Foster, get's my Mampara award this week.
SAA AIrlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster came up short in an interview with canny Radio 702 talk show host, Bruce Whitfield on 24 December 2009.
In the first minute of the interview he implied (no, said), that it was SA Airlink's decision to ground its fleet of 14 Jetstream 41s. Whitfield called him on this and he admitted it was the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) who had been the major influence in that decision.
He was wrong footed from then on and lost all credibility. It appeared to me that his concern with passenger and crew safety was contrived. And, watching Foster on TV that night, there appears to be very little empathy in the man.
He's rattling off the party line as outlined to him by his spin doctors. Speak from the heart, Rodger. And, throw away that spin doctored script.
And Foster has made a rod for his back by putting the blame squarely in Honeywell's camp, saying it was some engine fault or other that only Honeywell can shed light on.
Foster is obviously not a chess player, and has forced Honeywell to make a move. He left no room for Honeywell to save face.
Guess what? A maelstrom is going to be unleashed. One can be sure that Honeywell's PR outfit is way more sophisticated than SAA Airlink's. They'll fight tooth and nail to defend Honeywell's hard-won reputation and will come at SAA Airlink with everything they've got.
Here's how it is going to play out:
- Honeywell is going to bring up its track record in relation to its other Jetstream 41 engines around the world. SAA Airlink better pray that every other Jetstream that has Honeywell's engines is also experiencing problems. If this doesn't come to pass, the spotlight will be firmly on SAA Airlink.
- The CAA will then intensify its investigation and who knows what will come up – be it management ineptitude, staff slovenliness or union filibustering.
- The CAA will find disgruntled staff who will be all to willing to dish out the dirt on SAA Airlink.
- The CAA will extend its investigation to other planes in the SAA Airlink Fleet and maybe find other issues.
- The CAA will be forced to ground the whole SAA Airlink Fleet.
My suggestion is that Foster apologises to Honeywell for jumping the gun and comes clean on this whole affair. Believe me the media will find out all in the end and if it's ugly, it's going to end up ugly for SAA Airlink and Foster.
Get another spokesperson to represent SAA Airlink, Foster's too hard and analytical. Airlink needs someone who appears to be more empathetic.
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers is a marketing strategist specialising in marketing, public relations, Internet marketing and sales.
IBurst won't sell me anything!
I've been trying to compare the Iburst solution with the Neotel solution. I'm currently an IBurst subscriber. I sent two emails via www.iburst.co.za to request someone to contact me.
Then I contacted Zoe, marketing manager's office. One of her staff said they'd get someone to phone me regarding my query. I'm still waiting (5 days later).
Zoe, your lead generation is OK, but your conversion process sucks. Imagine that you don't follow up with 5 prospects a month – you're losing an average of R200 per month, per person. That's R24 000 over the two year contract that you're losing out on. I'd suspect that IBurst probably loses more than 5 people a day based on my experience.
Before IBurst wipes its eyes out, Neotel will take market share.
So, this week's mampara is IBurst.
Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers specialises in marketing, public relations and sales.
I found this translation on a Chinese lip balm.
Special effect formula for protecting your double-lips with soft and gentle nature. Natural nourishment and moisture elements, exquisitely seep into your lip slot, deeply moisturize and protect your lips. Protect your double lips against frost-hurt, rough crack and ache. Every time you show out smooth shiny and tender lip charming.
Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker and marketing consultant in South Africa.
This was one of the moments in 2009 that gave me a belly laugh.
Mampara of the week, ANC Youth League spokesman, Floyd Shivambu recently accused Helen Zille of sleeping around. Accuse your 14 year old of "sleeping around" and watch the blushing, floor gazing and general discomfort (and, feel your blood pressure start to rise). Because, even a child knows what "sleeping around" means.
It is obvious that the more level-headed ANC leaders tried to coach this chop how to slither out of the defamatory statement (I'm surprised he hasn't been sued yet) he made against Zille. Watch how ineffective he is at trying to justify his comments in a radio interview with 702's Rudi DIreko.
God help us if this bumblemeister gets out of the ANC Youth League incubator and actually gets a leadership role in our parliament one day.
Here's the link: http://www.zoopy.com/video/w55/sleeping-around-is-sleeping-around
Jacques de Villiers is a business generator, motivational speaker, writer and consultant in SA
Losing the Western Cape is a bitter pill that the ANC finds hard to swallow. After the DA had the majority last time, the ANC tried everything in its power to destabilise the DA.
Now, with an outright DA majority, the ANC's failure in the Western Cape is highlighted even more.
Instead of trying to discredit the DA, the ANC should be looking to working with its opposition to give the people of the Western Cape a better life. Yes, if the DA slips up, take them to task. Try and catch them doing things right and not doing things wrong. If everyone works together, all the constituencies in the Cape can benefit.
Garth Strachan's rhetoric in Sunday Times (3 May 2009) shows that he is more interested in toppling the DA than helping the people of the Western Cape. "Garth Strachan, an MEC in the ousted ANC adminsitration confirmed that the party would put maximum pressure on Zille's provincial government, using service delivery issues to mobilise communities against it." Come on Garth, grow up and start looking for solutions rather than trying to discredit the opposition.
And, Garth, a further thought for you. Isn't the lack of service delivery a legacy left by you and your provincial government? Do you think the DA or any other party for that matter can fix up your mess overnight? So, why don't you help the DA fix up the mess you made. That would work for me and for the people of the Cape.
