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.

*An instant New York Times Bestseller* 'One of the most exciting tales of our time... It's the next tech frontier, and Vance turns it into a thriller' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs 'Eloquent, expertly reported' Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store _______________ A momentous look at the private companies driving the revolutionary new space race, from the 3-million copy, New York Times bestselling author of Elon Musk In 2008, Elon Musk's SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket that could reach orbit. Suddenly Silicon Valley, not NASA, was the epicentre of the new Space Age. Ashlee Vance follows four pioneering companies - Astra, Firefly, Planet Labs and Rocket Lab - as they race to control access to outer space. While the space tourism ambitions of billionaires such as Bezos and Branson make headlines, these under-the-radar companies are striving to monetise Earth's lower orbit; to connect, analyse and monitor everything on Earth. With unprecedented access to private company headquarters, labs and top-secret launch locations - from the US to New Zealand, Ukraine to India - Vance presents a gripping account of private jets, communes, gun-toting bodyguards, drugs, espionage investigations and multimillionaires guzzling booze as their fortunes disappear. This is the most pressing and controversial technology story of our time. Welcome to the new Wild West above the clouds.

This book presents a unique collection of case studies from across the globe to create a comprehensive understanding of how family firms can respond to future disruptions. Each case contains learning notes with objectives, discussion questions and suggested readings to facilitate learner understanding and engagement with the topic. Cases on topics such as global succession and governance practices will aid strategic decision-making capabilities in family businesses and will also benefit practitioners in these areas. Diverse in terms of generational involvement, demographic groups, cultural aspects, institutional settings and industries, the cases range from founder-led SMEs to multi-generational family conglomerates in 18 countries spanning over four continents. In addition to identifying successful practices, this book offers unconventional wisdom on the impact of family feuds, sudden death, divorce and multiple marriages on family businesses. It concludes by exposing new understandings on succession and the unique role played by rising-generation leaders in this disruptive era. Informed by the common research paradigm of the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practice (STEP) Project Global Consortium, this book will provide a practical learning experience for advanced students and scholars of family business, family entrepreneurship, and strategic management studies.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, comes a captivating guide that explains how to thrive in today's turbulent global economy. Burdened with massive debt, stagnant wages and the ever-rising cost of living, a growing number of millennials and gen-Z are abandoning the traditional nine-to-five model of work, instead turning to the ecosystem of largely unregulated, decentralized platforms to pursue a host of novel ways to make money. In Gonzo Capitalism, New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau explores this brave new world – from the Texas software rep who earned $80,000 sending potatoes in the mail, to the British teenager who earned nearly $500,000 naming other people’s babies, to the community of online gamers getting ‘paid to play’. Along the way, he shows you how our economy really works and reveals how you can capitalize on the new tools and platforms at our disposal, and come up with your own unconventional ways to turn your time and talents into income.

Essentials of Entrepreneurship examines all phases of the entrepreneurial process: generating ideas for something new and better than what currently exists, determining whether these ideas suggest viable business opportunities, identifying and obtaining the financial and human resources required, securing intellectual property protection, launching the new venture, developing strategies for gaining and maintaining competitive advantage, and building a customer base. In discussing these and other topics, the text draws on research findings that help identify variables that play a role in entrepreneurs? effective performance of these tasks, and so?ultimately?in their success. New to the second edition: ? Two brand new chapters, addressing the issues facing the next generation of entrepreneurs: ? how to achieve long-term success through maintaining growth with sustainable business goals the emerging trends to look out for, including the gig economy and technological advances.? New updated case studies place entrepreneurial theory into practice, identifying how others can take inspiration from them. Updated cases and examples include Pets.com; aeroponic farming; Martha Stewart Living; the amphicar and social networks New discussion of non-traditional forms of support such as crowd funding and social media, and their effect on the modern entrepreneur Updated chapter on opportunity recognition; why some people are better at it than others and the role of self-regulatory theory, including signal detection theory New coverage of the effects of business failure, including the role of psychological capital and how successful serial entrepreneurs learn from their failures and mistakes Updated coverage of the government regulation and legislation affecting new ventures. Presenting a concise and current overview of entrepreneurship and assuming no previous knowledge, this text is ideal for use in any undergraduate or MBA level entrepreneurship course, whether within a business school or any other discipline.

