Mar 122012
 
Competition catapults 2011 winner to further business success

The 2012 Sanlam / Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year® competition acts as a catapult, driving growth, boosting self-confidence and improving internal efficiency for participating entrepreneurs and their businesses. However, the competition also aims to play a larger role in elevating the standard of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa, as well as fostering a national entrepreneurial spirit that directly translates into job creation.

The winner of the 2011 Overall Entrepreneur of the Year® award, Marc Sternberg, is the Managing Director of Spark ATM Systems, the leading independent Automated Teller Machine (ATM) deployer in South Africa. He says participating in the competition last year had myriad benefits for him personally, as well as for his company.

“To be recognised as a young and successful company has boosted the confidence of the staff tremendously and has also filtered into direct positive business results,” says Sternberg… more

Sep 292011
 
How a bright idea sparked success

Winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year® award 2011

From being dubbed ‘Marc the Spark’ as a child to naming his multi-million rand business Spark ATM Systems, founder and managing director Marc Sternberg walked away with the overall coveted title of 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year® – which not only earned him the R100 000 grand prize but also the recognition he deserved.

Like every good story, it has to begin somewhere and for Marc Sternberg, it all began in the land down under – Sydney, Australia, where Marc lived with his wife Tanya. “We were on a visit to Cape Town in 2005, when I was at a restaurant with my family and could not find an ATM nearby to draw cash,” says Marc… more

Sep 282011
 
Creating opportunities in the face of adversity

Winner of the Job Creator of the Year award 2011

Pierre Conradie, founder and director of the Alpha Group, was the recipient of the prestigious 2011 Job Creator of the Year Award at the annual Entrepreneur of the Year® awards ceremony. Creating employment for 1 200 people in the rural area of Hluhluwe, KwaZulu-Natal, no one was more deserving of the title.

Pierre Conradie had a dream – he envisioned a multi-faceted company 25 years ago, the Alpha Group, which encompasses Alpha Security and Patrols as the group’s core, since this was his longest-standing business having been operational for more than 11 years. Alpha is the first letter of the alphabet and, according to Pierre, no other name signified a better beginning for the group… more