Mercedes-Benz, In Search Of A New Narrative

Nov 3, 2016 | ,

On the 11th of February, 1990, at 16:14, I was sitting in a hotel room – our house was being renovated - in Maseru, in front of the telly with my father and siblings. This was the date and time that Nelson Mandela finally walked free. This was an occasion that had significance not just for South Africans but Africans as a whole. The 26 years since that day have been marked with positives, negatives and the blurry areas in between. It is also easy to get caught up in the challenges the country faces, which can be a very dark place. "An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when...

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Vodacom NXT LVL Putting Footballers Through School

Oct 10, 2016 | ,

Having played various sports as a child and teenager, as well as watching my nine-year old explore different sports, including rugby and football, I sincerely believe that participating in sports can have immense benefits for a child growing up. At my son’s football sessions, the coaches are fair but don’t allow for messing around. They expect discipline, the desire to work hard, the understanding that it is about team work and having fun. I have seen introverted and/or shy children, including my boy, come into their own on the training field and, in talking to other parents, we see it carry...

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VISA Seeks To Redefine The Future of Payment

Sep 1, 2016 | ,

By the time my daughter was 2 years old, she knew what YouTube was. She was born into a household with an iPad. My son was her conduit into the world of technology. While I spend quite a bit of time trying to keep with technological developments to ensure that I can both monitor and protect them, my children were born into a world where things like mobile phones, laptops, wi-fi, etc are commonplace. I often have conversations with them about how we took pictures with cameras that used film or how cellphones only became pervasive when I was in my twenties. They are fascinated by ATMs and how...

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Youth Development hits the NXT LVL

Jun 22, 2016 | ,

Lionel Messi started playing in his hometown team Club Atletico Newell’s Old Boys youth system at the age of 8. At 13, he moved, with his entire family to Spain where he trained and played at La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy. Steven Gerrard joined Liverpool’s academy at 9. Cristiano Ronaldo signed with Sporting Club of Lisbon at 12. Andrea Pirlo made his Serie A debut for Brescia at the age of 16. Paul Pogba started playing for a club near his hometown in France at the age of 6, spending 7 seasons there. As with most sports, youth development in football is something that needs to take...

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Cashless Parking With KaChing

Mar 2, 2016 | ,

You have been shopping. You walk up to the pay station. There’s a line. You put your bags down and fish into your pocket for cash to pay for your parking. You realise you might not have enough. You pick up your bags, find the closest ATM (which is usually on the other side of the mall), withdraw cash, get back, stand in line. You put in a note. It pops back out. You flip it, turn it, twist and eventually you pay. (If you had enough money, in coins, you probably had to scratch at least one coin against the pay station because it keeps sliding through and popping out.) Head to your car, drive...

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Need Extra Money?

Jan 27, 2016 | ,

The first cellphone I owned was a Nokia 2110 in 1996/97. A hand-me-down from my father, who got it while doing work at CSIR in Pretoria. Vodacom had just setup a deal to provide cellular services in Lesotho, creating Vodacom Lesotho. I was literally given a list of numbers to choose from. Since then, I have had countless phones and have written on them relatively extensively for a variety of spaces, also having the opportunity to go to launches both locally and internationally. I’m actually reviewing the Sony Xperia Z5 right now. I have also had two phone contracts for ten years which means...

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