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Friday, 19 April 2013
Of Empowerment, Africa And The Future
Posted on April 19, 2013 06:30 am under Economic development, Fact & Comment, Opinions
What is the role of a university? Yes, it is to educate but that is not the only role of a university and some might argue that that is slightly less than 50 percent of the role of a university. In addition to educating, the developmental role of a university is creation. Further than simply learning centers, universities are also centers of inspiration to create and push the boundaries of our cumulative knowledge. In Africa, there are fourteen noble laureates. Eleven of them were recognized for their work in either literature or promoting a more peaceful Africa. Both of which, although admirable and desirable are less dependent on the quality of a tertiary education. The other three Nobel Laureates are South Africans. In three different years, these three different South Africans were recognized for their contributions to Medicine and Physiology and none of their groundbreaking work was done in any institution in Africa. They currently represent the closest to a dent the entire African continent has been recognized for making in a hard science.
Currently, every known resource available to generate electricity in commercial quantities is available on the African continent. Although the resources are not evenly spread through out every country, the fact that all African countries belong to at least one economic bloc means in theory, they are able to reap the benefits of the resource anywhere within their bloc. Resource blessed-geographically; economically by virtue of economic blocs; and population wise to drive the demand, yet, the continent only accounts for 4 percent of world electricity output. 75 percent of this 4 percent are generated in South Africa, Egypt and other countries along the North African littoral region. With barely any electricity, how do we expect any kind of access to emerging technologies- Information technology, Biotechnology, Micro technology and Communication technology that have revolutionized the socio economic development of other nations? Even in these abysmal situation, information and communication technology have been able to thrive. Private investment and capital have spurned success in the form of MTN, Multi Choice and the likes. Only few governments like that of South Africa and Kenya have made a concerted effort to pursue an IT agenda.
The fact of the matter is we currently live in a digital age and every aspect of our lives are getting more influenced by the digital age and it is moving fast. It is imperative that as Africans we catch up now or continue to allow the development gap to be widened. Catching up is only possible with infrastructure for empowering educations and legislature that allows for the rapid development of key industries like power, technology. It is one thing to loot and run governments with no kind of accountability, but a rather large, well defined line is crossed when reckless abandon dictates education and private sector development in any nation.
Of Empowerment, Africa And The FuturePosted on April 19, 2013 06:30 am under Economic development, Fact & Comment, OpinionsWhat is the role of a university? Yes, it is to educate but that is not the only role of a university and some might argue that that is slightly less than 50 percent of the role of a university. In addition to educating, the developmental role of a university is creation. Further than simply learning centers, universities are also centers of inspiration to create and push the boundaries of our cumulative knowledge. In Africa, there are fourteen noble laureates. Eleven of them were recognized for their work in either literature or promoting a more peaceful Africa. Both of which, although admirable and desirable are less dependent on the quality of a tertiary education. The other three Nobel Laureates are South Africans. In three different years, these three different South Africans were recognized for their contributions to Medicine and Physiology and none of their groundbreaking work was done in any institution in Africa. They currently represent the closest to a dent the entire African continent has been recognized for making in a hard science. Currently, every known resource available to generate electricity in commercial quantities is available on the African continent. Although the resources are not evenly spread through out every country, the fact that all African countries belong to at least one economic bloc means in theory, they are able to reap the benefits of the resource anywhere within their bloc. Resource blessed-geographically; economically by virtue of economic blocs; and population wise to drive the demand, yet, the continent only accounts for 4 percent of world electricity output. 75 percent of this 4 percent are generated in South Africa, Egypt and other countries along the North African littoral region. With barely any electricity, how do we expect any kind of access to emerging technologies- Information technology, Biotechnology, Micro technology and Communication technology that have revolutionized the socio economic development of other nations? Even in these abysmal situation, information and communication technology have been able to thrive. Private investment and capital have spurned success in the form of MTN, Multi Choice and the likes. Only few governments like that of South Africa and Kenya have made a concerted effort to pursue an IT agenda. The fact of the matter is we currently live in a digital age and every aspect of our lives are getting more influenced by the digital age and it is moving fast. It is imperative that as Africans we catch up now or continue to allow the development gap to be widened. Catching up is only possible with infrastructure for empowering educations and legislature that allows for the rapid development of key industries like power, technology. It is one thing to loot and run governments with no kind of accountability, but a rather large, well defined line is crossed when reckless abandon dictates education and private sector development in any nation. |
‘How Can I Motivate My Gen Y Employees?’
If you’re a CEO over 40, this question has probably perplexed you in recent years. You are seeing new, young and clearly talented employees integrating into your companies. Yet, they’re different than any other generations of employees you ever had to deal with.
Between 16 and 31 years old, “Generation Yers” (or Millennials) are typically described in the hundreds of workshops my company has conducted over the years as unengaged and entitled, while technological savviness seems to be the sole positive.
