Blessed 2012 Greetings to You

2012 Greetings to you.

And welcome back to what promises to be an amazing year for our sweet department. We are truly excited about the department’s agenda for the year 2012. Please share in our excitement as I disclose some of the reasons for the warmth that we feel; much of which flows from 2011 circumstances. Firstly, our department is back to us! We are now looking after ourselves (and no longer an adjunct of another department) much thanks to the glorious thought of Prof Shakes Binza. And Mrs Raja-Yusuf accepts the offer to be our HoD!. Secondly, majority of the Dean’s awards were swept off by our students! Yes, our students! Check the blog for Our Shining Stars Receive Awards from the University for more on that story. Thirdly, our first guest lecture series kicked off with a bang. A very well attended event, Dr Ruben Richards (the guest lecturer) impressed upon the audience that without industrial development, there would certainly be no economic growth. He went on to say that industrial development had a close relationship to entrepreneurial thinking and urged the audience to think entrepreneurially in order to make sense of industrial and economic development. Dr Richards’s presentation elicited several reactions. Check the blog for Reactions to Dr Ruben Richards Lecture. Also check this link http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/The+Scorpions+and+anti+graft+fight+in+Africa/-/440808/1301660/-/item/0/-/gd2mppz/-/index.html for Dr Richards’s latest piece in a Kenyan newspaper.

Fourthly and this is quite grand, we had a fruitful meeting with our advisory board members. These powerful men and women include: Dr Ruben RICHARDS (Founding Deputy Director-General of the SA Scorpion and Author), Mr. Gerschwin Williams (Senior Professional Officer, Business Support & Skills Development Unit, Economic & human Development in the City of Cape Town), Ms Emily Gambade (Partnership Director & Editor of Africa Report), Mr. Damian Ohajunwa (Business Development, Strategy and Market Planning consultant, ex-Deputy Managing Director of TOTAL Liberia). The other members of the Advisory Board include Dr Sharman Wickham (Independent Higher Education Consultant), Mr. Lavendra Naidoo (Executive Director of the Business Place, Cape Town), Mr. David Leendertz (Head of Projects, City of Cape Town) and Mr. Sideeq Railoun (Global Director of Marketing, VisionActiv).

Our advisory board members have agreed to help us steer the wheels of the department to fertile grounds. It was also their commitment to assist us in providing opportunities for both internship and employment of our students. In fact as I do this piece, Africa Report has hired two of our students on a 6-month (extendable) contract. Awesome, you may say.

The list goes on and on. Just about the end of the year, we bid goodbye to our exchange students from Austria. Chris, Mark and Tim confessed that they had a great time being with us and disclosed that they’d return soon. Check the blog for Bidding Farewell to our Exchange Students for more on that story. We also had an awards afternoon for some of our deserving students (Awards Ceremony, Internship Feedback & Lovely Photos). Our students pulled out all the effects at the Market Day Events. Check the blog for Market Day pics . A while before then, a superb OPEN DAY was organized. Check the blog for OPEN DAY PICTURES. ENJOY!

The highlight of 2011 for our department was the BTech 2^nd position award that was scooped by Ms Elzaan Coetzee. We were so thrilled.

Sadly though, we lost our dear Ms Maggie Van Eeden to the corporate world. See Maggie hangs out with CPUT Entrepreneur for the last time for more on that story. And we lost one of the best entrepreneurs the Earth could produce. Check out our story on STEVE JOBS (1955 – 2011).

2011 was generally a good year for our department. We know that 2012 will fare better. But we can’t achieve glory if we work in silos. All hands must be on deck. You. Yes You! And we!

You may then begin to wonder what is in all these for you as a student. I will let you into two of them. All these advisory board members will fulfill their promises. We trust them. But you, the student, know that reward comes with effort. You have to show that you are worthy of their support to be provided with internship and perhaps job opportunity. You have to live the brand of the department; be a good ambassador, attend lecturers, hand in assignments (avoid plagiarism) timeously and generally be the good guy. Secondly, as a department, you no longer have to run around looking for assistance. You now know where and who to go to. How’s that?

Welcome back!