From the pen – Leadership Earlier this year when the McDonald’s Corporation announced the appointment of Cyril Ramaphosa as Developmental Licensee (DL), responsible for the operation of McDonald’s restaurants in South Africa, Chris Gilmour, an analyst at Absa Asset Management questioned whether a change in operator would really make any difference. He shared that McDonalds…
From the pen Investments In this issue we deal with the question of investments. How it can potentially grow our economy and how to define and plan for it, and we also identify the hotspot for future investments: Africa. Sentiments about our continent, over the past few decades, have transitioned from the loathsome explorer age…
The Economy Over the past few months, all across the world, we’ve seen the beginning of instability in almost every aspect of our political, social and economic life. Students in Yemen engaged in anti-government protests (read our special interest article on page 12), the tragic earthquake crisis in Japan, and North Africa embroiled in civil…
From scorekeeper to visionary Everyone agrees, today’s deal-makers are once again focused on growth. And while growth strategies for both business and economies must surely take on a new look, given our recent economic realities, what we are left to ask is – by what will that new look be informed? What are the conversations,…
Visionary Leadership At a recent AU meeting, French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, warned that the world needs to take a different look at leadership today. “In today’s world, one can no longer govern the same way as in the world of yesterday. Either this change is inflicted upon you, in which case you leave the door…
Shifting Mindsets on our continent I was stunned to find leading foreign affairs and social commentators entangled in a twitter war of views on the ‘real’ impetus for the recent Tunisian coup. Now while these debates started before President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted and found refuge in Saudi Arabia, the question being…
FROM THE PEN The Sustainability Issue What an incredibly busy year we’ve had as a country and as SAICA. A successful hosting of the world cup, strikes and protests, a fairly well performing Rand, a bit of an economic upturn, reshuffling in our National Assembly cabinet, SAICA’s 30 year celebration, a strong focus on strategy…
FROM THE PEN The Driving Issue Every business must answer the question, what drives your business? And it’s no different for SAICA. In his column this month, Nazeer Wadee talks broadly about SAICA’s strategic imperatives and mentions quite proudly that the results of the latest MSI survey has risen to 84% in the first wave…
FROM THE PEN BRAND SA As I write this month’s editorial, brand South Africa is truly in the spotlight. The Information Bill and the media tribunal debate; former police chief, Jackie Selebi, granted leave to appeal his sentence; July trade surplus of R2 billion; and a new statistics revelation that black South Africans own 18…
FROM THE PEN THE GLOBAL CFO Never before has the perception of Africa, and especially South Africa, been more positive than during the 2010 world cup. First time foreign visitors to our shores were perhaps jolted into a reality we’ve long lived with. Our infrastructure proved world-class, our local judicial processes worked so well even…