Productivity SA World Entrepreneurs' Day

Productivity SA World Entrepreneur’s Day- A Spotlight on Business Turnaround and Recovery Webinar

The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour, Honourable Boitumelo Moloi will deliver the keynote address at the Productivity SA World Entrepreneur’s Day- a spotlight on Business Turnaround and Recovery Webinar on Friday, 21 August 2020, from 11h00 to 13h00, via Zoom.  

World Entrepreneurs’ Day (WED) is an annual event that is celebrated internationally to create awareness for entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership. WED seeks to celebrate people who start businesses and create employment opportunities.

Productivity SA is organising and hosting a webinar to commemorate this important day as well as create awareness about the Business Turnaround and Recovery programme which seeks to help companies in distress by restructuring and improving their efficiencies and productivity to be sustainable, competitive and create conditions conducive for job retention and creation. We believe that this platform will afford entrepreneurs an opportunity to reflect on and share business practices and principles; highlight the value of entrepreneurship, the role of innovation within society and provide know-how to younger generations and to the public.

The Covid-19 crisis is impacting many facets of our society and entrepreneurship is no exception. Economic distress (financial or operational difficulties) caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen many Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs) come under severe strain, with their future survival uncertain. A study by TransUnion (2020), suggests that nine in 10 (90%) small businesses in South Africa are struggling or temporarily closed as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with just 9% operating as normal. The study further shows that 96% of small business owners reported a decrease in revenue, with 78% saying they have seen a significant decrease in their business revenues since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

To address the development challenges post COVID-19 requires structural transformation through value-addition across the broad productive sectors of the economy and services, domestic resource mobilization, investment in training and development programmes targeting young people that are not in education, employment or training (NEET), and improving productivity.

These call for a commitment to: (a) supporting the role of the private sector as a principal source of economic growth and job creation by promoting an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises, in particular micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs), as well as cooperatives and the social and solidarity economy, in order to generate decent work, productive employment and improved living standards for all; (b) making decent work a reality for our youth, developing skills, technological pathways and productivity for a brighter future in South Africa, transforming our informal and rural economy for decent work, and respecting international labour standards, promoting social dialogue and ensuring gender equality; and (c) strengthening the capacities of all our people to benefit from the opportunities of a changing world of work through: (i) investing in human capital by strengthening education, skilling, reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning to leverage technology and the new types of jobs it helps create; (ii) creating decent work and productive employment for all, with particular emphasis on youth, women, persons with disabilities and other groups vulnerable to discrimination; (iii) promoting entrepreneurship; and (iv) ensuring freedom to innovate and experiment, as well as voice representation and rights for youth.

In view of these realities facing entrepreneurs, Productivity SA seeks to utilise World Entrepreneur’s Day to achieve the following:

• Creating awareness of the Business Turnaround and Recovery programme and how it can assist businesses facing economic distress, which is a tangible demonstration of Productivity SA’s relevance and availability at a critical time in the lifecycle of SMMEs.
• Recognising and applauding the resilience of those SMMEs that are still operating, amid all the challenges.
• Elevating Women-owned businesses as part of celebrating Women’s Month by profiling some of the previous Women Productivity Awards winners and Women-owned businesses that have previously benefited from Productivity SA services.
  
  

PROPOSED THEME

The proposed theme for the event is Sustainable SMMEs- the catalyst for innovation, full and productive employment and decent work for all. The theme recognises the crucial role of sustainable enterprises as generators of full and productive employment and promoters of innovation and decent work, which reaffirms the ILO Centenary Declaration for the future of work (2019) and the Abidjan Declaration (2019).

This theme highlights the role Business Turnaround and Recovery will play in supporting companies facing economic distress with the objective of preserving over 9000 jobs and mitigating the retrenchment of workers. In addition, it supports the programme’s objective of implementation of turnaround strategies aimed at improving the competitiveness and sustainability of SMMEs experiencing operational challenges.

 ATTENDEES

The WED seminar aims to bring together Entrepreneurs from different Provinces who have applied Productivity SA programme principles and entered Awards, other SMME owners across the country, representatives from government, organised labour, organised business, community organisations and academia.

FORMAT OF THE EVENT

The virtual event will be a multi-stakeholder platform to engage in dialogue and reflect on the issues of productivity growth and competitiveness in South Africa and innovation, with a focus on SMMEs.

A video featuring some previous Awards winners will be shown and 3 companies will be provided with an opportunity to share their stories, in particular, the importance of innovation and adaptability and resilience in business, particularly during COVID 19.

Scroll down to see the proposed agenda.