Below are a few concrete steps you can take to reap the benefits of a younger force:
Review Process
According to the Labor Department, the average Millennial has a two-year tenure with his or her current employer — meaning, these are employees that aren’t likely to stay with you for an extended period of time.
Therefore, using a yearly review process with a hypothetical raise 12 to 14 months after the date of hire makes more sense to a boomer, whose average tenure is around nine years, than it does to a member of Generation Y.
And let’s face it, business cycles are faster today than they ever were before, so a quarterly process will be more attuned to the current needs of your company than a yearly one.
SurveyMonkey has a built-in 360 tool (http://blog.surveymonkey.com/2011/01/360-employee-feedback-survey-example/) that, for a few dollars a month, will do the leg work of a cumbersome paper-based review, while providing you with valuable information on your employees, and yourself too.
Instant Rewards
Do not hesitate to carry a few $20 Starbucks gift certificates and reward them on the spot for a job well done. This will appeal to the instant gratification Millennials are used to.
Office Environment
Open-floor plan, low-walled cubicles, plenty of meeting rooms both formal and informal (cafeteria or employee lounge) — that’s how to get the most energy flowing into your company.
Without remodeling your office, you can still break the monotony of office life by having “Dress-up Mondays” to encourage employees to come with their most formal attires, or “No internal e-mail Fridays” to encourage employees to talk to each others, either directly or via phones.
Technology
Your average Generation Y employee is using e-mail with close to unlimited storage, and has constant access to all of her or his pictures and personal files via mobile phones and tablets. They don’t expect less from your company. It goes beyond looking uncool or dated. It’s about harnessing that social collaboration and transform it into productive, work related collaboration beneficial to your business.
Cloud computing will allow your business to deliver such collaborative tools without the up-front capital costs and probably lesser monthly expenses than you can manage on your own.
How to Win the Battle in the Mind
To successfully implement the process of changing your life and positioning you for continuous progress, you need to take charge of the mental processes that govern your life. The following could serve as pointers as to how to win the mental battle:
Be the Consular-General of your Mind. All successes in life start with the twelve-pound mass sitting between your shoulders. The most important battles of life are either won or lost in the mind. Persistently negative thoughts trigger a chain of negative outcomes or actions while a trend of positive thoughts attracts positive results. A Consular Officer is typically stationed at a country's foreign embassy or entrance ports. His or her role is to grant entry visas to those who qualify and to refuse entry to unwanted guests. If your mind or thoughts are that important, then you literally need to take charge of its doorway like a consular or military sentry to determine what goes in and what doesn't. The good news is that you have absolute control over your thoughts. Proverbs 4:23 confirms this by urging us to "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Your mind is the nerve centre or computer of your life's operations. And the principle is consistent: Garbage in Garbage Out (GIGO).
Whenever you see negativity approaching, block it from afar and deny it entry. When you find yourself thinking negative or restricting thoughts, show them the red card or better still, lift up your flag and replace the 'non-performing' thought with a more positive one. On the other hand, create opportunities for positive thoughts to consistently flood your mind. Surround yourself with resources and people that have the capacity and penchant to feed your mind. The friends you hang out with, the books you read, the music you play and the sermons or messages you listen to all contribute to lifting you up. Consistently making positive declarations or audibly repeating the scriptures to yourself in the mornings are great ways to set the tone for positive thoughts throughout the day. When all is said and done, guarding your heart simply comes down to granting entry visas to all positive thoughts and denying entry to all negative thoughts.
Cultivate An Entrepreneurial, Success-Oriented Mentality. Decide to adopt a productive, entrepreneurial and positive mental outlook on life. A person with that kind of attitude chances upon a pile of scrap metal and sees the makings of a wonderful sculpture. He or she drives through an old slum and sees a new housing development. Entrepreneurs see opportunities in all areas of life. To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough, confident enough, and creative or disciplined enough to seize opportunities that emerge, regardless of the circumstances.
A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful! Do all you can in preparation for the opportunities ahead! Enterprising people always see the future in the present. They always find a way to take advantage of a situation, rather than be burdened by it. They are not lazy and do not wait for opportunities to come to them; instead, they rather go after opportunities.
Develop A New Mental Paradigm. Climbing to the top often requires a mental shift from the way we have perceived life and many of its issues. We need a brand new paradigm or worldview. A paradigm is simply a way of looking at a particular circumstance or at life in general. A paradigm can also be seen as the lens through which you view the events of your world internally and externally. It is the reason why two people can experience the same circumstances and yet interpret them very differently. For instance, some will see a glass as half empty, while others will choose to see the same glass as half full of water. The difference is in their paradigm. See yourself as a winner. Believe that you have what it takes to reach to very top of your field. Convince yourself that you cannot be stopped, denied, frustrated or cheated out of your blessings. To cultivate this kind of paradigm, you need to continually renew or feed your mind. How rich or well-nourished is your mind? Commit yourself from today to devour the works, words or thoughts of achievers, great thinkers and role models.
