Colin Daniels

Colin Daniels is currently completing his MBA in Entrepreneurship at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria and runs a boutique digital agency called More Than Media. Prior to following his entrepreneurial calling, Colin held various executive positions in the corporate world including; Head of Digital at Auto Trader (South Africa) and Publisher of The Times Online (Times Live) – one of Africa’s largest news portals.

An academic at heart, Colin also lectured new media for 2 years at Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies, where he taught digital theory and production to post-graduate journalism students.

Colin is currently conducting research into what attracts and motivates highly skilled knowledge workers at technology start-ups in South Africa and whether financial or non-financial incentives are more compelling. His research uses a mixed-method design comprising of expert interviews and a conjoint experiment powered by Sawtooth Software’s Adaptive Choice (ACBC).

Research Goals

The rationale for this research comes from the fact that entrepreneurship is a vital ingredient in stimulating economic growth, but in order for start-ups to be sustainable, they need to be able to recruit skilled workers and compete with larger corporations with better access to resources in the ‘war for talent’. This is especially relevant in South Africa where a scarcity of skills and high unemployment has restricted economic growth and the government has made billions of Rands in funding available to support small businesses.