http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Local
By Sofia
Mapuranga
MHONDORO — Mashonaland West province has the highest number of
underweight
and malnourished children under the age of five, an official
with the
Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has said.
Speaking at the
launch of the World Breastfeeding Week in Mhondoro recently,
District
Medical Officer for Chegutu Tonderai Nhende said one in every three
children
in Zimbabwe was stunted, but the situation was worse in Mashonaland
West
province.
He said an overview of the breast feeding practices in the
province revealed
that only 10,9% of infants were being exclusively
breastfed, while 9,3% of
children aged between 6 and 23 months received a
minimum acceptable diet.
“Stunting and being underweight begin prior
to the age of six months and
peak at 24 months, to which there is little
recovery thereafter,” said
Nhende.
“Children living in the rural
areas were more likely to be stunted and
underweight than their urban
counterparts in the urban areas.”
According to the 2010/11
Demographic Health Survey, over a third of Zimbabwe’s
children under the age
of five were chronically malnourished and
consequently stunted. The survey
noted that, an estimated 15 000 of them
were at the risk of dying from the
condition.
Malnourished children, said Nhende, “were more susceptible
to diseases,
suffer cognitive impairment, have poor educational outcomes and
have reduced
economic productivity as adults.”
Speaking at the
same event, deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr
Douglas
Mombeshora said his ministry was in the process of finalising a
policy on
infant feeding and nutrition.
“We are in the process of developing a
National Behaviour Change
Communication Strategy to address the negative
infant and young child
feeding perceptions within the
communities.”
Mombeshora said they were also concluding a report on
the Infant and Young
Child Feeding Programme Review for the past 20
years.
“Findings from this review will inform the country on the
reasons for
sub-optimal infant and young child feeding practices from a
programmatic
point of view,” he said.
This year’s breastfeeding
week commemorations were held under the theme
Understanding the past,
planning for the future; celebrating 10 years of
WHO/ UNICEF’s Global
Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Local
By Moses
Chibaya
COMMUNAL farmers living in dry Regions IV and V continue to shun
growing
small grains suitable for their areas, prompting calls for
researchers to
develop maize varieties that suit those areas.
Speaking at
a climate change workshop for the civil society and media in
Harare
recently, an expert on climate change, Douglas Gumbo, said naturally
most
farmers in dry Regions iv and v prefer growing maize and he so
encouraged
researchers to develop varieties that are drought resistant.
“I am
challenging researchers to develop maize varieties that can be grown
in
Region IV and V,” said Gumbo. “Farmers prefer maize instead of the small
grains that are being promoted. They have been growing maize before climate
change.”
For a long time now, government has been encouraging
villagers in the two
drought prone regions to grow small grains which are
naturally
drought-resistant, in addition to adopting sustainable
agricultural
practices.
Small grains such as millet and sorghum
can survive adverse weather
conditions and they are more suitable for
long-term storage.
However, they remain unpopular with most communal
farmers in arid areas
because they require a lot of labour and are prone to
quelea birds.
Gumbo said the changing climatic patterns have resulted
in food insecurity
in some areas as the hectarage of land under the staple
maize crop declines.
“The challenge to researchers is on which
variety they are supposed to
develop that suits the current climatic
conditions. There is something that
can be done in a desert by bringing in
appropriate technologies rather than
force people to drop certain things
that they are used to,” said Gumbo.
“It’s a matter of improving the
product so that it suits the market, the
current environment and choices of
people.”
People living in Regions iv and v continue to bear the brunt
of climate
change, with crop yields declining as prolonged droughts and
erratic rains
take toll.
An estimated 1,6 million people are
likely to require food assistance in the
coming “hunger season” from January
to March in Zimbabwe, according to a new
report recently released by the
United Nations and its partners.
“The UN World Food Programme (WFP)
and our partners are gearing up to
respond to this large rise in food
needs,” said WFP’s Country Director for
the African nation, Felix
Bamezon.
“Our field staff are already reporting signs of distress in
rural areas,
including empty granaries and farmers selling off their
livestock to make
ends meet.”
