Why the UK is losing its religion to Atheism

Atheism in the UK has reached record levels, so why are people losing faith?.

“Only church leaders possess states without defending them and subjects without governing them.” So said Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli in his historical treatise The Prince. Religion, he suggests, is a political necessity, the tool of a ruling class unable to rationally legitimise the massive social inequality of feudal society.

You wouldn’t believe it… but having no religious affiliation is now world’s third biggest ‘faith’ after Christianity and IslamChristianity is the largest faith with 2.2 billion adherents or 31.5 per cent of the world’s population
There are about 1.6 billion Muslims around the world - or 23 per cent of the global population

Whilst such a system might seem positively medieval to us now, in the age of the 1 and the 99% and lease-only housing in the capital, it seems that the legacy of ye olde, aristocratic Britannia might not be so remote. Religious states still exist also – Saudi ‘women can’t drive’ Arabia, for instance – and ‘secular’ Britain must count itself as one of only two sovereign states in the world to theocratically maintain the presence of unelected bishops within their political system (the House of Lords). The other is Iran.

But the times they are a-changing, and if the world wars of the 20th century began to erode religious faith in the west, then the proliferation of the world wide web has only exacerbated that process. “Religions have depended on the relative isolation and ignorance of their flocks, forever, and this is all breaking down,” asserts Daniel C. Dennett, the co-director of Tufts’ Centre for Cognitive Studies.

Dennett’s theory is certainly lent support by a recent YouGov poll, which found that “the place of religion in the lives of young Britons is smaller than ever.” Asked by YouGov which figures had any influence whatsoever on their lives, only 12% of British 18-24 year olds said religious leaders influenced them, less than half the number influenced by brands (32%) and politicians (38%), and significantly lower than those influenced by celebrities (21%).

So why are we losing our religion? The global economic collapse certainly seems to have triggered a collective loss of faith in figures of authority in every sector of society, and the process of globalization also sped up the process of ‘atheisisation’. Perhaps we have also reached saturation point with regard to the scale and number of sectarian civil wars, religiously sanctioned, if not encouraged, violence and politico-religious corruption. Atheism UK President Mark Embleton shares this view. Asked why increasing numbers of young people are claiming atheism, he answers:

“Because they’ve thought about it. There’s much more information available through the internet now than there was for older generations, so young people can easily access opinions for and against religion. Also, the more recent publicity and reporting of such things as child abuse by clergy, Islamic terrorism, religious resistance to equality for women or homosexuals, etc., has turned many people away from religion, not just young people.”

Embleton says he became an “active” atheist when he received jural disapproval for taking the affirmation in the witness box, rather than swearing on the Bible (yes, that is still a British practice).

Six ideas to make a success of your African-based business in 2014

BY Jaco Maritz - Source: How we made it in Africa


1. Many opportunities, but patience required

Although Africa certainly holds many opportunities for business, dealing with red tape and bureaucracy remains a major challenge. Even getting to a meeting on time can be a taxing exercise due to traffic congestion in many cities. It is therefore important to have patience and not expect success to happen overnight.

According to Randy Buday, who looks after DHL’s operations in Nigeria, businesspeople need patience and tenacity to succeed in Africa’s most populous nation. “Nobody is going to make a fast buck here. You need investment, you need patience, you need the ability to understand the workforce, and some of the other unique constraints particular to the country,” he explains. “Even coming to work can be a daily challenge for employees due to inadequate public transport and congestion which is endemic to a number of the larger cities. That being said, there is no doubt that Nigeria is offering some of the most attractive investment opportunities and companies that are willing to invest time and energy here, will see major returns.”

2. Know your market and customers

As a continent of 54 different countries, each with its own distinct economic and cultural features, companies need to ensure they have a good insight into the market they are targeting.

Bernard Malaba, manager for DHL Express in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), notes that companies wanting a national footprint in the DRC should make sure they have a very good knowledge of the country, as the market can differ widely from one region to another. “The people in the country are so different. For example, what applies in the south of the country, does not necessarily apply in the east.”

Kader Coulibaly, country manager in Ghana, says foreign investors need to do their homework and choose their local partners wisely. “The biggest challenge to doing business in Ghana at the moment is market knowledge. It is also important to choose the right local business partner because the Ghanaian market is a very particular market, and it is better to have somebody that knows the environment very well.”

Coulibaly adds that companies shouldn’t “cut-and paste” strategies used in other territories.

Yaw Nsarkoh, managing director, Unilever East and Southern Africa

Source: http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com

1. What was your first job?

My first job was working in the factory as a shift manager in Unilever Ghana.

2. Who has had the biggest impact on your career and why?

Several people have had a big impact on my career. For this moment I will probably give the credit to my parents who formed my view about life, gave me values, and gave me good training and appreciation of hard work and effort. I will also credit the support of my immediate family; my wife and my children. I have also had some very good mentors in my career.

3. What parts of your job keep you awake at night?

Due to volatility I do invest a lot of time in trying to understand the environment around me and question myself on whether we are planning in adequate ways to be able to cope with that. This keeps me awake sometime as a result of some amount of worry, but I am also kept awake for positive reasons like when I see young people join [Unilever with] very bright futures ahead of them and the energy that they have. I consider it a privilege to be able to play a role in that.

4. What are the top reasons why you have been successful in business?

I would think that I like to listen and observe and learn and that is important in the context of business. The rest is better for others to judge.

5. What are the best things about your country?

I guess the starting point is which is my country? I haven’t been in Ghana for some time now so I kind of consider Kenya also to be my country and I have worked in so many places and I consider them all to be my country. I would say the friendliness of the people. Interestingly I would give the same answer for Kenya as for Ghana. I only remember I am not Kenyan when people ask me: “How do you find Kenya?”

5 Ways To Be A Badass Leader, James Bond Style

By Shari Alexander on December 12, 2013

Thanks to the James Bond franchise, we’ve all daydreamed about what it might be like to be an international man or woman of mystery. The suits. The swagger. The sweet ride.

Although you probably won’t be able to build your tradecraft chops at the CIA, entrepreneurs can pick up a few lessons from the intelligence community. I’ve interviewed a number of human intelligence specialists and gathered five key ways you can step up your leadership skills, spy-style.

1. Get hooked up with insiders.

Intelligence assets are just as important in business as they are in espionage. Field agents are often judged by their ability to tap into people who divulge important information. Entrepreneurs need to be equally skilled at building their list of insider connections.

As the saying goes: Your network is your net worth.

Find the synergy between your objectives and those of valuable potential connections. Discover shared interests to build strategic relationships. The most motivated contacts are those who believe in a higher purpose or have a bigger vision. Explain how helping you helps them achieve their ideas for a better future.

2. Learn to read people’s faces.

Observational skills help spies assess threats and recognise opportunities – especially when it comes to body language. Entrepreneurs should also become keenly aware of body language in meetings and conversations.

