La Mercy Update

Monday, June 09, 2008

The new international airport at La Mercy is taking great shape and although it has, historically not been a very smooth ride to get to the level it is now, it is rapidly becoming part of the Durban and KZN skyline.

The magnitude of the multi billion rand project has construction work taking place at about six areas on the vast site. With a project of this nature it is interesting to note the quantity off the materials being used on the site on a daily basis. Some of the interesting facts on the construction site include:

Material	Quantity	Equivalent to:
Runway & Taxiways	400 000 m2	100 Soccer Pitches
Terminal Floor Area	103 000 m2	27 Soccer Pitches
Earthworks	5.8 Million m3	2500 Olympic Swimming Pools
Concrete	100 000has, hi m3	50 Olympic Swimming Pools
Structural Steel	4 700 tonnes	½ the Eiffel Tower
Asphalt	230 000 tonnes	35 Km of 4 lane highway

Cape Town to get new rail link

Plans for a R1,4-billion rail link between Cape Town International Airport and the centre of the city have been unveiled by the South African Rail Commuter Corporation.

The Corporation has completed a feasibility study and is now looking for a partner in the private sector.

Hishaam Emeran, senior manager of Strategic Network Planning for the Corporation, said: “A project of this nature lends itself to private sector involvement and we are exploring this option.”

Desperate drivers, desperate get-away

June 12, 2008
By Ingi Salgado and Sapa

High fuel prices are leading some South African motorists to take desperate measures, such as filling up and driving away from service stations without paying. It’s a relatively unexpected development given the presence of petrol attendants at the point of sale on forecourts.

Fuel Retailers’ Association chief executive Peter Morgan said yesterday that an incident in which an Empangeni petrol attendant was knocked down and had to be hospitalised on Tuesday night was not isolated.

“There have been about 10 similar incidents over the past month,” Morgan said. “Every motorist all over the country is feeling the same pain … As soon as fuel prices increase, motorists fill up and speed off.”

The price of 95 octane petrol sold in Gauteng rose to R9.96 a litre this month. On January 2 the price was set at R7.47 a litre.

Graeme Yager, a corporate planning manager at oil company Chevron, said there had been similar reports in overseas markets with self-service stations, although closed-circuit television monitoring tended to act as a deterrent. The group’s South African retail division had not yet been affected.

Retailers say high fuel prices have also led to rising incidents of cheque fraud and an array of excuses about not paying.

Wessel Strauss, the chairman of the SA Petroleum Retailers’ Association, which represents about 1 200 retail outlets, said there had been three incidents of cheques bouncing in the past three days alone. “People are asking for R100 of fuel and when it’s in the tank, they say they only asked for R50,” said Strauss. If a driver refused to pay, the service station incurred the expense of calling a mechanic to drain the vehicle.

High fuel prices were starting to eat into the working capital of service stations. Strauss estimated that since the start of the year, about 15 percent of South Africa’s 4 500 retail outlets had closed down as a result of higher fuel prices. “The smaller sites that don’t have big turnover are really suffering.”

Morgan said he had urged retailers to put up signs saying petrol attendants would ask motorists how they intended paying for fuel before filling up.

Mounties Ambulance Service spokesperson Joseph Kruger said the 29-year-old Empangeni petrol attendant had suffered suspected spinal injuries and an injury to his hand.

The attendant told paramedics that he fell onto the bonnet when the motorist sped off. When the driver continued to accelerate, the attendant fell off and was hit by a wheel.

Youth Developing Confidence to become Entrepreneurs

The latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, conducted by the University of Cape Town Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), based at the UCT Graduate School of Business, has found that more South African youth are developing the confidence and potential to become entrepreneurship superstars.

The key findings show that the youth (categorised as those in the age categories of 18-24 years and 25-34 years) have a positive attitude towards opportunity-oriented business activities and a willingness to work with others towards achieving their objectives.

According to Dr Mike Herrington, Director of the UCT CIE and research team leader of GEM South Africa since 2001, the window of opportunity is open and ready for accelerated youth entrepreneurship development.

“The youth constitutes the majority percentage of the population and their importance in the current and future environment cannot be underestimated. With creative energy and willingness from South Africa’s key players, youth entrepreneurship development can be accelerated to bring renewed socio-economic growth in South Africa,” he said.

Global Entrepreneurship for Women

Brown University and the University of Cape Town Partner To Promote Business Capacity in Africa

Brown University and the University of Cape Town have entered into a five-year partnership that will improve and deliver business education to entrepreneurs in Africa, particularly to women. The partnership is part of a larger international initiative led by Goldman Sachs to increase the number of underserved women receiving a business and management education.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Brown University today announced that it has joined a global initiative to improve the quality and capacity of business education in developing countries and emerging markets, particularly for women. The five-year partnership, called “10,000 Women,” brings together universities and international development organizations in a program to administer business and entrepreneurship education to 10,000 women in underserved nations.

Brown’s participation involves a partnership with the University of Cape Town in South Africa, which will develop technology entrepreneurship education in Africa. Led by Angus Kingon, University professor of entrepreneurship and organizational studies at Brown, the multiyear program will adapt existing best practices in technology entrepreneurship to an African context. Technology entrepreneurship refers to the capacity to create new businesses whose products and services are based on emerging technology or novel combinations of existing technology. These businesses are designed to grow, compete internationally, and lead to strong employment growth. Women, in particular, will be encouraged to participate.

Successfully Leading Distributed Teams

The Global Report on Call Centre Practices is a free monthly newsletter that provides fresh insight and analysis on customer management issues, and how customer contact trends and developments across the world are impacting virtually every organization in today’s communications-driven economy. It is produced by ICMI, part of Think Services and the UBM family of companies, with offices worldwide, and is edited by ICMI president Brad Cleveland.

