VIEWPOINT: TED It!

TED (technology, entertainment, design) is a presentation format that invites thought leaders to share their ideas during a formal TED conference. A TED-style talk is highly inspiring, and you can use the same structure to deliver your next speech. How to structure a TED talk Choose a topic that you are highly passionate about. Although…

VIEWPOINT: Leaders know, go and show

I recently read Deloitte’s Human capital trends 2015 and learnt some valuable things about building future leaders that I’d like to share with you. According to Deloitte’s survey, building leadership is Africa’s paramount issue in the arena of human capital. The capability gap for building great leaders has widened all around the globe and organisations…

ANALYSIS: Is there a future for international tax planning?

The base erosion and profit shifting initiative is being designed to influence ultimately how global multinational corporates arrange their affairs from a tax planning perspective. An inevitable result is and will be changes to the way tax practitioners advise their clients. Deborah Tickle explains Globalisation and the digital age have caused the world to ‘shrink’.…

VIEWPOINT: CLEVENUE

That is, clever revenue On my latest trip to the Nespresso store at the V&A, I was reminded once again of how amazing their business model is. You start off by buying the Nespresso machine, which is reasonably priced, and think that’s your big capital investment. It is the capital investment, but it’s not exactly…

ANALYSIS: NEW AUDITOR’S REPORT

Comments by auditors immediately following the global financial crisis that they had had a ‘good’ crisis – referring to the absence of pertinent audit failures – begged the question as to the relevance of the audit and, more particularly, the auditor’s report. By Linda de Beer Auditors play an important role in the financial reporting…

VIEWPOINT: PRICING A SANDWICH

Smaller families, longer life expectancy, and late parenthood in life mean that the number of people ‘sandwiched’ is growing, with an estimated 2,4 million Britons juggling their responsibilities for both parents and children. Being married and affluent roughly doubles your chances of being ‘sandwiched’. The Pew Research Centre (US) estimated that in 2013 nearly half…

VIEWPOINT: CAN FINANCE INNOVATE?

Contrary to popular belief, the most creative teams do not solely consist of blue sky dreamers. Groups with a variety of cognitive personality types produce higher levels of innovation, say Ella Miron-Spektor, Miriam Erez and Eitan Navah of the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology. In a study of 41 radical innovation teams of a large defence…

INFLUENCE: APC ACHIEVES GOALS

As the first cycle of the new Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) is completed, it is appropriate to reflect on the decision to substantially change the nature of the ‘Board Part 2’. Alex Watson explains SAICA clearly states that its role is to develop chartered accountants to be leaders in business, and this change in…