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Journal of Energy in Southern Africa
versão On-line ISSN 2413-3051
versão impressa ISSN 1021-447X
J. energy South. Afr. vol.25 no.2 Cape Town Mai. 2014
An analysis of the solar service provider industry in the Western Cape, South Africa
Roman Votteler; Johan Hough; Chanel Venter
Department of Business Management, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Scientists agree that rising electricity usage of the rapidly growing human race to improve its standard of living is negatively affecting the environment. To create a sustainable environment for future generations, renewable and environmentally friendly resources have to be exchanged for the present finite resources. In South Africa, coal plants are responsible for more than 90% of electricity production. This means that action has to be taken now to start a process of change to sustainable electricity resources.
This paper focuses on the South African solar industry. Due to the high sun radiation levels, solar technology is one of the renewable energy sources with the greatest potential. The industry is in its infancy, characterised by accelerated growth expectancy and fuelled by factors such as government subsidies, the fluctuations of fossil fuel prices and the increasing focus on economical long-term sustainability. The expected growth necessitates a focus on the market positioning of solar service providers in the Western Cape, with the aim of taking full advantage of the opportunities associated with this industry.
The main objective is to determine the current structure of the solar service provider value chain and subsequently areas of improvement to increase growth, stakeholder satisfaction and sustainability.
A literature review was conducted to address the research objective, relevant approaches and the broader electricity industry. Porter's Value Chain approach was used as a foundation for the adaptation to the solar service provider value chain. Porter's Five Forces model was also used as a secondary approach, which analysed the competitive environment of the solar service provider industry in the Western Cape.
The methodology entailed a qualitative research approach in the form of semi-structured interviews. All respondents were general managers or owners of a solar service provider, who were interviewed face to face. The research focused on the entire population of solar service providers in the Western Cape. Seventy-seven different service providers were targeted, of which 18 were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using content and frequency analysis. To guarantee reliability, a pilot study was conducted to ensure that the respondents understood the questionnaire.
The findings show that customer service is the foremost value driver for solar service providers. This entails the actual installation of the product as well as the people skills of the installation team. As most customers only have to be served once due to the long life span of the products, marketing also plays an obvious role in attracting new customers.
The most important outcome of this paper is the determination and a better understanding of the solar service provider value chain in South Africa. The recommendations, especially with regard to marketing and service elements, could improve the performance of solar service providers. The consequence could be an increase in stakeholder satisfaction and an enhanced usage of solar energy in South Africa. Future research should focus on customers to reveal preferences and opportunities for marketing approaches.
Keywords: Porter's Value Chain approach, Porter's Five Forces model, solar service provider, South African solar industry, renewable sources of energy, South African energy industry
1. Introduction
Climate change is one of the major challenges of our time. It is scientifically proven that human action is having a negative effect on the environmental balance of our planet. The global energy sector accounts for around two-thirds in 2010 of greenhouse-gas emission1. In addition, most fossil fuels are becoming more expensive due to a mixture of higher demand, limited supply and carbon mission taxing (International Energy Agency, 2013a). Consequently, to decrease price volatility and increase energy security, it is important to start switching to new sources of electricity, which have the potential to contribute to sustainably cover the worlds increasing electricity demand. The Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report (MTRMR) from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts an increase by 40% of renewable energy in the next 5 years (International Energy Agency, 2013b).
The outcome of this paper will contribute to the development of South Africa's renewable energy industry by analysing the present structure of the solar service provider value chain in the Western Cape. No previous research in South Africa could be found, which focuses on this part of the market. The Western Cape was selected due to the high population of solar service providers. Further research could investigate the matter on a national scale.
The outcome could contribute to a sustainable long-term development of the downstream industry's value chain. The term 'downstream value chain' means that activities, which are closer to the customer are analysed, rather than the production site. The main focus of the paper is on solar service providers in the Western Cape, who stay in immediate contact with the customer. The service provider is the last link between the supplier and the final customer, and consequently has to handle the finished developed products of the supplier and find potential customers. The value chain approach is utilised to improve this process.
2. Research approaches to analyse the solar service provider industry
The following section provides a brief explanation of two models, namely the value chain model and Porter's Five Forces model. Both models are used to systematically analyse the solar service provider industry in the Western Cape and to identify opportunities for improvement.
2.1 The value chain approach
Every business consists of several steps in designing, producing, marketing, delivering and supporting its product or service. This approach is called 'the value chain model', as every step creates value for the potential customer (Gibbon, 2001). Value chains differ from company to company as business strategies and the internal and external environment differ (Humphrey & Schmitz, 2000). The value chain describes how the whole process from raw material to the end consumer is linked together. The process consists of primary and secondary activities (Hough, Thomson, Strickland & Gamble, 2011).
The fundamental model of Porter's value chain is illustrated in Figure 1 and contains primary and secondary activities. Primary activities are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Secondary activities are the firm's infrastructure, human resource management, technology and procurement (Humphrey & Schmitz, 2000).
Porter's value chain represents the basic model on which the current research is based. The primary research knowledge is collected to adapt the model to solar service providers in the Western Cape solar industry. In addition, key areas for development of the Western Cape solar service provider value chain are identified, and recommendations for improvement in the best interest of all stakeholders are presented.
The solar service provider is the last link of the industries value chain to the customer. It is a very fragmented segment of the value chain with very few companies that operate at national level (Donev, Van Sark, Blok & Dintchev, 2012).
2.2 Porter's Five Forces model
Porter's Five Forces of competition is by far the most powerful model to systematically diagnose the principal of competitive pressure. The model evaluates five different areas, namely rivals, new entrants, substitute products, buyers and supplier bargaining power (Porter, 2007). The model can be seen in Figure 2.
Porter's Five Forces model contributes to understanding of the renewable energy industry, and specifically the solar industry in South Africa. The knowledge of where most competitive pressure comes from assists in providing adequate recommendations in relation to future value chain adjustments (Porter, 2008). The understanding of which of the five competitive forces is stronger, assists in focusing on value chain activities interacting with this force. The improvement of these value chain activities adds more value to businesses as they improve their performance in areas most crucial to their success.
3. The South African electric power industry
To be able to understand the environment in which the Western Cape solar service providers are operating, it is necessary to have background knowledge about the present electric and solar industry.
3.1 Energy context
The global energy industry created total revenues of $6.050 billion in 2009 (Datamonitor, 2009). Global electricity demand is predicted to increase by 35% until 2030. More specifically in the BRICS developing nations, it is expected to grow by 65% (International Energy Agency, 2013a). The performance of the industry is predicted to speed up, with an anticipated annual growth rate of 13.2% for the five-year period 2009-2014, which will drive the industry to a value of $11,250.4 billion by the end of 2014 (Datamonitor, 2009).
About 70 % of the total energy supply in South Africa derives from coal. Coal-fired power-stations supply 93% of electricity production. Given its coal-based energy economy, South Africa is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases when compared to other developing countries (Pegels, 2010). In 2002, on the African continent, 90.6% of CO2 was emitted by South Africa (United Nations, 2005). In 2005, South Africa was responsible for 1.1% of total global emission. Average per capita emission of 9 tonnes almost equalled to 10.7 tonnes in the EU (WRI, 2009). Since most forecasts indicate that coal will continue to be used in the near future, finding ways of using fossil fuels in a cleaner way is important during the conversion to different energy systems (Winkler, 2006). Possible technological options to produce cleaner electricity with coal are ultra-super-critical systems and an integrated gasification combined cycle (Liang, Wang, Zhou, Huang, Zhou & Cen, 2013).
Eskom is the state-owned electricity supplier, which is dominating the generation and capacity of energy. Furthermore, only about 70% of South African households are linked to the electricity supply grid, and overcoming energy poverty still remains a strategic development objective. In 2008 South Africa was unable to supply a vast number of households, and since then there have been a number of interventions to increase generation capacity (Edkins, Marquard, & Winkler, 2010a).
