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Books > Local Author Showcase > Business
In 2009, Canadian entrepreneur Mike Quinn packed his backpack and moved to Lusaka, Zambia on a mission to find African entrepreneurs building scalable, high-impact businesses. There he stumbled across two South African brothers who had founded a business to help unbanked smallholder farmers receive mobile payments in a market where cash was king. After convincing his retired parents to mortgage their house and lend him $100,000, Mike joined as a co-founder of Zoona and became CEO for nine of the next ten years. With his partners, Mike built a network of more than 3,000 entrepreneur agents across Zambia and Malawi that enabled millions of unbanked consumers to send and receive $2.5-billion in money transfers and remittances. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Zoona raised over $35-million of venture investment and operated on the leading edge of Africa’s emerging fintech ecosystem. Mike’s remarkable story gives a rare and honest glimpse into the workings of a pioneering African startup through the lens of a purpose-driven entrepreneur who went “all in”. Zoona faced tremendous adversity along the way: currency crises, investment round collapses, ruthless pushback from the major mobile network operators, and a continuous internal struggle to discover and execute a growth strategy that matched the company’s billion-dollar ambition. It was by failing to win that Mike learned what entrepreneurship – specifically entrepreneurship in Africa – is all about, and it was what motivated him to double down and try again.
Case studies of metropolitan cities in nine African countries – from Egypt in the north to three in West and Central Africa, two in East Africa and three in Southern Africa – make up the empirical foundation of this publication. The interrelated themes addressed in these chapters – the national influence on urban development, the popular dynamics that shape urban development and the global currents on urban development – make up its framework. All authors and editors are African, as is the publisher. The only exception is Göran Therborn whose recent book, Cities of Power, served as motivation for this volume. Accordingly, the issue common to all case studies is the often conflictual powers that are exercised by national, global and popular forces in the development of these African cities. Rather than locating the case studies in an exclusively African historical context, the focus is on the trajectories of the postcolonial city (with the important exception of Addis Ababa with a non-colonial history that has granted it a special place in African consciousness). These trajectories enable comparisons with those of postcolonial cities on other continents. This, in turn, highlights the fact that Africa – today, the least urbanised continent on an increasingly urbanised globe – is in the thick of processes of large-scale urban transformation, illustrated in diverse ways by the case studies that make up the foundation of this publication.
Macrologistics is a strategic view of logistics as a production factor on national scales to support a shift towards sustainability. The book details logistics' evolution from a functional discipline to a value chain optimiser and, ultimately, an enabler of sustainability, including the evolution of metrics to support this shift. Macrologistics instrumentation involves striving towards the lowest total cost of ownership for national economies where, to improve decision-making, these costs should ultimately include the societal and ecological costs incurred due to logistics activities. From Logistics Strategy To Macrologistics represents macrologistics research outputs for a number of developing economies, identifying distinctive macrologistics policy and infrastructure investments themes to address national logistics challenges in developing economies. The book culminates in a discussion on the potential future role of logistics to support the shift to a more sustainable society, where an acceptance of a degrowth paradigm might be required, and even advisable, for a more secure, fulfilling future. Logistics (and economics) scholars, researchers and practitioners should steer their work towards contributing to the development of an ecologically sustainable society, where resources and returns are shared widely, sustainably and equitably.
This practical book contains 10 interventions any facilitator can use to help a team to change their paradigms. These interventions can be used in both online and physical meetings. The interventions will help a team to:
Whenever you need to help a team or a company to develop, improve, innovate or change, you will more often than not, be blocked by outdated paradigms. However, if you begin your session with an intervention around paradigms, the team will become more creative and more open to change. In this book, we give you 10 tried and tested 'recipes' for helping a team to change their paradigms. Like any good recipe we provide all the information you may need to successfully facilitate each intervention.
12 Crucial lessons on entrepreneurship; offering a fresh perspective, savvy advice and practical measures to put into place. The journey of an entrepreneur means being a risk-taker, a visionary, a leader, a pit bull and essentially a superhero all rolled into one. Nevi Letcher found herself doing this. She worked her way up in corporate, invested in her personal development and climbed the ladder fast, racing down the same track every day, plugging holes, negotiating deals, coaching and directing her team, developing and tweaking successful strategies to bring big brands to life. She only really learned about business when she started her own agency and she reveals aspects that business school didn't teach her. In Mind Your Own Business, Nevi shares what she learned and how she managed to implement strategies that saw her business grow and grow. Find something you want to do – and then just do it. That's how real entrepreneurs always start. This is your time. Make your mark on the world.
In What’s Your Move? Nicolette Mashile, founder of Financial Bunnies and a champion of personal-finance education across the African content, shares stories from her own life and journey with money in order to redefine personal-finance management. An intimate and deeply personal book, in What’s Your Move? Nicolette talks openly about her experiences with money and the way she was brought up. She shares her beliefs about how our everyday behaviour influences how we manage our finances, and how, in spite of knowing better, we sometimes make the wrong financial decisions. What’s Your Move? is a challenge: a challenge to you to make a move that will be financially rewarding. A promise to yourself that you are more than capable of managing your money.
Starting your own business is often celebrated and highlighted as a success [which it is] but as a society we never address the pitfalls and ‘the dark side’ of entrepreneurship. The small business world is characterised by ruthless ringleaders, hostile trading environments and uncomfortable business dealings. So, what happens when we begin addressing the elephants in the room in the world of entrepreneurship? Self – Ish: Mastering Self in a Selfish business world addresses pertinent business and life lessons that entrepreneurs never speak about. The book offers a series of social commentary that ranges from the impact of black tax amongst black entrepreneurs, dealing with depression as an entrepreneur, personal branding for your brand as well as dealing with ringleaders in the business world. From chapters ranging from ‘build it, brand it & boast about it’, ‘How to secure the bag [a personal branding perspective], ‘It’s not that deep’ as well as addressing sexual manipulation in the face of business. The book also contains a business canvas section that contains templates for entrepreneurs that they can use for business purposes.
Written by two experts in the publishing industry, Publish Like a Pro is the most comprehensive guide to navigating the world of self-publishing in South Africa today. Authors Vanessa Wilson and Georgina Hatch explain in detail exactly what one should consider when choosing to go this route, empowering authors to create better-quality products and helping them avoid costly mistakes along the way. Every aspect of the publishing process is explored – from making the decision to publish and what will be required of you as an author, to all the processes required to get your book from a raw manuscript to a finished, sellable product – with professional advice and best practices provided along the way. Equipped with the ‘insider knowledge’ that Publish Like a Pro offers, self-publishers will have a greater chance of making the right decisions and reaping the rewards and profits that self-publishing can offer.
Building a reputation is all about consistency. Whether you are being unfailingly consistent or consistently unpredictable, you are in the process of building a reputation for yourself. A consistently positive stakeholder experience builds reliability, which builds trust, and ultimately establishes a strong and positive reputation. It is important to have the right building blocks in place to build a solid reputation. This book will guide you on how to build your organisation’s reputation so that you can be the business that people want to do business with. From an academic and experiential point of view, Regine le Roux is best placed to help you identify and formulate solutions that work. This book is her step-by-step guide to building, managing, growing and maintaining a corporate reputation that reflects a company’s true values and ethics. It focuses on ten dimensions that have considerable impact on reputation, such as strategic intent, operational governance, human and operational capital, strategic alliances, social responsibility, value offering, business results and the glue that ties it all together, corporate dialogue. It’s not all theory – Reputation Matters is distinctly South African. It speaks directly to businesses operating in our challenging South African context, giving real-life examples and solutions that resonate with every South African business person’s experience.
Researchers rely on information - so that they do not repeat what has already been researched and so that they could continuously build and expand the body of knowledge that ensures progress. Library and Information Service(LIS) professionals have served as intermediaries in the process of finding and disseminating existing information for a very long time. That role is, mainly due to technology and the products that make use of technology, rapidly and continuously changing. LIS professionals therefore have to ensure that they truly add value to the research process and when they become aware of the fact that their services and products are not being used, the matter needs investigation. This study covers some of the issues relating to marketing tools and strategies that can be used to attract non-users of LIS and the associated products.
