Micropower Makate vs megaplayer Vodacom whose Please Call Me misery continues
This is The Rational Perspective. I'm Alec Hogg. In this episode Vodacom's Please Call Me misery doesn't seem to be ending.
In his brilliant book, The End of Power, Venezuelan author Moisés NaÃm wrote that the likes of innovative start-ups loosely organised activists, upstart citizen media, and charismatic individuals who came from nowhere are shaking up the old order. These are the micro powers, he wrote, small, unknown or once negligible actors that have found ways to undermine fencing or thwart the mega players. Naim's treatise is hugely respected on the money. In 2015, the end of power was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's inaugural pick in his Year of the Book's challenge, where he got the Facebook community to join him in reading one book every two weeks for an entire year. It was also listed as The Financial Times book of the year in 2013. The powerful message embedded in Naim's book is being felt all around the world, including in SA where mobile phone giant, Vodacom, continues in a battle against a now 42-year-old former employee over an idea that he gave the company and which it applied 18 years ago. Kenneth Nkosana Makate fits the bill of this unknown activist. He wears the cloak to perfection of the micropower.
For context, while in his early 20's he had the bright idea of a 'call me back SMS service.' Makate shared the concept with his ultimate boss, then Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig, who later claimed to have come up with the idea himself. Makate has steadfastly refused to be fobbed off. He laid a charge against his former employer and took the matter to court, winning a judgement in 2014 that found that he was indeed the inventor of the concept. In the process, destroying a reputation that Vodacom's founder, Knott-Craig had built over decades.
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