College of Economic & Management Sciences

Smaller businesses encouraged to think out of the box

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Dr Karen Stander, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Business Management at Unisa, was the keynote speaker at a George Business Chamber event held recently in George. The chamber operates as a non-profit, membership-based organisation to support local businesses and the community to ensure economic growth, development and prosperity.

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From left: Adele Blacker (Regional Academic Coordinator, George), Dr Karen Stander (Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Management) and Michelle Frauendorf (Acting Regional Director, Western Cape Region)

The Western Cape Region has a long-standing relationship with the chamber, and hosted the event in July at the Francois Ferreira Academy in George where approximately 60 business owners were in attendance.

With the high unemployment rate in South Africa, Stander encouraged businesses, especially those in the start-up phase, to think out of the box to grow the economy. For start- up businesses, she suggested human-centred design thinking, a problem-solving technique that puts real people at the centre of the development process enabling the business to create products and services that are tailored to an audience’s needs. 

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Dennis Butler, Unisa Centre for Lifelong Learning

Stander explained that by identifying the problems in the area, businesses could look at how to position themselves to solve those problems. She further explained that it is vital to identify which solutions people would be willing to pay for. Businesses could then position themselves to become both inclusive and sustainable. 

Looking at the rich resources in the area, Stander provided practical examples of how small businesses could use these resources to contribute to the economy. She closed her presentation with a thoughtful recommendation of growing the town of George as a brand to position it in the global arena.

Unisa’s Centre for Lifelong Learning, which was also present at the event, was represented by Dennis Butler, who introduced short learning programmes (SLPs) as playing an important role in the development, upskilling and multiskilling of human resources. He shared that SLPs are meant to update and broaden people’s skills and knowledge in a particular subject. Attendees were invited to engage with the Centre of Lifelong Learning after the event to learn more about the business management and entrepreneurship courses on offer.

The evening ended with a networking session for businesses in attendance, and it was also an opportunity for business owners to engage with Unisa’s representatives.

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* By Lee-Anne Davids, Communication Officer, Unisa Western Cape Region

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Publish date: 2023/09/14

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