ENTREPRENEURSHIP NEWS

South African Breweries tackles unemployment by investing millions into entrepreneurship programme

13 MAY 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    ISSUED BY: MERCATIQUE CONSULTING

"Entrepreneurs play a vital role in job creation and providing opportunities to young people," says SAB.

As unemployment reaches a ten-year high in South Africa, it is evident that companies and business leaders have a clear role to play in nurturing the next generation of wealth and job creators.

The question remains, how do you get the 25% unemployed people, and some 15 million people not involved in economic inactive members of South Africa into employment? This is the current scale of the challenge facing our country as we tackle solutions to this seemingly grim problem. True, solving this conundrum will require action across both the public and private sectors, with a two-pronged approach. First, they need create more jobs and give young people the skills and confidence to fill them.

The good news is that the issue of youth unemployment is top of mind for the South African Breweries. In this, the 21st Anniversary of their Kickstart programme, the company has at its heart the goal of increasing employment, and encouraging entrepreneurship is core to these efforts. “Entrepreneurs play a vital role in job creation and providing opportunities to young people,” says. Simphiwe Mntambo, Enterprise Development Specialist (Youth Business) at SAB Kickstart. “Entrepreneurship is not only about allowing young people to follow their dreams and start their own businesses, it’s about fostering this ambition and giving them the tools to do this,” she imparts. “We believe that through SAB Kickstart we will see a significant change in the youth employment statistics.”

“Create businesses that thrive, not just survive”

Entrepreneurship in South Africa is not a foreign concept, but the true challenge lies in capacity and the ability to build the dream. “The challenge now is to provide these dynamic young people with the support and the environment they need to turn their ambitions into reality,” says Mntambo. “We have seen that most entrepreneurs struggle with attracting adequate capital into their enterprises and the skill to utilise this capital well due to an inability to strategically operationalise specific financial and business growth requirements and needs of their enterprises for the long term. The challenge now is to provide these dynamic young people with the support and the environment they need to turn their ambitions into reality,” says Octavius Phukubye, SAB Manager Enterprise Development.

South Africa, in general, is plagued by poor entrepreneurship and meagre education standards and a weak knowledge economy, which ultimately perpetuates socioeconomic inequalities. “Take for example that our country’s quality of Maths and Science education is ranked #144 in world,” shares Mntambo. The Government recognises the SME sector as engine for economic growth and reducing unemployment, and they estimate by 2020 this sector will reduce unemployment by 10%. Furthermore, government and communities are seeking more value from private sector empowerment initiatives, thus placing pressure on corporates to devise bold moves that change the game for economic transformation. SAB Kickstart affords SAB and its entrepreneurs the opportunity to make a genuine contribution towards the national vision, indicated by the National Development Plan, of creating one million jobs by 2030 through involvement of big business and the power of entrepreneurship.

Nine entrepreneurs taken under SAB KickStart’s wing

Nine emerging entrepreneurs went through a rigorous selection process and on May 5, 2016; SAB KickStart announced the 2016 candidates who received mentorship and training to further develop their business ventures.

The annual SAB KickStart, initiative has been empowering young business minds for over two decades, while the programme is interested in developing and ensuring the sustainability of small businesses. The SAB KickStart finalists and their business will be conscientiously monitored throughout the year and their mentorship structured to best suit their changing business needs.

The entrepreneurs were:

Silindile Dube, 31, owner of Duo Glass
Pravashen Naidoo, 33, owner of eWaste Africa
Brian Ramufhufhi, 35, owner of Mukhwama Manufacturing
Thuli Radebe, 29, owner of Eyam Projects
Philip Ndamase, 30, owner of Ndamase Investments
Noluthando Buthelezi, 35, owner of Tropical Island
Donal Valoyi, 30, owner of Zulzi
Inga Vanga, 33, owner of Inga Vanqa Quantity Surveyors
Mamorajane Lephoto, 31, owner of Lephotho Farmeries

Contributing toward the NDP for 2030

Each of the entrepreneurs selected operate within key industries identified at a national level by government as having the greatest potential to create jobs at the level required to lower the country’s unemployment rate. The core industries and sectors are Agriculture and Food Processing, Renewable Energy, Mining and Minerals, Construction, Health, ICT, Science and Electronics, Automotive, Transport, Chemicals, Plastics, Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics, Tourism, Arts and Crafts, Metal Fabrication, Textiles, Clothing and Footwear. Eligible business should also be operational for a minimum of 18 months and not more than 5 years, be in the post-revenue stage (sales made and concept proven), generate less than R5 million in revenue per annum, employ a maximum of 15 employees (temporary or fulltime or a combination), be at least 50% black owned and managed, and demonstrate high growth potential that is scalable, with a sustainable competitive advantage.

The key objective of SAB KickStart and its model of business development support is to ensure that the small medium enterprises thrive rather than merely survive. This support creates an enabling environment in which young entrepreneurs are able to assist others in becoming economically active.

SAB Kickstart Boost affords SAB and its entrepreneurs the opportunity to make a genuine contribution towards the national vision, indicated in the National Development Plan, of creating one million jobs by 2030 through involvement of big business and the power of entrepreneurship. This is aligned to SAB’s targeted approach towards building strong South African communities is outlined in its global sustainable development framework, Prosper. One of the strategy’s key imperatives is aimed at accelerating growth and social development through its value chains by supporting more than 30,000 small enterprises through it various enterprise development initiatives, including, SAB KickStart.

YOUTH MONTH NEWS

#YouthMonth: Seven tips for minding the gap with Afrillennials

3 JUN 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    

Do you find yourself asking "What would Google do?" in your endeavour to understand Afrillennials (African Millennials) in the workplace? You don't have to unless you're hiring the 1% of the 1% of the 1% of brilliant millennials around the globe.

This according to Richard Mulholland, founder of Missing Link and speaker at Y!Con 2016:



Here’s our take on what he had to say about the elusive millennial market. 

The world has been lying to you

Afrillennials shouldn’t be a significant cohort as they were not defined by any significant historical event like the Maturists (born pre-1945), Babyboomers (born pre-1960) or even Generation X (born pre-1980). These young adults face no significant wars, fixed gender roles or post-war booming. He’s not saying that they do not exist, but rather that having young adults in this era alongside evolution is nothing new and special treatment of this generation is not needed.

There is no new world of work

Graduates appear to have an insatiable appetite to reshape the world of work as we know it, but that shouldn’t dictate reality. People used to work for different purposes like home ownership and job security whereas now graduates seek work-life balance and even flexibility, but this is not new. Students want what the world has been working towards. It’s a multi-generational desire that increases as life gets busier and more complex.

You don’t need a hipster workforce

You don’t need to hire the hipsters of the world to ensure your business moves forward and you don’t need to change your brand to fit one generation. There are simple adjustments to make to ensure attraction and retention of the right young talent, however the benefits companies offer are a privilege, not a necessity. Attracting and retaining the very best candidates? Now that requires a bit more exertion, and in this instance Google makes a good example. 

Their dreams are manageable

Younger generations have entered businesses for years with big ideas, hopes and dreams. They’ve also managed to make their picture fit within the puzzle of work life. Employees get paid a salary to do their jobs and it’s the norm to use the rest of one’s time to reach other personal goals beyond a career. Doing only what we love is not a reality that pays. Businesses and Afrillennials need to be realistic and manage one another’s expectations. 

They need a shot

People have spent their lives working towards work-life balance and graduates entering the workplace feel entitled to ask for this benefit because they see that prior generations are achieving this ideal. This is just one of the perks in the limelight today. It’s not a requirement that new generations reap the benefits of what other generations worked tirelessly for, but rather that they are granted the opportunity to work toward shaping their ideal world of work. 

They’re always growing

South Africans express often how annoyed they are by their younger colleagues that think they know better. It’s true that Afrillennials think they can do things better than the older generations, but only because they can create better methods and techniques in order to do things easier and faster. It’s human nature to find problems and then create solutions in order to work towards improvement. Afrillennials do however need insight, guidance and practical experience to grow, which only prior generations can offer. 

Tech disruption has been happening

Technology seems to be a common solution to many issues in the workplace. The easiest way to resolve spending too much time or money on resources is to automate a process. We hate to break it to you but people have been implementing and surviving tech disruption for years, backdating to the time people used mathematicians to calculate their day’s takings, to today having calculators to do just that and more. Graduates are practically glued to their phones and other technologies because it’s what they’ve been exposed to and it’s where they are led by brands every day.

A fresh perspective

In the words of Douglas Adams, anything that is in the world when you are born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of how the world works. Anything that’s invented between the ages of 15 and 35 is new, exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things.

Businesses should embrace graduates as part of the natural order of workplace growth and development, without feeling intimidated by the fact that they are bringing new ideas and attitudes into the workplace. A business isn’t defined by its success alone, but how the business has improved society, including the lives of its employees and the legacy it leaves for generations to come.

MARKETING NEWS

Africa's top 30 entrepreneurs under 30

30 MAY 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    

Forbes Africa's 30 under 30 list has hit the shelves, revealing the 30 most promising entrepreneurs from around the continent, across various sectors.

“This is the most important list of the year for Forbes Africa. If one young African reads it and is inspired enough to start a business, it has done its job,” said Chris Bishop, managing editor of Forbes Africa.

The list was edited by Ancillar Mangena, a Forbes Africa journalist and an under 30 herself. She spent months looking for the best this continent has to offer. Research, coupled with nominations from readers, brought the number to 250 potential under 30’s. The team worked for weeks, verifying and investigating, to whittle it down.

The team favoured entrepreneurs with fresh ideas and took into account their business size, location, potential, struggles and determination. A panel of judges then debated the final 30.

The list has entrepreneurs from around the continent, from Kenya, Nigeria, Madagascar, Tanzania, Benin, Gambia, Zimbabwe and many more.

Nadav Ossendryver, Siya Beyile, Inga Gubeka, Emmanuel Bonoko and Mogau Seshoene represent South Africa. Nkosana Mazibisa is the only Zimbabwean on the list; Momarr Mass Taal representing Gambia; Hanta Tiana Ranaivo Rajaonarisoa for Madagascar; Vital Sounouvou for Benin; Kelvin Doe for Sierra Leone; William Elong for Cameroon; and Fatoumata BA for Senegal.

Nigerians on the list include Uneku Atawodi  and Obinwanne Okeke; Kenyans include Barclay Okari and Joel Macharia.

“This has been a very long but interesting journey. I think I am more excited about the list a little more than the entrepreneurs. I have become attached to each and every one of them because the vetting process was so long and I had to talk to them often.

“I am confident they are the billionaires of tomorrow. Peruse them, argue over them and follow their journeys. We find this list exciting, thought provoking and forward looking,” said Mangena. 

Forbes Africa will have daily Twitter Q&A sessions with the class of 2016 at @forbesafrica #30under30.

BRANDING NEWS

Coca-Cola bottlers' merger finally approved

12 MAY 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    BY: HILARY JOFFE

The much delayed merger to create Africa's largest Coca-Cola bottler was finally given the nod on Tuesday by the Competition Tribunal.

© Michael Turner – 123RF.com

Approval was granted after conditions for the tie-up between divisions of SAB and Coca-Cola and the operations of the Gutsche family were hammered out in lengthy talks with Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, trade unions and the Competition Commission.

The commission finally approved the deal after the merging parties agreed to a series of conditions on employment, empowerment, localisation of inputs for Coca-Cola and Appletiser products and access to retail cooler (refrigerator) space for small beverage producers. 

The merging parties said on Tuesday the deal, which was originally announced more than 18 months ago, would be implemented as soon as practicable.

SABMiller CEO Alan Clark said the merger would deliver demonstrable benefits to SA through significant inward investment, additional tax revenues, job creation, small-enterprise creation, domestic procurement and transformation.

The Coca-Cola Company's president James Quincey said the creation of Coca-Cola's largest bottling partner in Africa would strengthen its business, while closely aligning it with the South African government's imperatives for social and economic development.

The new company, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA), will have annual revenue of $2.9bn and operate across 12 countries, accounting for 40% of Africa's Coca-Cola volumes. The deal will also see the Coca-Cola Company take over ownership of the Appletiser brands, although Appletiser will still be produced in SA for the domestic and African markets.

Appletiser inputs will be at least 80% South African and 20% of Appletiser SA will be sold to new black shareholders.

Black ownership of CCBA will increase from 11% to 20% over five years and the company will invest R800m to support enterprise development in agriculture and retail, and distribution in the Coca-Cola system.

The cooler issue was the final dispute that held up the process this week, with the merging parties and the commission eventually reaching agreement that smaller beverage producers could access up to 10% of all space in small retail stores, such as spaza shops, that have space for only one cooler.

The merger had already been approved by the competition authorities in all the other jurisdictions on the rest of continent and was delayed only by SA's regulatory process, in which Mr Patel had intervened on public interest grounds.

Source: Business Day

AGRICULTURE NEWS

Women-in-Maize celebrates first harvest season

27 MAY 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    

A multi-million Rand investment by South African Breweries (SAB), Department of Small Business Development and the Agriculture Reasearch Council (ARC), Women-in-Maize, which supports the empowerment of women-run maize farms, began its first successful harvest season.

Photo supplied

Harvesting on the 11 participating cooperative farms began at the start of May and will end in mid-June, following the planting season in November 2015. 

Addressing challenges

The Minster of the Department of Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu has adopted Women-in-Maize as one her department’s flagship empowerment programmes. 

Women-in-Maize is aimed at addressing some of the challenges encountered by smallholding emerging farmers in rural and township communities, such as access to market, entry into big business supply chains, access to finance and participation in the formal economy. Participating Women-in-Maize farmers are assisted with skills improvement, financing, training and access to markets, most importantly being included in SAB’s supply chain. 

“This initiative is an example of how much we can achieve when government and the private sector work together. We are confident that this partnership will help us defeat the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality on the long-term. My department is determined to empower women-owned enterprises to participate meaningfully in the economic mainstream. The task of ensuring that the Ekangala Cooperative and others across the country grow and thrive, rests on our collective shoulders,” says Zulu. 

Minister Zulu commended SAB for its contribution and urged others in the private sector to follow this example. 

Ekangala Primary Cooperative

Ekangala Primary Cooperative, a 100% women-owned and run business, is one of the first participants in the Women-in-Maize programme, which saw a total of 11 cooperatives with more than 120 women farmers plant non-GMO yellow maize on a total of 1,800 hectares of land in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the North West, in late 2015. 

Run by a total of five female members, Ekangala Primary Cooperative initially specialised in poultry and vegetable farming before participating in Women-in-Maize. The cooperative has since planted, for the first time since beginning operations at least five years, on their total 45 hectares of land anticipating a minimum of four tonnes per hectare. Previous to Women-in-Maize, only fifteen hectares of the land was used yielding an average of one tonne per hectare. 

It is anticipated that in total the 11 cooperatives will supply SAB with approximately 9% of its total maize requirement, or 13,000 tonnes of maize. This result has been achieved despite the widespread drought experienced by farmers across the country. “We understand and recognise that while agriculture provides the livelihood of thousands in our rural communities, it can be a great challenge for the smallholder farmer to advance beyond basic subsistence farming and enter into the commercial supply chains of big businesses. We work with small-scale farmers to overcome these challenges while ensuring land is used responsibly, food supply is secure, biodiversity is protected and crops can be accessed at reasonable prices,” says Monwabisi Fandeso, SAB executive director corporate affairs and transformation.

SAB’s strategic sustainable development framework

The Women-in-Maize initiative forms part of SAB’s strategic sustainable development framework, Prosper, introduced in late 2014. Prosper takes a targeted approach towards building strong South African communities and highlights tangible targets to be achieved by the company over the next five years in the areas of responsible alcohol consumption, securing water resources, reducing waste and carbon emissions, supporting small enterprises, including emerging farmers, and the support of responsible and sustainable land use for brewing crops. 

Through Prosper, SAB is committed to accelerating growth and social development through its value chains by supporting more than 30,000 small enterprises, including within the agricultural sector. Further to this, the business will support the responsible, sustainable use of land for brewing crops by creating secure, sustainable supply chains and by helping small-scale farmers increase profitability, production and social development through its sustainable agricultural initiative, Go Farming, of which Women-in Maize is a part.

Prosper and its underlying socio-economic development initiatives are well positioned to make a meaningful contribution towards national government’s Nine Point Plan, specifically its goal towards “Unlocking the Potential of SMMEs and Cooperatives”. Additionally, SAB’s focus on growth and development of agriculture as a means of creating sustainable jobs supports government’s National Development Plan’s Vision 2030 seeking to create one million jobs within the sector, most especially in rural areas and townships. 

“Over recent years, SAB has up-weighted its investment in the local agricultural sector, with a particularly focus on developing, through several support streams, emerging black farmers and women farmers as seen through the Women-in-Maize programme.

“By sourcing raw materials directly from farmers in South Africa, SAB is establishing local supply chains which help reduce costs, improve efficiencies, create jobs and ultimately, strengthen local economies,” says Fandeso.

SKILLS TRAINING NEWS

Training is more about compliance than skills transfer

26 MAY 2016 |  

The amendments to the Skills Development Act and the requirements of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) point requirements make training once again a compliance issue, instead of the correct reaction to skills gaps that would increase productivity.

© Robert Churchill – 123RF.com

While this may increase the application of skills development in the workplace, Gizelle McIntyre, Director of the Institute of People Development (IPD), worries that the focus and approach to training will be negatively affected. 

