adminread publication is not the easiest of things. It has, however, been eventful in many ways — it has given me the experience that will shape me for many years to come.
This column in its entirety speaks to the manager who has a progressive mindset. It gives ideas on how to evolve and become the manager of the 21st century.
Tomorrow’s leader must not only have mastery over today’s industry complexities and competitive environments, but must exhibit the capability to flexibly respond to unanticipated challenges.
Let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to you the reader, who has shared your experiences with me.
Below are excerpts of contributions by some of the readers that have seen the value of this column like you do:
Put customers first or perish
It’s most unfortunate that the advice consultants like yourself so generously put in newspapers is never heeded by employees. The behaviour of employees is “As long as I get my salary”, I was shocked by the behaviour of staff at Chicken Inn Gweru during the Heroes’ holidays — ignoring customers, refusing to work together to solve the problem of change.
If those guys could see their counterparts at Mvuma Chicken Slice, they would learn a thing or two. Mvuma serves scores of luxury buses passengers efficiently and with a smile.
It will be interesting to see how Chicken Inn fares versus the new kid on the block, Chicken Slice. Watch this space! I like your article, include fresh view on bank thresholds; the stars idea instead of lumping all banks together; grading them would be ideal! Thanks for seeing things differently. — Faith Chasokela, Harare.
The future is Green
The point you raised about E10 is a pertinent one as Zimbabweans seem reluctant to adopt the new blended fuel which would save millions of dollars in import costs annually, yet Zimbabwean fuel has always been a blend till the late 1990s and early 2000s period.
It appears people are more willing to change their behaviour when a crisis leaves no option rather than opting to do so on their own given the choice. — Wisdom Setlhako, Harare.
Customer Loyalty
As far as I’m concerned, the decade of regression is now behind us, I’ve followed the numbers since 2008 and overall growth has been well above the global average, but it’s within the retail sector where the growth has really been phenomenal.
I can speak with certainty, specifically if you look at OK’s results in the last three years, you’d struggle to find any retailer in the world posting such phenomenal growth figures.
Obviously, it’s all relative and it has to be acknowledged that we are starting from a very low base so the initial growth tends to be much higher before levelling off, but the country’s growth story has only just began.
You’d be surprised to know that one most advanced CRM modules incorporating customer loyalty and reward programmes and all the latest functionalities currently used out here has been on the market in Zimbabwe since 2010 by a local company I’m invested in, but the CRM product has had no takers mainly due to the fact that some of the key people in these institutions don’t actually see the need for them, which I found quite surprising given how retail has transformed the world over including in some of our neighbouring countries.
We are a humble company and I believe with the co-operation of writers and influencers like yourself we can shake things up and get things back to where they should be. — Jones Nyamupachitu, London, UK.
I also received a lot of feedback in terms of style, specificity and the range of issues that I should research on that will be helpful to the progressive manager.
As we put a curtain to the year 2012, we will remember that it was overall a good year, 2013 will even be a much better year.
Let’s raise our glasses and make a toast for an insightful 2013.
Thank you for your support.
Till next week, may God richly bless you!!
Shelter Chieza is an advisor in management issues. She can be contacted at [email protected]
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter