Tag: productivity

For many years, the concept of self-made success was considered by many to be the ‘making of the man’, with each generation expected to prove their self-worth by being at least as financially successful as the generation before. However, the adage of shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations continues to this day, with a recent Harvard Business Review article by Stark and Foley finding that 70% of wealthy families studied lost their wealth within the second generation, and 90% within the third.

Breast milk has long been acknowledged as nature’s perfect food for infants. Its unique properties continue to benefit children long after their mothers have stopped breastfeeding. For working women, breastfeeding is easy and convenient to do while they are on maternity leave, but it becomes significantly more challenging when they return to work.

Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Employment Equity Amendment Act into law. While the proclamation of the implementation date is still pending, the Minister of Employment and Labour can establish equity targets for various economic sectors as well as prescribe demographic targets for designated employers (companies with 50+ employees).

A world in which women thrive is a better world. Although gender inequality remains rife globally, significant strides are being made on one of society’s most influential platforms: the boardrooms of big businesses. There is consensus that change in workplaces in Africa and around the world generally start at the top, at board level.

Since the dawn of the computational age, human beings have pursued the creation of machine intelligence. In fact, the question of what that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would look like and how it would impact our lives and the world around us has even been explored in our entertainment media – from the idyllic futuristic world of technological marvels in Star Trek on one end of the spectrum to the more pessimistic apocalyptic future of The Terminator on the other.

Risks such as heavy rain, flooding, hail, frost, drought and fire are by no means new to the South African agricultural sector, but due to the effects of climate change, they are increasing in frequency and severity. These risks are also becoming more unpredictable amid changing weather patterns, which complicates risk management efforts for farmers.

In today's fast-paced work environment, chronic stress has become a prevalent issue due to long hours and demanding schedules. This lifestyle often leads to detrimental health effects, particularly in relation to employees' dietary choices, as time constraints push them toward unhealthy options. 

The pressure to optimise costs and maximise productivity is at the forefront of all business leaders’ minds. Today, this pressure is exacerbated by disruptive technology, the increasing complexity of geopolitics and global trade, evolving risk and regulation, and the ongoing race to find and keep the right talent with the right skills.

With the mounting cost of monthly expenses such as rent, transport, food, and electricity, financial stress has become a growing concern for South Africans who are trudging through these tough economic times.

In its most literal sense, return on investment (ROI) is a profitability metric that refers to the business value derived from spend. It involves dividing an investment’s profit by its cost and is generally expressed as a percentage.