Nolbert Muhumuza

The power of passing int on

muhumuza — Wed, 22 May 2019 10:49:18 +0000

By Dr. Myles Munroe.

The Greatest Act Of Leadership Is Mentoring.
If what you learn, achieve, accumulate or accomplish dies with you then you are a generational failure.
Mentoring is the manifestation of the highest level of personal maturity, security and self confidence.
An insecure person will never Train People, they will oppress people.
Mature people create people greater than themselves.
Your assignment has a shelf life.
You will die one day; so train your replacement.
Your Greatest Gift to the world is your mentee.
True leaders do not seek followers, followers are attracted to true leaders.
The Greatest obligation of true leadership is to transfer your deposit to the next generation.
Leadership success is measured by the success of your successor.
No matter how great you may have been, if you didn’t produce a successor, you are a failure.
You preserve what you built through mentorship.
Legacy is about preserving all that you’ve built by raising other people.
Success without a successor is failure.
Leadership that serves only it’s generation is destined to failure.
If your vision dies with you, you have failed.
Legacy is about living beyond your grave.
Leadership Is not a Sprint but a relay.
The most important part of a relay is passing it on-not running.
The ultimate measure of true leadership is not to maintain followers but to produce leaders.
True leadership measures it’s success by the diminishing dependency factor of its followers.
The ultimate measure of leadership is the ability to leave.
True leadership makes itself increasingly unnecessary.
You are a successful leader when your followers can lead others.
Your goal as a leader is to destroy the dependency of the people around you.
You are a great leader when your people don’t need you.
Make people greater than you and you will live forever.
True leaders do not seek power.
True leaders seek to empower.
True leaders make themselves increasingly unnecessary.
Never confuse your position with your value.
The ultimate goal of true leadership is not to maintain followers but to produce leaders.
The first act of a true leader is identifying your replacement and you begin mentoring them.
You become great by producing people greater than yourself.
When you produce someone greater than yourself, don’t get jealous. Take the credit.
When you train your replacement, you are freed to expand your work.
When you mentor people, your legacy will make your tombstone unnecessary.

How to produce 200 indigenous chicken every month

muhumuza — Fri, 03 May 2019 11:13:48 +0000

Can you do a successful indigenous chicken business anywhere in Africa? The answer is yes. Can you reap profits from it? Of course you can? Is it complicated? Not at all but you need enough capital to start it.

First things first. Most farmers fail in this sector because they fail to plan.If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail. Do you know where farmers fail most? They start their projects without the end in mind.

Today I will describe how you can rear 1200 indigenous chicken/village/ local chicken in a year successfully without a headache.With this method you can be churning out 200 birds every month for sale and laugh all the way to the bank.

The first thing is that you should have a plan. As you know broiler farmers plan for their batch of birds every 6 weeks, pig farmers every 5 months, beef farmers every 2 years,rabbit farmers every 4-5 months.
Indigenous chicken are ready for meat at about 6 months and are sold at between 20,000 Ugx and 35,000 Ugx.

With indigenous chicken you will need to have a 6 months plan if you are to have 200 mature chicken for sale every month.You need to have a foundation stock (parent stock) which will be giving you eggs every 21 days for incubation.If you remember very well in my previous article I had talked of how to raise 300 chicken every year using 10 hens and 2 cocks.This is where you will get your parent stock or you can buy from a very good source free from diseases.

Take note than the cockerel for the parent birds need replacement after one year while hens can be replaced after two years.You will have to be patient with this business since indigenous chicken are slow growers unlike hybrid chicken and improved indigenous chicken.Before getting your return on investments (R.O.I) you will have to sweat that is undeniable but after you start selling your chicken you will remember me(I will come for a meal of chicken thighs). Get out your pen and paper, fasten your seat-belts and travel with me to chicken kingdom.

You have your foundation stock (around 250 hens. 24 cocks included therein. A ratio of 1 cock to 8 hens is recommended). Indigenous chicken have higher demand than hybrid chicken when it comes to meat because of the great taste and most people are going organic nowadays.

