3 October 2013

All good things have to come to an end

This is the last day for blogging for the year. We also had our last Genesis workshop yesterday with Stuart and he talked mainly about Transformational leadership. I really enjoyed this session. He discussed the three evolutions of Transformational leadership.

1^st Evolution: highly capable individual

This is about being a proactive person instead of being reactive. A highly capable individual is lives by design not by default, is self-driven and have an abundance mentality (having positive mindset). This is the individual who lives in quadrant 2.

2^nd Evolution: The Master Manager

Mater Manger is a manager is people-oriented and is good at managing paradox. He/she understand power dynamic, organizational culture and structure.

3^rd Evolution: Transformational leader

This is the type of a leader who can “take mismatched group of tired heroes and forge them into a team capable of achieving success and sustaining it in the face of overwhelming odds”.

For the entire duration of this course, this is the type of leaders we are aspiring to become. This course had provided us with all the necessary tools and skills to become that leader and now it’s up to us to apply them when we leave this course.

“Don’t be transactional…. be transformational”

Some pictures we didn't share from last week.

Picture of the Tiramisu from Thrift's dinner with our lecturer

Thrift with our Lecturer Stuart and his wife

2 October 2013

Closure of our business

Today we had our last weekly group meeting for the year. Time does fly indeed. We have reached the end of the road. Today in our meeting we discussed the dissolution of the business and the continuation of Thrift next year. We also discussed and delegated work for the closure of business report. This is one thick document, which consist all that we have done as a group. It is more of a reflective report for the entire year about all that we learned and how we have managed our financials, sales, production etc. Tomorrow will meet again to discuss the future of Thrift.

We managed to make this year full of good memories and laughter. I am going to miss our weekly group meetings because we always had a good time as a group. Not that I am bragging or anything but our team was awesome, we all got along so well and I think we are one of the few groups which never had any major conflicts or issues, so well done Thrift.

1 October 2013

Last Directors Meeting

Wow. I cannot believe yesterday was our last directors meeting. We endured till the end and I would like to give credit to the wonderful directors we had this year. They were super awesome, always giving us constructive criticism which helped us in running our business as well as managing our team effectively. During this meeting we were able to focus more on what we learned as individuals during the duration of this year. I think for me personally, looking back now, among other things that I have learned is to always put my team first. I learnt that all my priorities have to be towards enhancing the group dynamic and performance. To be successful as a team, we all need to work towards a common purpose, the interest and the needs of the team needs to always come first. From the very beginning I realized that in everything I do I should always give in 100% effort or even more because I became aware that if I do not pull my weight I am actually putting other peoples marks at stake. Therefore I always ensured that I work hard and effectively to ensure that all is than for the greater good of my team. I have also learned that having an accountability system is very important in the team. I believe that one way of setting an effective accountability is by clearly defining the roles and responsibilities for each group member.

Looking back now especially with regards to the directors meetings we had, I am so thankful to all our directors for being always encouraging us and for acting as mentors. Their wise guidance indeed helped has a lot especially with our business. Thank you.

Monday, 30 September 2013

Our final directors meeting day. I won’t hesitate to say that it was definitely slightly emotional on some level. This year really must be drawing to a close. In retrospect, these four humans who ten months ago we would have walked straight past in the streets have come to be such great assets to our lives and who we have become as Thrift.  All of them have contributed in their own unique ways to impart wisdom from their incredibly varied experiences and provide with support that we would never be able to fully thank them for.

So to our board of directors, I don’t know how we struck it so lucky, but we know we won the lottery getting to spend those six hours with you.

Luke Ramsay

Beth Durham

Anthony Hill

And David Priilaid

We’ve had our moments, (of which we will leave in the dark), but we are so thankful for everything you have done for us. All the best of luck for your future endeavors and we feel privileged and honoured to consider you as a part of our ‘networks’.

Saturday and Sunday, 28-29 September 2013

Saturday and Sunday were spent very differently for very different people. Some of us awoke with a glint of freshness in our smile and a hop in our step and went for a run around our beautiful city of Cape Town to clear our thoughts and burn off lasts nights tiramisu. Others woke up to a sniff neck on a couch to be greeted by the wonderful consequences of knowing that you had a great night.

The rest of the day was spent somewhere between recovering and trying to complete assignments on coffee shops which we had never actually been to and probably never would. This weekend taught us that too much of a good thing can just sometimes be a better thing.

Friday, 27 September 2013

Today is the day that we have been waiting for months. With this great amount of anticipation we wished away our few lectures for the day and before we knew it, it was 6pm and time to get the team together for Dinner. After finding the boys quenching their excitement in Slug and Lettuce watching the rugby, we threw them in the shower and hurried over just in time for the Llundadno Sunset cocktails which Stu had waiting for us.

One cocktail led to another, which led to beer, which led to starters. Those starters were just the beginning of a night of heavenly delights. Crayfish, prawn and avo starters took the opening act as a main of Chocolate Chili fillet took center stage. Some Thrift members at this stage being slightly more pukker than others decided that this was the point at which conversations surrounding the Genesis award would begin.

“Stu we need to discuss the fact the you know that we are the best Genesis group”

“Murray the only thing we need to discuss is the order in which your names will appear on the trophy.”

The night ended with a grand finale of tiramisu dusted with a cocoa stencil of the Thrift logo.  A big thank you to the Hendry family for having us all over, it was a night that we will definitely not forget (right up until Murray passed out on his kitchen floor that is)

Thursday, 26 September 2013

Today we spent the day doing two things, having the realization of the amount of work that we have due for the next few days and preparing our minds for the glorious dinner that Stuart was cooking for us the next day.

Starting class at 12am we had a Politics of Enterprise lecture. This lecture was incredibly interesting as we had a guest lecturer Sarah come to speak to us from a recruitment company called Layer Cake. She spoke to us about next year and the plans that we would be making. Although this doesn’t have a great amount to do with the company of Thrift, it gave us a large amount of personal insight that allowed us to start thinking about things which we had put aside.

As we listened about 2014 and the possibilities which it held, we were reminded of the possibilities of Thrift and the places it could be taken to. We as a group have all committed to supporting each other in this transition as we begin to decide what will happen to the company.

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

After a slightly later start than planned, Genesis Wednesday was soon in full swing with lectures and group meetings. We had an extremely productive meeting that everyone attended except for one group member who shall remain nameless. This said group member then gave the group the opportunity put our accountability principles into practice. it is always good to demonstrate the values which we outlined in our shareholders agreement at the beginning of the year and we were grateful to them for allowing us this opportunity to remember. Seven coffees later and accountability restored, this is a mistake that they are sure to never make again. 

It is important that the agreed upon understandings are acknowledged and respected. Through this trust and accountability can be maintained.

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Today is heritage day. This is one of the main Christian public holidays within South Africa. This day is to encourage our nation to take time to celebrate the culture and diversity as well as the beliefs and traditions of the country in which they live in. this being said, the only thing Dean and Murray were encouraging was that of Braai-ing.

The Genesis specifications indicated that our products had to be new to the South African market. What better way to get in touch with this South African market than to spend an entire day focusing on it? So with National braai day in full swing, we as Thrift decided to take the liberty of taking the day off.

Some of us then decided that the stresses of life got slightly too hectic and went away for the night on a yacht.

Monday 23 September 2013

Today we had to shoot the final footage for the sustainability video that we were making in order to win the competition for the sustainability award. This award comprises of many aspects of your business with requirements you need to meet in order to win the award. Since our business not only recycles old clothing but also donates money to the underprivilegedwhen we buy our materials from the thrift stores around town we figured we had a pretty good shot at winning this award and so we decided to enter. We started our filming at signal hill where we took a short video of each one of us speaking about academics, sustainability, innovation, success and passion. We then took several videos at places such as the hospice shops where we buy our materials from to give the public an idea of where we source these materials from, as well as footage of the CMT and her production team that produce our backpacks for. The video was an absolute success with our fantastic video editors doing such as outstanding job (don’t tell them we said that ha ha ;) ) we were very proud and confident that we might win.

Heres the link if you guys are interested in going to check it out J (Totally worth it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlMCyjLUAdI

Sunday 22 September 2013

This was an easy Sunday for the team considering we knew we had a lot of work coming up with things such as marketing projects, our close of business report a Politics of Enterprise assignment, as well as an assignment we all figured we would take the rest while we still could and considering Tuesday was a holiday it seemed as though we were all in store for a treat of a well-deserved long weekend.

