Adam Rabinowitz's Blog

 

I bumped into a number of people during the last two weeks, and all of them mentioned that I’ve been noticeable by the absence of my newsletter, so here, one last time before the end of 2017, is the last Life, Business and Coffee for 2017, and it contains some great money saving offers at the end, just for you.

I hope this finds you well.

“The superior leader gets things done with very little motion. He imparts instruction not through many words but through a few deeds. He keeps informed about everything but interferes hardly at all. 

He is a catalyst, and though things would not get done well if he weren’t’t there, when they succeed he takes no credit. And because he takes no credit, credit never leaves him.“ — Lao Tse, Tao Te Ching

I love this quote about leadership. It’s one of my favourites. The face of leadership is changing to one of kindness and respect, and is fast moving away from dictatorship and hard-nosed results-driven trench-style do-what-I say-or-else.  People automatically resist being told what to do, and rather respond to people who connect with their emotions and inner passions. Leadership is no longer about thinking “how can I get people to do I want them to do” but rather “how can I connect with my people”. In establishing a genuine connection based on respect and trust, the leader creates a platform from which to drive willing performance of their team by drawing on the best abilities hidden in each one of them.

Earlier this year I lectured a course in Entrepreneurship for a group of keen, young startups, and I presented a number of different quotes on what it means to be a leader.  We debated the merits of leadership in the small organization. In my experience, strong, visionary leadership is needed in every SME, right from day 1, but too few entrepreneurs recognize that they need to develop this skill. Instead they focus on the idea, developing the concept, convincing investors to sink money into it, and ultimately, when the transition from the high-energy entrepreneur to the leader of the new organization is required, the unskilled entrepreneur crashes and burns. Sadly, leadership is a skill which should be developed from an early age, and all the way through one’s career.

Ok, so I’m rambling on now, and I know everyone prefers when I talk from the hip, which for most of you, would hit you straight in the knee-cap.  There’s a little humour, if you were paying attention.

This year I had to start learning to be more of a leader and less technical, hence the little intro on leadership. I’ve had to stop trying to create and do and fix as I usually do without thinking, and rather focus on designing a future for Imagin8, and letting my team do the exciting and challenging work.  In doing so, I think I’ve achieved more this year than in the last 10.  Take a look at Imagin8’s website and you’ll see just how much my organsiation has changed in one year alone, and this is just setting the foundation for the explosion in growth that we’re expecting in 2018.

So just what did I do this year that was so monumental?  When I began to draw effectively on the creative abilities of my team, I was able to hand over almost all of the operational and technical activities, and release the most valuable skill I add to Imagin8 – creativity and visionary leadership. In one year we introduced 8 new products, including the eValue8 Mobile App. I reinvented Imagin8’s core business, changed its risk profile, and expanded its market potential. Imagin8 forged relationships with some powerhouse channel partners and suppliers. It’s a completely different entity to what it was at the start of the year.  I also spent some time as the morning show co-host for a local radio station, Chai FM, and moved to the afternoon show for a few weeks. I’ve designed a new platform for SME’s to plan and execute strategy, which we’ll be launching in 2018, as well as a completely new way to publish and read non-fiction, also launching next year.  I’ll be releasing my new book, “How to Create, Manage, Fix and Grow Your Business” on this electronic platform and in paperback in early 2018.

So take a little time and re-examine your own leadership capabilities. If you’re not using them effectively, you’re limiting what you can achieve, both for yourself and for your organization.

Imagin8 is Building Businesses

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Earlier this year, Imagin8 became a key Strategic Alliance Partner to Australian founded Business Builders Group (BBG), a business network aimed at growing SME’s.  Unlike any networking group I’ve ever encountered, BBG’s structured approach to hosting networking events yields results because it invites people who are passionate about helping others and contributing to the growth of other non-competing businesses. Each BBG session, held once a month, follows a proven methodology to help those present to grow by learning and collaborating.

On the 22nd November this year, BBG held its first Jo’burg Forum at GIBS where people experienced first-hand the power a well structured networking event and how this results in personal growth and improved business performance. There are already member businesses capitalizing on new opportunities that arose out of this session.

So if your business has a positive cash flow, and you have a desire and a passion to grow SME’s in SA, please reach out and get in touch with me.  There’s a BBG chapter opening in your area soon, and you’re invited to be a part of this highly effective business networking group.

The next event in Jo’burg is Wednesday 24th January 2018. Inbox me if you want to be part of the next forum.

New and Just for You

If you own an iPhone, download the new eValue8 mobile app, and take it for a test drive.  We’ve launched version 1, the Beta version, which allows you to take control of the things you own. Use the eValue8 Mobile App to:

Keep an inventory of all your assets, together with proof of purchase, warranty information, and images for proof of ownership
Manage your motor vehicles – eValue8 will update the value of your vehicles monthly
Manage your assets – eValue8 will update the values of not only your motor vehicles, but just about everything else you own
Renew your car license via the eValue8 app and have it delivered to your door
Send your list of assets, including serial numbers and latest values, to your insurance broker. You can even load new assets at the point of purchase, and send them to your broker.

Give it a go. There are 4 pricing packages to suit including a free option, so you can try the eValue8 app at zero cost and no risk.

Recovering[image error]

I don’t mean the hang-over type, but I do mean a redesign of all my Fiction titles’ covers. I’ve been working with the most amazing artist and will be re-launching all my works under the pseudonym of Adam Alexander in the new year.  I hate to keep you in suspense, but you’ll only get an eyeful of these awesome artworks in January 2018.  Over December, I’m hoping to finish the third in the Porter’s Rule series.

If you haven’t read any of my novels there’s still time, and some stock with the original covers going for a song.

R400 gets you Porter’s Rule books 1 and 2 – that’s  a saving of R50. Order here.
R200 buys you the laugh a minute Garage Band, which was a runner up in the Best Indie Book of the Year competition 2016 (You save R30). Order here.
And R150 gets you Lost Soul – Immortality, the urban fantasy novel for young adults and fantasy lovers.  (You save R49). Order here.

And here’s the closing Big Deal of 2017– R600 buys you all 4 books, signed by the author, and delivered free in SA. That’s a saving big enough to buy a bottle of water in Cape Town (Over R200 of saving right there).   So save money, and order now.

These offers expire 22nd December 2017.

Happy 2018.  I wish you everything of the best over the festive season.

Regards

Adam

 

A lot of people have asked me what happened to my newsletter, as there hasn’t been one for a while. Truth is I’ve been writing a lot, but just not the newsletter. So this edition is a bit of a catch up. I hope you enjoy the brief update.

Imagin8 has gone through some significant changes and I’ve been rewriting our management systems over the last 8 months. You know my mantra in business is all about efficiency, growth and delivering customer value. The last 8 months was no exception. Next, our focus will be driving growth through delivering exceptional customer value.

Customer value is a fascinating topic, and I could go for hours talking about this. We often forget why we’re in business. A new product or service was once of great value to your customer, but over time, what was value now becomes routine. What was once revolutionary now becomes ordinary. And very soon, the ordinary becomes redundant. Every organization must constantly re-examine its value proposition to its customers. Taking this down to a level you and I can relate: Every individual in an organization must constantly re-evaluate the value they add to the organization. Your role may once have been of great value to an organization. Are you constantly looking at the value you’re adding to your organization to ensure you remain relevant? Sobering thought sometimes.

Imagin8 has finished work on two exciting new apps that we’ll be releasing soon. Till recently, Imagin8 has focused on specific business markets, but this month sees the release of our first Consumer app which is designed to help make your life easier. A lot easier.  It’s almost ready for release so stay tuned for news on this one – it will relieve you of a lot of headaches. Email me if you can’t wait.

Apart from completely rewriting 15 years of management systems in 8 months, I also did a short stint as the co-host on the Morning Mayhem show on Chai FM, weekdays from 6 to 9am. (People often ask me where I find the time). Although it was a lot of fun, I had to take a step back and focus on growing Imagin8. However, while on the show I stumbled upon something the audience loved, and I still record a short satirical clip for the show each day. You can listen to the short podcasts of On This Day In History (I call it On This Day in Hysterics) here, or you can listen to this clip if you want an editor’s choice.

