Cape Town, Grabouw, Franschoek via the pass and then back to Cape Town.

Hi,

Happy Saturday to all of you. Awoke this morning to another beautiful autumn morning, you have got to be sick and tired of reading about blue skies, moderate temperature and no wind but have a look at the photographs.

Great ride this morning, +/- 200 kilometres, Cape Town to Grabouw via Somerset West and over Sir Lowry's Pass (road works and a strong wind over the pass), to Franschoek via the Franschoek Pass, wow what a road, Helshoogte and then back to Cape Town.

Triumph Bonneville and BMW R1200R

Tight hairpin bend between Grabouw and Villiersdorp, take it easy on this piece of road.

Entry to the tight Hairpin between Grabouw and Villiersdorp

Exit from the hairpin and into a sharp left.

Grabouw on a Saturday morning is a busy little town, the farmers bring their workers in to do their weekly shopping, a little socialising and a beverage or three. The road from Grabouw to Villiersdorp is pretty corrugated but the views riding through this forested area are fantastic. A number of pedestrians walking on or next to the road, slow moving cars and trucks to avoid but a road well worth riding. Next stop the dam ....

This area surrounding the dam which lies between Grabouw, Villiersdorp and Franschoek is a fruit growing region and very pretty, especially in the spring when the fruit tress are in blossom or in autumn when all the leaves are changing colour. From the dam, turn left and onto the Franschoek pass, this is motorcycle territory and a good place to test your cornering skills up and over the pass. Should you do this trip early enough on a Saturday or Sunday morning you will be lucky to encounter very few cars or trucks but you are always likely to meet other motorcyclists enjoying this twisty mountain pass.

The way up, you can see the dam in the background.

View from the top, the road and Franschoek down below

Franschoek is a special little town, wine growing territory, affluent farmers and well-heeled town dwellers, truly a little piece of France. In my opinion the "prettiest town in South Africa." This is not a good town to watch rugby in one of the local bars, unless you are shouting for the Stormers or Western Province. The town area was also busy this morning, tourists soaking up the atmosphere and having a relaxing brunch at the many pavement bistros and coffee bars, others visiting the local craft/produce market at the church and the locals going about their business. From Franschoek to Stellenbosch via Helshoogte, another great stretch of motorcycling road, unfortunately the Traffic Department knows how popular it is with motorcyclists that you are likely to find them close by, checking licences and number plates and generally just keeping everything safe. The road from Stellenbosch to Cape Town, straight and uneventful, no matter which way go, but a really pleasant Saturday morning ride.

A little marketing strategy:

In the previous two posts we discussed the defender and the prospector strategies, today we will touch on the analyser strategy. The analyser strategy sits between defending and prospecting. Analysers operate in two types of product/market domains: one relatively stable and one changing. In their stable areas, they operate routinely and efficiently through the use of formalised structures and processes. In the turbulent areas managers watch their competitors closely for new ideas and then rapidly mimic and attempt to improve on the ones they believe to be the most promising. Analysers seek to follow prospectors into new markets. This is an in-between strategy, there is an effort to maintain current market share whilst at the same time attempting to pursue a moderate level of innovation (my thanks again to Messrs. Arnoud, Price and Zinkham the authors of Consumers).

The above brings Ansoff's matrix to mind, the two scales, existing and new products and existing and new markets, the different combinations result in four different strategies, market penetration (existing product and existing markets), according to the analyser strategy this is where you would defend. When either the product or the market is changing one would innovate or according to the analyser strategy, mimic the promising new ideas introduced into the market by prospectors (market development or product development). Lastly, new products and new markets, a differentiation strategy according to Ansoff is what we discussed in the previous post as similar to the prospector strategy.

Another perspective, The Boston Consulting Group Model or portfolio approach to business; question marks (introductory stage of the lifecycle), future stars (rapid growth stage), cash cows (mature phase) and the dogs (decline phase). Defend your cash cows for all you are worth, utilising funds generated by the cash cows develop new question marks and grow them into future stars so that they one day can become your cash cows to fuel future growth (unfortunately not every question mark, nor every future star is going to become a cash cow, there will be some casualties on the way).

Lastly, in my reading over the last twenty years I can recall an author (apologies, name forgotten) suggesting that half the organisation should follow a conservative approach to business, a defender strategy and the other half of the organisation should create the future, a prospector strategy. This seems right to me, I always worry when the CEO is involved in the day to day and not focusing on where the organisation is going to be in the future. In the next post we will discuss the reactor strategy.

Until next time, have fun and safe riding,

Ciao.