The venue for the seminar has now been confirmed at the Indaba Hotel.
The seminar will be an overview for Commercial Creditors.
This is a one day seminar in Johannesburg to be held on the 26th July 2007, at 8.30am for 9am.
It is aimed at commercial creditors (businesses who supply other businesses on credit). It will cover all the basics that are needed to run a successful commercial credit control department with a business.
1. Credit Granting
1.1 Getting credit sales vs cautious credit granting
1.2 Credit Applications and standard terms and conditions of trade
1.3 …

Business Report’s Tonny Mafu on IOL reports that:
“South African banks, which account for the majority of loans issued, may have no idea how deeply indebted their customers are.
This is the view of Carel van Aardt, a professor at Unisa’s Bureau for Market Research (BMR).
According to Van Aardt, the BMR has done a study on the extent of indebtedness on behalf of one of the banks and the findings point to higher levels of debt.

I found an interesting website and forum for the South African community and particularly the business community, in which various challenges and issues facing the South African business community can be debated and discussed called the Forum SA.
I point those in the SA credit management community to their forum on the National Credit Act. Here various aspect of the NCA are being discussed and debated.

Ethel Hazelhurst for Business Report on IOL reports:
“Johannesburg – While the residential property market is still ticking over steadily, the value of non-performing mortgage loans rose sharply in the first four months of the year.
Figures released yesterday by the banking supervision department show an increase from R6.1 billion in December 2005 and R6.9 billion a year later to R8.4 billion by the end of April.
As a ratio of total mortgage books, the figure is still small, 1.14 percent from 1.08 percent in December. Standard Bank economist Elna Moolman said that …

Thanks to having our blog listed on Amatomu, a local blog aggregator that tracks and reports on local blogs, I discovered “The Practice of Leadership” a very insightful local leadership blog.
One of the first articles that attracted my attention and that I would like to share with you was “Are you demotivating your employees?” in which the blog’s author George Ambler explores the question of employee motivation or rather demotivation by employers. Its well worth a read by all managers on any level.

Business Report on IOL in article by Ethel Hazelhurst reports:
“Johannesburg – Financial markets are reflecting expectations of a further increase in the Reserve Bank’s official repo rate after a 50 basis point increase to 9.5 percent this month. And a round of interest rate increases is expected globally over the next few weeks.
Ian Cruickshanks, the head of Nedbank Capital’s strategic research unit, warned yesterday: “Interest rates will rise further and remain higher for longer than is generally expected”.
He said rising prices were “underpinned by capacity constraints, which make it difficult …

“The best strategy for building a competitive organization is to help individuals become more of who they are.”
-Marcus Buckingham, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”

Business Day reports the interview between Lindsay Williams of Business Day and Jacques du Toit economist with ABSA Bank.
” The new National Credit Act changes the way banks assess home loan applications with hopefuls now required to prove they have sufficient after-tax income to meet loan repayment obligations.
LINDSAY WILLIAMS: Jacques, what are the new rules imposed by the National Credit Act (NCA) on the banks? It says here in terms of the NCA applicants are now required to provide detailed information about their monthly income and expenditure, and full details …

Thabang Mokopanele the Trade and Industry Correspondent with the Business Day reports that:
“GROWTH in household spending slowed sharply in the first quarter of this year, but consumer spending remained buoyant and household debt scaled a new peak, leaving the door open for another increase in interest rates this year.
Gross domestic expenditure (which measures demand from companies, households and the government) grew an annualised 5,75% from January to March compared with 12,25% in the final quarter of last year, the Reserve Bank said in its June quarterly bulletin.
That suggests a cumulative …

There was an short article in Fortune last year that was based on a survey on management techniques and there correlation to success. Certainly some interesting, if not unexpected results.
“(FSB Magazine) — Micromanaging will do more than annoy employees; it will slow your growth. A recent study by Cornell University, sponsored by the Gevity Institute, a human resources outsourcing firm in Bradenton, Fla., found that small businesses that granted workers more autonomy grew at more than four times the rate of those that relied on tight top-down controls.
That’s not all.
The …