Africa is Awesome: Focus on Côte d'Ivoire | Abidjan (The Streets of Angré Chateau) [Part III]

Day 2: 11 September 2018

My first meeting was only at 14:00, which gave me a bit of time to explore Angré Chateau, the area that I was staying in. 

Angré Chateau refers to the large water tower (above). My hosts kindly organised Issoufou, to be my security guard, to hold my hand, as I explored the streets of Abidjan.

Issoufou took his job incredibly seriously, and literally held my hand every time we crossed the road (which I was incredibly grateful for, as mentioned in Part II, traffic is insane!) He was very worried about my safety and took such good care of me. He could not speak a word of English, and my French was slowly but surely picking up, but both our charades skills are now top notch! We walked a lot! Luckily in between the charades and broken French I indicated that I needed to be home by midday.

The absolutely super Issoufou,  my security guard, French tutor and tour guide 

Every now and again he would stop and ask if my legs were tired, but I was happy to explore further. He showed me all the local street food. Earlier this year I realised just how embarrassingly little I knew about Africa, so we added a section to our weekly team meetings of focussing on a different African country where we chat about the president, the flag, language, cuisine, currency etc. A few weeks ago we focussed on Côte d'Ivoire, and I recall Nadia chatting about the local cuisine and the bananas cooked at the side of the road. I kept thinking that I would stock up on some for lunch on my way home later in the morning.

A lady showed me a massive pot of fish heads frying, it looked delicious, but I thought that 10:00 in the morning felt a bit early for a fried fish; again I made a note that I would indulge in a fish head for lunch. [I found out later that the fried fish is actually for breakfast]. 

As we were walking it started to lightly drizzle, breaking the heat and humidity; it was magical, and again I got that feeling that this is just so the right place and path to be on; Africa is amazing, and the opportunities abundant. We really do need to look after ourselves as a continent. I do worry when I see what a massive influence China is having on Africa. 

We continued our walk...

...and we walked and waked. How beautiful is this tree! Met the most amazing entrepreneurs along the way...and walked...

There are many Churches and nursery schools, and surprisingly many bureaux de changes along the way. 

As we walked and strolled down the road, Issoufou, bought us a bag of fresh peanuts to share, it was delicious!

We walked all the way to a massive shopping centre, it's always fun to walk down the aisles and to look at the local products. 

Fortunately, as mentioned earlier I had indicated that we needed to be home at 12:00. In total we had walked 14kms! (got home at 13:00), which unfortunately didn't give me a chance to try the bananas or fish for lunch, as I had to be in town at 14:00 for my meeting. 

I am incredibly grateful for this snapshot into the life of a morning in one of the areas of Abidjan. 

The only thing that I would do differently, is to remember to wear sunscreen next time! :D

Part IV and final installment tomorrow.

Africa is Awesome: Focus on Côte d'Ivoire | Abidjan (Traipsing the traffic) [Part II]

Day1: Monday, 10 September 2018

Bonjour Côte d'Ivoire!

Usually, I am rather antisocial on airplanes, this time I sat next to a very pleasant guy by the name of Moris, who was returning to Abidjan after being involved in the sunglasses business in South Africa for three years. He advised me where to get a SIM card and data so that I could at least be contactable via WhatsApp (after an insane MTN bill after a layover in Dubai many years ago, I refuse to activate my mobile roaming facility).

The pic above is of the Bureaux de Change inside the airport; what was particularly interesting to me, was that the Euro is much stronger than the US Dollar; the reason for this is that there is an agreement with Europe / the Euro and Central African Franc (XAF); the price is set. This is very good to keep in mind the next time when converting local Rands into foreign currency and travelling to Francophone countries.

There was quite a strong military/police presence at the airport, as you can see from the photo above not many people or cars outside the airport. Moris, helped me negotiate with a taxi to my next destination, where I was to meet with my Rotary host Désiré Woï.

The traffic is something else! Firstly, it always messes with my head when it's a left-hand-drive / wrong-side-of-the-road traffic system. Traffic lights and street signs seem to be mere suggestions. It is absolute madness. I only saw one guy knocked off his moped, fortunately, nothing serious; am just really quite surprised (but grateful) that there aren't many more accidents. 

There are a lot of cars. Unlike our minibus taxi system, they use sedans, which does explain why the traffic jams are something else. There are green taxis and yellow taxis, they are limited to work within specific suburbs, the red taxis can work across suburbs. There are also white taxis (Taxi Ivoire, no photos above), they are newer and can also travel inter-suburbs. Generally, the taxi fee is about XAF 2500 (R80) but depends on who is doing the negotiating and traffic jam situation.

After instructions from Moris and the taxi boss, I was en route to Cocody (a suburb) to meet up with Désiré. My taxi driver could not speak a word of English, and my French negligible, but we managed to chit-chat our way through the traffic.

I was very grateful to find out that Désiré and his amazing wife Casimira, could speak English. They are a wonderful power couple, they both studied law in Abidjan; Désiré continued his studies in the US and Casimira in Paris. Désiré was the President for Rotary Club of Abidjan last year, and Casimira is very involved with the Lions in Gabon; this is where she is originally from and still returns there often to work on projects.

