CEO Magazine Volume 18 Issue 2

ceo

celebrating excellence in organisations Vol 18 No 2 - 2019

Unexceptional Our First 'Wheels'

Cyber Crime Crime-as-a-Service

Plain Language Ultimate Career Booster

Bourbon The Mellow Option

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Unlocking

Potential Pam du Plessis, Managing Director, Invincible Valves

Dawid Mocke Four-time World Surf Ski Champion

Colour could save your life.

Wear a life jacket and bright colours when out paddling.

No way to make a living U

p to this date, there hasn’t been a major solution to solve the ongoing challenge of crime that has resulted to people losing their lives time after time. South Africa has a notably high rate of murders, assaults, rapes and other violent crimes, compared to most countries. Around 49 people are murdered in South Africa every day.

Both the South African Police Service with Stats SA, have published the country’s crime statistics for 2018, showing the types of criminal activities that have grown and declined in the past year.

The stats cover 21 crime categories, 17 of which are reported by the public, and four of which are as a result of police activity.

In the 2016/17 year, the rate of murders increased to 52 a day, with 19,016 murders recorded in April 2016 to March 2017. These are the major crimes in South Africa. Please check them out below:

Cash point robberies

Automated teller machines are blown up, or stolen or persons who withdraw grants from these machines are targeted afterward. R104 million was taken in a 2014 cash centre heist in Witbank where the gang impersonated police officers.

Cash-in-transit heists Cash-in-transit (CIT) heists have at times reached epidemic proportions in South Africa.

In 2006, there were 467 reported cases, 400 in 2007/2008, 119 in 2012, 180 in 2014 and 370 in 2017.

Kidnapping

Kidnapping in South Africa is common in the country, with over 4,100 occurring in the 2013/2014 period, and a child going missing every five hours.

Car hijackings

South Africa has a high record of carjacking when compared with other industrialised countries.[23] Insurance company Hollard Insurance stated in 2007 that they would no longer insure Volkswagen Citi Golfs, as they were one of the country’s most frequently carjacked vehicles. Certain high-risk areas are marked with road signs indicating a high incidence of carjacking within the locality.

“Criminals in South Africa have too many rights, in my opinion, your forfeit those rights when you get involved with crime. We can’t be in a situation where criminals enjoy so many rights and we don’t interrupt them’. – Fikile Mbalula A total of 2.09 million crimes were recorded in 2018 – down from the 2.12 million recorded in 2017.

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Source: www.wikipedia.org www.statssa.com CEO 2019 Vol 18.2

EDITOR’S Notes Risky Business A

s we start heading into the New Year, it is clear that 2019 is going to be a year replete with all manner of risks.

On a global and national front: political, social and economic risks loom large. What will the impact of the USA and China’s trade war standoff yield? Is the world going to be dealing with a battered Britain after Brexit?

Some important elections have and will take place on the African continent. How will the winners and losers plot a way forward for their countries during a time which is increasingly being viewed as Africa’s period of opportunity? Are we going to see more of the same or genuine disruption of status quo?

What about us ordinary folk? In an era where technology is rapidly ushering in changes to the workplace and making certain activities redundant, how are we going to respond the new demands placed upon us to re-skill and approach the future?

What is certain is that this year is going to require inspired and focused leadership – a high level of prescience and a good measure of fortitude. For those leaders who are feeling a nonplussed by it all they can perhaps take comfort from Pablo Picasso’s words,” I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

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spec i a l i si n g in o n- lo cation cor p o r a t e p h o t o gr a p h y & vi d e o gr a phy EDITORIAL

Over 17 years of professional photography experience working directly with clients, agencies and private individuals.

Our extensive portfolio includes portraits, events & conferences, brochure photography, food & product shots, board members, annual report images and conference videos.

Registered on the Central Supplier Database for the South African government and B-BBEE compliant.

monsoon 4

P H O T O G R A P H Y

CEO 2019 Vol 18.2

brenda 083 452 4530 brenda@monsoonphotography.co.za www.monsoonphotography.co.za Pretoria East | Gauteng

EDITORIAL

reflect just how much of a game-changer this is for local manufacturers.

1. Mass personalisation “You can have your car in any colour you want, as long as it’s black” were the famous words of automotive pioneer Henry Ford, in rolling out the original Model T. It’s a principle that has continued for decades, as economies of scale pushed manufacturers to churn out standardised goods that needed to appeal to millions of consumers. To explore an example in the textiles industry, we may go online to order an item of clothing. By using real-time imaging technology, sizes can be measured and styles in addition to colours chosen, which are instantly fed into a manufacturing queue. With integrated, automated workflows, the order can be completed and dispatched to the consumer in a matter of days (perhaps even hours?).

Vishal Barapatre, CTO at In2IT Technologies

The Industrial Internet of Things: a paradigm shift for

manufacturers

By Vishal Barapatre, CTO at In2IT Technologies

We enter the ‘digital industrial era’, manufacturing is evolving in fascinating directions

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he Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), sometimes referred to as Industry 4.0, represents a paradigm shift for industrial and manufacturing companies across the world. In this way, it speeds up the flow of knowledge, generates new efficiencies, and cuts out wasted effort and wasted costs from the system. IIoT networks of intelligent devices allow manufacturers to connect people, technology and processes – cracking open data silos and connecting everyone from the factory floor all the way to the executive suite. However, it also extends the traditional concept of manufacturing into 3 entirely new directions, which

2. Blockchain-enabled value chain integrity In our example, the customer’s personal details can be stored on distributed ledger technology, ensuring that the information is available for the next order that we make, but remaining highly secure. In fact, technologies like the blockchain make it possible for manufacturers to form so-called ‘smart contracts’ – to confirm the origin of raw production goods (such as the source of rough diamonds) and integrate with the systems of suppliers and distributors.

At In2IT we consider the blockchain to be the latest major evolution of the Internet (which began with basic web and email, then shifted gear into the eCommerce dot com era, then moved to the point where now most of our transactions and interactions are digital).

3. Adaptive manufacturing While 3D printing may still be largely stuck in the realm of garage tinkerers and amateur enthusiasts, there are certain industrial fields where the concept of adaptive manufacturing is already playing a key role – particularly in areas like aerospace and defence. 3D printing technologies will continue maturing and finding greater application within factory settings over the coming years. By hooking them into broader manufacturing execution systems, manufacturers can embrace the benefits of 3D printing and moving towards a true ‘IIoT’ environment.

The changes expected to hit manufacturing over the coming years will be rapid and dramatic. If we draw an analogy to our personal lives, consider how much the automobile has evolved in just the past five to seven years. Henry Ford would barely recognise the modern car, from the humble Model T that he conceived all those decades ago. Now, imagine these changes happening in the manufacturing and industrial worlds, and we start to see the potential for the IIoT.

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CONTENTS

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LEADINGedge

We speak to Pam du Plessis, Managing Director, Invincible Valves about her unorthodox entry into the sector, the need for emotional intelligence and communication skills in business leaders, the need to make your mark in a male dominated environment and the challenges faced by a medium sized enterprise in an environment where customers are cutting costs.

PERspective

REGULARS 2 Your World Unravelled 3 Editor’s Note

State Your Case

5 Insight

42 Invincible Valves

8 Flip Side 32 What’s Hot or Not 72 In Conversation With

28 CryptoCurrencies - there’s more to come 30 Plain Language - A Career Booster?

44 Data Loss a Critical Consideration

36 Business Processes Going Social

46 O365 - more beneficial than you think

38 EWC - dangers lurk

48 SME lessons from an airline

40 Cyber Crime - service industry

50 The Art of Negotiation

ENtrepreneur 16 The Jabu Stone Story 18 From Car Guard to Big Business Success

54 Rejuvenating our Cities

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24 Technician to Creative Economy Engineer 26 Darling Toffee tastes sweet success

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Originally established as a valve reconditioning and rubber lining business, the company expanded it services and is now widely regarded as one of the top valve distributors, reconditioners and rubber liners in the South African market.

INtheKNOW

34 Customer Experience - Doing it Right

14 Practical and Concise - a winning approach

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56 Online Killed the Video Star 58 Tech Boosts HR

GLOBAL Expand your business Horizon

LIFEstyle 60 Better Brainstorming leads to Better Business 62 Green Hospitality becoming a Key Differentiator in the Leisure Sector

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Chief Executive Annelize Wepener annelizew@ceomag.co.za Personal Assistant to the Chief Executive Betty Yengo bettyy@ceomag.co.za

64 Tech invasion of our Lives Leads to Stealthy Destruction of Relationships

Director: Strategic Development & Editor in Chief Valdi Pereira valdip@ceomag.co.za

65 Local Chef keen to make his Mark At Chef Olympics

Business Development Manager Amesh Bisram ameshb@ceomag.co.za

66 Bourbon offers new world of Taste Experience 68 Richard Webb Pens a Missive to the oldest of Communication Tools 68 Unexceptional they might be but our first cars are inextricably bound to us through emotion

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Publisher CEO Global (Pty) Ltd Tel: 0861 CEO MAG Fax: (012) 667 6624 Tel: 012 667 6623 info@ceomag.co.za www.ceomag.co.za

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Director: Corporate & Financial Services Carl Wepener carlw@ceomag.co.za

General Manager: Global Services George Wepener georgew@ceomag.co.za Editorial Team Lakhe Thwala lakhet@ceomag.co.za Motion Graphic Designer Senku Segoapa senkus@ceomag.co.za CEO Class Administrator Nyahsa Rugara nyashar@ceomag.co.za Letlotlo Rampete letlotlor@ceomag.co.za Tawanda Mandizvidza tawandam@ceomag.co.za Manager: Corporate Support Raymond Mauelele raymondm@ceomag.co.za

* No article or part of an article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith but do not necessarily represent the opinions of the publisher or editor. All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication. However, neither the publisher nor the editor can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages, or from any statements made in or withheld by this publication.

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FLIPSIDE

The exciting vehicles Several major automobile manufacturers are predicting they will reach level four of autonomous driving by 2021 entailing that the car will be driving itself!

Technology continues to advance and these ever abiding progressions have played a major role in ensuring that companies continue to generate income both instantly and efficiently. The newest technology trends have taken over both the physical and digital world forcing several businesses to adapt instantly.

For safety reasons, thumps-up to biometrics!

