Business Cases from South African Companies is an engaging collection of case studies dealing with real-life businesses.

Written by business owners, the stories are unique and inspiring to students, practitioners and would-be entrepreneurs.

Owners, entrepreneurs and corporates (from SMMEs to larger companies) share their frustrations, successes, and challenges on starting and running successful businesses.

There are a number of strategy books, international and local, available in the South African market. Why another one? What makes this book different?

The third edition of the book features a number of new chapters, focusing on strategy implementation and change management, resource allocation and responsible leadership. It also includes a more detailed coverage of managing strategic risk.

Features:

Management Principles: a contemporary edition for Africa deals with the cornerstone principles of general management that have endured over many decades. The eighth edition of this comprehensive book on general management principles delves into the fundamentals of planning, organising, leading, controlling, and showcasing how these four management functions have stood the test of time amidst the challenges posed by, among others, the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

From navigating artificial intelligence, data analytics, blockchain technology and other technological changes to sustainability issues, inclusive workplaces, and geo-political wars, this reader-friendly book exposes the student of management theory to real-life management issues. Backed by academic research, literature reviews and South African and African case studies, this book offers a practical roadmap for both management students and seasoned professionals who have to solve management problems and make sound management decisions. Written in an accessible style, it systematically covers all relevant management principles, providing a logical framework for understanding and implementation of these principles in a volatile business environment.

In this fully-updated eighth edition, the authors have endeavoured to expose the reader to the relevant topics that managers of modern organisations must be familiar with.

Furthermore, the book accommodates different learning styles by providing the following features:

• Real-world business examples
• Figures and diagrams
• Concise summaries of important concepts
• Case scenarios
• Self-assessment questions.

Management Principles: a contemporary edition for Africa is written from a South African and African perspective. The uniqueness of this continent justifies a management approach that reflects Africa’s realities while being sensitive to the fact that Africa is part of the ever-growing borderless world.

The transformation of ideas into economic opportunities is the crux of entrepreneurship. History shows that pragmatic people who are entrepreneurial, creative and innovative, able to exploit opportunities and willing to take risks, have significantly advanced economic progress. For example, the USA gets more than half of its economic growth from industries that barely existed a decade ago. This is directly attributable to innovative entrepreneurs and their start-up businesses.

Entrepreneurs can produce new solutions to old problems, and they always challenge the status quo. Entrepreneurs are risk-takers who pursue opportunities that others may fail to recognise or may even view as problems or threats. Entrepreneurs are closely associated with change, creativity, knowledge, innovation and flexibility, which are all factors that are increasingly important sources of competitiveness in an increasingly globalised world economy. Therefore, fostering entrepreneurship means promoting the competitiveness of businesses.

At a macro-level private sector development and entrepreneurship development are essential ingredients for achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty. While sound macroeconomic policies and providing market access are crucial, emerging markets need to nurture and develop entrepreneurs able to take advantage of the opportunities created by globalisation.

At a national level, entrepreneurs can play a vital role in the economic development of the country and the social upliftment of its people. As with the rest of the private sector, entrepreneurial development is a powerful engine of economic growth and wealth creation, and crucial for improving the quality, number and variety of employment opportunities for the poor. Economically, entrepreneurship invigorates markets. The formation of new business leads to job creation and has a multiplying effect on the economy. Socially, entrepreneurship empowers citizens, generates innovation and changes mindsets. These changes have the potential to integrate developing countries successfully into the global economy.

This textbook is aimed at students of management who need to have an appreciation of the role of statistics in management decision making.

The statistical treatment of business data is relevant in all areas of business activity and across all management functions (i.e. Marketing, finance, human resources, operations and logistics, accounting, information systems and technology). Statistics provide evidence-based information which makes it an important decision support tool in management.

Business is a cut-throat environment. Even with an excellent idea or brilliant marketing plan, there is no guarantee of success. Besides having innovative ideas and the willpower to succeed, you need sound management and business skills, and you need to know how to apply the best business practices, whether you are an entrepreneur or professional manager.

A business is fundamentally a cash-oriented process. This means that its ideas, image or products, no matter how remarkable, are still not as important as the ability to earn an income to stay afloat and have a reliable and accessible cash flow. A manager must be able to keep track of all income, expenses, assets the business owns and the cash flow. Poor fiscal management and inadequate accounting practices produce weak or incorrect information, preventing management from making well informed decisions or adapting adequately to changes in the environment.

Basic Financial Management is written to answer the question: What does ANY manager or entrepreneur need to know to guarantee sound financial management?

