Yo management catalyst

Raise a toast to yesterday’s achievements and tomorrow’s brighter future. Time to make it happen

Merry christmas world citizens

Social media is revamping the way businesses reach their audiences, transforming boring billboards and cold commercials into a land of interactive wonders.

Here we collect some of the best new examples of companies using advertising to get social with customers, including coffee company Douwe Egbert, which created a yawn-activated drink dispenser in a Johannesburg airport using facial recognition technology, and the frozen food firm Birds Eye, which created a pop-up called The Picture House in three British cities to allow diners to eat for free in exchange for sharing a snap on Instagram.

And on London's busy Oxford Street, people who walk past the bus stops don't realize they're a step away from a free snack at one of the special vending machines there. The dispensers are run by Walkers, which is known as Lays in the US and Chipsy in Egypt.

Anyone who passes the machines can send a message to Walkers on Twitter and out pops a free bag of a new line of potato chips chosen by the public. (Sample flavors: Ranch Racoon and Chip Shop Chicken Curry).

Africa has to rely on small businesses to provide employment. Numbers from entreperneurship optimists in Uganda and outside; show that sub-saharan Africa is doing noticeably well. Uganda is leading in the number of est. businesses and doing quite as good when it comes to Early-stage Entrepreneural Activity.