News & Insights
Dive into our news and insights page, your source for the latest insights, events, and stories shaping our remarkable community.
Exploring The Usefulness Of Uplift Modelling In Direct Marketing
Direct marketing remains a crucial strategy for fostering customer relationships and minimising attrition. However, with increased consumer power, technological advancements, and the saturation of marketing messages, organisations face growing pressure to adopt more contextual and customer-centric approaches. Cindy-Lee Mayes’ dissertation examined whether uplift modelling can offer…
Managing Agriculture Business: Lessons In Planning And Organising
At The DaVinci Institute, learning is not confined to lecture halls. It is brought alive through real conversations, lived experiences, and practical reflection. In this agricultural management session, participants were guided by our Executive: Business Development, Dr Sam February, to explore how the principles of business…
Success Of Business Incubation Support Amongst SMMEs In South Africa’s Tourism Sector
Small, medium, and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) are widely recognised as engines of economic growth and job creation, particularly in developing economies like South Africa. Within the tourism sector, these enterprises are central to employment generation, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. However, despite various forms of support, many…
CHE Resubmission For Higher Certificate Qualification And Productive Session On Self-Evaluation Report
Last week, our governance and quality activities included a resubmission to the CHE, following some amendments required for our Higher Certificate qualification. The amendment entailed adding more content to the higher certificate’s international comparability, as well as tightening the qualification’s assessment strategy and criteria. We also had…
Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage Through Reputation Management: Lessons From Gauteng’s Tourism SMEs
Reputation management strategies are vital for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of South Africa’s economy, contributing more than half of the country’s GDP and employing the majority of its workforce. Nowhere is their role more visible than in tourism, a sector that attracts both…
Women Leaders Call For Inclusive Leadership
Johannesburg, 4 September 2025: Women leaders have raised the alarm about South Africa’s stalled progress on gender equality in local government, warning that without urgent reforms, progress risks stalling further and exclusion could deepen. The keynote speaker pointed to the decline in women’s representation during the…
Client Engagement In Retail Banking: A Developing Socio-Economic Perspective
Retail banking remains one of the most critical drivers of financial inclusion and economic growth in developing economies. Dr Makgorong Reginah Masete’s research investigated client engagement in retail banking with a focus on how socio-economic contexts influence customer relationships, loyalty, and trust in financial institutions. The…
How Township Economies Can Be Repositioned As Strategic Drivers Of Inclusive Development
Township economies are at the centre of the doctoral thesis by Dr Kholekile Herbert Ntsobi (2025), “Developing an Intervention Framework to Accelerate Key Programmes for Economic Growth in South African Townships: A Study of Hammarsdale”, which explored how township economies can be repositioned as strategic drivers…
Enhancement Through The Integrated Quality Management System
As higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa are undergoing a significant transformation drive through the Council on Higher Education’s implementation of the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF), The DaVinci Institute is deliberate to play its part in enhancing its Integrated Quality Management Systems (IQMS) by addressing…
Youth Unemployment Demands Urgency
The DaVinci Institute is pleased to share that Tebogo Thabethe, Project Manager for the tt100 Business Innovation Awards Programme (a DaVinci Institute NPO), has published an op-ed in the Times Live. His piece, “Time for joint action to resolve youth unemployment”, highlights South Africa’s youth unemployment…