I also recorded some short video clips for Entrepreneurs and startups with my good friend Nico Steyn at Intelilabs, one of which you can find here.

My fourth novel is in the final rounds of editing, and will be released in May/June. Porter’s Rule: Masters of the City is the sequel to Slave to the City, and follows the hard-headed now ex-detective Matt Porter in this new chapter. It’s 330 pages of non stop nail biting action. If you liked Jack Reacher by Lee Child, you’ll love this series. If you haven’t yet gotten hooked on Porter’s Rule, order your copy of Slave to the City (book 1 in the series) and pre-order Porter’s Rule: Masters of the City to get your copy hot off the press. Each title retails for R229, but you can save R50 now and order both books for R408. Email me to place your order.

I’ll be presenting and exhibiting at the Kingsmead book fair on May 13th, so if you’re in Jo’burg, and you #LovetoRead, come and say hello and pick up a signed copy of one of my books.

Let me leave you with this thought –

Patience pays off in the long run. Learn patience.

Till next time.

I was going to call this 44 good men, like the movie, A Few Good Men, but this is for the good men and women out there. 

I started mentoring a bright, young, ambitious entrepreneur at the end of last year, just as he finished writing matric. He came to me with an idea that I thought was viable, and I guided him through the first steps of getting this concept off the ground. 

He messaged me excitedly when the matric results came out – 4 distinctions, and a university entrance. A few days later he was accepted into 4 universities. 

Today he messaged me and I could just feel his disappointment. He can’t register for the B.Comm Accounting degree because his mom, a single mother, still has to settle his school fees, and they don’t have the money. 

How easy would it be for 44 people to pledge as little as R150 a month to put this deserving kid through university. I’m in. That leaves 43 places to fill to give a child a university education and a future. If you’re in, message me. If you’re not, please forward this to 10 people you think might be. 

This isn’t a scam. I’ll introduce you to the candidate, and send you his matric results. For the purposes of the mass email, I’m keeping his name confidential. I need 43 more good people by Tuesday 10th January. You’ll commit your support for one year, and if the kid gets great results you can choose to sponsor his second year. 

If you’re in Jo’burg and want to offer vac work in business, accounting, or anything entrepreneurial, please le me know too. 

Thanks in advance

Regards

Adam Rabinowitz

email: adam@imagin8.co.za / adam.rabinowitz@icloud.com

Cell: 0824624468

I’ve been absent from your desktop for a while, not because I haven’t wanted to be there, but I am what I write about – an active Entrepreneur – and in the past few months, Imagin8 has been incredibly busy. Too busy to allow me time to write, which means that it’s been way too busy. But that seems to have finally changed.

Earlier this year I consulted to a business owner whose life was pretty much what mine looked like over the past few months – too busy to do anything at all except work. I looked for ways he could carve out time in his business to focus on the business itself instead of trying to keep his head above water just doing what needed to be done.

Most small business owners fall into the trap of doing just that – spending all their time doing what must be done in order to keep the business going. Filling orders from customers, responding to customer queries, and if you’re not that lucky, dealing with mounting customer complaints. According to the eMyth, its usually a protracted repetition of this that causes business owners to burn out, drop the ball enough for customers to defect, and slowly watch their business crumble.

I’ve been practicing what I preach here, because in the past four months, I’ve had no shortage of operational issues to deal with, amidst some very severe internal changes. What I have managed to do successfully is to gradually carve out time to work on the business itself instead of merely responding reactively to customer’s needs. This has enabled me to build more robust systems that make the business operations easier to manage, and allow me to focus on growing the business instead of merely trying to keep my head above water trying to get the days’ work done each day.

If there’s too much to do in your business, there’s one place you need to look in order to carve out some time to allow you to become a more effective leader – the operational systems that run each business activity. If these aren’t well developed, optimized, and refined, you’ll be spending a lot of time in the reactive corner of your effectiveness grid. As you’re dealing with each issue for each customer, spend a little extra time refining the system that is meant to handle that service for the customer, and make it a little more efficient, more robust, and more reliable. With effective systems in place, you’ll find yourself spending less time dealing with operational issues and do-overs, and more time improving the business and acquiring more customers.

