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Established in 1804, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the oldest member-based business organisation in Africa. It is mandated to serve, enable and lead business. This is achieved through a multitude of services, networking opportunities as well as robust advocacy on behalf of business.

The Chamber represents business of all sizes and virtually all sectors. Our members count on us to be their eyes and ears in the Western Cape as well as on a national level, and we work tirelessly to ensure that we serve our members’ needs.

As a key player in the business landscape, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry truly believes that we are Where Opportunity Meets.

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Funding Opportunities for SMME’s - DTI Incentive Programmes

29th September 2016 12:00

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Health and Wellness in the Workplace

4th October 2016 08:30

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The changing face of Cape Town: Cape Town's Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Framework and the Foreshore Freeway Precinct

4th October 2016 14:00

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Water and Sanitation in SA: Is there a crisis?

5th October 2016 14:00

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Make Your Business Work For You

6th October 2016 08:30

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Agri-processing: A specific focus on the Halaal Strategic Intent

10th October 2016 14:00

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Cape Chamber Central Chapter Coffee Club

11th October 2016 08:00

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Telephone Etiquette

11th October 2016 08:30

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27 Sep
Aristotle’s rhetoric and the art of pitching new business

Aristotle’s rhetoric and the art of pitching new business

Rhetoric is the art of persuasive communication. According to Aristotle, three elements are required for effective rhetoric: ethos (your reputation), logos (the logic in your argument) and pathos (the emotion you elicit). All three are a vital triad when presenting for new business. Ethos: your reputation Having 10 slides on your wonderful company at the beginning of a presentation comes at a cost. Although it may illustrate your credentials, this is not what they’re buying – they’re buying you. You are not the company – you represent the company. We often proudly stand before a map of the world illustrating our global presence, as if that’s some source of authority of our personal ability. However, clients are not looking for good global companies; they’re looking for good local people. Illustrating the former does not win you the business. Proving the latter does. Logos: the logic in your argument Although you may have hard data that clearly supports your argument, people still ‘feel’ that you have a solid case. It is a myth that people need to be completely informed – the idea is not to illustrate every single point, but to provide just enough data for your audience to connect […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
20 Sep
Death by Powerpoint

Death by Powerpoint

Death by PowerPoint: The 10 ways to prevent it Unlike firearms, no one needs a license to present with PowerPoint – so until such licenses are issued, these are the basics in the field of presentation safety. 1.    Skip the first slide with the table of contents. There’s nothing worse than the dentist telling you what he’s going to do. Rather set up the theme at the start. Allude to what’s coming without giving the plot away. Perhaps this is a good place to sell yourself – not by listing your credentials, but by saying something insightful. 2.    I know you have a lot of information, and it’s all so interesting, but please – only one strategic point to be made per slide. 3.    If you use less than 16 point you should be shot. 4.    Get a designer to critique your slides. Hang on, that might take too long – let him/her redo it. 5.    You’re telling a story. However, unlike bedtime, the idea is to keep the audience engaged as opposed to nodding off. Vary things – like your tone. It won’t kill you to just have a slide with an image you can talk around. 6.    Like […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
12 Sep
What juries can teach us about pitching for new business

What juries can teach us about pitching for new business

In most legal systems, a lawyer is required to make an opening statement at the start of a trial. This process bears a close resemblance to a new business pitch, where you are required to state your case to a prospective client whom you are meeting for the first time. Come to think of it, these client panels often do resemble a judge and jury. These are some of the maxims that trial attorneys follow when making their opening statements in jury trials:1 Focus on one thing Have a central theme and keep coming back to it. During the OJ Simpson trial, the late Jonnie Cochran always brought the argument back to one theme: police dishonesty, which made some of the evidence suspect – which made it difficult for the jury to return a verdict of guilty. In the words of the expert witness at the trial, Dr. Henry Lee: “If you find a cockroach in a bowl of spaghetti, you don’t look for another cockroach before you throw out the whole bowl of spaghetti.” More detail means less persuasion Excessive detail is the enemy of persuasion – you need to tell a clear story without unnecessary detail. The idea […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
6 Sep
When bad ads aren’t bad at all

When bad ads aren’t bad at all

For the residents of the Hebrides (a chain of islands north of Scotland), if you had head lice you were healthy. There was ample proof: if the lice left their host, fever would follow. So, to get rid of the fever, all they did was put lice back in their hair. [1] Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it – it worked. However this is a wonderful example of false causality – simply the muddling of cause and effect. [2] When the lice left the patient, it was because of the fever – lice don’t like their feet to get hot, so they leave, and when the fever breaks, they move back in. However, I wouldn’t tell the islands’ residents – people feel more positive when they feel they have some control over what happens in their life. [3] Shame on Alan Greenspan In the ’90s the entire financial community in the USA (or the honest ones left) revered the head of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan. He had a magical aura about him – everyone believed that their monetary policy, under his guidance, was keeping the country on the road to prosperity. He wasn’t – it was China’s eagerness […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
29 Aug
Sparklines – the forgotten feature for better storytelling

Sparklines – the forgotten feature for better storytelling

Presentations are stories. With the awesome power of sparklines, you can condense 20 PowerPoint slides into one. And what’s more, Excel 2010 can do it for you. But that’s not all – nothing breaks up a story like the disruptive ‘Refer to Table 1’, and with sparklines a few years’ worth of data can be illustrated within a sentence. The result is that the reader is not burdened with the frequent tabelis interruptus in your document. The father of sparklines is Edward Tufte, who has made a substantial contribution to the art of presenting data in its most consumable form. A bloody example As controlling blood glucose is one of the country’s most pressing needs, let’s use this as an example. The normal range is 4 – 6.5. We could show the latest result of a patient as follows: Glucose 5 Everything looks good, but if we take the last 20 readings and illustrate that with a sparkline, we get something like this, which alludes to the fact that the level might be normal today, but has been erratic over the measured period.    Glucose 5 We can make it a little clearer when we show the latest reading as […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
23 Aug
If you’re setting objectives, you could be doing it wrong

If you’re setting objectives, you could be doing it wrong

I was always under the impression that setting objectives (subsequent to discovering them), played a crucial role in the success of the strategic planning process. Once we had the objective, we could then plan to meet it. However, if there was a black mark against planning as a discipline, it would be this: implementation. Although we are required to just provide the map, if people and organisations seldom reach the destination, then surely the mapmaker has some responsibility? Or, in my case – curiosity. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) offers an intriguing potential remedy. AI was initially developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva as an organisational development model based on the assumption that ‘organisations change in the direction they inquire’. So, organisations which investigate problems will keep finding them, whereas an organisation that focuses on what is best in itself, will discover more of what is good (and hopefully profitable). Appreciative Inquiry incorporates a four-part cycle. Although parts two to four are currently practiced by strategists in some form or another, it is the first step that is unique: 1. Discover: The best of what is… Instead of identifying the gaps in the current situation, AI focuses on what currently works […]

Featured Item Press Releases
22 Aug
Wine exports have increased by 233% over the last 15 years

Wine exports have increased by 233% over the last 15 years

Wine exports have increased by 233% over the last 15 years and that is something to be proud of, but even more exciting is the continuing growth. The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry congratulated the wine farmers, the industry and the enabling economic planners of the Province on a remarkable achievement. “With more than 3 300 producers throughout the wine lands, the benefits of this success spread to many communities and that means many thousands more jobs in both the towns and on the farms. This is exactly what the Western Cape needs.” One of the reasons for success was the way all the role players had worked together and this set an example for other industries. Ms Myburgh said the Chamber agreed with the strategy of trying to move the industry from bulk exports to fully packaged products. “In the first place this adds value to our exports and creates many more jobs in bottling, packaging and transporting the high value cargo. There will always be a place for bulk exports, but it is the bottled and branded products that build the relationships with consumers and ensure continuing demand for high quality Western Cape wines,” Ms Myburgh said. […]

Featured Item Press Releases
16 Aug
Chamber responds to query on SAA’s possible grounding

Chamber responds to query on SAA’s possible grounding

Nobody hides good news so when we finally get to see the figures on SAA’s performance no one is expecting any pleasant surprises. Most people in the airline business understand this only too well and it is a safe bet that they are already preparing contingency plans to step into the breach if SAA is grounded or unable to resume normal service. They have plenty of options. They can increase the number of flights to SAA or use larger aircraft and this should certainly limit the damage to our tourism industry. Even the local competition would be able to respond quickly as Comair and Kalula.com were linked to British Airways so they would also have the resources to increase flights or use bigger aircraft. A further factor was the terrorism in Europe which was making people reluctant to fly to some destinations so airlines would be eager to find uses for their spare capacity. If SAA was out of operation for any time at all it would lose market share and under its present management there was no chance of regaining this market. What we have to remember is that one of the reasons why SAA is in its present […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
16 Aug
How to pitch your idea – Hollywood style

How to pitch your idea – Hollywood style

When writers pitch their screenplay they need to position the movie relative to something the studio executive knows. For example, Argo would be “The Great Escape meets the Ayatollah”. What really goes on in Hollywood pitches was somewhat of an enigma until Kimberly Elsbach of UCLA and Roderick Kramer of Stanford spent five years totally immersed in the process. [1] Their much-lauded study appeared in the Academy of Management Journal where their central finding was that the success of the pitch depended as much on the catcher (the studio exec) as on the pitcher (the writer). [2] An elaborate ritual, but just two processes Beneath this elaborate ritual, two processes were at play. Firstly the catcher used certain cues to judge the pitcher’s creativity; attributes such as passion, wit, and even quirkiness. Slickness, trying too hard and lots of different ideas were seen as negative cues. If the catcher was more influenced by the negative cues, the meeting could essentially be over in the first few minutes. However, there was a second process occurring at the same time: In most successful pitches, the pitcher didn’t push the idea onto the catcher until a ‘yes’ was extracted. Instead, the catcher was […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
10 Aug
Science fiction, the sound of silence and other oxymorons like strategic plan

Science fiction, the sound of silence and other oxymorons like strategic plan

Although strictly not an oxymoron, ‘Strategic’ and ‘Plan’ are two different concepts. A strategy is what we need to do to get from A to B (and deciding on what point B actually is). The plan is more specific and tells us how we will get to point B (the details). We use ‘planning’ in everyday speech A strategy can have a plan appended, but they are two different concepts. I have no gripe with anyone calling a strategy a strategic plan, but the word ‘plan’ has just become that – an appendage when it should actually be a distinct entity. To complicate matters further, we use the word ‘plan’ in our everyday speech: “Do you have plans for tonight?” “Can I see the architectural plan?” “Where is The United Nations Peace Plan and pass me the ammunition?” The cunning plan A most entertaining use of the word plan comes from the Blackadder series where Baldrick always comes up with a ‘cunning plan’: Captain Blackadder: Baldrick, what are you doing out there? Private Baldrick: I’m carving something on a bullet, sir. Captain Blackadder: What are you carving? Private Baldrick: I’m carving ‘Baldrick’, sir. Captain Blackadder: Why? Baldrick … doing what […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
2 Aug
The power of finding the right cues

The power of finding the right cues

In 1993, a scientist at P&G was playing around with hydroxypropyl beta cyclodextrin. It also happens that he was a smoker – and his wife hated the smell… When he got home that evening, she asked him if he had stopped smoking. He was confused, because he certainly had not. But, she stated, there was no smell. So, the next day he mixed the chemical with water and sprayed it on fabrics that smelled of wet dog, sweaty socks and … well you get the picture. The smell was gone. The company decided that had a blockbuster on their hands and started marketing it – as Febreze. However, this was just the start of a perplexing problem for P&G. The stuff just would not sell.[1] The thumbs up The test marketing for Febreze went swimmingly. There was even a park ranger who smelt of wild animals (mainly skunks) who could not get a date, and thanked the company from the bottom of her heart for the new opportunity it gave her in life to meet the man of her dreams, have children, and settle down. But, other than her, the market was less than enthusiastic – to the extent that […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
27 Jul
Eskom has turned its back on the future and the city of Cape Town