Both companies and individuals have to change their confidential information constantly to avoid being hacked by people who might hold them ransom once they have access to their classified information.

Biometrics is commonly used for body measurements and calculations but it can also be used in computer science for access control and identification of individuals who are under camera surveillance.

The introduction of 5G Wireless

The latest technology is continuing to make rounds all over the world. Who would have thought that they’d witness a 5G Wireless being the 5th generation of cellular mobile communications? As anticipated, 5G succeeds the previous cellular mobile communications, the 4G (LTE/WiMax), 3G (UMTS) and 2G (GSM). The 5G performance targets high data rate, energy saving and massive device connectivity to name a few.

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FLIPSIDE

ANU believes they have found a solution to a gigantic challenge The Australian National University (ANU) has found a way to monitor and measure light particles along quantum circuits with the approach touted as paving the way to a safe “data superhighway” in the quantum world.

According to the ANU, its team has opted to design a system of detectors along the quantum circuits that can monitor light particles without losing the information stored by preserving the quantum state being transmitted.

Singapore power company establishes the first electric vehicle charging points

Singapore utility group has established its first batch electric vehicle charging points at eight locations across Singapore making it easy to accommodate every electrical car driver.

The first 38 points are part of the utility group’s plans to build a local network of 1000 such sites by 2020, including 250DC charging options. The first 385 batches are located at public places such as educational institutions, commercial buildings and industrial sites, to name a few.

These electric charging points can approximately charge one’s vehicle for 30 minutes. The launch is definitely a game-changer for electric vehicle owners in Singapore.

Source: www.zdnet.com

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Pam du Plessis, Managing Director, Invincible Valves

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LEADINGEDGE - Invincible Valves

Unlocking

by Valdi Pereira

Potential

In this edition of CEO magazine we speak to Pam du Plessis, Managing Director, Invincible Valves about her unorthodox entry into the sector, the need for emotional intelligence and communication skills in business leaders, the need to make your mark in a male dominated environment and the challenges faced by a medium sized enterprise in an environment where customers are cutting costs.

Nevertheless they persisted and told me it won’t be work, ‘it will be fun’. Eventually I relented and joined the company.

Soon after my late husband became ill and I went through an immensely difficult 16 month period in my life. The support I enjoyed from my colleagues was tremendous and it really cemented my foundation with the company.

From there I moved through various roles in the company, eventually reaching director level and about six years ago, I along with a fellow director and another company, made an offer to buy the company and everything fell into place a few months later.

Can you tell us a little about what Invincible Valves does and where you operate?

The company was established in 1982 by two partners who started it with the aim of creating a valve reconditioning business. From a reconditioning business it has grown into a direct sales business. We still recondition and insert rubbing linings, old school style, hand stitched and cooked, as I like to call it, in an autoclave.

Over the years we’ve broadened into the full mining sector within Africa so we are very involved in the sector across the continent. We have also crossed waters into Australia and Kazakhstan. We’re not selling at the moment in America, so the States are out of bounds for us, but we are the biggest distributor of a locally manufactured product.

We also have our own range of valves which are viewed as good option in the market, so we can pretty much offer complete valve solutions to our customer base.

Much is often made between the cultural difference that exist in a corporate environment and a family business. Would you agree that there is big difference?

There is definitely a big difference. One of the interesting things I have noticed over the years is that people tend to think Invincible Valves is a family business, which it isn’t, but I think because I started out in the family business space there is a part of me that always treats everyone like family.

Family business can be an emotional rollercoaster ride and because it is your family it can be very intense. You also tend to be over considerate and spend a lot of time ‘minding your Ps and Qs’. This is an unfortunate tendency because you need to have difficult conversations and make hard decisions in business all the time. There is also the question of a generational divide, in a world where technology is thrusting changes on us all the time, you need to adapt and take different approaches to business processes which may not always sit well with preceding generations and this can lead to tension.

Of course it is not all negative, there are many examples of hugely successful family businesses and it points to the fact that it can and does work – you just need to manage the unique dynamics carefully.

How did it come about that you find yourself leading a valve reconditioning and production business?

It was pure chance. I arrived at the company as a consultant with the task of assisting them with some system report writing challenges they were experiencing. The management team liked my approach and asked me if I would consider staying.

At the time I was coming from a family business and I was not really keen because I told them I had not really worked for a boss in a decade. As a mom I also had other priorities, I wanted to be there to see my children grow up and do those small things that really matter like attend school sports events.

Invincible Valves has received a lot of recognition for its work over the years. What do you think sits behind the awards it has received?

I think like a lot of companies that end up earning awards and recognition, our aim is not to pursue this as an end goal. We simply try to be the best that we can be and if you can get that CEO 2019 Vol 18.2

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LEADINGEDGE - Invincible Valves

right, the recognition and success will follow.

We focus on setting ourselves up for success within the marketplace. That being said impact is also important for me and my vision is to impact women and children in this country.

Through this approach there’s been a lot of other opportunities that have arisen, so being socially responsible in this business has really taken it to a different level.

When you look at social responsibility, the mining sector is often in the spotlight for the wrong reason when it comes to social responsibility. Do you think the situation is improving in this sector?

I don’t think they are always getting it right in terms of their actions but there is an understanding that they need to contribute and there have been many positive efforts over the past few years. I think it is fair to say that many of us hope that they can and will do more in the future.

Leadership roles in business are often varied, complex and challenging positions. How do you ensure your company is performing at an optimal level?

First of all, for me, it’s about emotional intelligence. In our business we don’t talk about managers, but team leaders, because we are part of a team. Whenever possible, we take from within our business and build team leaders, because they understand the business and we teach them basic business skills.

The psychology behind it and the question of emotional intelligence is important. There is obviously daily pressure in a business environment, but we need that emotional intelligence to make it work, because we don’t run around shouting and screaming all day. We actually talk to one another and make it work.

Effective communication is also key, because if you are unable to communicate in any leadership role, you cannot get your points across without offending anybody. There’s no point in shouting and screaming all day, what results am I really getting? The results I will be achieving will be based on resistance. Whereas if I have my communication skills developed to a good level, we will now talk about it and interact constructively.

If we understand each other’s challenges and look at

How you manage emotions is critical because it is probably the hardest thing to deal with in the workplace. finding ways to co-create solutions we are emotionally intelligent and working towards solutions that are constructive and take the company forward.

In your work experience, what is the most valuable leadership lesson you have learned?

How you manage emotions is critical because it is probably the hardest thing to deal with in the workplace. My working career started in a hospital in a psychiatric ward and it taught me early on that you need to have empathy and to make an effort to understand how people feel.

As far as I am concerned people will always remain at the core of business and to get everyone to pull in the same direction you need a values system that guides your behaviour. When you start seeing resistance forming to this value system, you will see problems coming through and that is when you need to act, to manage emotions.

The industry you are in is very male dominated. Did this make things harder than they needed to be?

The metal and mining industries are very male dominated and it did pose a huge challenge. As a woman in the sector with a senior position I did get a sense at times that I was being pushed to see how much I would take.

I also think that some men could not believe ‘the blonde woman is back again’. I made the decision not to back down or give up because I believed I could succeed. I also needed to tap into my own emotional intelligence to realise that eventually the breakthroughs would come.

It also helped that I did not approach things with a ‘know it all’ attitude. There is tremendous knowledge and experience in our mining sector and it was apparent that I wanted to learn and be given an opportunity to contribute to the success of our customers.

Effective communication is also key, if you are unable to communicate in any leadership role, you will not get your points across without offending anybody.

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LEADINGEDGE - Invincible Valves

If you look at the future generation in your sector, from your perspective what skills are they in need of to succeed?

The softer skills related to understanding people will be important. In addition a solid understanding of the basics of business is becoming increasingly important. I am currently writing a book on basic business skills and principles and will look to implement the knowledge in the company for young and old.

Sometimes it is the very basics that we lose sight of in companies. Your sales team might only be looking at the value of their sales and believe their invoices reflect profit for the company. But what about the stock you have sold? How will you replenish this?

Sometimes a skewed view forms in the mind of a team and it is our responsibility as business leaders to ensure that everyone is fully informed of the business dynamic.

For me the most important part is teaching the younger people that this is the way business works. We have a lot of learnerships in our business and we found young people don’t understand what the role of profit is in a company.

They don’t always understand how difficult it can be to generate a profit, why it is needed and what activities can be made profitable. We don’t need to turn anyone into financial experts, they simply need that basic understanding because without it, you will struggle to move forward in a business environment.

How has Invincible Valves responded to these pressures?

We’ve always focused on the quality of our product and innovation. A technology like 3D printing provides us with flexibility to do things differently and helps us add value. Of course, a quality product is nothing without quality service.

In our view high levels of customer service and support represents the bridge between a quality product and a good relationship with the customer – they work hand in hand.

Are there different products and service expectations from customers on the rest of the continent when compared with South Africa?

No, I think the basics of mining remain pretty much the same everywhere. From a customer perspective we look to provide a service on the rest of the continent that is comparable with what we are doing in South Africa. We are also keenly focused on customer feedback to make sure we remain in touch with market demands.

What approaches do you use to stay ahead of the competition and keep Invincible Valves on the path of prosperity?

It may surprise a lot of people to hear this but I believe in adhering to sound corporate governance Sometimes a skewed view forms in the mind of a team and principles, keeps us ahead of the curve. it is our responsibility as business leaders to ensure that A strong governance everyone is fully informed of the business dynamic. approach forces me to look at where we want to go annually, how we want to achieve this and assess the Medium sized businesses face a range of challenges in risks involved in our corporate goals.

South Africa. What are the pressures in your sector that It forces us to crystallise our approach and when you weigh on the medium sized businesses? can have independent individuals assess your strategies Access to products on the one side and then getting and consider them with a fresh perspective, it adds even it to market on the other side is a challenge. In a lot of more rigour to the process because they have different environments there is an effort by large companies to deal business qualities that they bring to bear on our strategy. directly with the manufacturer and to cut out the middleman.

If manufacturers do not take a stance they are going to When the day arrives for you to leave Invincible Valves cut up a lot of SMEs. There are for instance certain companies and take on new challenges, what lasting impression do we don’t deal with because we are close to the manufacturer you hope to leave behind? and if we entered this space we would cut out other players.

