1.1 INTRODUCTION
What is the key focus of business management? The answer to this question in
South Africa is embedded in the free-market system principle. In countries that
function according to the free-market system, business plays a key role in the
satisfaction of our multiple human needs. Management – or the entrepreneur in
the case of a small business – must combine the correct portions of the factors of
production (entrepreneurship, natural resources, labour and capital) available
to them to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the business, to make a profit
and to satisfy society’s multiple needs.