In addition, the number of people in need
right now is 60% higher than the
one million who needed food assistance
during the same time last year.
WFP has said it would undertake food
distribution of regionally procured
cereals as well as imported vegetable
oil and pulses to meet the increased
food needs.
The report says
Masvingo, Matabeleland North and South, and parts of
Mashonaland, Midlands
and Manicaland are the worst-affected areas.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Local
By Silas Nkala
BINGA
— A 24-year-old man from Mkosana Township in Victoria Falls was last
week
jailed for three months for selling pirated music discs.
Nkosiyapha Ndlovu
pleaded guilty to a charge of selling counterfeit discs
when he appeared
before Binga resident magistrate Stephen Ndlovu last week.
He was sentenced
to three months in jail with an option of US$50 fine. The
court heard that
on August 4 this year Ndlovu was arrested by Binga police
while selling
pirated discs in Binga. He was found in possession of 207
DVDs and MP3s.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in
Local
By Tatenda Chitagu
MASVINGO — From a mere glimpse, her kombi
looks just like any other at the
bus terminus.
The radio is turned full
blast, playing King Shady’s latest offering, and
the music is piercing
through the passengers’ ears.
A closer inspection however reveals that the
conductor — popularly known as
hwindi or tout in street lingo — loading the
vehicle is a young woman.
“Are you the conductor, and which route is this
kombi taking?”, a female
commuter asks 25-year-old Rodia Singende who
replies, “Majange-Yeukai! Jump
in and let us go!”
Singende is one of the
few female kombi conductors in Masvingo who has
challenged the traditional
stereotypes by venturing into this largely
male-dominated field, which
involves shouting, banging the door to signal a
stop, whistling, as well as
loading passengers’ luggage while the vehicle is
in motion.
“It is now
two years since I started working as a conductor. However, I
managed to be
where I am because my husband also works here. So he
understands. Besides,
you can survive, and in fact it is better than sitting
at home,” she
says.
The couple has two kids who remain with her mother-in-law, when she
goes to
work. But she admits balancing work and family life remains a puzzle
to her.
“We leave our kids with my mother-in-law. But I have to admit that it
is
possible to balance my work and family, it’s difficult.”
However
Singende has successfully fought the tag placed on commuter omnibus
conductors. They are generally a rude, foul-mouthed and shabby lot.
“You
have to be smart and have time to clean up yourself since you are
someone
who works with the public.
“There is also need to treat the customers well,
so that next time they will
come back to your kombi for a ride,” she said,
as she plastered her dry lips
with lip glow, which she took from the
dashboard.
Her driver, Henry Mushwayi said it was a marvel to work with a
female kombi
conductor.
“We also have very few conflicts with passengers
and this could be because
ladies generally have good public relations and
they always apologise if
they make mistakes,” said Mushwayi.
He added
kombi owners generally preferred women kombi conductors because
they were
trustworthy and did not cheat when it came to accounting for the
day’s
earnings.
However, much as she enjoys her job, Singende says fellow male
kombi
conductors look down upon her.
“The public actually appreciates me
more than my workmates,” she said, as
she hung precariously to the door of
her kombi which was filled to capacity,
as our interview came to an end.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Business
By Kudzai
Chimhangwa
THE Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has urged the manufacturing
industry to
take advantage of the excess power available at night after peak
power
demand hours for production.
Speaking at a media briefing last week
ZPC chairman Richard Maasdorp said
industry must take advantage of the
abundant electricity available during
the night to produce goods and
commodities without disruptions.
“This will go a long way towards
saving the energy available and providing
industry with the electrical power
they need,” he said.
Manufacturing companies have for long bemoaned
the incessant power cuts
saying they were disruptive to their
business.
Speaking at the same event ZPC general manager for
projects, Engineer
Washington Mareya said the company had embarked on
expansion projects for
the Hwange and Kariba South Extension
un
its in a bid to meet current and future electricity
demand.
However, funding has proved to be a major hurdle as
investment has not been
forthcoming.