On another note, one of my novels, Garage Band, was awarded Runner Up in the Shelf-Unbound Best Independently Published Book of 2016. putting it in the top 200 out of over 1000 entries of the competition.  Garage Band was also awarded a 5-star rating by Reader’s Favorite.

This December, I’ll be editing my fourth novel (Book 2 in the Porter’s Rule series), and making some headway on my fifth (Book 3 in the Porter’s Rule series). So whether you’re a fan of comedy, suspense, action thrillers, or fantasy, there’s a book for you with my name on it, all of which are available at Exclusive Books, and online at Amazon.com.  I’ve also been asked to finish my book for entrepreneurs – How to Create, Manage, Fix and Grow your Small Business. I’m hoping to release this in early 2017 too.

Have a great festive season, and take care if you’re traveling.

See you in the New Year.

Regards

Adam

 

Something I don’t often experience or write about is dealing with crisis, mainly because, for many years, things at Imagin8 have been so brilliantly organised that the very word ‘crisis‘ was about as foreign as a BLT at the local Shul. But in a fit of sheer genius and ambition that appears to have been in the heavyweight category, about three above my own weight (figurative, of course), I took 4 businesses online, launched 3 new ventures, and encountered a bit of a speed wobble along the way. They call it crisis. When the fan spatters your pristine white shirt with stuff that’s spelled very similar to shirt but is by no means pristine.

It’s unrealistic to believe that anyone is immune to crisis. Not even if you unplug your fan and change the colour of your white shirt. It’s how you deal with crisis that determines whether you’ll ever feel confident wearing white in public again.

There are two elements to dealing with crisis, apart from the incredibly obvious one called “breathe”. One is dealing with the panic caused by being in a crisis. The other is navigating your way out of the panic.

Neurologically, when crisis hits, so does its partner in crime, “panic” which has the effect of numbing your brain like breathing in a tank of novocaine. It’s really important to remember to breathe.

Breath in a crisis creates space to think. It allows you to create a pocket of air around you which enables you to operate without the panic. And it allows you to clear the path so you don’t get blindsided by the same thing again later. It’s also a handy acronym that I’ve coined to help you remember what to do in a crisis.

B               Breathe – take a deep breath. Nobody reacts well in a crisis while they’re still in panic mode.

R               Regroup. The crisis knocked you for a six. You’re not alone. Regroup, get your mind prepared. Step out of panic mode and get your mind ready to approach the crisis rationally.

E                Easy does it. Don’t rush the solution to this crisis. Things may be falling apart around you. This is the new reality. You have to accept that there is a new priority, that things have been re-ordered. Ease into the navigator’s seat. Don’t rush this. Do it carefully.

A               Approach the most critical issue first. There’s going to be fires all around you. Pick the most urgent or severe one and address that first. You can only do one thing at a time.

T                Test the solution before throwing it back to your customer. Once you’ve fixed one thing, take a few extra moments to check that you have really fixed it, that the solution is correct, and that by fixing one thing you haven’t inadvertently broken something else. Test that the solution works properly before moving on to the next fire. Sending a half corrected solution back into play will only add more problems to your list when it breaks later on.

H               How did this happen? When the crisis has blown over and you’ve fixed the broken pieces one task at a time, spend some quality time analysing what caused the crisis to become a storm that knocked you down. If you can identify the cause, ask How can this be prevented from happening again? Then, when the storm has passed and the crisis is over, get to work on building a more robust system, one that is geared to identify potential causes of this crisis and to trap them early so that things don’t escalate again. If the cause can’t be reduced to a system, identify what started the crisis and work on a personal development plan to prepare yourself for this type of situation so you don’t get blindsided by it again.

E                Early Warning System. Set to work on building an early warning system that alerts you to the onset of potential danger long before it reaches crisis point.  Most crises can be avoided if detected before things reach boiling point. Delve deep into the problem, identify what signals you need to receive beforehand that will give you time to prevent a similar situation from becoming a crisis i the future. Don’t let up – most people breathe deep after the crisis, and then move on to other important things. If the crisis caught you unprepared once, it can happen again unless you do something to prevent it.  Emerge from the crisis, learn from it, and make sure this doesn’t catch you again. Alcohol usually helps. And you probably deserve it too.

