You’re presented with two different scenarios. What will your choice be in each case.

Case 1

There are three tram stops A,B and C. The distance between A and B equals the distance between B and C. Your office is location between station B and C, let’s approximate it to be situated in the 1/3 of the distance from B to C. similarly there is a bus stop in 2/3 of the distance between A and B.  Its free to take the tram.

Question: from your office to the bus station which  means will you prefer to use, walk or take the tram and if the tram which stop will you prefer to take B or C?

Case 2

Juma wants to buy a car for going with it to work during the week days and out during the weekend. The problem with Juma he lives near the city centre, so he doesn’t have to drive to work. Likewise if he goes out Juma wants to drink, and he can’t drive while drink.

Question: what will you advise Juma so he can fulfil his wish to have a car. A) should Juma move out of town or B) should Juma stop going out to drink

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The usage of social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, micro-blogs and wikis is accelerating at an incredible rate. Organizations are among the increasing users of the social media networks. The rationale for organizations to engage in these networks and platforms is to advance essential organizational processes that will lead towards a competitive advantage. Development of an organizational value is an essential organizational process with potential to give an organization a competitive advantage over other organizations. The improvement of organizational value is, arguable, a key reason for companies to engage in social media platforms.

For organization to gain a sustainable competitive advantage over its rivals, it has to employ its unique capabilities. The unique capabilities are derived from distinct resources or competences of an organization. Organizational values are among distinct capabilities, which give competitive advantage to organizations. Organizational values are the guiding principles and beliefs perceived to exist by organizational members as whole (Liedtka, 1991). Organizational values play an important role in the decision making process of an organization.

The advancement and prosperity of social media has made it an important resource for organization to express and execute their values. In the same way, organizations advance their missions and goals.  Social media as coined by Ted Leonsis is a place where consumers get entertained, communicate and engage in a social environment (Bercovici, 2010). The social media platform has been an instrumental stratagem for organization to advance their mission because social media technology provides organization with ability to accomplish their goals in a ways that were difficult or impossible before the entry of social media technology (Treem and Leornadi, 2012). Thus, it can be argued that the organizational competence to adapt and use social media is what counts for distinction, which results to a competitive advantage.

The nature of social media provides a fertile environment for instigating organizational values. Schein (1985) stresses that organizational values are achieved through culture in which is determined by “environment of values” in which the organization operates. Therefore a cultural change brings about the evolution of organizational value. It is an assumption that the entrenching popular tradition of using social media is consequently influencing the development of new organization values in particular those that are engaged in these platforms.

On another angle, social media enables organization to leverage their intellectual capital as means to reach their set objectives. The ability to transform business into intelligent organization is the challenge facing organizations, which desire to be key players in the market. Carmeli and Tishler (2004) contend that organizations are now realizing that their ability to create value does not depend on traditional tangible and financial assets but on the ownership and development of intellectual capital. Likewise, Antonio et al (2012) suggests that the successful organizations in the market are those that innovate, take advantage of new technology [social media] and employs skills and know-how and not those organizations that depend only on leveraging physical assets. For that reason, organization finds the importance of adapting social media due to its clear role in providing organizational value, which is key to facilitating a competitive advantage.

References

Antonio Lerro, Francesca A. Iacobone, Giovanni Schiuma, (2012). Knowledge assets assessment strategies: organizational value, processes, approaches and evaluation architectures, Journal of Knowledge Management, 16/4:563 – 575

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My little work experience is influencing my view on sports. As a consultant I’ve been working in different field from retail to finance and management. I have faced a number of challenges which have nurtured my thoughts towards sport.   I have observed poor time management, lack of team work, lack of competency and disorganization in workplace. I have attempted to figure out the factors that contribute to the occurrence of such situations and lack of sports in early stages of life is one of the strong reasons as to why we have poor labor productivity.

Sports are active in their essence.  Part of my work as a consultant is to activate a dull workplace.  Most of the challenges I pointed out earlier can be treated with sports especially at earlier stages of human growth. I was speaking to my uncle about my new view on sport and he pointed out the importance of sports especially to children. He told me that sports are first activity that animals learn before anything else. I think especially In Tanzania we should learn to let children play, this should be their right. We should make good sporting environment that will make our children fit physically and mentally.

Emphasizing sports in the community benefits the society in several ways. The first and the foremost is preparing an active labor force which is competitive, flexible, disciplined, focused, organized, cooperative and most important a proud society. Lack of sports especially in our schools has made a disgrace to our society. We’ve be performing poorly in international sports such as in Olympics, world cup, even the common wealth games. It’s my belief that if we return sports to school we shall not just be proud of gaining medals in international arenas but also we shall have an active labor force with high productivity.

Lastly to change the situation in workplace, I think all parties in the society from organizations, businesses, politicians and other stakeholders should have a new look on sports. I think alongside the constitutional agenda the sports agenda should be on the platform. Though sports have minimal direct effect it has maximal indirect effect towards the development of the society, therefore it should be regarded very highly. I Hope to see the sports agenda on the 2015 campaigns.

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Lack of economic planning in household level is indeed one of major factor that explains why most of families are still hallowed in poverty.  Training household members how to develop their vision and how to attain them is the first step towards alleviating poverty at household level. Different stakeholders of development such as government, non-government institution, churches and others have realized this and initiated training of economic planning and entrepreneurship at household level. The council of churches in Tanzania (CCT) runs a training in household economic planning and entrepreneurship for adults especially youth and women each year. This year I have been fortunate enough to be one of the facilitators of this program. We’re facilitating this training to fifty youth from Shinyanga and surrounding region. Since the workshop is still on-going, this entry will partially highlight my experience of the seminar and its socio-economic importance to the society.

A little survey done during the seminar proved that most youth have engaged at least to one economic activity. The engagement to these activities has enriched the youth with a lot of experience. Unfortunate, the experience they have isn't a good one hence a lot of them are discouraged with enterprising activities and life in general. Thus seminars like this of economic household planning and entrepreneurship gives them hope which is very important. The hope they gain from the seminar will give most of them the drive to restart their enterprising activities which will effect to raising the living standard of many households across the country. Rejuvenating hope to youth across the country is more or less the same as gearing economic development.

During the seminar a lot of issues facing young people in the country were raised.  Training for youth especially on economic matters provides a platform for youth to speak out the major socio-economic challenges that they face in the ground. I think this would be a very good place for policy makers to gain insight and feedback. The feedback will be contributory in shaping future policy particularly the ones which aim to solve youth problems. Lack of enterprise is one of the reasons which cause mass unemployment to the young generation. Most of the youth in the seminar pointed out that the lack of entrepreneurial skills and knowledge is the reason that many of their business have failed. Furthermore, the access to credit has been a major reason for failing of many start-ups business. Unfortunate, many youth have bad experience with creditors; many creditors have issued loans and credits to people without supplying them enough knowledge on loan repayments. This has made most of young people to carry a large burden which they didn't know hence failing to repay and finding themselves incurring penalties and harassment. Therefore it’s very important to carry out such seminar as they highlight the problem which youth face and most important is that they shed light to solution hence bringing hope to the young generation.

Finally, household economic planning and entrepreneurial training   seminars like this instill knowledge and skills to women and youth which provides handy tool for daily activities. During the seminar the participants were taught how to make priorities, budgets, record keeping and planning. Sometimes people aren't poor because of insufficient resources but rather due to lack of planning and disorganization which causes significant waste hence giving poverty gets a chance. Therefore, teaching these simple techniques brings a huge transformation. For instance, many participants after constructing their budget they discovered how they wasted lot of money buying airtime or other less important things.

In conclusion, the government and other stakeholders of development should conduct regular training varying from different aspects of life so as to improve the life of women, youth and households across the country. Such training's are significant as they highlight the root cause of problems, they bring hope, provide solutions and most important they give knowledge and skills which are very important for people who want to improve their living standards.

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Solomon, the wisest men ever lived said that, ‘righteousness exalts a nation’.  In Africa and arguable in the entire world, righteousness is scarce. This is reflected in increasing inequality that leads to injustice and persistent poverty. If I were a leader in Africa the single change I would aim to bring about is reducing inequality, because it kills morale and perpetuates poverty. I would so by reforming education.

Empowering the weak in the society is the solution towards reducing inequality. This can best be done through education that provides knowledge and skills as Francis Bacon once said that ‘Knowledge is power’. Knowledge has the power to create and innovate. The empowering through knowledge is the most practical and efficient means to build a more equal and just society. Research has it that one of the most powerful explanatory factors for Chinese success in the last 35 years is learning, done under a Confucius concept known as Jiaohua- meaning transforming the society by learning. As an Africa leader, in the midst of other commercial and diplomatic relations with China, I would imitate their concept of Jiaohua with an African flavor to suit into my society’s context and cultural sensitivities. Education is the best inheritance that this nation can confer to its citizens - an inheritance that is mobile, safe and instrumental in times of trouble. Education helps citizens to cope with the socio-economic environment of wherever they go around the universe.  Good education enables citizens to survive in a world that becomes more competitive each morning. It is a password to engage in a connected world, lifetime endowment and a sustainable investment. Education capacitates productivity. An educated society is able to fight for its rights leading to just institutions that provides and protect equal opportunities for all. Therefore, education remains to be the crucial infrastructure for progression and sustainability of a nation. In light of this, as a leader, I would uphold education as a tool to empower the weak, fight poverty, and make the society equal. To this end, an education reform would be a must.

Education is a sophisticated means of production. It is an expensive investment! The preference to provide free education for all is desirable and possible. However, experience has shown us that it impairs quality. Moreover, free education in Africa has mostly been made possible with donor money, which can cease any time donor’s interest on education dies. A better education needs heavy investment, which is costly. The question is, how do we cover these costs sustainably? The appealing solution would be to charge education fee relatively to one’s income. Thus, citizens who have more income pay more than those who have less income for the same type and quality education. All schools, private, faith-based, and public/government owned schools would provide the same quality education with equal pay to teachers. Thus, the government would subsidize education costs of the weak in the society. In this way we would prevent free riders and most important we would unlock potentials of the beneficiaries and the society in general.

Another aspect of education reform would be pedagogical. The focus would change from teaching to learning, from a subject orientation to a training orientation, from education of life preparation to education as part of life. This reformation is essential to suit the needs of the present and future time. Learning is necessary for the independence of individual; training builds confidence and certainty whereas education as part of life is the sustainability of our society.

To achieve the above two reforms, there are three crucial things that must be done. First, the need to revisit and formulate an education policy that would ensure all missing gaps is filled. This will require evidence based policymaking bringing in different stakeholders and community at large. To make policy for an education that is part of life would require involvement of communities so that they own and hence ensure its implementation. Second, there would be a need to create and maintain capable institutions that would be able to embed education as part of life in our society. And third, there would be a need to change attitudes towards education and understand it as an investment that is expensive but with high returns. Having right education policies and institutions but without investment, is like clouds without rain.

In conclusion therefore, if I were a leader in Africa the single change I would institute is education reform. Education reforms would be done through formulation of proper policy, creation of strong institutions, and ample investment. Education is the most effective weapon to fight inequality through provision of equal opportunities to members of the society. This would ultimately uphold righteousness and our continent would be exalted.  

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