TAP PROJECT

Situated in Newtown at Johannesburg's inner-city at Turbine Hall, BEHOLD SA was born at the heart of the City's regeneration and reinvention. This perfect location was made possible by one of BEHOLD South Africa's partner’s; Paul Kapelus. The office infrastructure provides state of the art board rooms, conferencing facilities, internet and access to BEHOLD's target market in Johannesburg. It is convenient to drive to meetings in no less than 30 minutes without traffic and surprisingly even with traffic there is a lot to learn and admire about Johannesburg along the route and scenes. We do also have offices in Pretoria where most of the strategy and planning happens and an office in Capetown.

This expansion was a visionary decision made BEHOLD NL to expand the operations of BEHOLD NL to new territories leading to the birth of BEHOLD South Africa now, with plans to further this expansion in East Africa. Research has been conducted and the Business Planning for BEHOLD South Africa is complete. In fact, in September, the Management team met in Pretoria where they brainstormed and developed a strategy that has achieved significant milestones for BEHOLD in the South African Market. Having a clear overview of the business plan, defined goals, aligned actions, developed concepts, a clear marketing approach and careful selection of partners and companies to work has been the secret behind our great strides.

BEHOLD South Africa essentially is a company and continues with the mission of promoting social entrepreneurship beyond borders. The company links the private sector with development work by empowering individuals to become strong and self-reliant. What makes us different is that we fight poverty and social gaps and profit in a sustainable manner. The services for BEHOLD SA include CSR consultancy, building social partnerships, employee engagement programs (learning journeys), corporate fundraising for NGOs and social concept and ventures development & investments. This is the backbone of our strategy and behind this strategy is team full of passion and commitment that drives the company.

BEHOLD SA goes to work...

Low and behold, as I write this blog, we have 2 main assignments; the first being a community competitiveness assignment to provide socio-economic baseline assessment of Mantserre Community in Limpopo (Northern Province) for Anglo American through our joint venture partner; Synergy. We have already made a visit to the community to meet with the Chief (Nkosi) and his clan elders at a tree. This experience provided us with the look and feel of being involved directly with the community and eagerness that the people in South Africa have for real positive impact and transformation. The second assignment is CSR Consultancy work for Leading Oil and Gas Company in South Africa.

Our track record in developing social concepts has also inspired us to promote 2 flagship projects to the South African market namely; TAP Project and the MDG Bracelet Campaign. Just to tell you a bit about both projects, the TAP Project is an initiative to engage the SA AIESEC (world’s largest student association) to boost social entrepreneurship, we are planning a social business plan competition amongst students in 4 regions as well as a summer school & dragons den to train and assist (social) entrepreneurs on their business planning and recruit mentors to support the entrepreneurs. The Summer School is planned to take place between July - Sept 2011 while the MDG Dragons Den in Kenya will be on the August 2011 and in South Africa the event has been planned for the November 2011.The MDG Bracelet Campaign on the hand is a bracelet campaign to create awareness for the MDG by wearing fair trade bracelets produced by rural women in KZN (ambition to create hundreds of jobs).Both of the flagship projects are still at the early stages and we are now focussing on getting local sponsors to support the initiatives and take them off the ground.

BEHOLD goes all out...

On the 13th October, we attended as CSR Event organised by the Netherlands Embassy, Pretoria hosted by H.E.  Rob de Vos. The Network Reception was put together by the Socio Economic Cooperation Department with the theme: Corporate Social Responsibility: “Tool for Development or Just Window Dressing?”At the event BEHOLD SA was among the selected companies to give an elevator pitch. This gesture showed confidence in our work and our offering to the market. This networking platform also provided us with useful business leads and collaborations.

Apart from the Networking events, we have also created useful partnerships that support our work and offer networking opportunities. One of these partnerships is the HUB Joburg which is a Social Venture that offers Social Entrepreneurs space to work, meet, learn and create. For us we see a lot of value in working with the HUB because it share the same philosophy as BEHOLD in driving positive impact in communities through Social Entrepreneurship. It is also a place to get Freelancers that can work with us on assignments. Other valuable partnerships that we are working on include SANEC, Business Partners, LGT, CAVI and GIBS amongst other organisations.

BEHOLD what we have planned...

This week is the Global Entrepreneurship Week so we are involved in entrepreneurship activities that have been organised by the HUB. The Global Entrepreneurship Week runs from the November 15th - 21st, 2010.Through this initiative, the next generation of entrepreneurs are inspired and can emerge. In doing so, they will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and networks needed to grow innovative, sustainable enterprises that have a positive impact on their lives, their families and communities. As a follow up to the Global Entrepreneurship week we have planned a TAP Project Cocktail to create awareness about promoting social entrepreneurship beyond borders and enhancing employability to AIESEC Alumni in South Africa. A similar cocktail event is planned in Netherlands on the 19th November and in Kenya on the 25th November. We have also been invited for a conference organised by AIESEC South Africa that runs on the 30th November to the 4th December.

This blog provides you with an insight to what BEHOLD South Africa has been doing since September to date. Look out for more of the blogs on a Bi-weekly basis.