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Author: The Business Place

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Farming Entrepreneurially

by The Business Place
Archives
October 22, 2006

Farming Entrepreneurially New opportunities for emerging small farmers. Small farming used to be a wait and see game. The farmer would plant something and then wait and see what came up and then wait and see how much he was able to harvest. Then, as the true victim of circumstances way beyond his control, the farmer would then wait and see what he would be able to sell and wait and see what prices he would be able to achieve. There would be...

The social return on the Agriplanner programme

by The Business Place
Archives
September 27, 2006

The social return on the AgriPlanner programme The South African Institute for Entrepreneurship is a social profit organisation dedicated to supporting poverty eradication through enterprise development and the creation of entrepreneurs in all settings in South Africa. The idea of a ‘social profit’ is rooted in the premise of performance-based social investment. Under this paradigm, the work of “non profit organisations”, which is dedicated to achieving a social change agenda, far from being “not profitable” is of extreme social importance –...

Training trainers for the Agricultural Sector

by The Business Place
Archives
September 13, 2006

Training trainers for the Agricultural Sector “The times they are a’changing,” sings the well known song and certainly the training and learning needs in the Agricultural sector are in the midst of a changing environment. No longer is it enough for extension officers to go around and visit and offer their suggestions as to how to improve this or that, or suggest trying some new method, crop or variety. A whole new crop (excuse the pun) of trainers are needed, they need...

Recording impact change on entrepreneurial mindset of learners

by The Business Place
Archives
August 22, 2006

Recording impact change on entrepreneurial mindset of learners The validity of experimental methods and quantitative measurements, appropriately used, has never been in doubt. Within the last decade, qualitative methods have ascended to a level of parallel respectability. The field of evaluation has come to recognise that that, where possible, using multiple methods, both quantitative and qualitative, can be valuable since each has strengths and one approach can often overcome the weakness of another. Ironically, the paradigms debate (qualitative versus quantitative) is no...

Losing the entrepreneurship battle

by The Business Place
Archives
July 28, 2006

Author : CIE / UCT Losing the entrepreneurship battle SA’s entrepreneurial activity will continue to trail that of other developing countries unless enterprise education is drastically improved in our primary and secondary schools. The findings of the 2005 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, paint a grim picture of entrepreneurship in SA. First up, SA’s overall entrepreneurship ranking has dropped from 20th position in 2004 to 25th out of 35 last year. And the country’s total early-stage activity was measured at only 5,1%, down...

Baking the entrepreneurship cake

by The Business Place
Archives
July 22, 2005

Baking the Entrepreneurship Cake! Entrepreneurs become that way, because they get things going by constantly sniffing out opportunities with an insatiable curiosity, vision and passion. Unfortunately, entrepreneurship is regarded as a somewhat mystical attribute that only taints a lucky few. Passivity and inactivity tend to win as the learned mutter, fold their arms and declare it untrainable! But, that stale passé debate around whether entrepreneurs are born or made deserves no ink or breath. Any country with Olympic aspirations dare not just sit...

Visioning our own entrepreneurial future

by The Business Place
Archives
July 1, 2005

In 2005, the SAIE broadened the vision of the Institute and our work through the strategic process of “preferred futuring”. What is Preferred Futuring? Preferred Futuring was created by Ronald Lippitt about 25 years ago in his efforts to help graduate students breakout from their day-to-day, unproductive problem solving techniques. With Preferred Futuring he actually helped them “envision” the solutions they preferred. Lippitt made an important distinction between a preferred future and what he termed a predicted future. A preferred future, he...

Let’s develop entrepreneurs

by The Business Place
Archives
February 22, 2004

Achiever (Cape Media) 2004 Issue 8 Entrepreneurship is regarded as “a way of thinking, reasoning and acting that is opportunity oriented, holistic in approach and leadership” (Timmons,1999). It is a way of thinking apparently less common to South Africans than to individuals in most other developing and many developed countries. The results of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey, which compare levels of entrepreneurial activity in 37 participating countries, provide some surprising results that should serve as a wake-up call for South...

ENTREPRENEURSHIP – a national cross-cutting imperative

by The Business Place
Archives
October 22, 2003

Achiever 2003 Issues 7 (Cape Media) Entrepreneurship cuts across all sectors and all subjects. It is a value system, a life skill. It should be given the status of a critical national imperative! Resources should be poured into the establishment and support of intrapreneurs in institutions and entrepreneurs creating jobs. This is the vision, passion and work of the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship which provides entrepreneurship teaching materials to schools and trains entrepreneurs to run successful businesses. The Institute has produced entrepreneurship...

Learning to ride the entrepreneurship bicycle in the classroom

by The Business Place
Archives
June 1, 2003

Entrepreneurship is recognised as a driving force for growth and success. But if we understand it to be a mindset, an ethos, how can we teach people to be entrepreneurs, and what are the positive outcomes of so doing? Margie Worthington-Smith, MD of the South African Institute for Entrepreneurship, presents a refreshing philosophy. Turning teaching on its head Entrepreneurship is not science. Rather, it cuts across all sectors and all subjects. It is a value system, a life skill. Where traditional subjects...