IFRS for Small and Medium-Sized Entities: A tutorial book consists of over 100 questions dealing with the application of IFRS to SMEs issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Short topic-specific questions are designed to encourage learners to work through the relevant sections of the IFRS for SMEs. These are complemented by full-length questions dealing with multiple aspects of specific sections of the IFRS for SMEs including recognition, measurement and disclosure issues. For more advanced learners, exam-style questions, with varying degrees of integration, are also available. Students will benefit, not only from the comprehensive analysis, but also from detailed recommended solutions which have been carefully referenced to the relevant section of the IFRS and form recommended mark and time allocations to improve exam technique.

Key Features:

• A mix of short and full-length questions with varying degrees of complexity and integration;
• Recommended solutions and mark plans;
• Easy-to-print solution packs for prescribing institutions; and
• A sample of case studies for prescribing institutions

Sales drive the business world and the economy. However, sales in any business need to be managed to ensure that the business achieves its objectives. This is where the function of sales management comes into the business structure: it plays the key role of ensuring that salespeople succeed at selling. The profitability of the organisation depends on how successfully sales managers lead their sales force.

The sales manager is responsible for the strategic planning of the sales force, which includes the management of the selling process and organising the sales activities within the sales department. With the third edition of this textbook, the authors hope that both industry and academia will be able to use the information to better understand and implement the different functions of sales management. Concepts are presented in such a manner that a student new to the field will easily grasp them.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is indispensable in the spheres of business, government, education, and entertainment. It makes Internet marketing, e-government, elearning and online chat services possible, as well as e-commerce. With the radical impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour and buying patterns, it is now more crucial than ever for business training to cover at least the basics of e-commerce.

E-Commerce in South Africa explores the ways in which entrepreneurs and managers can make use of e-commerce to improve their contact with their customers and enhance their business and marketing strategies.

This multipurpose book will be invaluable to people involved in any form of business or government institution that relies on ICT. Those who will benefit from this book include students of business, business analysts, web page designers and webmasters, entrepreneurs and CEOs, risk managers, marketers, advertising specialists, logistics managers, strategic planning specialists and trainers in the business and ICT fields.

Being a successful entrepreneur in the 2020s involves more than enthusiasm and a good eye for a new opportunity. A thorough understanding of the essential business functions, as explained in this edition of Business Management for Entrepreneurs, is a prerequisite for entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next growth stage.

Business Management for Entrepreneurs guides the entrepreneur through the eight business functions: general management, finance, marketing, operations management, purchasing and the supply chain, human resources, information management and public relations. These management and managerial skills are essential to successfully managing a business which employs more people than when it was initially established.

This edition has been updated to highlight the economic factors and technologies that influence business functions relevant to entrepreneurs. Business Management for Entrepreneurs is an invaluable resource for students studying Entrepreneurship, all young entrepreneurs planning to start their own business, and entrepreneurs who have their own business but want to learn more about managing the business functions as the business grows.

The seventh edition of South African Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice has been thoroughly revised and updated. Our broader African context is accentuated even further, making it very clear that we need to find, craft and execute HRM strategies that suit our unique circumstances in South Africa and Africa more broadly.

Africa is at an exciting yet critical juncture. This continent boasts almost a third of the world’s mineral wealth and two-thirds of its remaining arable land, and it is estimated that by the end of the current century about half of all young people on the planet will be in Africa. Our continent’s future success is therefore locked up in this yet-to-be-realised human resource dividend, and South African managers in our local organisations as well as elsewhere in Africa and the world must lead the charge in unlocking and fully developing it. This edition expands on the holistic approach to human resource management (HRM) that has been propagated since the first edition in 1998. The emphasis throughout the book is that specialist practitioners in HRM and all other managers need to partner in managing the complex challenges faced in relation to our human resources. Also included are the contemporary HR trends in the South African environment and the emerging unifying framework of the South African Board for People Practices’ (SABPP) National HR Management System Standard, developed in 2013. HRM is shown to extend beyond staff/personnel employed by organisations to include managing all aspects related to people doing work not only as employees, but in other capacities as well. Similarly, even though the most prominent organisational context can be regarded as business or private sector organisations, this new edition makes explicit and clear connections with HRM challenges and issues in public sector organisations.

The book has a companion website that provides access to additional information, resources, case studies, and various questions and activities to facilitate active learning. The website is designed for a dual purpose: to enhance the learning experience of those who have bought the book and to assist those responsible for helping learners digest the wealth of learning material contained in this compendium on South African HRM.

This tenth edition of Hockly’s Insolvency Law has been renamed Hockly’s Law of Insolvency, Winding-up and Business Rescue to reflect the changes to the three main fields that it discusses.

Features distinguishing this tenth edition include these:

• Developments over the last ten years since the previous edition are summarized, including the statutory changes and the decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal and leading decisions of the High Court.
• In particular, business rescue is now discussed in three chapters, and the company’s compromise with its creditors is discussed in its own separate chapter.
• The introduction encourages readers to consider the need for reforming insolvency law in the 21st century, to read the law with a critical and creative eye, and to ponder the policy choices to be made.
• Chapter 7 on uncompleted contracts has been rearranged, opening with a pigeonholing approach to analysing contracts, followed by a statement of the supporting common law and a discussion of a series of specific contracts analysed according to which of the contractants is now in sequestration or liquidation.
• The text is even more accessible, with extra explanation for readers with limited library access, and the book is available as an e-book.
• Learners with a strong visual sense are shown examples of diagrams and timelines to help analyse complicated sets of facts and apply complicated provisions to them. It is recommended that they should identify the debtor in red in their diagrams.

Business Management by Portfolio is a business philosophy practiced by organisations which successfully create environments that attract only the best, brightest and most creative professionals. This is an environment which fosters trust, collaboration and unified commitment. It provides ample opportunity for individual and collective self-actualization and the unleashing of talent where it matters most.

Business Management by Portfolio addresses issues such as effective strategy implementation, optimal resource utilisation, business quality by design and, perhaps most importantly, customer satisfaction.

A thorough understanding of the basics of marketing is essential for any marketing practitioner and student of marketing. Marketing: An Introduction is a valuable tool which describes the foundational aspects of marketing and enables a basic understanding of this field. This book has a strong focus on the principles of marketing, the importance and use of social media, and the integration of marketing principles with other business functions.

Marketing: An introduction builds on the huge popularity of the first three editions - all of which have been widely accepted and adopted in the business and academic community. This addition is once again written in a way that is easy to understand by students and focuses on the latest trends in marketing.

The book has been written with the aim of providing students and practitioners with a thorough understanding of marketing, as well as how the theory is applied in a practical sense. Once again it is made clear that for a business to survive the various functions should work closely together in order to meet the demands of the market and that all are working together towards the overall profitability of the organization.

Dismissal remains the most thorough and comprehensive work available on a problem that confronts employers, lawyers, judges and arbitrators every working day – when is it fair to terminate the relationship with employees, for whatever reason this regrettable step may be deemed necessary?

This work deals with all the circumstances in which dismissals arise and are challenged – from dismissals for misconduct and incapacity, through retrenchments, automatically unfair dismissals, dismissals of protected and unprotected strikers, to the procedures required before such dismissals can lawfully be effected and challenged. Written in the clear and readable style for which the author has become acclaimed, the exposition of each principle is illustrated with examples drawn from the case law. This fourth edition adds many judgments handed down since the third edition was published five years ago, and incorporates judgments law and statutory amendments that have been handed down or enacted since then.

Dismissal forms a volume in a quartet by the author, and should where necessary be read with its companion volumes – Employment Rights, Collective Labour Law and Labour Litigation and Dispute Resolution

This fourth edition of Career Counselling and Guidance in the Workplace: A manual for Career Development Practitioners provides a perspective on career counselling and guidance approaches and practices relevant to career development support in the 21st-Century workplace. The text has been designed for postgraduate students, as well as career development practitioners, human resource practitioners, psychologists, psychometrists, and registered counsellors who are involved in providing career development services to individuals and employers.

Additional real-life case studies that reflect the diverse population groups of South Africa have been added to illustrate how the theory is applied in career counselling practice. This edition further incorporates the role and competencies of career development practitioners as outlined in the new national frameworks.

The Law of Business Structures provides a comprehensive but simplified treatment of the different types of business structures in South African law. Partnerships, business trusts, close corporations and companies, whether large or small, whether profit-making or non-profit-making, are discussed. This includes modern corporate governance best practices and even an updated analysis of insider trading and market manipulation. The proposed new Companies Amendment Bill of 2021, which was published when this new edition was nearing completion, is also discussed wherever relevant.

In the nine years since the publication of the first edition of The Law of Business Structures, there has been extensive judicial development of many provisions of the Companies Act 71 of 2008. This second edition has been updated to include a discussion and analysis of the leading cases on the subject. Much of the material on this subject, particularly company law, has been updated. The prime, original aim of keeping complex theoretical analysis and debate to a minimum has been retained.

A highlight of this book is that legal doctrines and principles are expounded in a lucid and coherent way and stated, wherever possible, in simple terms.

The Corporate Governance Handbook best practices is not intended to replace good corporate legislation but to supplement legislation such as the Companies Act. The Companies Act is statutory law whereas corporate governance best practices including govern

The Fifth edition of Marketing Management: A South African Perspective, the leading marketing textbook in Southern Africa, adopts a new perspective on the business environment and the way in which businesses can deal with changes in that environment.

