Franchising has become the latest trend in business expansion and business acquisition and with the South African franchising market estimated at being around 12% and growing rapidly, enormous potential for future growth is indicated. Companies both local and international are seeking franchise expansion opportunities in Africa despite the higher risks. The significance of implementing franchises into Africa is the filtering down of business opportunities to the small and medium enterprise sector. It can be said that franchising promotes business growth and private ownership, while improving the quality of life of the poor through its impact on income and employment. A franchise organisation that grows too quickly might not have the necessary ‘factors’ in place to support all of the units properly. In the survey conducted, it was indicated that the franchise business practice echoed the literature reviewed. All the steps necessary to establish a franchise are important but not necessarily as equal. The more matured franchisee needed less guidance from the franchisor and relied more on the business concept and location. Potential franchisors need to take the necessary steps to establish a franchise and treat each step as an important part of the franchise process.

M.Comm. (Business Management) / Corporate Entrepreneurship is often described as a process that goes on inside an existing organisation and which may lead to new business ventures, the development of new products, services, or processes, and the renewal of strategies and competitive postures. As such, it can be seen as the sum of an organisation’s innovation, venturing, and renewal efforts. Corporate Entrepreneurship can be regarded as the innovation of products, services and processes and the formation of new business enterprises are crucially important to every industry and economy. Innovation and new business development can be initiated by independent individuals or by existing enterprises. The latter is referred to as Corporate Entrepreneurship, which is ever more considered as a valuable instrument for rejuvenating and revitalising existing companies. It is brought into practice as a tool for business development, revenue growth, and profitability enhancement and for pioneering the development of new products, services and processes. With change today being consistently continuous, unpredictable and in some cases abrupt, failure to anticipate change can and in most cases will result in organisational stagnation. Corporate Entrepreneurship is a tool that allows organisations to revitalise and rejuvenate a competitive advantage and simultaneously create new value for customers through innovation, business development, and renewal. New value creation is only possible through high levels of entrepreneurial activity. Imperial Automotive Dealerships division is a leading motor retail division within the Imperial Automotive group, providing customers with a range of integrated motor vehicle usage solutions. The South African operations represent passenger, light, medium and heavy commercial brands and include, motor vehicle finance, insurance and related products and services. The purpose of this dissertation is to assess the climate of Corporate Entrepreneurship within the Imperial Automotive Dealerships division. This was achieved by means of a literature study and a measurement of thirteen constructs related to an entrepreneurial climate. The empirical evidence indicates that there are significant statistical differences that exist between employees in management roles who are appointed to the different departments within the Dealerships division of Imperial Automotive. The results of the study revealed that the perceptions of Corporate Entrepreneurship are differed among employees who are customer facing, that is, the Dealer Principals and Sales Managers to those employees in a management position who are more operational or financially orientated, such as the Departmental Managers. The empirical study affords Imperial Automotive Dealerships division the opportunity to recognise the results and recommendations and encourage a better entrepreneurial climate. A clear and committed focus on Corporate Entrepreneurship within the Imperial Automotive Dealerships division will result in a sustainable creation of value for all stakeholders which remain central to the automotive business units’ activities.

