There is strong research evidence to suggest that work culture in an organization might be one of the most underrated influences on a business’s success. Culture is the way of life of a group of persons like we were taught in school. Work culture in your organization would thus be the way of life or attitude towards work among the staff of a firm, and this is the first in a series of different work cultures.

An HR officer had her sister stopover at her office for a brief visit. What was supposed to be a brief visit ended up lasting from about 1:00 pm till the close of work, and with her door slightly ajar, the rest of the staff could hear the rings of their laughter throughout the office. No one said a thing about it, even though glances were exchanged.

By the next week, the receptionist had a male friend stop over to see her. He sat at the reception with her for the better part of four hours, and they kept chatting. Even though she was sitting in front of a desktop and holding a mouse, it was easy to see that she was doing more of the ‘gist’ than she was working.

Before long, every staff seemed to be having one visitor or the other dropping in to say hi, and no one said anything about it. When it was time for the third quarterly report of the year, it became clear that results have been gradually dwindling without much notice. One failed deadline here, another missed target there and every team’s performance had dropped by at least 30% over the space of two quarters.

What went wrong? It was the work culture.

One critical aspect of work culture is how employees spend their work hours. How do you ensure they are making the most of the work hours to the advantage of the team? Already there is some legislation here and there suggesting that employers should not reach out to their staff outside work hours. But how do we ensure that during the work hours, employees are actually working?

One aspect of work culture is that of receiving visitors during work hours. It is sad to know that most firms really have no clear policy on this, while some are just extreme. There is no regulation as to whether employees can receive visitors, and for how long. There is no one to say what the consequences would be if an employee spends more than say 10 minutes with a visitor. Everything is just left to assumption and in these cases, it takes one person doing the wrong thing to turn the firm inside out. You walk into some offices and you see staff perpetually on their mobile phones and you have to wonder if that is where all their tasks are confined to.

On the other end, we have some firms that have very harsh policies in this regard. Some go as far as refusing staff from making or taking any personal calls during work hours. I saw a post of a teacher who said that they had to submit their phones when signing in at the resumption of work and pick them up at the close of work. While this may help reduce distractions and probably increase productivity, I think it may be a little on the extreme.

What should startup entrepreneurs do?

Have a defined work culture. The internet and even the environment around us is rife with distractions. It only takes your eyes straying off work for a minute and you may struggle to return to work. Without a clearly defined policy on this, you may spend so much paying staff who would not be maximizing their actual potentials. Depending on the sector you find yourself in, you would have to define what would work for your business and what will not. It is not a one-size-fits-all scenario so I cannot tell you what to use.

Be careful not to make it too extreme. But also, do not leave it to assumption. Make it clear upon recruitment that you are particularly concerned about what they do during work hours. Culture is never left to assumption, and if you don’t fix it from the beginning, you will have a hard time making a change much later on. There is something about the culture that is contagious so that once new staff is recruited, they observe the older staff and simply pick it up from there. If a new staff resumes with so much zeal to work and prove his worth, it is difficult to keep that enthusiasm, if all he sees around are older staffs that do the barest minimum.

Sony PlayStation is in trouble with Microsoft’s planned acquisition of  Activision Blizzard, the makers of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush. Yes, I believe that if this deal goes through, over time, Call of Duty will be cut-out of PlayStation.

This playbook is also the validation that the future of gaming is content, not just hardware. Microsoft understands that redesign and is building critical assets in the industry. First was Minecraft which it paid $2.5 billion. Now, it wants to spend close to $68 billion for Activision Blizzard. It had also bought many studios, including ZeniMax Media which it spent $7.5 billion three years ago.

Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company) announced it has agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The all-cash deal provides Microsoft with the video game maker’s many popular titles, including Candy Crush, Call of Duty and Warcraft, as well as its nearly 400 million monthly gaming users. It also positions Microsoft as a major rival to Facebook in the race to dominate the metaverse, the broad term for VR, AR and virtual worlds.

Apple has won the smartphone world with the iPhone as the hub in America’s mobile internet. Microsoft wants its Xbox console to be what iPhone is to mobile internet. With these assets, that is evidently a possibility. The future of gaming will pass through Xbox because it will provide some of the best content in the world.

This is one of the effects of subscription where exclusivity is what matters. In other words, companies will be building their content because that is the only way to get customers to keep renewing. This redesign happened in movies where the best ones (for example, Netflix’s House of Cards, and Orange Is The New Black) are exclusive. The best AB games will become exclusive to Xbox.

So, Sony has a real challenge as Microsoft consolidates the world of serious gaming.

It is the software company’s major push to grab more share of the burgeoning game industry. The transaction is at $95.00 per share and will include Activision’s franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.

The game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and offers Microsoft the opportunity develop its metaverse platforms.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard in A $68.7 Billion Deal

The name Inyange is of Bantu origin and means “This is a completely white plumage bird which belongs to the heron and listed as one of the most beautiful white birds in the world. It is also called white Egret, great white Egret or great white Heron. This name is mainly for girls, where those who name a baby ‘Inyange,’ wish her to be attractive, beautiful as the bird is among its kinds (animals).”

While I cannot make a definitive statement about Inyange being either a family business or conglomerate like Akagera Business Group, one thing is for sure – it is a brand to be reckoned with in Rwanda. From the minute to step off the plane to any and every part of the country you set foot, you can be rest assured that Inyange is in your face. It is a leading food processing company in Rwanda, manufacturing a variety of products under their brand name- “Inyange.”

Inyange industries is engaged in the business of producing & selling a wide variety of fruit products, including fruit juice concentrates, fruit juice drinks & dairy related products. Our products are primarily sold to the local market, as well as regionally via Inyange certified distributors. The Inyange brand has been operating since 1997. However, it was not until 1999 when it began operations including processing & selling pasteurized milk & yoghurt.

Inyange manufactures a wide range of products & thus has quickly become a household name in the fast-moving consumer goods industry in Rwanda known for high quality mineral drinking water, fruit juices, milk & dairy products.

“At Inyange, we take pride in our levels of high quality that we maintain from raw material procurement to delivery of the final product. This has earned the company the market leader position in many of the production lines.”

In 2001 the plant introduced mineral water processing & packaging. Realizing that the domestic demand for all Inyange products was much higher than the facilities could supply, Inyange’s shareholders embarked on an ambitious expansion project, the construction of a US$27 Million production plan in Masaka, which has since allowed for Inyange’s production capacity to increase tenfold.  

Masaka is located in Gasabo District, Kigali Province, approximately 17 kilometres, by road, south-east of the central business district of Kigali City. Masaka is located about 9 kilometres, by road, south-west of Kabuga, at the eastern edge of the city of Kigali, along KK3 Road (RN3). Masaka is a sparsely populated area with an estimated population of approximately 4,558, as of January 2018. In January 2018, the government of Rwanda selected this neighborhood to be the location of the cargo terminal of the western end of the Isaka–Kigali Standard Gauge Railway.

Bottled Water

This increased capacity more than fulfills local demand & additionally allows for Inyange to expand its market to neighboring countries, taking advantage of Rwanda being part of the East African Community & its customs union.  

Sample of Products

In terms of its distribution network, the brand covers three main locations including Nyarugenge (Ali’s Inyange depot is located in the brand new CHIC complex in the bustling central business district of Kigali), Kicukiro (Majyambere’s depot is strategically located in the lively residential neighborhood of Gikondo) and Gasabo District (through Byagatonda located in the fast growing residential neighborhood of Kimironko).

Ultimately, this article resonates with my discussion with marketing students when we discussed the characteristics of a good brand name, we discussed the need for it to be easily spelt and pronounced, legally protected and extendable. Evidently, Inyange ticks all these boxes – it can virtually mean anything.

Happiness – your choice and no other can flip it.

Over the years, as a kid growing up in the village of Ovim, to a young man in the university, to a banker, to an engineer, to a teacher and everything, the summary is this: no man, no woman, and nothing can make you happy UNTIL you decide to be happy with yourself.

Ndubuisi, you will be going to Owerri. I was very happy because I would be leaving the village to study in the city. Then, from Owerri to Lagos, from Lagos to New York. But in all, I realized one thing: there was something really amazing in the past that I did not appreciate.

This is the deal: life is a moving target; it makes sense to recalibrate and find ways to be positive, for happiness. Your choice and no other can flip it!