My Brandz
See the Future

25Nov

The History of the Internet in a Nutshell

If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you spend a fair amount of time online. However, considering how much of an influence the Internet has in our daily lives, how many of us actually know the story of how it got its start? Here’s a brief history of the Internet, including important dates, people, projects, [...]

Technology (0)

24Nov

WOTY

The WOTY for 2009 is “Unfriend”.

News (0)

17Nov

Beautiful people

You’re so vain… I bet you think this post is about you. Well, don’t worry, you’re in good, and beautiful, company. Why not join all your like-minded friends over at BeautifulPeople.com and just admit you think you’re more gorgeous than Brangelina’s offspring already? Who are these Beautiful People, now? “An exclusively beautiful community, founded for the [...]

Technology (0)

11Nov

And the heat is on

If you’ve ever worked in design in marketing or advertising, whether online or traditional mediums, you’ll know that clients expect you to come up with creative that works miracles. I’m currently working with a client, for example, who expects me to create ads that will help sell their totally BS money-making, enviro-sucking hotel development as [...]

Cool (0)

09Nov

My invisible friend

PC users, say hello to your new friend: the talking desktop buddy from Deskbot (http://www.bellcraft.com/deskbot/), “A freeware, multi-featured Clipboard Reader, Text Reader, Time Announcer, Desktop Application for Microsoft Windows featuring Microsoft Agent Animated, Talking Characters. For use with Microsoft Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista.” (For Mac users, try the Dragonball Z Desktop buddies at www.chunkypig.com.)

Technology (2)

04Nov

Present past, future illegible?

The good news for those of us who don’t speak Chinese is that other radical changes will occur in the next five years which will actually benefit us. We won’t send you to watch the full 45-minute interview available on YouTube – it’s a super-snooze fest and besides, the kind, now-snoozing-no-doubt ReadWriteWeb (www.readwriteweb.com) folk already did that for us. But we did think these points he made were interesting (highlighted by aforementioned now-snoozing ReadWriteWeb folk):

News (0)

02Nov

Google Wave? What’s all the hype about?

Google Wave is a real-time, online communication tool. It can be a chat, or a document where people such as yourself, friends and colleagues can discuss projects, upload photos, videos etc in real time. It is live, shared and editable from any part of the world and at any part of the conversation. The great thing [...]

Cool (3)

31Oct

hbty hbty hbdI hbty

the internet is 40 today.

News (2)

28Oct

News Companies – screwing us or shagging us?

Image via Wikipedia Will all news content always be free? So as the online world becomes bigger and greater, with more and more information being consumed all day, what will we see happening to these content providers? In the dawn of the Internet age, we have seen people adding websites about their companies, their lives, their stories, all [...]

Digital Direct (1)

28Oct

Ready Made Thinking Guides…

find easy to use (and understand) tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives

Cool (0)

If there ever was a time to go digital…

World Wide Worx in conjunction with Cisco conducted a survey in SA and found that we have finally reached the 5-million-internet-users mark. This basically means that 10% of South Africans have access to the Super Highway! WEEEEE!

World Wide Worx MD and lead in this survey Arthur Goldstuck says that there is reason to believe we will easily make the 6 million mark by the end of 2010. “The Seacom undersea cable has had a dramatic indirect affect on the pricing of Internet access” says Goldstuck. Instead of having upper-middle to upper class customers, we now have an influx of middle-class users that can finally afford the leap to online surfing.

What does this mean for the digital market? Easy! We have more customers to reach, with different needs than those we serviced up until now. Opportunity galore!

Here’s to happy customer hunting for all the entrepreneurs out there! Enjoy your 2010!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Click here for more info

added touch of type

So, the wonderfully amazing exciting fantastic world of design!

We are surrounded by this amazing thing called design all the time, it’s everywhere and anywhere!

For my ilearn I decided to focus on an area in this crazy but wonderfully awesome world of Design!

Typography, the art of arranging type, type design and modifying type glyphs, is often considered as a major part of promotional material and marketing. If you use typography properly, you cannot meaningfully convey the message, but also strengthen the brand of your company.

Typography has always been very inspiring and nowadays many artists experiment with type treatments to achieve inspiring, unusual and beautiful results.

I feel that a design is not quite complete without the use of type; it brings life to a design!

Please click on the Link below and you will see a few examples of what I mean :)

http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/gorgeous-typography-examples-in-advertising-design.html

Click here for more info

Aggregator Heaven

Hi, my name is Andre and I am a content aggregator!

There, I’ve said it! And I’m not a particularly faithful one either, although iGoogle has been my most favourite of late. As the popularity of RSS feeds have grown so have the number of sites aggregating RSS feeds. My new fave is Alltop, a self-described online magazine rack of popular topics. I found this while browsing spotcoolstuff.com, another aggregator of (cool) content.  This is what they had to say about Alltop:-

Alltop, content aggregation goes large

Alltop, content aggregation goes large

“What makes Alltop so useful is that the site has some editorial standards for the feeds it accepts. So instead of a million RSS feeds from everyone blogging about what they had for breakfast this morning Alltop has a few hundred feeds from blogs you may actually, you know, care about.

Alltop is also the best designed RSS aggregator. It has enough topics to be useful, not so many that you can’t find what you are looking for. The site “remembers” topics you recently visited, making it easy for you to return. Put your mouse over an article title on Alltop and you’ll see an instant preview.

The problem is that Alltop has become almost too popular. Some topics now have so many RSS feeds that the choice is overwhelming. And the best feeds are not always at the top of Alltop’s topic pages. Now there’s a solution to that problem: MyAlltop. Now you can create an account with Alltop, select whichever feeds you want from however many topics you want and the latest five headlines from all of your chosen feeds will appear on a single page. It’s a very cool way to quickly find and navigate to new content of interest to you.”

So, if like me you are a content aggregator junkie then check them out.  Until ‘they’ find a way of pumping content directly into your brain it should meet any content addict’s needs.

Click here for more info

OMG! ACRONYMS – AT LAST!

stfu-noob

Apparently, I am the office Acronym queen! WTF, I have no idea why I was called that! But could have been another name all together so I best settle with this title then! ROFL!

 So in a world where things are developing at an exponential rate!  Who knows, maybe acronyms will form a part of our everyday diction?  We have rushed everything nowadays, 5 minute facelifts, nutrition in a bottle, easy-heat meals, it kind of leads me into the topic of what a ‘quick fix’ junkie-nation we have become! Imagine a conversation in 100 years time being something like this:

 ‘OMG LAT – IHNSSLTB! WOW!’  Instead of saying: ‘ oh my gosh, look at that, I have never seen something like that before – wow!’ Pretty neat hey! To the point and we all understand! People are already using acronyms in our eveyday ‘speedy’ convos and communucation all around – sms’ing, emailing, msn, and now even in our everyday conversations! I tell you, it’s become a real hit and soon the world will be using acronyms in speech like a virus!

 How cool are these examples:  CD9 – Code 9 = Parents nearby  -  hectic, now we know that kids have their own secret acro’s too!  & PAW = Parents Are Watching! LOL!

I quite like this one: SMETE  =  Smiling from ear to ear   -  nice one!

 If you think about it though, acronyms have assisted us through our earlier lives in many ways, notes when studying, note taking in meetings, think of short-hand typing (using acronyms and symbols – Now theres another one – symbols!  So you see we are just advancing as naturally as I would like to think…

 You kind of cannot help but wonder – what next!?? No sound? Telepathic devices? This is all to much for me! BTR =  (back to reality!)

 Here is a list of acronyms for your leisure – go on then, be a cut above the rest!

 AIM ACRONYM DICTIONARY

 

Click here for more info

Google and Microsoft now on the JSE

Hidden away at the tip of Africa we haven’t always had the opportunity to participate on a equity level with some of the worlds biggest companies. The (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) JSE as one of the worlds largest futures exchanges however allows us to participate not only in single stock futures of our own companies but also many international companies.

The latest addition to this growing list are global IT heavyweights Microsoft (NASDAQ) and Google (NASDAQ and LSE). They join one of our other favourites Apple as some of the world major technology companies South Africans can now have exposure to.