Saturday 21 September 2013       

Thrift took it easy this Saturday considering it had been a long week and the miserable weather outside permitted all of us to spend the day in bed.

Friday 20 September 2013

Today mainly consisted of lectures with David Priilaid where we watched the remaining half of a video he had been showing us called Shakleton. His aim of showing us the movie is to show us the power of strong leadership and the effect it has on the team. We all found the movie very intriguing and capturing considering that it was probably a movie none of us would ever have rented or watched had we not been shown it in lectures. The message came across loud and clear and it gave us all a good view of the effects of leadership and the importance of entrepreneurship in everyday life. After that Lisa came in to give us some hints for our exam preparation and some advice on the time of questions we would be asked and also how we would be expected to answer them because o think a lot of the students were having trouble figuring out how we could be examined on a meditation course. Her insight was very helpful and gave us good direction as to what the examiner would be looking for in our answers.

Thursday 19 September 2013

Thursdays we have Politics of Enterprise which is subject all about the law of business. This lecture today was again extremely helpful because we also have a politics of Enterprise assignment due for next week and well if we thought we were struggling on the marketing side this was a whole other ball game. Trying to understand the Law Lingo is slightly challenging as one can imagine and now trying to complete a 1500 words write up was proving to be even more challenging. This lecture did however clear some things up and tie up some loose ends.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Wednesdays are always the same for us starting with our genesis workshop at 9 until 11 where we all move the party to our weekly group meeting where we discuss the upcoming academic assignment and decide on false deadlines in order to try and stay on top of everything because we’ve learnt the hard way how good this course is at sneaking up on you. In this particular meeting we split up the parts for the close of business assignment and starting doing some brain storming for the sustainability video that was due soon. We also knew we had a directors meeting coming up soon and since everyone had already had turn to chair a meeting it was Deans turn to chair this one which saved us a lot of arguments over ching Chong cha (which is normally how we decide who is going to be chairing). After that we ventured off to our weekly meeting with Stuart where we discussed the requirements for the close of business reports and what exactly he wanted us to do for particular sections such as the dissolution document.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Tuesday the only lecture we have is our retailing and services lecture. Today the lecture was more beneficial than usual (because it’s always beneficial) because we have a retailing assignment coming up and they discussed the certain topics that were being examined for the assignment. This made things a lot more clear for the entire class and allowed us to get planning on all our assignments.

Saturday 14 September

Saturday was a quiet day regarding work, however we felt a little bit of group bonding was in order for the later hours of the evening…

Sunday 15 September

Sunday has been considered the day of rest for over 2013 years… So that is what we did.

Friday 13 September

Today was interesting as well as a long day. We had a great lecture on Sir Ernest Shackleton and the ways in which he embodies the characteristics of a leader. The two things that really stood out to me, and I know us at Thrift, was his humility, and his undying, iron will and resolve. He went through some hardships and struggles on his adventures that most people on this planet cannot even begin to imagine about. He chose a crew to support and travel with him, and they essentially needed a leader of incredible stature to get them to their goal. This is even more prominent when this crew don’t fully understand the extent of their travels. People go mad, they get crazy and make irrational decisions and take wild actions. The crew did not think they would even survive, but Shackleton’s amazing leadership got every single one of the crew back home safe, despite the treacherous conditions.

He really was a burning example of what a leader should embody and the way in which they can go about their leadership experiences in their everyday life.

Thursday 12 September

Today was a quieter day but did involve a lecture in MTIP on empathic listening. This is essentially ensuring a greater understanding from both parties. Ensuring an understanding is agreed upon. And this is highly effective and useful seeing as yesterdays lecture was on self preservation and making sure we leave with ourselves well looked after. This too relates to the fundamental human needs, as well as coveys habit 5.

Wednesday 11 September

Today is the memorial of those who lost their lives in the terrible terrorist attacks on the twin towers. This got me thinking about all of those people who were involved and lost their lives. It also got me thinking about those people that were involved in the helping process, from the rescue teams, to the clean up teams, to the rebuilding crews of Ground Zero. It came to me that all of these people were leaders. They were leading with the ambition to improve and help those around them. They were ‘others centered’ and really did what they could for the greater good. There was a leader at the head of every single team that helped get New York and America up and running again after those attacks. I just felt this needed to be included because I don’t think a thought like this would have come to me before this year.

We started class with a Genesis workshop. This workshop was based on power and was extremely insightful. It was something and one of those lectures that sticks with you long after (and hopefully forever) it is done. We learnt that self preservation is the fundamental interest and something that we need to know when entering a room. This means that if a mutual understanding of such a fact is known, both parties can work around such an understanding and know that a mutually beneficial and win/win situation is best for all.

This also lead to the topic of how leadership should be based on influence, and most definitely not on manipulation. This has a strong message that needs to be brought out into South Africa. We feel like we have certainly done this with Thrift this year as we have not had one bit of conflict that even deserves mentioning. This we all feel is just one result of this leadership through influence, rather than manipulation.

Tuesday 10 September

Tuesday is the usual day for our group meetings in which we catch up on everything that needs to be done academically, and business wise. It is always great to meet up and keep it light hearted for the beginning of the meeting, and then to get into the serious stuff. We spoke about production, bags that needed to be collected from clients with faulty stitching, or incorrect shoulder straps. This was an issue for us as firstly, it is embarrassing, and secondly, it’s a mission to fetch from customers. We decided that it is something we really don’t want to happen again in the future, and so we decided to do a total recall of all of our stock. This seemed like quite a dramatic step to take, but we all agreed it could possibly damage the name of Thrift, add additional hassles to the group, and cause unnecessary administration for both us and the clients.

Monday 9 September

Today was our soft submission date for our group sales report two. We all put in a lot of work for it and I think this time around we are expecting a better mark in that regard. I am always amazed at the functionality that our group has grown into. This is because of things such as accountability that is playing a large role in us achieving what we have achieved. These soft dates are so easy to not listen to, and to put on one side and say that they are not the proper date. We have stuck to every single soft date and respect the amount of work that goes into the editing. Therefore we know the assignments have to be in for these soft dates for a reason, and this includes a good result.

On a note of the team dynamic, I can safely say that we just keep moving in a positive, and healthy direction. We really do all get along really well and are yet to have any conflict of any nature. We all respect each others’ opinions and are happy to hear each other out. This means that no action is taken without a clear and well thought out reason for action.

 

 2-8 September 2013

This week we have been on holiday, therefore we have shifted our focus to selling. Sarah has gone to Johannesburg for the week and so she has taken about 10 of our backpacks back with her to try and sell them to friends and family back in Johannesburg. Kim has gone back to Durban where she has also taken about 10 backpacks with her to sell there. The rest of us have stayed in Cape Town for the week and we have been pushing our Cape Town sales. So far we have all done really well, we have sold about 8 this week, which we are all really proud of. Overall, we feel that this week has been a week of learning. Since the beginning of the year we haven’t had the chance to purely focus on selling, we have had lectures, projects etc. but now we have been on holiday for a week and we have used this time to focus only on selling, and this proved to be more challenging than we though.

We have learnt that people want good value for their money, they are not just going to purchase something without knowing the value that they are receiving from the product, therefore we have put a value proposition together that we pitch to our customers explaining all the value they receive from Thrift backpacks in order to encourage them to purchase our product, because once they know that they are donating to charity for example, they are more than likely going to want to purchase our backpacks because there is great value in purchasing a Thrift backpack.

We have also learnt how important good customer service is, we have constantly been keeping in contact with our potential customers and have been meeting them where it is convenient for them etc. this good customer service makes it easier for the customer to actually purchase our backpacks, which will encourage a sale. If we had bad customer service and made them meet us 40 minutes away from where they live, they would not purchase a Thrift backpack because we have made it challenging for them to do so.

Over this past week we have also learnt a lot about our target market, we have come to realise the type of backpacks that our customers love and the types of backpacks they do not like so much. For example we have noticed that our target market prefer plain material on their backpacks as opposed to patterned material, therefore in future we are going to make sure we have more “plain” backpacks as opposed to “patterned” backpacks.

We have also learnt how important it is to be committed to the sale, a lot of people say no they are not interested initially but if you encourage them to stay they end up buying a backpack. If you are not committed to the sale, the potential customer will just walk away, but if you are committed and give them reason to stay to hear your “pitch” about Thrift backpacks, they are more than likely to purchase a backpack. It is just so important to stay committed and not get discouraged if their first initial reaction is negative. ALWAYS BE CLOSING!

Saturday (31^st) and Sunday (1^st)

This day was rather depressing seeing as the ‘Bokke’ seeing as the Championship was taking a break for the weekend and would only start again on the 7^th. This was crying shame and the boys in our group were absolutely heart-broken!

Blah blah blah.... its holiday!!! Haha

Friday (30^th)

On Friday we had a guest lecturer, Lisa Firer, who is some form of artist and overall spiritually gifted human being. Needless to say we had our doubts after the previous lecture where we sat and left, smelt and tasted raisins. However, in this lecture Lisa introduced us to the art of meditation which was surprising relaxing and peaceful. None of us had ever meditated before and was a wonderful experience for all of us.

The mediation – use one’s natural capacity to tend to the sensations of the breath. We practiced both focused awareness and opening up more broadly. It is vital that you find a place and position that is comfortable and where one can be mindful without being disrupted.

After this Lisa couldn’t resist breaking out some food and we made marshmallow towers which were sooo delicious! We really enjoyed this lecture as it opened our minds to a new art that many of us had never experienced.

Through this entire class I semi-blacked out from shear excitement that we break up for HOLIDAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!! Oh yeah! Nothing else matters.... See ya next term homies.

Thursday (29^th)

On Thursday we didn’t meet as a group and the delegated people ( Dean and Shea) were organizing our future sale day in Stellenbosch. We decided to create a Facebook group about the event to get people excited as well as give them enough time to plan their studies around this day so they are able to attend and come buy our bags!!

Generally Thursdays are rather painful and frankly quite boring with a capital B. We have Politics of Enterprise which is surprising not used as a torturing technical in the middle east however I believe any man would crack after a solid 2 hours. We learnt about the value of business contracts and the benefits of having good legally sound documents when forming relationships in the business world such as partnerships and contracts with suppliers. This did strike a chord as we believe that a legal contract would’ve come in handy when dealing with our producer. If we had drawn up a contract to define our relationship with our supplier we would have been able to include a penalty clause for products that do not meet the basic standards, which would also be stipulated in the document. A legal document can also be used as protection and protect business’s from getting messed around by their suppliers. We would therefore not pay for our previous stock to get fixed, and it would be the supplier’s problem.

We also watched a movie about sustainability in South Africa regarding our wildlife which is one of our country’s greatest assets.

Wednesday (28^th)

On Wednesday we had our usual group meeting at 11am before our genesis meeting. The general moral of the team was down and we were not motivated to sell anymore bags as we feel like we had lost confidence in the product. However, there were a lot of positives we tried to focus on coming out of our last director’s report including the possibility of having a sale day on the 7^th of September in Stellenbosch. The 7^th is a Saturday and would be at the famous Stellenbosch ‘slow market’ where people from the surrounding areas and beyond come to sell anything from clothes to steak rolls. We were keen to get our bags back up to top quality and rename our brand in a positive light. This was a big turning point in our group as we feel like it was a first proper defeat and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. This is where we as a group need to come together and overcome our defeat by picking up our heads and move forward. We have to treat each fail as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and rather see it as a chance to improve our product. This is a valuable lesson to learn especially being an entrepreneur as there is a high probability that you will fail in your first 5 years of business. Thomas Edison’s famous quote about failure below.

Tuesday (27^th)

After the directors meeting yesterday we decided to perform an AAR (after action review) and look over the feedback we had received from the directors about or product. It was apparent that we had a rather serious quality issue and almost no quality control process. Anthony had stated that two of his three bags are broken and he was worried about the possible repercussions of us having to fix customers’ bags.  We as a group decided it would be for the best to send the remain stock we had left back to the manufacture and ask her to double stitch the connection points to prevent any more bags from breaking. This situation was very hard to deal with and the group really took a blow to the confidence and moral. We were unhappy about selling products that did not live up to the expectations of the customer.