3.2 Solar market
Currently there are no subsidies for this technology, which makes it too expensive and not competitive enough to present sources of energy (Joburg, 2011). It takes more than seven years to amortise the initial investment in the panels by saving electricity. The fact that the majority of South African residents cannot plan ahead to stay for so many years in one place, makes this option highly unattractive (Addinall, 2011).
A study launched by the World Bank called the 'Renewable Energy Market Transformation' study, has identified the potential of Solar Water Heating (SWH) in the present and even more for the future (Conningarth Economists, 2004). The South African domestic water heating market is still dominated by electrical storage heaters. Less than 1% of homes in South Africa have solar water heaters, although conditions are favourable (DME, 2005). Another study conducted by the UNPD concludes that 30% - 40% of household consumption is caused by water heating, which includes a saving potential of up to 70% (Holm, 2005).
Every year around 480 000 electric water heaters are installed in South Africa (Edkins, Marquard, & Winkler, 2010b), in total there are just less than 8 million electrical heaters (Holm, Holm, Lane & Van Tonder, 1990; Geldenhuys, 1998).
3.3 Solar power
The on-going growing energy demand and the present power shortage in South Africa emphasize the need to utilize the rich renewable energy resources of the country. With an average of more than 320 sunny days a year, new approaches have to be conducted to increase the under-used application of solar power (Clean Project Analysis, 2004).
From an international perspective South Africa has several policy options available to promote renewable electricity, specifically solar power. Generally, there are two possible means of intervention for the government. One way is to regulate the quantity of renewable electricity; the second way is to fix prices through regulating tariffs (Winkler, 2005b).
The 'White Paper on the Energy Policy of the Republic of South Africa' from 1998 presented policies which could be seen as drivers of renewable energy deployment in South Africa. The document promoted the inclusion of the Independent Power Producers in South Africa's power generation (Pegels, 2010). Moreover, it emphasised the areas to be dealt with to create a suitable enabling environment for the promotion of renewable energy. The White Paper included financial and legal instruments, technology development, awareness creation, capacity construction and education (Edkins, Marquard, & Winkler, 2010a).
Under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme REIPPPP, private power producers are invited to submit project proposals in a series of windows. The programme is strongly supported by the government (Department of Energy, 2012). In November 2012, the South African government signed ZAR47 billion worth of contracts with IPPs for 1.4 GW of renewable energy developed through the first window. Further contracts for 1.0 GW were signed in May 2013 in the second window. The government plans to bring 6.9 GW of renewable energy capacity online by 2020. The projects are all grid-connected and supply electricity to the national electricity grid of Eskom (Baker & McKenzie, 2013).
To actively encourage and promote the widespread implementation of solar water heating2, Eskom has rolled out a large-scale solar water heating programme. The government has set a target for renewable energy to contribute 10 000 Giga watt hours (GWh) of final energy consumption by 2013. Solar water heating could contribute up to 23% towards this target. Solar power is one of the most effective renewable energy sources available. Water heating can be responsible for up to 50% of a household's electricity consumption (Eskom, 2011b).
At the moment, there are subsidies for solar thermal technology but no subsidies for photovoltaic solar technology from Eskom (Eskom Call Centre, 2012).
4. Problem statement
The South African solar industry is in its infancy, characterised by accelerated growth expectancy and fuelled by factors such as new governmental subsidies, the fluctuations of fossil fuel prices and the increasing focus on economical long-term sustainability (Renewable Energy World, 2009). The expected growth necessitates a focus on the market positioning of solar service providers in the Western Cape, with the aim of taking full advantage of the opportunities associated with this industry.
This paper aims to produce an adapted3 model of Porter's value chain for the Western Cape solar service providers. In addition, key areas for development of the Western Cape solar service provider value chain are identified, and recommendations for improvement in the best interest of all stakeholders are presented.
5. Research methodology
The method used to clarify the research problem included a secondary research method, followed by a primary research process.
5.1 Secondary research
To conduct secondary research, data is used which is gathered and recorded by someone else prior to the current project (Zikmund & Babin, 2010). The mediums used were as follows: books, Internet, articles, masters and doctoral dissertations and case studies.
For this research, an extended literature review was undertaken to investigate the value chain model and Porter's Five Forces model, and both were applied to the South African context. The second part of this section entails definitions and concepts, which are important for the understanding of the study. The topic of general and solar energy in a global and domestic context is examined in the last section.
5.2 Primary research
Primary research is data collected or observed from first-hand experience (Business Dictionary, 2009). The different phases of the primary research of this research were as follows:
1. Preparation of a questionnaire according to objectives
2. Pilot study
3. Adjustment of the questionnaire according to pilot study and objectives
4. Main interviews (recording and notes)
5. Transcription of main interviews
6. Coding of data (content analysis)
7. Coding of data (frequency tables).
A questionnaire was set up according to the primary and secondary research objectives of the research. Every secondary research objective had its own question(s), which ensured that all information necessary to answer the objective was asked. The research included a pilot study at the beginning of the research. The purpose was to gain initial realtime information about solar service providers in the Western Cape (Hague & Jackson, 1995).
5.3 Target population
The target population of this research was solar service providers, who are active in the downstream solar value chain in the Western Cape. The service provider could be any type, from an online retailer to a physical location-based shop. Respondents were general managers or owners of solar service providers, the reason is their all-round knowledge of their company's business activities. The entire4 population of solar service providers in the Western Cape was targeted. Two Internet sites called 'Solar Suppliers' and 'the official Eskom site' list solar service providers in the Western Cape and represent the population for the main interviews. The main interviews included 18 managers/owners of different solar service providers in the Western Cape.
The population list of the present study was created through a variety of sources. Firstly, the official Eskom web page lists 55 service providers situated in the Western Cape. Secondly, an Internet site called 'Solar Suppliers' lists 33 solar service providers in the Western Cape, which are partly the same, but it also identifies different ones to those on the Eskom web page. The final population list included 77 different solar service providers, all of whom were contacted to take part in this study.
5.4 The questionnaire
The opening section provided the interviewee with an overview and information about the purpose of the study. The interviewer was introduced and the procedure explained (Willis, 2007). Moreover, the respondent was informed about the intended use of the data. The methods to keep information confidential were discussed and permission to tape record the interview was asked.
Section two of the interview was directed at the main themes identified in the literature review (Willis, 2007). The main themes were identified in the research objectives, namely the adaptation of Porter's value chain and the identification of key success areas. The guide allowed freedom to probe into answers and adapt to the situation in order to gain additional insight.
The closing section was about future perspectives and opportunities. The main issues discussed during the interview were summarised and the interviewees were motivated to add more of their relevant knowledge (Willis, 2007). Furthermore, future action was mentioned, by asking each interviewee for availability of additional telephonic questions. Lastly, the respondent was thanked for his or her time.
To ensure reliable and valid data, every respondent was presented with the same procedure (ASCD, 2010).
5.5 Data analysis
The qualitative data gathered (pilot and main interviews), with semi-structured interviews, was in the form of open-ended responses, which were transcribed. The questions were in exploratory form. The transcribed interviews were coded using a content analysis approach (Colorado State University, 2010).
After the data was coded and common themes were recognised, frequency tables were created to analyse the rate of occurrence of each identified theme (Hague & Jackson, 1995). A frequency rate of 60% and higher was categorised as a commonality or similarity. A frequency rate of less than 60% was classified as a trend or difference.
The interpretation of identified themes and categories confirmed trends, differences, commonalities and similarities of activities in the solar service provider value chain. The interpretation of primary and secondary data helped in the generation of an adjusted value chain model. The value chain was adjusted only with commonalities of more than or equal to a frequency of 60%. The data identified key areas for the development of the Western Cape solar service provider value chain, which involved all themes and categories with more than, and less than, a 60% frequency.
6. Summary of main findings
This section presents the most significant findings of this research. To create more understanding , the sections start with the most basic findings.
