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Dear visitor and international investor,
We
warmly welcome you, if this is
your first visit to Africabiz
Online - The ultimate newsletter
on trading and investing in 49
sub-Saharan African countries.
If you are a regular and faithful
reader, welcome back.
- NEW ECONOMY OR OLD ECONOMY
YOU DO NEED A
BUSINESS PLAN
It is all over the net. Ezines are full packed of "horrible"
histories about collapsing e-business' stocks prices.
More dreadful, thousand of dot.com are simply dot.dead!
And the phenomenon is not plaguing only "small
players".
Even big names (eBay, Cisco, Amazon and the like) are
also taking a severe beating on the NASDAQ. Several
IT companies are laying down staff to survive. Gone
are the euphoric days of past century. Banks and incubators
are now suspicious and do not run anymore after startups.
So what is amiss? Why the heaven is falling down
on the "New Economy"?
Well, well. There is only one reason. Most of the falling "net
stars" had just rush headlong into business
without taking the normal and imperious precaution
of drafting an accurate, realistic and "humble" business
Plan! They just rushed on building castles in the air.
Whom to blame? Banks and incubators were making basket
of money avaiable for anything dot.com seen as the
next Microsoft!
Yes, there is no such thing as New Economy or Old
Economy! There is only "The Economy" and
new ways (IT) and means (the Internet, Intranet and
B2B) to perform, manage the Economy. Forgetting that
is simply meeting trouble halfway.
Being a computer geek or nerty may help you build up
sophisticated IT tools and be the first on the marketplace
to introduce a new business concept or model. You do
need, however, a seasoned management team, well acquainted
with "classic" managing tools to be able
to beat the competition (which will emerge one way
or another); to prosper through a sustained growth,
year upon year.
To start a business with the slightest chance to succeed
in your field, to make profit and survive, you have
to draft a comprehensive Business Plan and follow it
up to the point.
A good Business Plan should be drafted according to
the following
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1-
Realistic economic assumptions (your business
market segmentation and market analysis, marketing
strategy and competition's pricing analysis. Etc.)
2-
Provisional Balance Sheet over 3 years minimum.
3-
Cash Flow Table over same period - with a strict
and precise input of operational costs.
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With
a good Business Plan in hands, you have a control panel
to conduct safely your business among the perilous lanes
of harsh competition to the safe land of profits.
You can compare, month after month, the trend of
your operation costs, negotiate better purchasing prices
for services and raw materials; adjust your staff and
hands salary grid; purchase new equipment to produce
at less cost, make sales forecasts and setting proper
accounting system.
With a good Business Plan in hands,
you have more chances to survive in the cutthroat competition
atmosphere prevailing in today business world where
only those prepared and equipped to tackle the tinniest
detail linked to their production costs are sure to
survive and thrive in prosperity
That's
the reason why, BusinessAfrica / Dr. Quenum & Associates
always requires from client a Business Plan before initiating
/ processing a loan request as here
explained. It is a wise decision to
have a business
plan from the start.
A good and realistic Business
Plan is not, however, the only prerequisite to the path
to a sustained growth and prosperity.
Any one concerned with the success of his business
should make sure that the business is not "inflated"
during the establishment period of minimum three years.
One should not swallow more than one can chew. Not to
be greedy and rush for Get Big Fast - GBF - scheme.
Or practice Eat Another Burger policy! These mistakes
have been happily made by current ailing IT companies
and most of the dot.dead.
A good strategy is to move one step after another, to
build brick by brick without being, at the same time,
shy and too conservative. You have to cook the perfect
alchemy for your business. To digest and assimilate
before eating again.
These simple economic basics have been ignored or forgotten
by even the big players above mentioned. Thus the trouble
they are now experiencing.
All
that said, there are, nevertheless, some important
differences between managing a company the Old Way
(before the Internet) and the New Way (with the Internet).
I found out, comparing my management experience respectively
with my previous consulting company (Old Way) and
my current concern businessafricanet.is, Ltdnsulting / Dr.
Quenum
& Associates (New Way) that there are differences
indeed between the management applied to a Brick and
Mortar standalone company and the one exercised upon
a Brick and Mortar Plus Internet Presence.
- DIFFERENCE OF MANAGEMENT BETWEEN
THE NEW AND THE OLD ECONOMY
After five years of global online presence
and three years for BusinessAfrica / Africabiz Online
I look back to the old days when I started my first
consulting company. That was a century ago - Information
Technology's dating period - in 1978, Abidjan,
Côte
d'Ivoire. The consulting firm name was INTERTECH
- International Agroindustrial and Technology Development.
My Ghanaian partner, a food technologist - Hello
Dr. George S. Ayernor please do contact
me - and myself drafted the content of a promotion
brochure. We printed 500 copies (six pages, cover to
cover, A4 format, quadri-chromatic) and dispatched
them, with a covering letter, by snail mail, to prospective
clients - mostly to West African Chambers of Commerce,
to few selected private businessmen; and to a couple
of European banks.
After nearly 4 months we received only 20 positives
replies including a very encouraging one from UBS -
Union Des Banques Suisses. That is to say 4% of replies
against our 500 dispatches!
In the contrary, now, with Africabiz Online and
businessafricanet.is, Ltdnsulting, my Inbox is daily full with
hundred of emails from all over Africa and the world
at large.
Yes, that makes a difference for sure and requires
a different approach to managing even if the fundamentals
- good business planning and strict evaluation of incured
costs - remain exactly the same and are the prerequisites
for a sustained growth and profitable operation. .
In table below are highlighted the main differences
I noticed between InterTech - a Brick and Mortar
company (Old way); and businessafricanet.is, Ltdnsulting acting
in the the so-called New Economy (New way):
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NEW
WAY
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OLD
WAY
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Company image is visible worldwide 24 hours
a day; 7 days per week. |
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Company image is static and not visible worldwide. |
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The Managing Director / Chief Executive is
involved in the micro management of company
image. |
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The Managing Director / Chief Executive monitors
the company image. |
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The Managing Director / Chief Executive is
always available to the staff (email, Intranet). |
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The Managing Director / Chief Executive is
not available to the staff. Hierarchy is
preponderant. |
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98% of company business development strategy
is "opened" to
staff. |
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Staff is not acquainted/ informed about
the company development strategy. |
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Strategic brainstorming are scheduled
at least once per week. |
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Strategic brainstorming are scheduled
once or twice per year. |
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Decisions are made in matter of hours or
days in feverish atmosphere. |
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Decisions are made in matter of months. |
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No limit for working hours. Unexpected and
urgent heavy work load. |
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Working hours are clearly delimited. |
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The focus is on selling customers an experience. |
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The focus is on selling customers products. |
Doubtless,
the
experience I gained managing InterTech helped
me in structuring businessafricanet.is, Ltdnsulting / Dr.
Quenum & Associates
and Africabiz Online.
The most important difference in management, however,
is the decision making criteria / speediness. Indeed,
to survive in the cutthroat competition environment
prevailing in the New Economy, the management is obliged
to react fast and quick.
Click
here
to review Contributor's
Guidelines. Your contribution is welcome.
Many
thanks for dropping by and see you here next month.
Dr. B.M.
Quenum
Editor
of Africabiz Online
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-
A MULTI PURPOSE PLANT AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR
AN AFRICAN COMMUNITY:
KENAF
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On
the promotion board of ISSUE N° 20 - Click
here for more - a "niche"
operation: Freezed Dried Papain Production was
exposed,
which could be used as "economic catalyst"
and launching
pad for the economic development of an African
rural areas. Issues N° 21
and 22
further developed additional opportunities linked
to the Papain's production.
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- This
month we are bringing to your attention a new business
opportunity with a fantastic potential for the development
of rural areas and regional territories: The
plantation of Kenaf.
- WHAT IS KENAF?
Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is an ancient crop,
known and domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa, from Mali
to The Horn of Africa, since centuries. Kenaf has been
grown as a commercial crop in India for about 100 years
and in other areas of Asia and in Africa, the Near East,
and Latin America for a shorter time. It is a plant
native to east-central Africa.
Kenaf has an extremely fast growth rate. After five
weeks, the plant is already four to five feet tall (1.22
to 1.50 meter). After six months, the plant is fully
grown and has attained a height of 12 to 14 feet (3.7
to 4.6 meter) into a forest of narrow poles and leaf-colored
branches as shown below on illustrations; courtesy
of Ankal Inc. which website
is here available.
Kenaf
plantation - 3 Months
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Kenaf
plantation - 6 Months
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- WHY PLANT KENAF?
Growing
kenaf gives you the opportunity to produce a fiber
similar to that made from wood, but you do that in only
150 days. You may compare that with the time it takes
to plant and grow a tree to maturity.
- A MULTI PURPOSE PLANT
Agribusiness development of Kenaf includes the following:
- Livestock feed
- Substitution for wood as raw material / pulp
for paper industry
- Substitution for wood in building materials
- Fiber for cloth, pets litter, oil absorbent,
carpet, tar-saturated roofing
- Fertilizer and many more.
One sees that Kenaf is indeed
a multipurpose plant which can be used as an "economic
catalyst"
/ central operation for the economic development
of a country's region as here
exposed. It is a perfect "Income Building Power"
operation; labor intensive and foreign currency provider
or saver. Capable of generating the "Synergetic
Impact Factor" here
available
- Interested parties - private African and international investors /
companies, government
agencies,
international development
agencies - to make contact through the Free Access Support Console available at this link
Contact through the support console will get quickest reply from Africabiz Online's staff, than contact by emails. Click here for contact information. Be advised that first contact should be through the support console to be followed by phone calls. If you are a VIP-Member, use VIP-Members Support Console available here.
Before you consult please click
here to review this clarification |
