Archive for December, 2009

Empowerment and BEE

Posted by MPUMULO MAPHOSA in Uncategorized on December 4th, 2009

In SA amongst the many policies aimed at the further development and sustenance of the economy, one policy that is pivotal but remains misconceived, is Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment. It has faced and still continues to face resistance from some sections of the South African community largely due to the misconception tag it carries. People have interpreted BEE in so many different ways stretching from the creation of an elite individual business people to an uneven ground regarding job prospects. All this has aggravated to the existing misunderstanding, which is surely a huge setback for the prosperity of the country at large.

All countries across the globe have empowerment-oriented policies including those relating to empowering women, the youth, the disabled and more. There are various policies for various country specific challenges and so is BEE in SA. Its intensity is in empowering the historically disadvantaged. Each time I come across the word “Empowerment”, words like participation, involvement, networking, equity, engagement, representation, equality, representativeness, transformation (the list is endless), spring out of my mind. Empowerment applies not to everyone, but to a particular segment of society. In line with this thinking, it makes sense therefore that BEE is only targeted to a specific segment of the SA society (the previously disadvantaged).

The BEE scorecard provides a rock-solid approach to empowerment. The 7 elements comprehensively cover significant areas of empowerment and the weighting thereof, points to the significance of one element over another. Empowerment must be woven around people and not the other way round and more importantly it must benefit those in need of it.

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Steps to a successful BEE Scorecard

Posted by Gavin in BBBEE Knowledge, General, Scorecard points on December 1st, 2009

Your BEE scorecard is one of the essential tools required to ensure your customers are satisfied and you grow your business. However the problem is it can take a tremendous amount of time to prepare a complete scorecard, in particular Preferential Procurement, trying to get a copy of every suppliers BEE scorecard. It is also hugely difficult to calculate how many points each supplier is worth. The rest of the scorecard can also take unnecessary time and cost money collecting documentation.

Steps to a successful BEE Scorecard:
The rationale: Each business needs a BEE scorecard because their customers need a scorecard.

Start with a simple solution – understand the scorecard in its simplest form

  • The elements
  • The indicators
  • The targets
  • How the scoring works

This works really well and certainly encourages more businesses to comply. The difficulty though is not only producing a scorecard that satisfies everyone but also finding cheap and easy points that help you beat your competitors score.

The next step: Earning cost effective and easy points

  • Track the areas where you have already earned points – ie Skills Development
  • Find creative ways of earning additional points

Finally prepare a report. Make sure you have a competitive score. If it is below your competitors score, make sure that your score is at least compliant and then use your competitors score to benchmark your next years target score.

A word to the wise. BEE contributions are taken retrospectively like an accounting audit. If you did not reach your target this year you will have to wait until next to improve you score. Unfortunately you can’t wait until you have an audit to reach your targets.

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