In The Best Dick, his debut business book, Mike Sharman invites you to share in the hustle. From the enthusiastic, entrepreneurial beginnings of a bootstrapped startup founder – a relatively inexperienced 26 year old – to a seasoned, professional, storyteller, who has built a boutique social media advertising agency that has made more brands go viral, globally, than any other studio in Africa. Mike entwines business insights and universal premises of first hires, cash flow challenges, brand building, networking and pitches, with his humorous, storyselling approach to deliver a page-turner complete with armed robberies, fancy-dress competitions and partnering with some of the planet’s most coveted brands.

The time, for different, is now. Tap into the insights of our leading business minds and thought leaders and equip your business for a successful new way of doing business. The world of business is tough, especially today. We know that now is the time for exponential acceleration, adaptability, agility and adjusting; a time for resilience, perseverance and courage; where the frames of reference that so many of us have held onto for so long are simply no longer relevant. But you may be stuck. You may be frozen and fearful, and feeling panicked. You may be worried, and feel weary. Your vision may be blurred, and you may feel unsure of yourself, yet you have a business to run, and staff to look after.

Starting a business is one thing. Making that business successful is quite another. We’ve all read the failure statistics of start-ups, yet we entrepreneurs are a determined bunch of people – we are not easily deterred and will try, and try, and try again. We are the drivers of economic growth and job creation, but sadly we are often the unsung heroes of the South African economy. With the lack of support for start-ups and absence of knowledge-sharing, being an entrepreneur is far from easy and what is missing is business guidance and mentorship.

For our world to survive, and thrive, we need people who can lead the way to a better future for everyone, be that in corporate, government, or society in general. What we need is great leadership – not mediocre leadership; and an attitude of ever-learning, growing and developing. Business leaders have a financial and moral obligation to uplift the people of this country. A narrow focus on profit won’t achieve that, but a culture that puts people first can.

Africa is rich with potential and renowned for its innovation. However, with the long shadow of the Berlin Conference of 1884 (also known as the Congo Conference) ever present, an exponential growth trajectory, using modern leadership and management practice, needs to be charted for Africa to catch up with the developed world. Musa Kalenga – technologist, marketer, brand communicator, entrepreneur and Group CEO and shareholder of Brave Group – believes this is only possible using the springboard combination of creativity and technology. The Brave Code explores Musa’s journey with Brave Group to pioneer a shared-value creative enterprise as a blueprint for other organisations in Africa.

While the depth and sophistication of South Africa’s financial and capital markets are lauded by indices the world over, South Africa is also considered to be the most unequal society in the world. The Economy On Your Doorstep probes the reasons for this tragic paradox of South African life and tries to go through and beyond the graphs, margin calls, trading updates, indices and earnings reports to explain how economic ‘actions’ frame the lives of South Africans – in a transitional society faced with the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality.