Ok, so you have chosen a name, and you have been spinning it repeatedly in your head. You might even have fallen in love with it already. Great! But, just to be safe, why don’t you consider one or two other names as well, just to be sure. “What do I mean, just to be sure?” I hear you ask, …
We’re expecting It’s happening. You’ve taken the leap and decided to launch your own business. But where do you start? How do you take your budding idea from conception to the birth of a business? To set the scene, I will make the assumption that you are running on a bootstrap – in other words, you are starting your business …
Ask any procurement manager what the first thing is that she looks for when making a purchasing decision and you will hear the words ‘ differentiation ’. Procurement is looking for a supplier that is good at one specific thing. This is in line with decades of procurement practices. The nature of procurement is such that procurement managers like categorising …
Many companies think that getting a large deal with a corporate is what being a supplier is all about. The more successful companies understand that building relationships over a period of time is what really leads to value creation. Relationships are strengthened once suppliers can show their commitment to problem solving over a period of time. Problem solving is not …
In today’s on minute lesson Bill gets things muddled when he decides to sell to the supply chain. Many small businesses think that the way to do business with corporates is through the supply chain. Although this might be right in some instances, in most cases following this route will leave you disappointed. The right person to talk to is …
Corporate companies like to box things into categories. When a company comes along that promises that they can do everything the corporate becomes skeptical. The thinking is that they are looking for a company that is good at doing one specific category of services. Many small businesses do not understand this so they put everything that they have done or …
We have traditionally striven for competitive and profitable stability and aimed for acceptable standards of performance. Many of our techniques for planning, measuring and controlling performance such as budgetary control, standard costing, ratio analysis, throughput rate, project appraisal and reject/yield rates are aimed at defining acceptable standards against which to measure deviations. These in turn influence actions, attitudes, priorities and …
INTRODUCTION During the growth stages of your business many companies focus their performance measurements on financial and costing information. These types of measurements usually represent outcomes of processes, but do not always provide the best information about what actually occurs behind the scenes. Your performance measurements must reflect and encourage a culture of people empowerment, the value of time, emphasis …
Your company has been gaining traction and is growing. It’s time to make a step change to becoming a world class supplier. To become and remain competitive in today’s global marketplace, suppliers must develop performance measurements that will reveal current baseline values, highlight opportunities for improvement, and drive operational strategies. This article will focus on meeting the objectives of understanding …
Every day in South Africa we are consciously discriminating, but with the launch of Mining Charter III the line between fair and unfair discrimination in South Africa is starting to blur. Picture this scenario: The year is 2019. South Africa is facing uncertain times leading up to the next general election. But the attention of the world is riveted on …
The second Catalyst for Growth (C4G) report was released at the J.P. Morgan offices on Monday evening the 12th of June. The report provides an analysis of the performance of Business Development Support (BDS) providers across South Africa. Currently BDS providers submit their results to this platform voluntarily and all data that is captured is done so anonymously. At the …
Enterprise and Supplier Development Relationship Enterprise and Supplier Development in South Africa has two polar extremes. On the one end of the spectrum are supply chain practitioners and end users who want better results from incoming suppliers than those delivered by the current suppliers. On the other end of the spectrum are development practitioners who are assisting individual entrepreneurs that are competing …
The debate over BBBEE and its impact has heated up again recently during President Zuma’s speech of the nation address specifically to the point relating to radical economic transformation. The week following SONA multiple news articles started debating ‘white monopolistic capital’ with prominent business men such as Christo Wiese throwing in their weight behind the debate. Many of the articles …
Going to the Gemba The Lean Start-Up movement has taught us that great innovations arise from having a good understanding of the customer problem. This lean start-up idea of understanding the problem, originates in the lean Japanese concept of “going to the Gemba”, which means going to the place where things happen or value is created. Entrepreneurs everywhere have benefited …
