The present landscape presents numerous challenges for the firms operating in this 21 st century arena, as it is quite volatile. This landscape is global in nature, as the barriers to competition have been broken down between countries. The challenges of the global economy are immense. Strategic leadership emerges as the most effective way through which firms can achieve satisfactory performance in this competitive landscape. As companies attempt to sustain competitive advantage so as to maintain strategic competitiveness and earn above average returns, they need to practice effective strategic leadership. The aim of this paper is to establish how firms could use effective leadership to ensure that they are able to deal with the challenging situations facing them. Only through this, can they respond appropriately and quickly in the complex global competitive environment. The challenges facing companies of the 21 st century will be identified. Namibia Breweries Limited will be used as a case study of a firm in the developing world currently facing enormous challenges due to globalisation. Various analytical tools will be used to determine the company's competitive position. Also, the company's competitiveness will be evaluated against that of its major competitor, South African Breweries. The role strategic leadership could play to enable Namibia Breweries Limited to maintain competitiveness while facing the challenges of globalization will be established. The model by Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson will be adopted. These authors have come up with a model that highlights six critical components for effective strategic leadership. When a company's leadership effectively complete the activities called for by these components, they can become a source of competitive advantage. Furthermore, strategic leadership can be a source of competitive advantage for firms when competitors find it difficult to understand and imitate the processes involved with it. This advantage is significant, as it would enable firms to achieve strategic competitiveness. The study will establish how Namibia Breweries Limited could implement these components to achieve effective leadership, given their particular environment and the particular challenges facing them. Recommendations are made on how Namibia Breweries Limited can implement the components to improve on its competitiveness, using the proposed model. Suggestions are made with regard to what the company could do to ensure they maintain a good strategic position. The analysis indicates that the company, Namibia Breweries Limited, faces a giant in the industry. The South African Breweries presents major competition to the Namibian breweries and the leadership has a big role to play to ensure that the company maintains strategic competitiveness and is able to earn above average returns despite the major challenges it faces. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

This dissertation is an attempt to shed light on the impact that global cultural consumption has had in the transformation of perceptions of material and symbolic consumption in everyday life among urban black African Zulu-English speakers that live in the Durban Metropolitan area. The process of transformation within this group has not occurred without resistance, confrontation and struggle against the hegemonic societal forces. Black Africans have suffered spatial segregation and social exclusion during the history of white colonisation and the apartheid system. Therefore, their socio-economic, cultural and ideological social world has been transformed through multi-cultural relationships, politico-ideological power, socio- economic unequal distribution of wealth and class differentiation. Many events have occurred since the 1980's, the most significant being the triumph of the democratic system on 1994 over apartheid power. This led to South Africa's opening the door to the global economy and to neo-liberal ideologies. These processes have had a powerful effect on the material and symbolic consumption of the social group under investigation and particularly in the area of clothing consumption. Mediations such as the media, western religions, European languages, etc. have been part of this very complex process, which affects and transforms the social practices of black African Zulu-English speakers. The influence of western mediation has transformed the habitus and taste consumption of ordinary black South Africans. Therefore, this study is concerned with the transformed thoughts and perception of the material and symbolic consumption within the popular culture of black Africans Zulu-English speakers who live in the Durban Metropolitan Area. Consumption is a very important concept in our understanding of how taste and habitus organise the social practices of black Africans in everyday live. In addition, consumption in general and clothing consumption in particular serves to define and re-confirm symbolic meanings within popular culture and symbolic distinction between classes. This study has used three different methods: ethnographic, archival historical and statistical. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.