Quick hits : Kufuor, Marieme Jamme, e-commerce

• Focus sur Mariemme Jemme of Spot One Global (via Timbuktu Chronicles)

Spot One Global founded by Mariéme Jamme specialises in helping technologycompanies in Africa, Europe and America to develop their business, enter new markets, find partners in new territories and win new profitable business...we focus on technology markets. This gives us the vital knowledge to really accelerate your growth and take you into new territories.

• 5 principes d'un E-commerce rentable (Michel de Guilhermier). Michel énonce des principes qui relèvent du bon sens, mais que nous ne sommes pas sans oublier. Extraits choisis:

1) Marge brute à la commande confortable et pérenne : […], les acteurs se devant d'être concurrentiel price-wise. La base de la base, et je le pose donc en principe n°1,  c'est d'avoir et de préserver une marge brute à la commande satisfaisante.

-2) Acquisition Client Rentable : des frais d'acquisition d'un client significativement inférieurs à la marge brute nette d'une commande.

-3) Approche Centrée Consommateur : Il faut une obsession permanente tant pour comprendre intimement le consommateur (dans ses besoins, ses envies, ses comportements, ses freins, etc) que pour le servir le plus parfaitement possible, en livraison (rapidité et fiabilité) et en service client (avant et après-vente).

-4) Systèmes Performants :  suivre précisément en temps réel l'évolution et l'origine du trafic sur le site, les taux de conversion, le split des ventes, les marges brutes (par produit, par gamme de produits, par marque, par tranche de prix, etc). A noter que l'analyse ne doit pas être tant sur le CA que sur la marge brute, c'est elle qui fait vivre.

-5) Frugalité : des frais généraux (en incluant les frais techniques et le service client) qui ne dépassent pas 10% du CA.

• Between Mobutu and Mandela (My Heart's in Accra). Why the Mo Ibrahim prize was not awarded this year ? John Kufuor, the former president of Ghana stood as a favourite but didn't get the prize. Does it mean that there is no suitable african leader that can be deserved the Mo Ibrahim leadership prize ? Well, to Ethan, the criteria are more subtle than that. Kufuor is no Mobutu, but he is also not Mandela.

Kufuor was the favorite to receive the third Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership. It’s a big prize – $5 million over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life thereafter – designed to recognize democratically elected former African leaders who’ve stepped down in the past three years after compiling a record of good government. Kufuor was the prohibitive favorite this year – Thabo Mbeki had been forced to resign from his post, while Olusegun Obasanjo is widely viewed as having rigged an election to appoint his succesor. Kufuor, by contrast, saw his party ousted in an election viewed (rightly or wrongly) as being free, presided over dramatic economic growth and was active in international peacekeeping efforts. Ghanaian media outlets were announcing Kufuor’s victory before it happened... and were stunned when the Ibrahim foundation decided not to award the prize this year.