Gain Competitive Advantage

By Kgadi Mmanakana

How many times do we persist to force something to work that we already know won't work? Like holding views, leadership styles and culture that no longer serve our workforce and businesses? How many times do we conform to being stuck in the rut, the bare minimum, and the comfortable zone over restructuring the organizations to make things work, stopping the production of a product that is a nice-to-have (a money bleeder) and investing in what will give sustainable returns?

 

Sometimes to save yourself, your business, you will need to do the hard things. Most people and businesses didn't swiftly adapt to the Covid19 induced disruption. There were tears that were shed, short-term mistakes and losses made, anxiety and gut-wrenching fear experienced. However, that knowing that that was going to be the "New Normal" enabled them to do it afraid. And that's bravery. Leading at the edge of chaos, through crisis and recessions is not easy. Changing organizational culture which at times get you face to face with your own biases and ineffective outlook, is not easy. For a person who's used to having the final say is not easy to "allow" your workforce to be entrepreneurial and let their innovative ideas catch fire. For an ever-solo entrepreneur may not be easy to start delegating and "losing control". All these necessary calls for change and transformation require you to be brave and courageous. They require brave leadership and courageous culture.

 

In Gain Competitive Advantage, the author, Kgadi Mmanakana, introduces brave leadership and courageous culture as the birthplace of competitive advantage and shares 10 practical strategies that business leaders, team leaders, managers, divisional directors and executives can use to unlock employee engagement, drive team performance and build resilience to maintain relevance in a constantly changing world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kgadi Mmanakana
• Release date: Aug 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215532102

Book preview

Gain

Competitive Advantage

Gain

Competitive Advantage

10 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE TO UNLOCK EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, DRIVE TEAM PERFORMANCE, AND BUILD RESILIENCE TO MAINTAIN RELEVANCE IN A CONSTANTLY CHANGING WORLD.

Kgadi Mmanakana

Copyright © 2022 Kgadi Mmanakana 

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

First published 2022  

Cover Art: Canva.com

ISBN: 979-8-2154-5537-1

www.kgadimmanakana.co.za

To my mom;

you are the wind beneath my wings. Ke a leboga. Thank You.

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Brave Leadership & Courageous Culture

Part 1

From Great to Threatened to Resilient

Part 2

Strategy, Competition and Advantage

Part 3

10 PRACTICAL STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE TO UNLOCK EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, DRIVE TEAM PERFORMANCE, AND BUILD RESILIENCE TO MAINTAIN RELEVANCE IN A CONSTANTLY CHANGING WORLD.

Strategy #1

Make Employee Engagement your Business Strategy

Strategy #2

Enable Innovation

Strategy #3

Practice Brave Leadership

Strategy #4

Unlock the dividend of Diversity and Inclusion

Strategy #5

Cultivate a Courageous Culture

Strategy #6

Be Agile

Strategy #7

Adapt

Strategy #8

Keep your ear on the ground for Market & Customer Intelligence

Strategy #9

Be a Thought Leader

Strategy #10

Become a Disruptor

Conclusion

References & Further Reading

About the Author

A Shameless Plug

Dedication

This book is for leaders that want to gain competitive advantage and maintain relevance in a constantly changing world.

It is written for Team Leaders, Directors, Managers, Heads of Division, Supervisors, C-Suite Executives, and Business Owner/Entrepreneurs, that want to unlock employee engagement because they understand that unlocking employee engagement unlocks team morale, breakthrough and innovative thinking, high performance, and business resilience.

In the book I share 10 leadership and culture embedded strategies that you can implement to Gain Competitive Advantage.

The book offers practical and ready to implement insights and strategies.

Introduction

Brave Leadership & Courageous Culture

In the face of change, disruption, crisis, recession, sabotage, or rude awakening – what do you do?

Dealt a bad hand?

Born poor?

Top student with no money to further your studies?

Stuck in living a lie?

Business model threatened?

Quarantined economy?

Industrial Revolution?

Intense Competition?

Profit crisis?

Personal Values in the way of business success?

The answer to my animating question – what to do in the face of change, disruption, crisis, recession, sabotage, or rude awakening – is brave the call to embrace and adapt to change. Use that moment of awakening to follow the facts and sometimes the truth, your personal truth. The shared ground that people who were born in poverty (suffering) or who were dealt a bad hand that landed them in suffering and end up dying without experiencing the better and comfortable side of life, have with businesses that get out of business or fail is the self-sabotage. Self-sabotage in a sense that, they both had a moment of awareness that gave them an opportunity to break out of suffering or save their business, and they didn’t go for it.

It is no longer exclusive news that we are living in a constantly changing world where industries rise and fall, the mighty falls and startups rise up, society shifts, and economies get quarantined. And the changes that are happening are not only technical, affecting how we do business. They are also personal disrupting and challenging even our own mindsets, way of being, doing, and thinking.

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17 years ago, I was a 10-year-old in a local library with 2 books titled Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation. 

10 years ago, I was a 17-year-old at a local police station having a meeting with the captain and a detective inquiring about what it takes to work as a forensic detective in South Africa. 

9 years ago, I was a top matric achiever at my school with 4 distinctions including my favourite subject, Physical Science. And had 3-year experience in motivational speaking and tutoring at my school.

8 years ago, I was analysing metal microstructure in a laboratory as a metallurgical engineering student at Vaal University of Technology. 

7 years ago, I was financially excluded and found myself for the 3rd consecutive year fighting to raise funds for my studies, worn out, feeling betrayed by the system, and not understanding why I couldn’t get a shot and finish my studies because I was promised that if I can get good grades, surely, I will go to university, graduate and a get a job.

6 years ago, I was back at University depressed and at war with myself trying to decide whether to take a study break with no guarantee of getting a funder next year and risk failing to break my family out of poverty or monetize my passions to create employment and generate income for myself as I nurture my mental health. 

4 years ago, I was a solid strategy consultant at my own company managing to pay my bills.

Few months ago, I BRAVED a window of opportunity to come out as a gay woman publicly, on social media.

Here's why it was important for me to be that elaborate in those timelines; 

It shows how we are prone to disruption and how the rules of success have changed.

A to B is no longer a solid strategy. We’ve always done it this way, We are too big to fail and I’m conservative, I don’t believe in that. No longer cuts it as a response to changes and disruption in the market and workplace.

We have seen or heard about #UnemployedGraduates, Technology Unemployment, the classic stories of Blockbuster, Blackberry, Kodak, and of Nokia.

In 2014 during the press conference to announce Nokia being acquired by Microsoft, Nokia CEO ended his speech saying this; We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.

Way back before phones had apps, touchscreens or cameras, Nokia led the mobile phone revolution for its indestructible build and incredible battery life, and they didn’t do anything wrong in their business, however, the world changed too fast. Their opponents were too powerful, and their power came from catching the smartphone wave and braving the call to adapt.

Nokia missed out on changing and thus they lost the opportunity at hand to make it big. It’s not wrong to want to stick to how you’ve always done things and refuse to learn new things and practice a new way of being, doing and thinking, however, if your worldview, leadership, and culture cannot catch up with time, you will be eliminated. The advantage you had yesterday will be replaced by the trends of tomorrow.

Oh wait, Nokia is back in business! In 2016 Nokia made its comeback through a licensing agreement with HMD Global where the company acquired the brand and intellectual property rights of Nokia. Although back, in the smartphone market Nokia has no shareholding control, HMD Global does, and Nokia receives royalty payments from HMD for sales of every Nokia branded mobile phone and tablet. This is not the same as having influence over sales growth and control over revenue. Had Nokia adapted quickly, there wouldn’t be a need to sell their brand and IP rights to another manufacturer.

Success lies in self-awareness, embracing truth and BRAVING.

The truth is, I have academic talent and I've always been a student that performed well, since primary school, regardless of the fact I started school late. And Forensic Science and CSI work was ignited by my fascination with Medical Detectives and Cold Case on our black and white TV growing up. The ‘you're under arrest you have the right to remain silent’, flashing the FBI badge on some ‘this is a matter of national security’, using computer forensics to cross reference and catch a criminal at the airport through flagged surveillance, and just being in the NYPD uniform with that gun, still give me goose bumps and excites me till today when I'm glued up to any CSI related series. In retrospect, that was my fantasy job. The fantasy still lives and I'm sure the time I tick my bucket list of being cast as an FBI agent, Police officer and or a computer forensics geek, it would go away. In real life, the work is not for me. Metallurgical engineering was an acquired taste from my sister-friend who studied the course and my fascination with material science, to an extent of researching why Titanic sank, why Tongaat Mall and Grayston bridge collapsed, fuelled all that. 

In retrospect I've never had a I see myself doing that career as a kid. Besides the fantasy careers and channelling my inner Newton that enabled me to land in Engineering and Strategy Consulting, looking back my goal as a kid was to escape poverty at home. I never took time, I'm not sure if I had any time, to really think about what I truly wanted. 

