have the patience and the motive to see your subordinates achieve greatness. The implementation of the system in Zimbabwe organization can result in the growth of those companies at the same time will lead to having highly motivated stuff that does not Shane to go to work every morning. The managers will need to be selfless for the system to work which presents a challenge to most of the organizations in the country who are of the view that subordinates need to forced to work (Douglas Mcgregor's theory X). As result the manager believe he or she have to be feared so that work can be done on time, the practice of this kind of system is mainly seen in a lot government institutions to the extend that the top management will award themselves hefty salaries because they regard themselves important for the survival of the organization. 

Servant-leadership is of the view that work, people and community are inseparable condition that leads to the success or downfall of organization. The notion behind this style is that the work is for the people in as much the people are of the work. Thus the leadership style seek to address that for the organization to flourish there is need by the manager to realize that success is banked on having highly motivated skilled workforce who seek to achieve their desired end result with all their effort. The adoption of this leadership style will require the complete transformation of the way managers think of their role towards their subordinates. They need to also understand that the success of their subordinates also reflect on them so it will beneficial to them if they assist their subordinates to carrying out their prescribed task. This also support by other motivational theory in business thus the Hawthorne Effect which was conducted by Elton Mayo (1927- 32). In this study the results showed that people perform better when they know that their are being observed. However with servant-leadership it goes further from just observing to providing assist to your subordinates.

This leadership system have a high potential of transforming most organization in Zimbabwe if adopted. However the mindset of the entire organisation will have to shift the management have to let go the fear that their subordinates replace them. When this is achieved the management will find it easy to go and assist their subordinates in conducting their task and also a close look of the system mighty also result in the cut back on time taken to identify problems to implementing solutions. The management team will need also to change their approach towards associating with their subordinates.

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.

The art of Reinvestment to build your Venture.

Reinvestment is when a company take the profits that they will have gather during the trading year and return the money back into the business rather than distributing to the owners of the venture. According to Collins dictionary reinvest is "to back (profits from previous investment) into the same enterprise. McKinsey Consultancy wrote article which talked about the need to reinvest, however they pointed out that the sharing of the profit by the company to shareholder might show that the management has to find enough value-creating investment. This shows that for company or organisation to gain value there is need for the entity to reinvest the profit they accumulate at least a certain proportion back into the business so as to enable growth. 

Most entrepreneurs who have made it big in life (in terms of growth of companies) have learnt that they is power in reinvesting of initial returns in the business so as to grow the venture. Taking a look at the likes of Warren Buffett, Strive Masiyiwa and Kyle Taylor etc. The list will be endless if we are to mention every single entrepreneur who have embraced this model to growth of their ventures from small startups to major fortune 500 companies. In Africa, most people who engage in business have the belief that when the startup is still small it should facilitate for them to have a lavish lifestyle. They neglect the important of growing the venture and the possibility that comes with embracing the culture of reinvestment of profits. Most of this entrepreneurs have failed to separate their conduct between business and personal life. 

The notion that when the venture is yours, you should never put yourself on salary and whatever profit the venture make is your salary is a poor and misguide principle. However this is the culture that most entrepreneurs in Africa embrace, the culture have destroyed very highly attractive ideas into nothing. Even some of the old companies that are now being run by Africans have fallen victims of this culture, CEO falling to release the need to reinvest income from their trading in a bid to impress the shareholders whilst killing the business in the long run. Hayden B (2014) while writing on reinvestment pointed out that, "If you’re a business owner, reinvesting is crucial to your company’s continued growth and success."

Strive Masiyiwa in his autobiography pointed out that he managed to build Econet through reinvesting the profit his organisation made through no declaring any dividend for the first five years. Recently talking Strive was mentioned as a Billionaire this can be seen as result of his business culture and practice. Reinvestment also assist the startup to have more capital to engage in marketing campaigns that will help to improve the market position of your organisation in the local and global market.

Having more disposal capital will also enable you to buff up your staff compliments through hiring or outsourcing none core business activities that allows you to grow the venture. One of the business gurus Peter Drucker argued that it is essential to do what you are good at best and then outsource the rest.

The only way to succeed in Business is through embracing change!

Change have become the most important factor to consider when engage any economic operations for either businesses or countries. Many scholars have under gone research on the effect rapid changes happening currently in the world have on organizations and the overall effect on the economy of respective countries. Zoran Jovanović (2015) pointed out that, "... all business environments are in a state of ongoing change or disequilibrium." The need for organization to embrace change and also develop new business practises that goes against the traditional way of doing business. Most scholars and research institutions like Boston Consultancy Group(BCG) are now advocating for the adoption of lean business structures that can swiftly and quickly adopt to new developments happening in the environment.

In the case of Zimbabwe most industries are in need of fresh capital to enable them to buy capital equipment that will help them to be more competitive in the global village. These can be attributed to the inability by various industrialist to reinvest in capital equipment that will assist in tackling the effects of change. For example David Whitehead was once the leading manufacturer of textile material distributing across the world. Currently the company had undergone series of challenge that led the company to fall. The issue was that the management did not see the problems that was being brought about by the changes in the world. Most companies in the countries have structures that restrict them to engage in any change pro grammes and we had taken change programs as once of event in a world with rapid developments and disruptive technologies.

There is need  for organization to have agility in their structures if there are to survive  and be successful in carrying out their business objectives. Gone are the days where companies had more power influencing what customers would want for them. In these modern day it have come imperative for organization to listen and research on what the customer want and to have followups upon completion of sale. These feedback have become the backbone used by other firms to improve the services and products. Some international companies have resorted in the grouping their employees in small teams so as to enable them to look into changes happening in there respective industries how to go about achieving changes that will make there organization to remain relevant.

Is it a change factor or ill practices in African Business

As the world shrink, the business practices have to go under radical transformation for companies to remain profitable. In today's world the fundamental practice of pleasing the shareholders have lost value if the business want to remain relevant. The customer has become the most important element to business success. Therefore many scholars now suggest that the customer should now be the pivot for any business operations. Research institutes like McKinsey have outlined that there is need for organization to satisfy the customer for them to achieve the overall objective.

This have been necessitated by the growth of the Internet and its adoption to operations of different organizations. The availability of multi sources of information pertaining to varies products online and review by other customers have resulted  in making the customer know more about products being offered. Hendrick & Struggles argued that the emerging of an interconnectivity defines the characteristics of this era. Some scholars have dubbed the era as the information age, which can be translated to people have more access to information which makes them kings and queens for any organization. This era also brought about some changes in a lot organizations.

Disruptive Technology and improvement in some technology has forced organization to have flexible organizational structures as a means to adopt to the rapid changes. Looking at Africa, some of the countries have realize the need to able to embrace changes (South Africa etc.). However, a majority are still lagging behind due to varies problems like corruption, poor governance, rigid corporate culture (mainly found in government controlled companies), and poor financial and resources planning. This aspect can be highly associated with Zimbabwe, where most CEOs that worked for parastatals were taking home huge bonuses and remunerations for themselves in none performing entities. Some even went to looting of company’s capital so as to enrich themselves will forgoing the development of the business as whole (Air Zimbabwe, NOCZIM, ZIMASCO etc.).

Herald of 11 April 2015, had a story of the Air Zimbabwe bigwigs that were sentenced to 20 years in jail after it was discovered that the they looted money from the organization  for about 10 million for  the period of 2009 to 2013 in an insurance scandal. Financial Gazette of 22 October 2010, had a story of NOCZIM having purchased vehicles in a move to bribe officials so that the audit that they had gone under not to be published because of the financial irregularities that was surrounding the organization. In both case the management were responsible for the poor performance of their respective organization because they let agreed and selfishness get in the way of running a successful business as they thought they could control the implications of their actions.

This practise have erode the very fundamental that lobs the whole economic sector of a nation. The society have embraced  this practise as normal, this could be outlined with what our uniformed force were doing (where you find policemen spending more than three quarters of their time harassing drivers rather than attending crime scenes and solving cases).