management – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Advice From Steve Jobs

You can’t get advice from anyone much wiser than Steve Jobs from Apple when it comes to business. This, from BrandmakerNews made me sit up and take notice. It was posted on Twitter by @zazo

1. Embrace the opportunity in every situation. “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, and less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.”
*(I used to teach ‘there are no problems, only opportunities to learn – ed)

2. Commit to doing great work and never settle. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking, and don’t settle.”

3. Make every day count. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

4. Don’t miss your moment. “Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

5. Keep your priorities in check. “Manage the top line, which is your strategy, your people and your products, and the bottom line will follow. My model for business is the Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”

6. Attract remarkable people. “Building a company is really hard. It requires the greatest persuasive abilities to hire the best people and to keep them working at your company and doing the best work of their lives. We’ve been lucky to have great partners and to have attracted great people. Everything that has been done has been done by remarkable people.”

7. Choose the right horse to ride. “Apple is a company that doesn’t have the most resources. The way we’ve succeeded is by choosing the right horses to ride really carefully. We try to pick things that are in their Spring. If you choose wisely you can save yourself a tremendous amount of work, instead of trying to do everything. Sometimes you just have to pick the things that look like they’ll be the right horse to ride.”

8. Don’t stress…it will all work itself out. “If the market tells us we’re making the wrong choices, we’ll listen to the market. That’s what a lot of customers pay us to do, to try to make the best product. And if we succeed, they’ll buy them, but if we don’t, then they won’t. And it will all work itself out.”

9. Move on to the next great thing. “If you do something and it turns out pretty good, you should go out and do something else wonderful. Don’t dwell on it for too long, just figure out what’s next.”

10. Stay hungry. Stay foolish. “Much of what I’d stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.”

5
NOV

entrepreneurship, management, People

Efficiency Is Free by Seth Godin

As you know, I love Seth Godin’s blog – short, sweet and to the point. Here’s the piece on efficiency:

“Philip Crosby wrote a seminal book (Quality is Free) in which he argued that it’s cheaper to build things right the first time than it is to fix them later. Obvious now, but heresy in Detroit 1980. Quality quickly became not just a better way to manufacture, it became a marketing benefit as well. Not only was quality cheaper to make, it was cheaper to sell.

I’m struck that we need a new book, call it Efficiency is Free.

It’s cheaper to build carpets that don’t create poison gas than it is to do the easy thing and let people suffer later. It’s cheaper to build an 8 passenger car that gets 30 miles per gallon than it is to suffer the consequences of the 12 mile per gallon Suburban. It’s cheaper to design smaller, lighter and recyclable shipping containers once than it is to buy and hassle with billions of foam peanuts in the long run.

So why doesn’t everyone do this? For the same reason the quality revolution took a full generation to take hold – it costs more right now. It takes planning right now. It requires change right now.

Right now will always be difficult. But efficiency is still free.

28
OCT

blog, management

Ian Lurie – Conversation Marketing

I found this article through @RasMbisi on Twitter – Michelle Vickers from Ras Mbisi Lodge on Mafia Island off the coast of Tanzania. The piece comes from Ian Lurie @portentint on Twitter (that’s him above) from his blog conversation marketing. There are certain things I hate about websites and it was nice to read that others do too. The original piece was Ian’s “Here’s my 13-step process for making sure your customers hate you. Just build these features into your web site.” I’ve picked the 9 that really annoy me (and that I understood!!)

1: The Flash Intro
Somehow people still argue with me, saying that 120 seconds of totally pointless dancing raisins, spinning squares and cheesy, porn-inspired music loops is a good marketing tactic. It’s not. How do you feel when they show commercials at the movie theater? They get in the way, right? So does that nasty, pointless flash intro. It’s like a sleezy sales guy standing outside The Ritz. Even worse, it drives away the search engines, too. If you want your customers to hate you, put a nice, long Flash intro on your home page. Even better, make sure there’s no way to skip it.

2: The Every Page Link
You don’t really have to link back to your webmaster/designer from every single page of your site.

3: Animated Buttons
Use any of these on your site and I will find your server, pour a milkshake into the power supply and then run down the street shrieking with laughter. If you want your customers to despise you, use lots and lots of animated buttons.

4: Take Over My Browser, Why Dontcha?
Gotta love this one. You go to a web site. Then your browser blinks, goes into a kind of fit, and suddenly fills your whole screen. What the hell?! Someone suddenly decided you needed a ‘cinematic’ experience, so they used a javascript to maximize your browser window. That’s actually OK, unless you’re like me and have a 24″ monitor. Then your browser suddenly explodes in your face like you’ve entered hyperspace. The web site you visited appears as a tiny little rectangle in the middle of the screen or your computer crashes because it can’t handle drawing an animation at 5x normal size. If you want your customers to find sticks with rusty nails in them and then find you, take over their browser and make it really big.

5: Have a Soundtrack
Some sites might deserve a soundtrack. But if you’re an estate agent, I don’t want to hear the first ten bars of the Star Spangled Banner, converted to tinny MIDI format, played over and over. Want everyone to wish a pox on both your houses? Have an annoying, repetitious soundtrack.

6: Write Really Long Sentences With No Punctuation and Then Use Bad Grammar Too So That I can’t Tell What the Hell You’re Saying
Please, just hire a copywriter, OK? Or, just keep writing crappy copy. So that your customers can hate you.

7: Have An Incomprehensible Tag Cloud
I don’t hate all tag clouds. But every now and then I see one with 250+ terms in 4 colors and almost infinite different sizes. It’s like the blogger wants me to run away. Obstacle-oriented design. I love it. Trust me, folks won’t like you if you use a horrifically large, impossible to read tag cloud.

8: Make Me Register
Oh, no you didn’t! You did not just sell me on your product, get me all happy to buy it, and then ask me to fill out an entire registration form for the honor of giving you my money! Actually, at least half the e-commerce sites I see still do exactly that. “We want to make sure we can contact them,” is what I hear a lot. I also get “We want them to be able to order more quickly next time.” Then give them the option of saving their information, at the end of the checkout process. Gasp.

9: Make a Popup Appear When I (try to) Leave
I visit your site. I don’t like you, or I’m not ready to buy right now. Do you really think that popping up a window when I try to leave is going to make me change my mind? Let’s see: “Hmmm. I didn’t really need what you have to sell me. But since you’re being unbelievably annoying, I’ll think I’ll buy something.” Nope. If you want your customers outside your house with pitchforks, have a popup window that appears when they try to leave your site.

Has a way with words our Ian doesn’t he? But spot on he is!

14
OCT

blog, management, marketing, website

Lousy Listeners!

This is nice from PsychCentra l. Are you a ‘lousy listener’? I do know that you can’t talk and listen at the same time. My former assistant manager – late Jonathan Lungu – and I used to prove it to the Chanters Girls when we realised they weren’t listening because they were talking too much. We’d both start talking at the same time – about anything – in front of them, and then question each other afterwards as to what the other had been saying. Neither of us had a clue!

Anyway, according to PsychCentral, Lousy Listeners:

1. Attend to other things when you are speaking.
Proud of their ability to multitask, they continue to scan the newspaper, text, or clean their desk while being addressed. An occasional ‘uh-huh’ is supposed to cue you that, really, they are with you. They’re not — or at least not totally. Their mind is distracted. Chances are they miss important pieces of your message — even if they protest that they don’t.

2. Are planning how they will respond even while you are speaking.
They are so busy rehearsing their reply that they miss part of your message and don’t catch the nuances of your communication. They’re ready with a paragraph before you’ve even completed a sentence.

3. Steal the ball.
You say something like, “I can hardly wait to tell you about my trip to the Grand Canyon.” Before you get the last word out, they start: “The Grand Canyon? I was there once. Let me tell you. It was so interesting. We went on this and did that and this and that happened. And we met these wonderful people at the dude ranch we stayed at.” They are off and running with their description of their own experience. You are left to hold your story for another day – if you get the chance then either.