Pay attention to which phrases elicit an engaged response – leaning forward, widening eyes, raised eyebrows, subtle nodding of the head, a flash of a smile. These are signals that you have tapped into key points that align with a person’s values and beliefs.

Also, be on the lookout for phrases or even names that elicit a negative or disengaged response – leaning back, narrowing of the eyelids, crinkling of the nose or a protruding jaw.

3. Stay cool, calm and collected.

The success of an operation can depend on a spy’s ability to keep cool in extremely high-pressure situations. As a leader, you too, need to maintain your composure. During stressful times, your team looks to you for leadership. A frantic leader results in a frantic workforce.

When you are under high levels of stress, bring your attention to your breath. Shallow breathing can result in increased body tension. Focus on taking deep, comforting, full breaths to release the anxiety building up.

Jittery movements are also associated with nervousness – tapping a pen on the desk, rattling legs underneath the table or pacing back and forth. Convey confidence with stillness. Full breaths and stillness can have a very calming effect for you and those around you.

4. Venture outside your comfort zone on purpose.

Field operatives find themselves in a wide variety of places, surrounded by all kinds of people. They have to be comfortable in any situation.

Entrepreneurs have to be just as versatile and flexible. One of the best ways to find inspiration, solve a problem or stretch your limits, is to actively put yourself outside your comfort zone.

• Take dance classes. (All spies know tango, right?)


• Join networking groups.


• Go skydiving.

Purposefully push outside your comfort zone. New experiences will reveal new aspects of yourself.

The next time a curveball is thrown your way, you’ll be more capable of adapting.

5. Sharpen your memory.

Remembering massive amounts of detailed information is important in the intelligence community. One piece of intel could be critical to an operation. Even though entrepreneurs aren’t committing complex codes to memory, improving one’s memory skills can be beneficial. Remembering names of people, their influential triggers, and dynamics among key players can help you land bigger business deals.

Making associations with ‘raw data’ is a great way to improve memory. The basic premise is to associate information with other – sometimes off the wall – images, memories, ideas or whatever you like.

Let’s use remembering names as an example.If I meet someone named Carey, I’ll probably think of a blood-soaked dress. Skylar makes me think of a lark in the sky. Dan I would associate with tan skin – bonus if he actually does have a tan. And so forth.

The memory palace is another great technique, especially for remembering important business numbers or even a speech. With this skill, you visualise your home or any location. As you imagine walking from room to room, you attach important information with scenes or images.

Think like a CIA agent and you might find you’re more attentive, better connected, calmer and ready to tackle the challenge of running your business.

Are You a Bad Leader? Here are the Signs

About Shari Alexander

Sharí Alexander is a communication specialist in helping leaders increase their influence.

Richard Branson on Embracing Failure

By Richard Branson

Q: I have always been fearless, and gone after everything I wanted. I launched a business selling my designs a few years ago, and it succeeded, but I had to close it due to the recession. Now, having just earned a master’s degree, I have decided to launch my own design firm rather than look for a job, and for the first time in my life I find that I am paralysed with fear. How can I face down this fear in order to go after my dreams?

Fear is something everyone must learn to cope with when tackling life’s challenges, but this is especially important for entrepreneurs, who are likely to face many hard choices in the process of getting a business off the ground. And in the early stages of running a new enterprise, the way you handle pressure can often make the difference in whether it survives.

Making tough decisions

You may need to make some tough calls. During Virgin’s early years, one difficult decision we had to make involved Virgin Records, which at one point was in desperate need of cash to sign bigger artists.

My partners, Nik Powell and Simon Draper, were split on what to do: Nik wanted to conserve our resources and slowly collect money through our retail operations; Simon wanted to invest heavily in Virgin Records, betting on the notion that we could find the next big artists that way. We needed quick growth, so I took the riskier gamble, following Simon’s advice over Nik’s. It turned out to be the right decision, but it took a lot of courage – and not just from me, but everyone on staff.

I’ve always found that the first step in overcoming fear is figuring out exactly what you’re afraid of. In your case, I wonder: Is your anxiety a reflection of doubts about your business plan? Or is it rooted in your experience with your previous venture?

Face your fears

If it is the former, and you are having doubts about your idea, why not take your concerns to a key friend or mentor and carefully run through your business plan?

Talking everything through with a trusted confidant, from your business’ unique selling points to how it will stand out among competitors, is a good way to help calm fears and give you some perspective and confidence. Sometimes even the simple act of discussing your plan will highlight things you’re unsure about – often, small, unresolved issues can be at the root of an entrepreneur’s anxieties.

But if your previous venture’s end is what is making you so hesitant, try to take some comfort in the fact that most entrepreneurs fail when they launch their first businesses. Failing doesn’t mean that you’re not cut out to run your own business.

In fact, many venture capital investors evaluate potential partners on how they reacted to a failed business, seeing it as a test of character, rather than a mark against them. The key to bouncing back is to learn whatever lessons you can from the experience so that you can avoid making the same mistakes in the next launch. This will help you to overcome your fear, take a leap of faith and try again.

Are You a Terrible Leader? Here are the Signs

Learn from the experience

The experience of launching one of your first businesses reminds me of the adventures and challenges I have embarked on over the years to promote Virgin and put our businesses on the map. There were countless times during our record-breaking hot-air balloon trips when I wondered whether we were going to make it back down to earth alive. But every time, I learned lessons from making mistakes during previous trips and was able to adapt.

Another example: A few years ago I was helping to launch Virgin America’s new route from San Francisco to Las Vegas – and upon arriving at our casino hotel, I was taken to the top floor, given a harness and told I was going to jump off the side of the building.

It was dark and windy, and I knew I should go back inside and tell everyone we needed to postpone the jump. Instead, I was persuaded to go through with it. The wind was up, and within seconds I found myself banging down the side of the building, ripping my trousers and bruising my backside.

It was an extremely painful lesson, learned the hard way. But learning from mistakes (and a combination of good fortune and adrenalin) is what has gotten me through on many occasions.

Get back on the horse

Overcoming fear is not necessarily as easy as jumping off a building, but it might be easier than what you’ve done: Watching a business fail after putting your heart and soul into trying to make it succeed. But don’t be too hard on yourself.

Starting a new enterprise from scratch and gathering the nerve to take risks that are similar to those you took last time can be daunting for any entrepreneur. Just remember that picking yourself up from a failed business in order to try again is the bravest choice you can make.

Have you had a business fail? What did you learn from the experience? Let us know in the comment section below…

About Richard Branson

Richard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active. He is the author of "Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur."

