Last year, the only two expatriates of the Ghanaian affiliate of a service company were wondering what to offer their employees as a Christmas gift. With very good sense, they thought the best would be for the employees to decide themselves. The only condition was that it would be the same for everybody, so they […]
Smart citizens for smart cities and countries
In my post of last week on urbanization and smart cities, I quoted my colleague at IESE Business School Prof. Ricart: “in order to have smarter cities, we need smarter citizens.” I read in the newspaper about a Nigerian immigrant who found an envelope containing more than €16,000 in cash and cash-equivalents, and handed it […]
Increasing urbanization and smart cities
Urbanization is on the up. The prospect is that by 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities – for Africa, the prediction is 50 percent. The challenge is for cities to offer improved living conditions to their citizens. To this end, the concept of “smart cities” is being developed. In essence, […]
Localizing international quality standards
Standards are meant to ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality. More often than not, there are multiple ways in which standards can be met, depending on the context and external conditions. That’s why it’s important to localize international quality standards, ensuring the standard is achieved but taking into account local […]
Water purification: a basic need
During my stay in Kenya, I acquired a new habit, one which I have kept in my daily life: drinking hot, really hot, water – like from the kettle. That’s common there. I guess it has to do with the need to purify the water before drinking it. Though it’s a basic need, water purification […]
