Business Lessons From The Beautiful Game!

Believe it or not; I have great admiration for sports managers, particularly those who manage elite clubs; whether it is soccer, American football, basketball, or just about any sport played at the highest level.

Let me share with you some of my (BUSINESS) reasons:

A Kingdom In The Mountains: (Part 1) by Dr. Strive Masiyiwa

Lesotho is a remarkable country:
It is a small African country nestled in the majestic Drakensburg Mountains of Southern Africa. Uniquely, it is one of only three countries in the world, completely surrounded by another country; South Africa. And yet it is a fiercely independent and proud country, with its own constitutional king, who is greatly loved by his people. The moment, I arrived there for the first time, I fell in love with the people, and I said to my companion: "I could live here for ever."

In 2000, the then government of Lesotho, hired Price Waterhouse, the global financial advisory firm, and asked them to sell their public telephone company, known as Telecom Lesotho,

What Do You See? Part 2 by Dr. Strive Masiyiwa.

The two weeks prior to the submission of the tender bid for Botswana, are probably the hardest I have ever worked in my life, even to this day!
We produced a 900 page bid document, using a team of 35 people. Sometimes we went for two or three days without much sleep.
There were 21 bidders who had collected documents. They were mostly big multinational companies from all over the world, including operators like Vodacom, MTN, Bharti, France Telecom.

The Botswana government had hired international consultants from Sweden to run the process for them.

Although we were facing such fierce competition, and we were unknown, I had deep faith, that we would win. I did not care who we were up against, we had to beat them!

Making Sound Financial Decisions: Open A Bank Account. Part 5 by Dr Strive Masiyiwa.

Now here is a mystery: studies recently undertaken on small holder farmers, showed that a farmer who opens a bank account, is more likely to have money to buy seeds for the next planting season, than one has no bank account. Surprised? This is part of the mystery of wealth.

The new Prime Minister of India; a man respected for his ability to bring millions of people out of poverty, has just embarked on a campaign to get millions of their poorest citizens, to open bank accounts. Surprised? This is part of the mystery of wealth.
The Chinese have long understood, the importance of SAVING. It is the savings of millions of Chinese people that has driven their economic miracle.

The Minister of Agriculture of Nigeria, Dr Akin Adesina, a close friend and colleague, has embarked on a major campaign to get small scale farmers in that country to open, mobile bank accounts. Experts, including myself, believe that it will bring millions out of poverty. Surprised? This is part of the mystery of wealth.