Eskom has turned its back on the future and the city of Cape Town

It is becoming increasing clear that Eskom has turned its back on the future and the city of Cape Town is fully justified in demanding the right to buy cheaper electricity from Independent Power Producers, says the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber, said she was shocked when Eskom said it would no longer sign any agreements to buy renewable energy. “The simple fact of the matter is that the electricity from the new power stations will cost between R1.05 cents to R1.20 a unit while electricity from PV solar and wind will cost between 60 and 80 cents a unit. It is irrational to deny cities the right to buy clean energy at nearly half the price of power from dirty coal-fired power stations,” she said. “What we should be working on are gas power stations to support renewables and ways to store solar electricity for night use. We already have the Steenbras Pump Storage scheme and batteries will soon be available.” The Chamber fully supported the Mayor’s demand to let Cape Town buy the electricity Eskom does not want. Ms Myburgh said the City was also right in demanding the break-up […]

Featured Item Press Releases
26 Jul
Problem finders perform better than problem solvers

Problem finders perform better than problem solvers

The subject of creativity is an elusive one. Equally elusive is the pronunciation of the legendary social scientist’s name who researched the topic and revolutionised our understanding of what makes a good creative thinker: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. You pronounce his surname chick-sent-mee-hali (the ‘y’ is silent). Back to school One day Mihaly drove to the School of Fine Arts in Chicago and recruited a bunch of fourth-year art students for an experiment. He invited them (one at a time) to a studio in which there was a table that had 27 objects on it. The students were asked to select any number of objects, and to arrange them as a still life which they would then draw. [1] The artists approached the task in one of two ways: one group chose the objects that appealed to them and proceeded to draw; the other group handled more objects, rearranged them several times and took longer on the task. As Mihaly saw it, the first group was trying to solve a problem; the second group was trying to find a problem. The first group asked themselves “how can I produce a good drawing?” The second group asked themselves “what good drawing can I […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
19 Jul
Cape Chamber Announces South African Awardees and Mentees for 2016 IWEC Conference

Cape Chamber Announces South African Awardees and Mentees for 2016 IWEC Conference

TWO remarkable South African business women have been chosen to receive awards from the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge in Brussels in November this year. They were nominated by the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry and both have built up multi-million dollar businesses. They are: *Debbie Merdjan who started and runs the Camelot Group of spas and health and wellness schools. *Gail Downing who runs the Acorn Group which manufactures and distributes cleaning products and insect repellents. Both women have been in business for more than 20 years and both are still growing their businesses and planning export ventures. Both businesses are headquartered in Gauteng but also operate in the Western Cape market. Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber, said they were outstanding examples of modern women who had built up substantial businesses and were making important contributions to the economy. “South Africa needs more entrepreneurs and Gail and Debbie are showing the way.” Mrs Merdjan started her business with just R1 700 and has never looked back. Her spas serve the top end of the market and are located in the major centres and resorts. Her spas employ 194 people around the country. Mrs Downing founded a small […]

Featured Item Press Releases
18 Jul
When new innovations fall prey to ecosystem failure

When new innovations fall prey to ecosystem failure

An innovation blind spot cost Philips Electronics US$2.5bn in the form of write-offs. They brought out the magnificent HDTV in 1980; unfortunately they were 20 years too early. The hi-definition cameras and transmission standard – which were needed to make HD deliver – failed to arrive in time. However, this was somewhat less painful than Pfizer’s R2.8bn write-off from Exubera – a ‘sure winner’.[1] Exubera – not so exuberant In the early 2000s there were more than 370 million diabetics worldwide of which a fair share had to administer insulin by injection. Inhalable insulin (like an asthma pump) was seen as a major breakthrough. There is a great deal of reluctance when it comes to having to administer insulin by people who develop type 2 diabetes later in life (type 2 is mainly due to an unhealthy diet and poor lifestyle choices). The stigma of the injection results in an unfortunate five- to eight-year window between the time the type 2 patient should start on insulin injections and the time they actually begin treatment. The new method of inhalable insulin was seen as the magic bullet – not only would it decrease the window of type 2 treatment, but would […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
15 Jul
Stellenbosch Municipality’s plan to reduce traffic congestion

