Richard Branson still gets it

I am reading Richard Bransons autobiography for the second time now and it amazes me how far ahead of the curve he was and somehow manages to be. He has to be one of the most inspirational entreprenuers in the history of modern business, certainly has a better hairstyle than Donald Trump (sorry Donald, why does he have that combover anyway??) and a lot more charisma and guts than Bill Gates. It is a fascinating story, well told by him persoanlly, lots of great insights to his business and his ideas. His story is truly amazing, if you need a “pep me up” at the beginning of this year, take a read, you can order it here.

Buy wine by SMS!

So we all know that South Africa produces great wines, but how many times have you been at a restaurant and someone ordered a really great bottle of wine. You promise yourself to buy one, but the next day, you cant remember what it was called. You do a google search, but to no avail. Well, that seems to be changing. An SMS service in the US offers wine by SMS. All you do is simply SMS the name of the wine, its vintage and they will tell you how much it will cost and how you buy it from a near retailer. Maybe one step more might be to offer special offers on a case if you order it right there and then. Wonderful stuff!!

The $100 laptop from MIT

Rediff – MIT has given an update on their progress on the $100 laptop that they are producing for emerging economy children. It seems that this is starting to gather momentum and it is a great idea. I mentioned this in one of my other blogs, but this could be the big break into the realm of bridging the digital divide. So the laptop basically is a functional device and has an AC adaptor for places where there is electricity and a hand crank for places without electricity (Hey, that would be nice on my laptop now!!) Below is an excerpt of the article:

The $100 laptop computers that Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers want to get into the hands of the world’s children would be durable, flexible and self-reliant.
The machines’ AC adapter would double as a carrying strap, and a hand crank would power them when there’s no electricity. They’d be foldable into more positions than traditional notebook PCs, and carried like slim lunchboxes.
For outdoor reading, their display would be able to shift from full color to glare-resistant black and white.
And surrounding it all, the laptops would have a rubber casing that closes tightly, because “they have to be absolutely indestructible,” said Nicholas Negroponte, the MIT Media Lab leader who offered an update on the project Wednesday.

Read more FAQ’s etc at these links:
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/sep/30laptop.htm

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

India is coming

For those of you who are unaware of it, India is on the rise. I saw this first hand when visiting there recently. Not only is the fact that on average, the Indian guys are reasonably well educated, the also tend to work hard. While chatting to some local Indian guys at the hotel I stayed at, they were saying that they earn on average R$7500 (Rupees) per month (Approx R 1200) However guys in the IT industry in India can earn up to R$ 50 000 (R 7800) per month, a marked difference. So there is huge incentive for these people to become qualified in IT and if that is so, it seems that the big Internationals are growing their footprint significantly according to a recent ITweb article. My question is, why cant we emulate this success here, we have similar challenges to India, here is where we are similar and how India seems to have solved these issues:

• Diverse population: India has made English the business standard and accepts people from all backgrounds in general
• Multiple languages: English has become the de facto standard
• High Unemployment: Government has REALLY got behind job creation and has made it attractive for multinationals (Microsoft, Oracle etc ) to invest

These are just some examples of what can be done, I think we in SA could easily emulate the sucesses of India. So come on, lets try it! Who knows, it may just work

Google gets into Wireless

Wired News – Google is about ready to launch a WiFi service, Google Wifi. The service will offer high speed wireless access to the internet and would move the search king into the ISP space. So while this may be exciting, the question has to be raised as to wheter Google is beginning to spread itself too thin? Or is it able to handle all the diversity effectively? All remains to be soon, my opinion is that these guys have got it right in the past and they seem to be getting more right than wrong, so check it out…

http://wifi.google.com/faq.html

Mobile music on your iphone

Wired News – Steve Jobs and the team at Apple once again up the ante. The inimitable Mr Jobs is now putting music where it matters, on your phone. Now that is a good idea. Apple unveiled its iphone yesterday that can store about 100 songs. The phone is loaded with itunes and can store podcasts and music…very nice!!
Other News is that Apple has also launched the ipod nano, which will replace the ipod mini, it is one third the size of the mini but holds 1000 songs. These guys are good, my vote is for Steve Jobs for leader of the century…love his work