4. Change the subject before you are ready to do so.
Maybe you’re talking about something sensitive between you or maybe the topic is just more meaningful to you. Either because they aren’t interested or because you are making them nervous, they steer the conversation to something that interests them more or that makes them feel safer. You say, “I’d love to go see such and such a concert.” They say, “Sunday night is football night.”

5. Hurry you along.
As you talk, they get restless. They might say, “Uh-huh, Uh-huh, uh-huh” or look at their watch or scan the surroundings or fidget. You run out of interest in communicating with them because they’ve let you know that they’ve run out of patience with listening to you.

6. Have lousy nonverbal skills.
They don’t look like they are paying attention. They don’t give much in the way of positive feedback like a nod or a smile. They slouch. They turn away. Their eyes glaze over. Talking to a lousy listener is like talking to a post for all the affirmation you get.

7. Tend to see criticism or blame in the most innocent of discussions.
Their defense is to be critical and judgmental. While you are talking, they are busy developing critiques of what you said or how you said it. They use sarcasm, “jokes,” and anger to derail any hint that you may be suggesting the need for them to change something about themselves or about how they are doing something. Communicating with them is so unpleasant you avoid it as much as you can.

8. Are quick to offer advice, even when it hasn’t been asked for.
They don’t take the time to listen to the whole story or to offer quiet support. Often they mean well. They really do want to help. But they don’t understand that their help isn’t always helpful; that sometimes what you want is simply to be heard and understood or given a vote of confidence that you can solve your own problems.

There you are then, food for thought!

9
OCT

management, staff

Avoiding Momentum

As usual Seth Godin’s blog gives great food for thought. When you read the piece below it amounts to self-confidence doesn’t it? That’s not always common in this part of the world. Seth writes:

“Some days, even the best dentist doesn’t feel like being a dentist. And a lifeguard might not feel like being a lifeguard. Fortunately, they have appointments, commitments and jobs. They have to show up. They have to start doing the work. And most of the time, this jump start is sufficient to get them over the hump, and then they go back to being in the zone and doing their best work.

Momentum is incredibly useful to someone who has to overcome fear, dig in deep and ship. Momentum gives you a reason to overcome your fear and do your art, because there are outside forces and obligations that keep you moving. Without them, you’d probably stumble and fall.

And yet…

And yet many of us fear too much momentum. We look at a project launch or a job or another new commitment as something that might get out of control. It’s one thing to be a folk singer playing to a hundred people a night in a coffeehouse, but what if the momentum builds and you become a star? A rock star? With an entourage and appearances and higher than high expectations for your next work. That’s a lot of momentum, no?

Deep down, this potential for an overwhelming response alerts the lizard brain and we hold back. We’re afraid of being part of something that feels like it might be too big for us.

Hint: it probably isn’t.”

9
SEP

Africa, blog, development, entrepreneurship, management, People, staff, Zambia

Women Bosses A Nightmare?

As Annastasia Katele (pictured above) my long term and dedicated assistant prepares to manage Chanters Lodge for 2 weeks, this caught my eye from The Institute of Hospitality, of which I’m a Fellow. In our case, I’m quite sure I’m the nightmare and Anny’s the dream!

“A survey recently undertaken by recruitment firm UKJobs.net found that two thirds of respondents, both men and women, preferred to be managed by men. According to the poll of 3,000 employees, which was picked up by media around the world, women bosses are seen as a nightmare to work for as they are “loose cannons” and too “sharp tongued.”

Nearly two thirds (63%) of the women surveyed and three-quarters of the men said they would prefer to be managed by a man. Male bosses were less likely to get involved in office politics, were easier to reason with and rarely suffered from mood swings, the survey found.

Among the respondents, there were also those who would rather have a female boss (31%). They said women bosses are more approachable, friendly and understand when workers need time off to look after their children.”

Oh yes, and she’ll be co-hosting the Chanters Lodge Experience on 107.7 fm too!

8
SEP

Africa, Chanters, livingstone, management, staff, TripAdvisor, victoriafalls, Zambia

Labour Investigation

Couldn’t resist this one from Derek Dawson this morning:

The Yorkshire County Council Department of Labour, claimed a small northeast farmer was not paying proper wages to his help, and sent an agent out to investigate him. The Department of Labour employee said, “I need a list of your employees, and how much you pay them.”

Farmer:- Well, there’s my farm hand, who’s been with me for 3 years.
I pay him £200 a week, plus free room and board.

Then there’s the mentally challenged worker. He works about 18 hours every day, and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about £10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night, so he can cope with life. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally.

IDL employee:- That’s the guy I want to talk to…the mentally challenged one.

Farmer:- That would be me.

28
JUL

agriculture, Economy, entrepreneurship, management, staff, uk

Ten Reasons To Choose Chanters Lodge

Ben Reed from AdventureswithBen was kind enough to write this recently about Chanters Lodge: Thanks Ben!
TEN GOOD REASONS TO STAY AT CHANTERS LODGE LIVINGSTONE
10. Quiet, Peaceful, Calm
With 11 rooms, you’ll find the lodge quiet, peaceful and well…calm. The location of the hotel is just beyond the main part of town, close enough to be where you need to be quick, but far enough away to get that sense of escape and relief.

There is a pool and garden area to relax, catch-up on jet lag or just relish the fact that you’re in Africa. With rooms sprinkled throughout the complex, you can feel like you’re the only one there, or quickly swap stories with other travelers who are looking to do the same.

9. African Personality
Traveling through 15 countries I can tell you that a hotel, is a hotel is a hotel. But not Chanters Lodge.
Stepping onto the grounds, you’ll instantly feel like you’re in Africa. High perimeter walls, dirt driveways, painted walls, coffee tables stacked with travel books, newspapers and magazines and well-worn lounges to enjoy them in – it’s the perfect setting to best your fellow travelers with tales of getting doused by Vic Falls, cruising the Zambezi or searching for game. It doesn’t try to be luxury, contemporary, modern or artsy. It’s African and that’s what makes it special. I’ve posted more photos of Chanters Lodge on Facebook.
8. Comfortable Rooms
Between riding in helicopters, bungee jumping and hiking through the Zim Side of the falls, at the end of the evening, you want a place to unwind and relax. Rooms are equipped with bug nets, private bath rooms, desks, televisions, space heaters (yep, it can get chilly in Africa) and beds you can slide right into. I fell fast asleep, anxious to discover what adventures Livingstone has in store for me tomorrow.
7. Convenient Location
Chanters Lodge is located just about 10 minutes from the airport and 10 minutes from Vic Falls. Taxi Drivers know exactly where it is so it’s easy to get home. You can make quick trips downtown for shopping, dining or entertainment without worrying about how to get home.
6. Menu Variety
The Chanters Lodge Restaurant has plenty of options for every palate. You’re in Africa, so try something local: Zambezi Bream (fish), Nshima (a Zambian side dish) and Mosi Lager (a local brew). But for the less-than-adventurous, there’s the staples too: omelettes, sandwiches, chicken, pasta, etc. Food comes quick, is priced right, filling and does the job after a busy day crossing borders with Zimbabwe and Zambia. Breakfast is included with your room!
5. WiFi Internet Access
Guests can enjoy 1 complimentary hour of wireless internet access. Vouchers for purchase are available for additional time. Internet speeds in Zambia are slower than what you may be used to, but you’ll have enough speed and time to let everyone know you’ve arrived safely in Livingstone and to brag on Facebook with the photos you took of Vic Falls.
4. Community Radio Station
One of the parts of my stay that surprised me the most was Chanters Lodge’s prominence in the community. Every Sunday Richard Chanter, the owner, hosts The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient Featuring George Soulchild on 107.7 He’s got a strong following on the show as they talk music, travel, pop culture and more. Each week he gives out a free dinner for two at the lodge to local Zambians, a treat for many!
Guest lodges distinguish themselves from the bland corporate hotels with activities like this. It adds passion, personality and fun to a guests stay. Locals supporting locals, that’s the way it should be.
3. Attentive Staff
I sat down to dinner on the first night and with my meal came several salads, one of them beet salad. Not a beet eater, I politely declined. During dinner on the second night, my server brought the same salads, minus the beets. That kind of attention to detail is rare. It can’t be taught, practiced or rehearsed. You have to have people who have a heart for service to recognize and deliver moments like that. Whether it’s the front office staff, the servers or Richard himself, they’ll ensure you are taken care of during your entire stay.
2. Fantastic Price
Considering the amenities, location staff and everything else, Chanters Lodge is the best value in town. Anything cheaper and you’d be slummin’ it. Anything more expensive and you’d be paying for services you don’t need. Chanters Lodge hits it on the mark.
1. Passionate, Friendly Owner
Richard Chanter, the owner of the lodge which bears his name loves being a hotelier. I could tell that instantly. He’ll meet you at the airport, provide travel advice in the area, organize tours and transport, regale you with stories from his past and maybe even invite you to be a guest on his radio show Sunday evenings.
Chanters Lodge is the culmination of decades of experience in hospitality, a place he can call his own.
Thanks Ben, I’m pleased you see it that way! Hope others do too!

24
JUL

accommodation, Africa, garden, livingstone, management, travel, victoriafalls, Zambia

Lucky Winners!

Last Sunday’s show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm -The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild – was different! Earlier in the week on a blog we mentioned that we presented prizes to the lucky members of staff who had won our World Cup Sweepstake. It was also a chance for me to thank the staff generally for their hard work and loyalty, and believe me we see plenty of examples of that! They are a good team. It was a way for us to celebrate the unexpectedly bad business of the World Cup – sometimes you must celebrate failures to see where you can go next!

We played some pretty hot tracks on the programme – not just in Zambia either ‘Aeroplanes’ by BoB and ‘Love The Way You Lie’ with Eminem and Rihanna though we had to censor the swearing. ‘Our Kind of Love’ by Antebellum and Miriam Lambert’s ‘The House That Built Me’ are latest and my type of thing. ‘Candy’ by Aggro Santos had them hopping. Check them out, those tracks are international chart-toppers!

We thought the prize winners waiting at the back of the studio to be brought forward to get their prizes would dance but it didn’t happen! They all had something to say the listeners though, and all showed and told how much progress they’ve made in their jobs in the past couple of years. Why did most of the prizes go to those in the kitchen? I’m not sure, perhaps God had something to do with that!

Having gotten rid of the World Cup coming on TV at the same time as our radio show, we now have Idols and Big Brother Africa clashing with us, so we’ll still have to fight TV for our audience and we will. We have a feeling that the lodge and restaurant business in Livingstone in the next two years is going to be a fight for market too! We’ll do our best to be right in there!

There’s another nice picture of the winners: Alice, far left 2nd, Aggy next to Alice 1st and Melinda last right 3rd. The others? All winners too!

23
JUL

Africa, Chanters, livingstone, management, staff, World Cup 2010, Zambia

Chanters Lodge – Winners!

Last night on our local radio show, The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Soulchild, which goes out on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs we brought our three prize winners from the staff at Chanters Lodge to collect their winning cheques on air! What had they done to win prizes? Drawn the right teams in the World Cup!

Left to right Melinda Silumbwa, Receptionist, who finished 3rd (she had both Germany and Uruguay!), Agness Mwale a cook from the kitchen who won with Spain, and at the front Alice Nankamba, Acting Head Cook, who is still so sad that Holland lost, Milli Jam, our DJ also in the picture, couldn’t even get her to smile! Getting girls to smile is normally his speciality!

This was a special one off motivational draw for the staff, hoping that the lodge would do great business during the period of the World Cup – that didn’t happen! But a promise is a promise and the winners shared the equivalent of US$300 financed by management.

Congratulations to them all! On tomorrow’s show, some more about last night’s radio’s programme!

19
JUL

Africa, Chanters, development, management, radioshow, staff, World Cup 2010

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