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Incentive to attend school
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- Rikus Grobler
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Last week, the FNB Namibia Foundation, as main sponsor, handed N$47 000 to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister at the Coblenz Combined School in the Otjozondjupa region. The money goes towards the Deputy Prime Minister’s initiative to encourage marginalized communities to go back to school and to continue their formal education.
In 2011 FNB Namibia committed their assistance to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to become a part of this worthy cause for the next three years as the bank was convinced that these efforts will bear fruit and that the SAN, one of the oldest and most distinct cultures, will benefit from the motivation and encouragement.
At the handover Olsen Kahiri of FNB Namibia said that supporting educational initiatives and especially those that benefit marginalised communities are two of the main areas of support of the FNB Foundation.
Innovation - Diffusion of innovation
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- Rikus Grobler
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Background
In the previous article, I stated the case for execution being dependent on the application of structured disciplines such as project management. However, the innovation process does not stop when the new product or service has been delivered; the possible clients still have to adopt the use of the new product, also referred to as innovation diffusion. I have to accentuate here that it is not the same as commercialisation. Commercialisation is a more holistic concept and includes many other aspects such as pricing, logistics, marketing and advertising, after sales service etc. Diffusion is only one part of the commercialisation concept. Also take into consideration that not all innovations are destined for commercialisation, innovation can have an internal focus as well, e.g. improvement of the efficiency of an internal process leading to a reduction in cost.
Diffusion
In marketing science a lot of research has been done to explain how, why, and at what rate new products spread through the market. Most readers will probably be well acquainted with the bell curve indicating this process and where consumers are classified into “innovators”, “early adopters”, “early majority”, “late majority” and “laggards”, based on the time it takes for consumers to adopt a new product. Marketers are particularly interested in the diffusion process as it determines the success and failure of any new product introduced in the market. Their aim is usually to achieve the largest amount of adoption within the shortest period of time. Thus, it is important to understand the diffusion process so as to ensure proper management of the spread of the new product.
Hardfacts on Software - Retailers beware!
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- Immo Bohm
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I have been saying this for some time, but I am not alone. Retailers need to pay very close attention to what is happening online. Gilon Miller in his blog on http://upstreamcommerce.com agrees with me. Here is what he shares about this topic:
“The ways consumers use the Internet for shopping continue to evolve. One day the name of the game is researching and shopping online, and then buying online. The next day it’s shopping and researching in the local store, then buying online. Then there’s another type of online retail competition: The phenomenon of “web-influenced retail sales” (Internet Retailer) where consumers do a lot of research and browsing online, and then buy... in their local stores.
In a 2010 forecast for the United States, Forrester Research noted that multi-channel commerce (CMS WiRE) was growing much faster than online retail sales, and estimated its growth to be five times the size of the e-commerce market by 2015. More important, Forrester estimated that online- and web-influenced offline sales combined would amount to 53 percent of a total of $1.409 billion worth of sales in 2014.
This Week in The Khuta - The time has come for young people to lead
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- Yvonne Amukwaya
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As a junior journalist, I have had the opportunity to dine and mingle with numerous people from all walks of life both on a formal and informal platform. I must admit that my views on many issues affecting not only I, but also wider society, have changed from before I entered the journalism field.
I have always wondered why I do not see young people taking the lead in matters affecting them. I am not trying to justify why I do not see my age mates taking the lead but I will give you a rough idea as to why they do not take the lead. It is not without reason that older, established leaders often claim that we are not stepping up.
How can we possibly step up if you are stepping on our toes anyway?
Until very recently I was under the impression that we as the youth of this country are pretty lazy. But after spending some time attending many events of who says what and who does what, I can tell you, as reader that Namibian youth are anything but lazy.
Look at it this way, as a father, you are suppose to train your son to be the next head of the house. Maybe not in your home but in his own house. Now you have to teach your child to do various things in and around the house by means of both example and instruction. Yet all you do is lead by word but not in doing.
Read more: This Week in The Khuta - The time has come for young people to lead
Innovation - Execution disciplines
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- Rikus Grobler
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Background
I am currently discussing the execution side of innovation, i.e. making ideas a reality. Last time I covered some of the “soft” issues around implementation of ideas, changing the organisation to an “execution” culture and making time for implementation activities. However, execution excellence is also dependent on the application of structured disciplines such as project management, quality management and prototyping.
Project management
I mentioned in a previous article, the approach of Paul Williams, who defines innovation in terms of the equation: Need + Ideas + Action = Innovation. Ideas come from creative problem solving, problem identification, idea generation and creativity. Action comes from the process and activity to turn the best ideas into real outcomes. Sometimes the action results in prototypes, or beta software or test models. To get there most reliably, you need the type of rigor found in project management or new product (and service) development processes.
I first want to define the term “project” and “project management”. The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as a temporary endeavour with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value.
