CPUT Entrepreneur

 Our superstar presenters - Siya & Amy  … and finally, Saturday the 23rd of October 2010 arrived. A day that marked another milestone in the history of the department. Once again, the department delivered another very powerful message to the CPUT community - the significance of a used bookstore. A very well researched paper which was informed by the BTech students’ keenness to alleviate the plights of most students of this ivory tower. Their finding was that more than 3/4 of the students in CPUT deal badly with finance. This is for a plethora of reasons. Many of the students come from indigent homes; feeding is quite an issue not to mention buying/owning text books. Again, the collection in the library does not make room for more than a few copies of prescribed textbooks, thus creating a state where the student has to wait in a queue to get the prescribed text. When this happens, the student is the forced to either xerox online materials without acknowledging their ...

Late yesterday, 19 October 2010, at a casual gathering with some industry experts, a question was raised: what sort of benefits accrue to Capetonians from CPUT’s department of Entrepreneurship and Business Management? I tried to understand the reason behind the question and the answers I got seemed interesting. Firstly, in Gauteng, both Wits and University of Pretoria are consulted on a regular basis by both established businesses and burgeoning ones. I also gathered that both universities run, independently, advisory centres (free of charge) for the upcoming businesses. I am aware that this might be too early, but how about giving this a thought from our side here in Cape Town? How about providing this sort of service to burgeoning businesses? I also picked up from the conversation last night that aspects that could lead to a more productive support service to burgeoning entrepreneurs might require an investigation into the following: ·          ...

We are so thrilled to learn that our head of department, the very hardworking Dr Wilfred Isioma Ukpere has been admitted into the illustrious league of NRF rated researchers. He is in fact the first ever Faculty of Business academic to join this league. Congratulations! The Department of Entrepreneurship and Business Management rejoices with you.

Zaahier, Amy & Siya working on the conference paper Siya, Amy & Louie sharing ideas on the conference paper Convinced that the BTech conference is a platform to disclose new ideas as well as share knowledge, the BTech students of our dear department got together to work on their conference paper. Last year, the department’s BTech students proposed an online community for the BTech program. This year, the BTech students are coming with another bang! We couldn’t be ‘prouder’!! Check out the BTech students on 23 rd of October 2010 at the BTech conference. Don’t miss this superb opportunity to learn a thing or two from these smart students. All hail the BTech students of Entrepreneurship & Business Management.  Mr Rhini, Ms Soldati & Ms Nongono considering issues for the conference 

 Dumi  Avril  Dumi and Avril, our latest ambassadors at the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, felt so good talking about their experiences so far on a range of subjects. Interesting to note that their alarm clocks are now set for 5.30am! Previously, they'd sleep until about 8am before tidying up for lectures. Avril recalls 'the day before I commenced work,I had difficulty sleeping. The joy that overwhelmed me must have been the reason for the inability to sleep'. Dumi adds 'I even lost track of the floor that I was supposed to get off. I was in the lift at my place of work until it reached the 8th floor. Eish, it felt so good!' Avril and Dumi confessed that their impression of government work had changed completely. Before they joined civil service, they thought that working for government meant not doing so much and having too much time to do all sorts of irrelevant things. 'things are different there in our department. We get bus...

It has been difficult to track down Mr Dumisani Xesha and Ms Avril Mukhiti, the 'newest' hires of the Western Province's Department of Economic Development and Tourism. I am sure that we are all keen to hear from the 'horses' (Dumisani and Avril) mouth regarding what it feels like to not just work and study, but also to be part of a well-oiled government department that shares an almost common agenda with our dear department here at CPUT. We would also like to know if their time in this department has in any way helped them grab those jobs. I am happy to say that these great ambassadors of the department would be granting us an interview (finally!) this evening at 5pm and we will bring to you their responses (and more) to the questions. And we will also reveal Dumisani and Avril's true identities (sounds scary!!!)

 Ken Annandale  Author,  Motivational Speaker,  FireWalker, Team Builder, and Leadership Coach  Ken Annandale met with the students of Enterpreneurship & Business Management on the 31st of September 2010. Agreeing to squeeze the students into his very busy schedule, Ken shared certain secrets about life, investment strategies and decisions as well as the need to 'wise up'. The meeting took place in the lecture theatre 1 of the university. The 1hour session with the students proved helpful judging by the excitement of the students and the sort of issues they raised. Ken, who had to fly off to Mauritius after the session, promised to return sometime soon to engage the students one more time. Some of the lessons learned in the students' own words include: "Ken showed me the value of hard work, he also showed me that hard work is not always the key but one also needs to work smart (don’t work to earn but rather work to learn). The most important thing I lea...

During the break at the inauguration: From left: Cindy (3rd year) Dr Ukpere (HOD), Chuma (3rd year), Chux Gervase Iwu (Lecturer)  Chairman of the Committee addressing members   Mr Chris Cupido (Lecturer) stressing a point while Mr Ohajunwa (committee member) and Ms Mackay (Lecturer) listen  At about 9.22am today at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Hotel School, the Advisory Committee of the Department of Entrepreneurship  & Business Management was inaugurated. The membership of this committee comprise students, academics and the business community. Speaking at the ceremony, the head of department, Dr Wilfred Ukpere, thanked the members of the committee for accepting the invitation to join the committee. He also said that the members would play serious roles in assisting in the departments strategic growth objective.