World Cup Has any Impact on Businesses

Normally sports and other world wide events affect the business of many people. Currently FIFA World Cup is going on and the people all over the world are keen to watch it. Many eyes are watching it on the TV. The sporting event of the year is finally upon us and across the world spirits are high. The World Cup is one of the few spectacles that draw the attention of all nations and in doing so it creates a sense of international celebration, hope and (far too often) disappointment! Despite the unifying spirit of the World Cup, it must be accepted that the impact it can have on business isn't always quite so positive.
Although the host nation generate a great deal of revenue through an increase in tourism, top of the range television sales soar and pubs serve a never-ending procession of pints: most offices are blighted with an increase in absenteeism and an at least partially pre-occupied work force.

Staff motivation is going to be a major issue over the course of the World Cup; the big question is what's the best way to go about it? There is no universal answer here; it depends heavily on the nature of your business. In some cases it may be possible to show matches in the office provided it doesn't cause too much of a distraction, in other circumstances this may not be possible or conducive to productivity.
It also important to keep the staff happy. As a happy staff can give a big boost to your business. The key is to minimize instances of unauthorized absence, maintain a high level of efficiency and to keep the staff focused and happy.
In addition to the potential impact on staff, the World Cup could also damage retailers of non-football watching related items. Many online retailers are likely to be aware that something as seemingly trivial as a few days of good weather can result in a vast reduction in website traffic: with events such as the World Cup this effect is at risk of being emulated on a grander scale.
Many people go on the internet in their spare time, if something else such as football is monopolising this spare time then they are likely to spend less time surfing the internet and as such less likely to visit your website. Similarly, funds which may otherwise have been available for luxury purchases could well end up contributing to the cost of visiting a pub to watch football or even heading over to South Africa. If you're a business owner hoping to avoid suffering as a result of the World Cup, the key may be to embrace it! From the staff perspective some form of themed incentive may yield positive results in terms of keeping employees motivated whilst retailers would be well advised to consider launching promotions relating to the World Cup- however tenuous the link! So go on watching and keep in view that it may change your direction.
One may strive to improve his business if he has good team and motivated workers .

How Small Business Has Lost, and FIFA World Cup !

This has been a trend of people that they always try to find a way to promote their business. FIFA World Cup is also one of them. The Big business companies can easily gain much . If you thought the FIFA World Cup is designed to increase revenue generation for “mama njugu” (street women peanut vendors etc.) think again. The FIFA World Cup system can help demonstrate the predicament of African economies vis-à-vis the global system. To prevent what FIFA refers to as “ambush marketing,” thousands of South Africa's street vendors will not be allowed anywhere closer to 800 meters to the stadiums. Only KFC and MacDonald's will be allowed unrivaled access to feed football fans.

Unknown to “mama njugu,” FIFA has to protect its sponsors from illicit use of its private sporting event to earn profits. Hosting the world cup is no cheap business. For example, the cost of hosting the 2006 FIFA World Cup was 1.1 billion Euros (estimated Ksh 110 billion).

South African street vendors might smell the coffee but may never take it. Global brands will make most gains having positioned themselves in the whole supply chain; from ticketing, airlines, hotels, taxis and even food. The excluded periphery players may gain (afterwards) from the use of infrastructure left behind assuming that they too would have learnt some tricks from international corporate giants' presence in their market.

In the rush to make the most out of the prestige the World Cup brings to a country, the South African government failed to recognize the value its citizens gave to FIFA in terms of space, land and peace, among others. The protection rights agreed upon with FIFA thus failed to recognize “mama njugu” and instead focused only on international corporate citizens that forked in millions of dollars.

I witnessed a similar approach by the Tanzanian government when it hosted the World Economic Forum. In its quest to pursue foreign investors, the government literally closed up sections of Dar es Salaam city to residents, who in turn had to be out of work for a whole week. Commendable as it may (because police outriders cleared traffic for delegates), I was left wondering why similar zeal is not employed to build indigenous investors. Remember, foreign investors are indigenous where they come from!

The outcome of this misplaced zeal is disenfranchised local businesses and successful overthrow of taste for local goods. Instead of urbanization relying on outlying rural areas for goods; it is forced to focus on airports and sea ports for products. The beaming of products that had not entrenched themselves in the African market will further displace “mama njugu” from the face of the business world as Africa's youthful population opt for the World Cup branded ones. As for the World Economic Forum, Tanzanian investors will find themselves transforming their business into non governmental organizations to “help” the poor as foreign investors dive into profit making ventures.

The predicament of South Africa's street vendors aptly captures the African producers' situation – you reap nil benefits unless you understand how the international system works. The upcoming absence of African traders where the market is (stadiums and hotels) is a creation of the law – not an intrinsic lack of ability to sale refreshments to football fans. Developed economies use excuses of health (phytosanitary standards) to deny African indigenous investors markets; they use taxes to prevent value added products from accessing their markets (so Africa exports raw materials) among other regulations. Developed nations instead position international NGOs (INGOS) to come and “fight” poverty on the continent.

Africa stands to reap from the attention the FIFA World Cup has brought to the continent only if we developed a mechanism to leverage indigenous investors. Africa must strategize to move away from the fate of Mama Njugu. The system must do something for those also who have lesser opportunities to do business.
FIFA World Cup may be a great event for those also who have never think about to do business.