So there it is – it helps to breathe in a crisis.

Save the date for the official launch

Garage Band, the new comedy novel by Adam Rabinowitz.

Nothing to do with Music. Everything to do with getting even.   Garage Band received some impressive reviews on Amazon.com.

Garage Band officially launches on July 14th 6:00pm

at GIBS Restaurant,

Melville Road, Sandton

Invite press. Invite readers. Invite critics.

RSVP: me@adamrabinowitz.co.za.  Pre-orders on www.adamrabinowitz.co.za

And now for the dogs.

I recently responded to an arbitrary post in a book club group I follow on Facebook that seemed to have people rolling on the floor laughing. (their words). So, to brighten your day, here’s my answer to “what pets do you have”:

Gretchen Miller I only have 1 dog, 4 cats, 3 donkeys, 2 miniature stallions, 1 horse and (temporarily) 1 tiny snake

Like · Reply · 4 · 12 May at 22:35

Adam Rabinowitz I was going to say that I have a small farm, but then I read Gretchen’s comment and she really does have a small farm. Except for the snake. And only a girl would say that she has a tiny one of those. A guy’s tiny snake would be an anaconda in training. We have 4 dogs, 4 cats and 4 kids. There’s a Ragdoll, who is the president of all the animals. Does nothing at all but gets paid the most. There’s one brain damaged cat who I swear is high most of the time, probably because of where we got her from, and not because of what goes on at home. The strongest smell in the house is coffee, so heaven knows what that cat is on. Of the dogs, one is a Pekingese with bad joints so he walks around like a badly made in China wooden toy that creaks most of the time. He’s a year old and still doesn’t know how to sit. The most recent addition to the animals is Blu the Boston terrier, who tears around the house like a three legged chicken in Ethiopia. He’s not even 2 months old and already knows how to sit. He tries desperately to play with the wooden jointed Peek who just manages to get pulled around by his ears while growling and ignoring commands to sit, which I eventually figured he’ll never understand, because he is originally from China, and doesn’t understand English. I looked up the word ‘sit’ in Chinese and tried it on him. The terrier sat. The president came wandering in asking where his dinner was.

 

This story I’m sure everybody will have experienced in their own way. It started off with a bill from City of Jo’burg. 

Ordinarily, a bill from the City of Jo’burg would have been as uneventful as pouring a cup of tea, but this week, my bill featured a balance from last month that wasn’t there before. I checked and double checked, and just as I thought, there definitely wasn’t any leftovers from last month’s use of the City’s services. If anything, there should have been a credit for the non-service of Piki-tup, and some money back for the idiot who drove into my bin as it stood, alone and unattended outside our gate for weeks. 

So I steadied myself for the call. Surprisingly, I only waited three minutes to get through to a human person, but he soon hung up because my new cordless phone somehow managed to get itself on mute and none of the children were home to help me figure out how to unset it so the guy could hear me. On the second call, which I made using my cell phone because iPhones are just easier, albeit 5 times the cost, I got through to a guy to whom I explained my problem. He asked me a whole lot of questions to verify that I wasn’t a criminal who had been overcharged (for what exactly, I wondered? The hourly rate of having the cops chase you?), and then he spent a long time trying to open my latest statement, but said he couldn’t. 

I offered to send him my one but he said that one had been deleted and replaced with a new one. A very long one. One which he couldn’t open. I asked him if the City of Joburg owned a printer, but he said he wasn’t allowed to print anything. Useful, I thought, wondering why they’d even bothered to print the call centre number on top of the statement they sent me which even I could open, but which apparently had been deleted and replaced with a new, more top secret one which the guy on the phone couldn’t open. He even tried on another computer, which took about fifteen minutes not to happen while he played me the same 30 second music loop that has since become an ear worm and the reason I lie awake at night trying to think of anything else unsuccessfully so I can fall asleep. 

I asked to speak to his supervisor hoping he would have a computer that would be able to open the top secret document. “He” turned out to be “she”, and she turned out to be as ineffective as the first guy, but a lot more officious. 

Me: “So what you’re saying,” I said to her, “is that I must just pay the extra even though I settled everything on the last statement, or you’ll cut off my services?”

Officious one: “Yes.”

Me: “But you won’t tell me where you got this surprise extra bit from?”

Officious one: “No. You’ll have to go to a walk in centre to get them to give you a print out.”

Me: “You’ve just magically drummed up an extra charge, and now you’re expecting me to write off an entire morning to drive to a walk in centre to get a printout of how you got this extra charge? You’ve never heard of email?”

Officious one now turning defensive: “We can’t help you here, you’ll have to go to a walk in centre.” 

Apparently the officious and defensive one was also deaf. 

Me: “Have you ever eaten in a restaurant?”

Deaf, defensive and officious one: “I can’t say.”

Me: “You’ve never eaten in a restaurant??”

Deaf, defensive and officious one, who now also appears to be ignorant and deprived: “I’m not at liberty to say.”

It appears that there’s a lot more that’s top secret than just my bill. 

Me: “Just imagine that you were one day to go to a restaurant and after eating your meal they brought you the bill, which you settle. But just as you get up to leave, the waiter takes your keys and says, ‘sorry, you can’t leave, you owe us for something else, but I can’t say what that is. To find out, you’ll have to take a walk fifteen blocks to the owner’s house and he can tell you'”

Deaf, defensive, officious, deprived and ignorant one: “As I say you’ll have to go to a walk in centre …”

I hit the red button, which was the only color I was beginning to see, and I now understand why they make that particular button red. 

I went to calm myself down by pouring myself an uneventful cup of tea.

There’s a lot to be learned from this.

Don’t give your customers a number to phone when they have a problem if you’re going to tie the hands of the people you leave to answer the call. If you offer a call centre to your customers, staff it with the most highly security-cleared people who have the keys to everyone in the organization and have the power to do everything for the customer 
Don’t change anything on your customers bill without closing the communication loop. Most customer dissatisfaction can be avoided not only by sending out a communication when things change, but by getting your customer to respond.
The City of Joburg doesn’t have email, and  they employ deaf, defensive, officious, deprived and ignorant people who can’t even say if they’ve been to a restaurant or not. 

Every family has its traditions, and ours has one or two that we’ve slipped into, the most notable being Takeout Tuesdays. It started a few years ago when my wife and I discovered our favorite Indian restaurant, and we both love a good curry. So began the tradition of Takeout Tuesdays.

Our kids only joined the tradition about a year ago, partly because they don’t all share our love for spicy food, and partly because we never know who is home from one day to the next. But things have settled, and we now regularly have one of the girls with us on Takeout Tuesday’s, and her favorite is sushi.

For the last three years, every Tuesday, at about the same time in the evening, I call up the Indian restaurant and place the order. It’s the same order that I’ve placed every Tuesday at the same time for the last three years. They still don’t recognize my voice.

The Chinese restaurant uses Appetite- a nifty app, especially when you’re ordering from people whose home language isn’t English. It’s also nifty because I can call up the last order, repeat it, pick a credit card and in a minute the order is placed and paid for. Plus I’ve donated R1 to a charity without realizing because I didn’t uncheck the box.

Then we do the drive-by dash. The Chinese place is first, so I double park on Grant Avenue, which has red lines down both sides, but somehow I can still never find a place to stop because of all the cars parked along the road on the red line, especially on a Tuesday, which seems to be Maid’s night off, and the entire neighborhood is out to dinner. My daughter hops out, and collects the merchandise, by which time I’ve now circled the block, paused for just the right amount of time at the stop sign along the way and emerged back in the main road just in time for her to hop in and we’re on our way to the Indian place where we repeat the process once more.

One week, my daughter wasn’t with us. When we resumed Takeout Tuesdays the following week, the guy at the Chinese restaurant asked me where my daughter was the week before and if she was ok. When it’s my turn to do the drop-in dash and collect from the counter while my daughter waits in the car, the guy knows me and my daughter so well that he hands the order to me over the counter before I’ve even reached the front desk. They now know us so well that as we stop on the main road, they meet us in the street and hand our order to us through the car window.