Mareya said Zimbabwe faced
an acute power shortage which dates back to the
year 1992 when the country
began facing a net power deficit.
“The situation worsened in the year
2007 when the Southern African Power
Pool also began facing a net energy
deficit,” he said.
“Because our demand far outstrips our generation
capacity, it is imperative
that we embark on an aggressive generation
expansion drive in order to meet
demand.”
The projects are being
implemented in four phases namely review phase,
engineering phase,
construction and commissioning phase and the warranty
phase.
Hwange 7 and 8 units are expected to be upgraded to 600
MegaWatts (MW) at a
cost of US$1,83 billion while the Kariba South 7 and 8
units would be
upgraded to 300MW at a cost of US$771
million.
However, funding has continued to be a major stumbling block
towards the
timely completion of projects.
Mareya said that the
mini-hydro power plants would be prioritised under
public-private
partnerships.
These include the Gairezi to produce 30MW at US$90
million, Mutirikwi to
produce 5MW at US$10 million and Manyuchi to produce
1,4MW at US$3 million.
The review phase which involved feasibility
studies was completed as at June
2011 while the engineering phase started
concurrently with part of phase 1.
“Evaluation of tender documents is
in progress and selection of suitable
contractors is expected to be
finalised in October 2012. Contract
negotiations are expected to be
concluded in December 2012 to January 2013,”
he said.
The construction
and commissioning phase is expected to begin around mid-
2013 and is
projected to take three and half to four years.
The World Bank
recently recommended that government launches an electrical
power
demand-side management programme designed to encourage consumers to
use less
energy during peak hours.
The bank also encouraged users to move the
time of energy use to off-peak
times such as nights and
weekends.
The energy crisis has negatively affected the country’s
hopes for a
sustained economic growth, as load shedding and high tariffs
have caused
disruptions to productivity in the manufacturing and mining
sectors.
Thermals at most of the power stations in the country are
more than 40 years
old while the last power station ever put up in the
country was in the
1980s.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in
Opinion
Tamisai Makombe
Last week’s drastic and prescriptive
action by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono to raise
minimum capital requirements for banking
institutions appears from the
outside like a move that is going to set the
pace for a more robust banking
system, hopefully, one devoid of any bank
failures. However, the directive
in itself, despite its good intentions,
will sadly prompt more bank closures
by so doing inflict more discomfort to
an already miffed banking
public.
As a simpleton, I am not convinced totally that the course of
action is a
master stroke or a watershed in so as far as bank failures are
concerned.
After all, we have had situations in the past where the RBZ has
dipped its
hands in such funds. I am one of those who think the RBZ is
partly, if not
entirely responsible for this nemesis.
Depositors
do not want bank closures. So the RBZ as the regulator of banks
ought to
adopt a proactive, prevention is better than cure approach as the
opposed to
the reactionary, eleventh hour approach they have been using
towards banking
crises.
As far as I know, the central bank houses two whole
departments of Banking
Supervision and Surveillance and Money Laundering.
What purpose are these
two departments serving if they cannot detect
problems in their benign
stages and nip them in the bud, to save the
depositors from the resultant
anguish caused by bank closures?
In
his own words, the beloved Governor of RBZ says people should not play
the
blame game but instead be constructive in their criticisms. Whether he
likes
it or not, people are naturally going to be blamed or judged, if they
sleep
on their jobs and do not do that which they are expected to do but at
the
end of the day claim fat pay cheques for it.
To help the banking
public, I humbly suggest that the RBZ or anybody else
mandated with
protection of depositors funds introduce bank rating services
which look at
things such as bank’s strength, business model and exposure to
various risks
in the same way hotels are rated in the hospitality industry
with the safest
banks getting a 5-star rating. Rating services are not in
themselves an
absolute guarantee of bank safety but at least they help
depositors make
informed decisions.
