Alan Knott-Craig testified in Vodacom Please Call Me court case

It came to me on a balcony, but everyone thanked and congratulated someone else.... :(
 
However, Puckrin showed the court an email sent to all Vodacom staff in March 2001 congratulating and thanking Makete for coming up with the concept.
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That means Makete was rewarded in the form of praise and admiration that he received from his colleagues after that email was sent.

There are also quite a few people who wish that Please Call Me messages had never been invented, especially when receiving these irritating messages from people one does not know, and at all hours.
 
AKG: "The idea totally hit me as I was on a balcony checking out some security guards. Though I don't deny said idea may have been planted in my head by an employee.":erm:

That's like me saying I've got this fantastic idea to create a local SA IT forum called Mybroadband, though I don't deny I may or may not have visited a forum that planted the idea in my head.
 
j4ck455 said:
That means Makete was rewarded in the form of praise and admiration that he received from his colleagues after that email was sent.

There are also quite a few people who wish that Please Call Me messages had never been invented, especially when receiving these irritating messages from people one does not know, and at all hours.
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I attempt to call the number, usually get some person with very poor english skills so I put the phone down. If it was a valid PCM I leave it at that, if invalid I then bomb them back with a 10 PCMs of my own... and if they send a second one I attempt to sign them up for things :twisted: Some can be very persistant with sending a few more PCMs but after day 2 they all give up (something to do with getting 100s of PCMs they keep getting I guess).
 
However, Puckrin showed the court an email sent to all Vodacom staff in March 2001 congratulating and thanking Makete for coming up with the concept.

Knott-Craig denied ever seeing the email and said that neither him or Vodacom deny that Makete may have pitched the idea to them, but said Makete is not entitled to compensation for the concept.
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Congratulations and thanks yes, that costs nothing, compensation, heck no, that affects my multimillion rand package and bonus.
 
Isn't this a repeat story? Anyway, if I were Vodacom I would have probably settled out of court long time ago and make this "problem" go away.Question is, for how much seeing that Vodacom has made millions of millions(don't ask me how I know:D) out of this service.Any guesses how(out of court settlement) much Vodacom should have settled?

That would be interesting.
 
As he testified, Knott-Craig gave conflicting statements about who the true inventor of Please Call Me was, even undermining the claim in his biography, Second is Nothing, that he masterminded the idea.

By the end of the day Puckrin had succeeded in getting Knott-Craig to admit that Nkosana Makate had invented the concept, which later led to the development and commercialisation of a service allowing prepaid customers without airtime to request a callback.

According to Knott-Craig’s book, he developed the service by chance after observing two security guards trying to communicate in Vodacom’s executive office block. One sent a missed called to the other to attract his attention. However, in court, Knott-Craig claimed that Philip Geissler, the executive for product development, invented the idea because he had attracted Knott-Craig’s attention to the security guards.
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What an upstanding CEO - he steals ideas and portrays them as his own.
 
This is not the first time AKC has stolen an idea ! the low cost international calling system they launched a couple of months ago was presented by a consultant, the also praised the good idea they failed to hire the consultant and then launched the product, the consultant then contacted them and asked them what was going on, when AKC said he had come up with the idea, even though the consultant can prove by way of email AKC told him what a good idea it was, the problem AKC has some of the best attorney around and all they do is drag it around court until they consultant looses all his money to fight.

AKC you are a thief ! once a thief always a thief
 
Okay I know i'm being selective but you wonder about these corporate bullies,anyway from here.

Cilliers suggested that Knott-Craig had in any case adjudicated when he had said Makate was greedy and would not receive a cent.
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TheWirelessGuy said:
the problem AKC has some of the best attorney around and all they do is drag it around court until they consultant looses all his money to fight.
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^ Precisely!!!

By the end of the day Puckrin had succeeded in getting Knott-Craig to admit that Nkosana Makate had invented the concept, which later led to the development and commercialisation of a service allowing prepaid customers without airtime to request a callback.
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^ :sick:
 
I haven't been following this whole thing ... but what does he want?

Tens of thousands?
Hundreds of thousands?
Millions?
 
I hope Vodacom sues AKC after this for lying to them while he was CEO.
 
The guy looked seriously unhappy outside court.
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If some of his book is fiction then who knows what else is
 
Haldex said:
If they gave him a million back then it would have been sorted.
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He was under their employment at the time and I would be very surprised if he gets a cent from this. He was renumerated in the form of a salary and any bonuses.
 
This is nothing short of shocking!

Allan Knott-Craig is a lying unethical fraudster who will do nothing else but bloat his own fake reputation and build himself and his company(s) on muddy waters.

In Knott-Craig’s biography, Second is Nothing, he wrote that he was standing on his balcony when he saw two security guards trying to communicate. One gave the other a missed call to get his attention. That was when the Please Call Me idea hit him and a few minutes later he was discussing its implementation with senior managers, according to the report.

...

However, Puckrin showed the court an email sent to all Vodacom staff in March 2001 congratulating and thanking Makete for coming up with the concept.

Knott-Craig denied ever seeing the email and said that neither him or Vodacom deny that Makete may have pitched the idea to them, but said Makete is not entitled to compensation for the concept.
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This is admitting to court - in public - that he has told lies in his so-called 'Autobiography'. That book is definately no autobiography any longer. It is nothing more than a few-hundred page fairy tale which he hoped to defraud people into buying it and making money from it.

For any company to be approached by an employee with an idea and then giving credit to senior management is unethical - even if monetary commitment is not involved.

Be as it may, all my shares in any company related to AKC will be sold during the course of today. Such incompetence, unethical business practices, fraudulent misrepresentations should not exist in a business man or any company - but hey, this is SA and often quite acceptable.

But, as for AKC, in my view, he is now a Persona Non Grata lurking around businesses looking to worm himself into companies corrupting their practices, looking for ways to defraud people from their money in buying so-called lying 'autobiographies' and speaking nothing but lies on functions and events. I will never, ever attend any event where this man is involved in again - period.
 
He was under their employment at the time and I would be very surprised if he gets a cent from this. He was remunerated in the form of a salary and any bonuses.
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I agree, surely anything you come up with in your line of work while employed for a company belongs to the company? It's not like Pick n Pay would have paid someone for the No Name Brand idea or McDonald's paid the guy extra who came up with the name Fillet-o-Fish.
 
Wyzak said:
He was under their employment at the time and I would be very surprised if he gets a cent from this. He was renumerated in the form of a salary and any bonuses.
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Was he really?
He was an accountant, what was his additional remuneration?
 
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