BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

A well-known marketing adage states that a bad product will not last very long in the marketplace. No amount of sales, advertising or promotional effort will do it any good if people simply do not want to buy it. As any first-year marketing student knows, and in the words of famed marketing guru Philip Kotler, the marketing concept states that ‘the key to achieving organisational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors’: In today’s bitterly contested global marketplace, countries have customers and competitors too. South Africa is no exception. Read the rest of this entry »

Scenario No. 5

At the end of 2004, Singapore announced that it would be increasing its technical assistance to Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam by approximately US$30 million. Viewed by its government as part of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, an initiative launched in 2000, Singapore will be providing assistance of a technical nature, in which it has the expertise. Why should Singapore take su_ch step, and what are the implications for global competitiven_ess.

Firstly, Singapore has an interest in the stability and welfar_{e o}f its neighbours, since these poorer countries, along with Singapore help to comprise the region. Read the rest of this entry »

There are signs everywhere for South Africa’s government, its business corporations and its people concerning the trends in and the effects of globalisation. These signs point to the steps being taken by other nations to help them cope with global competition. In other words, clues are emerging on what others are doing to become and remain globally competitive. Everywhere one looks, the indications are that global competition is not only intensifying, but that it is also accelerating at an ever-increasing rate. This adds to the extreme pressure that already exists for the world’s governments and companies to perform and to add value to the lives of their constituents and customers. Read the rest of this entry »