Think Strategically. Put your life in the right perspective. Do not fall into the trap of the urgent and the temptation to make important decisions based on short term considerations. Have a strategic outlook on life; strategy is the big picture of what one hopes to achieve in future. It represents the long-term direction of one's life. Having a strategic focus means connecting every short term decision, every relationship and indeed everything of importance in our lives to the big picture. The mental programming needed for sustained progress and achievement is single-minded focus on the overarching objective or mission of our lives. That also means sifting through invitations, opportunities or offers to select only those that can bring you closer towards your ultimate destination.
Innovate or Niche. Do something different. The more competitive life gets, the more the need for individuals and businesses to adopt innovative ways of doing things to differentiate themselves from everyone else. Innovation is about creative adaptation. Look at your needs, those of your business or the organisation you work for. Critically examine the way these needs are being met and think deeply about ways to meet them faster, cheaper, better or more conveniently than others. Innovation is mainly about providing better solutions.
Closely related to innovation is the concept of niche marketing or positioning. A person or business is said to have a niche when they specialise in a particular aspect of something that others are doing and develop competencies in delivering their unique offering. Whereas having a niche may suggest that you leave other aspects of the business unattended, it has been proven that it helps provide a focus in the customer's mind and makes it easier for you to assume market leadership in your chosen area. Becoming a specialist or expert in your chosen field will increase your chances of making sustained progress in life.
Harness the Power of Imagination!!! Everything is created twice; first in the mind and only then in reality. Every great human achievement, invention, product, song or film was first created in the mind of someone before it was produced. The process of actively conceptualising things in the mind and going on to reproduce them is known as 'Modelling' or 'Blueprinting.' It is this principle that underpins the work of the architect who imagines a building in the mind, reproduces the conceptualised image on paper and then goes on to oversee its construction. The principle of modelling implies that what one cannot conceive in one's mind, one cannot also achieve in reality. The process of conception relies totally on the power of imagination. Form a habit of consistently pondering over and imagining some of the great things you want to achieve with your life. Surround yourself with pictures of your dream house, job or holiday. God created us with very fertile imaginations. We therefore have to utilise them to the full in leading us to achieve great things in our lives.
Throw Out Your Fears. Many people live in total fear that they are not going to make it in life. Fear is nothing more than a state of the mind. Napoleon Hill identifies the six most common fears as that of poverty, criticism, ill health, lost love, old age and death. Fear takes you prisoner and prevents you from enjoying the adventure called life and the inherent excitement of the journey from the bottom to the top. The single greatest barrier to any form of achievement in adult life is the fear of failure. It is not failure itself but the fear of it that acts as a barrier. Achievers recognise that it is possible to fail but still go ahead to pursue their dreams and aspirations. Whenever they fail, they learn their lessons quickly and bounce back to continue their pursuit. Refuse to be enslaved to the fear of failure.
To successfully implement the process of changing your life and positioning you for continuous progress, you need to take charge of the mental processes that govern your life. The following could serve as pointers as to how to win the mental battle:
Be the Consular-General of your Mind. All successes in life start with the twelve-pound mass sitting between your shoulders. The most important battles of life are either won or lost in the mind. Persistently negative thoughts trigger a chain of negative outcomes or actions while a trend of positive thoughts attracts positive results. A Consular Officer is typically stationed at a country's foreign embassy or entrance ports. His or her role is to grant entry visas to those who qualify and to refuse entry to unwanted guests. If your mind or thoughts are that important, then you literally need to take charge of its doorway like a consular or military sentry to determine what goes in and what doesn't. The good news is that you have absolute control over your thoughts. Proverbs 4:23 confirms this by urging us to "Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Your mind is the nerve centre or computer of your life's operations. And the principle is consistent: Garbage in Garbage Out (GIGO).
Whenever you see negativity approaching, block it from afar and deny it entry. When you find yourself thinking negative or restricting thoughts, show them the red card or better still, lift up your flag and replace the 'non-performing' thought with a more positive one. On the other hand, create opportunities for positive thoughts to consistently flood your mind. Surround yourself with resources and people that have the capacity and penchant to feed your mind. The friends you hang out with, the books you read, the music you play and the sermons or messages you listen to all contribute to lifting you up. Consistently making positive declarations or audibly repeating the scriptures to yourself in the mornings are great ways to set the tone for positive thoughts throughout the day. When all is said and done, guarding your heart simply comes down to granting entry visas to all positive thoughts and denying entry to all negative thoughts.