In other more developed economies, one of the
powerful safeguards against
bank closures is deposit insurance. I am not
sure if this is the same model
being used by the local Deposit Protection
Corporation (DPC). If it is then,
the DPC needs to explain to the public
convincingly why it cannot reimburse
affected depositors beyond a measly
US$150. Where the deposit insurance
concept is practised, depositors are
protected by a deposit insurance body
should their banks go belly-up and
draw down their money from this creation
up to limits of well over US$100
000 depending on the economy.
The deposit insurance body is funded
not by taxpayers or depositors but by
an insurance fund contributed to, from
premiums paid by insured banks.
I disengage from this article with a
tingle. Seeing that indigenous banks
are the ones falling victim to bank
failures, does it still make sense then
to weaken the foreign owned banks by
bastardising or for want of a better
word, adulterating them with 51% local
ownership content?
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Opinion
Tawanda
Marwizi
The curtain comes down on the London 2012 Olympics later today
but what a
sporting fiesta it was!
There were extra-ordinary performances
by athletes who shattered records
with breathtaking
performances.
Usain Bolt, the Jamaican who sprinted his way into
Olympic history was
without doubt the major drawcard in
London.
He silenced critics by defending his 100 and 200 metres
titles, eclipsing
compatriot and training partner Yohan Blake who was tipped
to upstage him.
But it was not a Bolt only show in London. The
Ethiopian and Kenyan long
distance runners did not disappoint. Who can
forget that Kenyan, David
Rudisha, whose record breaking 800 metres
performance was the stand-out
performance of the London 2012
Olympics?
But as we enjoyed the Olympic feast, one could not suppress
a feeling of
disappointment that Zimbabwe’s athletes were missing in
action.
In the track and field events, we failed to field a single
athlete!
Our only hope, Ngoni Makusha, failed to make it due to an
injury, so the
burden of bringing medals home was left on the able shoulders
of Kirsty
Coventry.
Coventry has not disappointed in the
past, so we hoped she could do the
nation proud again.
She tried
her best, making it to finals, but sadly left the games
empty-handed.
Coventry can’t be blamed for failing to raise Zimbabwe’s
flag high. She
distinguished herself so much that she is a sporting legend
who will be
remembered for bringing gold to a nation that cares little about
the
Olympics.
Just imagine what we were doing when other nations
were glued to their
television sets.
Some of our geriatric Zanu
PF politicians never had the time for that. From
5pm on Wednesday to 5am on
Thursday; they were looking at the constitutional
draft line by line, trying
to remove anything that could stop President
Robert Mugabe from clinging to
power.
The greater part of Thursday they were still asleep as
soldiers were
disrupting census meetings. What an indictment on the calibre
of leaders we
have!
Clearly, the way we run our affairs as a
nation is no different from the way
we run our Olympics: we expect to reap
where we did not sow and believe in
miracles like diesel oozing from the
rocks.
We expect gold at the Olympics, yet we don’t invest in a
process that
produces a fertile ground where Olympians can
thrive.
We believe incumbents can last forever and we don’t see any
sense in
succession planning in anything we do.
Take for example
the Jamaicans. While sprinting sensation Bolt is still at
his best, there
are youngsters breathing down his neck, ready to carry on
the torch once he
stumbles. You can deduce that it’s only a question of
time —when Bolt’s legs
can’t sustain those record breaking speeds that he
displayed at the
Olympics—that the young boys will gladly take over.
That is what we
want to see in Zimbabwe; young Kirsties lurking around at
the Aquatic
Complex and at other swimming pools across the country. We
should not only
rely on Makusha because when he is ill or injured as is the
case at the
moment, we cannot field anyone else at the track events.
We do not
want a delegation to the Olympics that has 14 Zimbabwe Olympic
Committee
(ZOC) officials and seven athletes. That alone shows our skewed
priorities.
Yes, we have the ZOC, but it’s legitimate to ask what
the hell are these
guys up to? Weren’t they sleeping on the job all along
only to wake up when
it was time to board the plane to the London
Olympics?
To begin with, all associations must have a succession
policy, not a
situation whereby one person is president of an association
for more than 10
years.
What new ideas is that person going
to bring to athletics?
