The Codes of Good Practice for Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment have been hovering for months now - the Gazetting of the Codes last week is to be welcomed because it will push the process of economic transformation forward.

"Despite extensive communication in the media about the Codes over the past few months, we find that many of the companies we talk to do not actually have much knowledge about this important area of business," says Bobby Madhav (pictured here), the Head of Solutions for BEE at First National Bank (FNB).  "For this reason, in line with FNB’s approach to providing education to the market about important business issues like BEE, we are holding information sessions for some of our clients around the country.  Our first meeting of this sort was with a large group of Pretoria business people this week, and we helped them unpack the Codes and make them more practical to implement in their businesses."

At the session, an important point was raised about Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSEs) and the tremendous opportunities that BEE presents for them.  In terms of the Codes, a QSE is defined as a business that has revenue of between R5- and R35-million per annum.  These businesses will be expected to comply with four of the seven Pillars of the Codes.

"The larger businesses - those with turnover of over R35 million - will have to comply with all seven Pillars," explained Louis McLaren, a Director of BEE2Business, who presented an analysis of the Codes at the function.  "This places a far bigger burden on larger businesses in terms of getting their BEE scorecard to the desired level than is the case for the QSEs. With only four Pillars to worry about, implementing policies for BEE compliance will be far easier for this category of businesses."

McLaren believes that this creates a huge opportunity for QSEs to gain market share. "If a firm of this size embraces the need for compliance with the Codes quickly and has a strong scorecard rating as soon as verification of ratings becomes formalised, there will be a good chance that such a firm will wrest business from larger firms whose ratings could be lower because of the greater load of complying with all seven Pillars."

Applying the Codes is not just about compliance - it's really about becoming more competitive in the business environment.  McLaren's view on the opportunities created for QSEs proves the point.