Bosso must change now or die

"Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow". These are the words of famed English writer and theologist, William Pollard way back in the 19th century when asked to give his depiction of the need for innovation and growth in business survival.

His words continue to be apt and a fundamental principle for business survival in the 21st century. For any business entity that sits on its laurels and takes the market for granted is bound to die a miserable death.

Lounging around in business principles involves a lot of things like not moving with the times and failure to continuously satisfy your target market.

Basic business principles stipulate that one must study market trends for survival; what is it that your targeted market wants and desires, where is your market domiciled and a number of other essential aspects that will make your business survive.

Even if the outside operating climate makes it difficult for your business to thrive, you need to be always abreast and eager to make sure your business holds forth in good and bad economic climate.

Failure to do this you can be assured of demise.  

Many companies have gone that route while some are in the process of going that route unless they change their approach to the way of doing things. It's common knowledge that football is now business and must be run along business lines with people who have a strong acumen behind such organisations.

Recently, crack Botswana outfit Gaborone United, coached by former Highlanders coach Madinda Ndlovu, embarked on a massive membership drive in and around Botswana's capital and will soon be outside the capital.

This is a well-funded football club that enjoys P3,6 million sponsorship. With this kind of sponsorship one can easily conclude that the club doesn't need to "beg" supporters to take up membership cards but alas, it's going full throttle to convince people to join it and not only that, the club is out there where the people are.

"Thank you Gantsi, hello Mau. We are done and dusted in Gantsi, we are off to Mau. We will be in front of Nandos from 0900hrs to 1700hrs tomorrow," posted Gaborone United on their Facebook wall on Wednesday.

A whole eight hours out there harnessing membership and this is an ongoing exercise. Back home the country's oldest club, Highlanders, presently in a serious downward motion, needs to copy this way of doing things.

This business of having a lackadaisical approach to the way of doing things where staff members spend the day on social media platforms in the comfort of the office needs to stop.

Gone are the days when people could easily find time to go to 50 Robert Mugabe Way to buy or renew their membership cards. The club needs to be innovative, not only on membership cards but can even sale other branded items like cups, pens, hats and so on. Offices must be there but if potential members aren't willing to come to your offices, then for goodness sake go to them. These are not normal times for Bosso.

Extinction is a reality with this kind of approach to the way of doing things. The club has supporters throughout the country and it must therefore make full use of them in those cities and make sure that for a few chosen days during the week, those supporters will embark on this exercise to sell membership cards or any other club regalia. Reality shows that demise is real but can be avoided. One observer said Highlanders now needs baboon mentality too.

Those who understand baboons will know that most of the time, when they are alone, it's all about fighting, and chasing each other all over. However, if an enemy invades their territory, all that fighting and chasing stops immediately as all the energy will now be directed at exterminating the invader. This invader, in this case, is the demise of Highlanders and perhaps now is the time for its followers to forget their differences and finger pointing and think alike.