ELIMINATING COMPETITION

Business involve the activities of planning, directing, conceptualizing, strategizing and controlling people, things and events to achieve organizational goals and maximize profit. If the business must grow, it must overcome challenges. Some of those challenges come from competitors. Any business that must survive in this 21st century must deal with competition. It is almost impossible for anyone to claim novelty of a particular idea. Whatever idea it is, someone is either doing it or is also thinking in this line as you. Competitors are the people that motivate you do better in your services. Without competition, most businesses would not treat their customers nice, not improve on the quality of their products and services and they would not improve their way of doing business. Business is more fun and interesting with the presence of competition. Every business wants to operate at the blue ocean where there are little or no competitions at all. To operate at the blue sea, you must have squashed all your competitors.

Elimination of competition is one aspect of business that give CEOs much concern. They always asked where did this competitor come from? Why can't they just leave us alone? Why are they stealing our idea?

To subdue or eliminate competition, you can apply the following practical ways;

1.     ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR PRESENCE; The sooner you realize that you are not in the race alone, the better for you. No business empire is safe from competition, you must know that everyone wants to be successful and people are not just folding their arms and doing nothing. Successful businesses identify and analyse their competitions before they commence operations. The fact that you can't see them today, doesn't mean they don't exist. They do! Its a matter of time, they will surface.

2.     IDENTIFY THEM; Consciously seek out those who are in the same business with you. Who are they? What do they offer? How are they offering it? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? How many percent of the market are they controlling? At what price are they offering? Etc. Also identify other products that can serve as substitute to your own. Know thy enemy! 

3.     FORTIFY YOUR BRAND; The corporate world is a battle ground. Everyone is in it for the profit. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your organization. Find the loop holes. Carry out simulations to find whether your strategies actually works. Find the weak links and seal them up. Develop yourself and your staff for aggressive take over. Improve on the quality of your products/services, if possible, repackage your product, develop an excellent customer relations. Also cover legal loop holes. Fortification strengthens all areas of your business. 

4.   LAUNCH AN AGGRESSIVE TAKE OVER; Launch a full scale promotional campaign and sales strategy of your improved products and services with the intention of regaining back your market. Show no mercy to your competition. Do not hold back any strategy when launching a full scale marketing communication.

5.     EVALUATE RESULTS AND RELAUNCH; Your competitors are just as desperate as you are to dominate and control the market. So expect them to come at you with force. Anticipate retaliation and have a strategic counter attack plan. Evaluate the results of your previous strategies and be sure you are not making mistakes. Its a continuous circle that must not end if that business must continue.

Thank you very much for reading this article, if you loved it, simply go the comment section and drop a comment.

WINNING ATTITUDE; THE POWER OF BEING PROACTIVE

Photocredit - Truelancer.com

Henry David Thoreau wrote ‘I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor’

It takes the conscious endeavor of an individual to achieve success amidst harsh economic situation, poor family background, poor governmental policies and bad leadership.

Productivity in any field requires being proactive. Proactivity, according to dictionary.com means ‘Serving to prepare for, intervene in or control an unexpected occurrence or situation especially a negative or difficult one’. Simply put, it means taking active steps in turning a bad, negative situation to a positive and favourable one. Always remember that your mind is your greatest asset and your most important resources. If you lose it, you’ve lost it.

In the previous article, we talked about the power of the mind; I am sure we learnt a few ways on how to develop our minds to achieve results. The mind is the most powerful weapon that can be used to overcome even spirit forces. Now continuing this series, we shall talk about another very important aspect of the attitude that winners carry with them where ever they go. That’s the attitude of being proactive. Every leader that ever made a difference in the world, name them; Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr., Nelson Mandela, Sir Winston Church Hill, Margaret Archer and even Jesus; they were all proactive when it comes to leading people and becoming relevant in their sphere of contact. We can go on mentioning world leaders who stood up for something in the midst of steep opposition and adversity, how about those employees in their work places who nobody takes note of, yet they contribute immensely to the success of the organization.

‘We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. We are not even our thoughts….’ Stephen R. Covey. The fact that we see ourselves in a certain way doesn’t mean that’s how we are; it just means we have been conditioned to think that way. Stephen R. Covey calls it conditions and conditioning and he has grouped them into three different categories;

•         Genetic determinism; Your grandparents did it to you
•         Physic determinism; Your parents did it to you while nurturing you
•   Environmental determinism; Your boss, spouse, team member, government policies and regulations, economic situation, classmates etc or someone or something in your environment did it to you.

A majority of us have based our success and happiness on these social mirrors

In the previous article, I talked about building you mind’s capacity through constant learning and meditation exercises. To be proactive means to be in charge of your mind. ‘The first and best victory is to conquer self’ Plato. To conquer self means to be in total control of your mind. To achieve personal victory, you need self awareness just like Viktor Frankl. Stephen Covey had this write about Frankl

 ‘Frankl was a psychiatrist and a Jew. He was imprisoned in the death camps of Nazi Germany, where he experienced things that were so repugnant to our sense of decency that we shudder to even repeat them. His parents, his brother and his wife died in the camps or were sent to the gas ovens. Except for his sister, his entire family perished. Frankl himself suffered torture and innumerable indignities, never knowing from one moment to the next if his path would lead to the ovens or he would be among the “SAVED” who would remove the bodies or shovel out the ashes  of those so fated.

One day, naked and alone in a small room, he began to become aware of what he later called “The last of the human freedoms”. The freedom his Nazi captors could not take away. They could control his entire environment, they could do what they wanted to his body, but Viktor Frankl was a self aware being who could look as an observer at his very involvement. His basic identity was intact. He could decide within himself how all of this was going to affect him. Between what happened to him or the stimulus and his response to it, was his freedom or power to choose that response. In the midst of his experiences, Frankl would project himself into a different circumstances, such as lecturing to his students after his release from the death camps. He would describe himself in the classroom, in his mind’s eye and give the lessons he was learning during his torture’.

The strength of proactivity lies in you knowing that No one can hurt you without your consent. Having a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses are key elements that help you achieve ‘Self Awareness’

PROACTIVE LANGUAGE

The Language of proactive people is absolutely fixed on positivity. Failure in a certain task or project is usually a lesson for them to improve and get better at what they do. Failure isn’t an option for them although they may face certain setbacks and limitations in their quest to achieve their objectives.

Reactive people go towards the negative and blame everyone else but themselves about the negative circumstances and outcomes of their lives; their lifestyle, emotional/psychological state and everything else that goes wrong. They are often times ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’ and always very defensive; so you get to hear statements and comments such as;

•          ‘Its not my fault and there is nothing I can do about it’
•          ‘That’s just the way I am and I can’t change it’.
•      'This is how everyone else is doing it. It can't be done differently'

Reactive people lack the creative power to generate the positive energy that can help them come out of a bad situation.

Just like Viktor Fankl, between the stimulus and your response is a very strong and powerful determining element ‘CHOICE’. You cannot control some of the negative circumstances around you such as the family into which you were born, the environment where you were raised, the standard of education you receive. But you have the power to choose your response to these negative circumstances.

The quality of our life is dependent on the choices we make daily; the choice of food, outfits, where we go, the circle of friends we keep, the type of movies we watch, the type of relationships e keep etc. No wonder the bible says ‘Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the of life’.

Environmental Education Is Key to Solving Our Waste Problem

By 

Olumide Idowu

@OlumideIDOWU

We live in rapidly evolving societies, so why doesn't our environmental sensitization adapt/conform to these changes?’’

Williams S. Anarfi explains - environmental education is becoming increasingly important as our lives, cities and priorities change. As our cities become more congested and busy, knowledge of the impact we each have on our surroundings becomes more and more crucial. Equally important however, is our understanding of how we can contribute to protecting the environment around us.

Africa is on the verge of losing its essence and beauty to different forms of degradation especially waste pollution’’. This is dope; I think you should start your article with this statement. As we become more urbanized and the spending power of the average African rises, more goods will be consumed leading to even more waste. “The volume of waste generated on our continent is expected to double in the coming years as the size and population of its cities explode.” John Paul.

Apart from the dirty and unsightly look that heaps of wastes are giving to several cities across Africa, poor waste management is closely related to, and largely responsible for, the outbreak of diseases. In addition to its undesirable effects, the mismanagement of our waste has a long-term effect on the handling of Africa’s natural resources in the future. Recycling items like kitchen waste, paper, plastic and metals helps reduce the pollution in our environment.

The enforcement of proper waste management has a strong impact on job creation in Africa. Organizations like Recycle Points Nigeria, Wecyclers, WASCO, EnviroWaste, WasteMan are one of the few organizations in Africa that are contributing to more job creations and ultimately promoting a more sustainable global environment.

Apparently, more efficient and sustainable approaches to waste management need to be adopted. To ensure this, we need to shift emphasis towards a more localized/community based system, make use of low tech/ low energy systems and most importantly ensure waste minimization. This approach is widely practiced all over the world and very few African companies like afore mentioned have adopted these methods.

1. Waste Minimization is an approach that aims to reduce the production of waste through education and the adoption of improved production processes and less wasteful practices.
2. Recycling means to separate certain materials within the waste stream and reprocess them. Currently, the recycling of many materials is not financially viable.
3. Waste processing is the treatment and recovery (use) of materials or energy from waste through thermal, chemical, or biological means.

A waste management system is a combination of several stages in the flow of materials within a given society. All waste management systems goes through the mining stage, processing, production and consumption stages which involves the final treatment and disposal. I believe that the ultimate goal of waste management efforts should be waste minimization, however, waste processing and waste recycling play an important role in improving production processes and in dealing with ‘waste’ in a manner that is more environmentally and economically beneficial.

For us to make this happen we need to improve the educational sectors in Africa There is an urgent need for us to do more advocate for both young and old. But you know what ­- The standard of education in many parts of our continent has deteriorated terribly. Poor access to quality education at all levels – from basic primary education to university – is another serious and nagging problem across Africa.

The poor quality of government education and low investment in the education sector has put youths in a state of crisis in many African countries.

Because many Africans understand that education is one of the few bridges out of poverty, millions of poor families on the continent are desperate to find good schools for their children. However, the existing schools and training facilities are unaffordable for many people and are not even enough to cater to the needs of Africa’s large and rapidly growing population.

How do we make education more attractive? Does anyone understand why education is crucial for Africa’s growth? Should we introduce free education for all or shall we demand a fee from those that can afford it?

I invite you to be part of the solution to the waste management problem in Africa and to help and encourage others. We need to endeavor/strive for sustainable education and proper waste management for all - together we all can make a difference in our different communities.

Thank You.

Olumide Idowu is the Team Lead, 

Climate Wednesday. 

He can be contacted on 

Twitter via @OlumideIDOWU

ME, A MARKETER?

Marketing is an everyday affair as long as human life is concerned. Everyone sells something to someone. You are either selling to your parents the person you want to become after college or you are selling a fun activity to your peers or a guy trying to win a girls love and affection or trying to sell a brilliant idea to the board members of your organization or making a sales presentation to potential investors. Whichever form it takes, whether formal or informal, an item is sold (goods or services). Now a lot people think marketing and sales is rocket science and so, some have built this giant image about marketing in their mind. These and lots more have left some thinking that some people where born to be marketers while others are not.

To help you build confidence in yourself and also have a breakthrough in your marketing career, here are a few tips which I believe would set you up on your journey as a marketer.    

1. Know yourself; Ever heard of the phrase ‘Oh man, know thy self’? Self awareness is one of the key factors in making success in your career as a marketer. Know your strength and weaknesses, know what motivates and inspires you to succeed. You cannot achieve success as a marketer with your confidence nose diving
2. Know your organization; A broad understanding of the source of your products/services is a major determining factor in your success as a marketer. Carry out a SWOT analysis of your organization. And know the direction in which your employer is leading the organization. This information will arm you for your customers, because sometimes, customers want to test your knowledge about your organization.
3. Know your product; You do not need a soothsayer to tell you that a full understanding of your product/services increases your confidence in actually selling that particular item. Every product has characteristics and behavior. As a marketer, you must understand these various features and characteristics in order to make sales
4. Know your competition; who has a similar product like yours? Whose product can serve as a substitute to yours? Whose product is of the same quality as yours? Know what your competition is doing, how they are doing it, with what resources are they doing it and why are they succeeding over you. Then device means to eliminate competition and gain more market shares
5. Know your market and your customer; This is one of the most important aspect of marketing; who is buying your product/services, what is their lifestyle, what is their spending power, what are their values, customs and traditions that you need to respect. Take your time to study them and familiarize yourself with them.

A proper and effective market segmentation will help you position yourself, gain market control, increase sales and increase your profit. As a marketer, you cannot stop doing market segmentation because the market is very dynamic and ever changing. You must proactively develop and innovate new ways to stay above your competition, involve your customers in the sales process and maintain your relevance in the market.

In conclusion, everyone is a marketer, whether great or small, old or young, male or female including you. If anyone can succeed in marketing, you can.

LESSONS AN INDIAN BOY TAUGHT ME

I have read books and practised leadership from my teenage years, but this little boy inspires a different level of leadership in me. His determination to make a difference in a system that cared less and a society that was characterized by selfishness, nonchalance, mediocrity and greed inspires in me the need to take the lead in effecting positive change.

CLICK ON THE LINK TO WATCH VIDEO

 https://youtu.be/GPeeZ6viNgY?si=_UBRLM-DF-jYxzRH

THERE WAS A PROBLEM;

Things weren’t working as normal and no one seemed to care about it; Do you work in an organization where things aren’t going smoothly as it should, do you come from a family that seem to be careless about certain things they should take rather seriously, or you live in a society that has accepted the life of mediocrity? If you find yourself in such a system as I have, you would notice that people aren’t usually very happy about the situation they have found themselves, but they can’t do anything or so they would think. But this boy is someone you would call a maverick (one who sees things differently from others). What did he do?

• He saw the situation and was exasperated by it
• He analyzed the situation and identified the root cause of the problem 
• He didn’t complain, whine, lament or turn a blind eye (which was the major problem) to the problem like the others in the same area
• He asked himself the most important question under the circumstance, ‘What can I do to solve the problem?

THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM;

People respond differently to problems and situations around them; some complain bitterly, others blame the government, the weather, the system, their family background, the economic situation or any other external factor not realizing that the major challenge is not the external forces but the internal weaknesses that we accept as our reality. The bitter truth is that, things are meant to go wrong; people change, government and organizational policies fail, systems that may have lasted for decades fall apart. Rather than sit back and wait and look for whom to blame and criticize, we can be proactive enough to do what this little boy did. He focused his attention on finding a solution to the problem. The only answer that made sense to him was ‘I can move this tree out of the way’. What a stupid thing to do right?

Printivo launches Reseller program to help graphic designers, event planners, photographers and other middle men earn from the platform.

Press Release

Lagos, Thursday, January 07, 2016.

Nigeria’s innovative online printing company Printivo.com today launched Printivo For Resellers, a platform that allows print brokers, designers, photographers, event planners, marketers, freelancers and creative agencies order in bulk and on behalf of the end user. Printivo for Resellers allows individuals or firms to create and order print products on its platform and earn as high as 20% discount all year round subject to terms and condition.

Printivo which announced its six figure series A funding from EchoVC Partners last year after its launch in 2014 is now opening the platform up for creative professionals and anyone who order print products on behalf of their clients with focus on helping small businesses order print faster, cheaper and better via its web2print platform and get amazing discounts.

'We launched Reseller to help graphic designers, freelancers, photographers and other creative professionals order print products for their customers and still make a great margin on each order.With Printivo for resellers, creative professionals can ship printed products directly to their clients, get constant discounts, free sample packs and a dedicated account executive. What this means is that they can focus on the most important part of their business while Printivo takes care of the printing and logistics'. Says Olu’yomi Ojo, CEO of Printivo.

Printivo currently offers free online templates, design support, a custom upload service, nationwide delivery and a fast turnaround with products ranging from business cards, letterheads, flyers, envelopes, and posters to gift products like custom photo mugs, notepads, paper bags and wedding gift items. Customers can order almost any kind of print on the website by selecting from its large database of free editable templates or by uploading their own print ready designs. Printivo then prints and ship the ready-made design to the customer.

'We are expanding our product categories to meet the rapid increase in demand and cover products that our customers would love to order. The idea is to ensure small scale businesses never have to worry about anything print again' Concludes Oluyomi Ojo.

While the reseller programme attracts an annual membership fee of Twenty thousand Naira (N20,000), it is currently free to sign up for the next one year, Printivo believes this will help creative professionals get value from the platform.

To opt in, interested reseller applies on Printivo’s website. Printivo’s reseller team reviews the application and approves the reseller if he meets all criteria. To learn more about Printivo For Resellers visit; www.printivo.com/reseller

12 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR TEAM AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

The success and failure of your business/organization/team depends on the quality of your Human Resources. All other factors that increase productivity and profit are driven by human resources. Businesses are run and driven by people and not machines. Happy and motivated staff/team attracts happy and loyal customers. Employees are like women, they are soft, tender and fragile; to keep them motivated and productive, you as a team leader/employer have to be creative in keeping them happy. You may be thinking, why should I spend so much resource in keeping them happy? Why not fire them and employ new ones and tell them what happened to the former ones. That will keep them on their feet. Hehehe….. very smart move, but then, you have succeeded in making yourself a tyrant and a mafia boss. What will be the outcome of such action? 

• Your staff will term you a tyrant and will work in constant fear 

• Your corporate image will have been tarnished 

• You will lose your market share to your competitor 

• You will face legal charges and be forced to pay a huge fine 

• You will experience a huge loss on your investment and low productivity 

• Also go through the hassle of recruiting and inducting new staff which will consume time and money. Do you still want to fire them? I guess not.

Your staff are your corporate family, treat them like one. Let’s explore some ways to keep them motivated and inspired to achieve organizational objectives. 

1. Leadership by example; this is still the best form of leadership. Team members want a leader who knows his onus and have the balls to get things done. People follow a general who is always at the forefront and not a rear admiral who fights from the background. 

2. Be transparent and Honest; Give them every necessary information about their jobs and the project. Give them a reason to follow you. It will be a disaster if they find out the hard way that you are hiding something they should know about. You will lose trust and credibility. 

3. Team bonding exercises; All work and no play makes your team ineffective. Introduce some games and exercises that will reduce stress, ease off tension, increase team connection and increase productivity. Create the atmosphere for them to enjoy work. No one wants to work with an acquaintance, so give them a chance to become friends. 

4. Give them a sense of belonging and ownership; listen to their ideas and implement them. Let them be in the implementation team. And if the idea really sucks, be constructive in putting it aside.
5. Reward/little incentive strategy; it may include giving them bragging rights if they perform well in a task, employee of the week/month/year awards, souvenirs, holiday trips etc. these activities will introduce healthy competition in the team 

6. Appreciate them openly and individually; openly let them know how important they are to the team commend their individual strengths and help them walk through their weaknesses. 

7. Support them in achieving tasks. 

8. Be a strategist; Always be steps ahead of your members. Have a plan A, B, C, D etc. and develop an emergency response system for situations that may arise. 

9. Improve budget; This will create a better working atmosphere and increase productivity. 

10. Hangouts and social visits; As often as possible, hangout with your team; watch movies, have game nights, beach hangouts etc. Also make out time to visit them in their homes. You’ll be amazed at the response you will get the following day or week. 

11. Manage change effectively; As often as it occurs, be an effective change manager and inform them when changes occurs. 

12. Be their coach/mentor/best friend; Be someone they can confide in when they get into trouble trying to finish their tasks. Guide them and show them what to do. You are their best trainer. 

 Your staff is the live wire of your organization; their happiness should be your priority if you must get returns on your investments. Use positive reinforcements