I hope people will remember that I have always tried I am sympathetic to the fact that a lot of mining to focus on the impact that a business and specifically companies need to cut costs and they have cost pressure our business can make. It’s important to remember which is driving certain behaviour. However, the reality is that that whatever we do can have a positive impact on our SMEs are not making huge margins. For many it a survival immediate community and the larger South African game and if these opportunities are removed it is going to community and we should always bear this in mind as we go become very difficult. about our work.

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ENTREPRENEUR

Practical & Concise Managing Director and Partner at Itec Tiyende - a majority blackowned company providing innovative digital and enterprise communications solutions.

S

imbo Ntshinka matriculated from the Ngangelizwe Senior Secondary School in Umtata, Eastern Cape and achieved a National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the Eastern Cape Technikon (now Walter Sisulu University). He furthered his studies in BCom Economics at Unisa and completed a managerial finance programme through the Gibbs Business School.

He started his career at NECSA as an engineering trainee and technical trainer in fluid (water) mechanics. Simbo then moved on to the Professional Technical Group as a management consultant and went on to pursue a career in document management and printing technologies, diversifying to enterprise communication systems with other companies.

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With a background in mechanical engineering and managerial finance, Simbo started out as a general manager at Itec Tiyende in 2006. He was tasked with establishing a sales team that would focus on the public sector and then large corporates. Simbo was also involved in managing the Itec and Tiyende joint venture, positioning the business in the telecommunications space and the broader ICT sector. As current Managing Director and Partner at Itec Tiyende, Simbo is responsible for the performance of the company, driving overall strategy, market positioning and managing relations with other Itec partner companies.

ENTREPRENEUR

Simbo sites three key achievements in his career at Itec Tiyende: 1. The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) managed print services project in 2007 – It was the first and largest managed print services national project embarked on by the Itec Group and it set the bar.

2. Department of Justice (DoJ) PBX/Telephony project in 2015 - this was the single largest Mitel telephony project to be won by Tiyende and Itec as a group. The record still stands.

3. Achieving Level 1 B-BBEE certification for Itec Tiyende in 2018, entrenching the company as one of the ICT industry’s BEE leaders.

Talking on his personal business philosophy Simbo says, “be practical and concise and expect more from people around you, but be reasonable”. His vision for Itec Tiyende is to create a business that is underpinned by values of corporate citizenry and that is founded on solid moral fibre and integrity - a business that is customer centric, dedicated to empowering its employees, communities and shareholders by enabling reliability and enhancing value in the services it provides.

In his spare time, 44-year-old Simbo is a social golfer and an avid reader of biographies, history and business literature.

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ENTREPRENEUR

THE STORY ABOUT NATURAL The Man Behind The Iconic Hair Care Brand

O

ver two decades ago, Jabu Stone decided to turn his back on the growing trend of Western-style fashions and cultural norms influencing and forcing African people into following and losing their identities. He was concerned with the extent to which African people, both male and female, denied themselves the beauty of their natural hair texture by flattening it with damaging relaxers, perms and similar produce.

Born in Ginsberg, South Africa down the road from Steve Biko, often cited as being one of the fathers of ‘Black consciousness’ in Southern Africa, some believe that this was the start of the spark that resulted in Jabu Stone’s drive for offering solutions to the ethnic consumer that truly were developed for them.Jabu’s parents moved him to Daveyton, a township in Johannesburg, at a young age.His father a factory worker and mother a teacher at a local primary school where able to provide the basics, however this was not enough to quench Jabu’s thirst for entrepreneurship.Jabu Stone’s first business started at a very early age.

An elderly man who was an acquaintance of the family gave him a used camera as a present. He was 14 years old at the time. Whilst practicing taking photos he saw a commotion at a nearby wedding. A couple getting married, who were unhappy with their photographer, noticed Jabu’s camera. They offered to pay him a fee to take and develop their photographs. This sparked a drive for business and this soon turned into a thriving small business with Jabu employing other young men and equipping them with cameras. It was at that point that Jabu’s mother imparted the following to her son “Before people will buy your product, they need to buy into you.” Jabu realized the potential in appearance and decided to learn more about business.

A

fter studies completed in engineering and business Jabu started looking for a way to leave his mark on the world. Whilst visiting his sister’s salon he noticed many of the woman burning their scalps and skin in order to achieve a westernized look. This hurt Jabu and he vowed to himself that his people should not have to suffer in order to look good.

He then decided to look into natural ethnic hairstyles. His research into dreadlocks revealed that the style was not a Rastafarian by-product. Rather it was a style as old as the people of Africa. He realized that hair wanted to do this naturally. Jabu continued to look at the variations of the style all over Africa from the Masai in Kenya to ancient Egyptians. His key finding was that westernised society had created a community that could no longer accept this style.

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ENTREPRENEUR

HAIR SPECIALIST JABU STONE

Jabu believed that if he could find a more attractive way of creating the style he could create a door in the wall of an unaccepting population, and has been successful since then.

The Jabu Stone brand now comprises an authentic range of hair care products that celebrate nature’s finest ingredients and combine these to provide ideal nourishment and care for natural hair. The Jabu Stone Natural Hair Care product range consists of a range of products that includes shampoo’s, beeswax, moulding cream, gel, multi-purpose spray, braiding spray, a hair nourisher and a Twist-Out clay for that all natural look.

