adminexistence. Such companies normally put too much emphasis on short-term financial performance at the expense of research and development; they normally neglect investing in capital and human resources and fall short of sustainability.
There are some that take their time building the necessary groundwork for achievement. Many of you will testify that this is one of the most challenging times for operating a business in Zimbabwe. For starters, it is important never to depend on one market for profitability and viability. You will realise that income streams from the existing and potential clientele base is largely rationalised, customers are more likely to be price sensitive and at the same time demand better service standards and delivery from the suppliers.
Ultimately, customer expectations have a direct bearing on staffing and the requisite levels and calibre of personnel handling customers.
Change for the customers
It is paramount for an organisation to employ individuals that are capable of fitting into job rotation schedules. Sometimes it takes the organisation to effectively identify talent, nurture it for the direction that your organisation is going. This will ensure competitiveness not only on the local platform but on a global scale as well.
If companies would initially place emphasis on order qualifiers, companies have a better chance of regaining profitability. If, for instance, you are a company that has a foreign market, you might need to revisit staff skills competitiveness globally, the current training and development model has to be revamped in order to fit and meet modern challenges.
The framework of the past will not work, what steps can you then take to ensure that your products and services still remain relevant today?
The current status
Many will concur that dollarisation has brought about economic stability after a hyperinflationary environment. Economically, Zimbabwe has been reeling under global financial uncertainties. The economy has also been experiencing a commodity- driven growth pattern. There is need to find ways of anchoring trade competitiveness. Each industry also has to increase productivity as a cushioning from external uncertainties.
Though efforts towards improving overall average capacity utilisation in our manufacturing industry have already started, a lot more has to be done in the replacement of obsolete machinery susceptible to frequent breakdowns, acquisition and ultimately management of working capital.
The shift that we need
Businesses fall into trouble because either they fail to recognise a shift in the market or for some reason react late to changes in market needs. A case in point — if our local postal services organisation had acted much faster than they did to decline in demand of their services, maybe the entity would have been saved.
The decline started in 2003 when about 100 million mail pieces were handled. In 2004, the figure was drastically cut down to 51 million. In 2005 it further slid down to 32 million and eventually fell to 15 million.
Naturally, people now prefer ways of getting their messages across much faster than before.
One cannot therefore afford to conduct business the way it was before. I applaud the Tourism and Hospitality Ministry in coming up with a new definition of a tourist. It has greatly shifted mindsets that were deeply rooted in many. Tourism is now conceived as “an experience, by one person(s) belonging to a particular locality and culture or subculture, of another person(s) belonging to a different locality and different culture”.
This clearly makes all Zimbabweans potential tourists and hosts, irrespective of whether they are domestic or international.
“Our definition also makes the entirety of Zimbabwe a tourism development zone. On the functional level tourism no longer involves one entity, being the subject, to see, watch, enjoy and the other entity, being the object to be seen, watched and enjoyed, but involves two entities interacting with each other.” Minister Walter Mzembi was quoted as saying.
Currency changes
How would you as a business respond to the word circulating that there is now a risk that the euro, the 10-year-old common European currency, might indeed collapse? The common currency was conceived as a vehicle for achieving the “ever closer union” that most EU politicians used to orate about, but that was putting the cart before the horse. Without a single authority that can enforce the necessary fiscal and budgetary disciplines, such a currency is bound to fail. But again, one would argue and say that the EU survived perfectly well for 40 years without a single currency. The Greeks will probably be using new drachmas before long. The
Spanish may also be back to pesetas and the Italians to liras. Perhaps the euro will survive as the common currency of the rich and efficient economies of northern Europe — only time will tell.
Dollarisation
Following dollarisation in Zimbabwe, month-on-month inflation trend sharply declined from the rates of above 49 billion percent to less than 1 percent since February 2009 until today, with even negative inflation rates experienced in some monthly rates. We all have felt the tangible effects of dollarisation on the economy. For instance, besides single-digit month-on-month inflation rates, the country for the first time in more than a decade has registered positive economic growth rates.
Official or full dollarisation occurs when a country makes a foreign currency (currencies) full legal tender and reducing its own currency. Generally, under such an arrangement, there will be no risk of domestic currency, no currency risk, and therefore, no risk of currency crisis (Bogetic, 2000).
You will recall that at the dollarisation introductory stages, most assets were overvalued and pricing for most goods and services was distorted but some businesses have failed to adjust to the normalisation. What we know is that pricing is a function of the market forces of demand and supply — are we then looking at a situation where we have too little money chasing more goods?
The question still remains. So will today’s changes be relevant for tomorrow? Remember he who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution that rejects progress is the cemetery, so said Harold Wilson.
Till next week, May God richly bless you.
Shelter Hamandishe-Chieza is a management consultant. She holds over a decade of management experience and is at the completion stages of a Management of Business Administration degree with a reputable local university. She can be contacted at [email protected]
Online Reporter