Earlier we reviewed the book Zero to One by Peter Thiel who argues that if you want to start a business, make it a monopoly. “Competition is for losers,” he claims. Well, here’s another book with a similar theme. The book is Blue Ocean Strategy, by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, who argue that […] more

More than 400 000 white expat South Africans have returned to the land of their birth since the apex of the financial crisis in 2009, according to Moneyweb. PCS managing director Philip Park is quoted as saying there is a notable increase in expats on the firm’s books, who some years ago would have slotted […] more

By Philip Park How do you steer yourself out of an emergency? I am talking here of the type of emergency that any business or individual goes through. First of all, how do you spot an emergency? Simple, declining or unchanging statistics. Here is a graph of South Africa’s economic growth rate (gross domestic product) […] more

By Philip Park Success carries its own inherent hazards. To achieve success you had better find out exactly what actions produced the success. Was it a new marketing campaign? Did you hire a new executive? Get rid of an old one? Introduce a new bonus programme for staff? A combination of the above? Success is […] more

One sector of the economy that never seems to disappoint is IT. The rate of development in this sector places fresh demands for new skills on IT-related employers – something that has remained more or less constant for the last two decades. Pauline Michell, specialist recruitment consultant at PCS, gives us an update on trends […] more

Renowned entrepreneur Peter Thiel is worth listening to. He is a founder of PayPal and the data analytics firm Palantir, and has some refreshing ideas for entrepreneurs and those who want to get ahead in life. Here’s the one stand-out idea from Thiel: if you want to start a business, make it a monopoly. “Competition […] more

Whether you are working from home full time, living life as a road warrior or simply working the occasional day away from the office, you will be more effective if you have the right digital infrastructure for remote work. Here is a list of practical tools that can make your job a lot easier. 1. […] more

Businesses are spending millions of dollars each year sending employees on global assignments without being able to quantify the cost or measure the value from their investment, according to a report issued by PwC. This is leading to almost six in ten organisations saying their global mobility programmes currently do not deliver value for money. […] more

By Philip Park, MD Professional Career Services When the going gets rough, persist! This has been drummed into us since we were children. If you examine the lives of the world’s most successful people, you find the one thing they have in common is persistence. We often imagine success came easily to people like Steve […] more

We’ve all run into this problem – over-committing ourselves and then failing to deliver what we promise. Our reputations suffer and a pall of failure hangs around our heads. The best way to break out of the vicious cycle of overcommitment and underperformance is to manage carefully what you agree to do. Here, according to […] more