Firstly the idea of a free market stems from the idea of personal freedom. That no-one should be able to decide for you what you do, how you make a living and to demand that you pay them any part of your income. Obviously this is qualified by the facts that the rights of other […]
Business
Posted inBusiness
What can we learn from Nollywood?
Ever heard of Nollywood? Sure you will have heard of Hollywood and more recently have been introduced to Bollywood, India’s film industry. Nollywood? That’s Nigeria’s film industry, which boasts an annual production of about 2 000 films making this a rather respectable $500-million industry. What’s even more fascinating is the fact that these films are made […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle
So, have you changed your spending habits?
The new frugality? I know all about the new frugality. The global financial crisis is causing all sorts of people to change their spending habits. High-powered executives are –- shock, horror –- flying first class instead of taking the corporate jet, while their wives and mistresses are being forced to cut back on spending. Everybody […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
I phone, you phone, we all foam at the mouth for an iPhone
Ok, the familiar jingle doesn’t quite translate, but there’s every indication that Apple’s iPhone is just as popular as ice-cream. In just a little over a year and half from its launch, the iPhone has achieved a 32% market share and holds an unassailable lead as the world’s trendiest and most sought after device. No […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Corruption-free politics — the blueprint
Over the last 18 months we have brought this innovation to the attention of all of the represented political parties. Now for the first time, we share this hitherto confidential “inside information” with you. Assuming that all politicians got into politics to help people and that, if given the opportunity, both politicians and political party […]
Posted inBusiness, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Buyology — how we’re brainwashed into buying stuff
We’ve always suspected those tawdry health warnings on a packet of fags were rather dumb, but never knew why. Well, it seems that, contrary to discouraging smoking, they actually encourage lighting up by stimulating the nucleus accumbens — the craving spot — in the brain. This recent research finding in what’s called “buy*ology” is a […]
Posted inBusiness, General, Media, News/Politics
More than freedom of expression is under threat in South Africa
Thought Leader blogger Anja Merret recently mused about whether we were being brainwashed into panic. She asked, with considerable justification, whether our media and their international news networks were pumping so much doom and gloom into the already murky and polluted waters of South Africa’s national psyche that we were becoming the proudly SA Borg […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
A refreshing take on business success
As an antidote to the pessimism infusing the business news as the global financial crisis plays itself out, I can recommend a gem of a book published last year by the former president of the Coca Cola Company, Donald Keough. The book is The Ten Commandments for Business Failure and two of those commandments are […]
Posted inBusiness, Tech
Making money on the web
It seems that effective monetising of websites may still be a hit and miss affair. In an interesting article on Brand Republic the discussion is about a video site called Hulu. According to projected ad revenue figures Hulu will be earning as much if not more advertising revenue in 2009 than YouTube will. What is […]
Posted inBusiness
Telkom: SA’s ugly underbelly
For years nations have been, rightly or wrongly, judged by their products. Coca-Cola and Big Macs have been iconic of the USA. Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin symbolised the UK. Exquisite wines, Yves Saint Laurent and grand cuisine epitomise France. Precision engineering and the finest quality are hallmarks of German products such as Mercedes-Benz. The reverse […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Emigration: rethinking plans to leave
In September I speculated on the kind of impact the global financial crisis would have on emigration from South Africa. The lead story in yesterday’s Sunday Times confirms — without any hard numbers — that things are panning out as I thought they might: South Africans planning to emigrate are having to reassess whether they […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Beware the power de-rangers
YOU KNOW that feeling when suddenly, though subtly, events around you seem to coalesce as if life, fate, God — call it what you will — is trying to tell you something? At a time when my self-confidence and faith in my own judgment are at a nadir, I seem to be watching TV programmes, […]