Check the story out on :
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68797,00.html?tw=rss.TEK

Or got to: www.apple.com

5 reasons not to use Linux :-)

I am convinced that the OSS model is the way of the future. I like the idea of it, it is that simple. No we all know that Microsoft is a bit uppity about the whole thing because, well it threatens their whole business model. It is kind of like saying to people, well that new BMW is free, but the services and the petrol come at a bit of a premium. How many people would go for that? Plenty I am sure, even if they had to pay more for petrol and services. On this note, a post from Slashdot caught my attention. The author states that you shouldnt use linux because:
1. Linux is too complicated
2. Linux is a pain to set up
3. Linux doesnt have enough apps
4. Linux isnt secure
5. Linux is more expensive

Well then, why all the fuss about free software if all this is true? Well, is it true, click here an let me know what you think

http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8124627492.html

The future of education..young entrepreneurs

I am a big Tom Peters Fan!(http://www.tompeters.com/) He has some awesome insights into business and culture in general. Just last night I was going through Re – Imagine again and looking at the chapter on education. It spurred me to thinking and agreeing with Tom that we teach our kids to learn, but not to think. In this day and age, we cant afford to do that. Our future generations need to be able to learn and think. For a long time now, I have wanted to start an academy (if you like) that will teach children and teenagers the essentials of leadership, finance, business ethics, how to start a company etc etc. Why? you may ask, well how many of you today are using the facts you learnt in school? How many of us needed to learn Latin and how many of us needed to learn how to read a balance sheet or be able to plan a marketing campaign.
So the big idea is that when a child leaves the academy, they have a small business up and running that they can run and employ other people, thus creating jobs etc. Sound crazy? Take a look at Ryan Allis, a self made milionaire at 19!

http://www.ryanallis.com/

Think slowly….to Innovate!

FasCompany – “If you can change your mind, you can change the world,” says creativity guru Joey Reiman. But how do you change your mind? By slowing down long enough to think: “Experience the power of a slow company.”

A company called brighthouse, an “ideation corporation” focusing on innovation says that in order to innovate, we need to think slower. Joey Reiman CEO of the company says that you cant hurry great ideas. Slower is better is probably the opposite to what most companies would say today in the breakneck speed that most industries run at. There must be some truth in though, companies like Coca Cola and Home Depot are using brighthouse. What is more interesting is that the 17 person company only works on one client at a time and charges $500 000.00 per project and will take up to 10 weeks to deliver the project.

Sounds weird, in fact, the more you think about it the more sense it makes. Think about it… how often do teams or divisions go on their annual pilgrimage to some venue that will enable the team to bond and think. Two days later it is expected that there is suddenly a shared vision, a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) and a common strategy that is going to differentiate them. Then guess what, reality sets in and the plan needs to be revisited, the projections were wrong and the research was not conclusive and OH the competitive info has changed and so companies probably spend the next 8 weeks tweaking the plan. So 10 weeks sounds feasible.

Nonetheless, I think this is a very interesting idea, I think we need to go slower to go faster….. especially in the age of speed

Wireless in Knysna…like hey!

ITweb – It seems Telkom and Uninet (A Wireless ISP) are getting into a bit of a froth over Uninets offering of a WiFi solution in the coastal town. According to the article, Telkom are trying to stop the rollout of the service in Knysna because they believe that Uninet has contravened the Telecoms Act.

Is this simply a case of Telkom getting a bit upset because it looks like someone might be able to offer a better service than they could? Probably, however, Uninet has done this a few times before and it seems they are willing to push the envelope on this one. I like this kind of debate, i say Go Uninet, give the people what they want. Surely we should be market driven, it seems Uninet are and I think that we need more of these kinds of initiatives. We need momentum around this kind of thing, so come on guys, lets get it going. Maybe I can get David Jarvis – MD of Uninet to comment on this blog…keep watching this space.