Please be advised that our Cape Town Expedition Base will be moving on 1 March 2012.
Our new base will be situated at Unit 3, First floor, 3 Waterview Close, Century City Boulevard, Century City, 7446.
You are currently browsing the Sirdar Astute Business Expedition Blog blog archives for February, 2012.
Upcoming events
February 28th, 2012If you want to grow your business, do not miss out on the following events.
| Date | Title of talk | City | Time | Read More/Register |
| 1 Mar | How to be an Effective Business Owner | Pretoria | 07:00 –09:30 | gerhardbarnard@sirdargroup.com |
| 7-9 Mar | Sirdar Business Summit | Pretoria | 17:30 – 21:30
09:00 –19:00 09:00 –16:30 |
gerhardbarnard@sirdargroup.com |
| 15 Mar | How to be an Effective Business Owner | Bloemfontein | 07:00 –9.30 | gerhardbarnard@sirdargroup.com |
A warm welcome to Sirdar’s newest team members
February 28th, 2012We would like to welcome the newest additions to the Sirdar Group – Estelle Murray and Janine Smith.
Estelle Murray
Estelle has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She has over 20 years of experience in the private education sector, during which time she served as lecturer, marketer, course writer and principal. She has worked in various business sectors including publishing, tourism and finance. Estelle has a strong background in administration and operations, hands-on management experience, as well as a strong sales and marketing background and understanding.
Estelle joined Sirdar in 2011 because she believes in Sirdar’s vision of assisting SMEs to grow and improve profitability. She currently works as a governance panel administrator at Sirdar South Africa, Cape Town. She is passionate about the connection between a good governance panel director, the enterprise, and the difference this connection can make to SMEs. Estelle’s extensive expertise within a variety of challenging business environments enables her to assist with the implementation of governance in SMEs by connecting the goals of the board with the community as well as the individual. She believes that with training and commitment, these goals are within everyone’s reach.
Janine Smith
Janine has a LLB (Hons) degree and has completed various postgraduate examinations including in Business Law, Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Advanced Commercial Litigation, Commercial Law, Taxation, Professional Conduct and Regulation and several others. She is an accredited assessor with the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA), a facilitator for skills such as customer service and communication, and is currently working towards completing an Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) qualification. Over the last 26 years, Janine has gained both local and international experience in commercial law, property, employment, company secretarial functions, energy resources, corporate law, management, training and development. She has excellent interpersonal communication skills, organisational agility and exceptional management and accountancy skills.
Janine chose to join Sirdar in 2011 because she wanted to work for an organisation whose guiding principles and ethos mirrored her own, providing her with the opportunity to work in an environment where she can make a difference. She works as an expedition services manager at Sirdar South Africa in Cape Town. Janine is passionate about governance and the structures it provides, as well as the growth and development that results when SMEs embrace the governance process. She strives to provide Sirdar’s clients with excellent service in their governance journey and pursuit of Extreme Business Success.
The Laws of Extreme Business Success
February 28th, 2012Carl Bates’ new book, The Laws of Extreme Business Success, was recently released. This inspiring book provides invaluable advice for SMEs and business owners who are open to looking at their businesses in a whole new way.
The book takes us on a journey through the 12 Laws of Extreme Business Success, as Carl shares his visionary understanding of what SMEs need to take their business to new heights in an easy-to-read and inspiring way.
Here is a short excerpt from Law Twelve – The Law of Resolution:
Extreme Business Success recognises that you can only move forward when you have resolved or released the baggage of the past. This baggage can take the form of unresolved or hidden issues with people and associates, old ways of doing things that no longer apply, outdated ways of thinking or incomplete actions that prevent both you and your business from moving forward. Bringing these issues to light and resolving them in effective ways will empower both you and your business to step up to the next level of success.
Sound interesting? If you want a copy of The Laws of Extreme Business Success with a personalised message from Carl, contact Sirdar South Africa on southafrica@sirdargroup.com for more information or go to www.carlbates.com and order a copy today! To purchase the Amazon Kindle version, click on the following link: http://astore.amazon.com/sirdpres-20/detail/B005P0AM0I
Risk and compliance in the SME boardroom by Ansie Ramalho, Chief Executive at IoDSA
February 28th, 2012Risk and compliance should be high on the agenda of boards, including SME boards. Those that are in doubt of this statement need only to consider the developments with regard to supply chain management. Companies have become their suppliers’ keepers, or at least that is the expectation. Fair labour practices and maintaining human rights down the supply chain are factors that need to be assessed by the customer company. For SMEs as suppliers, in many instances this means that its own practices will come under scrutiny, and risk management and compliance are the typical areas that will be subjected to customers due diligence before a supplier will be accepted or retained.
The main motivators for having risk management and compliance in place are that it protects the entity’s reputation and its ability to generate value in the long-term. An additional factor is that it protects directors from personal or criminal liability in instances of non-compliance. These are the measures that differentiate an SME from all its competitors.
At a minimum, we advise that an SME does the following concerning risk and compliance:
- Identify key stakeholders, key drivers of the business and key dependencies and determine how these risks will be managed and opportunities capitalised on.
- Identify the legislation applicable to the entity and implement a system to ensure compliance. This will involve assigning specific responsibility for this to a senior employee.
