I hope that you all remember Vincent who’s education we sponsored this year.

He had his Matric Farewell Dance a few weeks ago and it sounds like it was a real blast!. To quote Vincent; “It was awesome!”.

A few of the Avo’s were responsible for helping him out, arranging a car, suit, flowers and make-up for his date… . So thanks to everyone that was involved in making the evening really special.

Just have a look at the gorgeous photo’s!

Avo had another article in The Star Workplace today.

It was about accepting the challenge of making a good presentation and using it to your advantage, with (lucky readers) a few tips to becoming the masterful presenter!.

It’s so well written - I am so jealous!

It’s always a special moment when one of our clients takes the time to feed back to us when we’ve excelled ourselves.  Tracy was just her magical self the other day at Barloworld, and this is what they said:

“I had extremely positive feedback regarding the session.  The mutual feeling is that the lessons learnt will actually be applied meaningfully in the workplace.  Remarkable to me is that the session reached so widely across gender and racial differences. This is an indication of a sound philosophical/academic base that stimulates core truth across a variety of people. 

Another advantage is that this session was conducted by a very dynamic presenter.  Tracy was praised for her skill to present, to relate, and to educate.   She left no bias, offended nobody, and radiated a pureness which appealed to everybody.  

Thank you very much on behalf of all the students, and we hope to see Avocado around more often”

Trace - thanks for continuing to be such a brilliant brand ambassador for Avo - you are a real credit to us all!

Yes, thats right, I’m still struggling away to keep up with all the articles Avo’s got flying around at the moment!

First off, there was an article in the Black Business Quarterly about Call Centre’s.

The article, in summation, mentions the dearth of skills required to operate effieciently in this arena. There is a particular lack of Management Skills here too.

The great news for us is that Avocado Vision, together with Mandy Todd, are able to provide much needed support in this area.

Look out for the blogs on the next few articles - coming soon!

I was at the Businesswoman Of the Year Awards last night (thanks, Sharon!).  I was so inpired by being among the women who make our country great.  It reminded me of my own aspiration to earn the right to be numbered among their ranks: I want to have made a significant impact in South Africa through the empowerment of women over the next decade.

But that’s not why I’m proud of the Avos.  I listened to Maria Ramos talk to us about the strides we’re making, and the responsibility we have to make many more.  Her conclusion was an appeal to us all to make Christmas really work for South Africa this year. She asked us all to forego racking up huge budgets for Corporate Christmas gifts, and instead send our clients cards explaining to them how we spent the money on those who needed it much more.

I’m getting to why I’m proud of the Avos. We did that last year: we decided to spend the money on Vincent Xethu’s matric year’s school fees.  But now I look back on that company decision, I’m so proud of what the Avos have done: giving the money was the easy part. 

The Avos were not satisfied with that: they set up a mentorship programme with him: one person per subject, and tirelessly coached him through his whole year.  This last week they all pulled together to create a magical matric dance with him, where no effort was spared - his suit, flowers for his date, his date, his chauffer (to the dance; to the after party; home from the after party….), his spending money, even his airtime so he could sms his date…

Avos: you’re amazing!  I don’t even think you realise what an incredible thing you’ve done.  You have set Vince up to deliver the best matric he ever could have achieved, which is giving him opportunities way beyond what he could have dreamed, and you gave him a night to remember with a special smile forever! Now all he has to do is put his head down for finals, and I know you’ll continue to help him with that too!

So Christmas is on it’s way again: I can’t wait to see who we get to look after this time, but clients, please be warned - there’ll be no gifts from our house on the hill: we know you’ll understand, and love what the Avos do instead!

And that’s why I’m proud of the Avos!