Because some of the officials have stayed in
power for too long, they lack
fresh ideas that can bring dynamism to our
athletics. It’s not suprising
that there are some in the ZOC who still think
that Coventry should deliver
more gold in 2016.
That is wrong: we
need to groom new swimmers. Coventry is 28, but think
about how she was
competing with 17-year-old Missy Franklin. What does that
tell
us?
Coventry has acquired tremendous swimming knowledge, doesn’t that
remind us
that she has a role to play in the development of future swimming
Olympians
here in Zimbabwe? Just like in business, we need an Olympic
strategic plan
that guides us in the next four years. Do we have that plan
or we don’t see
anything wrong with returning home from London 2012 without
a single medal?
In 1980, we had a 42-strong member team and in 2012
we had seven, what has
gone wrong?
If we want a strong team for
the track and field events, what should we do
now? Should we sit on our
laurels and expect Makusha to bring us gold in
four years’
time?
If we want to see our own champions in the individual medley
swimming
category, then we need to promote the game in our schools, clean up
the
Aquatic Complex, build more pools, invest in coaches so that they can
nurture the talents of youths who aspire to dominate the world in
2016.
If we want a repeat of the exploits of the golden girls of 1980
in the
Russian Olympics, then Magamba stadium at the back of the National
Sports
stadium should be given due attention. Khumalo stadium in Bulawayo
should be
maintained so that we are assured of a world class facility in the
city.
Mucheke stadium in Masvingo should also be upgraded to meet Olympic
standards.
If we need a “Lighting Bolt” in our team in 2016, then
we should go back to
the drawing board and come up with ways to attract
youngsters whose talent
gets wasted away in towns and rural areas after
finishing secondary school.
We need to value talent identification
programmes in education as these can
help us spot youngsters who can be
groomed to smash records and bring glory
to Zimbabwe, come
2016.
The Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture should give
support to
the Sports and Recreation Commission in form of grants to develop
talent.
Just tweeting, like what Minister David Coltart did while
encouraging our
underachieving athletes in London during the past days,
won’t do the trick.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in
Opinion
Access to energy is widely regarded as the “missing” Millennium
Development
Goal (MDG) and debate among development experts is that, poverty
eradication
and the general global socio-economic condition would improve if
energy were
to be identified as the ninth MDG.
The global community
adopted eight MDGs in 2000 to improve the general
socio-economic conditions
in the world, particularly in developing
countries. These goals range
through gender, education, health, poverty and
the
environment.
While remarkable progress has been recorded to implement
some of the agreed
goals, most countries are still not on track to meet the
desired targets by
2015 due to various factors such as limited resources as
well as addressing
new and emerging challenges including climate
change.
However, development experts argue that the oversight of
energy in the
original MDG list has had an impact on how the world responds
to issues of
sustainable development and poverty reduction.
The
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), for example, says that
energy
is central to sustainable development and poverty reduction efforts.
Energy
affects all aspects of development — social, economic, and
environmental,
including livelihoods, access to water, agricultural
productivity, health,
population levels, education, and gender-related
issues.
“None of
the Millennium Development Goals can be met without major
improvement in the
quality and quantity of energy services in developing
countries,” the UNDP
observes.
In this regard, there is need for the global community to
intensify efforts
that improve access to energy as a critical tool in the
attainment of most
MDGs, especially Goal 1 seeking to reduce by half the
proportion of people
living in poverty by 2015.
Sadc’s population
totals about 270 million and, according to some estimates,
just 30% have
access to energy in the form of electricity, mostly in urban
areas.
This figure falls to an average of 2% in rural areas,
where the majority of
the people live — far from the 35% consumption level
that African leaders
pledged to achieve at their 8th Session of the African
Union Summit in 2007.
The majority of people in southern Africa still
rely on traditional energy
sources including wood or other biomass such as
crop waste as the dominant
fuel for cooking. This comes at a huge cost to
the environment as families
continue to cut down trees for much-needed
fuel.
Therefore, attaining energy self-sufficiency would go a long
way in
improving Sadc’s chances of reaching the MDGs and creating
opportunities for
people to prosper.
Access to modern energy
facilitates economic development by providing more
efficient and healthier
means to undertake basic household tasks and
undertake productive activities
more generally, often more cheaply than by
using the inefficient
substitutes, such as candles and batteries.
Modern energy can power
water pumping, providing drinking water and
increasing agricultural yields
through the use of machinery and irrigation.
Improving access to
clean energy fuels will also ensure that women’s burden
to provide water and
food for their families is reduced.
In rural communities in Sadc, as
in other developing regions of the world,
children commonly spend
significant time gathering firewood, fetching water
and cooking instead of
attending school.
Access to improved cooking fuels or technologies
would, therefore,
facilitate school attendance. Electricity is also
important for education
since it improves communication, particularly
through information technology
and by ensuring availability of basic needs
such as lighting.
Improved access to electricity and modern fuels
reduces the physical burden
associated with carrying wood and frees up
valuable time, especially for
women, widening their employment
opportunities.
In addition, street-lighting improves the safety of
women and girls at
night, allowing them to attend night schools and
participate in community
activities. Data from the Southern African Regional
Universities Association
shows that more men than women enrol for tertiary
education, despite the
fact that the latter makes up more than half of the
Sadc population.
Education facilitates the empowerment of women and
men to participate more
fully in development processes and decision-making
by equipping them with
these skills.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Opinion
LAST week’s invasion
of census training centres by rowdy soldiers demanding
to be part of the
process clearly shows a lack of discipline among Zimbabwe’s
armed
forces.
Once regarded as one of the most professional armies in the region,
the
soldiers did exactly the opposite causing mayhem at centres across the
country demanding to be hired as census officials, even though they are not
competent to do so.
It took the intervention of President Robert
Mugabe, who is the
Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, before the
soldiers could return
to their barracks. Even then, ministers of Security
had to be involved to
make the soldiers leave the training
centres.
Such wayward behaviour by the security forces reinforces the
call to
prioritise security sector reform ahead of elections that may be
held next
year.
This matter has been a bone of contention between
the two MDC formations and
Zanu PF for a while. It needs to be addressed
urgently before these rowdy
elements of the military do the
unthinkable.
If the soldiers can demand to be involved in the
counting process, which is
definitely outside the scope of their mandate,
what can stop them from
demanding to be involved in electoral processes? In
the event that elections
are held, they may throng voting centres across the
country and subvert the
will of the people.
Measures need to be
taken to ensure that soldiers are confined to the
barracks and be called
upon only when national security is under threat.
Zimbabwe has
successfully conducted three population censuses since
Independence but at
no point were soldiers involved other than providing
security. This process
was mainly done by teachers and other civil servants.
So what has changed
now?
Whether or not the debacle was a political strategy by Zanu PF
to influence
the programme that has a bearing on the delimitation of
constituencies, it
reflects badly on Mugabe ahead of the Sadc summit to be
held in Maputo,
Mozambique, this week.
Mugabe will be viewed as
someone who has lost control of the army that is
developing a potential to
destabilise the country.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw
August 12, 2012 in Opinion
Phillip
Chichoni
“Things do not just happen. Things are made to happen.” John F.
Kennedy.
HYENAS and jackals are some of Africa’s most skillful predators.
Both being
carnivores, they don’t see eye to eye and will fight to death if
one
encroaches on another’s territory or food. However an amazing thing
happens
when there is a drought.
With small game being scarce in arid
forests, the only food available for
predators is big game, such as eland,
kudu and buffalo.
Such animals are too big for a pack of either hyenas or
jackals to kill on
its own. So the competing predators unite to form a
formidable hunting group
that can take down big game and after the kill,
they share the meal.
The current business environment presents numerous
challenges. Under normal
circumstances, there will be enough business to
allow healthy competition
and good profits for all. But the economy is in
recession akin to a drought.
There is just not enough money around to make
all businesses profitable.
