This is an excerpt from the Chapter, ‘Winning in the Workplace’ (unedited) from my-soon-to-be launched book, ‘Achievement Values for Young Adults – Creating self-motivated carriers of change in a competitive world.’ ……Self assessment also demands that you ask yourself where you come from. This refers to circumstances that may have influenced the way you think. Young people who come from poorer families have priorities and interests that are a little different from those who are from wealthier families. The circumstances of poverty in my upbringing have largely contributed to the way I think (especially in my desire to help many….
Archive for May, 2011
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Can Africans Innovate? Part 3
17th May, 2011 
Chanda Chisala (Host) Organizations should be born in innovation and should be run in innovation if they are to be continuously effective and create a lasting impact on society. The founder must start with an innovative, distinctive idea, and the team must also be innovative in all their operations, no matter what they are doing. As we have seen, the status quo in Africa is just to follow others blindly. There is little shame in just copying the next person without the least bit of effort in thought or self-differentiation. Most people do not realize that this really is a confession that they….
Can Africans Innovate? Part 2
13th May, 2011 Chanda Chisala (Host) The Wikipedia entry on entrepreneurship says: Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as “one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods.” Although innovation is an essential part of true entrepreneurship, it is not just founders of businesses who should be innovative. Every leader and executive within an organization (whether for business or not) must be innovative if they want the organization to be very effective. If they are satisfied with just being average, then of course they should just do what the average is doing: they should….
Why are we still behind?
9th May, 2011 Chisanga Puta-Chekwe Q: What do you think is culturally the MAIN reason that Africa has been so slow to catch up with the rest of the world economically? A: I am afraid I find the premise of the question a little naïve. In the first place Africa is not a single country and certainly does not have a single culture. Africa is indeed a construct of the West. The reality is that the continent has 54 countries and at least 800 cultures. These countries are in different economic and historic circumstances. For example, Ethiopia adopted Christianity as a state religion in the….
Why is Africa behind the rest of the world economically?
3rd May, 2011 Chibama Kanyama The interesting thing about all this is that Sub-Saharan Africa is slowly moving away from discussing ideologies and economic theories to practical issues of creating wealth at personal level. For many years, we have been asking questions about why the African continent is not as successful as countries in the North. Up to this day, answers are still mottled. Some analysts believe African poverty is in its history. Slavery that occurred up to the 19th Century stripped Africa of its resources. Another argument points to colonialism as responsible for growing levels of poverty across the continent. Colonialism is believed to….
Can Africans Innovate? Part 1
1st May, 2011 Chanda Chisala (Host) With the current renewed focus on economic growth, it is now common to hear African leaders talk about entrepreneurship. When someone starts selling bananas at a market stand surrounded by other banana sellers, he is hailed as an entrepreneur. But in fact, he is just a businessman. To be an entrepreneur, he has to start something new, or do an old thing in a new way. The element of newness has to be there, something that immediately distinguishes him from other people in the same business, something that makes him stand out and be preferred by some buyers (or all….
