Syllabus Topics

04 APRIL 2017 – 11:49 AM LYNETTE DICEY

The most recent Sunday Times Top Companies Leaders on the Move event, in association with Johnnie Walker, took place on the same day SA awoke to the news that respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan had been axed, plunging the country into an uncertain future. On an unusually sombre day, it was perhaps appropriate to have an in-depth and meaningful discussion about leadership.

The first speaker of the day was entrepreneur Lebo Gunguluza, a Dragon investor on SA’s Dragon’s Den television show. He said that any position of leadership is tricky when you consider all the different stakeholders you need to satisfy. As an entrepreneur, he said, clients are essentially your employer, and the successful entrepreneur understands that he or she needs to ensure a good working relationship with even the most difficult client.

But what happens when the client’s values don’t align with your own? Does […]

While there are fears that employment equity provisions may be stifling the emergence of black entrepreneurs, schools are also battling to teach business-startup skills

16 MARCH 2017 – 07:07 AM STEPHEN TIMM

Amiena Hartley (31) runs two hair salons. But eight years ago, after completing a six-month entrepreneurship programme, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do.

“I had no experience in hair. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a hairdresser,” she says.

Instead of starting a business right after graduating from the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development in Cape Town, she opted to first gain experience in the sector while doing a three-year hair-care course.

In 2015, after undergoing a year-long incubation programme run by the academy, she used her own funds to buy a salon where she had been working and formed her Hair Corp brand. Last year she tapped a R50,000 grant from the National Youth Development Agency to buy […]

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