6.1 The stakeholders
To create recommendations that would improve the relationships with the most important stakeholders, respondents were asked to select the main stakeholders to their business. Those most frequently selected were suppliers (89%), employees (83%) and customers (78%). The business relationship with all three main stakeholders was based on legal contracts. The biggest concern expressed by 67% of the respondents was the relationship with customers. This stakeholder group still had to be educated about the benefits of solar energy, without being concerned about the initial investment.
6.2 The solar service provider value chain
Part of the primary objective of this research was to adapt Porter's value chain model to the business activities of solar service providers in the Western Cape. The adapted solar service provider value chain model is presented in Figure 3. Most service providers (56%) pursued a best-cost provider strategy, as customers demanded good performing products without an enormous initial investment. The secondary activities were on top, and are as follows:
- The human resource management function was mentioned as the most important one, as it was responsible for good service, which was a strong differentiation point. To employ new staff members, education (83%) and personal reference (72%) were the foremost important criteria. To keep staff members motivated in 55% of the cases, personal recognition was used, followed by 38% for incentives.
- The technology represented the products, which were sourced from suppliers. Good technological products were a basic requirement to become a sustainable contender in the market.
- Order procurement was essential for the business, which meant they had to perform well in order to enter the market. It organised the product buying process at the optimal possible cost at the correct amount and quality.
The primary activities in Figure 3 were at the bottom, and formed the core business process of a solar service provider. The primary activities identified were as follows:
- Marketing was the first step as it was necessary to make the customer aware of the product. Residential areas were targeted from nearly all (89%) of the service providers, followed by businesses (45%). The most common marketing tools used at the time were websites, word of mouth and paper advertisement. Satisfied customers generated word of mouth.
- Solar service provider handles customer contact after he gained awareness through the marketing. The contact channels were e-mail in 89% of the cases, followed by phone and personal visits with 72% and 50%.
- Site visits were done by solar service provider staff members to evaluate the location at the customer's place, and to find the most suitable product solution.
- The quotation was prepared and sent to the customer after the target location was evaluated and the appropriate solution was found. The best sold products were geysers with 89% and solar water heaters with 83%. The most important product preferences for all products were price and quality.
- The order, manufacturing and inventory step made sure all product parts for the demanded installation were ready. The majority of service providers sourced their products from South African suppliers (55%), followed by European (30%) and Chinese (15%). The European products had the best overall measured rating, with the only disadvantage of high prices. South African products were in second place, with lower ratings than the European products and prices, which were also rated as too high. Chinese products got the lowest overall rating, but the prices offered were lower. The service providers either received their products through agents or at collecting centres. It depended on the product and whether stock was kept, for the most popular products 67% of the service providers kept stock. On an average the stock lasted for 7 weeks. Product training and weekly check-up calls were services that were provided by 84% of the suppliers. A two-way communication approach between supplier and service provider was performed by 75% of the existing relationships. The frequency of communication depended on the service provider, which made contact at least once a week. The most common communication channels were e-mail (89%), phone (78%) and face to face communication (50%).
- The installation takes place when the products demanded by the customers are put into place at the desired location. Within the first week 89% of the orders were installed. In 78% of the cases, the customer had to settle the outstanding amount in the first week after the installation was finished.
- The after-service took place after the installation and payments were made. The purpose was to assure that the product performed as promised. In 55% of the cases, a check-up call was conducted from the service provider, and 33% did not have any after-service.
The majority of managers (67%) were aware of the value chain concept and how to apply it to their business. It is interesting to mention that only managers who approached a best-cost provider and differentiation strategy were conscious of the concept. Only 37% of employees were aware of the concept. Repeatedly, only employees of service providers with best-cost provider and differentiation strategies used the concept. The awareness of the supporting activities was high, with 89%.
6.3 The value chain key success factors
These factors are part or are one of the activities of the adapted value chain in Figure 3. For solar service providers to be sustainable and competitively superior, it is important to perform exceptionally in these activities.
The foremost important value chain activity was service, which was mentioned by 94% of the respondents. Service forms part of virtually every value chain activity. However, the most important service activities were the site visit and the installation. The employee is in face to face contact with the customer and has to ensure that the products are set up properly. Moreover, good service has a strong influence on positive word of mouth.
The second most important activity was marketing, which was chosen by 39% of the respondents. Based on the fact that the industry is still in its infant stage, customers have to be made aware and to be educated about the product offers of solar service providers. The products last more than 20 years, which makes it important to gain new customers. Positive word of mouth is consequently a good way to gain new buyers, and is crucial for sustainability.
6.4 The five forces and solar service providers
The force of new entrants was mentioned the most and was selected by 50% of the respondents. Reason for this was the strong growing market, which created space for new market entry. Most new entrants offered cheap products from China, which harmed the market reputation as the performance was low in comparison to European and South African quality. Moreover, no service provider could establish himself as a clear market leader yet.
The forces of substitutes and buyers were selected each with 28%. The major substitute for solar energy is the still relatively cheap common electricity delivered by Eskom. This substitute is expected to become weaker as the electricity price is going to increase in future. The power of buyers is considerably high as there are more service providers entering the market, which gives a greater variety to choose from.
Most of the respondents mentioned installations as their core competency, followed by technology and reputation. In addition, respondents were asked to identify their strongest competitor(s). The strongest contender in the Western Cape market was SolarTech, followed by SolarMax.
6.5 Relevant cross-sectional findings
Considerable findings could be made, based on the strategy the solar service provider is pursuing. The best-cost provider strategy was the most successful one with an annual sales increase of 23%, followed by a differentiation strategy with 7%. All other strategies had decreasing sales numbers.
Best-cost providers sourced their products from local suppliers, as they had a good quality/price ratio. Moreover, the delivery time was one week in comparison to overseas products of two weeks. Service providers with differentiation strategies sourced from European suppliers as the quality was superior, but with the disadvantage of a high price.
The target market with the highest sales increases with 37% was public institutions and hotels. The second strongest was residential areas with a 2.8% increase, which was also the most popular one.
7. The advanced solar service provider business structure
The advanced solar service provider business structure, including the recommendations, is illustrated in Figure 4. The recommendations are underlined and are discussed in more depth in this section.
The best-cost provider strategy was selected as the most appropriate one for solar service providers. The first reason is that many potential customers fail to purchase the solar product as the initial investment is too high. The strategy offers a lower initial investment, which makes it affordable for more customers. Secondly, the quality has to be high, as the solar technology is still in the beginning of its life cycle. For instance, a low cost quality solar water heating system does not efficiently heat the water, which causes dissatisfaction for the customer.
The solar service provider can specialize in certain types of customers. One target market yields more potential are businesses. The type of product provides another opportunity to specialize in. It would save time and costs to specialize in solar water heating systems, as the popularity is increasing.
The flagship products are geysers and solar water heating panels. The reason is that the technology is relatively advanced, which means it is durable, effective and reliable. Moreover, Eskom is providing subsidies for each SABS-approved system sold.
7.1 Marketing
Marketing is crucial for solar service providers, as the products offered in the market are very similar. Customer retention in the market is very low, as once a customer has bought a solar system, which lasts for at least 15 years, he is highly unlikely to come back for another one. Moreover, customers have to be made aware and educated about the benefits. The following section explains the customised marketing approach:
- Provide incentives to customers who bring a new customer. The main marketing aim should be to attract new customers. The incentive could be free service of the installed products for X amount of years, which also keeps the customer reminded of the service provider. Another approach could be to refund a part of the customer's bill. This approach would assist in increasing the most powerful marketing tool, word of mouth. Moreover, as there is no major market leader and service providers are of small size, the capital available for marketing is not enough for big campaigns. In addition, this tool would be directed to the local target market, and no extra effort has to be made.
- Create a marketing pool to generate more power. The campaign will have a wider reach to educate and increase awareness of the products and their benefits. Nevertheless, this is a long-term goal, as it requires trust and planning between the partners. The partnership could target a region, like the Western Cape.
- Promote the products at functions. It is important that the target consumers are present and are reached.
All marketing recommendations take the present business structure of the majority of solar service providers into consideration. Firstly, the business is small, which means limited funds for marketing, and target customers are in a small area. Secondly, most competitive pressure is created by new entrants who make it important to be established in the local market. Consequently, to be successful, the small service provider should create a reliable and professional reputation in his local market.
7.2 The service
In Figure 4, the service parts are underlined, including the mission (customer satisfaction) and aftersales service. The following recommendations indicate how to improve these activities:
- The mission statement aims to create customer satisfaction. Solar service providers formulated well defined mission statements even though it was very vague and broad, and still lacking in implementation and execution. The performance evaluation of all suppliers and their product is good to very good. Consequently, the service the business is providing is the crucial point to satisfy the customer and to be different from competitors. The installing team is therefore the key to fully satisfying the customer. The respondents knew that installing was the key, but they could not tell what they could do to improve their performance. To gain positive customer feedback, the installer also needs to be trained on interaction with the customer. To ensure excellent service, the service provider should train the installer team in all service dimensions:
- Reliability is the ability of an installer to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. This means that employees must be trained well on the products and how to install them.
- Responsiveness is the willingness to help and provide prompt service. For the installers, this means that they have to be in time for their appointments with the customer. Moreover, if there are any problems with the product, the installer has to be able to come the same day to fix it.
- Assurance is the employees' knowledge and courtesy and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.
- Empathy is to care and to give individualised attention to customers. The installers should be trained in communicating with customers.
- Tangibility is the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and written materials. The equipment, including the car, should be clean and organised.
- After-sales-service is often underestimated in contributing to overall customer satisfaction. At the start, a check-up call should be conducted to ask if everything is working. To improve the service enormously, service providers should conduct a last visit to check the functionality of all products.
7.3 Employee motivation
The employees are the capital of a solar service provider business. This section provides recommendations of how to improve the motivation of employees. The following are two possible tools for further motivation:
- An incentive is extra salary paid to the employee for each successful installation. For instance, the installer team can receive for each successful job an X amount of money. This amount is distributed after the final check-up visit/ call when the customer has expressed his satisfaction.
- Bonuses are used on a monthly basis and are added to the basic salary. Bonuses are generated and distributed to employees when monthly predicted profits are exceeded.
As employees, especially installers, should only be focused on their present installation, it is advisable to use incentives. The advantage is that the installer knows that for each job he does well, he gets extra money. Bonuses can also be used but are more suitable for employees who are not directly linked to the main service, the installation.
8. Conclusion
The main outcome of this study is the adapted model of Porters' value chain to solar service providers in the Western Cape. The literature review of this research has shown that it is crucial for the sustainable future of South Africa to increasingly make use of renewable sources of energy. As mentioned before, the high sun radiation level presents optimal conditions for the usage of solar technology in South Africa. In addition, the present development of the rising electricity costs makes it progressively more economical to invest in renewable sources of energy.
The supplier side of the industry is developed, as can be seen in countries such as Germany, where the technology is well accepted. The downstream part of the South African solar industry is in its infant stage, which creates space and the need to improve. To increase the usage of solar energy in South Africa, this research aimed to improve the performance of solar service providers.
The recommendations of this paper show that solar service providers need to improve their service and marketing performance. Marketing is important as customers still have to be educated about the benefits of solar products. High qualitative service is crucial, as solar panels cannot perform at their maximum and capture all the possible sun radiation if installed poorly.
1. Atmospheric gases that contribute to the greenhouse (global warming) effect by absorbing infrared radiation produced by solar warming of the Earth's surface. Most common gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (Science dictionary, 2010).
2. There are two broad categories of solar power known. The first category is called 'solar water heating', where the sun radiation is used to heat water up. The second category uses the sun radiation to produce electricity, which is called 'photovoltaic solar power'.
3. The customisation of Porter's generic value chain model to the business activities of Western Cape solar service provider.
4. Most care was taken that the list of solar service providers was up-to-date at the time the research was undertaken.
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Received 14 November 2012
Revised 20 May 2014


text:
Easy pasta bake
Easy to throw together vegetarian pasta bake - just layer together and bake
Nutrition and extra info
- Can be frozen
- Vegetarian
- kcal735
- fat59g
- saturates26g
- carbs22g
- sugars0g
- fibre2g
- protein30g
- salt4.84g
- 500g tub Neapolitan pasta sauce (from the chiller cabinet)
- a good handful of fresh basil leaves
Most closely associated with Mediterranean cooking but also very prevalent in Asian food, the…
- 250g pkt fresh stuffed spinach and ricotta tortellini
- 100g pkt mozzarella, sliced
- 2 tbsp grated fresh parmesan
Parmesan is a straw-coloured hard cheese with a natural yellow rind and rich, fruity flavour. It…
- 1 tbsp pine nut
- mixed salad leaves, to serve
Assemble the sauce. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan160C. Tip the pasta sauce into a large bowl and thin it down with 100ml/31⁄2fl oz water. Scatter in the basil leaves and tortellini, season with salt and freshly ground pepper, and give it all a really good stir.
Layer it all up. Tip half the pasta mixture into two individual gratin dishes (or one bigger one), tear half of the mozzarella and scatter over each dish. Spoon the rest of the pasta and sauce on top and press the pasta down a little so it doesn't stick above the sauce too much. Tear the remaining mozzarella and scatter on top with the parmesan and the pine nuts.
Bake and serve. Put the dishes on a baking sheet to catch any spills, and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and bubbling. Serve with a leafy salad.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
It was a full house of design thinkers with a Silicon Valley twist. Serial Entrepreneurs. Voice-activation specialists. Tech wunderkinds. An evening of passionate discussion about the future of interfaces.
"I felt like I was back in college — the good parts of college," Strava designer Peter Duyan told me afterwards.
Peter was crammed in this room of college-like discourse — designed for 35, now seating over 60 — because of a blog post I wrote that went unexpectedly viral.
I had proposed that "the best interface is no interface." That we should focus on experiences and problems, not on screens. That UX is not UI. Two days after it was published, it was shared more on Twitter than anything ever written on The Cooper Journal, Core77 or Designer Observer. A week later, a Breaking Development podcast. Two weeks, a popular Branch discussion. A month, top ten on Hacker News again. All surprising, flattering, amazing. And that evening, a conversation.
In the spirit of discourse, special guest and design legend Don Norman started the evening with an entertaining retort: "They made a big mistake when they invited me." (Watch it above, or listen to it here. And if you haven't read his books, you should).
Finding solutions
How do we design No UI solutions? Communicate them? Sell them? In the group discussion, the why was obvious. The how was fuzzy. As Ash Bhoopathy — co-founder of Lizi who wrote a reaction piece to the evening — put it: "there's nothing to mock up" in a No UI world (See 44:00).
The answer is that it starts just like classical UX: do research, discover pain points, identify behaviors, define the problem. But getting to great No UI experiences means retraining our problem-solving methods to aim squarely at these principles:
- Eliminate interfaces to embrace natural, everyday processes.
- Leverage computers instead of catering to them.
- Create a system that adapts for people individuals.
It's not easy. And to guide you along the way, No UI solutions, discussions and articles are being gathered into a new Tumblr:
Check it out, and contribute to make it better.
Special thanks: Nate Clinton, Casey Kawahara.


text:
With only three ingredients, a chewy texture and an oozing centre, you can't can't more Nutella flavour without eating it neat straight from the jar.
I have been thinking about Nutella an awful lot just lately. It's hardly surprising when I managed to collect over 2.5kg of the stuff. You see, I buy it when I see it on offer but then leave it in my cupboards because I cannot have an open jar in the house without eating it with a spoon. So the unopened jars build up and then I am forced to do something with it. Nutella was in fact the inspiration for this cottage cake, an ingenious addition to this bundt cake and part of the topping for these churro cupcakes.
Another thing I've been trying to do is to revisit some of my earliest posts. I'm no blogging expert but I can recogise that my early posts are shockingly bad. Yet they contain some wonderful recipes. Last year I managed to make this apple traybake again (shameless autumnbaking plug) and more recently I posted about my favourite peanut butter brownies, wild blackberry jam and strawberry and vanilla jam with much prettier pictures. As a food blogger I rarely get to make the same recipe twice because despite intentions, another recipe idea pops up in the way so it has been really nice to make these treats again. Next on my radar were these cookies.
Can you believe it only takes three ingredients to make super Nutella cookies? That's even better than 4 ingredient almond butter cookies. The Nutella takes the place of the fat and sugar typically found in biscuit and cookie recipes, as well as the flavourings so all you need to add is an add and some flour. The outcome is a soft baked chewy cookie with slightly crisp edges and such a heavy Nutella flavour you could only improve on by eating it out of the jar with a spoon. You will want to sink your teeth into cookie after cookie, breaking through the just crisp outer shell, right into the pure molten Nutella core. Very chocolately, very flavourful and literally packed with Nutella.
These might involve a little more work than the biscuit and cookie recipes I normally post but they are still easy. They wouldn't feature at all if they weren't worth it. Make them small so you can go back for seconds/thirds/fourths or make them as big a your hand. And maybe go back for seconds/thrids/fourths anyway. I won't judge.
I'm sending these off to CookBlogShare this week hosted by Kirsty at Hijacked by Twins.
3 Ingredient Nutella Stuffed Cookies
With only three ingredients, a chewy texture and an oozing centre, you can't can't more Nutella flavour without eating it neat straight from the jar.
- Approx 400g Nutella
- 1 large egg
- 150g plain flour
1. An hour or so before you want to bake place small teaspoonfuls of Nutella on some baking parchment and chill in the fridge - this makes it easier to stuff the cookies later on.2. When you are ready to bake, set the oven to 180 C/160 C fan and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.3. Mix the egg into 280g of Nutella then sift in the flour and stir to combine. Divide the dough into balls - I made 18 cookies but the size is up to you.4. Split each ball in 2 and flatten. Peel off a portion of the chilled Nutella and place on one disc then place to other disc over the top. Press a fork around the edges to crimp and seal. Place on the baking sheet.5. Once the baking sheet is full, bake int he preheated oven for 10-15 mins depending on the size of the cookies and how soft/crisp you like them. Allow to cool on the tray for a few mins then remove to a wire rack. Repeat with the remainging cookie dough.
I'm sending these off to CookBlogShare this week hosted by Kirsty at Hijacked by Twins.


text:
"I was a good boy," South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela assures NPR's Michel Martin. But still, he says, "as a kid, I was whipped on a slow day at least three times."
Eventually, Masekela told his chaplain, "If I can get a trumpet, Father, I won't bother anybody."
His wish came true.
Within a few years, Louis Armstrong, who'd heard of a talented kid in South Africa, sent the boy his own trumpet. Photographer Alf Kumalo captured Masekela's joy at receiving that gift in an iconic photograph. But Masekela says he has always hated that image: "I lost a girlfriend through that picture," he says. "You know, we were very cool at that time, so that was a very uncool picture." She told him she couldn't be seen with him.
"Barefootin' with your pants rolled up — I mean, how country can you get?" he says.
A few years later, the brutality of apartheid made it impossible for Masekela to stay in South Africa. A former girlfriend, singer and activist Miriam Makeba, encouraged him to go to America. "Forget about London," he says she told him, "this is the place to be."
Masekela recalls how Makeba "blew the States away" and "was on first-name basis with everybody." She and Harry Belafonte soon gave Masekela a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music. And he worked part time in Belafonte's band, because, Masekela says, the older musician warned him, "They ain't gonna give you no money, you gotta work!"
Masekela had to come to terms with the realization that he might never go home. But what he found most difficult to deal with was the cold. "That really made me homesick," he says, recalling his first experience of snow. He sent a picture of himself to his mother, "and I said, 'I'm not smiling, I'm grimacing.' " Masekela was not sad, though.
"It was the greatest time for music in the States," he recalls. "I was surrounded by so much beauty, and so much generosity, and so much joy. It was a new world. It was the world I wanted to live in when I heard records when I was a small kid."
Both darlings of the South African music scene, Masekela and Makeba had a brief, turbulent marriage during those years. "Our personal relationship was like not even hills, [but] mountains and valleys," he points out, "but Miriam Makeba was the epitome, the very portrait of what Africa was all about. ... She was the most generous person I have ever known."
He brushes off the idea that their marriage was a nightmare. "When you grow up in the township, what me and Miriam went through overseas is very light stuff," he says.
Masekela has spoken candidly in the past about his drug and alcohol use. He points to South Africa's history as a reason why he got addicted. "When I grew up, liquor was illegal for African people in South Africa," so they set up speakeasies — or shebeens. "Drunkenness to a great extent was a form of defiance," he says. He started drinking when he was 13 and was 58 when he finally stopped.
Masekela points out that he didn't get "sober," he just stopped killing himself. "You shouldn't stop enjoying life," he says, "but you just have to stop beating yourself up."
Now 74, Masekela says "I feel like I'm just beginning."
He credits his endless fascination with keeping his music fresh. "If music was the devil, I would need an exorcist. That's how obsessed and possessed I am with it, and I have always been."
And to all young talented musicians who might feel the same, he has this advice: "Whatever you go into, you have to go in there to be the best. ... It's all about passion and honesty and hard work. It might look glamorous, but it takes a lot of hard work."
I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now it's time for our Wisdom Watch conversation. That's where we speak with those who have made a difference through their work and their lives.
Our guest today is one of Africa's most recognized musicians, a huge name in jazz worldwide, and an international pop star. His 1968 breakout hit, "Grazing in the Grass," was number one on the American pop charts and a worldwide hit.
MARTIN: His impact on the music scene certainly did not end there. He has released some 40 albums, appeared on too many to count. He's appeared with artists as wide ranging as Herb Alpert, The Byrds, Paul Simon, Fela Kuti and the late great Miriam Makeba, to whom he was once married. More on that later.
Now in his 70s, Hugh Masekela is still touring, which is how we somehow persuaded him to stop by our studios when his tour stopped in Washington, D.C., and he is here now.
Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
HUGH MASEKELA: Hello, Michel. Thanks for inviting me.
MARTIN: Let me start by saying you have managed to fit an awful lot into your life, but I want to go back. There is this incredible picture of you on the cover of a memoir you published some years back. This is when Louis Armstrong, who'd heard about your band, sent you his trumpet in South Africa.
MASEKELA: Yeah. I was 16 years old.
MARTIN: Sixteen.
MASEKELA: Yeah.
MARTIN: You know, the joy on your face is incredible. It just makes me smile just to look at it.
MASEKELA: Actually, I lost a girlfriend through that picture because...
MARTIN: Really?
MASEKELA: ...we were like very serious dressers. You know, we were very cool at that time, so that was a very uncool picture and like when she saw it in the newspaper, she said, listen, I can't be seen with you barefoot and you got your pants rolled up. I mean how country can you get? And so she dumped me. Yeah.
MARTIN: Well, she kind of made a mistake, huh?
MASEKELA: And I told the photographer, Alf Khumalo, who's like probably the most celebrated photographer in Africa - so I told him - I said, Bra Alf - you know, when somebody's older, you call them Bra. I said, Bra Alf, many of my friends are going to turn their backs on me after they see this picture. He said, this picture is going to last you for the rest of your life. It's going to be your greatest picture. And I hated it so much - when they used to, like, do compilations of African music, first in the '80s, they used to use it for the cover.
MARTIN: It's so beautiful.
MASEKELA: And then when I came...
MARTIN: You're so happy.
MASEKELA: When I came back to South Africa, it was used in everything and so I gave up.
MARTIN: You just gave up? Yeah.
MASEKELA: Yeah.
MARTIN: Do you remember, though, how you fell in love with music? Specifically, the trumpet, specifically the horn?
MASEKELA: Well, when I saw a movie about Bix Beiderbecke, a great swing trumpet player, and I'd already been playing the piano for over nine years and I just said, I got to play the trumpet. And I'd always admired Louis Armstrong. I got possessed by music as an infant, so by the time I started playing the trumpet, I was already a bona fide musician and I was playing classical music as well as other things.
And I had a beautiful high tenor voice, you know, like those British boys in the cathedral. Ahhhh.
MARTIN: I see.
MASEKELA: Yes. I asked for that from my chaplain at school. I was always in trouble with the authorities because my attention span was completely off because all I heard was music, so when I looked at the teachers, their mouths were just moving and I was singing all the - Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell and, you know, all the new bebop players that just emerged and we were mesmerized by them. And so, like, that's what I was hearing and whenever my name was called, I ended up at the principal's office because I didn't know the question. And so...
MARTIN: But also, you just had trouble - you just had trouble with authority, period. I mean - right? That's fair to say? You just...
MASEKELA: Not really. Not really. I was a good boy, you know. My mother thought, oh, what a good boy.
MARTIN: Well, it came...
MASEKELA: I mean as a kid I was punished, I was whipped on a slow day at least three times. The preacher said, what do you want to do with your life? I said, if I can get a trumpet, Father, I won't bother anybody anymore. So he got me a trumpet and a trumpet teacher.
MARTIN: It came to pass that you first - I think you went to London first and then you came to New York.
MASEKELA: Yeah.
MARTIN: And you were there at such an amazing time. I mean people like Dizzy Gillespie took you under their wing. Right?
MASEKELA: Know what? I was lucky because I was brought to the stage by Miriam Makeba, who was an ex-girlfriend of mine and a dear friend and we'd always dreamt of coming to the States, but she came a year earlier and blew the States away. So she said, hey, you got to come, forget about London, this is the place to be. And she was on a first name basis with everybody. Then she and Harry Belafonte gave me a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music. I also had to work part-time in Harry Belafonte's music publishing, because they ain't going to give you no money, you got to work for, you know, you got to work for your money.
MASEKELA: And they will pay your school fees, got to get you a cheap place to stay, and you got to work, man, you know. And all these people were their friends.
MARTIN: I was going to ask if you can describe what those years were like for you. I mean on the one hand, you must've been terribly homesick.
MASEKELA: The first time I dreamt in English I realized and, you know, that I might never go home, because by then Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte were already banned, you know, and they were sending me to school. I think that the things that were most difficult for me were the cold.
MARTIN: The cold?
MASEKELA: Yeah. The snow and then, I mean that really made me homesick. I remember that my first snow I wrote to my mother right away and I took a picture in the snow. And I said I'm not smiling. I'm grimacing from the cold. It is really cold here.
MARTIN: Were you sad during that time? Was it hard or was it so exciting. It's so exciting
MASEKELA: No, I wasn't sad because it was a great time for me. I mean I was exposed to like the greatest music. It was the greatest time in music in the states, I think, you know, the 1960s and I was really fascinated by what I was doing. I felt like I had come to the right place at the right time. But, you know, when you're a student and you're in a foreign country you miss your relatives most, you know, especially when I was hungry, I was like, damn, Saturday afternoon. I just could've just gone to my aunt's place and like make the tripe stew, you know, with the hominy grits and I'm talking to myself. And so one day I was talking to myself in the park, on a Sunday afternoon, and I had a tap on my shoulder. And this cop said, excuse me, buddy, you know, see those folks over there? I say, yeah. They say they say they've been looking at you for two hours; you've been talking to yourself.
MARTIN: Aw.
MASEKELA: Are you OK? Then I explained to him what I was going through. He went, oh, yeah, OK, now I know what that must feel like. And he knew everything about South Africa, and those bastards.
MARTIN: He knew all about South Africa?
MASEKELA: And then we became friends for many years.
MARTIN: Really?
MASEKELA: Because he was a young policeman. I mean I was much younger. That's how homesick you can be. But I was surrounded by so much beauty and so much generosity, and so much joy. And it was a new world. It was the world that I wanted to live in. When I heard records when I was a small kid, I thought that people lived in the Gramophone, you know, Victrola...
MARTIN: Mm-hmm.
MASEKELA: ...and I wanted to get in there and go and come and live with them.
MASEKELA: And now here I was living with them. I mean it was, you couldn't ask for anything more.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, I'm speaking with musical giant Hugh Masekela. We happened to catch up with him when he is in Washington, D.C. on his latest tour.
You know, people these days often think of artists as either, you know, popular or as political, but when you came up it was not a difference between the two. People were very interested in politics who were also very popular. And one of your, your song "Bring Him Back Home," about Nelson Mandela, it became an anti-apartheid anthem in the late 1980s. And I just want to play a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUPSINGERS: (Singing) Bring back Nelson Mandela. Bring him back home to Soweto. I want to see him walking down the streets of South Africa one, one, once more.
MARTIN: He's on our minds because he's been ill, you know.
MASEKELA: Well, I don't know in other countries, but like when I grew up, you were not political, you were bombarded by politics. So like we grew up in protests rallies and boycott marches and from time to time, there would be shootings and you'd watch people getting killed. And we're not naive and we're not like wow, there's a thing called politics.
MARTIN: Yeah.
MASEKELA: Were under its boot and we wanted to get out of there and that's how we grew up. Mandela was the symbol. I mean when I see him I always say well done, old man. It was the voice of all those people, they were a whole gang of them - like, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu and like all those people who came and brought us the direction to get out of our chains.
MARTIN: Yeah. Speaking of...
MASEKELA: They did their job and they're a hard act to follow. The greatest thing is that they did for us was I said like, never again will one group of people get to dominate another, you know, and we must try and forgive those who oppressed us and like build our country with them and teach them the gift of love and forgiveness.
MARTIN: Well, speaking though, of being free from chains, one of the things that was - I don't know why I didn't know this - I read this in your book, how just deeply involved you were with every drug there was. I mean alcohol, cocaine, you were really explicit. Well, how are you now, by the way? All good? You're good?
MASEKELA: Well, what you see is what you get, right?
MARTIN: I hear you. Why...
MASEKELA: I mean how do I look for a 74-year-old guy?
MARTIN: You look great. Oh, you look, you look pretty great.
MARTIN: You know, controversy of now, giving compliments about people's appearance, you may have heard.
MASEKELA: How sexist can you be?
MARTIN: I know. I'm sorry. Apologize. But you opened the door.
MARTIN: So, you look very well.
MASEKELA: It's all the president's fault.
MARTIN: I know.
MASEKELA: He started this.
MARTIN: Do you have any thoughts about why? Was that just the way it was at the time?
MASEKELA: When I grew up, liquor was illegal for African people in South Africa. It only was legalized - I was here a year when it was legalized in South Africa.
MARTIN: Wow.
MASEKELA: And there were speakeasies all over. I mean every fifth house in the townships of the rural areas was a speakeasy. And my grandmother, a speakeasy and they were called shebeens and I was born in my grandmother's shebeen. And drunkenness, to a great extent, was a form of defiance, you know. And there were people who were famous for being great drinkers. There were people when they entered the room people would take off their hats, said this man can drink. There was that prestige. I started drinking when I was 13 years old. But I started drinking out of like peer pressure because I had the most beautiful voice and they was beginning to look at girls. And my friend said man, we can't hang out with you anymore because we're beginning to look at the babes and here you are singing in their range, you know, it puts a little damper on us, you know, so we - so finally I said what should I do? I said what do you have to drink and smoke so like your voice can get messed up and then you can sing bass?
MASEKELA: And I worked on that and then I, a year later I was singing bass, my voice was destroyed and the girls were not impressed. But...
MARTIN: How old were you when you finally got sober? How old were you? I forget now. You were...
MASEKELA: Fifty-eight.
MARTIN: Fifty-eight.
MASEKELA: Yeah. I didn't get sober. I stopped killing myself. There's a difference. You know, like I think that you shouldn't stop enjoying life but you just have to stop beating yourself up and other people and hanging out with people who are beating themselves up.
MARTIN: What has kept your music so fresh and exciting? What has kept you so continuing to work?
MASEKELA: Well, first of all, if music was the devil I would need an exercised. That's how, you know, obsessed and possessed I am with it and I've always been like that. So as a result, I accessed every kind of music that there is and it's like fathomless. And I think like when you're not tunnel visioned, when you're not wearing blinkers, when you listen to everything and you access every culture that you can probably access, you become a better person, you understand humanity much more. And music is a gateway to the world. You know, so I think that what I do is always fresh because I'm always like I'm fascinated by everything.
MARTIN: I can't let you go without asking you about Miriam Makeba because you were such a, you are both so brilliant. But just hearing about your relationship, it just sounds like it's just like such a nightmare on one hand, on the other hand so; I don't even know what to make of it really.
MASEKELA: Oh, yeah, our personal...
MARTIN: Yeah.
MASEKELA: ...relationship was like not even hills, mountains and valleys. But Miriam Makeba was the epitome, the very portrait of what Africa was about. You know, her grandmother and her great-grandmother and her mother were all traditional healers. Miriam Makeba helped everybody she could have a chance to help, regardless of who they were. And she helped every liberation movement in Africa and outside Africa - the civil rights movements, in South America. And she would take her last clothes and give them to students or like buy medicine for refugee camps. She was the most generous person I have ever known, you know, and...
MARTIN: But your personal relationship just sounds like a nightmare. Just...
MASEKELA: Well, it wasn't a nightmare for us, you know.
MARTIN: No.
MASEKELA: It might look like a nightmare but it was, when you grow up in the township and what me and Miriam went through overseas is really light stuff...
MARTIN: Yeah.
MASEKELA: ...compared to like what happens even in the ghetto, you know, where like there's, you know, there's even killings, you know, because people out there are pretty loose.
MARTIN: Before we let you go, you have had such an amazing life. I don't know, you've seen so many things; you've been part of so many musical movements. I don't even know where to start. But do you have some advice for someone who loves music as you do?
MASEKELA: Well, I think that the best advice you can give anybody is that if they love something and they want to be involved with it, the first thing they have to do is to be honest with themselves. How much do they like this and do they have a passion for it? And second, they have to be like honest about have they been told that they seem to be very talented in this field? Because whatever you go into you have to go in there to be the best. There's no formulas. It's all about passion and honesty and hard work. It might look glamorous but it takes a lot of hard work. The blessing with the arts is that you can do it forever until you drop dead. That's the blessing. And I'm 74 and I feel that I'm just beginning, so I think I'm very fortunate to have been like bedeviled by music.
MARTIN: Well, we're so glad you are.
MASEKELA: Yeah.
MARTIN: Musical legend Hugh Masekela is on tour in the U.S. He was kind enough to stop by our Washington, D.C. studios. Thank you so much for speaking with us. It has been our pleasure to host you.
MASEKELA: Thank you, Michel. I'll be don't charge me for this.
MARTIN: No. I will charge you one question - one question. What song shall we go out on? You can pick something.
MASEKELA: Go out on Mandela again.
MARTIN: Go out on a Mandela again?
MASEKELA: Yeah.
MARTIN: Oh, OK. Then we will do.
MASEKELA: There will never be a more appropriate time.
MARTIN: All right. And we'll go out on "Bring Him Back Home."
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Bring back Nelson Mandela. Bring him back home to Soweto. I want to see him walking down the streets of South Africa - tomorrow. Bring back Nelson Mandela. Bring him back home to Soweto. I want to see him walking down the streets of South Africa, one, one, once more.
MARTIN: And that's our program for today. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let's talk more tomorrow. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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The Magnificent seven
The lucky number 7 has accompanied us throughout the whole year - we are the art market leaders of the Czech republic for already 7 years in the row and our traditional 77th winter auction became the biggest auction in the history of the Czech republic, with total sales amounting to 170 000 000 CZK, sales ratio of 91 % and price increase of remarkable 108%. We are even more grateful for the new 24 authors' records; for over 6 000 art loving visitors who came to see the pre-auction exhibition and for over 500 bidders who filled the Žofín Palace and made of the auction an unforgettable experience.
Dear friends, we thank you cordially and sincerely for the beautiful and for many collectors exceptional year. We also hope that you will take some rest and enjoy the tranquillity of the Christmas time! The next year, the fortunate 7 will appear again and so we hope that the luck will stay with us and that with your help we will be able to witness similarly exceptional and unforgettable experiences as this year.
Thank you for the most successful auction of the history of the Czech republic!


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so, on my 5th email account, i was finally able to register. will one of you admins STOP banning @mail.com accounts? i am a 1st time register and i do not understand why i had to create a yahoo account just to register at this site. remove the ban from @mail.com accounts PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i would also like to know why, over the past 3 weeks, NOT ONE admin has replied to my pleas for help. is anyone home?


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Mustang is a Premium Wordpress Theme (HTML5 + CSS3). It is created to be used as a corporate/business website or as a creative/portfolio or As you can see the strength of this theme is its simple and clean design combined with modern jQuery Plugins & Functions. It's easy to use, easy to customize and fully featured.
Available in 2 elegant skins (Light & Dark)
Key features include:
- Nivo Slider
- Unlimited Backgrounds(images, colors)
- Unlimited Sidebars
- Custom header backgrounds for every page, blog post or portfolio item
- Multi Level Dropdown Menu
- 2 elegant skins(light & dark)
- Columns and typography elements ready
- 20 Unique Page Templates
- 4 Portfolio Layouts
- 5 Blog Layouts / left & right sidebars
- Right & Left sidebar for pages, blog and posts
- AJAX Contact Form
- 15 useful Shortcodes for styles for lists, pre tags, boxes, blockquotes and more
- Twitter, Flickr updates
- Amazing Admin Options Panel
- Step by step Documentation and Help
- and much more…
Last Updates
Version 1.2 (released 14 March 2012)
- Was added new shortcode – gallery.
- Was added option to add links for slider images.
- Was fixed portfolio when is set to permalinks.
- Was added multiple Blogs pages assigned with categories.
- Was fixed pagination on the Portfolio pages assigned to portfolio.
Version 1.1 (released 18 October 2011)
- Included transitions effects options for Nivo slider.
- Included unlimited portfolio pages.
- Included video option instead the slider.
- Was included XML files in theme archive.
- Was added Vimeo and YouTube shortcodes.
- Was fixed background for inputs and textarea in dark version.
- Was fixed button hover effect in portfolio for black version.
- Was included in control panel options to select the textures from the list.
Sources and Credits
- Nivo Slider
- jQuery
- PrettyPhoto
- IconSweet Basic Icon Set
- KomoMedioa Icon Set
- Font Droid Serif
- Font Droid Sans
Related Files included
- PSDs and Documentation


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Multiple Vision
In the beginning, there was film. Dog saw that it was good, so dog took a break. There were, however, creative manipulators/womanipulators of soul-stealing devices who're able to capture numerous moments of time on one frame of celluloid. By exposing one frame of film multiple times and adjusting the overall exposure, a beautiful in-camera sequence (or not) could be created. This technique is available to all without the aid of hyper motor-drives or the "hideous Photoshop morphed too many frames sequence.
Bring it back to the basics—it's fun, it's different, it could be a new personal discovery. Make your brain work—the sky's the limit and mistakes are welcomed. Cable release. Flash. Light meter. Go.—Dogotohp
Sound off in the comments below!
Join the conversation


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Stay-at-Home Chinese
G o nuts and cook your own chicken with cashews—the delivery guy can take the night off. The best part? You can add your favorite veggies and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Asian-inspired roasted pears are an easy way to end the workweek on a sweet note.
menu tip:
- Stir-Fry Substitutes
This quick and simple stir-fry also happens to be super-flexible. Epicurious member Kirkyo, a cook living in Austin, Texas, swapped carrots for the bell pepper and added chopped onion to the mix. Amusegueule of Toronto tossed in asparagus, while kittyhawk603 of New Hampshire added water chestnuts for crunch.
‹ previous: Thursday


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On the day singer Michael Buble was saying "I do" to Argentinian actress Luisana Lopilato de la Torre, burglars were ransacking the couples' home.
