TRADE AND INDUSTRY

This includes population trends such as the population growth rate, income distribution, career attitudes, safety emphasis, health consciousness, lifestyle attitude and cultural barriers.

These factors are especially important for the marketers when targeting certain customers. In addition, it also says something about the local workforce and its willingness to work under certain conditions.

Technological factors

These factors pertain to innovation in the technology that may affect the operations of the industry and the market favourably or unfavourably. This refers to technology incentives, internet infrastructure, automation, research and development (R&D) activity, technology change and the amount of technological awareness that a market possesses. These factors may influence decisions to enter or not enter certain industries, to launch or not launch certain products or to outsource production activities to the countries that have adequate capability and capacity. By knowing what is going on technology-wise, you may be able to prevent your business from spending a lot of money on developing a technology that would become obsolete very soon due to disruptive technology changes elsewhere.

Environmental factors

Environmental factors have come to the forefront only relatively recently. They have become important due to the increasing scarcity of raw materials, carbon footprint targets set by the government. These factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, environmental offsets, climate change, which may especially affect industries such as tourism, farming, agriculture and insurance. Furthermore, growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how businesses operate and the products they offer.

Legal factors

Although these factors may have some overlap with the political factors, they include more specific laws, such as discrimination laws, employment laws, fraud and corruption prevention laws, consumer protection laws, copyright and patent laws, environment, health and safety laws. It is clear that businesses need to know what is legal and what is not legal in order to trade successfully and ethically. If the company trades globally, this becomes especially tricky since each country has its own set of rules and regulations. In addition, you want to be aware of any potential changes in legislation and the impact it may have on your business in the future. Recommended is to have a legal advisor or attorney to help you with these issues.

MEET DR DAVID MASONDO

Hailing from the province of Limpopo – the heartland of South Africa – Deputy Finance Minister Dr David Masondo has a PhD from New York University and is an expert on the vehicle industry. By that measure, it is safe to say that the 45-year-old trailblazer is indeed a driven man.

With a passion for education and the community, Masondo is also soft-spoken and blessed with a mild temperament. Unless it comes to corruption. In 2011, while serving as Limpopo Finance MEC, Masondo spoke out against former president Jacob Zuma in the strongest possible terms. Defending his province of birth, Masondo accused Zuma of trying to undermine Limpopo to silence opponents ahead of the Mangaung conference. In a show of things to come, he wanted to take legal action against Zuma, but unfortunately couldn’t find the support.

Masondo was born in a small village in the Vhembe district of Limpopo, grew up in Gauteng and studied towards a teaching diploma at Giyani College, where he led the South African Students Congress (Sasco) and was president of the Student Representative Council. He did a BA at Wits in the late 1990s, where he was elected Wits SRC president. He studied labour rights in the vehicle manufacturing industry as part of his Master’s degree.

In the early 2000s, Masondo received a PhD from New York University for a thesis entitled Post-Apartheid Nanny State: Case Study of the Motor Industry Development Plan (MIDP). He received the Ford Foundation International Fellowships PhD programme award and the MacCracken PhD scholarship during his studies.

In 2015, Masondo was appointed head of the Automotive Industry Development Centre in the Gauteng provincial government. He was tasked to transform the local automotive industry and ensure that it contributes meaningfully to the province’s economy. Masondo also served as a board member of the Financial Sector Charter Council, which advocates for the transformation of the financial industry.

He has been a political activist for a period of approximately 30 years, saying that it is the experiences that he, his family and members of the community had in the areas that they resided which dictated his involvement in the struggle to liberate all South Africans. His commitment to his populace has seen him collect the “200 Young South Africans You Must Take to Lunch” awarded by the Mail and Guardian newspaper. He believes that through discussion, however divergent the opinions may be, a very strong and implementable position accepted by the constituency is always possible.

Masondo’s other interests include running and reading. And when he’s not in Parliament debating the best way to take South Africa forward, you will find him on the soccer field showing off his skills there.