Create entrepreneurs, not employees
Beryl Group partners with entrepreneurial individuals, interrogating their ideas and converting them into tangible business opportunities that can generate returns for all stakeholders. It shuns ways from creating hierarchical structures with subsidiaries and considers its partnerships as dynamic, collaborative and relationship-driven. Furthermore, it seeks to foster cutting-edge entrepreneurship through the provision of relevant tools, networks and resources.
Supporting entrepreneurship in the South African region
The Global Entrepreneur Monitor (GEM)’s Total Entrepreneurship Activity (TEA) index is the most widely used metric of entrepreneurship worldwide. According to the latest GEM report, South Africa’s TEA dropped from 9.1% in 2011 to 7.3% in 2012, the lowest in four years. Though 7.4% is an improvement from the 2009 figure of 5%, South Africa still lags behind similarly emergent economies like India, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico—all of which consistently score in the double digits.
Of greater concern are the demographic discrepancies within South African entrepreneurship.
Indian and white communities have the most entrepreneurs (1.6:1 and 1.7:1 respectively, relative to the general population), while black and coloured communities having much less (0.9:1 and 1.2:1 respectively). Given South Africa’s GINI coefficient of 63.1, the highest in the world, these findings are problematic.
By stimulating entrepreneurship in both its CSI and core activities, Beryl Holdings intends to actively contribute in improving those ratios.
