BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

The strength of a country and/or a business organisation, and therefore the strength of its strategy, is created by its human capital. At the heart of strategic thinking lies the purpose of preserving the environment: at the macro-level, preservation of the economy, whilst, at the micro-level, preservation of the industry participants. Few firms think about this. Individual agendas focus on maximising profits and, in neo-liberal market economics, maximising shareholder value at the expense of social values. Yet contributing towards industry and economic preservation benefits a nation in the long term and gives it economic strength, as well as the wherewithal for competing on the global stage. Read the rest of this entry »

Investment No. 6: Integrate executive development with the strategy process

Given that Strategy is the process of putting an organisation into a more favourable position in the marketplace relative to its competitors by integrating customer needs, competitive realities and its own internal capabilities, proactive executive development will improve the chances of strategic success. This is because properly trained executives can design and deliver more effective strategies.

It is imperative that the talent pipeline delivers both the quantity and quality of managers who can guide the future strategic thinkin_gof the organisation. This prevents the planning process from getting too far ahead of the executive development process. It also means that the organisation does not rely on outside talent to fill key management positions. Read the rest of this entry »

5. Leverage diversity

One of the most powerful tools of innovative thinking in the South African workplace is that of diversity. In South Africa, with its apartheid past, the temptation is to focus on cultural diversity in order to try to forge a clearer understanding between the various cultures of South Africa. The Rainbow Nation is well represented in business organisations, thereby presenting our companies with a great opportunity for the generation of ideas. However, the prudent manager will appreciate that workplace diversity also covers age, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, physical abilities and qualities, race, sexual orientation, educational background, geographical location, income, marital status, military experience, religious beliefs, parental status and work experience, amongst others. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

A number of salient issues and suggestions have emerged, which could form the basis of debate on the future of our country’s prosperity in the global arena:

Suggestion 1

Make The Art of War compulsory reading for all South African political and business leaders. It should also be part of the curricula in our business schools and universities, to help teach students to think strategically and competitively. Read the rest of this entry »

Reserves

The deposits and currency created by the Federal Reserve are the reserves of the modern system. It would seem that if the Fed could control the amount of these reserves, it could thereby limit the ability of banks to lend, and thus control their ability to create deposits. By controlling reserves, the Fed could control the total quantity of money. As we saw earlier, real reserves did constrain banks. It has seemed plausible, and monetarists everywhere have believed, that modern, nominal reserves could provide a similar constraint. But central banks all around the world, including the Federal Reserve, have tried to exercise such control, most recently in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and, in virtually every case, their attempts have failed. Read the rest of this entry »