Economic indicators covers all the recent revisions of the GDP, the CPI, the PPI, the various labour market surveys, the balance of payments and other economic indicators. All the data that are used to illustrate and explain the various indicators have been updated and, as always, a wealth of data on the South African economy is provided.

Lloyd’s of London aptly refers to insurance as “the protection of the few, by the many”, with its purpose being to restore the insured to the position that existed immediately prior to the incident that led to a loss, damage or liability. Insurance uses the pooling concept to provide cover against financial losses by collecting premiums, investing some of the funds and using the pool of money to pay out claims, simultaneously covering operating expenses and ensuring sustainability by creating reserves and adding value to the insurance company. Fundamentals of insurance is a concise yet comprehensive introduction to insurance, specifically for South African circumstances.

Fundamentals of insurance highlights the need for commercial and personal insurance by explaining the financial objectives of firms and individuals, the role of financial statements and financial analysis, the valuation of assets and how risk management and insurance are related. It details how insurance business needs to be conducted, the procedures for handling claims, as well as the fundamental aspects of personal and commercial insurance. It provides a comprehensive framework and guidelines, with self-assessment questions at the end of each chapter, and prepares aspiring insurers for the entry level of the insurance industry.

Fundamentals of insurance is aimed at insurance students as well as organisations and institutions in the insurance field.

Managing Business Projects: The Essentials differs from many other project management textbooks. Foremost, it is about business projects as opposed to construction or engineering projects. Although many techniques, like schedule management, apply to both, they are usually applied differently. As its title conveys, the book explains the essential techniques and perspectives needed for business projects to be successful. The focus is on small- and medium-sized projects, up to $20 million, but often below $1 million. Some literature favors large and mega-projects, but for every mega-project, there are many thousands of smaller projects that are vital to the organization and could involve considerable complexity and risk. Nevertheless, the techniques outlined here also apply to mega-projects and their many subprojects; they even apply to some aspects of construction or engineering projects.

This book does not aim to cover all project management techniques. In real life there is simply no time for sophisticated ‘should-dos.' Rather, it covers the essentials that apply to almost all business projects; these are unlikely to change in the future even as technology and methodologies advance. The driving idea, which is stated repeatedly, is to do the essentials and to do them consistently and well.

Strong emphasis is placed on things that happen before, around, and after the project itself. So, while the basic disciplines like engaging with stakeholders, managing scope, schedules, costs, risks, issues, changes, and communication, are thoroughly explained, other important aspects are covered. These include: governance of a project and of a portfolio of projects, project selection with its financial and non-financial aspects, effective use of the business case through to benefits realization, procurement, outsourcing and partnership, and also the agile mindset that is valuable beyond Agile projects.

Besides project managers and sponsors, this book is intended for people who are working in business or government, at any level, or for MBA students. It offers perspectives that enable them to learn more from their everyday experience. It is not aimed at undergraduate students, although many would benefit from the contents.

Digitalisation will be a leapfrog that will help organisations in Africa to jump ahead in the fourth industrial revolution.

Digitalisation, if implemented correctly, has the power to transform organisations. This book is devoted to enabling users to understand how their organisations can digitalise operations. The authors use simple, lucid, non-technical language to explain how organisations can implement digitalisation in their operations.

They explain the process of digitalisation, using practical case studies, and help the readers understand the highly technical concept in a simple manner. They also categorise the topics of digitalisation by explaining how it can be implemented in manufacturing, service, SMEs and LEs.

Guide to Business Law in South Africa, seventh edition, offers a concise, clear and applied explanation of the principles of business law in South Africa.

This seventh edition is revised and updated to reflect the extensive common law, legislative and constitutional developments that have occurred during the recent period. Offering numerous examples and case law discussions, the text clearly explains the legal principles that are relevant within the various commercial law subject areas.

An extensive, diverse bank of assessment, application and presentation resources is available to support teaching and learning.

Written by a highly regarded expert on entrepreneurship, this bestselling textbook provides an engaging and comprehensive overview of corporate entrepreneurship. Now in its fourth edition and fully revised throughout, this accessible text is structured in four key parts that cover everything a student needs to know about the topic. After an initial consideration of what constitutes corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, the author then guides students through the four pillars of entrepreneurial architecture: culture, structure, leadership and strategy. The third section focusses on the entrepreneurial mind-set, including how to encourage creativity, business ideas and developing concepts. Finally, the book draws attention to corporate venturing, examining venture teams, intrapreneurs, market development and the role of shareholder value. It is no longer sufficient for businesses to grow simply by cutting costs and taking over competitors. To achieve true success, organisations must avoid an ageing product or service portfolio to bring new, innovative ideas to market. Corporate entrepreneurship is inherently risky and therefore requires a fresh approach to strategy. The approach Paul Burns offers will successfully overcome barriers to launching new ideas, internal challenges of managing creativity and show how to foster an entrepreneurial culture. This is the go-to textbook for all students studying Corporate Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship or Corporate Venturing at undergraduate, postgraduate or MBA level. The book is also essential reading for courses on Strategic Entrepreneurship and Innovation. New to this Edition: - Fully revised and updated content throughout with new four-part structure - Brand new case studies in every chapter, featuring some of the world's highest profile companies from across the globe - A greater focus on innovation, including a new chapter on this topic at the start of the book - New chapters on 'Developing a Business Model', 'Managing Change' and 'Managing Risk' - New on-page glossary with key terms highlighted in the text and defined in the margins - New Activities and Group Discussion topics at the end of each chapter Accompanying online resources for this title can be found at bloomsburyonlineresources.com/corporate-entrepreneurship-and-innovation-4e. These resources are designed to support teaching and learning when using this textbook and are available at no extra cost.

With a pedigree going back over ten years, The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management can rightly claim to be a classic guide to business risk management and contingency planning, with a style that makes it accessible to all business managers. Some of the original underlying principles remain the same -- but much has changed. This is reflected in this radically updated third edition, with exciting and helpful new content from new and innovative contributors and new case studies bringing the book right up to the minute. This book combines over 500 years of experience from leading Business Continuity experts of many countries. It is presented in an easy-to-follow format, explaining in detail the core BC activities incorporated in BS 25999, Business Continuity Guidelines, BS 25777 IT Disaster Recovery and other standards and in the body of knowledge common to the key business continuity institutes. Contributors from America, Asia Pacific, Europe, China, India and the Middle East provide a truly global perspective, bringing their own insights and approaches to the subject, sharing best practice from the four corners of the world. We explore and summarize the latest legislation, guidelines and standards impacting BC planning and management and explain their impact. The structured format, with many revealing case studies, examples and checklists, provides a clear roadmap, simplifying and de-mystifying business continuity processes for those new to its disciplines and providing a benchmark of current best practice for those more experienced practitioners. This book makes a massive contribution to the knowledge base of BC and risk management. It is essential reading for all business continuity, risk managers and auditors: none should be without it.

Introduction to Business Management 11e offers an overview of business management within the South African context. The textbook is written for undergraduate students who are doing a course in introductory business management as part of their degree or diploma at a university or university of technology.

Features:

• Using features such as Small Business Perspectives, and Critical Thinking boxes, the new edition of Introduction to Business Management provides an accessible overview of business management in the South African context.
• Changes to legislation that impacts on business
• Updates on corporate social investment
• New examples and case studies that reflect changes to the business environment

Understanding South African Financial Markets is an introductory text that should serve as a useful reference and guide for commerce students, public servants and members of the business fraternity alike.

This revised and updated second edition of Channel Management (previously titled Distribution Management) focuses on the basics of product distribution as part of the marketing mix and explains the choices and strategies involved in choosing distribution channels.

Channel Management 2e clearly describes how distribution strategies need to coordinate the activities and aims of the producer or manufacturer and various intermediaries in order to bring products and services to buyers at the right time, at the right place and in the right quantity.

The fourth edition of Economic Indicators is fundamentally revised, updated, and expanded. It covers the most recent comprehensive revisions of the national accounts in South Africa, the consumer price index, the producer price index, various labor market surveys, and government finance statistics.

Each chapter contains more information than before, for example, on business cycles, money, credit and interest rates, budget deficits, foreign debt, units of measurement, as well as various technical aspects, such as the previous-year comparison error, data revisions, and the calculation of growth rates. A new section examines the impact of economic indicators on the financial markets, and a number of political and politico-economic indicators have been added. New segments include one on important international economic indicators, another on the indicators that are examined by the South African Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee when deciding on interest rates, another on the Baltic Dry Index, and even one to prove that the experts can also sometimes get it wrong. All the data that are used to illustrate and explain the various indicators have been updated and, as always, a wealth of data on the South African economy is provided.

The book is an indispensable reference source for a variety of professionals, including economists, financial analysts, accountants, lawyers, industrial relations specialists, brokers, dealers, political scientists, and development specialists. Last, but by no means least, the book is informative and accessible to interested lay people.

Effective supply chain management can have a vast impact on the efficiency and bottom lines of both small and large businesses.

In Fundamental principles of supply chain management, the importance of supply chain management in both a global and local context and all areas of business is discussed. Fundamental principles of supply chain management highlights supply chain management from purchasing, operations and logistics perspectives. It also investigates facilities, inventory, information, transportation and sourcing as the key drivers of supply chain performance. The integrated supply chain is explained in terms of a more strategic coordination for increased market impact, overall efficiency, continuous improvement and heightened competitiveness.

Fundamental principles of supply chain management is a vital asset to understanding supply chain management and making it more efficient in a business.

The book is divided into two volumes.

Volume 1 deals with the concepts, principles and procedures of financial accounting. Volume 2 (suitable for NQF level 6) deals with accounting for partnerships, close corporations, branches and manufacturing entities.

Business Statistics using Excel offers an excellent and helpful introduction to business statistics for students who require a first course, providing all of the explanation, tools, and skills which are required in order to master the subject matter. Thorough, clear and accessible, the text guides students in a progressive, step-by-step manner through the theoretical concepts and techniques, and supports understanding by providing extensive examples from a South African context. The text assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, and includes refresher chapters on numerical skills and Microsoft Excel. This text is eminently suitable as a first course in statistics for students who are studying the subject as a module within any business-related programme of study.

Business Transactions Law, now in its ninth edition, addresses fundamental questions about business transactions: When is a transaction recognised as binding at law? If a transaction is binding, what is its legal effect? Are there any circumstances in which a party is excused from carrying out his side of a transaction? What legal redress does a party have if his opposite number fails without excuse to do what he has promised in terms of the transaction? Apart from this redress, are there any other legal means available to a party to ensure that he receives what he has been promised by the other party? Finally, what is the position if a party, due to financial difficulties, is unable to carry out or complete his side of the transaction? The objective, as with previous editions, is to meet the needs of students and others taking their first steps in the complex field of business transactions law. The aim is also to cover a significant part of the syllabus recommended by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. New legislation and case law are included in the ninth edition. The chapters on Interpretation and Credit Agreements have been re-written and other chapters have been revised wherever necessary to reflect legislative changes or developments in the case law. The ninth edition of Business Transactions Law has approximately 200 new case summaries in total.

From 1 May 2011 company law in South Africa was dramatically altered: the 1973 Act which had governed companies for the life-times of most business people and lawyers in South Africa was replaced by the Companies Act of 2008, as amended in March 2011.

A new era of company law dawned, and with it a host of new concepts, rights, remedies, obligations, procedures and sanctions were introduced. These fundamentally affect the way that every business operates and the advice and practice of every lawyer, accountant or other professional adviser.

This title, the first to cover the new Act and the new regulations, provides the hand-holding, the insight, and the understanding that business and their advisers require in order not to be wrong-footed by the new regime.

Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try and improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done.

Described by Fortune as a 'guru to industry' and by Businessweek as a 'genius', Eliyahu M. Goldratt was an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems. This 20th anniversary edition includes a series of detailed case study interviews by David Whitford, Editor at Large, Fortune Small Business, which explore how organizations around the world have been transformed by Eli Goldratt's ideas.

The story of Alex's fight to save his plant contains a serious message for all managers in industry and explains the ideas which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC) developed by Eli Goldratt. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal is the gripping novel which is transforming management thinking throughout the Western world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors!