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$8Mn Funding Round for VOD Platform iROKOtv

International Investors Confident in Future of Emerging African Entertainment and VOD Market as ‘Netflix of Africa’ Start-Up Raises Additional $8Mn

 

London.  iROKOtv, the Africa-based movie platform for Nigerian movies, known colloquially as ‘Nollywood’, today announces a funding round of $8Mn, led by existing investor Tiger Global, with further participation from Sweden-based Kinnevik and introducing new investor to this round, US-based Rise Capital. This brings the total raised to $21Mn, arguably making iROKOtv one of the most well funded internet companies in Africa today.

 

iROKOtv is the leading Video-on-Demand (VOD) platform for African content and following the announcement of the $8Mn investment, the company will continue to focus its attention on growing traffic, content curation and building a platform-agnostic distribution system for its 1Mn monthly users.

 

To-date, the capital raised by iROKOtv has been used to acquire content, expand the London-based tech team, develop mobile websites and applications and open offices in London, New York and Johannesburg, alongside the company’s Lagos headquarters. iROKOtv now holds the world’s largest online catalogue of African content, with over 5,000 movies.

 

The new capital will be channeled at building and transitioning the company’s audience from a primarily Diaspora base to an African base, as well as migrating from a largely ad supported model to more subscription service. Currently, 50% of iROKOtv’s audience is located in the UK and US alone, but with the continent coming online, demand for homegrown multi-platform video content is rising fast. There will also be a renewed focus on monetizing iROKOtv’s catalogue through its SVOD service, iROKOtv PLUS, as well as through its strategic distribution partnerships with global airlines and TV channels.

 

Jason Njoku, CEO and co-founder says: “The $8Mn raised by Tiger Global, Kinnevik and Rise Capital will further fuel our expansion and help us to realise our long term goal of becoming one of Africa’s preeminent media companies. We started life three years ago as a Nollywood content aggregator on a YouTube channel and today we find ourselves with a VC-backed dedicated VOD platform, watched in 178 countries around the world, with one million unique visitors a month. These metrics were achieved with hard work from a great international team and today’s news allows us to continue in the same vein and accelerate our growth.”

 

Bastian Gotter, COO and co-founder says: “We have forged a niche in African movie programming and captured people’s imagination in terms of bringing previously unobtainable yet popular content, loved by millions, to a global audience on an awesome platform. This additional capital allows us to consolidate our position as VOD market leaders for Africa, invest in tech, content and infrastructure and, importantly, we are now in a position to become profitable by 2015, which is an extraordinary feat for any start-up, let alone an African VOD one like ours.”

 

Today’s announcement also sees a new investor, Rise capital, brought into the funding series, with Gotter adding: “Nazar's guidance as our first outside investor and active board member has significantly helped our development as a company, so we are excited to strengthen this relationship with him and the Rise Capital team. We look forward to continuing to benefit from their global investment expertise."

 

Nazar Yasin, Managing Partner of Rise Capital says: "We are very pleased to participate in this round of financing alongside Kinnevik and my former colleagues at Tiger Global. Having worked with Jason, Bastian and the team since their early days, we at Rise Capital look forward to continuing to help them scale their content acquisition and distribution channels and secure their positioning as Sub-Saharan Africa's largest and most impactful media company.

 

Mia Brunell Livfors, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kinnevik adds: "This latest funding round for iROKOtv is testament to the fact that Kinnevik continues to support them on their journey to becoming one of Africa's most exciting and far-reaching media companies".

 

On 1 July 2012, iROKOtv introduced a subscription service (SVOD) to its site, iROKOtv PLUS, where for $5 a month, subscribers are the first to access the 12 brand new movies uploaded onto the site every month. The iROKOtv PLUS business is currently growing rapidly and is now the largest single source of revenue for the company, revealing that more consumers are willing to pay for quality content. 95% of content on iROKOtv continues to be free and is supported by an advertising (AVOD) business model.

 

iROKOtv has aggregated the world’s largest online Nollywood catalogue, now standing at 5,000+ movies and the company has been credited by for pioneering VOD for Africa and African continent. Coined by the media as the ‘Netflix of Africa’, iROKOtv has successfully disrupted and reorganised the multi-million dollar Nigerian movie industry’s distribution infrastructure.

Magic Johnson Still Beating HIV 20 Years Later

If Magic Johnson had known just how well he could live with HIV, he wouldn't have retired from the Lakers on Nov. 7, 1991.

Johnson would never change what he did for the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic when he publicly revealed his diagnosis to a stunned world. His courage that day, along with two subsequent decades of vibrant living, forever altered attitudes about the virus and its effects.

Magic is simply glad the world knows such happy endings are possible with access to treatment and vigilance.

"At that time, it was the right decision," Johnson said Monday on the 20th anniversary of his stunning retirement. "If I knew what I knew today, that I could still play basketball and do my thing, I probably wouldn't have retired. But I'm a guy that doesn't have regrets. I don't look back. I'm happy, because I wanted to be here a long time. We made the right call at that time."

Johnson recognized the occasion at Staples Center on Monday with an upbeat celebration and a message of steadfastness. Dozens of politicians, celebrities and Lakers greats from Jerry West and Pat Riley to James Worthy and Michael Cooper joined Johnson and AIDS researcher David Ho for a luncheon, and the Magic Johnson Foundation announced a $1 million gift to continue its mission for worldwide HIV awareness and testing.

Two decades after his shocking admission and quick retirement at 32, Johnson's doctors say he's a 52-year-old specimen of health, comfortably managing HIV with a daily regimen of drugs and exercise.

While he once took upwards of 15 pills several times a day, he now requires just a few daily medications. He rises around 5 a.m. each day for a vigorous workout – everything from stretching and running to Tae Bo – before spending his days overseeing his large business empire.

Yet Johnson worries his strong health could encourage complacency, and he sees the anniversary of his historic announcement as a call to renew dedication to the cause.

"I often say I'm good for the virus, and bad for it," Johnson said. "Good because I'm doing well, and that I can go out and try and raise the awareness level, get people to go get tested ... but on the flip side of that, people see that I'm doing well, so they've kind of relaxed on HIV and AIDS. People think that now if they get the virus, they'll do well, but a couple million will die this year."

While Johnson mostly remembers a feeling of confidence derived from the unflinching support of his wife, Cookie, on the day of his announcement, his fellow Lakers have no trouble recalling the shock and confusion they felt 20 years ago.

"It stunned me, and I think I was only semi-conscious," Lakers owner Jerry Buss said. "The whole day is just like a blur in my mind. I remember Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) had to assist me. I don't think I had enough blood in the brain."

Worthy remembers the Lakers being sent from practice at Loyola Marymount to the Forum, with no idea why. The power forward wondered whether West was retiring from his executive job, or perhaps Johnson was seriously injured after missing the previous week of practice.

"When he announced, it was a reality check, because at that time, it could have been anybody," Worthy said. "A lot of people started to wonder about themselves, especially people who had never been tested before. ... He's taught us all a valuable lesson. Back in the early `90s, you thought it was a death (sentence). You thought it was over. To see him put meaning on a disease that only had one meaning, that was great."

