Management

It’s been proven that industry leaders who invest in new technology and innovation achieve better productivity and return on investment. However, for this to be true, an organisation needs to be ready for innovation, not only technically but also culturally.

Only 15% of South African start-ups are successful, despite South Africa having the 2nd highest ranking on the continent according to the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Index.

Today, more and more businesses are confidently outsourcing business functions, or parts thereof to service providers whom they trust to do the job faster, more affordably, and more effectively than they can themselves.

Navigating complex BEE requirements to ensure compliancy can be a tricky process for many businesses. Since the implementation of BEE in 2003, there have been many high-profile cases of companies found to have faked their BEE credentials and many who have failed their verification audits for other reasons.

Labour law training is an operational necessity. However, it often happens that managers at whom this training is targeted often have the attitude of, 'let HR handle daily disciplinary problems, I’ll just mess it up'. But the implementation of discipline is an integral part of line management’s function and no manager can turn down the opportunity to add to his/her skills.

Nurturing new entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies is seen as one of the key aspects of revitalising the South African economy. Numerous programmes and initiatives developed by government and private institutions aim to achieve this.

Many organisations are reluctant to manage their ethics performance. Why? When leading practice has moved beyond the question of whether ethics can actually be ‘managed’ (taking it as given that it can), and huge efforts are underway getting the ‘how’ of ethics management right as well, it seems perverse to ignore this aspect of organisational life.

An often misunderstood issue among entrepreneurs is the muddled duties of individuals who act in the roles of shareholder, director and employee. The court recently assisted to untangle these issues.

Boardroom efforts to make customer experience a priority is being hampered by rising costs, retention and bad debt. South African firms continue to be challenged by rising costs of customer acquisition, retention, fraud and bad debt while striving for innovation through leveraging data and AI techniques.

As a society, we are on the precipice of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and we are only just beginning to understand the radical effects it will have on the way we communicate, live and work.