Combining a rich blend of research, best practice and policy, Strategic Information Systems Management is the eagerly awaited new introduction to the interconnected world we live and work in.

A top-ranked team of global experts combine both industrial and scholarly perspectives, bringing a wealth of experience to make this the complete introduction for 21st century business.

This textbook is essential reading for all Information Systems modules with a strategic focus and for broader Strategic Management, Information Management and professional courses.

The notion of 'Quality' in business performance has exploded since the publication of the first edition of this classic text in 1989. Today there is a plethora of performance improvement frameworks including lean-Six Sigma and the latest version of ISO 9001, offering an often confusing variety of ways to achieve business excellence. Quality guru John Oakland's famous TQM model, in many ways a precursor to these frameworks, has evolved to become the ultimate holistic overview of performance improvement strategy. Incorporating the frameworks that succeeded it, the revised model redefines Quality by: Accelerating change Reducing cost Protecting reputation The popular, practical, jargon-free writing style, along with ten supporting case studies, effortlessly ties the model to its real-life applications, making it easy to understand how to apply what you've learned to your practices and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Guiding readers through the language of TQM and OpEx and all their recent developments, including data analytics, this book sets out a clear way to manage change. This exciting update of a classic is all the busy student or professional will need to begin understanding how to manage Quality and achieve Operational Excellence.

The business environment can change at any given time and organisations need to be ready to respond if they want to survive. Strategic management is an important and ongoing process of formulating and implementing strategies that help an organisation position itself optimally and so maintain a competitive advantage that results in profit. It creates harmony between any organisation, big or small, and its environment. The strategic management process: a South African perspective explains strategy in such a way that every reader will understand not only how vital the strategic management process is to any organisation but also exactly what it entails. The strategic management process: a South African perspective follows an understandable and practical approach, making use of numerous figures and "strategy in action" case studies to support the theory. The strategic management process: a South African perspective is aimed at students in strategic management as well as at organisations, from corporate and public companies with management training programmes to small business ventures that are trying to gain a competitive advantage in a cut-throat environment. Kobus Lazenby was an associate professor in the Department of Business Management at the University of the Free State, specialising in strategic management and project management. He has been retired since April 2017. The other contributors lecture in strategic management at various South African universities.

"Business Model Generation" is a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. If your organization needs to adapt to harsh new realities, but you don't yet have a strategy that will get you out in front of your competitors, you need "Business Model Generation."

Co-created by 470 "Business Model Canvas" practitioners from 45 countries, the book features a beautiful, highly visual, 4-color design that takes powerful strategic ideas and tools, and makes them easy to implement in your organization. It explains the most common Business Model patterns, based on concepts from leading business thinkers, and helps you reinterpret them for your own context. You will learn how to systematically understand, design, and implement a game-changing business model--or analyze and renovate an old one. Along the way, you'll understand at a much deeper level your customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and your core value proposition.

"Business Model Generation" features practical innovation techniques used today by leading consultants and companies worldwide, including 3M, Ericsson, Capgemini, Deloitte, and others. Designed for doers, it is for those ready to abandon outmoded thinking and embrace new models of value creation: for executives, consultants, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all organizations. If you're ready to change the rules, you belong to "the business model generation "

Operational risk management is fast becoming an independent management discipline in its own right. As such, it is crucial for risk managers to understand the concept and make use of available management methods to ensure a streamlined management process. It is therefore imperative to implement a framework for the development of a risk management culture, the introduction of a strategic risk management process and an effective risk management governance structure. Operational risk management effectively identifies and evaluates operational risk exposures, as well as the development and implementation of control measures, the costs of risks and the continuous monitoring of processes within the business environment from a risk management perspective - communicating the relevant concepts and the implementation of a practical approach to operational risk management. Contents include the following: Recognising operational risk exposures; Formulating mitigating action plans; Allocating responsibilities for the management of action plans; Improving control measures on a proactive basis; Reducing operating losses; Improving insurance management; Ensuring accurate risk reporting and disclosure; Improving shareholder value; Becoming a risk stable organisation; Ensuring a realistic risk appetite. Operational risk management is aimed at banking, financial management and economics students, as well as organisations interested in the management of operational risk.