Raizcorp chief executive Allon Raiz was faced each day with many applications to join his business incubation Prosperator programme. He knew what to look for in an entrepreneur, but it was not always “cut and dried”. In September 2012, he and his panel were considering an applicant who had passed all the tests with flying colours, and they were unanimous in their belief that he had what it took to be successful. His business, however, left them in doubt. It was a struggling IT support company, which they felt had no differentiating factors in an already overtraded industry.

On 19 May 2010, Ndaba Ntsele – Ernst & Young World Best Entrepreneur (SA, 2007) and CEO of Pamodzi Investment Holdings (PIH), a diversified investment company – was preparing for the launch of Pamodzi Aviation the next day. The company had secured a licence from the Ukraine-based, government-owned Antonov Aeronautical Scientific Complex to service and sell Antonov planes in Africa.

In late 2013, Nando’s, a global chicken restaurant chain, marked the successful implementation of a project for the ethical sourcing of African bird’s eye chillies (ABE) – the signature ingredient of the brand. The initiative had set Nando’s on the road to securing its annual requirement of ABE from traceable sources, while improving the lives of participating small-scale farmers in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

In late 2013, Nando’s, a global chicken restaurant chain, marked the successful implementation of a project for ethical sourcing of African bird’s eye chillies (ABE) – the signature ingredient of the brand. The initiative had set Nando’s on the road to securing its annual requirement of ABE from traceable sources, while improving the lives of participating small-scale farmers in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

The night before his tender proposal had to be submitted, Barry Berman, the founder of Creative Plates, a company that marketed personalised vehicle registration numbers (PRNs) in the Western Cape and Gauteng, was about to negotiate the biggest deal of his life. To stand a chance of winning a contract to market PRNs for the Gauteng provincial administration, his company had to meet government affirmative procurement requirements. This meant that he had to negotiate a deal with a black-owned company.

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. However, conducting business in China was complex and expensive and, earlier that year, he had partnered with a new importer in China to help combat certain of the challenges.

With many years of experience as an entrepreneur and businessman, Alan Reeves, chief operating officer (COO) of Legendary Retail Brands (LRB), which was the shareholder and administrator of the Mica, DIY Depot and House of Paint and Décor voluntary buying group (VBG) brands, was continuously thinking about the next step for the group. Member profitability was good, despite a tough economic environment, but Reeves was aware that this could change easily.

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. They were, however, faced with the urgent challenge of making the right strategic decisions regarding the future growth and financing of the business.

It was the middle of 1994. By then, 23-year-old Barry Berman had been trading in Cape Town number plates with short and unusual numbers for three or four months. The business was growing fast. But so was the canned fruit business that he had started with a friend at the beginning of the year. He no longer had the time to devote to both, and Berman wondered what to do. Should he ‘can’ the canned fruit and pursue the number plate business?

The Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), an international biosphere reserve programme, is an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO describes these reserves as “learning sites for sustainable development”, saying: “Biosphere reserves harmonize conservation of biological and cultural diversity, and economic and social development, through partnerships between people and nature.