BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

South African local Chinese are in the “black people” which is designed to benefit previous apartheid disadvantaged groups. Are they are fully black now? Do they really benefit all the advantages of BEE Act? According to the report this morning, Chinese are not fully black.
Johannesburg - The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) has slammed a high court ruling that defines Chinese South Africans as black and gives them the full benefits of affirmative action legislation, claiming the black economic empowerment (BEE) “cake” was too small to share. Read the rest of this entry »

It is common practice for your BBBEE rating to coincide with your financial year end. As your BBBEE rating is only valid for 1 year, this is the opportune time to seriously consider your BBBEE rating.As the leading empowerment consultancy in the industry we have the deepest experience in interpreting what qualifies, and what supporting evidence is needed, for your BBBEE scorecard. We have the knowledge to be able to provide you with the tools and information needed to build a comprehensive Pre-Audit pack for the rating process.

The Pre-Audit pack will help you to put together the qualifying data that will be needed for the auditing process. We will help you to understand what supporting evidence is needed for the rating agencies check list. By doing this you will understand what qualifies and what doesn’t qualify for rating. Read the rest of this entry »

If the South African government wants to see the country become successful in the global environment, it needs the backing not only of the citizens of the country, but also of all the other key stakeholders. These include investors, business people, the trade union movement, as well as all financial and socio-economic institutions. Strategic thinking, whether at national or corporate level, depends on the ability of a government or management team to create and then harness a willingness amongst people to participate in outmanoeuvring the efforts of other countries and/or companies. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Let’s take a look at them and interpret each in terms of an emerging country like South Africa, which aims to become a competitive nation in the world rankings.

According to Sun Tzu, in a nation-state that is seeking to compete in the global arena, the development of a proper strategy is vital to the future welfare of the people of that country. Leaving a country’s economic future in the hands of a political manifesto may well satisfy the aspirations of a political few; however, the development of a non-aligned strategy has a better chance of serving a greater percentage of the population and taking the country forward in its economic growth. Read the rest of this entry »

If South Africa wishes to become a highly successful emerging nation, one that can seriously challenge for position in the world economic rankings and have its business corporations develop _agreater sense of competitiveness, a change in strategic outlook at both government and corporate level is required. This aims to outline the kind of approach an emerging nation like South Africa needs in order to enhance its competitive prowess at both national and corporate level.

Before a home-grown business organisation in an emerging economy can achieve a higher level of competitiveness, the condition_sin that country have to be conducive to competitive thinking.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Wing says that, since the time of Sun Tzu, the major conflict experienced throughout the world has remained the same, namely the struggle for ideological supremacy and the control of resources.’ In nation-states, and especially in the current global environment, _competition takes place for people, materials, technology and/or financial resources. A key principle in making one’s position unassailable is for the government of the day to view its nation as a complete and interdependable entity, and to take steps to ensure it survives as such. Sun Tzu said that it is not individually, but altogether, as a single and complete entity, that the people of the world face survival or extinction.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Investment No. 3: Spend resources to secure your leadership pipeline

Any South African firm today is really an emerging globaliser. Therefore, it has to ensure that it can develop great leaders and, indeed, a succession of them. There is always the temptation for a senior executive or an executive team to focus on building a legacy based on their own policies and achievements, rather than _establishing a pipeline of leaders. Establishing a leadership pipeline is a strategic activity built over the long term and is the result of a _cumulative process. 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 »

3. Support meritocracy

Local companies coming from a previously isolated and uncompetitive economy that now find themselves competing with the world’s best need to develop a culture of recruiting and retaining the best brains available. They also have to consistently reinvest in their human capital. Global players such as Unilever, Shell, Toyota, SABMiller and the Fortune 500-listed organisations, which are pretty well entrenched in the global arena, have a larger pool of talent available to them because of the size of their operations and global reach. For home-grown South African organisations, the competition for human capital intensifies, as the brightest stars either emigrate or join the global players, who can give them access to their new employer’s global network. Read the rest of this entry »

The obvious starting point for the marketing of South Africa is to decide what the marketing objectives are. This presupposes that the right ‘product‘ has been created to suit the requirements of the target customers. What does the nation not just want, but need in order to attract tourists, investors, immigrants, etc.? Fancy slogans and logos will do nothing for the country if South Africa Inc., the product, is not right, and the strategists have not paid sufficient attention to what the country needs to achieve in this context.

Moreover, the people of South Africa should be brought into the process to support this initiative, and they have to be made aware of the importance of their role in trying to attract and keep customers for the country. Internal marketing therefore has a role to play in shaping the perceptions, beliefs and actions of the citizens of this country in a collective effort to make the country more competitive in the global marketplace. Read the rest of this entry »

A necessary practical condition is that the government share of GDP be limited, that is — in the case of European welfare states — be cut back. This need not involve any reductions of the volume and quality of services provided by the government sector. If aggregate supply is relatively elastic with respect to the level of taxation, then tax cuts may provide for a great expansion of the private sector. A vigorously growing private sector will tend to reduce the share of the public sector in the economy, a reduction that might render unnecessary any actual cutbacks of the real size of government. Read the rest of this entry »