Stellenbosch Municipality’s plan to reduce traffic congestion

Doubts have been expressed about the Stellenbosch Municipality’s plan to reduce traffic congestion in the town, especially when the road changes are being implemented. Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, said Stellenbosch had a major congestion problem but she applauded the local municipality’s  work to improve traffic flow. The Chamber’s Stellenbosch and Drakenstein committee was concerned that the improved intersections could mean more cars arriving more quickly and that could mean congestion on the fringes of the town. More thought should be given to the problem, especially while the road changes were taking place. She said Mr Lewis Silberbauer, a committee member and an expert on trees and forestry, was also concerned about Stellenbosch’s famous oaks which could become dangerous as they aged. It was necessary to replace some of them but he warned that new, healthy trees should be bought only from certified nurseries. The committee was also concerned that cycling and hiking trails through the Paradyskloof area were affecting the environment and endangering some of the 300 fynbos species some of which were rare and threatened with extinction. Steps had been taken to secure funding to police the area to control access, improve safety […]

Featured Item Press Releases
15 Jul
What does the Western Cape’s construction projects mean for the province’s economy?

What does the Western Cape’s construction projects mean for the province’s economy?

The V & A Waterfront is the best thing that has happened to Cape Town in recent times and its growth continues to amaze, says the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “When the waterfront development started there were complaints that it would take business away from Sea Point but what we have seen is that it has been a superb generator of economic activity,” said Ms Janine Myburgh, President of the Chamber. “The waterfront turned Cape Town’s fortunes around and set the tone for the redevelopment of the CBD. We now have the best, safest and most prosperous city centre in the country,” she said. More important, however, was the number of jobs that it had created and the investments and tourists it had attracted to the Mother City. “The Chamber is particularly excited about the development of the new cruise liner terminal. Providing cruising holidays has become a big industry and now Cape Town will be better placed to gain a larger share of the business. And that, in turn, will create more jobs and more business opportunities,” Ms Myburgh said. She has no doubt that this was one of the reasons why the Western Cape was doing […]

Featured Item Press Releases
12 Jul
Ten lessons good graphs can teach us about strategy

Ten lessons good graphs can teach us about strategy

I like to keep things simple. What could be simpler than a dot? Put dots together and we get all sorts of shapes once we connect them – and we could say that, loosely speaking, strategy is just connecting the dots. There are four steps to a strategy – not necessarily in this order and you can return to any step at any time. The four steps Firstly there is extraction – essentially finding the dots. Then there is the analysis phase where we determine what the dots are all about. Then comes the construction phase where you find the relevant axes and plot the dots. Then finally you need to step back and determine what the story is (after all, strategies are just stories) So, to summarise the process: •    Extract: Find the dots •    Analyse: Interpret the dots •    Construct: Plot the dots •    Communicate: Show the final graph with its heading (the latter of which summarises the complete story) Good graphs are like good strategies 1.    When dots are plotted on a graph, they are given meaning. So, working backwards, what makes a good graph – and hence, what makes a good strategy? 2.    Firstly, the message […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
4 Jul
Knowledge might be power, but power is not knowledge

Knowledge might be power, but power is not knowledge

Imagine you’re at a workshop, and that you’re matched with another delegate. Your task is to explain how to buy a Big Mac from a drive-through. The twist in the tale is that you must assume the person is from the 1700s. What’s a car? It’s a lot trickier than it sounds. Firstly, you need to explain the underlying concepts, such as a car (tyres, engine, key to switch it on, and the difference in the emissions from the back of a car compared to a horse). Then you need to explain the window at the side of the building and how a complete meal of food is delivered in minutes – without a gunshot to be heard (the flintlock musket came into use in 1630). The reason the exercise is so difficult is that it requires that you give up your “perceptual position” – you are forced to care about the worldview of the other person. Essentially you are giving up your power. This perspective, and the remainder of the article, is based on Daniel Pink’s book “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others”. Knowledge is power. Not. A team of social scientists led by Adam […]

ED’s Blog Featured Item
4 Jul
Petrol Price Increase – Wednesday 6 July 2016

Petrol Price Increase – Wednesday 6 July 2016

As of Wednesday, 6 July 2016, the price of petrol will be increasing as follows: •  Petrol 93 (ULP & LRP) – 11cents per litre increase in retail price •  Petrol 95 (ULP & LRP) – 8cents per litre increase in retail price Download the media release by the Department of Energy

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Established in 1804, the Cape Chamber of Commerce is the oldest member-based organisation in Africa. The Chamber has remained contemporary and relevant with a wide range of services, including information, training, networking, trade facilitation and robust advocacy on behalf of our members. We are the voice of business.

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