I’m sitting on the couch half-listening to our first annual ops team conference on the go. First time we’ve had a big enough ops team to warrant their own conference! And, led by Steve, they’re gearing up for a rollicking year where we do the normal Avo thing - being brave enough to work at a scale that really makes a difference in our country (and beyond)!

We’ve got some exciting stuff that has been cooking over the past few months, and we’re so excited about the growth and impact we’re facing this year.

In Avo space we’re going global! Annie and Daryl worked with DiData to build an awesome Sales support programme, and piloted it in Australia. This year, we’re helping DiData to set it up worldwide, and will be part of delivering it in some regions across the world.

We’re lifting our game at SAB in the way we help them prepare their sales force to sell, negotiate and build relationships with their customers. Its been a rich and long-term relationship that has added immense value to both companies involved.

Footprint is growing all the time - we have some exciting projects in the pipeline this year, and hope to train at least 45 000 people this year in basic financial literacy skills. We’re also testing the waters expanding into Africa by working with a local team in Gabarone to look at opportunities there, and learning how to partner in new African countries close to home so we can get up there and fix stuff easily as we learn with them.

Tred, started a year ago to address corporate training needs for large scale, lower level staff, has had a bumper starter year, already contributing more than 15% of Avo income in its first year. We piloted some exciting stuff with Standard Bank Inclusive Banking, and have also got some great financial literacy projects on the go, with some even more exciting prospects in the pipe that we’ll be able to talk about soon!

Two new ventures are getting traction this year too: Our new Enterprise Development division, Greenhouse, headed by Avo Alumnus, Hanli Buber, is focusing on partnering with Standard Bank’s Tutuwa Team to bring Enterprise Development and Microloans to South Africa’s Micro Enterprises. We are in talks with a couple of South Africa’s giant retailers to partner with us all to increase the impact of our work by working with their tiny clients and tiny suppliers.

I’m incredibly excited about the impact we’ve already had with the first 300 business owners we’re piloting with - watching our impact assessments with great interest. High fives to our own project team, the Tutuwa team and the trainers out there, who are slowly building a story of empowerment in our country!

Our other venture, working title ‘Fishbowl’, is being set up to address the need for helping South Africa plan for old age: Pension Fund Member Communication is so mediocre at the moment, and there is huge opportunity for gamelifting for both employers and pension fund schemes. We hope to be able to support both to educate and communicate more effectively, and enable people to make better decisions about their money and their future!

There is another giant project that we’ve pitched for (still a secret) that we’re holding thumbs for. If we get it, we will have the opportunity to impact another million South Africans in the Health and Social welfare sectors…hold thumbs for us please…it’s SO exciting!!!!

There are so many other things that we’re chasing and doing - but just tooo much to quantify! Thanks to all our clients, partners and suppliers for getting us to this point, and for walking through this next year with us on.

Steve was reminding our Ops team as to the purpose statement we have at Avo, and, as I close this off, I am so proud to say we are staying the course strongly: We are still “Building and delivering training solutions that empower people with skills and insight to make better choices and live bigger lives. Being brave enough to take on the challenges at a scale that makes a significant impact in SA and beyond”

Welcome to 2012 - hold onto your hats - its going to be cool!!!!

Doing well by doing good has been Jules’ philosphy during this time of worldwide economic turmoil.

Jules knew she had to reduce the costs of training, so instead of hiring highly-trained, experienced trainers, she took unskilled trainers and taught them how to train the content to their own communities.

This is just one of the insights within Jules’ new article that was published in this months’ Entrepreneur magazine.

Check it out here.

Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase knew the road race would be a tough mental and physical challenge, but he had faced far worse in his native Rwanda and as a refugee.

In the end, he comfortably completed last Sunday’s Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge under cloudy skies, alongside thousands of professional and amateur riders.

And, more importantly, he raised vital funds for a scholarship programme to put refugees and asylum-seekers through the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). “Education is one of the ways we can help empower refugees to be self-reliant, and make a difference in their host countries,” he said after taking part in the 94.7-km event, the world’s second-largest timed bicycle race.

Pie-pacifique was granted asylum in South Africa a decade ago and now works as an account executive here at Avovision, he knows from experience how important higher education is. “Against all odds, I was able to graduate from university while struggling as a refugee . . . UKZN was the first university in South Africa to change their policy to allow recognized refugees to receive financial aid,” he told UNHCR.

He arrived in South Africa in 2001, fleeing persecution in Rwanda, and is still trying to come to terms with its dark past. “During the genocide [of 1994], we had several attempts on our lives by the interhamwe [a largely ethnic Hutu militia] because we were thought to be moderate Hutus, and later on we were accused of being sympathetic to the interhamwe.”

At his mother’s urging, he set out on a long journey by boat, vehicle and foot that took him through Tanzania and Mozambique to South Africa. “My main goal was to get somewhere where I would be safe, but also could go to university,” he recalled, adding that he had planned to head across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, “because it was a French-speaking country and my first language was French.”

But he changed his mind after a chance meeting in an internet café in Mozambique with a Congolese man who suggested that he go to South Africa, where asylum-seekers and refugees have the right to work and study. He reached Durban and was granted asylum in November 2001.

In November 2001, he successfully applied to study physics at UKZN but was denied a grant because he was not a South African citizen. Luckily, the policy on financial support was amended and he was able to take up his place with a bursary to cover his tuition, accommodation, meals, book allowance, general allowance and travel expenses.

Armed with a Bachelor’s degree, he easily found a good job as a business systems and data analysis for a major bank. Ever since, and fired by meetings with other refugees, he has been looking for a way to help others get the kind of education that helped him to become a successful professional.

