I must be quite honest, before I enrolled into the course I
had very negative perceptions of digital business solutions in South Africa
mostly because of the low levels of digital infrastructure, low literacy rates
and socioeconomic equalities of South Africa. But after engaging with some of
the international students within the course I soon realized it was only matter
of time before South Africa became technologically inclusive. For me, my
technological entrepreneurial thinking for this market would go as far Uber,
Vodacom’s Mpesa, online banking, social media and entertainment.
I now honestly believe that a simple app(application) on
someone’s mobile phone can do more than just provide convenience for users but
rather create a new world of opportunities for entrepreneurs. This explained why Naspers, which is a
company based in Cape Town, has invested so much in acquiring and developing
online platforms that combine new ways of doing business. This exposure
amplified my thinking about globalization its possibilities. I’m confident to
say that South African entrepreneurs will one day catch onto this wave
especially amongst black entrepreneurs once they are done being tender
entrepreneurs (public sector entrepreneurs) and conspicuous consumers that
display achievements by the flashy products they acquire. Maybe then, they will
soon become young driven zippies who are ambitious and creative. I have told
myself that ORA Hygiene will definitely participate in a form technological
even through we are selling disposable toilet seat covers, I think this is what
led my groups decision into developing a website for the company.
The purpose of the website
is to completely cut off the middle man in the transaction by allowing
consumers to directly buy goods (Disposable toilet seat covers) and to cut out
the middle man(Retailer) to essentially reduce costs and increase.
I have
learnt that I like to be in control, not with regard to being in charge of
every situation, but rather knowing that if a situation works out or not, I am
the one that made the decisions. I need
to learn to let go of certain things, and trust that they will be completed by
those around me.
As part of
a group, I have learn that I am not the only one that needs to be motivated,
and that motivating those around me is just as essential. We all have our own strengths and although we
are all capable of doing different tasks, one can never assume that the tasks
that are given to others have been completed to a satisfactory level. One constantly needs to ensure that all the
different parts of a group are working together in generate the overall success
of the team.
A big
factor that I have leant regarding a business is that it is not possible to
have everyone trying to make decisions because then no decision is made and the
process gets delayed for nothing more than a simple waste of time. A business needs one leader that is able to
then delegate to those in the team. This
allows for a more structured decision making process.
On a personal level I learned that I have become accustomed
to having control over what is going on around me and being able to influence
the outcomes. This, however is not a sustainable or realistic way to go about
life. During the course of the holidays I realised that I need to let go of
certain factors that are not within my reach and that certain things will
happen regardless of my efforts. There were a few things that need to be voted
on in the group and assumed that the votes would go my way with a bit of
influencing but sometimes the way I view things may not be the way they should
happen. I’ve realised that some of my habits are not constructive and I’m
working on changing them.
As a group we keep forgetting that we have different
strengths and contribute in our own ways but constantly and sometimes harshly
get reminded that we each have different roles. Through these reminders we learn
to take a step back and let others do what they’ve been entrusted with doing.
We always get our desired outcome but sometimes it just takes a little bit
longer than it should. But every time we play our roles from the beginning we
are far more impactful than when we try to deviate from the norm.
As a business we’ve learned through trial and error not to
make rash, uncalculated decisions. Although it has worked out for us in the
end, at the time it may have not been the correct decision to make. We bought a
different type of paper than we had planned to get and that was made in a
rushed decision, instead we should have re-evaluated other options and then
proceeded. However, it worked out because production was able to start a lot
sooner. Things like that will not always work out in business and one must
always stay composed while making decisions.
While
doing market research I learnt that a good business idea is nothing without
background research of why it would work and why it wouldn’t, and also if it
will work how do you now execute it. I learnt that doing research on the
product is where the real work starts since this is where you have to find out
about the little pieces that make your product and bring them together, from, suppliers,
consumers, key resources needed, and distribution channels etc. This journey
has taught me that with any business venture I might want to embark on in the
future, research is where I need to begin
The first thing I learnt here was that collaborative effort
is very powerful and it’s by far greater than solo effort in business, I
realised this through assessing myself and asking myself if I would have been
able to do everything on my own and there was just no ways I would have pulled
it off, the initial research and supplier contacting and visits that had to be
done were too much. So in order to gather everything we needed we had to
delegate and divide the work by assigning each team member with research tasks
they had to complete alongside their deadlines, so this meant that everyone had
to perform since everyone was to be held accountable for their work and if one
person slips up then this would mean that we slow down and a team and a
business, and that’s one thing we do not want since we are limited to time. So
I learnt that accountability within a group is important and it helps people
stay faithful to the roles.
As a business I learnt that it is always crucial to step
out of your zone and seek consultation help from other professionals or entrepreneurs
who are already in industry, I realised this through our meetings with the
directors and Stuart. In these meetings we got some of the best advice we could
ever wish for and some of the things that we were told are things that we could
have never thought of and slowly we are getting a sense of direction on how to
run and market a successful brand. One thing that I learnt as a business is
that input from the targeted consumer is important while doing research since
this helps you build a product, and brand that is tailored to their specified
requirements or needs.
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