Karen Harverson Brands, though intangible, are often the most=20 valuable asset of a company, more so than its real=20 estate, equipment, stock, investments and=20 technology. “A brand has an economic value because of the=20 relationship that it creates between the supplier=20 and the customer,” says Raymond Perrier, executive=20 director of Interbrand, a specialist in the […]

Data mining can unleash a gold mine of information=20 from one’s own databases. Leon Perlman reports Unbeknown to many corporates, they’re sitting on a=20 gold mine. Buried deep inside their databases are=20 vast repositories of data patterns that could=20 unlock acres of productivity and millions of rands=20 in revenue. The key to this info labyrinth […]

BASKEBALL:Rowan Callaghan=20 WEMBLEY Stadium won’t be echoing with the loud=20 cries of excited fans or the hoarse grunts of=20 determined players forcing their way to the hoop=20 for a while now. The last time the stadium came to=20 life was in the league final two weeks ago when the=20 Johannesburg Spartans won a hard-fought contest=20 […]

Biceps, butts _ and community spirit. HAZEL=20 FRIEDMAN finds out what makes Mr South Africa tick `HI, honey [the sweetener is optional]. Love your=20 pectorals. You must be a Taurus.” It may not be=20 the ideal opening gambit, but what else can you say=20 when you’re interviewing a hunk with wall-to-wall=20 muscles, whose baby blues […]

Without the skills, choosing a satellite system can=20 be a technological nightmare. Annicia Reddiar=20 guides you through the labyrinth MORE than a month after the MultiChoice satellite=20 launch, the equipment needed to access its system=20 is not widely available. Most retailers complain=20 that they have no stock of the two MultiChoice- compatible receivers, and people […]

Six unsigned bands on one CD … THERESE OWEN=20 discovers the joys of Aural Sex AURAL Sex _ or Soda Sex Fountain Part II _ is=20 finally available for public consumption. This=20 locally produced CD features six unsigned South=20 African bands _ who battled it out against at least=20 20 other groups at a competition […]

MALU VAN LEEUWEN visited Cape Town’s custom=20 motorcycle show _ and found that the `easy rider’=20 of the Sixties is the big spender of the Nineties BIKES new and old _ some of which hadn’t seen the=20 light of day in decades _ were wheeled out, dusted=20 down and lovingly shined up for Cape Town’s […]

The decision to clear Philip Spies of doping=20 charges goes=20 against IAAF rules and could create a legal=20 precedent ATHLETICS:Julian Drew THE acquittal on a doping offence by an Athletics=20 South Africa (ASA) tribunal of javelin star Philip=20 Spies at the weekend could have serious=20 repercussions for the sport.=20 Under the regulations of the world […]

Jane Starfield REVOLUTIONS IN MY LIFE=20 by Baruch Hirson=20 (Witwatersrand University Press, R86,15) SOUTH African historical writing is low on=20 Trotskyists. Although there have been several=20 eminent Trotskyist politicians (for example, Gana=20 Makabeni and Max Gordon), Baruch Hirson is probably=20 our most famous (under the old government, read=20 “notorious”; they banned his first book for […]

CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser IN his long overdue debut season with the National=20 Symphony Orchestra Gerard Korsten has shown that=20 there is more than a grain of truth in the=20 assertion that there are no bad orchestras, only=20 bad conductors. Faltering and often awkward as a=20 result of its encounters with a seemingly endless=20 string […]