Vusumuzi Dube
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
INDIGENOUS business lobby group, Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has stepped up efforts in assisting small businesses and entrepreneurs grow through providing them with the much-needed inspiration, linkages, assistance and information.
Speaking during the launch of an online magazine – The Art of Entrepreneurship, AAG founder and renowned businessman, Dr Phillip Chiyangwa said the magazine comes at a time when AAG was taking its rightful place at the forefront of local and global business.
Dr Chiyangwa said: “The magazine will offer advice, support, tools, strategies, real stories and real business opportunities. It will also contain news stories about entrepreneurship, small business management, marketing, inspiring and educating business models.”
He said being a successful entrepreneur often meant being able to balance the many different aspects of a business such as financing, accounting and management and the magazine covered one of the most important of those aspects which is marketing.
Dr Chiyangwa said while the domestic economy faced groundbreaking and at times painful, reform to satisfy the increasing demand from local and international stakeholders for higher growth, efficiency and profitability, AAG corporates could not afford to miss opportunities across many sectors to establish an international footprint whose survival might depend on it.
He said marketing in the form of a magazine was an umbrella term given to those activities that companies use to identify consumers and convert them into buyers for the purposes of achieving a profit.
“No matter the size of the enterprise, marketing lays the foundation of how a company reaches and serves its target customers. On a basic level, entrepreneurial marketing is a set of unconventional practices that can help start-ups and younger firms emerge and have an edge in competitive markets,” added Dr Chiyangwa.
The 27 pages magazine which was put together by Mr Philimon Nyirenda and the Youth Network Connect team, acknowledged President Mnangagwa for being a great man with integrity, whose values are building a united, developed Zimbabwe through vision 2030.
It noted that President Mnangagwa has pushed an agenda which is nurturing constructive leadership, where he encourages innovation and collaboration.
The magazine noted that the story of AAG could be better understood through the life and work of Dr Chiyangwa who epitomizes the potential of Africanism and the power of its demographic dividend, particularly the youth of Africa and the audacity of faith they have for Zimbabwe.
“His life and work lie at the intersection of the imminent collective rise of the continent and the individual fortitude, grit and heart of making that rise a reality. Dr Chiyangwa is a proud Zimbabwean who believes in empowering others through team work and innovation,” read part of the magazine.
Dr Chiyangwa also highlighted that entrepreneurship’s transformative properties lie in the ability to turn an idea into reality, a new venture, small business that puts rising economies on the path to prosperity and empowers people to come together and tackle the most pressing global problems, from climate change to poverty.
Inspiring and insightful stories of entrepreneurship, and insights into what it takes to start a successful business feature in the magazine.
The AAG was started in 1994 as a brainchild of Dr Phillip Chiyangwa and the late Mr Peter Pamire.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu