Bringing about the creation of an efficient South African business ecosystem has been at the heart of The Africa Marketing Initiative’s (TAMI) purpose and vision. Business ecosystems are essential for the development of thriving micro and macro economies, and in particular for the creation of growth and opportunity for organisations within the SME sector.
A business ecosystem is typically a network of business partners that combine their resources to support the creation and delivery of products and services into new markets. Business partners within an ecosystem include professional functional foundation suppliers, distributors, customers, competitors, supply chain experts, government agencies, and professional networkers.
A business ecosystem is a purposeful business arrangement between two or more entities to
support the creation of shared collective value for the benefit to a common group of service
providers and customers.
South African Community of SMEs
TAMI is a South African Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom (SACC UK) and KZN Growth Coalition initiative, with a desired intention to make it easy for foreign organisations to communicate and gain access to business linkages and business knowledge in South Africa, and to create a local South African community of small and medium enterprises (SME) wishing to identify and service customers in foreign markets.
Leading the strategy in the creation of TAMI has been Growth Coalition CEO and business mogul Moses Tembe, SACC UK Chairman Sharon Constançon, and SACC UK South Africa Chapter Leader David White. The process of linking together service providers and network partners to ensure the efficiency of TAMI, as a central business ecosystem, has taken time to establish itself, and for it to mature to the point where it is now capable of gaining support from professional functional area specialists, and in developing trade and networking partners.
Sharon and David opted to keep TAMI under wraps during its initial creation. Sharon shares that there were many dots to join to make sure each of the business ecosystem components were suitably established, to ensure that each foreign business would gain value through using the TAMI portal, and so that local South African SME entrepreneurs and business leaders could benefit considerably through joining the TAMI Circle network, and being exposed to international networks, business knowledge and influencers, and trade and investment opportunities.
Networking Link
The SACC UK is the central United Kingdom networking link for TAMI, who over the past years have brought together businesses and business leaders to create a forum and meeting point for organisations interested in trade intelligence and networking opportunity within the UK and South Africa. TAMI also has other international networking support partners including the Commonwealth Entrepreneur Club and Invest Africa, and South African based service providers such as Innovate Durban, SmartXchange, Standard Bank, DRG, Vega School, and others.
In South Africa TAMI has gathered appropriate service providers in each of the functional foundation disciplines such as human resources, financial governance, legal compliance, operational support, black economic empowerment strategy, supply chain management, forex, recruitment, and other.
Build Better Businesses
A core component of TAMI’s business ecosystem and network facilitation process is to enable SMEs to ‘build better businesses’ through following the BusinessFit governance framework. Growth in any business needs to beå planned and managed in such a way that new opportunities for growth do not stifle cash flow, capacity availability, and applied quality assurance effectiveness.
TAMI engaged in a supply relationship with SME mentoring specialist company BusinessFit, who provide a structured approach to building confidence and efficiencies within growing SMEs. BusinessFit thus helps SMEs to establish solid business principles and an engaging organisational staffing culture to drive quality assurance and predictable outcomes.
BusinessFit helps SME entrepreneurs and business leaders build sustainable organisations through the creation of a bespoke Business Blueprint, aimed at ensuring components such as leadership, functional foundation effectiveness, measurements and metrics, and engagement are considered and addressed as critical success factors.
BusinessFit has established itself as a pivotal entity in South Africa, committed to enhancing the business sector through application of a scientific business development approach, tailored for entrepreneurs and business leaders within the SME sector.
As we look toward the future, TAMI’s objective is to extend its reach and deepen its impact across the African continent, the United Kingdom, and Commonwealth countries. TAMI’s impact on the South African economy, society, the daily lives of business executives, and its continued evolution will likely shape the future of effective business ecosystems supporting the growth and development of foreign organisations entering South Africa, and South African SMEs trading in new markets
and across borders.
For more information
Comments