Business Management Jobs

Start with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, management, or a related field. This will provide a strong foundation in marketing, business law, economics, and/or finance for the challenges and rewards lying ahead.

Once you’re employed within a business management role, consider signing up for a Masters in Business Administration (or MBA), which the Wharton Academy advises will “enhance your career prospects and provide a certain level of ‘clout’ within the business context – leading to career advancement, increased earning potential, and a greater sense of confidence in your abilities”. 

From a personality perspective, you will ideally be an individual with naturally strong communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills.

DigiCrusader suggests a combination of the following titles:

• The Resilient Organisation, and Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins;
• Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, by Richard Rumelt;
• Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek;
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz;
• The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, by Clayton M Christensen & Michael E Raynor;
• The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman;
• Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill;
• Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, by Cal Newport;
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel H Pink;
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, by Timothy Ferriss.

Consider attending a whirlwind of all, or a selection of, the following prestigious conferences:

• the International Conference on Human Resources, Strategies, and Development, taking place in Durban on 6 May;
• the International Conference on Currency Management and Operations, scheduled for Johannesburg on 7 May;
• the International Conference on Database Management for Business Intelligence, to be held in Durban on 8 May;
• the International Conference on Accounting and Finance, taking place in Johannesburg on 12 May. 

Consider a few of the following high-level conferences for the globally insightful business manager:

• the BMM-EMAC Biennial International Conference on Business Market Management, scheduled for the Excelia Business School’s Paris Campus, France, between 22 and 24 May 2025;
• the Global Business, Marketing, and Management Conference, taking place in Singapore between 20 and 22 June 2025;
• the Global Business Summit, scheduled for Johannesburg from 17 to 18 November 2025.

The ActivTrak Blog provides those in business management jobs with eight proven workplace management strategies to help boost productivity and performance. These are:

• regularly balance out workloads;

• assist your staff members with their time management;
• offer flexible working arrangements;
• watch out for (and step in when you encounter) signs of disengagement;
• foster a positive workplace culture;
• make use of data and dashboards to support employee-related initiatives (performance, well-being);
• analyse predictive patterns to curtail negative trends in staff morale;
• put employee recognition on the pedestal it deserves.

Consider:

• Neil Walker, for his decades of business management insights, as provided on Twitter;
• Gary Vaynerchuk, a well-known figure in business and internet marketing, for his YouTube advice on content creation, business building, and career advice;
• online marketing guru Neil Patel, who ranks highly in his use of metrics and analytics.