Moneyweb Business Leadership Episode an Fuhr

I often like to look at local entrepreneurs that have made a big difference for inspiration. Ian Fuhr is a serial entrepreneur and business go-getter whose working career is lined with a number of entrepreneurial start-up businesses.  Since he launched the Sorbet chain of beauty salons in 2005 the business has grown to over 104 outlets, employs nearly 1 000 staff members and has over 160 000 loyalty members


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61I0EKEdy94

The interview draws on the person’s life, failures and the lessons they have learnt on their journey to the successful leadership positions they hold today.

Week Learnings

Week learnings:

The highlight of the week was the private meeting with Hussein and the directors meeting that took place on Thursday the 28th of April. The directors advice was very useful and encouraging for the team because it provided us with direction, practicality and possible opportunities for our final product for Genesis exercise. The interactions explored critical questions like "How are you going take this into marketplace?" "Is R20 too much for a packet of ten?" "Why aren't you selling the product in singles?" "How is this product going to be different from other competitors?" "How much money do you actually have in your bank account?"

These were hard and difficult questions we had to answer as a team, yet I especially think that they were important questions because they reminded us about the practicality and viability of the product. These viabilities are important because they can negatively effect the business if not taken into consideration.

Musa

Conclusions from Directors Meeting

Conclusions from Directors:

Key Advice from directors

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• ·       Selling the product will be tricky as it’s not something that people would think about beforehand while going to the bathroom.
• ·        Should think of hiring someone who could sell these in packs on one close to the bathrooms at university.
• ·       Packs of one would also be ideal for sporting events or stadiums where people need to go to the bathroom and might not want to buy the whole pack of 10.
• ·       The pack of one should be innovatively folded so that it can just be unfolded, get used, and then flushed away easily.
• ·       Ones can be sold at R5 each and a pack of 10 could be sold at R5.
• ·       Malls and restaurants could be interested in buying our product in bulk if it’s a good one and we can place their branding on their order.
• ·        As a hygine brand we could also introduce another product for the men, and this are low production cost stickers that can be placed on urinals, in order to promote a better aim and also reduce male bathroom mess by 70%

Inspiration from Vusi Thembakwayo TED X Namibia

VUSI THEMBEKWAYO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhBDfJY-xZw 

Motivational speakers, Keynote speakers & International speakers are not trained, they are born!

At the age of 17, Vusi was already ranked 1st in Africa for public speaking and went on to receive a 3rd in the world at the English Speaking Union International Competition. He speaks in 4 of the 7 continents  to over 350 000 people each year! He delivered over 200 keynotes in 2011 alone.

At 25 years-old he was the youngest director of a multi-national turning over R17bn a year, where he served on the operations board. His humour is the glue that binds some of his most diverse audiences in the world.

John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia called Vusi the “Rock Star of Public Speaking” and global strategist & scenario-planning guru Clem Sunter said he was “simply riveting while Sir Bob Geldof said “Vusi is a f*kcen great speaker" 

Meeting with Stuart

Meeting with Stuart

Meeting was stuart was very successful and insightful. Key guidance and advice was gained from this interaction, especially a few days before directors meeting 

Key Brand development conclusions 

Make the brand more exciting

·       The category is sensitive like pads and condoms, we need to try break the sensitive stereotype

·       To  break the stereotype we can try create a quirky brand or make the product seem more luxurious

Instead of creating a brand create a new product

Key potential suppliers & cost conclusions 

·       We visited Valkenburg as a possible option for people to physically pack the products we should keep this option open

·       A packaging company was also found that has an affordable price

·       We experienced issues with the die cutter

o    The costs were too high

o    We should search for other die cutters – possibly different die cutters for different prototypes

·       Our packaging will be re-sealable ziplock bags

·        The cost to make one pack should be kept under R8

·       A focus group can be conducted to determine the price and test the quality of different materials

Action Plans:

Search for alternative die cutters to compare by the 29th of April