MaZwane has become a legend in South Africa as a pioneering entrepreneur – and an inspiration for those who ask questions about opportunities in the informal township economy. Her answer to those who doubt whether they can make it, is that you do it through perseverance, sacrifice, seizing opportunities, and offering superior products and service.

In 1989 Phumlaphi (‘Rita’) Zwane left KwaZulu-Natal to find work in Johannesburg after becoming a teenage mother. She could count on the love of her family, a matric certificate and her faith, but had no job prospects, and no knowledge of the business world or life in the big cities. Her memoir takes the reader from the tough times of finding her feet in Johannesburg, through a variety of jobs and life experiences, to finally fighting her way to success as a respected member of the township economy and starting the successful Imbizo Shisanyama business. MaZwane tells how she progressed from having virtually no income or permanent home to becoming the first person to formalise and commercialise shisanyama in the townships – and provide a comfortable home and legacy for her children.

Along the way, she befriended many people who contributed accommodation, job opportunities, advice, and companionship. With them cheering her on, she learned how to navigate the different and difficult aspects of the hospitality industry – and slowly reach her desired place of independent security. Conquering the Poverty of the Mind shows the true grit of a Zulu girl who believed in herself – and did it against all odds.

This book is for anyone who earns a living without holding down a full-time job contract. The Toolbox focusses on the human element of not holding down a job: what can you expect, what should you prepare for, how do you deal with being a self-starter every single day?

This is not a business advice handbook or pocket MBA. It is designed to help anyone who works for themselves or owns their own business, deal with the very real emotional and psychological challenges that come with being a self-starter in a business world dominated by huge corporates.

The go-to guide for every young black entrepreneur!

The 7 Things Every Young Black Entrepreneur Should Know is a practical and inspirational guidebook aimed at empowering the next generation of young black entrepreneurs. The odds of success for any entrepreneur are poor. The odds of success for young black entrepreneurs are abysmal. The aim of this book is to assist them to improve those odds. And with South Africa’s low employment levels, there has never been a better time for young black people to set off on the road to entrepreneurship.

All the information in this book is based on the author’s decades of experience as an entrepreneur and represents a distillation of the most important lessons he’s learnt. Readers will be empowered to understand how to leverage their strengths, minimise their weaknesses, count the true cost of success, be patient, distinguish between good and bad ideas, manage risk, raise funding wisely and build shared prosperity – all from the perspective of a young black entrepreneur.

One key for success of an entrepreneur is to obtain sales (revenue) and profits as quickly as possible upon launching the venture. Entrepreneurial Marketing focuses on the essential elements of success in order to achieve these needed sales and revenues and to grow the company. The authors build a comprehensive, state-of-the-art picture of entrepreneurial marketing issues, providing major theoretical and empirical evidence that offers a clear, concise view of entrepreneurial marketing. Through an international approach that combines both theoretical and empirical knowledge of entrepreneurship and marketing, this book informs and enhances the entrepreneurs' creativity, their ability to bring innovations to the market, and their willingness to face risk that changes the world. Key components addressed include: identifying and selecting the market; determining the consumer needs cost-effectively; executing the basic elements of the marketing mix (product, price, distribution, and promotion); and competing successfully in the domestic and global markets through implementing a sound marketing plan. Numerous illustrative examples throughout the book bring the content to life. The mix of theoretical content, examples, empirical analyses, and case studies make this book an excellent resource for students, professors, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers all over the world.

Why is it that some people work hard, yet remain poor? How is it that others seem to rise out of poverty and become affluent in a short span of time? The answers are in this little book, which everyone should read at some point in their life. If they did, they would know how to become rich relatively quickly. If not, they might spend years working back-breakingly hard, without ever breaking even. That’s how powerful the principles contained in this book are.

