Those of us in marketing remember the times when “packaged goods” like soaps, toothpastes, shampoos, biscuits, soft drinks, cigarettes, beverages etcetera were where the best brains in marketing went. The somewhat wishful term for these sorts of categories was Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG).

The guys who marketed stuff like consumer electronics, household goods and even automobiles: stuff that people bought once in a while did not really, or so the “brand gurus” felt, get the whole thing about brands and how one built them to get people coming back to buy your product again and again, more and more often.

The consumer durable (that was what these sort of products where then called) guys just faked brand-building and so were viewed as at best second-class!

Over the last fifteen years or so things began to change. The FMCG categories became more and more consumer staples and the consumer electronics and the world of microchip-driven categories exploded.

Consequently the world of cutting-edge marketing passed to acolytes of Steve Jobs who were basically showmen who hyped something new every quarter if not every year.

The brand was a totem pole under which a circus of ever changing ‘items’ played. I like calling this category FCCG: Fast Changing Consumer Goods.

Over the last decade once again the mantle of leading marketing practice,as leaps and bounds in the access of high quality manufacturing technolgy dissolved the brand differentials based on quality and features, passed on to those who create differentials through service.

Once again it was Apple that seized the initiative. Without Apple Apps the sale of iPod and iPhones would have tapered off. This decade I like to call this age of marketing the age of Full Service Consumer Goods: FSCG

And, over the past couple of years, I believe, is emerging the world of Formal Ecosystems of Consumer Experience (FECE).

As data mining, data analysis, communication technology and consumer sophistication climbs to new levels, individuals will stop buying products or services.

Instead they will pay for life experiences and states.

And these expectations can be met only through formal coordination of a whole host of products and services.

For example tomorrow’s consumer will buy a health service that monitors his health every second wherever he is and seamlessly delivers the care he needs. A experience which only a worldwide ecosystem of monitoring device manufacturers, drug and drug delivery systems, paramedics, logistic providers, nutritionist, food suppliers, personal care suppliers and of course doctors and hospitals can supply.

Imagine what could happen as this paradigm is applied to all the major life needs: education, security, relationships, entertainment and so on.

This post is just a surface level analysis of these trends.

I believe these trends have implications for the marketer of every product and service.

For a deeper analysis of what it means for your brand and category and how you can take advantage of it, contact Aqumena, the marketing consultancy I have set up with two partners Vinay Hegde and ND Badrinath (www.aqumena.com).

I am allowed the occasional plug for my business, am I not?

Market To Move sideways : Expert

After last week’s correction, witnessing a dip of 492 points, market experts said this week might continue to see sideway movements with slight downward bias.

They opined it was basically the momentum play which took the markets beyond 17,000 points and therefore downside movement was expected.

They maintained that currently the markets are over stretched and any rise in the short-term is unlikely.

They ruled out that Reliance’s bonus shares or Infosys’s better than expected earnings will stoke the markets with positive sentiments this week.

In the previous week, CNX Nifty declined 138.2 points or 2.72 per cent on a weekly basis to close at 4,945.20 last Friday against last week’s close of 5,083.40.

Similarly, Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index, or Sensex, slipped below 17,000 mark to close the week at 16,642.66, down 2.87 per cent.

Brokers pointed out that this week, Nifty may bottom out at 4,800 levels. It should not come below this as fundamentals of the country are intact.

Last week, indices which ended in the green include consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods, health care, metals and power.

On the other hand, auto, bankex, capital goods, IT, oil & gas and realty index closed in the red.

Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals, said,

“Markets are facing resistance. It is difficult to expect sectors to outperform.  Though some stocks could do well.  But it seems, market is not in a mood to hear any good news.”

This week, experts are betting big on telecom, infrastructure, consumer durables and banking space.

They held bearish stand on sectors like IT and auto.

Experts said that from this week onwards, corporate earning seasons will start which market will closely watch for.

Trade carnival by COWE begins at Necklace Road

Check it out: Enthusiastic buyers at the Trade Carnival 2009 being organised by Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs at Necklace Road on Saturday.

HYDERABAD: Are you on the look out for those decorative ‘diyas’, creative knick-knacks and designer chocolates for the ensuing Deepavali ? Do you fancy designer silk and cotton sarees with a variety of handmade embellishments or scouting for that ideal nutrition snack foods ? Then Trade Carnival-2009 at People’s Plaza, Necklace Road is the place to head for.

The three-day carnival organised by the Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (COWE) to help women turn entrepreneurs in fields of their choice and help them market their products was inaugurated by State Bank of Hyderabad Chief General Manager Sunil Pant on Saturday.

The five- year- old COWE, which was started with six members, today has about 600 members engaged in diverse fields, engineering, Information Technology, bio-technology, pharmacy, food, textiles, service sector, industry, legal and financial services.

Cowe president Uma said the trade carnival was provided with an aim to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs to showcase their products, widen market opportunities, test market preference and networking opportunities.

“Our objective is to ensure empowerment through entrepreneurship,” says Uma. This is not difficult for women as they are good at multi-tasking, far more committed to their work, regular in loan repayments.

The trade fair has numerous stalls exhibiting fashion ware, handicrafts, interiors, jewellery, household goods, consumer durables. Some women entrepreneurs like Anuradha running paper cup units successfully also put on display imported automatic paper cup machine that can make 50 cups a minute.

Puja, an ex-Bank of America employee, started her own trousseau and attractive gift packing enterprise for a variety of products during weddings, baby showers, festivals etc. Her homemade chocolates in attractive packing apparently enjoy demand as corporate gifts.

Cowe on its part helps its members by organising six-week programmes, giving them motivation, awareness, entrepreneurship skills, exposure through field visits , networking through tie-ups with business organisations, MoUs with international women’s organisations for marketing purposes.

Small biz has big issues:  fewer resources and less staying power, among other things, in comparison to larger corporations.  Within the small organizations I’ve lead I’ve always worked hard to use creativity as a tool with which to compete.  It is the only real way to level the playing field, or even tilt it to your advantage.  Many successful small businesses prosper because of the creativity contributed by a founder; however, those that grow beyond the realm of small business develop a culture of creativity leading to valuable differentiators in service, product development, manufacturing processes, and brand building.  As you all know, these improvements, if executed properly, will have a positive impact on your balance sheet.  The concept of this post is to share some thoughts on how to pull that creativity out of and from every corner of your organization; and then, of course, create manageable projects to incorporate that creativity into your company.

To affect change, according to Carol and Jack Weber from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, a concept needs to be communicated to every individual three times.  So, to start, tell your staff—all of them–that you’re going to take steps to tap into everyone’s creativity and then reward them for contributing.  Make it important; discuss it often.  Explain why:  to survive; to prosper.  Your management team, with your help, needs to convey the same message with a monthly meeting where each department delivers what they believe to be the best of the best.  Have a barbeque; make it personal and informal; bring the creator of the idea.  Have the department head present their findings.  The top dog needs to only encourage and can do much damage at this point with even the smallest hint of dissatisfaction.

Support your people forming the craziest of ideas with no thought given to cost or if it’s possible.  You need to develop a snow-ball effect where the flow of innovation becomes difficult to manage because the volume is so large.  Among those ideas you’ll find gems that, on the surface, are not possible.  Leading a team to refine the idea will become your new challenge.  This process is a real differentiator among your large competitors because their bureaucratic environment will stifle that creativity that you’re trying to build upon.  Creativity needs to become an essential ingredient of your culture.

Prior to the meeting and after you’ve gathered the ideas from your department heads, send a broadcast voicemail to the entire organization describing each one, expressing your enthusiasm.  All involved will have a sense of pride for their contribution.  And then, the single idea you believe will have the greatest benefit to the organization needs to be announced and adequately rewarded relative to the contribution.  Don’t be cheap.  It also needs to be public, and at once very personally valuable to the recipient.

If you practice this and execute properly, this will be your benefit:  a stronger balance sheet.  Further, you’ll enjoy higher morale due to the action you’re taking and the excitement thrown off by a shared, optimistic vision and tremendous feelings of importance from every level of your company as they aid in shaping its future.

If you haven’t seen this video, yet, it’s a fantastic illustration of the courage it takes to be different and the infectious impact it has.  An old mentor of mine, Royce Renfroe, used to refer to himself as a “contrarian.”  I was always proud to be a part of his team because of the courage he displayed.  Although he couldn’t dance like this. . . . well, you get the idea. 

This blog is a great question posed by a linkedin member Tony Gugliemotto http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=2595857&authToken=2nDh&authType=name&goback=%2Eavq_544898_2595857_0_*2

Is a sales manager an essential component of a successful sales / marketing strategy?

The following answers were equally interesting, leading me to a very common issue among sales organizations that I would call a shadow syndrome.  This is a prolific problem whereby a great sales person takes over the organization and continues to be a great sales person, overshadowing all of the other salespeople, stifling the egos of the underlings.

Many companies make the mistake of hiring a sales manager to close the big account; those same companies end up with many weak salespeople in need of the ‘boss’ to come in and close.  In that scenario, the sales manager becomes a crutch and can even hinder an otherwise successful strategy.  The reason this is a common problem among sales organizations is that the best ‘player’ usually ends up with the promotion.  The reason for the success of that ‘player’ is deeply tied to the need to win, be aggressive, and a need for recognition.  So, in thinking that concept through, the sales leader NEEDS to attract other individuals that have an innate need to win, be aggressive, and a need for recognition.  The sales leader, then, needs to fill those needs—recognize them for doing something well, put them in the limelight–to build a truly great sales organization.  However, the sales leader typically has those same needs which take a FRONT seat to the needs of the other salespeople, attracting the sales leader to the idea of closing the ‘big fish’ and taking the limelight.  This attraction is like opposite sides of a magnet.  I have, literally, seen sales managers in meetings with clients push the sales person aside and take over a presentation, completely missing the opportunity of observing mistakes made and coaching them, along with praising tasks done well.

In answering the question, it’s my opinion that in the above scenario, a sales manager will hurt the organization by failing to attract and retain great OTHER salespeople—those prospects will go elsewhere knowing they will only be competing with their prospective boss for recognition.  Or, if the great candidates joins the organization, they will be stifled (or shadowed) by the leader and never reach their full potential.  A true sales leader will have a massive impact, almost immediately, by attracting great salespeople, training them, ensuring their behavior is consistent with the needs of the company, praising their results, and then getting out of their way.

This leader is a very unique individual:  one who has been successful in sales and therefore has credibility; one who has the ability to “shelve” his or her own ego for the benefit of the development of the sales force.  The results that follow are tremendous growth and a need for less management.

As the government is expected to introduce a new index of industrial production (IIP) in around 4 months, the benchmark for measuring industrial production in India is all set to change.

However, the new index will use 2004-05 as the base year of calculation instead of 1993-94.

The number of commodities will go up to around 850, from 543 whereas nearly 30% of the existing commodities will be swapped by new ones.

It’ll certainly be a much more recent picture, no question about it.

As in recent times, the product composition has changed dramatically, so both the widening and the deepening of the economy will be reflected.

Moreover, the weight assigned to different product groups as part of the final index will also change since they are presently incompatible with the changes in production patterns.

Such as, mobile phones are not included in the index while LCDs are not included in television sales.

Moreover, the weightage given to autos is well below their importance in the economy.

However, it is said that the weightages will change in order to fix these like the weight for basic goods will rise by 5% points while that for capital goods will rise by 5.7% points.

Morever, the intermediate goods will see the biggest hit, losing 7.7% points and consumer durables will increase in weight while consumer non durables will be lighter by 5% points.

Change in weights of different commodity groups:

Similarly, electricity will rise by close to 2% points but manufacturing will take a hit of over 7.5% points.

The new IIP index will definitely give us a better idea of the kind of changes industrial production has undergone in the past decade.

However, collection of the base data in time would pose as a major challenge for the government as different departments are responsible for collecting the data.

In recent times, collecting data from the manufacturing sector, is already turning out to be a problem as companies aren’t responding fast enough.

Like many of you, I had some experiences, very early on in my career that I would file in the “character building” folder. These memories I would not want to relive, as they were, frankly, miserable.

Shortly after graduating in 1990 from my Alma Mater, St. John’s University (like a mother’s womb—warm, peaceful, quiet, happy–compared to the “real world”), I moved to Hell (Fargo, North Dakota—Hell is cold, not hot). Hell was hiring; there were no jobs anywhere else. So, I packed up my basketball and ten speed and took a job as the “Production Manager” for a small wholesale tuxedo business. The business, as you can imagine, was highly seasonal. This resulted in periodically hiring full-time, temporary staff to handle the shipping/receiving, dry cleaning, and alterations, all managed under my youthful, inexperienced watch. Because I was so “green,” I made many hiring mistakes; also in management; and in leadership. This resulted in an onslaught of misery with impeccable timing: when the work flow increased, the hours got long, the temps started resigning. My ultimate responsibility was to ensure that the Groom in Bizmark was wearing the white tuxedo ordered, and the prom date had a matching periwinkle bow tie to his girlfriend’s gown. If I failed, those special moments would be tainted by my ineptitude. If the temps fled; I was the safety net. Following were the countless hours “pinch hitting” where needed (management was out the window—it was absolute chaos), begging the few dedicated workers I had to stay, racing up and down the 3 story building, pressing shirts in the basement (sometimes well over 100 degrees), learning how to blind-stitch a pair of pants, and making sure shipping labels were properly affixed. My longest day was 36 hours. I remember the feeling, as I peeled my suit off at the end of the day(s), eyes blood shot and swollen, and seeing the salt stains around my navy blue dress socks from the sweaty heat of that basement: nobody knew and nobody seemed to care. The job; the location, all irrelevant. I was the hardest working 22 year old in the state. It was a secret, so I left a year later with the opinion I didn’t belong in management; it was miserable, and I wasn’t any good at it. It was certainly character building.

Another experience, similar, was in working for a large, residential painting contractor in the Chicagoland Area. I was 24, and recruited by them to head up the North Shore operations, later to take over a major portion of the metro area. It was my first crack at managing the P & L: sales, marketing, operations. Although the company was very small at the start, I was in way over my head. Like always, I compensated with effort where my ability was lacking. In the beginning, I had only 12 employees and finished with over 100, and the company made a decent profit. This, like the tuxedo business, was highly seasonal. I moved from Minneapolis to Chicago, was alone, and worked every day for the first few months. I was so “challenged” (I was terrible at the job at first) I slept in my office from Monday through Thursday. My logic was that if I saved a half hour commuting to and from, I would be able to get an hour longer sleep. So, every night at about 10 PM in my little office suite, hearing through the thin walls a periodic car racing by, the air conditioner rattling in the window, I would unroll my sleeping bag, turn out the lights, set my watch and wallet on the oak-colored Formica desk, curl up on the musty old carpet, and sleep like a 25 year old (I was thankfully young). The hard work was starting to pay off as we grew.

One morning, we had an executive meeting at the headquarters of the company with the leaders of the Minnesota and Ohio operations getting together to discuss our respective performance. It was a Friday morning, the end of a work week with nights spent on the office floor, and while driving south for the meeting, I pulled out my electric razor to start shaving (I was one of those guys—saved about 5 minutes a day). The battery died. I couldn’t shave. When I arrived, the owner of the company looked at me with disgust—tired looking and day-old stubble–and tossed me a rhetorical question like he was throwing a Frisbee: “You couldn’t even shave, could you?” Now, he’s not a mean-spirited guy and had every right to expect professionalism from me. However, it was out of character for me to look like that, and he knew I was working hard; I tried to explain I had been sleeping in the office to keep up, but he cut me off and we began the meeting.

Why is all of this pertinent? Well, as I progressed, those painful experiences I’ll never forget. Not so much the hard work, but the combination of the hard work (and performance) and not feeling appreciated. At a very young age I held positions where I hired many, many people. It became clear to me through that process, that there weren’t very many people willing to be dedicated and put forth the effort I thought was so common. I DID learn that it played a key role in my success as I started to develop in my career. So, through simple deduction, I realized that if I was able to identify similar effort, there was almost immeasurable value there; likewise, with the opposite. That epiphany shaped the way I recruited, managed and lead, looking specifically for signs of determination and effort–even above experience and a history of success–and created an environment where the great people surrounding me carried me to levels I hoped for but didn’t expect. Although not always with perfect execution, those I inherited with that character, I spent the lion’s share of my time with, mentoring them. To summarize my lesson learned the hard way, after identifying those characteristics, I made it my mission to ensure I would never allow an opportunity to pass in recognizing that level of determination and effort. These characteristics, once identified, are true “diamonds in the rough” and should be treated as such, with great care.

Retail business has traditionally been one of the most fertile grounds for new businessmen. This is because, it is an industry which generally has a simple business model and is driven by energy, persuasion and enthusiasm. The focus of the business is on trading i.e., buying low and selling high. Even though it sounds quite simple, there are some unique features of this industry that needs to be taken into account while building financial models.

Retail industry includes the fast-moving Consumer-goods sector (FMCG) and the consumer durables sector. Inventory management is the most critical area of this industry, particularly of the FMCG sector. Critical assumptions regarding the level of invenory maintained and the turnover time determine the overall performance of the business as the products generally have negligible level of differentiation and short shelf-life. The profit margins for FMCG products are generally thin as the highly competitive nature of the industry exerts pressure on the margins. The consumer durables sector has better profit margins due to higher degree of product and service differentiation.

Another important factor in determining the bottom-line is the bulk discount rate. Usually the retail stores procure goods in large quantities directly from the manufacturers and hence are eligible for bulk discounts. While some portion of these discounts is retained by the company, a portion is passed on to the consumers to keep off the smaller stores from competing. The retail stores generally offer a large number of offers and schemes in order to attract the price-conscious consumers. While some of costs incurred on account of such schemes and offers may be borne by the manufacturers, the stores end up paying a portion of them. Since buyer recall is poor in retail industry, the companies engage in massive and frequent advertising. Popular media such as television channels and Newspapers are widely used. If the advertisements are related to the launch or promotion of specific products, such expenses can be amortized over many years. However routine advertisement expenses are brought into the books right away.

If you are interested in getting a financial moel built for your business, please visit http://www.financialmodel.net.

Last week, we published a shorting watchlist in response to the market’s 12-year lows.  At the close of Friday, 6 March 2009, the watchlist was profitable on 31 out of 34 stocks, averaging 4.7% in our favour!

Market Summary

The QQQQ market index continued the down trend established in the last month.  This means that the short-term support at $28.00 was broken this week, and heads towards another support around $25.50.

The SP-500 mirrored the QQQQ’s movement, proving to break the support at $740.00 and reiterating the down trend.

Watchlist Performance

Our published watchlist performed rather well:  in one week, 34 stocks averaged 4.7% in our favour.  Three stocks performed over 10%, and 31 stocks were profitable.

The following table demonstrates the performance of each stock, from the close on Monday, 2 March 2009 (enter price) to Friday, 6 March 2009 (exit price).  Note that the calculated percentage change is according to the investment type – either short or long.

* Watchlist stocks which were from our web application and computer analysis.

Now with a fair bit of profit in one week, we’ll continue to watch these stocks and exit each trade according to individual conditions. We’ll update you on our paper trading performancing when this watchlist ceases to be profitable.

The market index is at a 12-year low, and every major sector is trending down.  Five of these sectors have broken their own major support level.  We investigate these sector components to generate a shorting watchlist.

Bleeding Sectors

Most sectors are presently near their respective support levels. These sectors will be interesting to watch in the next couple weeks, as they may break through their support).

However, the five sectors which have already broken their support include:

• Transportation
• Utilities
• Conglomerates
• Consumer Durables
• Consumer Non-Durables

Ticker Watchlist

Within these sectors, we reviewed their components for individual stocks which may reflect the sector’s trend.  Thus, we sorted the lists by descending capitalisation and reviewed the top few stocks.

This produced the following shorting watchlist:

• Transportation
  • UPS
  • BNI
  • UNP
  • FDX
  • NSC
  • CSX
• Utilities
  • D
  • DUK
  • FE
  • PPL
  • ED
• Conglomerates
  • GE
  • UTX
  • MMM
  • PPG
• Consumer Durables
  • XRX
  • PBI
  • FO
  • LEG
  • WHR
  • NWL
• Consumer Non-Durables
  • PG
  • KMB
  • AVP
  • EL
  • CHD
  • AVY
  • PTV

Another Source

We also reviewed stocks which resulted from our software.  We first exampled a healthy list of under-performing stocks, but also checked any stocks which may be up-trending (or at least over-performing the market).

This analysis produced the following watchlist:

• Long
  • APSG
  • DLTR
• Short
  • KF
  • HOT
  • WYNN
  • DDM

The software did produce other potential stocks to watch, but the aforementioned might be the most relevant.

Venture Capital and Private Equity in Africa

After a lot of hasstle and wrangle, I am pleased to finally have secured a new url. And I am only so lucky it didn’t cost me thousands of euros to get it !

The Venture Capital and Private Equity in Africa group can now be found on: www.vc4Africa.com
This platform has quickly become Africa’s largest online community of investors and entrepreneurs.
As a community we are dedicated to connecting African SME projects and businesses.

Venture Capital and Private Equity in Afric

Yesterday I made a visit to the Afrika Studie Centrum in Leiden, the Netherlands.

I was surprised to find a folder with this map. It really brings a number of things into perspective.

Outside of Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa, its clear most FDI is made in energy rich countries.

Many of the countries without these resources are still very much fighting a balance between aid and trade.

I was also surprised to see that aid is still a greater contributor than FDI in a country like Nigeria.

This map clearly shows the amount of work that still needs to be done.

I would invite any other maps or graphs that further tell the story.

FDI in Africa

See a full pdf file from the Afrika Studie Centrum in Leiden, the Netherlands.

As many of you know, the VC 4 Africa community was started in July 2008.
I am pleased to report that the community now includes members from 25 countries.

In the effort to further support members a number of new services and programs have been launched.
As always, I invite your invaluable feedback and participation.

Where is the VC 4 Africa community ?

The VC 4 Africa community now exists on several complimentary platforms.
All of these tools are free and open for anyone to use – a principle idea behind this initiative.

LinkedIn – A platform for networking and exchanging business contacts

VC Africa Community – A social platform for posting articles, events, forum and discussion

VC Africa Community Incubators – Groups dedicated to country specific discussion, topics, events and projects

VC Africa on Twitter - A tool for tracking the communities developments and its members

Promote your projects !

If you have a project you would like to present to the group please forward your powerpoint presentation to vc4africa@gmail.com.

These presentations will be profiled for the group and attached to relevant discussion boards. Members can then see where they might have an interest to cooperate or support your activities.

Exchange links

Would you like to have your organization, website or weblog listed to the home page of the VC Africa website ? Let me know and I will be happy to exchange links. E-mail vc4africa@gmail.com.

Improve your profiles !

If you have a moment please come back and update your profile. It only takes a few minutes but can make a big difference. Your profile is a landing page for entrepreneurs and investors. The more you develop your profile the more other members can find ways to work with you. Also, please add a profile picture as we are working to keep the community personal. Spend 2 minutes

What is the plan moving forward ?

The aim of the project is to create an open and free platform for finding and sharing information. A place for entrepreneurs and investors to come together and share ideas. As the project develops, the hope is that the continent’s best entrepreneurs and projects come forward. It is up to the community to embrace these individuals in the effort to realize each project’s potential. If anyone has an interest in pushing this process forward please feel free to contact me with thoughts, ideas or suggestions.

Happy networking !

Video from AfricaNews.com on the Ghana Elections.

Overview

The Enterprise, Nesy Concepts is a healthy, growing small to medium size company which is expanding gradually in the Arts, Design and Fashion production market in Ghana. The enterprise is in search of strategic partner to invest in the acquisition of machines, equipments and materials to increase her production output to 200%. This will support the enterprise efforts to reach out to many young Ghanaian skilled individuals, especially women who knock on their doors daily.

Also, to develop the 5 acres of land acquired to build an additional workshop and resource center at Tema in the Greater Accra Region in the southern part of Ghana. The project is estimated around $ 200,000. This will increase the company’s operating capacity by 200%.

Strategy & Vision

The Nesy Concepts Enterprise holds strong positions in the district and regional markets of the Arts, Design and Fashion wholesale markets. (E.g. of their products are African Ladies, Gentlemen and Children Wear, Accessories of all Kinds and Diverse Bags and Foot Wear). Also, very strong in providing training and special skills for young individuals, some of which are school dropouts with all kinds of skills.

Ghana, where the Enterprise is based has shown steady economic growth in the last 10years. As a consequence the demand for young skilled entrepreneurs to reduce unemployment among the target groups and also to boost the private sector part of the economy is rising. The private sector is desperately in need of these entrepreneurs to take these young skilled individuals from the streets of the inner cities.

In the light of the above, Nesy Concepts Enterprise is in search of this strategic partner to invest into the machines, equipments and materials to expand the workshop and the resource center facilities to service the sales outlets for their products in other parts of Ghana and on the International markets as well. This will increase her intake capacity by 100% and also increase their market share to 50%.

Company Profile

City & Region: Tema, Greater Accra Region
Country: Ghana
Year of establishment 2002
Number of Employees: Seven (7), Permanent Personnel
Eight-three (83), Temporary Workers

Business Sector
• Export & Wholesale of African Products
• Training and Skills Development

Orientation

Districts, Regional; Occasionally International

Structure, Management and Ownership
Sole Proprietorship, 100% owned by the management

Financials
Turnover ($) 12,000,-
Total assets ($) 17,500,-

Auditors report
N/A

Contact Nesy Concepts

Jan De Louterstraat 126-II
1063 LB Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Phone: +31 (0)20 4001126
Mobile: +31 (0)6 17808193
Fax no.1: +31 (0)20 7746063
Fax no.2: +31 (0)84 7324797

Are you working to build a small or medium size company in Africa ? Are you working to develop your business model, your product and market ? Are you looking to reach out to new customers, partners or possible investors ?

If you would like to profile your company on this weblog simply let us know !

Kind regards and success !

By Edris Kisambira, IDG News Service\Kampala Bureau
21 Oct, 2008

A lack of ICT research and limited cooperation and information sharing among research groups is widening the digital divide between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world, according to Uganda’s minister of ICT, Ham Mukasa Mulira.

Collaboration between Africans and the rest of the world is important with regard to the development of ICT in Africa, he said at the opening of the EuroAfriCa-ICT Awareness Workshop in Kampala on Monday.

The EuroAfriCa-ICT project presents an opportunity for the sub-Saharan region to explore new areas of collaboration, like joint research, ICT application development, mentorship and industrial attachment, Mulira noted.

“Europe has a lot of expertise in undertaking research of different kinds related to science and technology, which could be of great advantage to many young researchers in the region,” added Ugandan Prime Minister Appolo Nsibambi.

According to Nsibambi, Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to reap benefit from e-health, e-education, e-commerce and business process outsourcing.

“In order for these to take root,” he said, “it is very important that research provides the foundation for the implementation of such projects.”

However, Mulira pointed out in his address that the biggest challenge confronting the sector, especially in eastern Africa, is the lack of access to international undersea cable systems.

“This has inevitably denied our people access to the cheap international bandwidth due to the sole dependence on satellite, which is expensive and limited in capacity,” Mulira said.
Ongoing regional undersea cable initiatives such as EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System), TEAMS (The East African Marine System), SEACOM, and Uhurunet are expected to address the bandwidth constraint by end of 2009.

With proper infrastructure in place, Mulira noted, universal access will become feasible, allowing developing nations to leapfrog ahead.

The US economy is in the toilet.  I think the situation will get worse before it gets better in almost all industries.  This blog will cover lowered financial estimates put out by companies or financial analysts.  It will be split up by industry, with categories for Retail, Energy, Defense, Automotive, Banking, etc.

We’ll tally up posts and summarize what we’re seeing every week.  If done right, this blog should be a quick and easy indicator of the state of US stocks in most industries.

Check back daily or subscribe to the feed for a quick view at what companies are lowering estimates today.

The Business Standard reports that over-all retail credit growth has slumped to 14% for the year to June 2008.

Consumer durables and auto loans have been instrumental in pulling the overall retail growth down to 14% against 23% YOY. A segmentation across Housing Loans in India, Personal Loans in India, etc reflects a steep fall in the consumer durables segment.

Click here to catch the full story.

]]> http://werievents.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/water-from-air/ Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:43:02 +0000 werievents http://werievents.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/water-from-air/

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Mobile :+33 627 95 50 33

www.weri-events.org

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