WHEN Moshe Motlohi became the new Durban Port manager in October 2014, he surprised many of his senior managers by inviting them to an impromptu fact-finding meeting with the nearby Pavilion mall’s management.He believed this was necessary to find new ways of thinking about the port, and creative solutions to service their varied clients."The managers were taken aback by this decision. But I explained to them that, just like us at the port, malls have their competitors, and each has to service a niche market," he says."They have to come up with new strategies to promote Woolworths without alienating Edgars, so that more customers come to the mall and generate more business."We are just like malls in the sense that we have to compete with the ports of Ngqura, Cape Town, Maputo and others."We have to help our customers, some of whom are competing against each other, without being seen to be favouring one group against the other."He and his managers then visited the port’s clients, ask...
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