Doing Business In South Africa Archives

5Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Beyond metrics: Trust is crucial to brand building

What do global brands like Google, Coco-Cola and Apple have in common? Other than being instantaneously recognisable by their corporate identity, they each own over 20% of the worldwide market share in their respective categories.[1] So, why would the likes of Coca-Cola – one of the most recognisable brands in the world with an already-captivated market – spend over $ 4 billion[2] annually on advertising? They understand the critical importance of building consumer trust in a saturated market. Seeking efficient growth in a tough economic climate, marketing leaders are scrutinising how and where to allocate their paid media budgets. While performance marketing is about driving immediate results and measurable success, brand marketing focuses on building and nurturing the brand for long-t...

Ethel Kuuya: Visionary Leader, Founder, Author and CEO of Advisory Kulture

5Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Interview, South Africa News

Ethel Kuuya: Visionary Leader, Founder, Author and CEO of Advisory Kulture

As an influential leader, Ethel presents a visionary philosophy that can inspire the next generation. Her transformative approach sets a new standard for leadership, which is crucial for nurturing future leaders. Her consulting firm, Advisory Kulture, offers successful leadership training that has been effective across various sectors. What type of business do you run? I run a consulting firm named Advisory Kulture. We specialise in providing strategic advice and tailored solutions to help businesses navigate complex challenges and achieve their goals. How long has your business been running for? Advisory Kulture has been operating successfully for 10 years, during which we have built a solid reputation for delivering high-quality consulting services. What mot...

24Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

By partnering with data specialists Insight Consulting to unleash the power of Qlik, Galito’s flame-grilled its legacy reporting and turned its data into a strategic business asset

Successful South African flame-grilled chicken brand Galito's, a business with more than 240 stores in 17 countries, set out on a journey with strategic data specialist consulting firm Insight Consulting to optimise its data value chain. The result is that only four months in, Galito's has saved time and money, and makes accurate decisions and forecasts using reliable and real-time business data. Qlik is an intuitive end-to-end business intelligence solution. Unlike traditional business intelligence which tends to be passive, Qlik’s visualisation and reporting drives a real-time approach of continuous intelligence. It bridges the gap between data and realising value from the data. As a specialist data partner that works with businesses to optimise their data value chain, Insight Consultin...

26Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

South African businesses demonstrate resilience in Q1 2023 – Experian Report

Businesses are finding ways to adapt to loadshedding South Africa narrowly missed a technical recession with surprise GDP growth Interest rate hikes led to increase of credit extension through unsecured lending The Experian Business Debt Index (BDI), which reflects the relative ability for business to pay their outstanding suppliers/creditors, indicating the overall health of businesses in the economy, declined at a better-than-expected rate for Q1 of 2023. The decline to 0.721 from an upwardly revised 1.086 reading for Q4 2022, is attributed to a better-than-expected economic performance for the period. “Three months ago, one had been contemplating an economic scenario of substantial decline due to a significant intensification of load-shedding through Q1. However, the impact ...

3Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Managing IT in (literal) dark times

A CIO’s guide for doing business in South Africa Freshly out of a global pandemic, CIOs have had to think on their feet as loadshedding wrought new havoc on their teams and departments. As a software-on-demand company with software that needs to be available to customers 24/7, e4 understands the current business challenges better than most, says the company’s CIO, Fikile Sibiya. “But by being proactive, you can ensure that you’ll stay afloat when challenging circumstances threaten your business – whether now or in the future.” Here are her five top tips to navigate the biggest challenges CIOs are currently facing: 1. Diversify. “As loadshedding increased, companies had to diversify their electricity supply, either using backup power, renewables, or generators. This is a good prin...

19Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Getting SA’s Social Entrepreneurs Investment Ready

The impact investing market now stands at around US$715 billion globally and this figure is climbing steadily[i].What’s more, 43% of impact investors have funds allocated to Africa, with 52% of investors planning to increase their African investment over the next five years[ii]. With South Africa being the largest market for impact investing within Southern Africa[iii], are our social entrepreneurs ready for this investment? Ashleigh Sibanda, Programme Manager: Business Incubation at business growth specialists Fetola explains that investment readiness refers to the capacity of an enterprise to understand and meet the specific needs and expectations of investors. “While there are thousands of social enterprises in the country, not all of them possess this. In fact, the World Bank cites th...

2Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Prestigious “Factory of the Year” Competition Postponed

Navigating the impacts of the global pandemic has become the order of the day for the South African manufacturing sector, who demonstrated their resilience with a promising year-on year recovery of 87.9% in April. The spread of the coronavirus, recent violent protests and looting, and crippling power challenges have caused a slowdown of the sector’s recovery over the past few months. Mindful of this tumultuous economic environment and the continued health considerations brought on by the pandemic, management consulting firm Kearney have taken a decision to postpone the 2021 ‘Factory of the Year’ competition, traditionally a highlight of the annual Manufacturing Indaba. The 2021 Manufacturing Indaba will follow in the footsteps of last year’s conference and once again be held as a virtua...

31Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Brimstone Posts Solid Interim Results

Group profit before tax up 540% to R430.2 million Earnings per share up 232% to 97.9 cents Headline earnings per share up 230% to 100.8 cents Finance costs down by R151.9 million (58%) Debt reduction of more than R900 million from disposal of the remaining Life Healthcare shares Repurchase of 5.7 million “N” ordinary shares for R34.8 million Improved debt and liquidity ratios [Cape Town, 31 August 2021] Brimstone today released its Group results, reporting a stellar performance for the six month period ended 30 June 2021. The Group reported a 540% increase in profit before tax of R430.2 million, up from a loss of R97.8 million in the comparative period. The profit is mainly due to strong performances by certain of the Group’s subsidiaries, the upward revaluation of in...

20Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Preventing escalating business fraud in SA starts with robust KYC

While legislation and the introduction of new regulations aim to combat fraud and corruption, South African businesses have the power to fight financial crimes by ensuring consistent Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures are in place. This is according to Sameer Kumandan, Managing Director of SearchWorks, South Africa’s largest innovative data aggregation platform. SearchWorks allows users to perform live, credible individual, company, and property searches via more than 160 different search types. “With the obvious exception of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA), there is no universal set of KYC protocols for businesses to follow. Although demand is growing for more vigorous checks, the risk of businesses not carrying out KYC checks is substantial,” notes Kumandan. PwC’s bienn...

25Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

SA’s e-commerce surge poised to benefit small, independent retailers

Consumers head online for niche products, better service, and quick delivery South African consumers are heading online in greater numbers as the e-commerce shopping experience increasingly offers more choice and convenience than can be found at traditional big-brand, brick-and-mortar retailers, says Mike Farquharson, Managing Director of online courier aggregator Rush. Statista market and consumer data projects that 31.6 million South Africans could be converted to online shopping by 2024. According to FNB, the average e-commerce spend already increased by 30 percent in the first half of 2020 compared to the year prior while Rand Merchant Bank expects the sector’s value to surge by 150 percent, to R225 billion, within the next five years. “These findings suggest that shifts in sho...