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ENTREPRENEUR

CAR GUARD, WAITER, BREAD DELIVERY GUY

FROM RAGS TO RICHES

DECODED A

s a kid growing up in the 90s, Priven Reddy has had a rough childhood after the passing of his dad. “After my father unexpectedly died, my mom settled down with a man who turned out to later on become an alcoholic. There were times when we wouldn’t have food to eat,” he candidly recalls. It’s a stark reality, but one that laid the foundations for the man Priven would become, and he doesn’t shy away from unpleasant memories.

Instead, young Priven soon figured out that he needed a paradigm of how he viewed the world, or he would be consumed by it.

Over the years he has built up a framework of eight codes that he not only lives by but believes this has shaped his success and more importantly, the mindset that has been instrumental in achieving that success. By adopting them he has turned his life around and then used them to rapidly climb the success ladder of the corporate world once his foundations were in place.

Code 1: Find your inner drive and keep feeding it For Priven, the pivotal moment that forced him to shift his attitude in life is still a fresh memory, despite the intervening years. “I was 20 and waiting tables at a restaurant at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping.

One of my customers had finished eating and gestured over his plate

containing some left over, half eaten pizza. ‘Here, this is for you,’ he told me with mistaken generosity. ‘Put it in a doggybag and take it home.’ His words were like a sucker punch to my dignity and my sense of pride. I couldn’t believe it. Was this how our society treated its poor?”

That was the last straw amongst all the blows that, Priven had endured that day. He’d been rejected by a girl whom he had asked out, on the basis that she wouldn’t date anyone who didn’t own a car. That morning his family had also once again shared their disapproval over the way he was living his life.

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“They called me an embarrassment. It stung – and it stuck in my mind. To top it off, I arrived at work that day and the owner of the restaurant took me aside and told me that I had too much potential to be working as a waiter my whole life. He was thinking of firing me so that I would get out of my comfort zone and do something else.”

After his run-in with the customer later that day, Priven went outside the mall, reflecting on what had happened that day and his life in general. “It was like someone snapped their fingers and woke me from a bad dream. I would never let anyone belittle me or impinge on my dignity again. Then and there I made a decision: I would no longer be the victim of my own fate. I was going to be the master of my own destiny.”

Hungry to prove himself, the promise was more than just words for Priven. He knew that he needed to take matters into his own hands and start making some real changes. “Once I stopped blaming the world for everything that went against me, I started to grow. I began to see challenges as opportunities and I was able to channel that energy into a positive inner drive. I began to understand that things don’t happen to you, they happen for you. That shift changed everything for me.”

Code 2: The biggest opportunities are found where things are the most difficult “The first principal I learnt is that in adversity lies opportunity. In a business sense this means being able to identify the challenges people have and create a solution that takes away these difficulties.”

It was a lesson Priven was already learning in primary school. The school had a small tuckshop catering for over 1 000 kids. Long, frustrated lines meant many kids ended up missing their entire lunch break waiting to be served. The young entrepreneur immediately spotted a gap. “I borrowed some money and bought bags of chips and chocolates and sweets from a local wholesaler. I started at the back of the queue and sold to the kids one by one all the way down the line. I sold out quickly and made more profit than the tuck shop vendors because I didn’t have any overheads.” The small business only lasted a few weeks before the school shut it down, but Priven took something away from the experience more valuable than some extra cash in his pocket — he’d found validation that his approach to business worked.

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“How do you make things easier for people? Answer that and you’re making money. Difficulties can be found everywhere, regardless of class or creed. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. It could be a blue-collar factory worker at the end of the day not being able to go to the supermarket, to purchase groceries because they’ll miss their taxi home. Or it could be wealthy early-adopters interested in investing in blockchain technology but not having the time or know-how of how to manage their cryptocurrency portfolio effectively.

Priven doesn’t let insurmountable tasks discourage him. “If it’s difficult, there are fewer competitors who will enter that field.

It’s that simple. Most people are daunted by the challenge and find something else to do. However, Priven says, that’s where the real opportunity lies. I believe the impossible is not unachievable — it’s just a niche market. ”This same philosophy has driven Priven to explore highly technical sectors, including augmented reality (which he began exploring over six years ago), and how to incorporate artificial intelligence into cryptocurrencies. “I love doing difficult things. That’s the space where a lot of money can be made,” he says.

Code 3: There’s no substitute for hard work According to his close friends and family, Priven’s capacity for burning both ends of the candle is legendary. He’s proud that entrepreneurship runs in his DNA, a trait fostered by his late father, Christie Reddy, from an early age. The founder of a national logistics company, Christie owned a fleet of more than 100 trucks and boasted a client base of multi-national accounts when he was killed in a fatal road accident. A series of hijackings, theft and mismanagement quickly saw the company crashing into bankruptcy. Priven was just 11 years old and his world was ripped apart.

“My dad taught us the value of working hard from a young age,” he says. “My four siblings and I were always competing in entrepreneurial games. He even sub-divided the back garden into five small vegetable plots and gave us each a packet of seeds.

The challenge was to see who could grow their own veggies and herbs and then sell them door-to-door. ‘After paying your mum and me for the cost of the seeds and fertiliser, the one who makes the biggest profit is the winner,’ he told us.” For Priven the challenge wasn’t work though — it was fun. And that sense of fun has always persisted. To this day Priven says it’s not hard work if you’re having fun.

“I think my dad knew that by giving us these business principales, skills and tools at a young age, he was laying the foundations for our future independence. He knew this was more valuable than any trust fund he could set up.” Today, all Priven’s siblings are successful entrepreneurs operating their own businesses in diverse industry sectors, ranging from one of the leading app development companies in Africa and the Middle East to one of the largest independent events management companies, to South Africa’s only business consultancy for tech start-ups, to a niche organic farm in the Western Cape.

Code 4: Perseverance always pays off Priven launched Kagiso Interactive as a web design agency 12 years ago in what he calls ‘the wild west days’ of the IT industry in South Africa. “I had learnt graphic design at my brother-in-law’s design studio and was making a little money doing a few below-the-line advertising projects for clients. I had a chance meeting with a guy in a coffee shop who said ‘You need to meet my brother — he does web design. Maybe you can work together.’ “Web design was still pretty new. We met and ended up launching a small start-up from his garage, combining my graphic design and business skills with his web-building skills. We began attracting some clients and even employed a few people. But it was tough. The garage flooded every time it rained.

We moved into an office block, but we weren’t stable yet. After eight months my business partner left, along with most of our employees.” For Priven, it felt like he was in a downward spiral. He was 24 years old and finally feeling like he was building something worthwhile. At this point, after everything he’d been through, quitting wasn’t an option. “With only one employee left, I advised him to find a job at a larger company. It

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was a steep learning curve, but I hung in there. I wanted him to find security, but I was determined to make a go of it for myself.” One of Priven’s

customers, the owner of Tudor Hotel in Durban, offered him some space, furniture and equipment so that he could continue working, and told him he could start paying rent once he brought in revenue. It gave Priven the start he needed.

Code 5: Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone With his fledgling business downsized, Priven looked online for new markets. He registered his company’s services on eLance to broaden his market-base and tap into an international client-base.

“I met an IT entrepreneur who was based in India through an online platform. We became friends and spent a lot of time discussing our companies, our clients and troubleshooting any business problems we experienced. He planted the seeds of app development in my head. I remember telling him it was a ridiculous idea, but he wouldn’t let it go.”

It was 2009 and the Indian Government was largely investing in IT and mobile applications, two things that were virtually unheard of in South Africa. The Google Play Store was only launched in 2012. Priven wasn’t sold on the idea, but he eventually allowed himself to be convinced, largely because he just needed to sell it. “I didn’t need to build up a team because I could outsource any development to India, so the risk was really low,” he says. “We’d basically do a web search and contact any companies we found who made money from their websites and we’d offer them an app. It wasn’t the easiest sell. We were trying to convince people that you could make money from a smartphone — a device that had just been launched in South Africa. We were telling them it was a computer in their pocket, which was true, except there was no iStore, Internet speeds were slow and mobile data was expensive.” Once he starts something though, Priven sees it through, and so he stuck at it. “I was feeling a bit like a fish out of water and kept asking myself what I was doing.

But the more I did it, the more I learnt, until the idea of app development started to feel familiar.” Because of that friend’s persistence, Priven ended up on the ground floor of mobile applications development. “By the time other companies recognised the value of apps, we had learnt a lot of lessons and really understood the space. Plus, our clientele was largely international.

“I’ve learnt that people operate at their best when they leave their comfort zones. That’s when the adrenalin kicks in and magic happens.”

Code 6: Believe in your product, always Kagiso Interactive spent years outsourcing its work to India, which worked well because it allowed Priven to keep his overheads low while he built up the business. “I reached a point where I didn’t want to be a factory though,” he says. “I wanted to offer a lifetime warranty on the applications we built. Most apps only really start to show problems once you’ve scaled your users, and that takes 18 to 24 months, long after most warranties have run out. “With this in mind, I started building my own team, upskilling and molding them with a service-first culture.

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We don’t charge maintenance either. If you’re confident in your product, it shouldn’t need maintenance. We back ourselves.”

By 2014, when the Saudi Royal family contacted Kagiso, the company had built over 1 000 applications and had developed a strong reputation in the market. “Working with the Saudi Royal family has been a game-changer for us — a lot of our clients are based in Dubai — but none of that could happen overnight.

“We got into a space early, focused on becoming the best in our field, built a solid word-of-mouth and referral reputation, and ten years later started reaping the rewards.” Priven is also fanatical about giving clients what they need. “We’re here to build real solutions and we understand this space. It’s not always the popular move to tell a client that they actually need a different product to the one they’re requesting, but it’s the right move, and it will cement an excellent relationship.

“Over the years I’ve turned work down that wasn’t right for us, or if I knew the company couldn’t afford what they were asking for or wouldn’t be able to take it to market. We also never tender for business. Our work should be on our merits alone.

“I also oversee everything — nothing is sent out without my final approval.

This means I need to always be available and respond to things quickly. As far as I’m concerned, that’s my job.