How politicians manage the media and how it can help you and your business. This short, punchy and irreverent book written by two experienced political communicators, Nick Clelland and Ryan Coetzee, provides spin-doctor secrets for managing the media. There are many people who will have to encounter the media in their lives: CEOs, sportspeople, politicians, social media users, celebrities, thought leaders, academics, bloggers, authors – the list is endless. Spin is a go-to book that explains what to do when the media comes calling. Whether you’ve done something wonderful and newsworthy or whether you’ve done something you wish no one knew about, this book will teach you how to maximise the good news and manage the bad. Spin will also introduce you to a political methodology that actually harnesses the media and which, if used carefully, can grow your business or put that charity you support on the map. By traversing such topics as brand strategy, practical media skills, driving issues, social media, crisis communications and ethics, and using real-life practical examples, Spin is a valuable resource that will help you master managing the media.
Re-authoring the World: The Narrative Lens and Practices for Organisations, Communities and Individuals, invites readers to a transformational way of being in the world. It translates the Narrative Therapy approach and practices for people outside the therapeutic context that are interested in shifting the stories of their own lives as well as the communities and organisations that they work in. The book invites readers out of docility and complacency into active participation and accountability of the worlds that they are connected to. This book provides different portals into understanding, and you can roam about in the chapters you are interested in. If you do not want to read the whole book, you can read short descriptions of the different parts at the start of each section.
The world of work is constantly changing creating new careers while some are becoming redundant. In most careers, career development is no longer business as usual. How safe is your career? This book shares global trends on the future of work, the tools to create a career development path and, most importantly, how to execute it. Nowadays, a lasting career requires adaptation and mental toughness. With the intention to support you stand out from the crowd, this book will help you:
Finding your seat at the table needs you to take charge of your career development and do the things that play to your strengths. Whether you are looking to improve your performance and get ahead, lead your team or department, or plan to run a company one day – this book is for you.
There is a change in momentum, worldwide, by progressive organisations to revise the current “outdated” approach to talent management. Business leaders are challenging the HR assumptions on which contemporary talent management are based. They are demanding a greater need for talent to add value to the bottom line. It is time to evolve once again – this time starting with the business imperatives and how key talent drive business value. Talent Value Management (TVM) is the new journey. With over 19 years in Talent Management, Andre Pandy shows HR professionals how they can drive real value in the organisation by ensuring there is greater alignment of the talent agenda with key business outcomes – revenue, margins, cost reduction and market share. Talent Value Management presents a unique approach on how to better align your current talent strategy with organisation objectives.
This book utilises multiple contemporary strategy perspectives and practices to give leaders and strategy practitioner’s deep insights about the dynamics and options available in developing good and robust strategies. The core of the book is about stimulating new strategic thinking and action to enhance the competitiveness of a firm. Navigating strategic possibilities involves the invention and re-invention of an organisation. Strategic leadership, as a part of this navigation journey, is an integral guiding force of the strategic choices an organisation makes to fulfil its future aspirations. In this book, the key strategic choices related to the competitive advantage and positioning of an organisation are presented in an integrated strategic architecture perspective, and the following seven strategic architecture building blocks are discussed:
The future holds an abundance of possibilities for those conscious enough to spot them. The strategy navigation tools contained in this book provides the identification and execution tools needed to flourish. This book complements the book Crystallising the Strategic Business Landscape by the same authors. Prof Marius Ungerer is a core faculty member of the University of Stellenbosch Business School (USB) where he research and teach strategic management, leadership and change management for post graduate degree programs like MBA, MPhil in Management Coaching and PGD in Leadership. He is also an annual visiting academic to University of Johannesburg and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Japan. Dr Gerard Ungerer is an industrial engineer and a competitive strategy gamer with a passion for complex systems, strategy, business models, technology and innovation, e-business and management. Aptly, his postgraduate studies focused on competitive business strategy in the digital economy. Johan Herholdt is a management thinker and an experienced author of more than 10 books (five as editor) and various book chapters. He is an expert facilitator concentrating on individual and team coaching, discourse processes and dialogics, as well as systemic problem solving
Human Resource Metrics teaches practitioners and managers a wide range of strategic, quantitative and financial tools for assessing requirements and issues in HR. Strategic tools include broader frameworks for assessing organisational HR, such as the analysis of organisational architecture as an HR tool, process analysis and mapping for performance, and how to decide whether to outsource or externalise work in other ways. Quantitative tools include:
This is the first book to approach the analysis of human resources from such a multi-dimensional aspect as well as the first to use a practical, hand-on and step-by-step approach: the book teaches the 'how to' of each technique in a step-by-step manner, including a wide variety of MS Excel examples and practice datasets.
