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The business year is just a few weeks old yet it's already setting an aggressive pace thanks to a tougher economic climate, savvier customers and an explosion of disruptive tech. To stay relevant in an always-on and increasingly competitive world, innovative design thinking should be on the 2015 business agenda.
1. Design solves business problems
Last year’s World Design Capital 2014 challenged everyday people to ask “What If” they viewed the world through a design lens? Applied to myriad social, environmental and ... 
Like most startups, Belyve was born out of a frustration of the status quo. Its creator Kolobe Kgwathla started making websites in order to afford his school fees while studying law.
"I studied law but had a strong passion for software development and design. I soon realised that there was a major opportunity worth taking, and ended up first doing freelance web development before setting out to start Belyve," he says.
"The business took off but I still felt that even though ... 
Ecommerce startups face many challenges while managing their business operations. They have to work with a limited number of personnel and budget. They face difficulty in convincing people to buy their products. These businesses have to compete unfavourably against their better placed and more resourceful competitors. Shipping costs, taxation, invoicing, inventory management and effective customer support are some of their prime concerns, though there can be many other issues to deal with.
But they can still pull off things if they ... 
The second in-take of growth equity fund manager Knife Capital's tech startups is an interesting bunch. From popular names such as online payment service PayFast and ecommerce builder ShopStar to new and interesting ones such as CognaDev which assesses individuals for matching work environments and Mobinomics -- a company that develops operating systems for telcos, organisations and cities.
Interestingly, this year the accelerator is upping its game even more after it's decided to expand its programme to include an additional three ... 
From restaurant discovery to on-demand chefs and a calorie controlled food subscription, there are a growing number of interesting, mouth-watering tech startups out to change the way South Africans eat. It's interesting to see how many of these foodie startups have grown alongside popular lifestyle trends such as the surge in craft beers, specific health diets and freshly brewed flat whites.
InChef SA
InChef is like the Uber of chefs, because we're too lazy to cook ourselves. Pricing starts at R4 000 ... 
In April last year, it was announced that Nigeria's economy had overtaken South Africa's, making it the biggest on the continent. This coincided with some notable happenings in the tech space. For one, arguably one of the largest pan-African startup initiatives, Demo Africa 2014, was hosted in Lagos for the first time. Microsoft Ventures also announced that it's expanding its mission to facilitate startups to include the West African country last month. Not to mention the massive rounds of investments ... 
Remittances, or the transfer of money by a foreign workers to an individuals in their home countries, are huge, especially in countries with large migrant and immigrant populations. How big? Well, US$440-billion in 2010, of which US$325-billion went to developing countries, involving some 192-million migrants or 3.0% of world population. That's a number which will only have grown in the intervening years.
The trouble is, the hefty fees charged by many remittance service providers can end up crippling the most ... 
When it comes to ecommerce in South Africa, the fashion industry is certainly growing in popularity. The fact that only airline ticket sales generate more spend shows just how much people love shopping for clothes and apparel online with stores like Spree, Superbalist and Zando being the most popular. What these three stores all have in common is the fact that they sell quality brands to the market's affluent -- those with credit cards and disposable income. Better yet, they ... 
Confidence is a precious thing in business. Having the confidence to succeed, the belief in yourself that your ideas will work and the drive to turn those ideas into reality are key traits of the high-achieving entrepreneur.
But how confident can someone be when they confront new strategies for growth or realise that they are going to have to try something different to help them succeed in their role? Where can they turn to for advice and guidance?
For me this is ... 
Fresh ecommerce stats from Statista.com show that 40% of worldwide internet users have bought products or goods online via desktop, mobile, tablet or other online devices. This amounts to more than 1 billion online buyers and is projected to grow steadily.
The boom in global online shopping comes off the back of innovative encryption and continuous security upgrades by leading payment gateway providers.
eMarketer also estimates that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sales worldwide will reach US$1.92-trillion in 2016.
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