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Success Blog Archives
Success Blog posts insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domain of the success facet of life. Success-Blog: Business-Success News Passion and a good team key to business success: November 4, 2007 by HARVEY MACKAY TWO of the country‘s top women in business were in Port Elizabeth at the weekend, talking about their humble beginnings and their major successes. The Jupiter Drawing Room CEO Renée Silverstone and Hewlett Packard SA CEO Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe spoke at a Businesswomen‘s Association lunch held on Friday. The two were winners of the BWA businesswoman of the year award this year.
Silverstone, who started out in advertising quite by accident after taking on temporary work at an advertising agency while waiting for an IT course to start, said that without passion and a good team, success in business was not possible. “If you don‘t love what you do, you won‘t be great. You might be okay, but you will not be great,” she said. Silverstone‘s dream to create the best advertising agency in the country has more than come true, with The Jupiter Drawing Room having won several local and international awards and being rated the top agency in several ad agency surveys. Success Blog: Business Success News (Continued) The company “made history” when in 2006 it bid for four of the country‘s biggest blue chip clients – MTN, Sasol, Absa and SAA – and won all four of the advertising contracts, business worth R1- billion. Three of these were pitched and won within the space of four days. Silverstone said: “It was a team effort. Every single person had to put their heart and soul in and they really worked hard and we made history in advertising.” Silverstone, with partner Graham Victor, started The Jupiter Drawing Room 18 years ago. The company now has BEE ownership, and 50% of the company is made up of black staff, while 65% of the workforce are women. This is not bad going for a company that was named after a fictional brothel in a short story by French author Guy de Maupassant. Success Blog: Business Success News (Continued)
Mokgosi- Mwantembe was born in Sophiatown, but grew up in Swaziland. “My claim to fame was my brain,” she said, and it was this brain that earned her the bursaries that allowed her to earn her MSc in medical chemistry. Mokgosi-Mwantembe said while teaching maths and science she had also sewn clothes to sell, to help her save the money required for a one-way ticket to London to study. “I had seven days to secure a bursary in London or otherwise I would be sent back on the Swaziland government‘s account,” she said. When she started in her position at Hewlett Packard, the company was doing well, and Mokgosi-Mwantembe decided to change only four things. Three of these were transformation-related. The fourth involved implementing a comprehensive human resources strategy. Success Blog: Business Success News (Continued) Both Mokgosi-Mwantembe and Silverstone said that while a skills shortage existed in South Africa, and good black candidates were hard to find in both of their industries, they did not just sit back and accept this. “Every company has a responsibility to increase the pool of talent so that tomorrow we are not sitting with the same problem. We can‘t keep recycling talent from the same pool,” she said. HP has a graduate programme in place and has seen 18 graduates trained and employed full-time since its inception. The Jupiter Drawing Room, meanwhile, sponsors study for 25 students every year, after which they are placed in the company to complete an internship, Silverstone said. Success Blog Comment: The secret of business success, as Renée said, is - “If you don‘t love what you do, you won‘t be great. You might be okay, but you will not be great.” Thoko says another thing - “My claim to fame was my brain.” Now, is there something common between the two? Yes, there is. When you love what you do - not when you love what you do in order to get something; but just for the heck of it, when you love what you do without the motif behind it that it serves you with - you go emotionless (petty personal emotions!) and are filled with passion. Once passion replaces emotion, all the blocks of mind hindering the brain from working at its full capacity are lulled. When brain starts working unhindered by the petty personal emotions of mind, it does miracles turning you simply great at whatever you are doing. Love is the way to activate the brain that makes us what we are - humans with unlimited potential! Wanna have some bidding fun with 'Business Success' on ebay auction? You might grab a bargain or two! Just say your bid and you're done: Sign up with AuctionAds as a publisher and receive $25 right now! I invite you to subscribe to my E-zine titled Life Coach, free of charge. This E-zine publishes insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domains of various facets of life. A not-to-be-missed opportunity! Subscribe to it here: I also invite you to subscribe to my Life Blog - no need to provide your e-mail address here. This RSS feed keeps you informed about new developments taking place on this site. It also harbors 25 journal bloglets posting insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domains of various facets of life. In order to subscribe to the blog, right-click on the orange RSS button (see buttons up to the left) and then paste the URL into your RSS reader. Or click on add to My Yahoo! button or My MSN or Add To Google button if you keep a personalized home page there. If you are not sure what RSS or blogging is all about, click on What's an RSS Feed? here:
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