The world remains uncertain. Africa is fragile. Many issues remain unresolved and the African, and global, situation is worsening. South Africa has been at the crossroads for long enough. There can be no more delays – the time has come to address the many critical issues. In Africa’s Wellbeing in an Uncertain World, Vusi Gumede discusses these critical issues about Africa, with specific focus on South Africa. He has revisited opinion articles and blogs he has been writing since the mid-2000s and taken his ideas and arguments, together with his deliberations on the recent changes globally and in Africa, and presented them in this thought-provoking book. While taking into account what others have said about similar issues, this is an attempt to get us to talk about these challenges, the important issues and fundamental problems, with a view to finding solutions. The future of the African continent could be bright if all the efforts that are being pursued for the improved wellbeing of Africans succeed. But, as Vusi Gumede reflects in this book, if South Africa is to achieve the society envisaged in the Constitution, then all South Africans – whatever the colour of their skin – have an important role to play.
For much of its 83-year history, the Rand Daily Mail was the most controversial newspaper in South Africa. Fearless and forthright, the newspaper dug where other publications did not, exposing stories – like the Information Scandal – that other newspapers were afraid to print. Under editors like Laurence Gandar, Raymond Louw and Allister Sparks, the Mail blazed a trail for independence and freedom of the press. Closed down by its proprietors in 1985, for reasons that are still controversial, the Rand Daily Mail's culture of professionalism and commitment influenced a generation of journalists. Final deadline is the story of the Rand Daily Mail, seen through the eyes of Rex Gibson, its last editor. Focusing on the difficult final years of the newspaper's history, the book is a tale of corporate manipulation, mismanagement and hypocrisy. In the end, a proud newspaper died and no-one, not least its owners, could quite say why.
This book offers an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to thinking about inequality, and to understanding how inequality is produced and reproduced in the global South. Without the safety net of the various Northern welfare states, inequality in the global South is not merely a socio-economic problem, but an existential threat to the social contract that underpins the democratic state and society itself. Only a response that is firrmly grounded in the context of the global South can hope to address this problem. This collection brings together scholars from across the global South to address broad thematic areas such as the conceptual and methodological challenges of measuring inequality; the political economy of inequality; inequality in work, households and the labour market; and inequalities in land, spaces and cities. The book concludes by suggesting alternatives for addressing inequality in the global South and around the world. The pioneering ideas and theories put forward by this volume make it essential reading for students and researchers of global inequality across the fields of sociology, economics, law, politics, global studies and development studies.
96% of small businesses fail within ten years -- so what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur? How can you beat the statistics and create and grow a successful business? Allon Raiz challenges readers to find their entrepreneurial passion and to have the courage to stay focused and determined to find the path to business success. Raiz has made a business out of growing entrepreneurs and he knows that success is not about the business plan, it is about the drive of the entrepreneur. In Lose the Business Plan, Raiz shares the lessons he has learnt and seen others learn on the road to business success. Readers learn to recognise whether they have what it takes to follow this path and find the skills most needed for entrepreneurial success.
The world has entered a period of accelerated change. This has everything to do with the disruptive events of 2020, the cognitive rewiring which each of us is going through, and the profound macro shifts reshaping the world as we know it. We are living through an unprecedented period of rapid and pervasive transition. Every aspect of our reality is shifting, from how we work and play, to how we educate our children and care for the health and wellbeing of our families, ourselves and our neighbours. How does this affect the future of strong, dominant sectors such as tourism and travel, consumer, retail, property, education, health, automotive and financial services, among others?
Transport yourself into the future with global future strategist, speaker and disruptor Abdullah Verachia as he leads you through the fundamental shifts taking place at every level and how these will reshape the world as we know it. Envisage a new reality, new cross-border opportunities and new avenues for personal and business growth. Unlock key insights revealed in Disruption Amplified that will inspire your own rethinking during this remarkable and transformative time, and step boldly into a new tomorrow.
Black Economic Empowerment has not had a positive image in the media.
This is partly thanks to a few individuals who became mega-rich
overnight, while the majority of black people, who were supposed to
benefit, remained poor. One company that did things differently is
Brimstone, founded in 1995 by an accountant and an insurance salesman
who did not want to leave their community behind. This is an
inspiring story of small beginnings, resilience and a social conscience
in business.
Footprints is a captivating story about intellectual property (IP). It speaks to its role in society, trade, industry, and economy and expounds on the actual meaning of IP. The book lays a solid foundation for innovators, entrepreneurs, businesses, and nations to realise their full potential through IP policy, legislation, use and practices. McLean Sibanda shares his personal story, together with stories and testimonies of fellow travellers, taking us through their journey into the field of IP. He meticulously recounts South Africa’s path in transforming the management of IP emanating from publicly financed research and development (R&D), development of critical human capital and other infrastructure to ensure effective IP commercialisation and technology transfer. Footprints is a timely masterpiece given IP issues in Africa’s scramble for Covid-19 vaccines and implementation of the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The book provides strategies of how African countries can use IP and innovation to develop industries to ensure health security and trading of goods that can benefit from the AfCFTA. Narrated through a series of significant moments, Footprints demonstrates the importance of vision, solid foundation, collaboration, champions, and intentional steps, for economic transformation. With glimpses into how countries such as China and Korea used IP to develop their economies, this book makes a compelling case for embracing IP, increased R&D investment, relevant human capital, and appropriate use of IP, in the development of new products and services necessary for knowledge-based and industrialised economies. Footprints is a must-read for any academic, aspiring intellectual property scholar, policy maker, economist, development activist, entrepreneur, researcher, innovator, professional, and technology transfer specialist.
What does it take for entrepreneurs to be effective competitors? What are the factors affecting entry and participation in sectors where there are historically strong incumbent firms? Opening the South African Economy brings to light the challenges of concentration, inequality and exclusion in different sectors of the South African economy. The book begins with an assessment of the current state of the economy. Detailed case studies then recount the experiences – good and bad – of well-known South African entrant firms in sectors that are critical for facilitating economic growth, including retail, food, fuel, telecommunications, airlines and banking. Important cross-cutting chapters reflect on the role that government policies can play in achieving a more open, inclusive and competitive economy and the use (and misuse) of policy tools such as competition law, black economic empowerment and state procurement. It concludes with a set of concrete recommendations for opening up the South African economy, improved coordination among state institutions and inclusive industrial development. Accessible and practical, Opening the South African Economy will appeal to a broad readership of business people, policy-makers, students and academics.
"Can't" is not a word in Kevin Chaplin’s vocabulary. From humble beginnings he realised that the only way to change his world was to act - a philosophy that has stood him good stead ever since, first with a 26 year-career in banking from which he took the bold step to establish the South African Ubuntu Foundation, and second to rescue the Amy Biehl Foundation (now Amy Foundation) from the brink of bankruptcy. A lateral thinker, Chaplin’s success can be ascribed to an ability to see business and personal challenges as a means of motivation to generate creative and innovative ideas and ways of solving problems. |
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