One exciting aspect of derivatives such as Single Stock Futures (SSF) is that purchasing them doesn’t effect your R 2 Million offshore allowance. Despite being an international derivative you can purchase them through your broker in the same way you would purchase any other derivative or stock. Be warned though these are leveraged instruments so expect big gains and or losses.

Click here for more info

My Brandz

It’s accepted that a Brand is not what you say it is, but what your customer says it is. Brands are not cool logos and appealing colours but rather a collection of thoughts, emotions, experiences and stories.

The web is a mine of information for brands who want to get honest thoughts and opinions as to how their brands are perceived. It’s been a bit of a mission though to collect this data from different sources and then present it clearly.

Brandtags is a great initiative that associates keywords with brands….and now MyBrandz.com has launched in Beta.

MyBrandz is a website for brand lovers, where they can share their passion for certain brands – this feedback is then plotted on a ‘love’ matrix.

Click here for more info

Who’s up for a bit of nostalgia?

Since computer games drive the IT industry I’ve picked my favourite game of each year since 1978 (yip 1978 – ouch).

To help the memory a bit, check out wikipedia.

1978: Space Invaders
spaceinvaders

1979: Galaxian
galaxian

1980: Pac-Man
pacman

1981: Frogger
frogger

1982: Zaxxon
zaxxon

1983: Deathchase
deathchase

1984: Pajamarama
Pyjamarama

1985: Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom
indiana

1986: Gunship
Gunshipscreenshot

1987: Double Dragon
doubledragon

1988: Kings Quest IV
kingsquest

1989: Space Quest III
spacequest

1990: Ultima VI
ultima

1991: Lemmings
lemmings

1992: Wolfenstein 3D
wolfenstein

1993: Doom
doom

1994: Sim Tower
simtower

1995: Warcraft II
warcraft

1996: Quake
quake

1997: Tomb Raider II
tombraider

1998: Motocross Madness
motocrossmadnes

1999: Age of Empires II
ageofempires

2000: Diablo II
diablo

2001: Grand Theft Auto III
gta3

2002: Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas
gtaSA

2003: Prince of Persia – Sands of Time
princeofpersia

2004: Gran Turismo 4
granturismo

2005: Dungeon Siege II
dungeonsiege

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
oblivion

2007: Call of Duty 4 – Modern warfare
cod4

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City
gta4

2009: (still deciding)

And the best game of all time: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City

Click here for more info

See the Future

Can a chip maker join the wall of fame?

Can a chip maker join the wall of cool?

Dare I say it? Yes I will – Intel are cool. That’s a rather strange statement when you think about it. They make computer chips for heavens sake! A brand of cola can be cool, or a beer, or some gear, or Jimmy Choos, or an airline. But a computer chip manufacturing company?

Less said perhaps is better, so go here www.see-the-future.com to find out why. Watch the video, then check out the other links, especially the Sponsors of Tomorrow website and, especially again, their latest ads under the Meet the Rockstars link.

While you are there, why not go to the Tomorrow Mural and have your say about what you would like to see in the future.  It’s quite cool, especially getting a perspective on the wants of peeps from different parts of the world.

So you see, a chip maker can be cool, even for non geeks.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Click here for more info

~1000 Drawings~

An event that all of us can be involved in. An event that brings us together, An event that is going to be absolutely smashing darlings!!

I thought this idea/concept quite fascinating, as it involves a massive scope of people, where everybody and anybody has the oppertunity to participate. This event is completely  original and is artistically bringing the community together to help :) The idea behind it all is Fabulous!

This event is a one night exhibition of original artwork, on A5 sheets and sold at a set price of R 100 a piece. The artworks are sponsored by various sectors of the community e.g. school children, homeless persons, designers, artists, art enthusiasts, to aspiring scribblers and the general public.

The brief was “draw anything with anything on anything A5”.

The use of creative email communication has caused a stir amongst the online community and resulted in a loyal following of supporters of the event. The mailer asked to donate A5 drawings. The utilization of an innovative approach to raise funds for a good cause.

