Viewpoint

2016 was a tough year for many South Africans - and small businesses took a hard knock as the local economy experienced many challenges to...

Legally we have entered unchartered waters that government, perhaps understandably, appears unable to navigate. Practically, the coronavirus regulations cannot be adhered to in a society composed like South Africa’s. In whichever way one approaches the issue, the coronavirus regulations should in large part be set aside and replaced by less restrictive measures to control the pandemic.

Government’s conduct over the last century and more has led to the situation South Africa finds itself in today as regards the provision of electricity. Tracing a series of legislative and regulatory interventions in the electricity market, we can see how this came to be.

While we acknowledge the positive structural reforms currently underway by government – most notably the lifting of the self-generation threshold to 100MW – command control plans of enforced localisation stand to undo any potential positive upsides of other reforms.

By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce and their growing influence on business is rapidly redefining our notion of success. Unlike baby boomers, whose aspirations centred around working their way up the corporate ladder, millennials gravitate towards entrepreneurship and the flexibility, innovation, creativity and purpose associated with start-up businesses.

It can be convincingly argued that the most important person to compete with in one’s life is oneself and not with others. My new book The New Success Paradigm: A Personal Leadership Discovery Platform is centred around a metaphor of the 'River of Life' and in using this metaphor I develop the book’s key theme of personal leadership strategies.

Government needs to take bold and rapid action to extricate the country from the economic quagmire in which it finds itself. The local economy is struggling to generate the growth needed to address high unemployment and inequality, as well as arrest the declining productivity that has eroded the country's global competitiveness.

Black and White Thinking is an alarm call, an urgent and timely explanation of the polarisation seen in some of the most dominant global news stories of modern times. It is human instinct to sort and categorise. We are hardwired to discriminate and frame everything in binary black and white. It's how our brains work. Migrant or refugee? Muslim or Christian? Them or us?

Many companies have long engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes involving sustainability, ethics and social impact that aim to give back to society. South African business is no different and, now more than ever, CSR is a must have for businesses wanting to protect their brand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps, the real brand risk currently is for business not to act.

The middle class broadly has been a high level, vigorous and academic marathon in defining and diagnosing. The middle class has always been viewed as the creation of a capitalistic system, leading to defining society in terms of class and wealth.