Did you know that, in South Africa, 70% to 80% of small businesses fail within the first five years of their establishment? Research indicates that this failure is often due to a lack of understanding of basic business concepts by the entrepreneur. In the competitive South African business environment, it is essential that aspiring entrepreneurs and new business owners have a solid foundation of knowledge on which to build sustainable businesses.

Entrepreneurship and how to establish your own business (6th edition) is a foundational book covering the key areas of entrepreneurship and small business development.

Given the common acknowledgement that strategy implementation is the greatest challenge to managers in the 21st century and the greatest reason for strategy failure we decided to focus on strategy implementation. Rather than promoting the unrealistic idea of strategy as a purely rational and deliberate outcome, this book acknowledges and explores the idea that strategy is often emergent, messy and experimental.

The 2nd edition of this book offers five key approaches:

• It focuses on strategy implementation and not just on the thinking and analytical aspects of strategic management.
• It explores the idea that strategy is often emergent, messy and experimental, unlike other strategic management books, which unrealistically portray it as a neat, analytical and rational process.
• It unpacks the recent concept that other strategists, not only just senior management, influence strategic direction.
• It recognises strategy as something people do rather than something an organisation possesses. Since people are building blocks of strategy, it is a cognitive and political activity.
• It uses primary research conducted among southern African top and middle managers and draws on these managerial perspectives to enrich the text with first-hand accounts of strategy experience.

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

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

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

Features:

Principles of General Management: A Responsible Approach for Southern Africa responds to the need for a resource that provides students entering the field of management for the first time with fresh insights into responsible management.

In particular, it is a resource that helps them to become responsible managers and leaders, to be change agents, and to act as the human foundation for responsible businesses.

It is currently the first and only book written by South Africans for the South African and broader African market and that at the same time integrates the pillars of responsible management into the principal managerial functions.

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

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

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

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

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

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