The purpose of this event is to raise funds organisations named:  Princess Alice Adoption Home who cared for abandoned babies and  Paballo Ya Batho that feeds inner-city homeless people.

A large amount of  Drawings from all over South Africa as well as a few international entries were submitted.

The best 1000 were choosen and will be on display and sale tomorrow (26/11/09) evening at the Heart of Jozi CBD see link for exact address!

So come and support and check out some really rad artwork!

Exhibitions will be held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dubai and Amsterdam.

http://www.1000drawings.co.za

Click here for more info

You’re Fired!

Your hair looks nothing like mine

Your hair looks nothing like mine

I am not a fan of the original version of The Apprentice, perhaps it’s all the American hype or it could just be Mr Hair himself, Donald Trump.  In fact, I’m not big into reality TV so it goes without saying that when the water cooler chat moves to last week’s episode of The Cougar (?!) and SA’s Got Talent, I tend to wander off to chat with the pot plants.

However, one night I was channel surfing during half time of another dismal Liverpool football match when I stumbled upon BBC Prime and the UK version of The Apprentice.  Somehow, Sir Alan Sugar managed to keep me glued to the box. Okay, so did wonder briefly if it was just marginally better than watching Liverpool lose against the blind team again.  Anyhow, I was drawn in, rooting for Team A (it had the hot blonde in it), holding my breath right up until the familiar phrase, “You’re Fired!” (Cockney accent helps too methinks).  Exhale, cheer, look up when the next episode is on.

Thinking of things to do while I wait for my next fix of Sir Alan I began wondering about firing people in the real world.  Doesn’t quite work the same, it would probably have to include the suffix “see you at the CCMA”.  Firing people is never fun, no matter how much they have cocked up.  Staff are real people, they have families and pets and bills and emotions and stuff. The truth is that it is far less costly, both in terms of time and money, to retain (and tetrain) someone than it is to replace them. So chances are I won’t get to use my new favouright phrase on anyone in the office.

Arv ad enuff, you're fired!

Arv ad enuff, you're fired!

This got me thinking about clients – I’m sure anyone in business (coz anyone in business has clients) has at one stage or another wished they could give a client the boot. Maybe they don’t pay on time or maybe they are just a royal pain in the backside.  The problem is that we have been led to believe that no matter what, the customer is King! The client is always right. Hang on to your customers no matter what. Customer service means doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to ensure client satisfaction.  Does it?

I have been to a few workshops lately about doing business post recession and they are saying the opposite.  I have also read a number of books and magazine articles saying the same.  Apparently in the new economy, we should choose our clients wisely.  Do business with those that understand what it is that you do and want to do more of the same with you.  Also, they must have the willingness to pay and pay on time.  If you have to really look hard at those client relationships that don’t do it for you and work out how much it costs you to always go the extra mile (especially when they’re only paying for an inch) and / or the drain on resources chasing the money they owe you.  Wouldn’t it be easier, wouldn’t it be cheaper, wouldn’t it just be plain lovely to say “You’re Fired!”?

If Jack Welsh is telling us to get rid of 10% of our underperforming staff every year, shouldn’t we be doing the same with our underperforming and underpaying clients?  The Gurus are saying so but, hold on, what’s that sound.  Shhh, I think I can hear it now, yes it’s the sound of my boss’s voice echoing down the passage – “Did you write this?  You’re Fired!”

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Click here for more info

If there ever was a time to go digital…

World Wide Worx in conjunction with Cisco conducted a survey in SA and found that we have finally reached the 5-million-internet-users mark. This basically means that 10% of South Africans have access to the Super Highway! WEEEEE!

World Wide Worx MD and lead in this survey Arthur Goldstuck says that there is reason to believe we will easily make the 6 million mark by the end of 2010. “The Seacom undersea cable has had a dramatic indirect affect on the pricing of Internet access” says Goldstuck. Instead of having upper-middle to upper class customers, we now have an influx of middle-class users that can finally afford the leap to online surfing.

What does this mean for the digital market? Easy! We have more customers to reach, with different needs than those we serviced up until now. Opportunity galore!

