Corporate long-range planning in South Africa: its extent and nature

This thesis was written in response to the increasingly evident need for the most complete information possible on planning activity and practices among South African firms. It was also dictated by an urgent necessity to clarify the methodologies, techniques and frameworks used at present in business planning. Alas, only too often scholars and practitioners alike assume that a comprehensive and general theory on planning exists, complete with methodologies, models, frameworks and so forth. But anyone examining the vast amount of literature on planning and related subjects published during the past twenty years would find this to be a fallacy, and may experience the same desire for the clarification of the present status of the planning art as we did. This desire became one of the principal stimuli for our investigation. Some studies may be built on already well-established foundations, but this is unfortunately not the case in our enquiry as there is as yet no appreciable base consisting of a distinct body of knowledge and relevant theories. In attempting to delineate this knowledge, a necessary point of departure is an appraisal of the current state of human knowledge. We shall, therefore, start with a broad review of this knowledge and narrow it down to areas which are particularly relevant to business planning. This attempt will, hopefully, point to a body of distinct knowledge indispensable to modern planners and show that, - whilst a large body of this knowledge lies within a discipline called 'management science', other relevant knowledge is found in economics, organisation theory and theory of knowledge. This analysis will, at the same time, highlight the present status of the relevant theory of planning, and indicate gaps between the state of the art and the needs of the business. We shall suggest that a general planning theory must come from an interdisciplinary approach. The aim of these efforts is to develop a broad framework and guide for our analysis of planning activity, concepts and methodologies at present used by South African firms. On the basis of these findings we shall than make judgements on the manner in which South African planners address each of the descriptive and normative planning topics, and suggest possible directions for further research. Finally, we shall attempt to formulate a conceptual long-range planning model as we see it, and discuss the usefulness of formal, mathematical planning models as revealed by our study and survey

Aerospace management techniques: Commercial and governmental applications

A guidebook for managers and administrators is presented as a source of useful information on new management methods in business, industry, and government. The major topics discussed include: actual and potential applications of aerospace management techniques to commercial and governmental organizations; aerospace management techniques and their use within the aerospace sector; and the aerospace sector's application of innovative management techniques

Los Angeles Unified School District Arts Education and Creative Cultural Network Plan

This paper describes the 2012-2017 plan for funding arts education in the Los Angeles Unified School District. This mission for this project is as follows: The Visual and Performing Arts are an integral part of the District's comprehensive curriculum and are essential for learning in the 21st century. All LAUSD students, from every culture and socioeconomic level, deserve quality arts learning in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts as part of the core curriculum

A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

The effects of entrepreneurial quality on the success of small, medium and micro agri-businesses in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This paper estimates a logit model of the effects of entrepreneurial quality on business success in a stratified random sample of 44 small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) agribusiness owners financed by Ithala Development Finance Corporation, using loan repayment as a proxy for success. These owners were surveyed during October 2003-February 2004 and asked to score four components of entrepreneurial quality identified by Guzman and Santos (2001): preference for working as self-employed, motivation type, energizer behaviours, and personal and external factors. The results show that strong energizer behaviours (such as current and planned business expansion and staff training), more business experience, and family assistance to become an entrepreneur, promote loan repayment, while lack of access to electricity (proxy for lack of access to services) negatively affects loan repayment. Policymakers and public and private financial institutions could give more attention to these factors when implementing policies to promote access to finance by, and the growth of, agribusiness SMMEs.Agribusiness,

Special Libraries, July 1980

Volume 71, Issue 7https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1980/1005/thumbnail.jp

Strategic management in small and medium enterprises: a case study of Harare, Zimbabwe.

Doctoral Degree, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have become critical to the development of all economies in the world in the last few decades and Zimbabwe, which is a volatile low-income country is not an exception. However, in spite of the abundance of literature about strategic management in large companies that has emerged as a recipe for success, not much literature is available specifically for SMEs in low-income countries and Zimbabwe in particular. This research sought to unveil and understand how strategic management is conducted in SMEs of Harare, Zimbabwe, based on the Wheelen and Hunger (2012) model. A face-to-face semi-structured interview case study approach was used between January and July 2016 by the researcher alone with either the owners or managers of the SMEs. The results of the twenty case studies are summarised in the form of tables showing the responses and percentages of the fifteen questions derived from the four phases of the model. The four phases are Environmental scanning; Strategy formulation; Strategy implementation; and Evaluation and Control. The results revealed a diverse mixture that ranged from thorough knowledge and practice of the model to absolute ignorance about the strategic management process. There was scarce evidence on recourse to risk management as a tool to mitigate risk related challenges that were encountered during the implementation phase of strategic management. Some of the recommendations were that the SMEs should embrace an integrated approach to strategic and risk management to avoid being overwhelmed by the risk related challenges of operating in a volatile environment since there is symbiosis between strategic and risk management. In addition, SMEs should empower the front line employees that interact with the customers regularly to resolve customer complaints on the spot and make decisions that take advantage of short lived opportunities that may arise in the economy to enhance success.Only available in English

Innovative Education, President\u27s Progress Report 2017

How can academic leadership create a culture of INNOVATION? How can faculty more effectively convey their KNOWLEDGE? How can students learn the skills, traits, and process to become future INNOVATORS