My daughter came home the other day and asked me, “Dad, how do leaves come out of sticks?” The dry and not very attractive stick on a tree seems to magically produce a small green bud followed by lush green leaves that in turn produce feedback to and nourishment to the stick, branch and entire plant.

Good question. Very similar to “How do we get results out of dry business processes?”

To coach any tree into the required shape there is always pruning, feeding, tying up and throwing away required. How is your business doing? Need some pruning, feeding, tying up design and throwing away?

Year-End Planning? – Does planning not only happen at the beginning of the year and not now?

Taking time for a short strategic planning session at this time of year will set you and your business up for a huge strategic advantage for the coming year.

Join me for an online master class on all things business planning on Wednesday 28th November at 12:00

Bookings on Quicket at http://qkt.io/5JQvgk Investment just R150 per business.

NTT DATA Corporation (NTT DATA) will host its 9th Open Innovation Contest and is currently accepting applications through the contest’s official website: Regional contests will be held in 20 cities across 18 countries. Local ICT company Dimension Data will host the South African applications on 8 February 2019, in Cape Town, with the regional winners being invited to the Grand Finale in Tokyo in March of 2019.

Any start-up company is welcome to submit a proposal for a collaborative business with NTT DATA in fields such as Healthcare & Life Sciences / Finance, Insurance & Payments / Automotive & IoT / RPA & Back Office / Storefront & Digital Marketing / Data Distribution / Disruptive Social Innovation. NTT DATA welcomes business solutions, which are designed to achieve sustainable development goals.
The Grand Finale in Tokyo will be held in March 2019. NTT DATA will cover travel expenses for the presenter of each winner of a regional semi-final. The Grand Finale winner will receive a three-month in-kind contribution to support the development of their proposed new business.

Closing date for entries is November 16, 2018, 5 PM (JST) For more information and how to apply, please visit: http://oi.nttdata.com/en/contest/

In our current series dedicated to sprinting to the close of 2018 and finishing strong, last week we unpacked the 4 Ds of Products. Here are they again for you:

Define your Products: Each of your product offerings should be well defined detailing amongst others the Features and the Benefits of that product. Knowing how to describe your product goes a long way to creating an effective sales funnel for the business.

Develop your Products: Your products should always be in development, but not ever changing. Getting feedback from your clients and customers and gathering information will give input into an agile approach to product development and improvements.

Data about your Products: Gathering data about each one of your products is key to understanding how they interact in the market. You need to know how well each product sells, to whom and when. Any type of data is important, collect, store and do analysis as often as you can.

Diversify your product: It is always important to look at other ways your product can bring you income. Too often products are created for a specific purpose and never looked at again for an alternative use of income generation.

Pause a little and relook at your products through each of the 4 lenses above and see what you can do to improve your business before the end of 2018.

This week we look at staffing issues through the R-Lense. Join us on Wednesday at 12:00 noon. https://zoom.us/j/723567165

Marriet is a FlYght Coach, and is also a self-published author of the book and board game named “Ready, Steady, Fly!”. Marriet is a public speaker on the topic “Start to Finish” and the author of the “Plan to Action” and “FlYght Coach” Programmes.

Initially, Marriet struggled to find her own special place in life, with this she created intelligent tailored solutions and hopes to touch and encourage others to discover their own potential and to act on it. Her goal in life is to help people find their unique place and to implement their purpose in life. She believes everyone is unique and is capable of playing a role in society and the teams we operate in by bringing about their unique contribution in life.

Marriet is a multi-talented person who enjoys piecing life’s lessons together in a fun-filled manner. She shares her life experiences and feels it could change the way we think. She loves to encourage people based on her lessons learnt through her experiences of being torn apart.

In addition, Marriet is also an artist who enjoys arts, crafts, writing blogs and making music. She has published her own songs and paint on consignment. She also has a great passion for learning new things everyday.