As an introduction to branding, Fundamentals of branding provides students with an overview of the building blocks of branding, which include: the influence of branding on marketing decisions; the role and place of branding in the organisation; the various elements of branding; packaging the brand; positioning the brand; planning, leveraging and extending the brand; evaluating the brand. The book contains a chapter with real-life branding case studies which illustrates the practical application of the topics discussed in this book. This is a very useful resource for students who struggle to apply theory learned to real-life situations.

Congratulations, you’re a manager! After you pop the champagne, accept the shiny new title, and step into this thrilling next chapter of your career, the truth descends like a fog: you don’t really know what you’re doing.

That’s exactly how Julie Zhuo felt when she became a rookie manager at the age of 25. She stared at a long list of logistics–from hiring to firing, from meeting to messaging, from planning to pitching–and faced a thousand questions and uncertainties. How was she supposed to spin teamwork into value? How could she be a good steward of her reports’ careers? What was the secret to leading with confidence in new and unexpected situations?

Now, having managed dozens of teams spanning tens to hundreds of people, Julie knows the most important lesson of all: great managers are made, not born. If you care enough to be reading this, then you care enough to be a great manager.

The Making of a Manager is a modern field guide packed everyday examples and transformative insights, including:

• How to tell a great manager from an average manager (illustrations included)
• When you should look past an awkward interview and hire someone anyway
• How to build trust with your reports through not being a boss
• Where to look when you lose faith and lack the answers

Whether you’re new to the job, a veteran leader, or looking to be promoted, this is the handbook you need to be the kind of manager you wish you had.

A business biography that follows the life of Alan Knott-Craig as a serial entrepreneur in the telecoms and tech spaces, tracking his wins and losses, and the lessons along the way for both business and life. Known in Stellenbosch business circles as the ‘Weapon of Mass Financial Destruction’ after a major flop at Mxit, he was able to rebuild his own confidence and that of his peers by becoming a shrewd, highly innovative and successful businessman, true to his own principles and convictions.

In this textbook, the audit process followed during the execution of an internal audit engagement is explained, after which it is practically demonstrated by applying it to the various business cycles.

In this fourth volume of The Deals of Warren Buffett, we trace Buffett’s journey as he made Berkshire Hathaway the most respected company in the world.

When we left Buffett at the end of Volume 3 towards the end of the 1990s, he was leading the largest corporation in America and his personal fortune had reached $40 billion. In this enthralling next instalment, we follow Buffett’s investment deals over the first few years of the 21st century, as Berkshire grew to become a giant with annual profits north of $4 billion.

Buffett, then in his early 70s, was still tap dancing to work, thoroughly enjoying analysing companies, finding bargains and interacting with his growing team of managers.

By studying the decision-making that went into his investment deals and the successful and unsuccessful outcomes, we can learn from Buffett and become better investors ourselves.

During this period, exploiting the low prices following the dot-com crash, Buffett made investments in the following companies: MidAmerican Energy, CORT, Moody’s, H&R Block, Shaw Industries, Star Furniture, Jordan’s Furniture, Ben Bridge Jeweler, Justin Boot, Acme Brick, Benjamin Moore and CTB.

For each of these deals, investing expert and Buffett historian Glen Arnold dives into unprecedented detail to analyse the investment rationale, the stories of the individuals involved and, where possible, the profits Buffett made.

Capitalism’s addiction to fossil fuels is heating our planet at a pace and scale never before experienced.

Extreme weather patterns, rising sea levels and accelerating feedback loops are a commonplace feature of our lives. The number of environmental refugees is increasing and several island states and low-lying countries are becoming vulnerable. Corporate-induced climate change has set us on an ecocidal path of species extinction. Governments and their international platforms such as the Paris Climate Agreement deliver too little, too late. Most states, including South Africa, continue on their carbon-intensive energy paths, with devastating results. Political leaders across the world are failing to provide systemic solutions to the climate crisis. This is the context in which we must ask ourselves: how can people and class agency change this destructive course of history?

The Climate Crisis investigates ecosocialist alternatives that are emerging. It presents the thinking of leading climate justice activists, campaigners and social movements advancing systemic alternatives and developing bottom-up, just transitions to sustain life. Through a combination of theoretical and empirical work, the authors collectively examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in the current moment.

Most importantly, it explores ways to renew historical socialism with democratic, ecosocialist alternatives to meet current challenges in South Africa and the world.

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.

In 2012, Hubert Joly joined as CEO of Best Buy, a company on the brink of disruption, and led one of the most remarkable comeback stories in American business annals. While CEO he didn't seek the spotlight, but now he's ready to share the principles that helped him complete this remarkable turnaround.

Having recently stepped down as Chairman and CEO of Best Buy, Joly shares the leadership principles illustrated by multiple vivid and concrete stories that underpinned the remarkable resurgence of Best Buy and that he believes are at the heart of business: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center, embrace all stakeholders, and treat profit as an outcome. There was a time when many would call this a soft philosophy. But times have changed. The world and business are facing unprecedented challenges. Business can be, in fact needs to be a force for good.

In 2019, Best Buy and 180 other companies signed the momentous Business Roundtable statement in support of stakeholder capitalism, highlighting that you can do well by doing good. The Covid-19 pandemic further pushed many businesses to lead from a place of purpose and with humanity.

More broadly, Joly's principles echo and reaffirm that the notion of stakeholder capitalism isn't just a nice idea, it's the winning strategy.

It’s tough starting and running a small business – you can feel like the underdog competing with large businesses that have more money, more experience and better established reputations.

But small businesses have the advantage – they are flexible and can adapt and innovate more quickly. Sam Hazledine knows this from direct experience, because he has grown his own start-up company, MedRecruit, into a very successful business, with a turnover in excess of $20 million a year.

In Winning the Unfair Fight, Sam shares his techniques for success and shows how small businesses can punch above their weight, and win. He presents simple, powerful concepts plus action steps to make them a reality.

Winning the Unfair Fight will become your blueprint for running and growing your business, with Sam’s hard-won tips and advice guiding you to success.

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. The first part of the book deals with the evolution of management theory, the management process, and the features of contemporary organisations.

The next six chapters deal with the internal environment of contemporary business organisations, including a discussion on the composition of the management environment; managing change, corporate culture, power, politics conflict resolution and negotiation; business ethics; CSR and corporate governance; and workforce diversity. The rest of the chapters focus on the management functions of planning, organising, leading and control. An additional chapter deals with the role of management in the implementation of project management and a second chapter provides an overview of organisational value chains and the impact of electronic media and e-business on organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

The authors of Contemporary Management Principles are experienced lecturers in the field of business management from various universities in South Africa and Africa.

"If there’s one sure thing I have learned from half a century in the restaurant business, it’s that patience isn’t a virtue when you’re hungry. Service is the virtue."

Join Allen Ambor on a rock ’n roll ride through the restaurant business and pioneering days of franchising in South Africa.

Ambor’s exuberance for life and exacting management style shine through on every page of this biography of the man who went from being a hippy waiter to opening the first Spur in 1967 and growing it into an empire that included more than 500 franchises under the Spur, Panarottis, John Dory’s and RocoMamas brands.

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 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 follows an understandable and practical approach, making use of numerous figures and "strategy in action" case studies to support the theory. The textbook 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.

These are difficult times. The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to us that we cannot rely on tomorrow to be like today; there is no such thing as ‘business as usual’. The social and economic upheaval has been devastating, and its effects long-lasting, making these times even more uncertain. The antidote to this uncertainty is clarity.

Maanda Tshifularo has had the privilege of interacting with successful innovators, culture shifters, business leaders and thought leaders, and their ‘common success denominator’ is the ability to see, say, and do things, with purposeful clarity. He has identified ‘Super Clarity’ as the differentiator that helps leaders navigate the ambiguity and half-heartedness which have become the default state in many organisations, leading to plummeting employee morale and productivity.

Not only does a super-clear leader achieve and make a meaningful contribution, but they also experience remarkable joy and personal growth in the journey.

It has never been more crucial for leaders to provide clarity and, in this book, Maanda defines and explains the importance of Super Clarity, and how to translate purpose into our day-to-day activities to unlock exceptional results, job satisfaction, team cohesion and employee engagement.

He outlines in Lead with Super Clarity the critical steps that we can take, as business leaders or in our own lives, to foster clarity – and, in so doing, create an environment characterised by purpose, insight and alignment.

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.

The story of YouTube, the global phenomenon which single-handedly upended traditional media and transformed Google into one of the world's most profitable companies.

Since 2005, YouTube has exploded, giving a platform to unique and valuable voices, but also to propaganda, misinformation and illicit videos. The algorithm which determines whether a channel lives or dies - how or when videos are seen, and how much creators earn through advertising - is notoriously secretive, remaining a mystery to consumers and broadcasters alike. At the same time, the site is massively profitable for parent company Google, helping turn it into one of the most influential powers on the planet.

In Like, Comment, Subscribe, Bloomberg tech journalist Mark Bergen delivers the definitive account on YouTube, detailing how it started, how it works and ultimately how it drives Google's success. It can be seen as the story of a technical marvel that has upended traditional media and created stars out of everyday people, or the story of the rise of a ruthless advertising conglomerate with little regard for its impact on the world beyond the bottom line - but in reality, it's the story of both.

In today's globalised and digital world, consumers can move from one retailer to the next across the world at the click of a button. Online access and social media mean that consumers are more market savvy, more informed and more discerning than ever before. What brings them back is an enhanced shopping experience, and key to this is good customer service. More and more marketers are focusing on retaining their customer base or trying to erode their competitor's customer base through better customer service. After all, happy customers are repeat customers and become advocates for the business.

Advances in technology and the change in customer profiles have changed advertising and sales as they have traditionally been conceived, forever. Marketers need to adapt their advertising and sales approaches in order to reach their rapidly changing market and keep up with their clients and customers. Advertising and sales promotion focuses on the main advertising media and sales approaches and the impact these have on the demands and pace of effective, persuasive communication in the current digital age.

A stunning new insight into how the most crucial lesson you can learn in today’s challenging business environment is how to change the fundamentals of what you do, rather than carry on fighting a battle that is already lost.

The near destruction of the music industry at the hands of online piracy and its subsequent recovery on the backs of digital streaming platforms is more than just the biggest story of disruption and reinvention of the digital age. It is also a trove of insights on how to confront the metamorphosis we are all facing in dealing with the Covid-19 era, as accelerating tech and economic changes reshape our work, our play and our very minds.

Will Page, Spotify’s first chief economist, extrapolates music’s journey into eight guiding principles for pivoting through the ubiquitous disruption in nearly all industries. Expect the unexpected with transferable lessons coming from Starbucks, Tupperware and even Groucho Marx. The notion of 'Tarzan Economics' ties these principles together: a framework for recognising and acting on disruption, by letting go of the old vine and grabbing onto the new. Page joyfully brings these insights to life and provides a guide for knowing not just how to grab the new vine, but when. He assesses the new dynamics of the 'long tail', identifies friends and foes in the battle for scarce attention and provides a practical tool for discovering the right role for each of us to succeed in this new modern world.

As we emerge from the unprecedented disruption of a global pandemic, Pivot shows all of us - individuals, organisations and institutions - that if the vine we are holding onto is withering, we can have confidence to reach out for a new one in 2023 and beyond.

Die topverkoperskrywer TJ Strydom vertel die boeiende verhaal van ’n klompie entrepreneurs wat daarin slaag om ’n netwerk van mikrolenerye in ’n uitdagerbank te omskep. Eers neem die ou grotes in die bankwese die Stellenbosse snuiter nie ernstig op nie, maar hulle weet nie wat hulle tref toe dié nuwe finansiële instelling momentum kry en hul kliënte op groot skaal afrokkel nie. Met meer as 20 miljoen kliënte word Capitec die nuwe Suid-Afrika se grootste suksesverhaal.

Erik Kruger is a high-performance coach and founder of the Mental Performance Lab. He writes an email early each morning which he sends to many thousands of subscribers. The aim of his daily message is to inspire people, asking them to reflect and act. Packed with more than 160 thoughtful reflections on what it takes to live a life of action and not words, Acta Non Verba’s purpose is to get people moving, creating, and generating an unstoppable drive in both their business and personal journeys.

The words Acta Non Verba is the sign-off Erik uses in all his emails. This simple Latin phrase, meaning ‘Actions Not Words’, has started a movement. It’s a plea; a call to create your life instead of living it by default, a call to show your intentions instead of merely speaking about them. It’s a call to live to your fullest potential. This is not a book to read from cover to cover, in one sitting. Each day there is a new chapter waiting to be read. Put this book on your bedside table, and read a new chapter with your first cup of coffee every morning. Each message is short so you can read it quickly, in the moment, and then reflect and act on it for the entire day. It’s a book that demands action.

ACTIONS, NOT WORDS

Remember, it’s not about the words on these pages; it’s about what you do with them.

Self-mastery is the pinnacle of self-effectiveness. It is the reset button that puts you back in control of your life and helps you make healthy choices in both your personal and business life. If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, self-doubt, confusion, procrastination, helplessness, lack of self-control, impatience and a constant need for instant gratification, then Servings of Self-Mastery is for you.

With self-mastery you are able to coach yourself out of the negative mind-states that hold you back. This book will help you recognise the thoughts, feelings and beliefs that stand in your way of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fulfilment. It will equip you with the agency to reframe these barriers into positive energy that will catalyse and catapult you into action, and this is how the best among us experience flow.

With short, easy-to-digest pep talks, you may want to read this book from cover-to-cover, or choose a specific chapter to read on those days when you need a little support and inspiration.

Alistair Mokoena’s Servings of Self-Mastery is packed with bitesized reminders of the greatness within us, together with the tools to unlock potential and abundance in all aspects of our lives. It is a book that is written with love and compassion to help you thrive.

The second edition of Corporate Governance In South Africa addresses the changes in the corporate governance landscape in South Africa brought about by the King IV Report on Governance for South Africa, 2016 and changes to several international codes.

Corporate Governance In South Africa covers the following areas: the corporate governance framework in South Africa, comparisons with various international corporate governance frameworks, and contemporary governance issues. The book also offers a corporate governance implementation guide.

Examples of failed corporate governance practices, both local and international, are provided throughout the book, seeking to illustrate the importance of effective corporate governance practices by companies.