Howden Africa was established in Johannesburg in 1952, to supply fans for the mining and power generation industries, just under a century after the Scottish engineer and inventor James Howden set up the parent company in Glasgow. Howden was an innovator par excellence, but his most successful invention was a forced draught system that dramatically improved the performance of steam boilers.

Historically known for its large hydrocarbon wealth, which gives it one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world, the UAE’s decision in recent years to diversify its economic plans marked an important shift in the growth of the GCC country. It has subsequently proven to be a hugely successful move, with the country’s non-oil and gas GDP outstripping that attributed to the energy sector, accounting for 64 percent of its total GDP.

The market has a lot to answer for, and so do investors in search of a quick buck. Where gold mining is concerned, it is a well-known fact that as the price on the international metal exchanges fluctuates the viability of higher cost mines comes into question. There are properties all over the world that have been put into mothballs either because all the high grade material has been taken or because they can’t any longer sustain a decent margin.

A member of the Bravo Group, South Africa’s largest and most diverse furniture manufacturer, Alpine Lounge has left behind the world of high volume mass-produced furniture. It is a premium marque and its Ashanti brand can only be described as aspirational. Founded in 1969 it has built its reputation on state-of-the-art technology, quality products, on-time delivery and caring and efficient after-sales service.

Moving one’s home can be, I’m sure many will agree, a challenging, stressful experience at the best of times. The same holds true for relocating a business, something the Business Excellence team have experienced first-hand recently. As anyone in the publishing business will attest to, there is a lot more to a company like ours than simply a few individuals who produce the features you see before you.

In a very short space of time – less than a decade really – technology has changed the way people live their lives. It has also changed the way they work. It was in 2008 that Kevin Roberts, the worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, told me how his iPhone freed him from the constraints of geography, enabling him to run the business as effectively from his home in New Zealand as from his office in New York or Lancashire, where he happened to be at the time.

Located in Century City, a business development within the suburbs of Cape Town, the office will act as a regional hub for the company’s activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, which covers various territories including Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Cameroon, and Tanzania. The opening comes on the eve of the 20th Africa Oil Week, starting on the 25 November.

“We are delighted to be celebrating twenty years of contribution to Africa’s economy and the success of an industry,” said Jonathan Moore, Managing Director of Mining Indaba LLC. “We have the global mining community, investors and our partners in Africa to thank for this success.”