“The concern is that people are being trained with the sole purpose of garnering 25 ‘magical’ points. This means that the training is often not based on the skills needed, according to a gap analysis, but rather on whichever training will achieve the most points, in the shortest time. Worse still, whichever training provider has the best ratings, rather than the best solutions, will be chosen as a compliance partner, rather than as a leader in skills development.

“When will South Africa opt for a healthy skills development approach? The key is to employ skills development in order to foster better engaged workers, build people’s proficiencies and upskill the nation and not to gain some BBBEE points or a tick on your scorecard. This process is garnering some cynicism and a feeling of exhaustion amongst the believers of real skills development and transformation. Ironic, considering the points can still be gained with a focus on meeting real needs. 

McIntyre foresees a bad year to come for the skills development industry, as rumours abound that Skills Levy claims for discretionary grants might fall away or be limited to 10% and to using public entities. 

“Too many corporations have made their Skills Levy claim their entire training budget. If the claims fall away, as expected, these businesses will have no source of funding left for skills development. Training departments are instructed to ‘find the money’ – but do we ask our accountants to find the money to cover their fees? Some offer 1% of an employee’s salary for training. Has anyone ever calculated what this equates to? If they had, they would have realised that not much can be done with that limited budget.”

Facilitators’ role will change

The Skills Development Facilitator’s role will also change because of the Skills Levy changes. “They will no longer be tasked with claiming against the Levy and acting as financiers. Instead they will have to revert to their original role, what it always should have been about; learning and development.” 

Strategic planning and decision making should involve learning and development practitioners and HR department, to consider skills gaps and evaluate the consequences of not training staff. “What we need is a complete shift in the perception of what skills development is and what real return on investment looks like.”

Although some companies have established in-house training facilities, this training will not be awarded any BBBEE points. The only way to upskill staff effectively and attain the elusive 25 points is through an accredited training provider - either an EME provider or one that has a good BBBEE level - and delivers in the correct categories.

“The unfortunate consequence is that training teams are being retrenched and valuable training centres are closing their doors. Is there ever going to come a time when corporate South Africa will train for the right reasons?” concludes McIntyre. 

The changes recommended in the NSLP 2015 proposal document gazetted as Government Gazette No. 39386, include that 80% of the current SETA Discretionary Grant would be shifted to the National Skills Fund (equivalent to the entire current Pivotal Grant). Employers would still be able to apply for the 20% Mandatory Grant (unchanged) and 10% of the remaining Discretionary Grant (renamed Sector Specific Grant).

BANKING & FINANCE NEWS

Tsogo Sun in Cape casino owner revamp

5 APR 2016 | SAVE | EMAIL | PRINT |  PDF    BY: ANN CROTTY

Tsogo Sun and Sun International have resuscitated plans for a reshuffling of casino ownership in the Western Cape.

Tsogo Sun CEO Marcel von Aulock. Image credit:BDlive

Less than a year after abandoning a more ambitious plan, Tsogo Sun has announced it will be acquiring a 20% interest in Sunwest International and Worcester Casino for R1.3bn.

The deal will allow Sun International to remain in control and will also allow Sun International’s black empowerment partner, Grand Parade Investments (GPI), to remain invested in the casino industry.

Significantly, given the prolonged delays the previous more ambitious plan endured before the competition authorities, the latest proposal is likely to be classified as nonnotifiable.

Tsogo Sun CEO Marcel von Aulock said his company was not acquiring any influence in the management of the company and would not have rights to appoint directors.

If the deal is no more than the acquisition of an investment stake and is not notifiable in terms of the Competition Act, the competition authorities will not investigate it.

In terms of the new deal, Tsogo Sun will acquire a 10% voting and economic interest in Sunwest and Worcester from Sun International for R675m. It will acquire an additional 10% in both from GPI, also for R675m. Tsogo Sun says the acquisition is an attractive investment opportunity providing it with an interest in quality casino assets in the Western Cape, where it has limited exposure.

The original plan, which was abandoned last June, would have seen Tsogo picking up a 40% stake in the casinos for R2.2bn. The deal would have given Tsogo, which already controls the Mykonos, Garden Route and Caledon casinos, influence over all five Western Cape casino licences. After an investigation, the Competition Commission recommended to the Competition Tribunal that it prohibit the proposed transaction.

Despite this recommendation, the merging parties persevered with the proposal, hoping it could persuade the tribunal it was not anticompetitive. In June, it abandoned this plan.

Analysts said GPI might have been keen to sell its casino interests and use the cash proceeds to fund the expansion of its fast-food venture, Burger King.

Source: Business Day