Competition is tough. Entrepreneurs are being
forced to undercut each other’s
prices in order to win a sale. Now with very
low margins, many businesses
are unable to reinvest in sustaining and
growing the business.
So a new kind of thinking is required in tough times
like these: the
thinking that enemy predators adopt when facing death in an
arid forest. We
need to think of a win-win cooperation.
Small businesses
suffer from having small market and financial muscle to
leverage onto in
order to get bigger deals. For example we see most medium
to high value
contracts and tenders going to big companies or foreign SMEs.
If
entrepreneurs adopt the thinking of a win-win cooperation, they can pool
their resources and attract such bigger business opportunities. They can
even attract foreign partners and tackle even bigger deals like in mining,
infrastructure development and large scale manufacturing.
If you look at
the developed world, you will find a lot of such
collaboration among firms.
Take motor vehicle assembly for example. You will
find out that the
different parts that go into making a vehicle are
manufactured by many
different firms from dozens of countries. Each firm
contributes parts that
meet set standards and specifications. A company that
fails to meet these
standards risks being booted out of the alliance.
A win-win thinking starts
with you the small business owner. We need to stop
thinking in terms of
short-term gain and start thinking of long term
benefit. Let us look at
things in perspective. On its own, my small business
will never be able to
win the large and profitable contracts that I desire.
So I have to think of
some collaborative arrangement with likeminded
entrepreneurs. For this to
work, my business must have the appropriate
infrastructure that will
maximise profitability and efficiency when the big
deals come.
I have to
make a sacrifice and invest in proper systems and corporate
governance
structures, compliance, regular structured forecasting, budgeting
and
reporting. All these form the infrastructure needed to support business
in
the big league.
Win-win cooperation benefits from the power of synergy. With
synergy, the
combined value is greater than the sum of the individual parts.
So a few
SMEs can hook up and tackle business valued many times than what
they can do
as individuals. With assets pooled together, they can approach
external
financiers and suppliers for credit and products. Pooling assets
also means
risks are shared, so no individual firm will suffer totally when
there are
losses or when the business collapses.
Cooperating firms can
have enough capacity to buy more advanced machinery;
train people who need
to perform highly skilled tasks and negotiate for bulk
discounts from
suppliers. Such benefits from economies of scale cannot be
enjoyed by a lone
small business.
So let us start thinking win-win and accelerate our growth as
SMEs.
Please share with other entrepreneurs what is working for you. You can
post
your comments at our website http://smebusinesslink.com, where you can
also
subscribe to my free weekly newsletter. Don’t forget the following
Businesslink events coming up in August:
Thursday 23rd: Networking
breakfast meeting with Sebastian Zuze, Quality
Assurance Director at the
Standards Association of Zimbabwe, who will talk
about “How Standards
Achieve Sustainable SME Development”
Friday 24th: Half-day seminar in Harare:
“The new frontiers of marketing:
Inbound and Social Media”, meant for
entrepreneurs who wish to remain
relevant and grow in the Internet
age.
Phillip Chichoni is a business planning and financial management
consultant who works with entrepreneurs and growing businesses. You may
contact him on chichonip@smebusinesslink.com.
The SADC summit in
Maputo on Friday and Saturday will be a crucial test of SADC’s sincerity. This
has been seriously compromised already by its arbitrary suspension of the SADC
Tribunal for its ruling against Mugabe.
The Vigil believes
that SADC leaders must make it clear to Mugabe that they will not accept his
foot-dragging over the already agreed new constitution and his readiness to
unleash the security forces to undermine the census – a taste of what is likely
during the referendum on the constitution.
We were pleased to
see the remarks on Zimbabwe by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, in an
article in the Times (see: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/vigil-news/campaign-news/430-sentamu-article-in-the-times).
Dr Sentamu says now is not the time for the international community to turn its
back on the people of Zimbabwe. He criticized the easing of targeted sanctions
on the Mugabe regime and called for the reinstatement of the SADC Tribunal.
The Vigil hopes President Zuma will take the Archbishop’s advice to heart and stand up to Mugabe. He must kn
