Professional Services

Pricing is often overlooked as a strategic lever essential for revenue and profits. The global economic slowdown has heightened consumer sensitivities to pricing and value, however, prompting a resurgence of interest in integrated pricing policies and strategies.

The pact will allow both countries respective central banks to swap local currencies worth up to 190bn yuan or 60bn reais. Officials said this will ensure smooth bilateral trade, regardless of global financial conditions.

The deal, signed on the side-lines of the fifth Brics summit in Durban, South Africa, is all the more significant given that China remains Brazil’s largest trading partner.

Every child, at some point, will be asked what they want to do when they grow up. Few will declare themselves set for a life as a ‘hacker’ and fewer still declare themselves CEO material. Yet, with many production lines either grinding to a halt or manned by robots, technology has become the beating heart of many organisations. Dominique Karg, proud hacker and co-founder of AlienVault, asks whether we should be nurturing a different skillset in our young.

There was a time when succession planning was something only companies large enough to employ thousands of people did as part of an overall management development strategy. Since then screeds have been written on the evolution of succession planning, most of which points to the need for organisations to plan for the inevitable loss of key staff, irrespective of their seniority.

Earlier this year, The Channel Partnership undertook research in partnership with The Leadership Foundation to examine the relationships between sales and marketing professionals in businesses. A thousand sales and marketing professionals were interviewed to understand why disconnects and communication breakdowns are so common between sales and marketing teams.

It seems our society has turned dodging responsibility into an art form. From celebrities who insist that a brush with the law was all a big misunderstanding to political figures who use spin and double-speak to blame everything on the other side, no one wants to admit it when they mess up. If you’re a business leader, the temptation to use this strategy is huge. After all, your customers are paying you to get it right, so the last thing you want is for them to know that you’ve made a mistake, right?

During a recent discussion, a customer of one of my clients described an episode of the popular television series House in response to a question that I had asked. In that episode, Drs. House and Wilson had made a bet as to which could hide a chicken in the hospital for the longest time without being detected by security. A young doctor on the staff asked a colleague why each of the two senior department heads had chickens in the hospital. The answer she got was “The store only had one pig”.

One of the cornerstones of social and economic development in today’s competitive global marketplace is collaboration. In 1997 the national ICT regulators in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) came together to form a joint body, the Communication Regulator’s Association of Southern Africa (CRASA), whose remit was to facilitate harmonisation of regulatory frameworks across the region, for the benefit of SADC Citizens. 

What would you do if you won the lottery? In the case of Nelson Mahadeo, he went into business for himself. A win of a couple of million rand in 2003 enabled him to say au revoir to his employers and set up Associated Marine & Industrial Inspection Services. By hiring a good team, he was able to get the business up and running in a short time.