N5 Entrepreneurship 3.3.3 Cultural forces


Culture can briefly be defined as shared characteristics and values that distinguish the members of one group from those of another. A cultural group normally includes people who share: • A common language • Religion • Level of economic development • Set of values


These cultural values and characteristics set the boundaries for publicly acceptable business conduct. This means that all the other forces, including your customers, are guided by culture and it will therefore guide your business. South Africa with its cultural richness makes it very difficult, but challenging for a business to do business. This is why SATOUR (South African Tourism Board) uses the slogan, “South Africa, the whole world in one country.” If you plan, for example to open a fast food business, you must first familiarise yourself with the culture of your potential customers. Failure to do so could result in poor support from customers, or even worse, a customer boycott. This is the last thing that any person who intends to make of a success of business can afford.


Case study Read the extract below and debate the statements below in your small group.


Vuvuzela: SA football’s beautiful noise


What’s plastic, a metre long, brightly coloured and sounds like an elephant? It’s the vuvuzela, the noise-making trumpet of South African football fans, and it’s come to symbolise the sport in the country.


It’s an instrument, but not always a musical one. Describing the atmosphere in a stadium packed with thousands of fans blowing their vuvuzelas is difficult. Up close it’s an elephant, sure, but en masse the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees.


And when there’s action near the goal mouth, those bees go really crazy. To get that sound out requires lip flexibility and lung strength – in short, a fair amount of technique. So be sure to get in some practice before attending a South African football match, or you the sound you produce may cause some amusement in the seats around you!


Vuvuzela supplier Boogieblast offers this advice: “Put your lips inside the mouthpiece and almost make a ‘farting’ sound. Relax your cheeks and let your lips vibrate inside the mouthpiece. As soon as you get that trumpeting sound, blow harder until you reach a ridiculously loud ‘boogying blast’.


1. “Vuvuzelas is an example of true South African culture” 2. “It is a noisy piece of plastic and should be banned due to noise pollution”


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