عربي

Startup Watch: Business tips from a drug lord, burnout and the futility of the job interview

Startup Watch: Business tips from a drug lord, burnout and the futility of the job interview

The world of entrepreneurship news is ever growing and sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when you want to catch up.

To help you navigate through the mayhem, here’s our wrap of what we’re reading on employee burnout, a Nigerian inventing inspiration, and how job interviews are useless.

Burnt out: the husks of human shells who are your employees. Being the most competent in the office isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, despite what your mother might have told you about making yourself indispensable. But the primary takeaway is for the bosses: you need to adjust your company to prevent your staff from burning out, not the other way around.

'Why am I working off a clip board?' (Image via Pixabay)

To be or not to be ethical, is that really a question? “From Travis Kalanick to Donald Trump, we see people who’ve broken the rules (pardon me  -  disrupted!), skirted regulation, and have generally behaved abominably towards others, to much success.” You may need to pay the rent but you have to really question whether or not you want to do so unethically. It will surely come back to bite you in the butt.

It’s not an Aston Martin, but... This Nigerian self-taught inventor has taken a leaf out of Q’s book (that’s a James Bond reference) and built himself a solution to Lagos’ traffic problems: an ‘aero-amphibious jet car’. While he hasn’t got the flying aspect down yet it travels on land and sea. We wish him luck.

Bye bye gig, hello full time. Employing full time staff is the new answer to employing freelancers. Yeah, we know. After 15 years of the gig-economy, entrepreneurs have discovered it’s the way forward for building a company that is profitable in the long run. It seems popular too: who’d have thought people wanted the stability of insurance and unions.

Wamda of the week: Egypt and ride-sharing, and it goes on. Rising prices of fuel have pushed Egyptians away from Uber and Careem and towards home-grown ride-sharing services. The country’s tech-enabled transportation market is one of the most competitive in the region - we’re at 12 companies working in the space and still counting - and the global players have competition on their hands, but can the local players take over?

5 startup lessons from a gangster. The way the world’s nefarious run their organisations, from drug lords to terrorist groups, are a point of fascination, they’re really just like any other business. Frank Lucas, New York kingpin in the 70s sold his product (heroin) at a price lower than his competitors - he found success. Here are five lessons from the American Gangsters business model for selling consumer products.  

Job interviews are futile! 'Blah, blah, blah, nice hat, blah, blah.' (Image via Flickr)

Job interviews, not realistic. The only job we ever got through a job interview was at Domino’s Pizza. For many, the interview process is a fruitless act - harmful, even. This research says stay away from ‘getting to know’ your candidate and go for a structured process where all candidates are asked the same questions.

And what’s your password, sir? The US president is considering a new vetting policy that could see people having to hand over personal information on entry to the US, including passwords. Oh and ideology…. “Um, sure, Kimlovesme82 and well, KUWTK4ever, obviously. That suitable enough for you?”

Feature image Al Capone. Obviously he’s not Frank Lucas but there were no free images of Frank Lucas. Via Wikipedia.

Thank you

Please check your email to confirm your subscription.