In This Issue

South Africa has yet to witness a major blockchain-related dispute, but such disputes are bound to occur as interest in cryptocurrencies and smart contracts intensifies and transactions involving them become more common.

When boards of directors gather to discuss the top risks of an organisation, it may entail matters such as structurally high unemployment, labour unrest, exchange rate volatility, political uncertainty, unmanageable fraud and corruption, threats of new market entrants or even product stagnation. Whilst there are indeed many more topical risks that may be relevant to the nature of the organisation’s business and immediate environment, it is not common for a board to include the threat of their innovation and intellectual property (IP) being marginalised or lost.

Burnout affects both individuals and organisations and is a service delivery and efficiency and effectiveness crisis waiting to happen. While Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule or ‘the law of the vital few’, does not necessarily have a 80/20 ratio (but let’s carry on using the ratio for ease of communication), it is well observed that most results are generated by a minority of the action (and actors):

According to QuickBooks, there are already more than 700 apps that are assisting accountants to automate processes and reduce their workload. Gone are the days where accountants can be mere number crunchers, who collate and check data and allocate it to the correct cost centre. The future accountant will have transformed her/himself into a financial advisor, adding value to businesses by offering strategic advice, consulting and financial planning.

Criticism of Broad Based, Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) abounds amongst employers. People who own their companies and are terrified that BBBEE means losing control of their most prized asset, the business built over decades through hard work and sacrifice. These scared and witless business owners perpetuate the myth that BBBEE is bad. They spread it around so that they are able to share their misery with other unsuspecting ill-informed and dangerously wrong counterparts.

Read our exclusive cover story entitled CRIMES OF BBBEE CAPTURE! | ARE CONSULTANTS DEFRAUDING EMPLOYEES OF THEIR ENTITLEMENT? by Dr Ivor Blumenthal, CEO, ArkKonsult, as well a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the April/May 2019 edition of BusinessBrief.

This article may appear counter-intuitive, given the huge amount of rhetoric and conjecture which abounds outside of workplaces where Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) has been mindfully implemented. There is a huge amount of negativity which exists where BBBEE has failed to be successfully implemented, and even more fake news from owners in those companies which have failed to, or where they have simply refused to, implement any kind of BBBEE solution at all.

As South Africa enters an election year, the issue of black ownership continues to be a dominant aspect within the country’s transformation landscape. This was clearly articulated in the ANC 2019 election manifesto address by president Cyril Ramaphosa when he reaffirmed government’s commitment to working with the financial sector to increase industrial and enterprise financing for black industrialists as well as small businesses and cooperatives.

An often-used metaphor to describe the concept of business is the armed forces. You have the general at the top and a series of levels of hierarchy below – right down to the lower ranks who go off to fight the war as soldiers, sailors or pilots.

Corruption has become as much a part of the South African identity as Seven Colour Sundays or biltong. Eradicating something that is woven into our nation’s fabric seems like an impossible task, and is a possibility only if whistleblowers are prepared to take a stand.