You need a well constructed house. They will need a spacing of 1 square feet per bird. During the day they will be roaming outside so you need a chicken run with a good fence to prevent predators and thieves.The measurement of the house will be 60ft by 20ft and 8ft high from the floor to the roof.
The poultry house will be partitioned to measure 20 by 10ft so you have 6 compartments and each compartment will have its individual run outside. Construct using readily available material. You can use mud, bricks, iron sheets or timber.

In the first month you will have the first batch of 200 chicken which you brood in the first house.Release them outside in the run after 2 months. The second month you have another batch of 200 chicken.You do this till the 6th month when you will start harvesting the first batch of mature chicken.

You need an incubator that can hatch 200 chicks every 21 days. In order to make this venture more profitable and avoid high costs of production(feeds take 70%)you can make your own feeds. You need feed ingredients such as

Whole maize = 34 kg
Soya bean = 12 kg
Omena = 8 kg
Maize/wheat bran = 10 kg
Lime = 6 kg

This will make 70 kgs of feed. During the first 2 months the chicks will consume about 1.5 kgs of feeds.That will be around 300 kgs of feed for 2 months or 4 bags of 70 kgs feed. At 3 months release them in the run and feed them on half of commercial feeds and vegetable remains and grains such as millet and broken wheat or grounded maize .From 3-6 months they should have fed on 1,000 kgs or 14 bags of 70 kgs feed(each bird feeding on 5 kgs for 4 months).

When it comes to vaccination,the vaccines to consider are:Newcastle disease vaccine and fowl pox vaccine. In the first week vaccinate your chicks against newcastle disease(buy newcastle lasota vaccine 200 doses),repeat newcastle vaccine on the third and 5th week. At 4 weeks for fowl pox vaccine buy 200 doses. Repeat fowl pox vaccine at 6 weeks and newcastle plain at 16 weeks.Notice that indigenous chicken are resistant to most diseases but this does not mean you avoid proper hygiene and good biosecurity measures.

Your birds are now mature at 6 months and you have batches following at 5 months, 4 months, 3 months, 2 months and 1 month. You sell your first batch and bring in a new batch to maintain the cycle. Each month you will be selling birds.

Let’s do a little math: Your birds fed on 4 bags for 2 months and 14 bags for 4 months. In total you used 18 bags. Suppose a bag of home made feed is 60,000 Ugx ($15) you will have spend 1,026,000 Ugx ($270) on feed alone. Suppose you lose 10% of your birds from day one to maturity. You remain with 180 birds. Let’s say you have 90 hens and 90 cocks and sell hens at 20,000 Ugx ($6) and cockerels at 30,000 Ugx ($8) You get 4,500,000 Ugx ($1,184).

Deduct feeds and other variables like drugs, vet services and vaccines and you have not less than 2,240,000 Ugx ($700) per month. It is good money by any standards. The biggest costs when starting this project will be housing costs and feeds. From the second year you will have made enough profits after investing and reinvesting and you can expand your business.

I believe nothing is impossible if you are committed. Chicken farming can employ you and can lift you to unprecedented heights of greatness and wealth.Let me not hear you say it can’t be done. It can be done and you know it.

Everything you should know about jackfruit

muhumuza — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 10:09:02 +0000

This crazy-looking tropical fruit is full of nutrition and tastes delicious in all kinds of jackfruit recipes. You’ve likely seen the green-skinned jackfruit used in savory recipes like jackfruit pulled pork, but it can easily go sweet in dessert recipes, too. Here are the basics you should know.

Jackfruit is a green, spiky, oversized football-shape fruit that’s perfect if eating a more plant-based diet is one of your goals—or if you just like trying new foods. Thanks to its meat-like texture and ability to take on a variety of flavors, jackfruit is a great stand-in for pork in pulled pork sandwiches or beef or chicken in tacos, and one that omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans will all enjoy.

Until the past few years, jackfruit was not on our American radar. But now—perhaps in part because of our growing interest in plant-based diets and the increasing concern about the future global food supply—jackfruit is much more well-known (and easily available at well-stocked grocery stores) in the U.S. You can find it in several areas of a well-stocked grocery store—either in the produce section, canned goods, or the freezer aisle (more on that later).

What Is Jackfruit?

Native to Southeast Asia, jackfruit is said to be the largest tree fruit in the world. A single jackfruit can weigh up to 100 pounds. A fresh one is oval-shape and fairly large with a bright green and dully-spiked exterior. Jackfruit is surprisingly versatile because it’s edible at its varying levels of ripeness, which yield different textures and flavors. In other words, it doesn’t have to be perfectly “ripe” to use.

What Does Jackfruit Taste Like?

Young, aka less ripe, jackfruit is very mild in flavor. It has a meaty texture that has been likened to chicken (albeit a meatless version that works in vegan recipes). “If you’re going for savory applications and using it as a mock meat, you need to make sure it’s young green jackfruit to achieve the best texture and flavor,” says Jamie Vespa, MS, RD. Savory jackfruit recipes like these sliders are a good use for young jackfruit.

As jackfruit ripens, the flesh softens, darkens, and sweetens. Its flavor turns more tropical—like a cross between pineapple and banana or pineapple and mango. Ripe and sweeter jackfruit is ideal in salads, smoothies, popsicles, sorbet, and other frozen desserts, such as jackfruit ice cream.

Getty Images

How to Cut Jackfruit

It is fairly time-consuming to prep jackfruit from a whole fruit. Each jackfruit is large and needs to be cored—and the core is quite sticky. Then you have to pluck out the fruit pods (a darker yellow flesh nestled in-between whiter strands), and remove the seeds and their skin from inside each fruit pod.

How to Remove the Fruit From a Fresh Jackfruit

If you’re new to jackfruit, here’s our Test Kitchen-approved technique for getting the most out of your fruit.

Coat a large knife blade with oil and line a cutting board with plastic wrap or parchment paper. (Jackfruits are sticky!) Wearing plastic or rubber gloves, cut jackfruit crosswise into 2-inch slices; then cut the slices in half.
Run a paring knife along the core to separate it from the fruit pods. Pull out fruit pods and remove the white fibers and tips.
Cut pods in half lengthwise; remove the jackfruit seeds and their rubbery skins. From there, cut the jackfruit into whatever size pieces you need for your recipe.

How to Cook Jackfruit

Because you can eat jackfruit raw or cooked, it’s fairly straightforward if you want to cook it; there are no proper doneness safety concerns. Simply season it however you’d like and then cook it. “I find it’s best tossed in a bold sauce or marinade or seasoning mix (it will take on just about any flavor profile you throw its way), and then sautéed over medium-high heat to pick up some color and caramelization,” says Vespa. “At that point, you can use it in tacos or a sandwich, or in place of shredded chicken over nachos.”

How to Cook Jackfruit Seeds

The seeds are also edible—simply boil them for 20 to 30 minutes first (or fry them) and eat them like a nut or potato. The white strands are technically edible, but they’re said to not be very tasty so we recommend discarding them.

Is Jackfruit Good for You?

The giant tropical fruit is quite nutritious. It is a good source of vitamins A, C, and a few of the B vitamins. Jackfruit also delivers decent doses of magnesium, copper, manganese, and potassium (a mineral most Americans don’t get enough of). You’ll also get a healthy serving of fiber. And it’s lower in calories than most other tropical fruits.

Content source bhg

Happiness Lessons

muhumuza — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 10:25:11 +0000

Lesson 1
Give yourself permission to be human. When we accept emotions—such as fear, sadness, or anxiety—as natural, we are more likely to overcome them. Rejecting our emotions, positive or negative, leads to frustration and unhappiness. We are a culture obsessed with pleasure and believe that the mark of a worthy life is the absence of discomfort; and when we experience pain, we take it to indicate that something must be wrong with us. In fact, there is something wrong with us if we don’t experience sadness or anxiety at times–which are human emotions. The paradox is that when we accept our feelings—when we give ourselves the permission to be human and experience painful emotions—we are more likely to open ourselves up to positive emotions.

Lesson 2
Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning. Research shows that an hour or two of a meaningful and pleasurable experience can affect the quality of an entire day, or even a whole week.

Lesson 3
Keep in mind that happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account. Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is determined by what we choose to focus on and by our interpretation of external events. For example, do we focus on the empty part of the full part of the glass? Do we view failures as catastrophic, or do we see them as learning opportunities?

Lesson 4
Simplify! We are, generally, too busy, trying to squeeze in more and more activities into less and less time. Quantity influences quality, and we compromise on our happiness by trying to do too much. Knowing when to say ‘no’ to others often means saying ‘yes’ to ourselves.

Lesson 5
Remember the mind-body connection. What we do—or don’t do—with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health.

Lesson 6
Express gratitude, whenever possible. We too often take our lives for granted. Learn to appreciate and savor the wonderful things in life, from people to food, from nature to a smile.

Lesson 7
Prioritize relationships. The number one predictor of happiness is the time we spend with people we care about and who care about us. The most important source of happiness may be the person sitting next to you. Appreciate them, savor the time you spend together.

Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail.

muhumuza — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 12:09:35 +0000

Özlem Sara Cekic is a Danish politician, former member of parliament for the Socialist People’s Party. A nurse by training she was first elected to the central committee of the Socialist People’s Party in 2004.

How do you know that your business is ready to expand?

muhumuza — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 12:57:13 +0000

Picked from: empowering people. Network By Carola Schwank – Head of Empowering People Network (EPN)

How do you know that your business is ready to expand?

Presenting a business concept for expansion might appear as the most daunting task for a social entrepreneur. Especially if you are a woman coming from one of the remotest pockets of Indonesia.

From when she can remember, Tri Mumpuni, wanted to help her community. Puni, as she is called affectionately, is a member of our empowering people. Network that supports social entrepreneurs around the world. An agricultural scientist, she founded IBEKA, a renewable energy supplier in her homeland Indonesia. Her social enterprise has received global acknowledgement including from former US President Barack Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. A globetrotter, Puni inspires entrepreneurs – sharing her trade secret that helped her enterprise springboard from rural Indonesia to the Asia Pacific and Africa. “It is pertinent to choose the right staff who can work passionately, encourage them to put their best on every project. This helps people trust your organization supporting it to ultimately scale”, says Puni.

Focus on your organizational structure before expanding

Speaking to achievers like Puni, I am more and more convinced of the importance of organizational development for enterprises to thrive in the long haul. Identifying and pledging to a social goal may seem to be the most important issue for your business. However, it is an easy decision when compared to realizing and sustaining it.

As Head of empowering people. Network, I have had opportunities to get an inside look into the various stages of a social entrepreneur’s journey. Surprisingly, I have found the significance of organizational development often discounted from the onset.

The first step before a startup even thinks about its growth phase is to asses and then assemble the different aspects of the venture. It is absolutely imperative to establish structures and processes that will ensure not only a seamless transition but also an effective running. I have often noticed social entrepreneurs caught off-guard by this reality. Sometimes they are so focused on improving and selling their innovations alongside fundraising, that they become myopic to internal requirements like decision-making models, delegation of responsibility or exploring future-oriented leadership approaches.

Simply copying supposedly ‘western best practices’ of structuring organizations will hardly work to break the vicious circle. Our network offers different ways and tools that help with leadership questions like employee recruitment and development, defining responsibilities and ensuring recognition. Alternative organizational models like Holacracy that focus on defined roles instead of inflexible functions, can be a good way to establish sustainable internal structures for enterprises that strive for social impact not only through the solutions and services they offer, but also as good and responsible employers.

One of our network members Ana Luisa Arocena also echoes this view. Her journey from a chemist to launching Uruguay’s first toxic waste tracking technology Triex has been that of trial and error. As she puts it: “Seventeen years after we founded our company, it is only now that we are in the process of organizing ourselves as a self-management organization.” A financial crunch in 2009 forced her to sell 70% shares to an Uruguayan engineering company. The ‘new’ conventional organizational structure posed challenges like non-committed employees, loss of a pioneering spirit and a disconnect from the community. Ana Luisa and her colleagues explored options looking to build a more horizontal and democratic structure. They took advantage of a government regulation that assists with development funds for cooperatives and self-management companies. Ana Luisa invited her employees to apply for the funds. “In February 2018, 10 among our 17 employees came together to establish a limited responsibility company and became owners of the 70% shares. Now we have a more closely knit structure – conducting weekly meetings with our partners. I think we are doing well”, Ana Luisa adds. Unusual and creative approaches often provide the key to sustainable solutions.

Learn to be a cog in the wheel

Founders may inadvertently fall victims to the phenomenon of ‘one man/woman army’ and key issues like sharing responsibilities and building proper internal structures go amiss. With their scope of work growing, founders should be able to delegate tasks!

Taking a leaf from Puni’s success story, my advice to entrepreneurs is to get human capital with the necessary competencies and acquaint them with the organization’s objectives and methods. Create a process chain to harness their fresh energies, then identify and retain the employees with a high level of commitment. The next step is to repurpose responsibilities, which in turn builds a bond between you, the captain, and your crew. At times, you need to master the art of ‘letting go’ and take yourself as a cog in the wheel – running seamlessly together with the team for a bump-free long journey. Openness and frequent feedbacks can also help improve efficiency and increase productivity.

Ultimately, finding the right organizational structure is an individual expedition and founders need to navigate through the various options before stumbling upon the most suitable one! To ease the process we have created a customised free manual SAMforSE for social entrepreneurs. The tool prompts an individual to enter their requirements and accordingly evaluates the apt business model. Startups in our network have used this along with personal coaching on identified challenges and have successfully cultivated their organizational development strategy.

The 5Ps of Impact: A Framework for Impact Investment Strategies

muhumuza — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 07:47:18 +0000

The 5Ps of Impact

Adopted: By Tasha Seitz and Priya Parrish

The 5Ps of Impact: A Framework for Impact Investment Strategies

For impact investors and businesses to generate measurable social returns, it’s critical to identify an investment strategy that specifies how the intended social outcome will be achieved. I find it helpful to use a framework that describes the ways in which a company can drive positive impact, which I have adapted from “Making Sense of the Many Types of Impact Investing,” authored by Brian Trelstad, a partner at Bridges Fund Management and former Chief Investment Officer at Acumen. I have summarized the “5Ps of Impact” to help investors evaluate the potential for lasting social return from their impact investments:

People

Businesses that are founded by and/or create opportunity for people historically underserved by existing markets can be categorized as having people-based impact. The potential to create income through jobs, business ownership, and services that increase the likelihood of gainful employment can create lasting change for individuals and their communities. This strategy can be applied to any industry and asset class. In fact, many impact investors consider the ownership and management of their investment funds based on a theory that women and minority fund managers are more likely to invest in women and minority CEOs, thereby creating a multiplier effect of a single fund investment.

Place

Companies that base their operations where jobs are scarce or offer little upward mobility can drive economic development and positive impact at the place level. Developing markets like Uganda is a good example of this. Given the vast population in these markets and the potential to meaningfully change employment levels, median incomes, and standards of living, the potential scope of place-based impact is attractive to mission-driven investors. Companies and investors often encounter hurdles, however, due to the systemic challenges facing these communities. For example, the need for high levels of job training and robust infrastructure in under-resourced areas may cause operational friction. To help address these challenges, cross-sector partnerships with government agencies and nonprofits may be necessary components of an investment strategy.

Product

Companies offering products and services that directly create positive impact benefit from a reinforcing tie between revenues and social good. Examples include companies providing access to energy efficient products, healthcare services, and educational content that drives better outcomes for students. Since customers purchase the company’s product based on its efficacy, management teams are incentivized to continuously strengthen and demonstrate the impact of their products, and impact cannot be easily decoupled if the company were to be acquired. Product-based impact does limit the investment universe, as not all industries offer goods and services that contribute positively to society. Impact investors thus need to consider the implications of sector concentration and look for other diversification methods within or outside their impact investing portfolio.

Process

Impact at the process level refers to a company’s management practices. This may include employee wellness, manufacturing and supply chains, and other operational processes. All for-profit businesses can optimize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in their operations, therefore process-based impact investing strategies can be applied across sectors and stages of growth. Many funds integrate ESG factors when making investment decisions; however, an investment strategy that includes active involvement with the business through the board of directors, a control investment, or other ways of directly influencing strategic decisions is typically necessary to generate a lasting social return. Given this high hurdle for efficacy, investment funds claiming impact at the process level need to be evaluated critically.

Paradigm

A paradigm is a model or pattern of doing business, and investment strategies looking to disrupt existing paradigms and create change at the systems level can be a powerful driver of innovation and impact. Paradigm-based investing strategies might be based upon shifting ownership structures to enable greater wealth creation (through Employee Stock Ownership Plans, for example) or intentionally seek to invest in companies disrupting existing industries in a way that enables greater access/participation (such as Massively Open Online Courses).

Impact investors differ from traditional investors in their intent to generate a measurable social impact in addition to financial returns. The ‘impact’ component of the investment strategy is essential and must be evaluated with the same rigor as the pure financial investment thesis. All 5Ps are valid strategies for generating positive impact, yet they each come with a set of pros and cons.

Don’t Rethink The Organization. Just Add the Right People

muhumuza — Thu, 18 Oct 2018 09:04:56 +0000

In this post, Brian Kyed, CXO & Co-founder of Airtame delves into organizational structure and talks about how Airtame went from an engagement-growth-hacker-success-bullshit organzation to a classic marketing, sales & support orgnization that just works.

By Brian Kyed, Airtame.

When preparing for the new year, my partners and I look back on what has worked in our company Airtame, and what areas we would like to develop. This year we agreed we would put all commercially-oriented people in one big team — with me in charge. Great, I thought, let me rethink how to make a commercial team in a way hasn’t been done before.

I Don’t Want to Become Evil Corp

At first, I wanted to organize my teams in a way that didn’t mirror the “Evil Corp”. I’m not really sure why I was so afraid of this…I guess I’ve seen and heard a lot of stories lately where this has become the situation. We even have people joining our team from other startups because their old jobs went too corporate, both organization-wise and product-wise. Somewhere along the way, they’d made themselves financially dependent on certain features that made the whole product development slow and sometimes impossible. How can you change or even remove a feature if 80% of your company earnings comes from this? Sometimes you have to, but how can I make sure our company doesn’t end up like this?

I set out to create a whole new approach

to the commercial sector of our organization. “Creating the user experience” became the core mantra of my mission. I chose dynamic names for our teams like “Growth”, “Engagement”, and “Success”, which would make any modern Silicon Valley executive proud. I did everything I could to avoid the norms of the corporate sales organizational structure….particularly by NOT mentioning the commoner words like “sales” or “support”.

In spite of my best intentions — My whole new approach was just confusing. Really confusing. For the teams inside, for the teams outside, and even for me.

This was because the new plan was not compatible with how we naturally worked. It was not practical for how the teams were already cooperating. Looking at the organizational chart I had created from scratch made for more confusion and chaos than I had anticipated.

Hola-Crazy

So now what? How do I create something that reflects my progressive managerial approach and accomplish my mission of “creating the user experience”?

Should we try one of those floating organizations where everyone works independently? Maybe try out the Holacracy organizational format? They seemed like progressive approaches, but they still seemed like an over-thought-theoretically-perfect-but practically-you-know-how-it-ends type of thing. Perhaps I was fueled more by my fear of ending up with an old corporate organization chart that screams “BORING!”. Perhaps this fear was holding me back.

I Went All Classic

I decided to stop trying to reinvent the organizational wheel, and went all classic…like 100 years old, Evil-corp-silo-classic. I-died-a-bit-inside-of-boredom-looking-at-this-chart-classic.

I created three teams: Marketing, Sales and Support. No “engagement” teams, no growth hackers or sales ninjas. No disruption squads or other poetic names, just a classic commercial organization like they did them 100 years ago. A Marketing team, a Sales team, and a Support team. We have some shared teams as well, but that’s for another post. This is how it looks now:

Sales closes and nurtures bigger accounts, also makes sure our resellers are working and selling Airtame in the right way.

Marketing makes sure the whole world learns about Airtame and who we are. Also ensures we stay on top of our customer’s mind, attract new leads, and help activate customers.

Support ensures outstanding customer service and upsells to customers, also gathers feedback for product development.

…And it works perfectly. Why?

It’s the People, Stupid

Because of the people. The people I hired to be in these teams are not the traditional marketing, sales and support people. They are not the kind of people looking at a chart thinking “Oh, the awesome idea I just had is unfortunately not a part of my job description. What a shame.” They don’t think in terms of titles, or team names.This is because they were hired by people who have a vision for the way they want their company to be, and so our culture thrives, even in a classic organizational structure.

My team is made up of growth hackers by heart. They drive engagement because it comes naturally to them. They are the salespeople that don’t give up on a customer before they are truly happy and using our product. They are the support people who know that onboarding people is the number one thing we can do each day. They go the extra mile with every customer to create the positive experience we have designed for them. Those are the people on my team. That’s our culture. They don’t need a fancy team name to know this. They don’t need the title of “Disruption Wizard” on Linkedin, and that’s the whole point:

Hire the right people instead of naming the right positions.

No matter how classic or corporate an organization you put these people into, this is the way they function. They don’t look at an organizational chart to see who they should talk to, or who they are allowed to talk to. They talk to the ones they need to so our customers can get what they need. They start up a project across teams if that is what makes the most sense. They involve the right people when needed. They do what it takes, and they know what it takes.

So why didn’t I go for Holocrazy and make everything open? If the people in my team are that good?

Your Company is Like A Football Team

Because my approach, while commercially structured, is run very much like a football team. In the beginning, there are some basic rules and agreements. We agree on who plays the defense and who plays the offense. We have a solid foundation for play and make sure that nothing or no one falls through the cracks. We agree upon and hold ourselves to our own accountabilities. We agree that we need to have a certain structure. We want to make sure that we are not missing opportunities or making mistakes that could have been avoided.

We need to make sure that someone plays defense. We need to trust that someone focuses on scoring goals. Then, and only then can we start getting creative. Let the defense switch to offense once in a while since we know that someone else will stay back.

Even the most innovative and productive individuals need guidelines. In fact, they often thrive best when given such. Having nothing and making everything open and floating creates confusion. Some chaos even, which is great when you are brainstorming ideas and trying new things, but not when you are out there on the playing field. That’s my experience.

Therefore, the most simple and easy-to-understand approach works. A marketing, sales and support team with simple guidelines and simple overall accountabilities.

You Won’t Turn Evil Corp Anyways

You don’t have to reinvent the organization wheel. You are not going to make a bureaucracy coming right out of the gate — You are a startup. You have a startup mindset. Using a corporate structure doesn’t make you corporate, so don’t be afraid of learning from the Evil Corps. After all, there’s a reason they got so big.

You’ll need the right tactics, but it’s the people on your team right now that will determine your chances of success. You can have the best intentions, but with the wrong players, you will lose. So focus on developing your team, and let them run with the ball.

Brian is co-founder and CRO at Airtame.com, a wireless presentation device for businesses. He shares his thoughts and learnings from being a crowdfunded gadget to becoming a leading company in the B2B space.

Inspiring a Life of Immersion

muhumuza — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 10:37:04 +0000

A TED Talk by Jacqueline Novogratz who is the founder of Acumen, she uses her storytelling skills in her book, The Blue Sweater, and in many of her talks about changing the way the world tackles global poverty.

Global Warming of 1.5 °C

muhumuza — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 09:26:35 +0000

Global Warming of 1.5 °C

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), meeting in Incheon, South Korea, presented a report that says that it is still possible to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, unprecedented transformations are needed to make this happen.

An IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.

See the IPCC report here: http://ipcc.ch/report/sr15/