Business Archives - Page 28 of 29

The challenges and opportunities of big businesses in developing countries – From Storeroom to Boardroom

27Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Nigeria News

The challenges and opportunities of big businesses in developing countries – From Storeroom to Boardroom

What does it really take to succeed in big multinational businesses in the developing world? One man’s remarkable journey from a rural Nigerian village to a top job in a global corporation describes the challenges, the opportunities and the issues we must all face up to if we are to create positive organizational and societal impact, equality and equity in global businesses. Babs Omotowa has written From Storeroom to Boardroom to share his insight on the challenges and opportunities of big businesses in developing countries including on, climate change, oil spills, corruption, transparency, culture, government relationships and societal (community and capacity) development. Babs Omotowa has spent his life rejecting the status quo. His own career disproves the unthinking perception that Af...

23Jan

By G4SNo Comments

Business, Tech

How Risk 360 technology is helping business security in Africa

In Africa, as in other parts of the world, Risk 360 is giving our customers real-time information to reduce the threats they face and optimise their resources. It’s taking our service beyond what our clients thought was possible, and helping to improve the international reputation for doing business in Africa. In a secure control room located in the heart of Africa, a team of G4S analysts pour through data looking for clues to what might be about to happen. Their mission - to get inside the mind of a criminal, and stop their crimes before they take place. It might sound like the plot of Steven Spielberg’s movie Minority Report, but in reality what G4S is rolling out across Africa is a technology that relies not on artificial intelligence, but on the analysis of thousands of data sets. It’...

23Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Business, South Africa News

High-Impact Entrepreneurs Raise 4x Capital Year-On-Year

Endeavor empowers entrepreneurs for business growth Despite prolonged global market uncertainty, Endeavor South Africa has reported significant growth in their portfolio of disruptive tech businesses. The local chapter of the global non-profit organisation, which supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets, reported collective raises of R2bn in 2020 alone amongst the portfolio of 29 businesses, compared to R1.3bn combined during 2018-2019. A number of these businesses delivered strong results, one of which achieved a 300% uptick in volume. Capital Markets Lead Antonia Bothner attributes this acceleration in capital raising due to the growth stage nature of these businesses and the strong underlying performance of the businesses in the tech or tech-enabled space. The portfolio is...

20Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

How to make your business more ‘circular’

Something is made, it’s used and then disposed of. Read that again. Something is made, it’s used and then disposed of. We go to all the effort of manufacturing objects, only to discard them as rubbish. Worse still, they end up as trash in landfill or incinerated. After some thought and repetition, the entire process sounds absolutely nonsensical, doesn’t it? But that’s what has traditionally happened to the things we buy. They come to the end of their useful life (to us!) and are simply thrown away. However, the good news is that this can and will change – organisations and businesses all over the globe are thinking differently and taking a new approach to their operations as a means to being more ‘circular’; looking at the goods and services they provide and innovating for sustainable suc...

9Sep

By Jamie AnnNo Comments

Business

Five Business Strategies a Retail Business Needs to Stay on Top

The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to a massive economic disruption that has affected the performance of various businesses. As a retailer, you want to maintain steady production to meet the market demand while maximizing profits and minimizing cost. With the many health regulations to meet and the prevailing economic downturn, expenditures might become higher while income is lower. You, therefore, need to come up with effective strategies that will grow your business through the exploitation of unique but sure opportunities. You should optimize these strategies to survive the toughest competition and thrive in the market. 1. Provide excellent customer support Your customer support team interacts with the customers first-hand hence needs to have the best public relations skills to know...

How to Keep your Team Focused and Productive During Uncertain Times

6Apr

By Omer SaleemNo Comments

Business, Tech

How to Keep your Team Focused and Productive During Uncertain Times

By Omer Saleem, Director and Deputy CEO of Proven SA Big businesses grow and adapt as the market environment changes and do so even more rapidly now with the accelerating technology options. With this growth and infusion of technology driven changes comes a new requirement for corporate positions to evolve with the corporation itself. It has become ever more critical for the overall success of entities that every position is filled by an agile employee whose workload is role-based and goal-oriented, the aim being 360 degree success. Today’s COVID-19 scenario is a prime example of how well-functioning corporations can face shocks to business as usual that can fundamentally change service delivery with downstream effects touching almost every internal part of the organization as well as the ...

How can barcodes help your small business? The Benefits explored:

25Nov

By Nicole FerrarNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

How can barcodes help your small business? The Benefits explored:

When you think of barcodes, the first thing that springs to mind is probably shopping at a big supermarket. I bet you didn’t know that barcodes can actually be an invaluable asset to any business, big or small? This is because, while huge warehouse establishments have successfully implemented barcoding systems for years, it was only recently that this technology became a feasible option for businesses on the smaller side. Nowadays it doesn’t matter what the size of your business is, a barcoding system improves precision and makes inventory management systems more efficient and speedier. Buying barcodes in South Africa has never been easier! Here are 5 benefits of introducing a barcode scanning system into your small business and exactly how it can help you thrive. 5 benefits of a barcodin...

Prioritise MRO strategy to manage costs for your company

9Jul

By Brian AndrewNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Prioritise MRO strategy to manage costs for your company

By Brian Andrew, Managing Director South and Sub-Saharan Africa at RS Components It does not matter if times are good or bad - waste is never welcome at any proactive business. Business is primarily driven by profit and efficiency, and waste is an attack on both. But many businesses, particularly among manufacturers, overlook a major cost hidden among their operations: that of MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) procurement. MRO or indirect procurement concerns those many small parts needed to keep equipment running. It’s fundamentally a supply chain/procurement discipline, but not often considered as a cost centre. Individual MRO items - small parts in big machines such as light bulbs, safety switches, connectors, push buttons, power supplies etc. - tend to be inexpensive and not att...

Logistics challenges facing eCommerce in Africa

26Jun

By Josephine WawiraNo Comments

Business, Tech

Logistics challenges facing eCommerce in Africa

According to Euromonitor, the world’s fastest-growing economies by 2030 will be in Africa. This consequently makes the continent the next big e-commerce market. And as this positive narrative continues to place Africa as a top investment destination, the need for advanced logistics systems has become inevitable. The growth of e-commerce will significantly depend on the quality and efficiency of logistics networks; from intra and cross trade to financial transactions in payment of goods and services. When writing the African e-commerce story, I often leap at the chance to explore only the enviable milestones the continent has made. Nevertheless, there still exist formidable challenges especially in logistics, a vital constituent of the industry. The African Development Bank, in its 2019 Afr...

Friday@Noon on Manufacturing in Africa: 2018

10Apr

By Johan BurgerNo Comments

Business, Ethiopia News, Kenya News, Main, Rwanda News, South Africa News, Uganda News

Friday@Noon on Manufacturing in Africa: 2018

by Johan Burger The NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies publishes a weekly newsletter on issues relevant to Africa. This paper is based on issues addressed in the newsletter. Manufacturing in Africa Manufacturing and industrialisation are the current buzzwords for transforming Africa’s economies. In order to reduce any dependence on the extraction and sale of raw commodities, it does make sense to diversify Africa’s economies. African economies do seem to struggle with growing and developing their manufacturing sectors and to increase this sector’s contribution to their GDP’s. In addition to the challenges stated below, we do find that cheap imports from abroad complicate the process even more. These cheap imports range from cheap steel products from China (upsetting steel manufacturing in ...