Services, whether online or offline, are important in modern economies in which the understanding is that we ‘are all in services’. Services Marketing, a subset of the field of Marketing, has evolved and developed a range of theories and models, all focused on providing superior service offerings to today’s market and the growing expectations of service delivery. New research provides additional contemporary insights into this dynamic and developing area. This text seeks to address the current research and its managerial implications in both online and offline services. It includes new case studies, integrating new research and new perspectives on the various aspects of services.

The book covers important topics in providing services, including:

• Technology and its role in service marketing
• Customer expectations and perceptions
• Creating customer value
• Services architecture
• Pricing decision-making
• Demand management
• Building customer relationships and loyalty
• Integrated service marketing communication
• Service recovery strategies

How does the South African economy work? Why do macroeconomic variables change? So what if they do? What happens next? How do economic processes and policy institutions really work? Which data must I use? What can policy do? And then the big questions: How can we reduce unemployment and maintain low inflation? What then about poverty, inequality, inclusive growth and development in South Africa?

The answers are found in How to think and reason in Macroeconomics – A South African text, a popular university textbook with very positive feedback from students, lecturers and practitioners. This fifth edition is completely up-to-date and comprehensive. It combines well-informed intuitive understanding with solid economic theory plus a concrete understanding of South African economic issues, processes, institutions and data. In this way it prepares you to analyse macroeconomic events and policies in a globalised and development context – and understand different perspectives in policy and political-economic debates.

Key features:

• Accessible analysis, theory and diagrams, combining intuitive understanding and sophisticated analysis.
• A choice of learning routes with different levels of difficulty and mathematics.
• Real-world economic reasoning skills, not dry theory.
• Online animations that provide unique insights into macroeconomic fluctuations and shocks.
• Explicit continuous focus on South Africa as an open economy in an African and global context shaped by China, Trump’s trade wars and Brexit.
• Theoretical and policy analysis of unemployment, inflation, low growth and inclusive growth, as well as the National Development Plan.
• Analytical case studies of the global financial crisis, quantitative easing, the Euro crisis and the Eskom crisis.
• First-hand, freshly updated insights into how South African policy institutions, processes and instruments work.
• Clear guides to access relevant South African data sources, with useful data tips.
• Thorough integration of the structural social and economic realities (notably inequality and poverty) of South Africa as a middle-income country.
• Incorporation of broader considerations such as human development, inclusive growth and sustainable development.

With businesses competing globally more than ever before, and with the increased use of social media for marketing, companies are realising that they need to do more to add value to their products and services, and to enhance and manage the customer experience. In order to meet the expectations of today’s demanding and changing consumer, marketers and students of marketing alike need to be aware of the latest trends in marketing methods and technologies and how to use them to attract and keep customers.

With a user-friendly layout highlighting definitions, examples, case studies and websites, this fourth edition of Marketing Management: A South African Perspective gives undergraduate students a comprehensive understanding of marketing — at a practical and academic level. Contributions from leaders in the field of marketing in South Africa and from academics at leading universities, locally and internationally, will ensure that this edition becomes as highly regarded as its predecessors.

The text emphasises four themes to support evidence-based management decision making: 1. Setting the statistical landscape in a management context 2. Interpretative decision making based on patterns revealed by exploratory data analyses 3. Statistical decision making guided by the test-based findings of inferential analyses 4. Predictive decision making using statistical modelling evidence. The thread that links them is the role of data analytics as a management decision-support tool. This fifth edition builds on the strengths of the fourth edition by: - Highlighting newer trends in statistical applications in management practice - Strengthening the Excel-based generation of statistical evidence using a custom-built software product, called X-Static - Enhancing the graphic visualisation of statistical evidence. Target market: - Undergraduate students of Management at universities (BCom, BAcc, etc) - Management diploma students working towards professional qualifications at institutions such as the IMM, CSSA, CIMA, IAC, etc. - Postgraduate students (MBA and PGDip) of Management at business schools.

Change is the distinguishing characteristic of the business environment across the world and it affects how contemporary organisations operate. While organisations need to do more with less, they also have to satisfy the needs of their customers who, with more exposure to local and global markets, have higher expectations relating to the cost, quality, speed and innovation of the services and products they purchase from these organisations.

In response to the changes in their business environment, organisations are becoming flatter, networked, global, more flexible and diverse and managers have to acquire the skills to face the challenges associated with these features.

The contemporary management principles offered in this publication integrates discussions on vital managerial competencies and skills with information on traditional and essential managerial concepts that have been effective in the past and are still relevant.