The couple were staying at a resort not far from their Buenos Aires home preparing for the wedding when the incident is believed to have taken place. There is still no word as to the extent of the robbery or about any damage to the house.
Buble, who hails from Burnaby British Columbia, is planning an additional ceremony to take place in his native Canada. The couple were reportedly in good spirits despite the news.
U.S. & World
Selected Reading: PopEater, New York Daily News, TMZ


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Gojo launches 'Tough Job - Sweet Deal' sweepstakes
Cleaning products manufacturer Gojo Industries is sponsoring a promotion that includes prizes and a free trip, the company said.
Gojo announced the "Gojo Tough Job. Sweet Deal. Giveaway" contest and sweepstakes, which started Wednesday. The contest is designed to appeal to people working in jobs that require them to regularly use industrial and automotive hand degreaser and other hand cleaning and conditioning products.
"One of the great things about our customers is they don't mind getting their hands dirty in accomplishing big things in their tough jobs," said Gojo Tough Soils market manager Jim Brown. "They rely on Gojo industrial and automotive hand degreaser and conditioning products. Our Tough Job - Sweet Deal Giveaway is a way for us to acknowledge our customers' strong work ethic and reward some of them for sharing their experiences with us via photos and videos."
Entrants are eligible to win a trip for two to the 2014 Daytona 500, 2013 World Series Game 3 or 2014 BCS Championship game. Entrants must submit either a photograph or video through the entry form online or a photo through Instagram at #GOJOToughSoils.


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You could feel the warmth Tuesday night at Angel Stadium.
And although Minnesota smacked three homeruns in its 5-3 win over the Angels, fans still walked away with something about which to brag -- their new "Matsui Blankies." The free fleece blankets -- named for the new guy -- not only kept fans warm, but also became part of a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Gathering of People Wearing a Fleece Blanket."
Take that, Cleveland.
The blanket features the team logo, designated hitter Hideki Matsui's signature and his No. 55.
Fans set the record by wearing their blankets for five consecutive minutes -- there's a reason this wasn't scheduled for August. A Guinness World Records adjudicator was present to certify the record.
The old record of 17,758 set at a Cleveland Cavaliers basketball game March 5. The announced attendance figure for Tuesday's Angels game was 43,510.
U.S. & World
The day's top national and international news.
Even without the incentive of a fleece blanket, fans still packed Angel Stadium for Monday's opener. A sellout crowd of 43,504 people watched the Angels beat Minnesota, 6-3.
And all they got was a schedule magnet.
Other Angels promotions this season include the Angels Garden Gnome, Angels Fedora Hat, Rally Monkey Soap Dispenser and -- just in time for school -- the Back-to-School Binder.
As if 11 new food choices didn't provide enough reasons to go to a game.


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reading skills, sales training, soft skills training
Presentation Skills Training Boston Valuable Training
Presentation Skills Training Boston is a valuable class that give many lesson to a lot of speaker how to give the best performance and reduce any nervous in front of audience. It's a great class with the experience teacher who can give you many tricks and tips to perform different and how to attract attention the audience in easy way. No need to struggle to reach all of that things and get your success through your performance. Presentation Skills Training Boston will give you a lot of practice too how to apply all the theory they teach into the real performance and how to makes you more creative in your performance so your audience will not boring when you perform.It's a great class that should be consider as one of a good way to raise up the performance and fixed any mistake that usually happend when perform in front of many people. Only success that will going to happend along the way and no more failure.
If your work everyday is all about perform in front of people whether to negotiation with some investor, explain product knowledge to your staff, explain product knowledge to your customer, etc that would be better if you choose and make a decision to follow Presentation skills training Boston. This class really good to develop your personality and raise up your performance. After you follow this class you will feel the changes through your personality, the way you speak to other, the way you convince people to believe you and the way you influence people. Many theory and techniques you can get and learn through this class, no need to hesitate to follow this class because it's very good for your positive improvement and your personality development. Grab the lesson as much as you can and learn from other experience that can be a good way for a good improvement as a speaker, every speaker need that for comparison and get some learning from their experience.
To be a good speaker actually it's not a hard case, and there are no theory to make you success and easy to reach it. This case is all about practice and doing some learning from many experience, the small theory only give a script how to do that but the rest of the success is depend on ourself,how we apply it, explore our creativity and do some practicing. That all around that will bring all of the beginner speaker to reach the success. All the moment from the experience too that bring all the famous speaker reach their success and loved by their audience. For every success there's always a wide of experience and moment that should happend, all of that things will support and push all the successfull people reach their success and grab it in easy way.
Be calm, comfort with your position, self confidence, get creative actually all of that thing is a good weapon for all of the success speaker. Because once you decide to stand in front of many people whether for your own purpose or it's for your company you will need that to support your performance. If you can control yourself in a good way, somehow all the creativity inside you will comes out insteadly without any struggle to find out. And the only one person who will get all the benefit from this is you. Spend a little bit time to learn self controlled and make youself comfort in every way along your performance will be a good way to explore creativity and get many positive breakthrough from your capability. And blended with all the theory given you will shine like a star everytime you perform in front of many people Ref Wiki
Ref Wiki


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Chris Ash Named Hogs Defensive Coordinator
Helped Lead Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowls
Chris Ash, who helped lead the Wisconsin Badgers to three straight Rose Bowls, has been named Arkansas' defensive coordinator, head coach Bret Bielema announced Tuesday. Ash will coach Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2013.
Ash spent the last three seasons at Wisconsin and helped the Badgers win three straight Big Ten championships and become the first Big Ten team to play in three straight Rose Bowls since Michigan following the 1976-78 seasons. Ash was defensive coordinator at two other schools and has also been a recruiting coordinator three times in his career.
Before his time at Wisconsin, Ash spent eight of 10 seasons at Iowa State, beginning as a defensive graduate assistant in 2000. He was promoted to secondary coach in 2002 and added the title of recruiting coordinator in 2006.


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Privacy policy
This website, www.nanc5.com ("Site") is owned and operated by Imperial Sugar Company ("ISC"). ISC respects your privacy and recognizes that many visitors are concerned about the information they provide or that we may collect and how we treat that information. To address your concerns, we have developed this Privacy Policy, which is intended to inform you of the guidelines that we follow in this sensitive area. By using this Site, you agree to the data practices described in this statement. If you do not agree with any term in this Policy, please do not provide any Personal Information.
If you choose not to provide Personal Information, you may not be able to access particular areas of our Sites, enter sweepstakes or contests, request recipes, or contact us through e-mail.
We reserve the right to update our Policy as changes are made in and to our Site; therefore, we recommend that you check the Policy from time to time.
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When you supply us with your Personal Information we will use it only for the express purpose for which it was collected: for registering your account, for your order of certain ISC products or services, and for you to enter promotions or sweepstakes. Personal Information means personally identifiable information such as your name, street address, telephone number, credit card information, screen name and email address.
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81 Illusion Long Sleeve Wedding Dresses You'll Like
The Honest to Goodness Truth on Long Sleeve Wedding Dresses As a bride and groom, you would like your wedding to be ideal. Weddings are a lovely occasion particularly for women any time of year, but I feel the wintertime is an extraordinarily gorgeous time to become married. Only the thing if your wedding will be small with merely a few guests. Most people believe that planning a winter wedding is thought of as a gamble due to the cold weather. When you've decided how much you're prepared to spend on your dress, do what you can to only look at dresses in your budget. You can select a dress with cap sleeves to offer you that on point trendy appearance. Luckily, there are lots of on-trend wedding dresses showcasing beautiful long sleeves from the hottest bridal collections to pick from. The Little-Known Secrets to Long Sleeve Wedding Dresses For around $500, you can buy a wedding dress at a bigger retailer that's machine made. Many are shocked to discover that wearing a white wedding dress is a rather new phenomenon. In the current economy, it's important to locate the most suitable wedding dress that suits perfectly within you budget.… Continue Reading