Market Segmentation:
Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers who have common needs, interests, or characteristics. The purpose of segmentation is to better understand and meet the specific needs of different customer groups, thereby improving targeting, product development, and overall marketing effectiveness….
Read more – https://globaladvisors.biz/2024/02/28/term-market-segmentation/
Season’s greetings from the Global Advisors team.
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So often this time of the year is about journeys. On holiday. To friends and family.
Journeys seldom go exactly as planned. Learning to focus on the journey and the goal is one of life’s lessons.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us – whether it be as a client, team member, alumnus or potential recruitee.
Season’s greetings from the Global Advisors team and all the best for 2024!
Read -> Our most popular 2023 insights
We have a big growth journey ahead in 2024 -> Refer a potential employee
“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.” – Theodore Isaac Rubin
I am still learning. That is an important mark of a good leader … to know you don’t know it all and never will – Anne Mulcahy, former Xerox CEO
By Steve Watkins
Tell The Truth Even With Bad News
TypoArt BS/Shutterstock
Honesty really is the best policy
It’s easy to say it’s always best to be honest. But sometimes it takes guts to be a straight shooter with someone and to show you’re vulnerable.
Here’s how to gather that fortitude to effectively lead your group.
Start with the basics. Honesty really is the best policy, even if it’s easier to tell a white lie than to confront someone with the bad news that they’re not performing well enough.
“If you’re not honest, sooner or later it will catch up with you and then it interferes with building trust,” said Linda Finkle, founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based business coaching and consulting firm Incedo Group.
Famed investor Warren Buffett wins trust because he’s open about his missteps, says Constance Dierickx, Atlanta-based advisor to boards and senior executives and author of “High-Stakes Leadership.” Each year, Buffett summarizes where he and his firm went wrong with their investments. Dierickx at times calls back clients a day or two after giving them advice and tells them after thinking about it further she has a different recommendation.
“People will know you’re honest and they can trust you,” Dierickx told IBD.
Finkle once had to let someone go for performance reasons. Years later the woman thanked Finkle, saying it showed her where she needed to improve.
“If our goal as a leader is to be in service to people, then it’s important to tell the truth, whether it’s something the person wants to hear or not,” Finkle said.
When you’re breaking bad news to people, you have to muster the guts to tell them. But don’t feel as if you have to go it alone. Dierickx says she’ll often advise clients to go public about a problem even if their lawyers tell them to do the opposite. They’re usually better off being open about it. Home Depot CEO Frank Blake was upfront in 2014 when a data breach exposed more than 50 million payment cards. He admitted the problem, said customers wouldn’t be harmed, devoted resources to the matter and published a letter of apology.
“Companies have to protect their image, but it has to be subordinate to being honest,” Dierickx said.
Dierickx says you can build up your ability to steel yourself and deliver bad news. She views it as a combination of vision and mission to show your belief in what you’re doing. Toss in persistence, and the combination will get you to face the toughest conversations. Your character is the great multiplier.
“If you don’t have character, the other stuff doesn’t make any difference,” Dierickx said.
Some people don’t know how to have brutally honest conversations. Ask others how to handle it.
“It doesn’t make you less of a leader because you need to ask for help,” Finkle said. “Even Olympic athletes have coaches.”
If you’re uncomfortable with the discussion, tell the person you’re talking to that you might not be the best at this. Then work your way through it. It’ll get easier.
“Talk about it in a way that’s not self-deprecating, but is aimed at, ‘How can I get better?’ ” Finkle said.
Others will trust you if you don’t appear to be a know-it-all. Show people you’re always learning. Dierickx once worked at a company that had a “belly flop” award. People talked in a meeting about something that went off the rails and what they learned from it.
“I have more credibility if I show that I’m learning,” Dierickx said.
The key to breaking bad news is to be genuine, Finkle says. If the company has to lay off a batch of people, admit it’s painful rather than putting up a false front.
“People respond to genuine humanness,” Finkle said. “If you’re not yourself, people respond to that more negatively than anything.”
Expenditure on food, beverage and tobacco accounted for 13,9% of total consumption expenditure in South Africa
There are significant differences between population groups and their expenditure on food as a percent of total expenditure:
Bread, buns and rolls are the primary driver of traffic for food retailers
Although the percentage of total consumption differs amongst population groups and amongst income deciles, the staples in the consumer basket remain consistent
Consumer goods producers might benefit from focusing on staples and providing a range of products that meet the taste and budget for each population and income group
Thank you for participating in our self awareness poll.
Our results closely match the results detailed in Tasha Eurich’s book, “Insight,” where 95% of people rate themselves self-aware but just 10 to 15% are.
See the full results here.
While visitors to the Global Advisors’ website might be more self-aware than the general population, 70% rated themselves that way!
Now read So You Think You’re Self Aware?
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
The African insurance industry is predominantly group life insurance business, and due to limited spending power there has been much slower uptake of individual insurance policies.
Poverty has been reduced somewhat in Africa but this is primarily in the lowest income bracket of the middle class who are prone to falling back into poverty.
Furthermore, policyholders are typically unaware or sceptical of the benefits of owning insurance products, they are difficult to reach and often do not earn regular incomes.1
Microinsurance products are growing more quickly – this presents an opportunity for targetting lower income groups.
The South African retirement industry is highly concentrated with 80% of the total fund value being held by less than 4% of registered retirement funds.
Of these approximately 3000 are active, most of which are small – 70% of funds have assets of less than R6m.
Membership in the system is voluntary, with only around half of formally-employed workers participating, and balances are low, partly because few members preserve their funds for retirement.
There has been a substantial move to umbrella funds due to the focus on retirement fund costs and the audit requirements of underwritten funds.
Underwritten funds used to be exempt from submitting audited returns to the Pension Funds Registrar, as they were effectively registered by the insurance division of the FSB.
This exemption has now been revoked and so underwritten funds are also required to submit audited results which incurs significant compliance costs.
Mining is the only sector to have experienced an overall decline in contribution to South Africa’s GDP since 1993 with a negative CAGR of -1,3%.
The decrease in mining’s contribution to GDP has been a result of an increase in secondary and tertiary industries as well as a continuing decline in gold – and recently platinum – production over the years.
Mining companies have faced a myriad of obstacles including inadequate transport and logistics, electricity rationing warring unions and increasing labour costs – labour costs per kilogram of gold have more than quadrupled in the last decade.2
Going forward, government efforts in developing the downstream or beneficiated minerals industry could increase mining’s indirect and thus overall contribution to GDP.
Financial services however has grown from 17% of 1993 GDP to 24% of 2012 GDP and has outstripped growth of every sector bar communication.
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