It's not enough to be close to the customer. You've got to be glued to the customer.

Organize as much as possible around teams, to achieve enhanced focus, task orientation, innovativeness, and individual commitment.

If timing ain't everything, it's damn close

The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.

The principal reason, invariably, most "successful" giant companies rather quickly become also-rans, or just amorphous blobs on the competitive landscape, is their failure to re-tool in anything like a fundamental way. In fact, the worse things get, typically, the more they dig in their heels and defend yesterday's turf.

My half-baked reading of history is that we continue to go through these waves of entrepreneurial explosion followed by merger mania and consolidation. Out of that come big sluggish companies that eventually collapse under the weight of what they've created, and are killed off by the next wave of entrepreneurs.

South Africa has all the tools to compete in the new global village - an eager workforce, ready to take on any challenge.