Not so much with the Indian place even though they’ve had us as customers for a full two years longer than the Chinese place. Every time I call, they treat me like a complete stranger. When I walk in to collect, they still ask me what my order is.  If I don’t order from them one week, they don’t ask what happened to me or if something was wrong. I wonder if they’ve even missed me. The only reason we go back again and again is because they make a good curry. If there was an alternative, I’d defect with no regard for loyalty.

So what do we learn from a simple hand-roll? It doesn’t take much to make your customer feel special and welcome. A simple nod of recognition, remembering what you did for a customer the last time, and addingsomething  unexpected and surprising that doesn’t take much effort but that your customer will remember forever. It doesn’t matter that your hand-roll doesn’t stand out from the competitor across the street. Your customer remembers you for your service. On the other hand, leaving these little things out makes your customer open to compare your service to other, more attentive competitors, irrespective of the fact that your product is superior.

Customers want more than the product they signed up for, but they won’t tell you what they want. The little things that make the difference aren’t material things, they’re the little things you do that demonstrate the way you’ve thought about each individual customer’s needs.

A well delivered hand-roll can be the hottest, most in-demand item, even more so than the most fiery vindaloo.

In other news, you now have a choice of three (yes, three. I’m proud to announce) novels by Adam Rabinowitz to entertain you. Check out Porter’s Rule: Slave to the City, Lost Soul – Immortality and Garage Band on Amazon.com and Exclusive Books (SA only).

Don’t forget to share this newsletter, and if you’ve received this from a friend, email me@adamrabinowitz.co.za to subscribe free.

I’ve been absent from your inbox for the last two weeks because I’ve been busy preparing for the London Book fair, and while I was engaged in these preparations, I was persuaded to bring the launch of my third novel  forward. So I’ve been busy editing and proofing that one too.  Apart from that, I’ve been working on a non-fiction about something I’m very passionate about – starting and managing your small business.

My book launch has been postponed to 12th May, and will be a combined launch of not one but two of my books:

Porte’s Rule: Slave to the City (which you heard about in the previous newsletter), and
Garage Band – Nothing to do with Music, Everything to do with Getting Even. Garage Band is a comedy / suspense novel releasing on Amazon on 1st  There’s still place on my launch team for Garage Band for a few more pre-release reviewers, so if you love to read, reply to this email with the words “Count me in!” You’ll receive a free copy of Garage Band (ebook format), and you’ll need to commit to read the book by 1st April, and post a review on both Amazon and Goodreads on the day the book launches.  Garage Band is already receiving great reviews – see my facebook page for the latest reviews of Garage Band and Porter’s rule.

So, about my Theory of Nothing

In writing the latest chapter in my non-fiction How-To book for Entrepreneurs, small business owners and managers, I tackled the issue of motivating staff, and I was reminded of my Theory of Nothing.

My Theory of Nothing

I’ve conducted this exercise in my classrooms many times, and the result is usually the same between groups.

Work out the number of hours you spend working each week. That includes work in the office, and work you take home.
Work out your hourly salary. To do this, take your monthly salary after tax, and divide by the average number of hours you spend working a week and then divide this by 4.3.  Don’t blame me for the answer you get, I never made you take that job!
Rank the enjoyment you get from your job on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = none at all, 10 = you can’t keep me away)
Work out the number of hours you spend on your favourite leisure activity a week.
Work out how much money you spend on this leisure activity, and divide that by the number of hours you devote to this hobby or activity a week to give you the hourly cost of this activity.
Rank the enjoyment you get from this leisure activity on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 = none at all, 10 = you can’t keep me away). If you have a leisure activity that ranks 1 in this section, there’s seriously something wrong with your choices of hobby!

The result is quite sobering.  For most of the people in my classes, enjoyment from work ranks lower than enjoyment from leisure. In other words people would rather be doing their leisure activity than be at work.

However, most people earn more money from their jobs, and spend more hours a week working on their jobs than they earn from their hobbies. In fact, people pay to do their hobbies, but spend less time doing these more enjoyable activities than working.

Most people spend most of their time doing an activity for which they get paid but don’t enjoy as much their leisure activities which they would be prepared to pay to do but don’t get to do as much as their work.

Yet, we try to create excitement at work by offering incentives, bonuses and monetary rewards.

My Theory of Nothing suggests that people will do an activity they really enjoy for nothing. In fact, they’ll even pay you to be able to do that activity.

To motivate people at work, tap into that passion they have for whatever it is they are prepared to do for nothing, and allow them to bring that energy into the workplace.  Semco managed to do this exceptionally well – take a look at the Semco case studies, and click through to Ricardo Semler’s short video on TED. His attitude to people and the way he turned conventional motivation thinking upside down is profound.

So next time you’re dealing with motivation (your own or a staff member), see what they’ll do for nothing outside the office, and find a way to bring that energy into the office. You’ll be surprised what people get up to in their spare time, and how creatively combining some of these with work affects people’s attitude to being there.

 

The 20 Rule: Turn 15 hours of chaos into 15 minutes of order.

The operational engine that runs Imagin8 serves close to a thousand customers, and requires no more than fifteen minutes of my attention a day. Let’s be realistic though – there are times when this almost doubles to half an hour. That leaves me free to deal with business expansion, customer queries, and business improvement, educating, and of course, writing. How did the 20 Rule help turn this business from 15 daily hours of chaos was in back in 1997 to 15 minutes of order? 

The 20 Rule implies that 80 percent of customers don’t 

I’ve rebranded this newsletter “Life, Business & Coffee”, having had some time to engage with readers, managers and entrepreneurs. I hope you like new branding.

I recently had an experience with two very high profile brands – Telkom and BMW. They couldn’t have been more extreme.

I had to apply for a new telephone line for my daughter who moved into a student accommodation near TUKS. So on Sunday afternoon I googled how to apply for a new line, went onto Telkom’s mobile site, and filled in the application, which was long, tedious, and not easy on a mobile device. The end result – a confirmation screen saying someone would be in touch with me. That all seemed to work.

The next day I was lucky enough to be included in a tour of the BMW plant in Rosslyn. It was mind blowing. The Rosslyn plant is one of 10 manufacturing operations for BMW, and has been awarded the highest accolade of all the plants across all countries (including Germany) for production quality. They produce one custom built, made-to-order zero defect car every four minutes, and they export to 8 countries including Canada, USA and Australia.

What impressed me most about BMW was that, although the brand is German, the South African plant has been able to surpass German engineering when it comes to zero defect manufacture. Each car on the production line is pre-sold, which means that every vehicle coming off that production line is made to order. That’s the embodiment of mass customization right there. The same production line produces left and right hand drive, with or without sun roof, every engine spec, every available factory fitted add-on, and every colour combination, both inside and out. When you do the permutations, there probably aren’t even two identical cars coming off that production line in a day. Every one is made to a specific customers specification.

When I arrived home that same day, I saw an email from Telkom:

“Dear Customer

Thank you for your online application. We have tried contacting you, however were unable to get hold of you.

If you would like us to contact you again, please visit http://www.telkom.co.za, to reapply.

Regards

Telkom”

I think there was one missed call on my cell, and no voice messages. Not even my name was personalized on their generic, standardized rejection letter. Clearly they send these out often. If only they adopted to the 20 Rule.

Telkom sells even less of a product variety than BMW, and they couldn’t care less whether they gain or lose a customer. Where BMW make it extremely simple for customers to get exactly what they want, Telkom makes it impossible just to do business. Where BMW is all about the customer, Telkom is all about Telkom. The contrast paints an interesting picture. Both have taken technology that originated outside SA, but one has surpassed its creator and put SA on the global map as a force to reckoned with, and the other has rested on its monopolistic laurels and left the door open a tiny crack just in case customers can squeeze through.

The lesson? To survive and excel in business, be more like the customer obsessed BMW and less like the Customer Comes Last Telkom.

Begrudgingly I’m going back online to redo an application I’ve already done once which the geniuses at Telkom have discarded. I thought Telkom had the word “business” in one of its tag lines.