In the latest edition they say…

The results you create (for your customer) depend on being able to get support from people who work at different times, different places, or in different departments.

If you are a call center manager, you will likely have the responsibility of getting results from people that work in different locations, don’t report to you, or don’t work the same hours. Computer and telecommunications technologies have spawned organizations that span geography and time. Multi-site environments, cross-functional teams and extended hour or 24×7 operations are common call center examples.

But technology hasn’t eliminated the natural barriers that exist between people who work in distributed environments. People who work in different places and/or at different times often have trouble seeing themselves as an integral part of a larger team.

Like leadership in general, there’s no specific recipe for building a cohesive virtual team or organization. There are, however, tried and true principles that will significantly increase the chance for success:

1. Create a compelling vision. I know, many organizations have been through the process of creating mission and vision statements that have had little or no impact on peoples’ actions. But creating an effective vision – one that is alive and dynamic – is absolutely essential to managing a distributed team. Vision begins by asking and answering key questions, e.g., What are we trying to achieve? How will the organization and all who depend on it – customers, employees, shareholders – benefit from our success? How do individual members contribute to overall results? A clear focus that is championed by the leader is a prerequisite to pulling people in and aligning actions.

The Global Report on Call Centre Practices

As president of ICMI, Brad Cleveland has delivered keynotes, executive briefings and consulting services in over 50 countries. ICMI is part of the CMP family of companies, a global leader in business information services with offices around the world. Brad can be reached at bradc@icmi.com.

Something NEW always comes out of Africa!

NEXTCUSTOMER, PLEASE has as one of its objectives the improvement of customer service in African organisations. There are a few ways it aims to achieve this. Almost all of the comments contained in our various blogs are about service champions and / or exceptional customer service around the world.

We are sometimes given to wander how it is, with so many threatening situations to contend with in our daily lives, as Africans, that we are able to provide a satisfactory level of service at all.

Three things seem to characterise our continent at present. CONFLICT, DROUGHT (resulting in terrible poverty) and DISEASE. These are crises threatening our very peace and security.

Recently some of us have had the privilege to be involved in a new business start-up involving an entirely new team. The team were all previously unemployed and were recruited from ‘townships’ like Langa and Nyanga near Cape Town.

Nyanga is a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Its name in Xhosa means ‘moon’ and it is one of the oldest black townships in Cape Town. It was established as a result of the migrant labor system. In the early fifties black migrants were forced to settle in Nyanga as Langa became too small. Nyanga is one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of Cape Town. Its unemployment is estimated at around 70% and HIV/AIDS is a huge community issue.

We undertook to train the team in the various skills required for service and selling, but they would each need to demonstrate commitment and take responsibility for their workplace.

During the opening weeks two of the team were attacked on their way home from work having just disembarked from public transport (actually, within a street of their home) and robbed of their daily wages. These are violent attacks by small gangs of knife-wielding thugs or criminals (men and women) who will not hesitate to take life if confronted. A third member of the team had her rented flat broken into and her life’s possessions stolen. She will struggle to replace them as her small wage covers basic living requirements only (food and clothing for her family and transport to work). A fourth member of the team was evicted from his rented room and spent three nights searching for alternative accommodation. He came to work everyday (a little late, perhaps, and tired but work nonetheless).

So as Africans let us state, for the record, that we do not believe in contrived service. We believe in authentic service the African way. We believe our people have a natural advantage and disposition to offering warm, hospitable service and will under very trying circumstances.

10,000 Women and more to follow

Thousands of women entrepreneurs in developing countries have started their own businesses, many with help from local banks and other non profit organisations that have issued them small loans and financial support.

Up until now there has been one flaw in the process: Most of the women have little formal education and lack the management skills and financial knowledge to take their business to the next level. On Mar. 5, 2008 investment bank Goldman Sachs announced it would change this by contributing $100 million into educational projects for these women over the next five years.

In an announcement at Columbia University in New York City, Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said the company is hoping to create a new model of management education designed to help these women learn everything from how to write a business plan to market their own business.

Customer Service Elite

The results of Business Week’s 2008 Customer Service Champs ranking made clear what most American consumers already knew: Customer service in the USA is on the decline. Consumers who responded to this year’s J.D. Power & Associates surveys spoke about their frustration. The average score on the service champions list fell slightly, with a majority of companies scoring lower than last year. Even the scores of a few exceptional service organisations, including Four Seasons Hotels and Saturn (GM) cars, fell.

Why the decline? J.D. Power’s chief research officer, Gina Pingitore, believes the economy could be the culprit. While J.D. Power’s research shows strength in product satisfaction, the results for service issues-like employee knowledge and skills or processes such as accepting merchandise returns-are a different story. “[Companies are] cutting back on staff, they’re cutting back on services,” Pingitore says. “Consumers are beginning to see it.”

World Bank Launches Fast-Track Facility for Food Crisis

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2008 – The World Bank Group announced today it would support global efforts to overcome the global food crisis with a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs, including $200 million in grants targeted at the vulnerable in the world’s poorest countries.

Announcing several measures to address immediate to longer-term food challenges, the World Bank Group said it would boost its overall support for global agriculture and food to $6 billion next year up from $4 billion, and would launch risk management tools, and crop insurance to protect poor countries and small-holders.

“As we go into the Rome meeting next week, it is crucial that we focus on specific action. Along with our partners, these initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the two billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices, and contribute to a longer-term solution that must involve many countries and institutions,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick.