On 1 September 2009, as financial services firm, Discovery Ltd was about to release its annual results for 2008/2009, its chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Adrian Gore, took some time to consider the company’s trajectory since its inception 16 years ago.
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Johannesburg-based Zest, well respected in the electric motor industry, was the only distributor of WEG motors throughout southern Africa. In 2001, its chief executive officer (CEO), James Blakemore, added variable speed drives (VSDs) to the product portfolio and, by 2009, Zest had become the fourth-biggest player in the local drives market.
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In November 2009, bidorbuy was the largest South African online marketplace. Following a failed attempt earlier in the year to purchase bidorbuy, kalahari.net
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In December 2008, Charlene Lewison, marketing director of the Johannesburg-based family business, Birdi Golf Apparel, surveyed the company’s well-stocked shelves with pride – but also with a growing sense of unease.
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In August 2006, the lease on The Phone Shop – a business that the Brill family had run for the past 18 years – was up for renewal. In recent years, the shop had not performed well, but Eran Brill believed that because it had developed a strong brand over the years, there was potential to make it profitable once again.
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In August 2009, Eran Brill, director of The Phone Shop (Pty) Ltd, a consumer electronic goods retailer, was about to renegotiate the lease on his Sandton City store.
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At the beginning of 2009, Natasha Sideris, owner and founder of Tashas – a hugely popular gourmet café in Atholl Square, Sandton...
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Doctor Nicolaas Duneas was in a quandary: as he sat in his dishevelled office at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), he pondered the future of his company Altis Biologics.
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In January 2008, the black-owned Pamodzi Investment Holdings (PIH) was at a crossroads, as its chief executive officer (CEO), Ndaba Ntsele, sat down with his board to discuss how to finance the growth of the business.
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In July 2009, businessman and entrepreneur, Martyn Mills of MCM Wines, reconsidered his marketing strategy. He had been exporting his own wine to China since 2003 and had recently signed an agreement with the prestigious South African wine estate, Groot Constantia, to export its wine to that country as well.
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In September 2007, Pindiwe Holomisa and Nomaciko Ngoasheng, started Yahluma Solutions Ltd with the intention of building a fully-owned contact centre in Buffalo City (Eastern Cape)...
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In the nine years since the inception of Young Designers Emporium (YDE), its founder, Paul Simon, had seen his vision of providing cutting-edge fashion and lifestyle products created by hopeful young South African designers...
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Wendy Luhabe, who had been voted “South Africa’s most powerful business woman measured in terms of influence, not wealth” by one of South Africa’s most respected business magazines...
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It was April 2005, six months after Rowlinson and Richardson had launched their virtual bank, Wizzit, into the South African market.
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It was a warm, Johannesburg summer’s day in January 2003 and Brian Richardson was deep in thought.
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Simon Stockley, SA Home Loans’ CEO, was a lawyer by education but an entrepreneur by nature; his colourful, nonconformist socks epitomised his character.
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It was October 2007, and a perfect early summer’s day in Cape Town. In his small loft office, Michael Meltzer, founder of Zacron Industries CC trading as Polecat, which manufactured and marketed a patented clasp and claw device used in shopfitting as well as many other applications, was deep in thought.
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The night before his tender proposal had to be submitted, Barry Berman, the founder of Creative Plates...
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Walking around a potential new building space of over 2000m2 in July 2006, Hein Koen and André Sharpe, joint founders of Habitaz, a provider of integrated virtual workspace infrastructure and related services, noted that they had achieved great success since the start of the business two years ago.
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