Here’s to happy customer hunting for all the entrepreneurs out there! Enjoy your 2010!

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Click here for more info

added touch of type

So, the wonderfully amazing exciting fantastic world of design!

We are surrounded by this amazing thing called design all the time, it’s everywhere and anywhere!

For my ilearn I decided to focus on an area in this crazy but wonderfully awesome world of Design!

Typography, the art of arranging type, type design and modifying type glyphs, is often considered as a major part of promotional material and marketing. If you use typography properly, you cannot meaningfully convey the message, but also strengthen the brand of your company.

Typography has always been very inspiring and nowadays many artists experiment with type treatments to achieve inspiring, unusual and beautiful results.

I feel that a design is not quite complete without the use of type; it brings life to a design!

Please click on the Link below and you will see a few examples of what I mean :)

http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/gorgeous-typography-examples-in-advertising-design.html

Click here for more info

Aggregator Heaven

Hi, my name is Andre and I am a content aggregator!

There, I’ve said it! And I’m not a particularly faithful one either, although iGoogle has been my most favourite of late. As the popularity of RSS feeds have grown so have the number of sites aggregating RSS feeds. My new fave is Alltop, a self-described online magazine rack of popular topics. I found this while browsing spotcoolstuff.com, another aggregator of (cool) content.  This is what they had to say about Alltop:-

Alltop, content aggregation goes large

Alltop, content aggregation goes large

“What makes Alltop so useful is that the site has some editorial standards for the feeds it accepts. So instead of a million RSS feeds from everyone blogging about what they had for breakfast this morning Alltop has a few hundred feeds from blogs you may actually, you know, care about.

Alltop is also the best designed RSS aggregator. It has enough topics to be useful, not so many that you can’t find what you are looking for. The site “remembers” topics you recently visited, making it easy for you to return. Put your mouse over an article title on Alltop and you’ll see an instant preview.

The problem is that Alltop has become almost too popular. Some topics now have so many RSS feeds that the choice is overwhelming. And the best feeds are not always at the top of Alltop’s topic pages. Now there’s a solution to that problem: MyAlltop. Now you can create an account with Alltop, select whichever feeds you want from however many topics you want and the latest five headlines from all of your chosen feeds will appear on a single page. It’s a very cool way to quickly find and navigate to new content of interest to you.”

So, if like me you are a content aggregator junkie then check them out.  Until ‘they’ find a way of pumping content directly into your brain it should meet any content addict’s needs.

Click here for more info

OMG! ACRONYMS – AT LAST!

stfu-noob

Apparently, I am the office Acronym queen! WTF, I have no idea why I was called that! But could have been another name all together so I best settle with this title then! ROFL!

 So in a world where things are developing at an exponential rate!  Who knows, maybe acronyms will form a part of our everyday diction?  We have rushed everything nowadays, 5 minute facelifts, nutrition in a bottle, easy-heat meals, it kind of leads me into the topic of what a ‘quick fix’ junkie-nation we have become! Imagine a conversation in 100 years time being something like this:

 ‘OMG LAT – IHNSSLTB! WOW!’  Instead of saying: ‘ oh my gosh, look at that, I have never seen something like that before – wow!’ Pretty neat hey! To the point and we all understand! People are already using acronyms in our eveyday ‘speedy’ convos and communucation all around – sms’ing, emailing, msn, and now even in our everyday conversations! I tell you, it’s become a real hit and soon the world will be using acronyms in speech like a virus!

 How cool are these examples:  CD9 – Code 9 = Parents nearby  -  hectic, now we know that kids have their own secret acro’s too!  & PAW = Parents Are Watching! LOL!

I quite like this one: SMETE  =  Smiling from ear to ear   -  nice one!

 If you think about it though, acronyms have assisted us through our earlier lives in many ways, notes when studying, note taking in meetings, think of short-hand typing (using acronyms and symbols – Now theres another one – symbols!  So you see we are just advancing as naturally as I would like to think…

 You kind of cannot help but wonder – what next!?? No sound? Telepathic devices? This is all to much for me! BTR =  (back to reality!)