He wanted to do something, so he decided to approach UNHCR, which runs a higher education scholarship programme to promote self-sufficiency among refugees and boost their chances of finding a solution to their situation. So Pie-pacifique approached the University of KwaZulu-Natal Foundation and convinced them of the need to establish a scholarship fund for refugees and asylum-seekers. “We know that among asylum-seekers and refugees there are many talented but needy students and through this fund, we could also help them,” said the UKZN Foundation’s executive director, Bruno Van Dyk.

The challenge was to raise money for the fund. That’s where the “Road to Education for Refugees and Asylum Seekers” project came from. And Pie managed to persuade others to join him in the race.

The UNHCR is fully behind the project, which seems set to become an annual event in the annual event. “This is only the beginning, Pie said, adding: “The Road to Education for Refugees and Asylum-Seekers will continue!”

Written by Tina Ghelli
http://www.unhcr.org/4ecbc7a06.html

We have a new baby in the Avo space, this morning Carla-jo brought new life into our big scary world.  I’m just thrilled to congratulate the Barry family on their new healthy baby girl!

Not only will she be strong, kind and caring - she will also have guidance from her big sister Sadie-Lee

From all the Avo’s, we want to wish Carla and Clint all the love in the world for their newly expanded family.

We can’t wait to meet little Jemma Barry!

” “

Have you ever tried to sell someone something that you really believe in?

… and then despite your sincerest efforts you get a big-fat “NO” flung in your face?  I’m sure everyone knows how demotivating this can be… but I’m here to tell you that it’s not always a bad thing, it all depends on how you look at it.

Raelene’s new article that was published in this months’ issue of Sales Guru will show you that there can be a silver lining, if you are looking in the right place.

Check out the article here.

What’s your reason to get up in the morning?

In a tough economy it’s easy to let the rat-race get you down, but it’s proven that resilience is one of the keys to success. So how can you grow your resilience levels to withstand any storm? Jules has written a new article for the Star Workplace that I would like to share with you which can help guide you in the right direction.

Check out this article here.

When the Shoprite Checkers Women of the year 2011 awards was screened nation-wide, Jules was interviewed and asked to give some insights into how Footprint began and a bit of its story so far.

Check out the Footprint story here.

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Amongst the other interesting facets about Jules, one of the most captivating, is the actual journey that she has travelled so far.

I’m sure you’ll find this interview with Women Inc fascinating, follow this link here to see what it’s all about.

Access to Bottom of the Pyramid markets. Everyone wants it! Over the past few years it’s been dawning on marketers that there are a lot of people living at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’.

Our company has been delivering community-based financial literacy education workshops for a few years now. We help unemployed and unskilled people in communities set up their own training companies, and then provide them with the training, content, mentoring and business-in-a-box tools to be able to deliver the workshops locally.

Jules’ new article, about this, is featured in the latest Practical Marketing Magazine.

Check it out here.

What is The Women of the Year Award?
The South African Women of the Year Award will celebrate exceptional and visionary women in 5 categories through 2011 - Health Care-givers, Educators, Socio-economic Business Developers, Good Neighbours Against Crime, and Youth Movers - 5 Women of the Year, one in each category, will be selected.

Jules has been nominated as one of the three finalists in the Socio-economic Business Developers category.  South Africa has a strong entrepreneurial business culture, boasting everything from corner shops to big business. It is seen as the economic powerhouse of the African continent. This category awards the nominee as a social entrepreneur who has made a significant contribution to the success of specific sustainable businesses, and encourages the future prospects of those businesses.

We’re so proud of Jules’ nomination!  Winners will be announced at the gala dinner on the 23rd July, and the event will be screened on M-Net on the 8 August! Hold thumbs and support Jules while she and our team continue to grow our country one person at a time.
Vote for Jules here: http://www.sawoman.co.za/pages/79568134/2011/Finalists/Vote.asp

Hello to all,

This is just a quick post to say that I am sure you have heard that Annie and I are putting on our BIG GIRL panties and taking the brave step to start something of our own, down here in Cape Town.

Being a new mom, I have come to realise that I really need to be in a position where I can work much more flexibly, with fewer hours at the grindstone. I am also hitting 40 soon, so if I don’t find the courage to do this now, I am not sure I ever will. We are starting a small training design consultancy called The T-Room, with a few corporate clients, but are also looking to stretch into the NGO space.

As I move towards this new vision… there are things I feel compelled to say about Avocado Vision!

I have had the most extraordinary 5 years with the Avo family. When I joined, I had no idea I was about to:

• Be exposed to some of the most exciting opportunities
• Learn some of the most valuable career lessons
• Stretch into some of the most challenging spaces
• Grow as a person through the insightful work that we do
• Work with some of the most talented people I have ever met…. And…
• Make some of my dearest dearest friends.

For those of you that I have worked closely with, each one of you has enriched me. I really mean that! Jules has an extraordinary way of gathering extraordinary people and I honestly feel very very privileged to have worked with you over the years. Thank you to each one of you. You have supported me so solidly and I am so grateful for your energy.

For those of you that I have not yet met, (and there a re quite a few of you), I think you have found a wonderful place to work. Avo has an energy that is hard to describe, and very hard to find anywhere else. Enjoy building the company… and enjoy what it builds in you.

I have NO DOUBT that Annie and I will continue to work with Avo in new ways. We have been chatting with Jules and Steve over the last few weeks, and our intention is to stay very connected and involved where it makes sense. So this is definitely NOT goodbye… it is more …. See you, when we see you! And thank you… to this beautiful (not so little) company for supporting me along my journey over the last 5 years.

Here’s to Avo! Ching Ching!