- Management should report to the board on the above regularly, and there should be some assurance provided to the board through a high-level internal control assessment that could be negotiated with the auditors to include in their scope. For management reporting to serve as the first line of control, there needs to be some independence on the board to avoid a situation where the board marks its own homework.
Business Tip of the Month by Janine Smith, expedition services manager, Sirdar South Africa: Managing risk in the workplace
February 28th, 2012Every business faces risks that could present threats to its success. Managing business risk means managing the protection of your employees, customers, property, information and the environment. Businesses that have identified risks will be better prepared to deal with them, and to do so in a more cost-effective manner.
The main categories of risk to consider are:
- Strategic – for example, a competitor entering the market
- Compliance – responding to the introduction of new health and safety legislation
- Financial – non-payment by a customer or increased interest charges on a business loan
- Operational – the breakdown or theft of key equipment
These categories are not rigid and some parts of your business may fall into more than one category. The risks attached to data protection, for example, could be considered when reviewing both your operations and your business’ compliance.
Other risks include:
- Environmental risks, including natural disasters
- Employee risk management, such as maintaining sufficient staff numbers and cover, employee safety and up-to-date skills
- Health and safety risks
- Commercial risks, including the failure of key suppliers or customers
There are four ways of dealing with, or managing, each risk that you have identified; you can accept, transfer, reduce or eliminate it. For example, you may decide to accept a risk because the cost of eliminating it completely is too high. You might decide to transfer the risk, which is typically done with insurance, or you may be able to reduce the risk by introducing new safety measures or eliminate it completely by changing the way you produce your product.
Risk management is not a one-off exercise. Continuous monitoring and reviewing are crucial for the success of your risk management approach. Such monitoring ensures that risks have been correctly identified and assessed, and appropriate controls put in place. It is also a way to learn from experience and make improvements to your risk management approach. When you have evaluated and agreed on the actions and procedures to reduce the risk, these measures need to be put in place.
All of this can be formalised in a risk management policy, setting out your business’ appetite for risk and its approach to risk management. This will be even more effective if you clearly assign responsibility for risk management to chosen employees. It is also a good idea to obtain commitment to risk management at the board level. Good risk management can improve the quality and returns of your business.
Compliance is a key legal management function for SMEs
February 28th, 2012An inevitable requirement of the successful conduction of any business is the management’s ability to fulfil the many compliance requirements which exist in all business environments. The legal management systems for SMEs should therefore include a system for identifying and fulfilling all compliance requirements of the business. This includes compliance with all contracts, legislation, industry and internal policies and procedures. For many SMEs the failure to implement a structured compliance system is a significant risk and could lead to the enforced closure of the business.
The Sirdar Legal Compass, which is a management tool for ensuring that any enterprise focuses on each element of legal management, contains three sectors which highlight the specific elements of fulfilling compliance requirements, namely:
- enterprise administration which focuses upon ensuring fulfilment of the Companies Act and other legislative administration obligations and company secretarial and corporate administration requirements;
- the legal and contractual sector which seeks to ensures that specific legal and contractual requirements continue to be adhered to as required or agreed between the relevant parties; and
- the legislation and regulation sector which refers to ensuring that legislation and any specific industry regulation requirements are adhered to on an on-going basis.
Developing a system for enterprise compliance and the ability of an SME to fulfil its compliance requirements will effectively lead to the mitigation of a significant risk for the SME, which will, in turn, enhance SME sustainability. Compliance should therefore be a key legal management function for all SMEs.
Welcome
February 28th, 2012Welcome to March 2012! For most of you, this month signifies the beginning of a new financial year. I trust that your budgets are in place, business plans are set and team goals aligned. So ready to go, right?
At this point you should stop to consider any risks that you might need to attend to. Failure to address these risks now could cost you a lot during this financial year. So what do you need to do about it?
Managing risk and compliance in business can sound extremely boring. Many SMEs tend to think that they do not need to consider these issues, as they believe they are managing everything just fine. The reality is often somewhat different, and the impact on your business if you do not address these issues can be catastrophic.
The Managing Risk and Compliance component of the Sirdar Management Compass is focused on keeping management’s eye on this key aspect of your business operations. It asks you to consider, on a regular basis, product and service quality, risk mitigation and external and internal compliance. But where do you find the time to do that?
When I am wearing my management hat, it is annoying at times that I have to focus on paperwork, finalising agreements and reviewing risks rather than getting out there and selling, or making the business grow. However, the truth is that far too many businesses get caught out by a risk that was not mitigated, an issue that was not addressed or a quality issue that everyone was “going to get around to fixing”. Any business growth successes are then washed away by the cost of clearing up the mess – as easily as the rain washed boulders down roads in Johannesburg last week!
Make 2012 a successful year by ensuring that the necessary foundations are in place in your business. Put time aside on a regular basis to address risks, and if there are some risks that you simply do not have time to focus on, pay someone to do it. If you do not address these risks, they could end up costing you more in the long term.
The Sirdar South Africa team wishes you an outstanding first month of the new financial year!
Sirdar in the News
- Newsflash: New Big Small Business programme on Summit TV
- Positive Business Online Magazine – Cash Flow Can Never Be A Problem In Business…EVER!
- Succeed Magazine – Take your business to the summit
- IN Magazine – Governance misunderstood
- Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce – Sirdar: A partnership of extreme business success
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