I just know that when I was explaining principles to my classmates as the unofficial tutor, when I took on students in University to tutor them Physics 1 during my gap year, and when I first stood up in class when I was 16 in Grade 10 to give a motivational talk, it felt like downloading on high-speed internet. 

I knew I belonged in front of people sharing stuff with them that can bring the light at the end of the tunnel closer to them. With time, my experiences, exposure, and wisdom provided structure for what that looked like for me at that point and time. From when I launched a community project to provide information to youth about opportunities available to them, working with entrepreneurs to help them execute their ideas and grow their businesses, publishing books, facilitating, speaking, consulting and one day preaching at church. I was trying to create that platform where I get to do what I know I want to do and is the call of my soul. 

I ignored the speaking full-time part because I was worried about pay day. I wasn't sure I could make money from speaking, also it felt like a total fail, wasting my best matric results. So, I found alternatives. Although I did get to pay bills and make impact with those alternatives, I was not thriving, something was still missing. I spent more time communicating with documents and spreadsheets than I spent equipping people and having that human touch with them. Like the gay me wanting to come out of the closet because it was just too hot now, my yearning to speak and teach more erupted like a volcano without warning.

How many times do we persist to force something to work that we already know won’t work? Like holding views, leadership styles and culture that no longer serve our workforce and businesses? How many times do we conform to being stuck in the rut, the bare minimum, and the comfortable zone over restructuring the organizations to make things work, stopping the production of a product that is a nice-to-have (a money bleeder), and investing in what will give sustainable returns?

It shows how what it takes to thrive amidst disruption is just BRAVING. Braving that truth, that path, that awareness, that says 'this is it' no matter how scary, or inconvenient it may be. 

When I had no luxury to take a study break and had to battle between staying in school with a mental health that eroded every day because of depression induced by my desire to want to make money quickly and take my family out of poverty, and dealing with an unexplored possibility that I actually didn't like the course I was studying, I explored my options and realized that I can't achieve the goal of improving the standard of living at home and be an engineer if I'm dead. I was not okay. So, I decided from that awareness, that truth.

Dropping out of school was not what I'd have liked to happen, it's what I had to do to save myself. And I knew that things were going to change. I had struggled to get my studies funded, regardless of my results and bursary opportunities I had applied for, so it was not going to be any different. I left University with an intent to raise money for my studies by starting my own business through monetization of my talents and also finding a way to do what I love while at it. At that point what was clear was that I was not a technical or handy person. I liked coming up with solutions, investigating problems and why things are not working, presenting solutions, and seeing people's lives changing for the better while at it. I just didn't know which career that was. I just knew that was what I saw myself doing every day. In school I used to have 3 different textbooks for every subject and studied all of them. I read chapters in advance. I loved information, was curious of how things worked and wondered why the sky is blue. And after my findings I liked sharing them with others for their own benefit. That's all. 

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I BRAVED the decision to live with dropping out of University and braced myself for the dominoes that were to come crashing down on me. It was an illogical decision to my family, mentor, and anyone in my close circle. But it saved my life. You having to hear about what I've just said, means I've BRAVED the awareness, truth, and the decision to choose what will launch me in a space where I am at my best, doing my best - thriving. 

Innovation and creativity can be awkward, illogical and, uncomfortable hence most businesses refuse to adapt and ultimately go out of business. But like the iconic 1997 Apple’s Think Different commercial narrated by Steve Jobs alluded,

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo...you can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things...they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do 

Drawing lessons from my rollercoaster journey of self-betrayal, being afraid of being and doing things differently, and my journey of braving it and adapting to the facts and my personal truth, I unearthed the real birthplace for competitive advantage. Whether the competitive advantage is for thriving in your personal life, world of work, relationships, leadership, amidst business disruption, or purely in business – whatever the threat is. I’ve discovered this birthplace of competitive advantage to be brave leadership and courageous culture.

It is so easy to advise businesses to adapt and people to transform. It is easy to throw words like be more inclusive, diversify your team, innovate, etc. It is another to be faced with that ball in your court. Change, Growth and Transformation can be so painful. Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don’t even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile, angry, or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us that we were, or we are in fact in the process of transformation, growth – something that’s good for us. Something that’s propelling us forward. And frankly, something you can actually succeed at.

When Covid19 hit, people and businesses that were reluctant to adapt to virtual meetings and e-commerce when the 4th Industrial Revolution gained momentum and started getting more realer, with time caught the wave and today remote working, virtual events and online shopping are a thing that most solely prefer.

What it really takes to be brave