Professor Leon Pretorius recently attended and presented a paper at the International Council for Small Business Conference ICSB 2010 in Cincinatti USA. The conference was held from 24-27 June in Cincinatti. The academic host for the conference was the University of Cincinatti, Ohio, USA. More than 400 people from more than 50 counties participated and papers were presented on topics ranging from individual entrepreneurship to international entrepreneurship as well as technology and entrepreneurship.

A paper was presented and published at ICSB 2010: Watson Ladzani, Nico Smith and Leon Pretorius, The impact of leadership and strategic planning on management performance of SME’s in the built environment Proceedings of the International Council for Small Business, 55th ICSB World Conference,24-27 June 2010, Cincinatti, USA. The paper elucidated and established the impact that leadership and strategic planning management functions have in improving small and medium-size enterprises’ (SME’s) performance. The primary objective was to establish the extent to which SMEs in the construction industry in the study area utilise leadership and strategic planning to enhance continuous improvement in management performance.

Some networks were established specifically with Dr Pierluigi Rippa from the Department of Business and Managerial Engineering at the University of Napoli Frederico in Italy. Some common interests in the field of Systems Dynamics and Innovation Strategies were established.

Proffs Leon Pretorius (GSTM, UP) and Watson Ladzani (UNISA) at ICSB 2010 in Cincinatti