Author: Contributor
By Brett Parker, SAP Africa MD What a difference a century makes. If we stepped back in time to a hundred years ago we’d find a primitive China; a Middle East that had yet to discover the riches of oil and most of Southeast Asia consisted of countries that were barely distinguishable from medieval societies. It was an entirely different world. Roll back two hundred years and many European nations would be far removed from the modern countries they are today. It is an enduring myth that fools us to believe everything has always been like it is today; that the…
As a first-mover into automotive assembly in Sub Saharan Africa, Nissan joined a number of South African-based companies that are creating successful businesses on the continent. Mike Whitfield, MD for Nissan Group of Africa, gives some insights on the company’s strategy from an automotive perspective. Almost four years after Nissan ventured into auto assembly in Nigeria, it fills me with pride when I am asked to comment on our success as an auto company operating in Africa. Especially given that challenges often over-ride opportunities when considering the pros and cons of business expansion on the continent. These are some of…
By Darryl Bernstein, partner in Baker McKenzie’s Disputes and ITC Practice Groups in Johannesburg According to the Gemalto Breach Level Index, released in March 2017, South Africa experienced nine reported security breaches in 2016. Across Africa, 45.2 million records were stolen in 2016, compared with 38.5 million in 2015. Africa had 17 data breaches in total, compared with six in 2015. It was not the rise in security breaches that caused the most alarm, however. Gemalto noted in the survey that the delay in disclosing or identifying security breaches was the most concerning factor. In March 2017 Ster-Kinekor in South Africa announced that its website…
By Ahmed Cassim, MD of Hello Paisa The introduction of new banking, investment, credit and insurance products using established mobile money solutions will be critical in including more Africans into the formal financial system. Currently, most adults in the region mainly use mobile money solutions to either buy airtime or make domestic remittance payments to relatives and friends. However, after achieving great success in providing such a service to a large portion of the South African migrant population, the scope for Hello Paisa to launch a mobile money solution and convert an even larger fraction of the unbanked into not only…
by Ben Dickson As artificial intelligence takes leaps at an increasing pace, there’s fear that robots will conquer the future and put humans out of jobs. While technological unemployment is a worry that has its own merits, there are some fields where there is already a shortage of human experts. One of those fields is healthcare. It takes years of education and hands-on experience to train a decent doctor. And as the figures show, there’s a shortage of physicians everywhere. Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can help alleviate this problem. AI-powered tools can help healthcare workers and doctors improve…
by Angus Brown, co-founder of eBucks.com and MD of Banking Acumen Have we seen the peak of internet banking in South Africa? Although the banks are quite tight-lipped about their usage numbers, I suspect that the number of customers using a desktop computer to do their banking is declining. We know that the majority of logons come from office workers, but we also know that the number of employed people (including government workers) in South Africa is stagnant. While many up-market homes have a desktop PC or a laptop, and optical fibre services have been introduced in certain suburbs, the growth…
By Brett Parker, Managing Director – SAP Africa at SAP When you want to know the future, acknowledge the past. As citizens of a rapidly accelerated world, we are seduced by the idea that our situation is unique. In many ways, it is – not the least how the workplace is changing. But the change in the workplace itself is not new, nor is the regression invited by companies that do not heed this shift. Technology can rapidly alter how work gets done. When the steam engine started appearing in the late 1700s, many sectors were not enthusiastic. They couldn’t…
by Brett Parker, managing director at SAP Africa “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished,” said the wise Benjamin Franklin. But we don’t need to take his word for it: there are many inspired thoughts that punctuate the role of change in business. The more difficult question is when change should happen. This topic makes business leaders nervous. Change is good, but so is stability. The world does not comprise of only mavericks and trailblazers – and even those often reach their stature through steady determination, not constantly rocking the boat. Timing is important, as is a clear view of what…
When Facebook accidentally listed millions of users as “dead” in an embarrassing glitch it was a reminder that everyone needs to plan for their own digital death.
Many executives are realising that now is the time to start defining their analytics strategies, and start building the tools that enable their organisations to make sense of the masses of data streaming in.