Kyle Lesch, head of whisky and reserve at Diageo, pondered how to successfully revitalize and transform the Johnnie Walker (JW) brand and regain market share in South Africa. Despite JW’s global recognition, the brand faced marketing challenges in South Africa due to its outdated strategy of targeting affluent older men. While the global subsidiary had shifted to focus on younger consumers since 2000, the South African subsidiary lagged behind, reluctant .....more

On April 8, 2024, Mike Teke—co-founder and group chief executive officer of Seriti Resources Holdings Ltd. (Seriti)—was driving to an executive meeting in Mpumalanga, South Africa, reflecting on how to sustain Seriti’s momentum in motivating employees toward higher productivity while maintaining a safe working environment. Although some sections of the Khutala Colliery had achieved high production levels, performance across Seriti’s operations remained .....more

Management of the project included determining capacity requirements, construction management, and records management. During its planning and construction, the nature of the Gautrain Project generated significant stakeholder interest from both supporters and those in opposition. For this reason, a holistic approach towards communication and stakeholder management was established. Given the ever-changing environment in which Gautrain operates, the .....more

The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project was announced as a Blue IQ project in 2000 and officially approved by the Gauteng Provincial Government in 2001. As a Blue IQ project, the primary aim of the Gautrain Project was to stimulate economic growth in Gauteng through enhancing infrastructure development and creating employment. The further aim was to alleviate the traffic congestion on roads between Johannesburg and Tshwane by promoting public transport .....more

Environmental impact assessment is a legal requirement for all large infrastructure projects. The environmental impact assessment process for the Gautrain Project was governed by the 1997 EIA regulations based on the Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1989. Developing environmental impact assessment is a complex process that covers a wide variety of impact assessments, requiring skills from various experts and input from interested and affected parties, .....more

A key example of strategic partnerships is the Gautrain Management Agency public transport integration model with the taxi industry, referred to as the Midibus Feeder Distribution Service. The partnership model was developed in 2011 with the objective of providing a service from the Gautrain rail system’s Marlboro station to Linbro Business Park. Through an innovative contracting model, a partnership was formed with the taxi association operating .....more

Zibusiso Mkhwanazi, chief executive officer of Avatar South Africa, looked out of his office window in Johannesburg. Mkhwanazi was contemplating whether he should stay at Avatar or move on to new things. This question was triggered by a media briefing that South Africa’s Minister of Health had just given in which he outlined the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine. Avatar had been directly involved with the communication strategies the president of South .....more

Online grocery shopping and two-sided platform businesses are on the rise in South Africa. In 2020, shortly before South Africa went into lockdown as a result of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sadaf Vahedna established a digital venture called Hoodgoods with seven cofounders. As the company name suggests, the business aimed to connect customers with small retail businesses around their neighbourhoods. Three years later, the cofounders faced .....more

In June 2023, Mike Stonier, the director of the custom programs unit at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in South Africa, received an email from one of his program coaches that sent him in search of an urgent solution. Since 2022, a cohort of middle managers from the Kraftfahrzeug Company (Kraftfahrzeug) had been enrolled in a custom program and tasked with completing an Action Learning Project and submitting a final report to improve .....more

This case focuses on a small family business, Mattera Motors, an auto repair shop operating in the challenging operating environment of a South African township. The founder, Marcello Mattera, started as a “necessity entrepreneur” (i.e., an individual pushed into launching their own business due to no other employment options). The business has nonetheless reached a level of stability over the past two decades and is successful by the standards of .....more