Cultivate An Entrepreneurial, Success-Oriented Mentality. Decide to adopt a productive, entrepreneurial and positive mental outlook on life. A person with that kind of attitude chances upon a pile of scrap metal and sees the makings of a wonderful sculpture. He or she drives through an old slum and sees a new housing development. Entrepreneurs see opportunities in all areas of life. To be enterprising is to keep your eyes open and your mind active. It's to be skilled enough, confident enough, and creative or disciplined enough to seize opportunities that emerge, regardless of the circumstances.
A person with an enterprising attitude says, "Find out what you can before action is taken." Do your homework. Do the research. Be prepared. Be resourceful! Do all you can in preparation for the opportunities ahead! Enterprising people always see the future in the present. They always find a way to take advantage of a situation, rather than be burdened by it. They are not lazy and do not wait for opportunities to come to them; instead, they rather go after opportunities.
Develop A New Mental Paradigm. Climbing to the top often requires a mental shift from the way we have perceived life and many of its issues. We need a brand new paradigm or worldview. A paradigm is simply a way of looking at a particular circumstance or at life in general. A paradigm can also be seen as the lens through which you view the events of your world internally and externally. It is the reason why two people can experience the same circumstances and yet interpret them very differently. For instance, some will see a glass as half empty, while others will choose to see the same glass as half full of water. The difference is in their paradigm. See yourself as a winner. Believe that you have what it takes to reach to very top of your field. Convince yourself that you cannot be stopped, denied, frustrated or cheated out of your blessings. To cultivate this kind of paradigm, you need to continually renew or feed your mind. How rich or well-nourished is your mind? Commit yourself from today to devour the works, words or thoughts of achievers, great thinkers and role models.
Think Strategically. Put your life in the right perspective. Do not fall into the trap of the urgent and the temptation to make important decisions based on short term considerations. Have a strategic outlook on life; strategy is the big picture of what one hopes to achieve in future. It represents the long-term direction of one's life. Having a strategic focus means connecting every short term decision, every relationship and indeed everything of importance in our lives to the big picture. The mental programming needed for sustained progress and achievement is single-minded focus on the overarching objective or mission of our lives. That also means sifting through invitations, opportunities or offers to select only those that can bring you closer towards your ultimate destination.
Innovate or Niche. Do something different. The more competitive life gets, the more the need for individuals and businesses to adopt innovative ways of doing things to differentiate themselves from everyone else. Innovation is about creative adaptation. Look at your needs, those of your business or the organisation you work for. Critically examine the way these needs are being met and think deeply about ways to meet them faster, cheaper, better or more conveniently than others. Innovation is mainly about providing better solutions.
Closely related to innovation is the concept of niche marketing or positioning. A person or business is said to have a niche when they specialise in a particular aspect of something that others are doing and develop competencies in delivering their unique offering. Whereas having a niche may suggest that you leave other aspects of the business unattended, it has been proven that it helps provide a focus in the customer's mind and makes it easier for you to assume market leadership in your chosen area. Becoming a specialist or expert in your chosen field will increase your chances of making sustained progress in life.
Harness the Power of Imagination!!! Everything is created twice; first in the mind and only then in reality. Every great human achievement, invention, product, song or film was first created in the mind of someone before it was produced. The process of actively conceptualising things in the mind and going on to reproduce them is known as 'Modelling' or 'Blueprinting.' It is this principle that underpins the work of the architect who imagines a building in the mind, reproduces the conceptualised image on paper and then goes on to oversee its construction. The principle of modelling implies that what one cannot conceive in one's mind, one cannot also achieve in reality. The process of conception relies totally on the power of imagination. Form a habit of consistently pondering over and imagining some of the great things you want to achieve with your life. Surround yourself with pictures of your dream house, job or holiday. God created us with very fertile imaginations. We therefore have to utilise them to the full in leading us to achieve great things in our lives.
Throw Out Your Fears. Many people live in total fear that they are not going to make it in life. Fear is nothing more than a state of the mind. Napoleon Hill identifies the six most common fears as that of poverty, criticism, ill health, lost love, old age and death. Fear takes you prisoner and prevents you from enjoying the adventure called life and the inherent excitement of the journey from the bottom to the top. The single greatest barrier to any form of achievement in adult life is the fear of failure. It is not failure itself but the fear of it that acts as a barrier. Achievers recognise that it is possible to fail but still go ahead to pursue their dreams and aspirations. Whenever they fail, they learn their lessons quickly and bounce back to continue their pursuit. Refuse to be enslaved to the fear of failure.
"The
next generation of self made billionaires will be entrepreneurs who
understand that their fight may also be to eliminate poverty and hunger
and bring clean water to all. They will solve our world’s most urgent
needs, create tools to fundamentally transform people’s lives, and will
be financially compensated in exchange."
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