Jacques de Villiers is a motivational speaker and citizen of South Africa.
My sister related this story to me. At her daughter’s horse riding club she and a couple of moms were killing time, waiting for their little princesses to finish their lessons. They were talking about the petrol price and rising prices in general. one botox-addled, vacuous, trophy wife with nothing much to do, pipes up and says something to the effect of, "Times are getting really tough. We might have to sell one of our 4 horses."
Good grief, woman you’re living in some kind of altered universe. You’re worried about one of your horses when there are people battling to put food on the table and are gasping for survival. Get a grip you stupid woman. You’re definitely my Mampara of the week.
My sister brought up this point. Guess what? She got the proverbial artificially altered lip and a decidedly cold shoulder. She’s not welcome in this clique anymore. And, I don’t think she’s missing too much.
Jacques de Villiers is a sales training expert in South Africa
My mampara award today goes to Tshifhiwa Shonisani, journalist for the Citizen newspaper. Reporting on Steve Hofmeyr’s recent illness (Title: Singer Hofmeyr out of ICU and ‘much better’), Tshifhiwa says "Hofmeyr, a singer of Afrikaans songs, ….
That’s like saying Elvis Presley is a singer of Rock songs. Or like saying JK Rowling is a writer of children’s fiction.
If you’d done your homework, Tshifhiwa, you’d know that Steve Hofmeyr is probably one of the wealthiest singers in South Africa right now off being a ‘singer of Afrikaans songs’. He is a South African superstar.
Strike two is that your writing is uninspiring, bland and insipid. You could have done a lot more with that story.
Jacques de Villiers conducts sales training seminars countrywide
This week’s mampara has to be ousted deputy president of the SA Rugby Union, Mike Stofile after his 24-21 defeat to Oregan Hoskins. Stofile was running for president.
Stofile was quoted in the Saturday Star (March 29, 2008): For the past four years there has been no place for black people in SA Rugby.
Mike Stofile considered Pieter de Villiers, a coloured man as black. Surely the same should be said for Oregan Hoskins … he’s also coloured. Since de Villiers was considered black, surely then, Hoskins must also be black.
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room. People like Mike Stofile do not consider anyone tainted with the white stain as being black. No, they want to see pure-blooded blacks in every team … otherwise it doesn’t count.
So, Mike, you’re my Mampara for the week.
From left field. My ancestors were invaded by the Moors, our women raped and our bloodline irrevocably changed. Does black blood run through my veins? Great, this must mean that I can get an affirmative action job then. Who am I kidding, I may share the same surname as Pieter de Villiers, but I’ll never be classified as black. That’s why I can never get back into the job market even if I wanted to – nobody will hire a 44 year-old white male, even if I were the best man for the job.
Jacques de Villiers conducts sales training seminars in South Africa.
You’d think that Vodacom would hire a top-notch advertising agency to help it with its advertising. And, you’d think that agency would in turn hire top-notch staff. Here’s an example from its recent advertising campaign. As you can see by the picture, 100 BMW’S should be 100 BMWs. Either the advertising agency is hiring copywriters and editors that can’t read their own diplomas or it was a genuine mistake. It seems that most of the English-speaking world doesn’t know when and how to use an apostrophe.
I’m sure that Vodacom knows about this mistake and someone has been called up on this.
In mitigation, I find that when one uses capitals, it is a lot harder to check the spelling because our eyes are used to lower case, serif fonts (like Times Roman).
Have you noticed that three people can proof read a piece of work and it is only when it is printed that the mistake is self-evident. Your gut falls through the floor, doesn’t it?
I’ll never forget when I was a rookie advertising man, we had a disaster with Premier. We produced Premier’s newsletter (a tabloid newspaper). The headline was supposed to be "Premier changes its identity".
When 100 000 copies were printed, it came out "Premier changes its indemnity". Thank goodness I was just a spectator in this balls up. However, my boss aged overnight. We still don’t know how it got changed because our proofs were correct. This was, of course, before Apple Mac 
Jacques de Villiers is a persuasion architect specialising in sales and marketing.
This week, both Pat Pillai of E-TV news and David O’ Sullivan of Radio 702 lost it with their respective guests. Finally, the objective veneer cracked and their feelings came out. I reckon 47-million South Africans applauded them because we’re just as gatvol as Pat and David.
Pat Pillai was interviewing the CEO of Eskom (I think) on this load-shedding debacle that’s facing us. After a feeble attempt at justifying the reason for their being no electricity for tax-paying South African citizens (we never expected the demand to become so huge …), Pat just raised his hand and said, "that’s unacceptable" and cut the mampara off. Loved it.
By the way Eskom, Clem Sunter on his worst day could have predicted this would happen. Didn’t it occur to you that by mothballing power stations, sending electricity to dictatorship run countries such as Zimbabwe and dropping bolts into nuclear power stations would have a negative effect on us? You’re my first Mampara for the week. And saying you weren’t thinking about adding more power stations in 1994. Of course you weren’t, you were just thinking of more power, weren’t you?
Yesterday (Wednesday), Mampara number two was interviewed by David O’ Sullivan – a Metro Police spokesperson regarding the lack of metro police at crucial breakdown points like the Grayston offramp.
The traffic lights were out because of Mampara number one’s (Eskom’s) load-shedding strategy.
The gridlock was crazy. Chris Wilkinson comes on air and says that everything is "under control". That’s when David lost it entirely. Love you for that, man.
Jacques de Villiers is a sales trainer, professional speaker and consultant in South Africa.
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