25 Jul 2019

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) consultant Mr Jacob Mmola has urged Batswana to start viable businesses to play their part in creation of employment in the country. 

The consultant noted this during the workshop termed ‘Turnaround’ aimed at sensitising Serowe Marketing Co-op board members on how to effectively run the business and also to make returns in a short period of time at Serowe this week.

Mr Mmola said the private sector played an important role in the creation of employment in this country hence their desire to see more people going into viable businesses.

He said currently, government departments were saturated with graduates and experiencing a challenge of employing more people.

Due to this fact, he said graduates were roaming the street and this was the  reason private organisations such as the Serowe Marketing Co-op were called upon to handle their businesses in a way that the organisation would grow and create employment.

Mr Mmola called upon the Serowe Marketing Co-op to utilise tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which specifies what aspects of the ‘job’ were important for employees in the organisation as well as the strengths in the  functioning of the ‘job’. 

Further, MBTI gives guidance on which areas of the company need development among other things. 

He said the members of the company have their own talent that can be utilised to take the cooperative to a high level where it would be sustainable and establish chain stores that could create more employment.

However, he mentioned that all this depended on the joint effort of board members, management and employees.

He applauded Serowe Marketing Cooperative for running the business in line with Employment Act and Condition of Service documents that cover all basic aspects. 

BNPC consultant Mr Onalethata Chwene discussed the Business Model Canvas, which he said specified the way in which a company generated revenue and made profit from company operations. 

Mr Chwene said the model could also be used as a tool to visualise all the building blocks of a business which consist of nine essential components such as customer segments, relationships value propositions, channels, revenue streams, key resources, activities and partnerships as well as cost structures. 

He said that the methods applied through the model help a company to align its activities through understanding the potential trade-offs.

In addition the tool implores the organisation to be customer focused with easy communication channels. 

Board members of the Serowe Marketing Co-op appreciated the workshop noting that the knowledge they gained gave them an insight on how to run the business efficiently and effectively to benefit the organisation and contribute towards the country's job creation goal and the economy.  ENDS