Casimira greeted us with the most delicious homemade supper!

Part III tomorrow

Africa is Awesome: Focus on Côte d'Ivoire | Abidjan, (well actually Ethiopia) [Part I]

The adventure started with a cheeky email...

I am part of Margaret Hirsch's Women of Worth (WOW) supper club. Fay her assistant sent through an email to say that the September 2018 dinner needed to be moved out by a couple of days as Margaret was traveling to  Côte d'Ivoire. I sent Margaret a note in jest, asking, "Can I come with...?", and didn't really give it a second thought after pressing send. Boy was I surprised when I received an affirmative email a couple of days later and asking whether I could speak French!

It doesn't help to put things out to the universe and then not acting on it when the opportunity comes your way.  For some time I have been wanting to expand Reputation Matters into Africa, and the expansion plan is definitely in motion, Botswana earlier this year, now Côte d'Ivoire. As the saying goes, if your goals don't scare you, they are not big enough!

The wheels were in motion for this leg of the African adventure... basic French podcasts downloaded, [I can confidently remember how to tell you what my name is in French and that I speak very basic French from my matric third language classes, but the pawpaw hits the fan when people actually start talking back.] Travelstart trawled for the best travel deals and accommodation via AirB&B scoured. I am not a fan of staying in hotels, my preference is to live like a local; it's the best way to experience a place. I also think it helps to authentically connect with the place, especially if you want to do business there. 

Not knowing anyone in Abidjan, I reached out to the local Rotary Club for advice on where best to stay and whether I could attend one of their Rotary meetings. When things are meant to be, everything falls into place really quickly; the Past President reached out and invited me to stay with them. 

I got a really good deal with Ethiopian Airways, it was a bit of a trek, East Coast / West Coast, but, not being deterred by an excessively long layover, I decided to maximise my time while I was there. 

Ethiopia is an hour ahead of South Africa, we landed at 22:00 (Ethiopian time); something that I thought was incredibly well organised, was that if your layover is longer than (I think), eight hours, the airline organises accommodation for you at a local hotel for the evening, including dinner and breakfast. It is so much better than having to camp out at the airport. 

You don't need a visa, all you need to do is present your boarding pass, hotel voucher and passport at passport control. You do need to weave your way through the painstakingly slow queue. Your passport does not get stamped, only the boarding pass, so apart from the photos there is actually no proof that I was on Ethiopian soil. 

Cape Town has not had a hint of Spring warmth yet, so the warm sweet Addis Ababa air enveloped me as I walked to the waiting area for the minibus to collect us to go through to "Top Ten" hotel, and I just had this incredible feeling that this feels right and that I am on the right track. 

The two photos above are of the view from my room on the third floor. It was rather amazing, humbling, to see the sunrise on the East coast of Africa (Addis Ababa), and then sunset on the West coast of Africa, later the same day in Abidjan. 

Earlier this year the Cape Town team and I went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Long Street, I absolutely loved the Injera, it's a large spongy pancake; was absolutely thrilled it was on the breakfast menu! (pic above; bottom of the plate)

My friend Mikias Sissay, Communication Strategist and Advisor for the World Bank joined me for breakfast. We bounced around ideas of communication and reputation management as well as chatted about our Awesome AfriCAN initiative. I do realise that each country will have its own set of rules and challenges; the low literacy levels of the informal job market that we want to do business with in Addis Ababa is something that we will need to include in our planning.

After another hour and a half in the passport control queue, and three other queues, we were heading West. At around noon, I looked out of the window, and it was the weirdest scenery I had ever experienced, it was midday, but there was no sun, no stars, only this navy blue presence contrasted by white clouds, it was rather eerie, yet magical, a sign of exciting things to come...?

Part II tomorrow

Leadership Magazine: What are your eight words?

My latest Leadership Magazine is on page 122 and 123

Can you fluently describe what your business’ unique selling proposition (USP) is? What makes you stand out from your competitors? If you say it’s the quality of your service or product, or your quick turnaround times, isn’t that exactly what they are also saying? 

If you were to describe what it is that your business does in eight words, what would you say? Would your answer sound the same as the receptionist or intern’s answer? How does it compare to the person that has been with the company for ten years or more? If you took time to ask everyone, you might be quite surprised to find out what the rest of your team are saying. This is the message that is being communicated internally and externally, to friends, customers and other stakeholders. It has a direct impact on how your business is being perceived and your company’s reputation. This perception of what your company does is not necessarily the truth, but it is that person’s reality which becomes their opinion that is communicated to people around them.

A few years back I realised with a shock that we didn’t have a succinct USP, our ‘eight words’ were all rather muddled. I recall asking the team to share a voice note with me via WhatsApp describing what we do in eight words. Everyone’s voice note was quite different and varied a lot in length (despite asking for just eight words). Clearly, we definitely needed clarity on our eight words.

I really didn’t want to dictate what the eight words should be and I believe in being collaborative and involving the team in key decisions. If everyone is on board and gives their inputs, the chances of them buying into it and adopting it as their own are much greater. So at our last strategy session, we set time aside to work out what our eight words are, combing the USP and our vision. The reason for this is so that when we share our USP, we automatically share the bigger vision of expanding operations into the rest of Africa as well. We agreed on a slightly longer phrase which is longer than eight words, but I think the 12 words we’ve agreed on packages it quite well. In answering the ‘Who are you and why are you special?’ question, we can now all say: Africa’s go to reputation research and management partner for sustainable organisational growth. 

At your next team meeting, why not ask everyone to take a few minutes to write down what they consider it is that the business does.

There are a number of reasons it is so important to be clear in your offering:

1. If you are fluent at what you do, it is so much easier to explain it to someone else and for them to understand and welcome it;
2. Target your sales effort: knowing exactly what it is that you do makes it a lot easier to identify opportunities that you want to focus on which are aligned to your core services. You will also feel a lot less guilty saying ‘no’ to work that does not fit into your core offering;
3. It helps you to identify growth opportunities;
4. Your reputation is built upon what is communicated internally and externally. When everyone sings from the same hymn sheet and consistently sends out the same message, you are all building your company’s reputation. Keep in mind that reputations are all about consistency; you are either consistently good or consistently bad as you build a reputation for your business. If your core message is inconsistent, and all over the place, your service offering will most likely also be all over the place as everyone has their own version of what they should be doing. The more consistent you and your team are, the more solid your reputation will be.

It might be a good idea to review your communication material and check that everything aligns to the eight word principal of describing your business. Also, remember to check your internal messages and don’t neglect your induction pack for new employees. Consider finding out what your other key stakeholders think you do as it will help you to know if you need to realign key messages and identify gaps in your communication initiatives.

To continue the reputation management discussion, visit www.reputationmatters.co.za or call +27 (0)11 317 3861. We are also on Facebook www.facebook.com/yourreputationmatters and Twitter @ReputationIsKey

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Book: Banker to the poor, The autobiography of Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus with Alan Jolis

A very interesting read and take on how to eradicate poverty. On this MAD journey that I am on, this book was highly recommended and I understand why. It was first published in 1998; there have been many changes with the boom of technology, sadly not too much in terms of finding a solution to poverty. 

I particularly like what Yunus says about charity, "Charity is no solution to poverty. Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about those of other people. Our conscience is adequately appeased by charity. The real issue is creating a level playing field for everybody, giving every human being a fair and equal chance."

The only place where poverty should be seen in the future is in museums. 

The week that was 20180908

PROUDEST | MOST GRATEFUL MOMENT

My most grateful moment this week was receiving my Côte d'Ivoire visa. I am incredibly grateful to my assistance Tracey for taking charge of all the admin in my life. I never realised just how much I needed a Tracey in my life. With this, the African adventure continues!

MY BIGGEST LESSON THIS WEEK

For years I had the same financial planner, we walked a path for almost 15 years. It was one of those scenarios where you don't know what you don't know, and you blindly support someone because you think they have your best interest at heart. For some time it bothered me that I only heard from him once a year when my policies had to be renewed, usually with quite a steep price increase. I knew that I had to change advisors.

Enter Carla. I now have the most amazing Carla from Adviceworx in my life, who takes a genuine interest in what I do and my finances. We have reviewed everything and through this exercise, realised that my will was last updated in 2009! 

Medical aid, short-term insurance, life insurance, you name it we've looked at it. Not a massive fan of change, I was initially a bit daunted by all of these changes. Then I realised (and this is where the lesson for the week comes in), that the whole purpose of changing over to Adviceworx was to get advice and guidance. There is absolutely no point in wanting things to change but you continue doing things in the same way. 

MY FAVOURITE QUOTE THIS WEEK

Not necessarily a quote, but I really liked this piece shared by one of our team members earlier this week:

PODCAST I'M LISTENING TO 

WHAT MADE ME GIGGLE THIS WEEK

This absolutely made my week!

The week that was 20180901

PROUDEST | MOST GRATEFUL MOMENT

I feel super chuffed to have completed the Certified Directorship course presented by the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA). It was a great experience to be a student again for a couple of hours a week. I particularly enjoyed Part 5, which was a simulation of a real board meeting. A highly recommended course. 

MY BIGGEST LESSON THIS WEEK

The biggest lesson this week, is more of a reminder; and could actually also be positioned under the 'My Proudest Moment this week." It links to Steve Job's quote I shared last week. "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do," ~ Steve Jobs.

I absolutely love my team. This week we presented two large research project results to clients. I was bursting with pride as they presented the results. I did not have to micromanage any of the projects and only provided a soundboard function as and where needed.

Both clients commented on what a painless process it was and thanked the team for making the research such an easy process. 

The right team, processes and tools is a magical combination for pain-free research and reputation management. 

MY FAVOURITE QUOTE THIS WEEK 

PODCAST I'M LISTENING TO 

WHAT MADE ME GIGGLE THIS WEEK

Here's to another AWESOME week!