How often do you wash your towel? Some people wash once a week, while some, once a year. The towel is a fertile breeding ground for millions of microbes, especially those found on human skin and on the gut. No wonder the towel is one of the objects that facilitate fecal-oral contamination (literally connecting the two ends of the gut). Worse still, most people keep towels in the bathroom (near the toilet). Every flush of the toilet sends mist with millions of microbes, ranging from H.pylori, salmonella and other deadly bacteria and viruses. When you wash your hands ready for a meal, and dry them with your body towel, there's high chance you are directly ingesting your fecal matter, or, if in a shared lavatory, someone else's faeces. Unless cleaned well, viruses such as human papillomavirus (causes warts, anal cancer and cervical cancer) can be transmitted when towels are shared with infected individuals. So, what to do? 1. Launder towels once a week. 2. Use hot water and det...
Strive Masiyiwa
There’s a lot written about brands, and people much more qualified than I spend their careers studying and teaching about brands. You would do well to read and follow some of these experts.
One thing I’ve tried to instill is the important of "brand integrity." This is because, in the final analysis, a brand tends to take on the persona of its founders, and those who manage the business on a day-to-day basis.
You must do your best, and try very hard, to instill in your brand a culture of integrity. This is not easy, particularly as the business gets bigger, and you’ve moved away from the center of day-to-day action.
In my 30 years running a business (remember I started in 1986), I’ve met and known some highly gifted entrepreneurs who looked ready to set the whole world ablaze, but after a few years, some of them failed spectacularly. Whenever I looked back on what had happened… more often than not, it was an issue of integrity.
The other day, someone brought me an article from an African Internet newspaper (I won't mention the name because I don't want to judge them, only to advise). The newspaper is run by young entrepreneurs who follow this platform. In the edition brought to my attention, they had an article in which they purported to have interviewed me, on the phone, whilst I was "in Denmark.” The interview was a total fabrication, and whilst I have heard that Denmark is a beautiful country, I’ve not yet had an opportunity to visit in my entire life.
This saddened me deeply because of the harm they did to themselves, and the integrity of their brand.
A newspaper, even one on the Internet, is a business. It’s a business whose brand must be based on integrity, because people come to it to be informed about what’s happening. The moment you start writing stories out of your imagination, and print them as true, you’re on your way to practicing the ideology of Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's minister of propaganda).
Last week I also commented on the practice of setting up fake websites on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other other social websites, pretending to be someone else. In the beginning, it seems to be a bit of harmless fun. This is how most drug addicts began -- a "little joint" became heroin…
It’s the same in entrepreneurship: The fake website can lead you to fake credit card identity, and fraud, and fake drugs that kill others… and maybe a very long prison sentence. It's a slippery slope.
Africa has some of the most gifted musicians and actors in the world. Most of them go unrecognized, and live in poverty. They could be making millions, and standing on the world stage just like the most famous European and American artists. The problem is simple -- "pirating" of their material, supported by some of their own fans who happily buy the fake products! This is blatant theft.
__Let's do our best, every single day, to try and build brand integrity.
We don't need fake newspaper stories any more than we need fake drugs, fake credit cards, fake DVDs, and fake websites.
The original is always the best, and it has brand integrity.
Thank you.
There’s a lot written about brands, and people much more qualified than I spend their careers studying and teaching about brands. You would do well to read and follow some of these experts.
One thing I’ve tried to instill is the important of "brand integrity." This is because, in the final analysis, a brand tends to take on the persona of its founders, and those who manage the business on a day-to-day basis.
You must do your best, and try very hard, to instill in your brand a culture of integrity. This is not easy, particularly as the business gets bigger, and you’ve moved away from the center of day-to-day action.
In my 30 years running a business (remember I started in 1986), I’ve met and known some highly gifted entrepreneurs who looked ready to set the whole world ablaze, but after a few years, some of them failed spectacularly. Whenever I looked back on what had happened… more often than not, it was an issue of integrity.
The other day, someone brought me an article from an African Internet newspaper (I won't mention the name because I don't want to judge them, only to advise). The newspaper is run by young entrepreneurs who follow this platform. In the edition brought to my attention, they had an article in which they purported to have interviewed me, on the phone, whilst I was "in Denmark.” The interview was a total fabrication, and whilst I have heard that Denmark is a beautiful country, I’ve not yet had an opportunity to visit in my entire life.
This saddened me deeply because of the harm they did to themselves, and the integrity of their brand.
A newspaper, even one on the Internet, is a business. It’s a business whose brand must be based on integrity, because people come to it to be informed about what’s happening. The moment you start writing stories out of your imagination, and print them as true, you’re on your way to practicing the ideology of Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's minister of propaganda).
Last week I also commented on the practice of setting up fake websites on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other other social websites, pretending to be someone else. In the beginning, it seems to be a bit of harmless fun. This is how most drug addicts began -- a "little joint" became heroin…
It’s the same in entrepreneurship: The fake website can lead you to fake credit card identity, and fraud, and fake drugs that kill others… and maybe a very long prison sentence. It's a slippery slope.
Africa has some of the most gifted musicians and actors in the world. Most of them go unrecognized, and live in poverty. They could be making millions, and standing on the world stage just like the most famous European and American artists. The problem is simple -- "pirating" of their material, supported by some of their own fans who happily buy the fake products! This is blatant theft.
__Let's do our best, every single day, to try and build brand integrity.
We don't need fake newspaper stories any more than we need fake drugs, fake credit cards, fake DVDs, and fake websites.
The original is always the best, and it has brand integrity.
Thank you.
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