The answers to escaping poverty and becoming wealthy are actually well known; they have been tested by time and replicated in different countries, by families and by individuals who have become astonishingly rich. And when you simply follow the principles, they work.

So what are these principles that genuinely lift people out of poverty and ensure their personal wealth? Here are 50. They all work. They will make you richer. They remove the emotion, the politics and the clutter from our thoughts about wealth, and they go straight to the heart of one simple issue: what it genuinely takes to become rich. Prepare to train your brain for wealth. Prepare to become ‘poverty proof ’ for life.

'A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like ... It's an amazing tale' Bill Gates

'The best book I read last year was Shoe Dog, by Nike's Phil Knight. Phil is a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow who is also a gifted storyteller' Warren Buffett

In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of start-ups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all start-ups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognisable symbols in the world today.

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, he tells his story. Candid, humble, wry and gutsy, he begins with his crossroads moment when at 24 he decided to start his own business. He details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream - along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls how his first band of partners and employees soon became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.

A memoir rich with insight, humour and hard-won wisdom, this book is also studded with lessons - about building something from scratch, overcoming adversity, and ultimately leaving your mark on the world.

From the creator of Valuetainment, the #1 YouTube channel for entrepreneurs, and "one of the most exciting thinkers" (Ray Dalio, author of Principles) in business today, comes a practical and effective guide for thinking more clearly and achieving your most audacious professional goals. Both successful entrepreneurs and chess grandmasters have the vision to look at the pieces in front of them and anticipate their next five moves. In this book, Patrick Bet-David "helps entrepreneurs understand exactly what they need to do next" (Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!) by translating this skill into a valuable methodology. Whether you feel like you've hit a wall, lost your fire, or are looking for innovative strategies to take your business to the next level, Your Next Five Moves has the answers. You will gain: CLARITY on what you want and who you want to be. STRATEGY to help you reason in the war room and the board room. GROWTH TACTICS for good times and bad. SKILLS for building the right team based on strong values. INSIGHT on power plays and the art of applying leverage. Combining these principles and revelations drawn from Patrick's own rise to successful CEO, Your Next Five Moves is a must-read for any serious executive, strategist, or entrepreneur.

This book is about innovation ecosystems, Clusters of Innovation (COI) and the Global Networks of Clusters of Innovation (GNCOI) they naturally form. What is innovation and why is it important to us? Innovation is nothing less than the ability for constructive response and adaptation to change. The cause and catalyst for that change is frequently identified as technology and its unceasing pressure to improve on existing solutions and address unmet needs. The last decade has painfully demonstrated that exogenous environmental shocks are also sources of change that call for innovative responses, ranging from the obvious challenges such as global warming and Covid-19 to the more subtle social and political perturbations of our time. Entrepreneurs, in collaboration with venture investors and major corporations can create a flywheel of constructive engagement, a cluster of Innovation, that helps build the resiliency of our communities to adsorb and rebound from these shocks. The process is enhanced when actively supported by government, universities, and other elements of the ecosystem. This book provides the tools for understanding this value creation process and the means to enhance it, in both emerging and mature innovation ecosystems. This book provides a framework for understanding innovation in mature and emerging innovation ecosystems to a wide swath of professionals and academics, from senior executives of major corporations, government leaders, public policy makers, and consultants, to academics, researchers, and educators.

This timely book comprises detailed personal narratives of entrepreneurs who have worked towards peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It begins by offering an innovative framework of analysis based on scientific knowledge about social entrepreneurs, defining 'peace entrepreneurship' and mapping its unique characteristics. It also explains the narrative methodology used, and provides a short history of the conflict in the region. The book focuses on 11 life stories of Israeli and Palestinian entrepreneurs who have strived for peace through social ventures. Chapters discuss the various forms of social activism that peace entrepreneurs have pursued, the challenges that they have faced and the motivations behind their ventures. The editors conclude by considering the similarities and differences across the stories, offering insights into what drives people to act as peace entrepreneurs and what sustains their activities in the face of ongoing conflict. Documenting rousing and inspirational life narratives, this book is crucial for scholars and researchers of social entrepreneurship who are searching for new avenues of inquiry into ventures in a conflict context. It will also provide motivational reading for other practitioners of peace entrepreneurship, as well as policymakers working with social entrepreneurs in conflict zones.

Written by a plethora of expert contributors from a range of institutions, the Handbook of Technology Transfer provides an engaging deep-dive review of technology transfer as a complex and dynamic process, applying different mechanisms characterising activities in a variety of countries. The Handbook takes a fresh look at how technology transfer comprises at least four dimensions: the underlying mechanism of transferring knowledge; the role of individuals that trigger the transfer; the role of institutions where the transfer takes place, and lastly the role of governments and politics. Split into four distinct parts, this insightful Handbook fully examines each of these dimensions and the roles that each of them play in technology transfer, highlighting university institutions in Europe and North America in particular. Forward-thinking, it also delves into future innovation implementation in emerging economies where resources are limited, and the challenges faced as a result. This enlightening Handbook will be an excellent resource for scholars of business management, economics and information technology. It will also be of great interest to policy-makers of innovation and entrepreneurship given its in-depth look at technology transfer and innovation.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. Providing a panoramic overview of the evolving world of scenario planning, this Advanced Introduction uses topical case studies to analyze the developing methodologies of scenario planning. Written by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, a leading authority on the topic, this book synthesizes rigorous theory and practical experiences including best practises, normative views, and future challenges or opportunities for scenario planning. Key Features: Explains why future uncertainties require more than traditional risk analysis when ambiguous unknowns or Black Swans are involved Illustrates scenario planning through an in-depth case analysis of the biosciences which, in the wake of global pandemics, are gaining in societal import Examines how historical thinking and historiography can enrich scenarios by revisiting future projections made for South Africa post-apartheid Shows why scenario planning fosters critical and creative thinking by overcoming myopic framing, overconfidence and other biases in organizations Examines methodological and statistical techniques in scenario planning, including model building and simulations, and their connections to strategy formulation Interdisciplinary in its approach, this Advanced Introduction will prove invaluable to students and scholars of public policy, business management, and organizational studies. Its tools and practical advice will also be a vital resource to practitioners and policy leaders involved in leading or implementing scenario planning in their organizations.

This Research Handbook highlights the importance of women as agents of change, acknowledging women entrepreneurs' efforts and supporting their value-creation activities. With important implications for policymaking, contributing authors direct attention to and provide evidence for the positive contribution of women entrepreneurs to the economy, regardless of their businesses' size and formal status. Challenging the underperformance hypothesis associated with women entrepreneurs, chapters present evidence that women do not underperform in their businesses, but that they add value even in constrained environments. This intends to shift the focus of research from questions like 'what do entrepreneurs do?' to 'how do they do it?', focusing on the unique ways in which each woman entrepreneur creates value, and 'for whom do they do it?', looking at the multiple value outcomes women entrepreneurs create and the beneficiaries of that value. With a global perspective on women's entrepreneurship and their value creation, this Research Handbook will be vital reading for researchers of entrepreneurship, as well as government agencies and policymakers interested in promoting entrepreneurial activity.

What is it about the top tech product companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Netflix and Tesla that enables their record of consistent innovation? Most people think it's because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products. As legendary Silicon Valley coach--and coach to the founders of several of today's leading tech companies--Bill Campbell said, "Leadership is about recognizing that there's a greatness in everyone, and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge." The goal of EMPOWERED is to provide you, as a leader of product management, product design, or engineering, with everything you'll need to create just such an environment. As partners at The Silicon Valley Product Group, Marty Cagan and Chris Jones have long worked to reveal the best practices of the most consistently innovative companies in the world. A natural companion to the bestseller INSPIRED, EMPOWERED tackles head-on the reason why most companies fail to truly leverage the potential of their people to innovate: product leadership. The book covers: what it means to be an empowered product team, and how this is different from the "feature teams" used by most companies to build technology products recruiting and coaching the members of product teams, first to competence, and then to reach their potential creating an inspiring product vision along with an insights-driven product strategy translating that strategy into action by empowering teams with specific objectives--problems to solve--rather than features to build redefining the relationship of the product teams to the rest of the company detailing the changes necessary to effectively and successfully transform your organization to truly empowered product teams EMPOWERED puts decades of lessons learned from the best leaders of the top technology companies in your hand as a guide. It shows you how to become the leader your team and company needs to not only survive but thrive.

This timely book argues that the overcrowding of national parks in the United States represents a social problem in need of public sector action and a policy solution, as no systematic means to address this problem has been implemented either nationally or on a park-by-park basis. Throughout the book, Albert N. Link provides an innovative pricing solution to the overcrowding of the parks which will help to change the existing status quo. Utilizing a methodology grounded in economics, and expanding the use and policy relevance of the concept of public sector entrepreneurship, the author illustrates how individuals respond to prices and offers a method to estimate the impact of a seasonal entrance fee based on calculated price elasticities of demand. Chapters also provide recommendations for increases in seasonal entrance fees individually for each of the national parks that currently have an entrance fee. Public Sector Entrepreneurship will be a key resource for academics and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, public management and resource management who are looking to use economics as a framework for analyzing tourism topics, as well as environmental researchers and public policy officials responsible for national parks.

As entrepreneurship education grows across disciplines and permeates through various areas of university programs, this timely book offers an interdisciplinary, comparative and global perspective on best practices and new insights for the field. Through the theoretical lens of collaborative partnerships, it examines innovative practices of entrepreneurship education and advances understanding of the discipline. Exploring and showcasing how global collaboration can foster entrepreneurship education, international contributors share their experiences as educators, scholars and thought-leaders involved in the Babson Collaborative. Chapters illustrate the challenges faced by educators and creative methods for tackling them, offering useful insights from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Highlighting the significance of the field to higher education environments, this book encourages active participation in entrepreneurial practice and collaboration between stakeholders and disciplines to ensure high-quality education in a variety of settings. This insightful book is a rousing and inspiring view of entrepreneurship education for scholars and academic entrepreneurs who are working to build robust education ecosystems in the field.

This edited collection presents fascinating new insights on gender and innovation with a central focus on the experiences of women innovators, exploring different geographic and institutional contexts through a series of in-depth case studies. It investigates how intersecting characteristics such as age, race and ethnicity as well as broader contextual and institutional factors enable and constrain the innovation activities and ambitions of women. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives, expert contributors interrogate questions of gender and innovation to examine the multiple factors influencing women innovators in the contemporary world. The book also engages with how policies can support diversity and inclusion within innovation, an area that has historically been highly gendered. Further to this, it recommends actions to take to support the development of inclusive practices, and identifies directions for future research. Exploring the diversity of gender and innovation as a concept as well as in practice, this book will be a stimulating resource for scholars, educators and students who wish to gain an overview of the topic. Policy makers and practitioners will find the insights on how policies and initiatives can achieve great equality and diversity informative and illuminating.

The expert contributors to this insightful book explore the latest research on women's emancipation through entrepreneurship, specifically in relation to families and family businesses. The chapters analyse the role the family plays and how women interact with their families in developing their entrepreneurial projects or taking over the lead of the family business. They examine key themes such as the role of religion, women's agency, business succession, and identity. To illustrate these areas, the book draws on case studies from a wide variety of contexts, including Syrian women refugee entrepreneurs, Tunisian women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial parents working from home. The book also draws attention to previously underexplored topics in women's entrepreneurship, such as spousal support. Looking to future research, it calls for a better understanding of what emancipation means for women in different contexts. This book will be a useful resource for scholars and students of entrepreneurship with a particular interest in family business. Its use of global case studies will also be beneficial for practitioners in this field as well as networks of women entrepreneurs.