LOVE MATTERS KENYA:Learn to find the "game changer"

Learn to find the "game changer" - Part 1
I will not go into a business unless I can
see a "game changer"; something that we
are going to do that is different from what
others are doing. Let me give you an
example; when we launched our
operation in Zimbabwe in July 1998 it was
almost two years after our two
competitors had started their operations.
It had never happened anywhere in the
world that a third entrant into the market
had overtaken such well-established
competitors, let alone in less than two
months!
Those who know me will tell you that I
spend time every day just reading and
catching up on what is going on in my
industry. Even when I read a newspaper,
I do so with a pen in my hand; marking
things and following up for more
information. " My people, perish for lack
of knowledge": In business, if you are not
informed, you will perish.
Several years before I launched the
networks in Botswana and Zimbabwe (our
first two networks), I had come across an
extraordinary new billing system from a
company in Israel. This system, allowed
an operator to charge a customer whilst
they were talking rather than afterwards;
this was completely revolutionary at the
time. It was called "pre-paid", and it was
to completely revolutionise, the world of
telecommunications; that was the "game
changer"!
And yet very few people in the industry
at the time seemed to take any notice of
what that small company was doing,
including the big international companies
like Vodafone in the UK.
I put a team onto it and we worked
quietly and methodically studying what
they were doing. We locked up
agreements with them, and ordered the
equipment and our licenses were issued.
That was the birth of our product called
"Buddie- Prepaid". It allowed us to
provide service to millions of ordinary
people who would otherwise not have got
service. The rest is history as they say.
The principle I have laid out here applies
whether you are running a business, or
you are a professional working in a
company, if you want your organisation to
prosper you must find the "game
changer". Sometimes it comes through a
single Big Bang product like Buddie, but
most of the time it is incremental through
a culture of constantly doing small things
here and there that are innovative...
Here is my challenge to you, today:
I want you to look around at the job you
do or the business you run and draw up a
list of what you have done differently that
gives your organisation a competitive
edge. If there is nothing you have done in
the last month, then you are threatening
the future prosperity of your
organisation.

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