 Here is a list of acronyms for your leisure – go on then, be a cut above the rest!

 AIM ACRONYM DICTIONARY

 

Click here for more info

Google and Microsoft now on the JSE

Hidden away at the tip of Africa we haven’t always had the opportunity to participate on a equity level with some of the worlds biggest companies. The (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) JSE as one of the worlds largest futures exchanges however allows us to participate not only in single stock futures of our own companies but also many international companies.

The latest addition to this growing list are global IT heavyweights Microsoft (NASDAQ) and Google (NASDAQ and LSE). They join one of our other favourites Apple as some of the world major technology companies South Africans can now have exposure to.

One exciting aspect of derivatives such as Single Stock Futures (SSF) is that purchasing them doesn’t effect your R 2 Million offshore allowance. Despite being an international derivative you can purchase them through your broker in the same way you would purchase any other derivative or stock. Be warned though these are leveraged instruments so expect big gains and or losses.

Click here for more info

My Brandz

It’s accepted that a Brand is not what you say it is, but what your customer says it is. Brands are not cool logos and appealing colours but rather a collection of thoughts, emotions, experiences and stories.

The web is a mine of information for brands who want to get honest thoughts and opinions as to how their brands are perceived. It’s been a bit of a mission though to collect this data from different sources and then present it clearly.

Brandtags is a great initiative that associates keywords with brands….and now MyBrandz.com has launched in Beta.

MyBrandz is a website for brand lovers, where they can share their passion for certain brands – this feedback is then plotted on a ‘love’ matrix.

Click here for more info

Who’s up for a bit of nostalgia?

Since computer games drive the IT industry I’ve picked my favourite game of each year since 1978 (yip 1978 – ouch).

To help the memory a bit, check out wikipedia.

1978: Space Invaders
spaceinvaders

1979: Galaxian
galaxian

1980: Pac-Man
pacman

1981: Frogger
frogger

1982: Zaxxon
zaxxon

1983: Deathchase
deathchase

1984: Pajamarama
Pyjamarama

1985: Indiana Jones and the temple of Doom
indiana

1986: Gunship
Gunshipscreenshot

1987: Double Dragon
doubledragon

1988: Kings Quest IV
kingsquest

1989: Space Quest III
spacequest

1990: Ultima VI
ultima

1991: Lemmings
lemmings

1992: Wolfenstein 3D
wolfenstein

1993: Doom
doom

1994: Sim Tower
simtower

1995: Warcraft II
warcraft

1996: Quake
quake

1997: Tomb Raider II
tombraider

1998: Motocross Madness
motocrossmadnes

1999: Age of Empires II
ageofempires

2000: Diablo II
diablo

2001: Grand Theft Auto III
gta3

2002: Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas
gtaSA

2003: Prince of Persia – Sands of Time
princeofpersia

2004: Gran Turismo 4
granturismo

2005: Dungeon Siege II
dungeonsiege

2006: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
oblivion

2007: Call of Duty 4 – Modern warfare
cod4

2008: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City
gta4

2009: (still deciding)

And the best game of all time: Grand Theft Auto IV – Liberty City

Click here for more info

See the Future

Can a chip maker join the wall of fame?

Can a chip maker join the wall of cool?

Dare I say it? Yes I will – Intel are cool. That’s a rather strange statement when you think about it. They make computer chips for heavens sake! A brand of cola can be cool, or a beer, or some gear, or Jimmy Choos, or an airline. But a computer chip manufacturing company?

Less said perhaps is better, so go here www.see-the-future.com to find out why. Watch the video, then check out the other links, especially the Sponsors of Tomorrow website and, especially again, their latest ads under the Meet the Rockstars link.

While you are there, why not go to the Tomorrow Mural and have your say about what you would like to see in the future.  It’s quite cool, especially getting a perspective on the wants of peeps from different parts of the world.

So you see, a chip maker can be cool, even for non geeks.

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Click here for more info

~1000 Drawings~

An event that all of us can be involved in. An event that brings us together, An event that is going to be absolutely smashing darlings!!

I thought this idea/concept quite fascinating, as it involves a massive scope of people, where everybody and anybody has the oppertunity to participate. This event is completely  original and is artistically bringing the community together to help :) The idea behind it all is Fabulous!

This event is a one night exhibition of original artwork, on A5 sheets and sold at a set price of R 100 a piece. The artworks are sponsored by various sectors of the community e.g. school children, homeless persons, designers, artists, art enthusiasts, to aspiring scribblers and the general public.

The brief was “draw anything with anything on anything A5”.

The use of creative email communication has caused a stir amongst the online community and resulted in a loyal following of supporters of the event. The mailer asked to donate A5 drawings. The utilization of an innovative approach to raise funds for a good cause.

The purpose of this event is to raise funds organisations named:  Princess Alice Adoption Home who cared for abandoned babies and  Paballo Ya Batho that feeds inner-city homeless people.

A large amount of  Drawings from all over South Africa as well as a few international entries were submitted.

The best 1000 were choosen and will be on display and sale tomorrow (26/11/09) evening at the Heart of Jozi CBD see link for exact address!

So come and support and check out some really rad artwork!

Exhibitions will be held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Dubai and Amsterdam.

http://www.1000drawings.co.za

Click here for more info

You’re Fired!

Your hair looks nothing like mine

Your hair looks nothing like mine

I am not a fan of the original version of The Apprentice, perhaps it’s all the American hype or it could just be Mr Hair himself, Donald Trump.  In fact, I’m not big into reality TV so it goes without saying that when the water cooler chat moves to last week’s episode of The Cougar (?!) and SA’s Got Talent, I tend to wander off to chat with the pot plants.

However, one night I was channel surfing during half time of another dismal Liverpool football match when I stumbled upon BBC Prime and the UK version of The Apprentice.  Somehow, Sir Alan Sugar managed to keep me glued to the box. Okay, so did wonder briefly if it was just marginally better than watching Liverpool lose against the blind team again.  Anyhow, I was drawn in, rooting for Team A (it had the hot blonde in it), holding my breath right up until the familiar phrase, “You’re Fired!” (Cockney accent helps too methinks).  Exhale, cheer, look up when the next episode is on.

Thinking of things to do while I wait for my next fix of Sir Alan I began wondering about firing people in the real world.  Doesn’t quite work the same, it would probably have to include the suffix “see you at the CCMA”.  Firing people is never fun, no matter how much they have cocked up.  Staff are real people, they have families and pets and bills and emotions and stuff. The truth is that it is far less costly, both in terms of time and money, to retain (and tetrain) someone than it is to replace them. So chances are I won’t get to use my new favouright phrase on anyone in the office.

Arv ad enuff, you're fired!

Arv ad enuff, you're fired!

This got me thinking about clients – I’m sure anyone in business (coz anyone in business has clients) has at one stage or another wished they could give a client the boot. Maybe they don’t pay on time or maybe they are just a royal pain in the backside.  The problem is that we have been led to believe that no matter what, the customer is King! The client is always right. Hang on to your customers no matter what. Customer service means doing ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to ensure client satisfaction.  Does it?

I have been to a few workshops lately about doing business post recession and they are saying the opposite.  I have also read a number of books and magazine articles saying the same.  Apparently in the new economy, we should choose our clients wisely.  Do business with those that understand what it is that you do and want to do more of the same with you.  Also, they must have the willingness to pay and pay on time.  If you have to really look hard at those client relationships that don’t do it for you and work out how much it costs you to always go the extra mile (especially when they’re only paying for an inch) and / or the drain on resources chasing the money they owe you.  Wouldn’t it be easier, wouldn’t it be cheaper, wouldn’t it just be plain lovely to say “You’re Fired!”?

If Jack Welsh is telling us to get rid of 10% of our underperforming staff every year, shouldn’t we be doing the same with our underperforming and underpaying clients?  The Gurus are saying so but, hold on, what’s that sound.  Shhh, I think I can hear it now, yes it’s the sound of my boss’s voice echoing down the passage – “Did you write this?  You’re Fired!”

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