This dissertation reports an analysis of the work roles of chief executive officers in small furniture manufacturing firms. Certain roles are operational - nature, while others are strategic in nature. The basic research question being addressed is: which work roles, if any, are perceived as more important to the position of a CEO in small furniture manufacturing firms? The subjects of this study consisted of ten CEOs of wood furniture manufacturing firms located in the state of Virginia. The roles examined in this study were those described by Hemphill in his research on 93 executives from five manufacturing firms. The approach used in this study to model the judgment of the CEOs is called "Brunswiks Lens Model." This lens model approach provides a quantified, descriptive summary of the way an individual weighs and combines information. The research design utilized in this study is a fixed 2⁸ factorial ANOVA. Two basic analytical techniques were employed: correlation and ANOVA. An analysis of variance was performed on each CEO's set of responses. All ten CEOs showed that there are significant differences in the relative importance of the eight roles being examined. Fifteen operational hypotheses were tested for significance (p < .10) for each CEO. All 15 of the operational Hypotheses were rejected by seven of the CEOs. This indicated the importance they place on the strategically oriented roles. The remaining three CEOs perceived certain operational roles as being of primary importance. Three potential explanations have been proffered to account for this preference toward strategically oriented roles by these CEOs. First, the static nature of the technology utilized in the wood furniture manufacturing industry may allow the CEO to focus more on strategic factors facing the firm. Second, the heavy competition within this industry may "force" the CEO to manage the firm strategically if they are to be successful. Third, every CEO who had a preference for strategically oriented roles were CEOs of their firm for a minimum of ten years. Thus, there appears to be support to suggest that the relative importance of the operationally and strategically oriented work roles of CEOs may be largely contingent upon the technology utilized, competitive structure of the industry and the tenure of the CEO. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to identify the technical, interpersonal, and analytical skills essential for managers of chain apparel specialty stores located in regional shopping centers in the Milwaukee Metropolitan Statistical Area. A literature review indicated that there is little specific information available concerning skills needed by chain apparel specialty store managers. In the 1980s, the apparel specialty retail industry was characterized by a number of firms expanding and diversifying their retail holdings and coming to dominate the industry. As a result the industry is composed of national retailers whose decision-making structures are highly centralized. This centralized structure has altered the skills necessary for chain store managers to perform specified job duties. This qualitative study used the nominal group technique (NGT), structured interviews, and a field study to address the research problem. A nominal group method, involving seven store managers, generated a list of 150 essential skills in eight specified job duty categories. This NGT essential skills list provided the framework for subsequent structured interviews with five district managers of chain apparel specialty stores. The store managers and district managers were then asked to priority rank the essential skills list and the lists were analyzed for congruency. The lists were also compared with daily time/activities logs completed by three store managers to determine if they actually used the specified skills. Triangulation was used to permit the researcher to be more confident of the data. The essential technical skills identified by participating chain apparel specialty store managers and district managers include a knowledge of company policies, equipment usage, fashion-related product information, payroll procedures, and theft control. The dominant interpersonal skills were the ability to communicate, train, delegate, and role model specific behaviors for employees. The essential analytical skills include the ability to set high store standards, solve customer and employee problems, determine sales trends, and generate creative promotional ideas. Managers must have a combination of management and leadership skills and be able to "drive the business" with creativity, employee involvement and motivation strategies. / Ed. D.

by Chow Yue-Hin, Terence, Xie Ming-An. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-66). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II --- BALANCED SCORECARD --- p.3 / Origin of Balanced Scorecard --- p.3 / What is Balanced Scorecard? --- p.5 / Four Perspectives of Balanced Scorecard --- p.4 / Strategy and Balanced Scorecard --- p.8 / Balanced Scorecard and traditional management --- p.11 / Chapter III --- DEVELOPING A BALANCED SCORECARD - GETTING STARTED --- p.14 / Preparation Tasks --- p.14 / Balanced Scorecard Team --- p.15 / Chapter IV --- PRESENT SITUATION IN THE RETAIL JEWELLERY INDUSTRY --- p.18 / Hong Kong Retail Jewellery Industry --- p.18 / Changes in the External environment --- p.19 / Company Background --- p.21 / Chapter V --- COMMENCEMENT OF BSC --- p.24 / Beginning Stage --- p.24 / Meetings --- p.27 / First Meeting --- p.28 / Second Meeting --- p.29 / Third Meeting --- p.30 / Fourth Meeting --- p.31 / Interviews --- p.32 / Executive Questionnaire --- p.34 / Finalizing Measures --- p.36 / Chapter VI --- CONCLUSION --- p.38 / Limitations of Balanced Scorecard Program --- p.38 / Chapter VII --- ACTION PLANS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK --- p.42 / Setting up Targets/Initiatives --- p.42 / Prioritizing different measures/initiatives --- p.43 / Creating a Balanced Scorecard Measure Dictionary --- p.43 / Feedback from employees --- p.44 / APPENDIX AND FIGURES --- p.46 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.65

The research objectives of this report are to identify key drivers of change, investigate possible barriers to the implementation of change and determine the change readiness of the organisation / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Successful strategy implementation is necessary in order for a strategic plan to be worthwhile for a business. Research has indicated that companies are often weak at strategic execution and it is held that weak execution is often the reason for a failed strategy or business. The execution of a strategy is, however, far more complex and difficult than the formulation of a good strategy. A reason for this is the fact that relatively few conceptual models for strategy execution exist while this field attracts less attention in research than the field of strategy formulation. Recent publications focus narrowly on specific areas such as leadership or performance measurement and fail to integrate these traditional views on business management into a single model for strategy implementation. GrainCo Group, a grain supply chain management company, does not follow a pre-defined strategy execution methodology and could, as a result, be missing out on profitable business opportunities. The group’s management team agrees that its ability to successfully execute strategy is hampered by a lack of such a methodology. This forms the basis for this research report where the question asked is the following: What framework can GrainCo Group adopt in an effort to improve strategy execution in the Group? It was found that strategy execution spans all aspects of business management and cannot be viewed in isolation. Strategy implementation should therefore be seen as an integrated, boundary-less set of activities where information flows unrestricted between all business units and constant focus is placed on both “hard” and “soft” management issues. Information flows and clarity about decision rights are of critical importance when applying a process perspective to business management. Strategy implementation cannot be viewed as a distinct event and should become inherent in the company’s management style. It was further suggested that the GrainCo Group adopt a combination of two of the most representative strategy implementation methodologies together with changes to a number of important elements of management style. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vermoë om ‘n sakestrategie suksesvol uit te voer is ‘n noodsaaklike voorvereiste vir ‘n strategiese plan om van waarde te wees. Navorsing het aangedui dat maatskappye dikwels nie goed vaar in die uitvoering van sakestrategie nie en dat swak uitvoering dikwels lei to die ondergang van ‘n besigheid of strategie. Die uitvoering van ‘n strategie is egter baie meer kompleks as die blote formulering daarvan. ‘n Rede vir bogenoemde is die feit dat daar relatief min konseptuele modelle vir die uitvoering van sakestrategie bestaan terwyl hierdie veld minder aandag trek in navorsing as die formulering van strategie. Onlangse publikasies fokus op spesifieke areas soos leierskap en prestasiemeting en slaag nie daarin om hierdie tradisionele areas van bestuur te kombineer in ‘n enkele model vir die uitvoering van sakestrategie nie. GrainCo Groep, ‘n graan-voorsieningsketting bestuursmaatskappy, maak tans nie gebruik van ‘n spesifieke model vir die uitvoering van sakestrategie nie en die groep se bestuurspan stem saam dat sy vermoë om strategie suksesvol uit te voer hierdeur ondermyn word. Voorgenoemde vorm die basis van hierdie navorsingsverslag waarin die volgende vraag gevra word: Watter raamwerk vir die uitvoering van sakestrategie kan die GrainCo Groep aawend om meer suksesvol te wees met die uitvoering van strategie? Navorsing het getoon dat die uitvoering van strategie alle aspekte van sakebestuur aanraak en dat dit nie in isolasie gesien kan word nie. Uitvoering behoort gevolglik gesien te word as ‘n grenslose, geïntegreerde reeks van aktiwiteite waar inligting onbelemmer vloei tussen alle sake-eenhede terwyl gereelde aandag gegee word aan die “harde” en “sagte” aspekte van sakebestuur. Die vloei van inligting en duidelikheid oor besluitnemingsregte is van kritieke belang in so ‘n geïntegreerde model. Die uitvoering van strategie kan ook nie in isolasie gesien word nie en behoort ‘n integrale deel te vorm van ‘n onderneming se bestuurstyl. Dit word voorgestel dat die GrainCo Groep ‘n kombinasie van die twee mees verteenwoordigende modelle vir die uitvoering van sakestrategie aanneem tesame met die aanpassing van ‘n aantal belangrike elemente van die maatskappy se bestuurstyl.

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following research report is titled “Crafting and executing an operational strategic plan for a retail product line”. The report presents operational analysis which results in creating operational strategy which is relevant to current trading conditions and which is clearly aligned with both the organisation’s group and corporate strategic goals. The primary focus is therefore not on the development of organisational strategy, but on strategic implications, interpretation and operational execution. The central research question is described as follows: How can the current operational strategic planning process be improved in order to deliver strategic plans which are aligned and clearly support the key strategic thrusts at group and corporate level? A literature study was conducted by consulting a vast number of books, articles and websites in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest management thinking pertaining to the creation and implementation of strategy. Primary research, which took the form of informal interviews with key personnel, was also conducted in order to ascertain the opinions and insights of individuals who are directly affected by the operational strategic process. The research resulted in a one year operational strategic framework which can be used as a tool by all central buying teams when creating operational strategic plans. The framework allows teams to follow a standardised process which results in concise summary populated with key strategic points. Teams are thus guided by these points and are also prompted to corrective action by ensuring that each strategic action has a measurable outcome. The framework is also populated with group and corporate goals, which act as guiding principles to team members. The final recommendation is that teams allow for a degree of flexibility in the operational strategic actions which were identified in their initial analysis. While key strategic points at group and corporate level will most likely remain unchanged during the course of a financial year, certain operational activities may have to be reconsidered should the micro and macro trading environment change. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die titel van die volgende navorsingverslag is: “Crafting and executing an operational plan for a retail product line”. Die verslag is ‘n weergawe van ‘n bedryfsontleding wat lei tot die ontwerp van ‘n bedryfs-strategie wat van toepassing is op die huidige handelsmilieu. Die strategie is verder in lyn met beide die organisasie se groep en korparatiewe doelwitte. Die verslag fokus hoofsaaklik op strategiese implikasies, interpretasie en operasionele uitvoering en nie op strategiese ontwikkeling nie. Die sentrale navorsingskwessie word soos volg beskryf: Watter verbeterings kan aangebring word aan die huidige bedryfs-strategiese beplannings proses om sodoende strategiese planne op te lewer wat in lyn sal wees en ondersteuning sal gee aan die sleutel strategiese dryfkrag op groep en korporatiewe vlak. ‘n Aantal sekondêre bronne – boeke,artikels and webwerwe - is nageslaan en ‘n letterkundige studie is gedoen om ‘n omvattende begrip te kry van die nuutste bestuursdenke met betrekking tot die ontwerp en implementering van strategie. Onderhoude is gevoer met sleutel personeel wat gedien het as primere bronne. Sodoende is die opinies en insigte verkry van individue wat direk betrokke is by die bedryfs-strategiese proses. Die ondersoek het as gevolg ‘n bedryfs-strategiese raamwerk. Dit kan as instrument gebruik word deur alle sentrale aanskaffingspanne wanneer hulle bedryfs-strategiese planne ontwerp. Die raamwerk maak voorsiening vir ‘n gestandaardiseerde proses wat kulmineer in ‘n een-bladsy opsomming wat strategiese punte bevat. Die opsomming gee dus rigting aan spanne en hulle word aangespoor tot korrektiewe aksies elk met meetbare uitkomstes. Die raamwerk bevat ook groeps- en korporatiewe doelwitte wat deur spanne as riglyne gebruik kan word. ‘n Finale voorstel is dat spanne voorsiening maak vir ‘n mate van plooibaarheid in die bedryfsstrategiese aksies wat aanvanklik in hul ontledings geidentifiseer was. Sekere strategiese punte sal waarskynlik op groep en korporatiewe vlak onveranderd bly na afloop van die finansiele jaar terwyl sekere bedryfsaktiwiteite heroorweeg sal moet word na gelang van veranderinge in die mikro en makro handelsmileu.

中國崛起是21世紀最重要的國際事務之一。在經濟上，澳洲是世界上最極為倚重中國的國家。雖然中國崛起對澳洲尤其重要，但目前仍沒有足夠的研究涉及這個議題。有鑒於此，本篇論文應用跨學科---經濟與非經濟---的方法評估中澳經濟之前瞻。本研究認為，從經濟角度看，未來中澳的關係有利。然而目前澳洲政府管理中國崛起的策略不善，可能是雙邊貿易面臨的主要威脅，以致損害未來的經濟環境，以及澳洲對中國的觀感。本論文之結論顯示亞太必須積極地管理中國崛起的重要性，並提出政策建議供給澳洲及其他國家參考 / The rise of China is one of the most monumental events in the 21st Century and important to all states in the Asia-Pacific. The rise of China is specifically pertinent to Australia’s future as Australia is the world’s most economically dependent economy on China. This thesis evaluates the future of Australia-China trade from an interdisciplinary perspective considering both economic and non-economic approaches. The thesis looks at the future of Australia-China trade in an economic sense by analyzing descriptive trade statistics. This is the first analysis of Australia-China trade of this type and the first application of the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The thesis finds that the future of Australia-China trade is very good and the rise of China poses significant opportunities for both states. The thesis goes on to consider how the process of the rise of China has been managed in Australia by the government of Australia. The thesis argues that the main threat to trade is the government of Australia’s poor management of the rise of China, which is showing signs of damaging the conditions of economic exchange and creating a negative perception of China in Australia. The implications of the analysis and the need for states to be proactive in their management of the rise of China is especially pertinent for many states in the Asia-Pacific. The thesis concludes by providing a range of recommendations for Australia and China to help improve the management of the rise of China to enable a more beneficial world.

The research objectives of this report are to identify key drivers of change, investigate possible barriers to the implementation of change and determine the change readiness of the organisation / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBA