RECENTLY, a Chinese toy company founder committed suicide because of a multi-million-rand toy recall. It appears that toys manufactured by his company for Fisher Price contained dangerously high levels of lead in the paint.

Reports indicate that the man, 50-year-old Zhang Shuhong, did not knowingly use inferior paint, and was, in fact, a caring and upright businessman whose factory provided good jobs for over 5 000 workers.

One (admittedly cripplingly expensive) mistake has resulted in the death of a man who clearly had the drive and experience to provide incomes for thousands of people. Had he lived, he may well have planned moves to save his company and gone on to great things again.

Besides the tragedy of a life lost, it`s also tragic that he took with him 20 or 30 years` of priceless business experience. That`s not the sort of thing that resides in even the most advanced enterprise Business Intelligence system.

Strangely, though, a lot of South African companies appear to have lost regard for experience and the value it can add to the enterprise. Just look at the number of highly experienced people forced into early retirement or edged out of companies for various political reasons.

You often hear of healthy pensioners who are experts in their field but unable to find so much as a part time consulting job. I think it`s time we learnt to value experience again, because together with advanced ICT-powered Business Intelligence, companies would find themselves in command of all the information they could possibly need, as well as the intuitive, learned skills to know just what to do with it.

In this issue, our bumper Special Report on page 26 focuses on Business Intelligence tools, while our cover story on page 16 explores whether ICT will give the African news media more freedom of speech or give the authorities better means to control them. And our Leadership article on page 14 finds out more about the SA Receiver of Revenue`s plans for e-filing.

Enjoy this issue.


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