Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship South Africa launches as the heart of “Changing Business for Good” in Southern Africa!
Cape Town, South Africa – On Tuesday 5 November 2019, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship South Africa (Branson Centre) hosted its namesake, businessman and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson, at its official launch held at Mont Rochelle in Franschhoek, Cape Town, South Africa.
The Branson Centre launched as a social enterprise supplier-development hub with the aim of becoming the heart of entrepreneurship for Southern Africa.
The focus of the Branson Centre is entrepreneurialism and social responsibility, including helping corporates solve their supply-chain and strategic difficulties by linking them with entrepreneurs. The Branson Centre does not simply enable companies to do business; their purpose is to change it for good.
The Branson Centre’s relentless entrepreneurialism has driven its team to challenge the rules and find different ways to play the competitive game. Going forward, the Branson Centre is committed to questioning “business as usual” to change things for good – for people, planet and profit.
It does this by helping entrepreneurs scale their purpose.
A new approach to entrepreneurs
But unlike other accelerator programmes, the Branson Centre aims to play a more meaningful role in entrepreneurs’ lives. As a bespoke accelerator – backed by Branson’s global Virgin brand that encompasses many industries such as health clubs, air transportation, and mobile and financial services, to name a few – the Branson Centre will help positively scale businesses with a greater purpose of impacting society, the environment and the economy.
Additionally, small business people will be empowered to make good business decisions and invest in their own communities in a socially responsible way under the guidance of industry experts across operations, marketing and communications, design, networking, and finances.
Wesley Noble, the Executive Director of the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, says: “Our vision is to become the heart of ‘changing business for good’ that supports, develops and inspires ambitious entrepreneurs to grow successful, sustainable businesses that positively impact society. We do this through supporting their access to the market through bespoke business development support that, in turn, helps scale their purpose.”
“The South African economy is dependent on entrepreneurial activity for creating future economic growth and jobs,” adds Branson.
“But the economic contribution to South Africa’s entrepreneurial sector is below the developing country norm. I believe that increasing entrepreneurship in this country is the golden highway to economic democracy.”
Already “changing business for good”
Since December 2018, the core management team of the Branson Centre has already been hard at work behind-the-scenes. In partnership with Virgin Active South Africa, it helped small-business entrepreneur Lolo Ndlovu establish his sneaker-cleaning services as a stop-and-drop inside the Virgin Active Claremont health club while, in May, the Branson Centre played a pivotal role in the business development of I Love Coffee, a coffee-shop franchise that employs people who are hearing-impaired. I Love Coffee has since landed a profitable licence to service all of American company WeWork’s shared workspaces throughout South Africa.
In addition, the Branson is currently working with not-for-profit organisation Clean C on two exciting projects, the first being OceanCollective. Clean C organises beach clean-ups where ocean waste from SA’s coastlines are collected, cleaned, sorted and processed for sale on a marketplace that upcycles waste into consumer goods. In 2020, the Branson Centre will also drive Clean C’s premier event, Mile Sixteen, the longest beach run in the world at 25.75 kilometres.
By building relationships with partners and big business, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship South Africa questions the old adage of “business as usual”, providing feel-good experiences to both entrepreneurs and partners – and changing business for good.
For more information on the Branson Centre or images from the launch event, contact Zainab Slemang van Rijmenant, zainab@bransoncentre.co.za.
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