Ho, a pioneering researcher who grew up in Los Angeles idolizing West and Elgin Baylor, said he met Johnson "on one of his darkest days" after his diagnosis. Ho has always been impressed by Johnson's upbeat willingness to acknowledge his condition, using himself to raise funds for research and treatment.

Ho also shot down the long-held suspicion that Johnson easily managed the virus because his wealth and celebrity gave him access to preferential treatment. Johnson's condition is "quite typical" at this point in the virus' treatment, he said.

"All of us working in the field are grateful to him and his foundation for doing so, because this is a plague that continues to rage," Ho said. "Because of therapeutic success, there is too much complacency in this country about this pandemic. We still need to develop new and better drugs. We have drugs that control HIV, but we don't have a cure, so research must continue."

Johnson famously couldn't stay away from basketball after his retirement, spreading the truth about HIV transmission to players and fans who sometimes balked at his participation. He was the MVP of the 1992 All-Star game and won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics before briefly coaching the Lakers in 1994 and returning to the court for 32 games in 1996, finally retiring in uniform.

Johnson is now a hugely successful businessman, a basketball commentator, a doting husband and a grandfather to his son Andre's two children. Yet he's still raising money and awareness, always working to create the same limitless future for others.

"The only problem is, I would be happier if the numbers in the black and brown communities would go down," Johnson said, citing the majority of each year's 60,000 new U.S. cases of HIV in minority communities. "There's been millions of people that have died since I announced 20 years ago, and so this is a bittersweet day. Yes, I'm living, but people are still getting this virus even as we speak. We must change the mindset, and we must do a better job educating those who live in urban America about this disease."

Magic Johnson Net Worth
Magic Johnson is the 4th richest black american with a net worth: $500 million As May 2009
Source of Wealth: Restaurants, real estate, investmentsThe retired professional basketball after announcing he had contracted HIV, became an entrepreneur. He introduced well-known brands to diverse neighborhoods via Magic Johnson Enterprises. With his several partnerships with companies like Starbucks, 24 Hour Fitness, T.G.I. Fridays, AMC Theatres, invested in urban real estate and companies catering to America’s underserved markets via his Canyon-Johnson and Yucaipa-Johnson funds. He has donated several millions to community-based organizations that focus on HIV/AIDS education and prevention. He now runs Magic Johnson Enterprises, a company that has a net worth of $700 million

Richard Branson: Don't See Obstacles, See Opportunities

One of the great myths of business (and cheesy old game shows) is that opportunity knocks. Opportunity does not knock on your door, you have to bang on the door yourself and keep knocking until you get in.

Another falsehood is that some obstacles are insurmountable. With the right attitude, application - and of course a bit of luck - anything is possible. An obstacle is defined as "a thing that blocks one's way or prevents or hinders progress." What if you flip that around and think of an obstacle as an opportunity waiting to be found?

Thomas Edison knew a thing or two about turning an obstacle into an opportunity. He showed this in all of his inventive genius, but also in how to recover from setbacks and push aside perceived obstacles. When he was in his late sixties, his huge West Orange New Jersey laboratory burnt to the ground. Rather than cursing his luck and panicking, he gathered his family and friends around to marvel at the fire and immediately began planning for the future.

Edison started rebuilding plans for a much improved lab, seeing the potential for improvement the disaster had presented. He said: "You can always make capital out of disaster. We've just cleared out a bunch of old rubbish! We'll build bigger and better on these ruins." There is good to be found in any situation - and usually a great opportunity hiding beneath the rubble.

Some obstacles can seem overwhelming. It helps to surround yourself with good people, who can help see things from a different perspective and shed light on the darkest of situations. What may seen impossible to you could be an exciting challenge for somebody else. Equally, you might be able to help them with a different problem. When the time is right, pool your skills, collaborate and you will achieve more.

Opportunities can be found in the most unlikely situations as well as on a larger scale. A good example that made me proud happened recently with our airline staff. A flight was delayed because of bad weather, which of course can be annoying for passengers. Rather than seeing the situation as an obstacle, some intrepid staff spotted the opportunity to have some fun. They quickly set up an 'Airport Olympics', encouraging our customers to join in a paper plane throwing contest rather than sit there bored. As well as stirring some competitive spirit, they jumped on the chance to put a smile on people's faces.

Getting over an obstacle is hard work. Especially when starting a business, difficulties can pile up incredibly quickly. It is crucial not to get downhearted and pick off each teething problem one by one, rather than being weighed down by them all. There is no substitute for hard graft, but you need to give yourself the time and space to have a long-term vision, too. If you're bogged down too much in the here and now of specific obstacles, opportunities will pass you by.

Grasping an opportunity is no picnic, either. They don't present themselves gift-wrapped and ready to pick off the shelf. To quote that man Edison again: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." But there is nothing more satisfying than seizing a chance and turning an idea into reality. Most of the great achievements of mankind have started life as conundrums and been turned into triumphs by creative, determined people.

These people do not just overcome obstacles, they don't see them. They see the potential in every person and every situation. Once you start looking for opportunities, it's amazing how many you find. That's how Virgin has spread into so many different sectors and markets. Opportunities are out there, why don't you go grasp them?

How to Rid Your Life of Negativity and Retain the Positives

Believe in yourself!
Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. Norman Vincent Peale

As adults you tend to linger on the negative things in life. Torment from our peers in middle school and high school can stick with you for life. Insults that are thrown at you as an adult seem larger than they really are. With all this negativity, it is surprising that more people aren’t walking around sulking. If you are one of those people that has the burden of negativity upon them, try these four solutions to help you let it go and see the positives in life.

1. Take everything that is good in your life and savor it. Research has shown that while negative thoughts soak into your brain instantaneously, it can take up to 20 seconds to absorb something good that has happened. When the good stuff comes around, stop what you are doing and soak it all in.

2. Express your gratitude for all of the good things that you have in life. Every day write down in a journal all of the good things that happened through the day and then go back and read it the next day. Writing the positives down can help you to keep them in your mind longer and will help you to carry a positive attitude over to the next day.

3. Take a break from the news. Most of the headlines on TV and in the newspapers are negative. People die every day at the hands of others. There are natural disasters, wars, and famine. Take a 24-48 hour break from all of it if possible so that you can step back from the negative imagery in the world and focus on the good.

4. Don’t make a snap judgment about a situation. Take a step back and look at everything as a whole, not just the negative aspects of the event. Look at the positives and the negatives. Don’t assume the worst, try to find the best.

Personality and Work Performance

Personality is very stable after around eighteen years of age. If you’re a parent, you probably think it’s more like eight! In fact, some personal psychologists are now saying that the child you see at three will be the adult you see at thirty – frighten if you have an unruly three year old! But it’s safe to say once we hit eighteen we are “stuck” with who we are. Can we change our personalities to “fit” certain situations?

Yes, we can but we will always revert back to “home-base.” Let me give you a workplace example.

Suppose we had an accounts clerk whose personality was very accommodating, they lacked high assertiveness and strong resilience. The company they work for has suppliers who were late paying their accounts. The boss gives the administrator a list of these bad debtors and asks her to call all of these people and tell them their supplies have been stopped, effective immediately, unless they settle their account within 24 hours to reinstate delivery.

An analogy for personality is folding your arms. People will always fold them the same way. But if asked to fold them the opposite way, they will find this difficult and uncomfortable – it can be done, but as soon as practical, they will revert to a comfortable fold.

Moving to our second question, is personality genetic or environmentally shaped? In psychology, this is the famous ‘nature/nurture’ debate. A new study completed by a team of psychologists at the University of Edinburgh, lead by New Zealander, Tim Bates found compelling evidence that our personality is equally influenced by our genes and the environment. What the study showed was that identical twins in a family were very similar in personality and in well-being, and by contrast, the fraternal twins were only half as similar. This finding strongly implicates genes as a major driver of personality traits.

So, if you’re a worry wart, you can lay 50 percent of the blame on your mum or dad and probably the other 50 percent on the way they brought you up! As psychologists, we have always known the huge role personality plays in a person’s work performance. As a lay person you can observe this in action every day. Stop right now and think about your problem employees. I bet the issue is attitude, their personality – the “who they are,” not “what they know.” Most managers will always hire on aptitude but fire on attitude. Personality influences attitude and attitude drives behaviour.

The problem with most hiring managers is that they tend to rely on gut or emotional judgement to assess attitude during the job interview. It’s impossible to “read” a person’s personality when we first met them. Yes, as humans we are predisposed to do this – known as the ‘flight or fight’ concept. Sometimes we get it right, many times we get it wrong. It is often dangerous to jump to instant conclusions.

When selecting new employees, it’s important to ascertain if the person has the knowledge, skills and experience to do the job. It is probably more important to understand how that knowledge, skill and experience will be put into practice. What are their personality characteristics and general mental abilities of the candidate and does this “fit” the job? There are many personality and mental ability measures available. It’s vitally important that you choose the right ones for the role and that the instrument is specifically designed for selection. There are many cheap, or free, pop psychology tests available on the internet or sold by people with no psychological background. Using teambuilding tools like Myers Briggs and DISC should never be used for hiring.

These tools cannot be normed against specific populations or jobs, plus they lack reliability. They are great at telling you the ‘make and model of the car’, but poor at telling you the condition of the ‘engine’. Using valid personality and general mental ability assessments, benchmarked to the job, alongside a multi-rated, behavioural interview based on the competencies required for the role and a diligent background check will ensure you get an excellent performing employee about 75 to 80 percent of the time.

These are damn sight better odds than relying on a general meet-and-greet and unstructured interview that is at best a friendly chat. Your odds of a successful hire in the latter case is about 5 to15 percent at best. There is a big difference between whether a person CAN and WILL do the job. Given that the person CAN do the job, measuring their personality will explain how they WILL do the job and this is the key to successful work performance. Rob McKay Director of AssessSystems Aust/NZ Ltd, Leaders in employee assessment for selection and development Promota readers can download a complimentary copy of his eBook, “How To Avoid Putting Square Pegs Into Round Holes” at www.tipsforhiring.com/profiling

I bet this person is going to hate doing this task. It’s not in their nature to be so forthright and aggressive, but they will force themselves to do it – it’s part of their job. However, if they had to do this task day-in and day-out, they would soon lose internal motivation and decide this job is not for them and leave.

10 Success Principles We Often Forget

Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions. -Tony Robbins

Sometimes we find ourselves running in place, struggling to get ahead simply because we forget to address some of the basic success principles that govern our potential to make progress.  So here’s a quick reminder:

1. You are the only person responsible for your success.  The best part of your life will start on the day you decide your life is your own – no one to lean on, rely on, or blame.  You are in full control of your future.  Believe with all your heart that you will do what you were made to do.  It may be tough at times, but refuse to follow some preordained path.  Make your own rules and have your own game plan.  There is no happiness and success to be found by playing it safe and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
   
   


2. You don’t have to invent the wheel.  Actually, to be successful you don’t have to invent anything at all.  Coming up with a new invention or idea is one way to achieve massive success, but it isn’t necessary. And it can be the most challenging roads to success there is. You see many people have found lots of success just by taking something that already existed and simply putting their own twist on it (their unique selling proposition).  Think about Apple for instance.  As Steve Jobs once said, “Good artists copy, great artist steal. Creativity is connecting things.” Connecting things means seeking inspiration from great ideas that already exist and adding your own useful twist.


3. There is no progress without action.  What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.  Some of the greatest ideas never made it.  Why?  Because the genius behind the idea failed to take action.  Just remember, no action always results in a 100% failure rate.  So get into action now, and begin to move in the right direction.  Once you get started every step afterwards gets easier and easier.  Until eventually, what had once been invisible, starts to become visible, and what once felt unattainable, starts to become a reality.


4. Persistence always wins.  As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”  It may take more than one swing to compose an efficient hit, so make sure not to give up on strike #1.  And remember, a river cuts through rocks not because of its power at a given moment, but because of its persistence over time.


5. Focus is everything.  When you are too busy looking behind and around you, people are passing you.  If you never focus clearly on something, you will never be 100% efficient at anything.  Multi-tasking might seem to make you efficient at getting multiple tasks done at once, but it usually reduces your efficiency in dealing with each individual task.


6. Failure is necessary.  Don’t wake up at seventy-five years of age sighing over what you should have tried, but didn’t because you were afraid to fail.  Just do it, and be willing to fail and learn along the way.  Very few people get it right the first time.  In fact, most people fail to get it right the first 5 times.  If what you did today didn’t turn out as you hoped, tomorrow is a new opportunity to do it differently.  Interpret each failure as a lesson on the road to success.


7. Positivity fuels productivity.  Thoughts are like the steering wheel that moves our life in the right direction.  Success comes from positive energy.  You can choose to get caught up in the negativity surrounding you, or you can decide to do something positive about your situation.  You always have a choice.  Remember, happiness is an element of success, and the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they use positive energy to make the best of what they have.


8. You must believe you can.  You must find the place inside yourself where anything is possible.  It starts with a dream.  Add confidence, and it becomes a belief.  Add commitment, and it becomes a goal in sight.  Add action, and it becomes a part of your life.  Add determination and time, and your dream becomes a reality.


9. Helping others is a big part of being successful.  Successful people constantly come up with new ideas, new projects, and new and innovative ways of helping others.  This means that your aims and objectives just benefit you, but also help benefit others as well.  Bottom line:  Your long-term success is directly tied to how well you serve your community.


10. Success is a journey of countless baby steps.  It’s a constant process of growth.  If you want to be successful, you must continue to hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else, and strive to improve.  Oftentimes a person or organization will be successful, but then drop off.  A person may become lazy, and an organization may succumb to weaknesses or competition.  Sustained success means continually improving even if others may not see a need for it.  Remember, the great thing in the world is not so much where we stand at any given time, as in what direction we are moving.

by www.marcandangel.com

The power of Public Relations – reaching the masses

By Mavis Amankwah For many people, when you mention ‘PR’ there is an air of confusion. The use of PR (Public Relations) is often misunderstood or seen as a negative. Good PR however is invisible and influences perception subtly. What is PR? PR is about reinforcing your name/brand and reputation. It tells your audience about what you do, what you say and what others say about you. It is used to gain trust and understanding between you, your brand and your various stakeholders – whether that’s employees, customers, investors or the local community.

Most Companies Get Leadership Wrong

Most companies take a good approach to developing leaders, but generally miss the point.  There’s a lot of emphasis placed on good decision making, effective communication, and team building.  And all those are important, but don’t address what matters most. When you get right down to it, the essence of leadership - the thing that best reflects good leadership - is when a leader is able to bring out the best in others.  If a leader is able to elicit excellence from the people around him or her, then that person can truly be deemed a great leader. In order to be a great company, the culture of bringing out the best in others must permeate the entire organization.  Let me offer some perspective on how to make that happen.  In order to do that, three questions need to be asked and answered. The first question that needs to be asked is, “Who is the most important person to your company?”  (Notice I didn’t ask “in” your company, but rather “to” your company.)  The answer, of course, is your customer.

No Customers = No Company. The next question is, “Who is the most important person in your company to your customers?”  Clearly the answer is not “the CEO”.  No... the most important person to a customer is the person they come in contact with - the “front line”. And the final question is the one that really drives the leadership point home.  Here it is: “What then is the job of the manager of those front line people?”  The job of that manager is to bring out the best in the people he or she “manages”.  (Read that as “leads”.)  The manager must ensure that his team has the training and knowledge they need.  He or she needs to provide the support and environment to allow them to be their best.

The whole goal is to make their work as enjoyable, productive, and rewarding as possible. If this philosophy is taken up one level and applied to the manager of the managers, and then to the leader of the managers, and ultimately to the leader of the leaders one ends up with a servant leader organization.

It results in an organizational chart that looks like an inverted pyramid; an organization that acknowledges the importance of the front line and reflects a philosophy of service throughout. This isn’t simply a theory or a type of feel-good culture that compromises profit and performance.  Far from it; it is a practical, proven, and extremely effective approach to conducting business.  I can point to three businesses that have embraced a servant leader philosophy and have not only done well, but are out-pacing their competitors by orders of magnitude.

The first example is a relatively small company in Denver.  It’s in an industry where many of their competitors are struggling just to survive.  However, this company is making a seven-figure profit!  The owner has adopted a philosophy of helping those around him to become successful.  He applies this philosophy to his employees, his customers and even his vendors.  I’ve interviewed the owner and his employees, and found his team to be loyal, enthusiastic, professional, free from stress, and highly productive.  The results speak for themselves.

The second example is Frontier Airlines.  In an industry plagued by stagnant growth and evaporating profits, this company adopted a servant leader approach to business and out-paced its competition by leaps and bounds - both in growth and profits.  By way of example, when the office closes for a holiday, many of the office staff will go into the field to help the front line folks with the heavy holiday workload.  Servant leaders abound within the organization.

The third example is Nucor Steel, which ended up dominating the U.S. steel industry by adopting a servant leader, almost egalitarian, business model.

The leadership of the company minimized the perceived differences between the front line and the management/executive team.  It became a company that recognized the important role each person plays in the success of the organization. Adopting a servant leader philosophy can make a tremendous difference in the productivity, growth and profitability of an organization.  Bringing out the best in people always yields excellent results.  It advances the people doing their best, it advances you as a leader, and it advances the company.

This is a smart and savvy approach to business that should be adopted and implemented in any company, no matter what industry or size. Written by Michael Beck (inpicture) , Business Philosopher & Strategist.

For more articles on leadership, personal effectiveness and personal productivity, and to subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, “Full Potential”, please visit www.mbeckweb.com. © 2010 Michael Beck International, Inc.

Isha Sesay speaks with the Cameroonian CEO of Yummy Spoonfuls

From the comfort of her kitchen, to a global scale of business! Meet the CEO of Yummy Spoonfuls – Agatha Achindu. This week on CNN‘s African Voices, Isha Sesay has a chat with this Cameroonian entrepreneur who is passionate about organic baby food. She speaks on her background and how her Nigerian mother always ensured they had fresh food growing up. That background has been the basis of Agatha Achindu’s business; having fed her own child freshly made food, she decided to spread the word to other mothers.

As a child, she wanted to be a chef; today she is feeding thousands of children and making sure they have a healthy alternative.

Watch the feature on this truly inspiring woman.

 

Part I

 

 

Part II

 

Part III

Interview Zain Latif, An Investor Keen to transform the Lives of Africans

The answer for Africa’s underinvested health infrastructure. Mr. Will Mutenza the publisher of Promota magazine had a chance to meet Zain Latif, Principal of TLG Capital.  

Promota: There may be some folks who don’t know you so, if you had to introduce yourself, what would you say?

Zain: I am the principal of TLG Capital, a firm that focuses on frontier markets.

Promota: What is your background and what was it that motivated you to begin TLG Capital? Zain: To give some background: TLG Capital started in September 2009. But before that, I was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in the New Markets division focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa across all products. I joined Goldman Sachs from Merrill Lynch where I was involved in originating and executing a number of emerging market transactions in Africa.

The $340 Million Die Hard Entrepreneur “Gurbaksh Chahal” Shares His Advice For Success

I was fortunate enough to catch up with the $340 Million Silicon Valley Entrepreneur “Gurbaksh Chahal”  to find out what it takes to succeed in life and in business.

Gurbaksh had sold 2 successful online advertising companies by the age of 25 for a total of $340 Million and is onto his 3rd and biggest company yet, RadiumOne. Gurbaksh will be launching RadiumOne in over 70 markets and is excited to announce that Australia is one of them.

 

I was fortunate enough to catch up with the $340 Million Silicon Valley Entrepreneur “Gurbaksh Chahal” this week to find out what it takes to succeed in life and in business.

Gurbaksh had sold 2 successful online advertising companies by the age of 25 for a total of $340 Million and is onto his 3rd and biggest company yet, RadiumOne. Gurbaksh will be launching RadiumOne in over 70 markets and is excited to announce that Australia is one of them.

Read on to find out what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur like Gurbaksh Chahal.

 

Success Advice From A Die Hard Entrepreneur

 

Promota – The first company you created “Click Agents” was founded by you at the age of 16 and not long after that, it sold for $40 million. Nine years later you sold your second company “Blue Lithium” to Yahoo for $300 Million. Making close to half a billion dollars in the space of 9 years, can you tell us, is there some secret formula that we should know about?

Gurbaksh – Well I think the secret formula comes down to success in general, and you’ve got to constantly keep an open mind, be creative, and don’t be afraid to re-invent yourself.

When I was 16 I didn’t really have a clue about business, so you could say “I got lucky“, whatever that means. The second time around I learned what it was really like to be a CEO and I believe that both of these opportunities have prepared me for my current company, by every metric whether it’s revenue, size, opportunity, mission or geography, RadiumOne is the biggest of all of my endeavours.

Promota – Do you believe it when they say “Ignorance is bliss”? Do you feel that when you were younger that maybe you were a bit ignorant and that could be the reason why you didn’t see a lot of the obstacles ahead of you that some of the more experienced and older entrepreneurs would have been scared of?

Gurbaksh – I wouldn’t say “Ignorant”, I think the thing that was probably my biggest virtue was that I didn’t know the meaning of failure. I think the older you get with the traditional message of schooling, or the methods of society, whether it’s family, friends or situational you end up trying to play it safe. At 16 I didn’t really know what I could lose. There is an essence of, when you are fearless, you become more creative, and the more fearless I became, the more creative I was.

 

Promota – What would you say has been one of the biggest fears you have ever faced and what did you do to overcome it?

Gurbaksh – So here’s the thing, there is constant fear in business. You’ve got to have the stamina to realise that is the very path to success and you’ve got to be able to stomach it. There has been several times when I have put everything on the line and I have had to re-invent myself or I’ve had to hire a completely new leadership team and make significant product changes and all of those were betting the company on something. All of those are triumphs to success, so there’s no real path, success is never linear, it’s almost like a hockey stick. The more risk you take, the more of a U-Shape formula you should end up with.

 

Promota – I just came back from a holiday in “India“, I understand you were born there but grew up in San Francisco. One stand out thing that I noticed over there is that they are very committed to their traditions.

Do you still carry on any traditions from the motherland?

Gurbaksh – From a cultural stand point and a family stand point I am Indian by heart, but at the same time I’m probably more spiritual at the end of the day, and that’s defined in the inner you and I think that defines who we are as people.

Living a life that has a greater purpose and living up to it is the ultimate degree that we should strive for.

 

Promota – How do you balance your life? I find it a challenge at times to balance mine, and I only run a blog and a couple of other business ventures so I could only imagine that you would have your plates pretty full most days.

Gurbaksh – At the end of the day, you have to look at Success itself as a balance. There are a significant amount of things that you have to do to achieve happiness at the end of the day but you’ve got to have balance and there are a number of things that we need to do as Entrepreneurs to be successful but what is success at the end of the day? Is it your bank account? Or is it happiness? And I think that at the end of the day it’s happiness.

In an article I did for LinkedIn, I talked about Un-plugging yourself from the wired world. The importance of continued learning, giving back, less over thinking, being grateful for what you have, realising that relationships are everything in life, making peace with your past, being authentic and learning how to forgive.

 

Promota – Where do you see the world heading with technology and how do you stay on the curve of innovation?

Gurbaksh – One of the key paths to technology is that it changes significantly and quickly. I have been blessed as I have stuck to my roots of advertising technology and I have been given the opportunity to re-shape it and create it 3 times around now and I think the key secret there is that you should stick to what you know.

I’m a very different entrepreneur than many others. I look at Elon Musk and think of him as a genius because he is that guy that can juggle many different things in many different industries, but I don’t think many of us can do that. Even when you look at the late Steve Jobs, he re-defined 8 different industries. I, on the other hand just stuck to my core which I think is kind of a testament were “If you can do everything that’s great, but if you can be really great at just one thing then that’s also not bad.” I have looked at that as an opportunity and a blessing to continue to innovate.

Part of the key metrics to success in an enterprise is to know how far you are really willing to take it. Are you pushing the boundaries? You can’t make safe bets. Even today, 4 years into this, 300 employees worldwide, profitability, significant amount of revenue and so forth, the decisions I make as the CEO goes from choosing the color palette on the website, choosing the design of what the reporting looks like, down to what the product ends up becoming.

So you really have to:

• 
  Be someone who pays attention to detail
  


• 
  Be creative
  


• 
  Problem solve
  


• 
  And always be creative with the way you solve those problems.
  

 

Promota – What is your true definition of success?

Gurbaksh – I think success is defined by understanding purpose. If you live a life of purpose then you’ll never be bored.

 

Business Opportunities: Wines distributors and importers

Business Name: Waterstone Wines

Business Genre: Consumer Goods & Retail, Speciality

Business Description:

Waterstone Wines, one of South Africa’s top wine producers, is expanding into the rest of Africa and seeking distributors and importers throughout the continent.

Waterstone Wines – water being the element for life and stone the foundation of stability – was established by Reino Kruger and Pim De Lijster in 2005. Annual production increased each year due to the fact that quality, consistency and customer service has become our core focus.

In pursuit of the Africa Five …

Absorb the sights, sounds and smells of Africa as you settle down to a decadent lunch in view of the waterhole, hoping to spot the elusive five: the lion, the leopard, the elephant, the buffalo and the rhino. Then, sit back and toast a day of natural wonder and exploration with these easy-drinking wines.

The ranges in the Waterstone Wines portfolio consist of well-applauded products, locally and abroad. Herewith to mention but a few:

WINE Magazine Best Value 2011 Awards
Africa Five Cabernet Sauvignon 2008
Africa Five Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz 2008
Africa Five Pinotage 2007
Africa Five Chenin Blanc 2009

WINE Magazine Best Value 2012 Awards
Africa Five Shiraz 2010
Africa Five Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
Africa Five Cape Premier Red 2006
Africa Five Chenin Blanc 2011

When considering the Africa Five brand you are spoilt for choice, being available in 750ml glass and 3L Africa Five Tube packaging. Each category is unique, but still forms a unity, with strong designs and are easy recognisable.

All of the wines in this range refer to superb quality, wines that exceed all expectations when compared to price.

Our wines are served on South Africa Airways, First and Business class, after being selected amongst only the best quality wines produced in South Africa.

Waterstone Wines were rated amongst the Top Three Wineries in South Africa by Best Value Guide 2011 for Quality and Price ratio, and rated 8^th place in the 2012 edition, making us one of the best performers overall in the Best Value Guide by SA Wine Magazine. Being a company with strong focus on quality, understanding of each market and innovative branding, Waterstone Wines will lead the way to success for each of its business partners around the globe!

Should you wish to join the Africa Five family and take the lion’s share in your market; please contact us at Waterstone Wines.

 

Business Website Address: www.waterstonewines.co.za

Business Phone Number: +27 21 842 2942

Business Fax: +27 86 505 8691

Business Contact Email: info@waterstonewines.co.za

Business Tags: africa, distribution, waterstone wines, wine

 

2012 most important career planning tips

1. Never Stop Learning
Life-long learning is your keyword.

The world is constantly changing, and everybody is looking for new ways of doing business.

If you have decided that your current skills are good enough, you have also decided that your current job is good enough. But if you want a career in the future, you should add regular updates to your skills and knowledge.

The Agha Khan Economic Planning Board Opportunity Africa

The Agha Khan Economic Planning Board hosted an international conference entitled “Opportunity Africa” at the Ismaili Centre in London over the weekend of 12th -13th November 2011.

The aim of the conference was to highlight opportunities in Eastern Africa with a key focus on a handful of countries including Uganda. The conference focused on business, investment and employment opportunities in the sectors of hospitality/leisure, agriculture, real estate and manufacturing industries.


Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, Kenya Vice President, invited investors to take advantage of the vast opportunities that emerged from the amalgamation of East Africa.

The Uganda High Commission in India, H.E Nimisha Madhvani cautiously advised investors to practice the 3 Ps; Patience, Preserves and Perseverance. She said that the “World Bank is still lacking confidence in East Africa but between ourselves, we can give confidence to the World Bank to lend money for infrastructure projects”.

H.E Joan Rwabyomere, High Commissioner of Uganda to the UK said that Uganda has opportunities in coffee, seed and cotton. A modernising drive, investment in agricultural storage and irrigation to minimise post-harvest losses and reliance on rain was urgently needed. Other sectors she mentioned were banking and financial industry; oil and gas and new and renewable energy sources; health and education and infrastructure.

Uganda’s housing sector presents a lucrative business and investment niche as well as the commercial and residential construction market. Other sectors to consider are telecommunication, tourism, fish farming and processing, chemicals used for value addition in the fishing sector ect.

The bureaucracy and cost of establishing a business in Uganda has been minimised and a One-Stop shop is in place where prospective investors can register a business within 3 days with no bottlenecks.
H.E Joan Rwabyomere ensured investors that Uganda is stable with a liberalised economy and a government committed to the private sector as a potential for growth. Uganda allows total repatriation of funds as one of the incentives given to investors and has a scheme to lease land for interested parties.


The Rwandan High Commissioner to the UK H.E. Ernest Rwamucyo reiterated that Rwanda has a 0% tolerance on corruption. It has also abolished the need of work permits for East Africa nationals moving to work in Rwanda and this presents a good opportunity for skilled labour force. The High Commissioner also spoke of the Rwandan Embassy One-Stop shop which hosts an online business registration, and assured that the Embassy can allocate someone to accompany an investor to Rwanda as he begins his business journey. “Multiple-citizenship is in place and this is easily accessible” H.E Rwamucyo stressed.

10 minute with mentor Alexander Amosu

Alexander Amosu, a young entrepreneur, set up his first business when he was a schoolboy. He turned his interest in technology and the mobile phone industry into a commercial success with RnB Ringtones. He now heads his current high-profile luxury phone company ‘Amosu’. He looks back on his first businesses and gives advice on how to market to niche and overseas customers.

Alexander Amosu talks about what motivates him and how to find customers in different markets.

Is the entrepreneurial spirit something you’re born with?
I don’t think entrepreneurial spirit is something you’re born with. I think, for me, it’s a situation I was forced into. When you come from a very poor background, you’ve got to fend for yourself and look at opportunities around you that can make money. I started from a very young age and gradually built up a system to learn about looking at my environment and making money from it, and that’s how I’ve grown into it. So sometimes I think it’s made me more entrepreneurial, rather than being born with that kind of gift.

Were your businesses always a success?
My businesses were not always a success. From a very early age I tried several different businesses. I would say 40% of them failed, but I think part of the failure is actually where you learn. For me, failure is part of success. So having businesses and learning the wrongs and right of them allows me to grow, and when I have a business in future I know not to make the mistakes I made when I was young.

Where do your business ideas come from?
Business ideas come from my environment, things around me. It’s about spotting the gap, and I think there’s a certain type of gift in doing that. You’ve got to be able to see something that nobody else sees and be able to make money from it. I could be sleeping and some idea might come to me. I’ll jot it down on a piece of paper. Or I could be in a car. I could be in a restaurant. Anything around me, my environment, is what I absorb when I think about the next idea that could really make money. You’re sitting on a chair, for instance. If you’re sitting in a certain way, maybe there’s a type of chair that needs to be specifically designed for that type of audience. It could be anything, and how an idea starts is just from something that you see and then you generate it into more of a bigger idea.

How did you market your first business?
Well, it depends on which business. The very, very first business I had, when I was 14, was when I organised a five-a-side tournament in school. I got a group of kids together and asked them to pay £5 per team, and all I did was simply go to the library, design a A4 news leaflet that said five-a-side tournament, £5 per team to find out who the best player was in school. And then I went round the school and gave it to every teenager I felt was interested in football. That was my marketing ploy at the time to try and get people to be interested in my ideas. So something as basic as that at that age has obviously grown a bit more sophisticated now in terms of using the internet, radio, TV and newspapers. That’s how I started my first businesses, just by going out and giving things to people by hand.
What have you learnt about marketing since then?
Well, I’ve learnt a lot about marketing in terms of being in the right place at the right time. You can’t market a particular product without understanding your market audience. I think one very important part in anything you do when you’re about to market is to do your research, because there are often times where you could spend thousands and thousands of pounds putting an advert promoting a particular product in a newspaper, but it never reaches your audience in any particular way. So I think the most important thing for me in understanding your marketplace is by doing a lot of research and understanding what exactly you’re trying to market.

How do you sell to niche markets?
I’m in a niche market at the moment. I sell high end, very luxurious, very expensive mobile phones and a very, very small number of people who can afford my phone because it starts from $20,000. Not everybody’s got $20,000 to spend on a mobile phone, so it’s a very, very niche market. However, in saying that, there are people who have that kind of money, who have maybe two or three cars, live in Spain, Italy, France, have a plane, so it’s just an additional line in terms of the luxury they want, and these people can be found in high-end places. I have to target this audience wherever they are around the world, millionaires, footballers, celebrities and the like. I approach that angle by looking for these niche markets and selling my products directly to them.

How do you adapt your marketing for overseas markets?
I think I have to adapt my marketing overseas by understanding the local knowledge and culture of those countries. So, for example, if I’m going to market in Spain or Italy, I wouldn’t use a British marketing company because they have a different understanding, a different culture. For me it’s very important to understand the local knowledge and use it to market the products in those countries.