Lessons Learned
By Mike Hendrikse
As South Africans we have been on a justified self congratulatory trip ever since the hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. We have had an amazing outpouring of good will amongst all South Africans. Rugby supporters have watched soccer and soccer supporters went to rugby games. Soccer supporters introduced the Vuvuzela to rugby supporters at the historic games at Orlando Stadium. For once black and white hasn’t featured in our national deliberations. Somehow things have changed forever. Undoubtedly these changes are for the good. Read more
Tightening of Belts and Local Support
The local economic recovery has by all indications been slower than expected. It appears as if the pain of the recession is still fresh in many entrepreneurs minds. To add to this scenario, the governments stated intention of upping its spend, to drive the economy has had setbacks within certain sectors. Although not the only arm of Government to underspend, Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) has tried to rectify the situation with it’s launch of the “MAKE A DIFFERENCE” campaign also known by it’s acronym MAD. Read more
All eyes are on us!
A hitherto unknown volcano in a small country like Iceland has changed the way we view business risk forever. The global impact of this phenomena has already been estimated to have exceeded that of the 9/11 attacks in the USA. Even business in the Border Kei has been affected. For example parts for motorcars which normally ship in 24 hrs from European countries were delayed by over a week or more as globally airlines tried to move the backlog. Read more
The Tipping Point
In his book “The Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell provides great insight into why modern change happens the way it does. He makes the point that little causes can have big effects and that change happens not gradually but at one dramatic moment. This is referred to as the tipping point. His observations and analysis are hugely insightful and his book contains many examples that illustrate this point eloquently and convincingly. Read more
Counting the cost…
Today we carry an insightful article on the possible effects of the world cup on us all. The very scale of this event evades most of us and although we are currently neither a host city nor a world cup venue there is no doubt that the World Cup is going to be disruptive to normal business. Read more