“It also fosters a culture of putting the client first. We need to respond to every single client within 15 minutes of receiving a call, email or message through our website. It’s an ethos that has shaped everything we do and is the reason why it took ten years to build the foundations for a business that has accelerated in growth in the past four years. We live for this.”

Code 7: Mindpower is real “When you grow up in adversity you have two choices: You can either allow the negativity around you to consume you or you can focus on the positive and see the challenges as opportunities. Wallowing in self-pity will only make you bitter. You end up with a victim mentality — and that cripples you. I don’t like focusing on the negative, so I search for the rainbows in the storm instead.” In 2010, Priven’s sister gave him The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. “It changed everything for me. I realised the power of thought and what it’s done for my life. Mindpower is real — picture it, really want it, and then focus on how to get it. You can attract people and things to your life. You just need to be able to visualise it and then go out and get it. “That doesn’t mean it’s easy — you will still bang into walls and face challenges. But when you have a determined mindset, you can push through them to the other side. You can overcome anything. A positive mindset is a powerful weapon that you can use to transform your reality.”

Code 8: Never stop learning “My overnight success was a decade in the making”. Priven is an avid learner. It’s a secret he believes too few people take advantage of: There’s so much out there, so many free online courses, and so many ways to upskill yourself. So why aren’t you taking advantage of all of those resources?

“I’ve never let the fact that I didn’t get a degree hold me back. We all have the potential to be great — you just need to be willing to put in the work. I taught myself design, then web development, then app development, and then AI and VR and how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work. The information is out there. You will also be amazed at how forthcoming people are and willing to share their knowledge.

“I hire experts, but I need to understand everything that we do within our business, and I need to know enough to see what’s coming and where technology will take us. “I use the same philosophy when I hire. We do need senior engineers, but I also hire kids straight out of university. I learnt this from Google — you need a degree, but top companies don’t hire based only on that degree. We hire based on potential and attitude. What can you teach someone, and how much are they willing to learn? “An individual who believes they should be promoted purely on their degrees isn’t the right fit for us. We want people who will seize any opportunity to learn and really better themselves. Those are the people who do well in our organisation.

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“We live by what we believe in. The head of our Shypar team used to be our cleaning lady. I saw the potential in her right from the beginning.

She was hungry to learn. Even as a cleaner she found time during her lunch breaks to learn on the computers in the office. She was given the opportunity because she never stopped learning.” Priven’s philosophy is clear: Expose the right people to skills and they will grab that opportunity — and you will have helped them change their lives. “We don’t always get this right. We hire slow and fire fast. But I prefer to give everyone the best opportunity I can and to do that you have to start by taking a chance on them.

“I try to hire people who are better than me. I believe it’s important to surround yourself with people who are progressive and positive. They up your game. Negative people are energy vampires. “In 2010 I had one employee. By 2014 we employed 188 people, and four years later we have 386 staff members. I’m incredibly proud of the skills we have built over that time.”

LESSONS LEARNT Put the right foundations in place That’s the real secret to growth. In the last three years I’ve really started focusing on other passion projects because Kagiso Interactive has grown to a point where it can bootstrap other start-ups and take some mitigated risks.

We’ve also been learning all this incredible tech that we can now put into action. Focusing on AI in 2012 gave us the know-how and technology we needed to build Krypteum, an AI platform that is going to change the face of AI and what it can do for business. It reads hundreds of thousands of lines of code and information in seconds. Krypteum is also the world’s first AI-powered investment cryptocurrency. You can run before you walk, but if you put the right foundations in place, the sky is the limit.

Collaborate with key stakeholders When we launched Dryvar, a local ride-sharing app, we immediately started engaging with the taxi associations. We want to create a business that supports drivers and small business owners and is branded and safe for everyone — drivers and customers alike. We knew it would be important to get the taxi associations on board — the right partnerships always enable growth.

Always put your users first When we built Shypar, our delivery app, we focused on the drivers: What did they need? What helped them to deliver a good service? This was all important, but we ended up with a really complicated app that consumers found too difficult to use. We’ve now made the decision to rebuild the architecture from scratch. We’ve learnt a lot, and we can simplify the platform to make it a lot more user-friendly. Yes, it means losing money short-term, but long-term we will have a much more successful business.

In any sales discussion, make sure you have a solution for your client Sit back, spot the problem and determine the solution. That way you’re having a discussion that focuses on a solution for a problem that you know needs solving.

Always treat people in the way that you would want to be treated I’ve been on the other side of this, and it can emotionally damage. Be kind with your actions as they will ultimately define you.

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Nkosenhle Hlophe owner and founder of Kenako Multimedia

“I was a technician who became an entrepreneur.”

By Nkosenhle Hlophe

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rofessionally I am actually a geologist. The first time I touched a PC was when I was at varsity in 2004. During my second year, I was introduced to a programme called Nero that allowed us to create slideshows. When I went home for the holidays, I collected photos from all my friends and neighbours, turned them into slideshows and put them on to DVDs with music and captions. I sold them for R100.

After I graduated, I started working as a geologist. Soon, I became bored and felt that I wasn’t earning enough money. I’ve always been someone who believes I can do more with my life so I decided to earn extra money by going to weddings and creating live slideshows.

Soon, I hired a photographer and videographer. We would take photos at weddings and turn them into live slideshows. By 2010, I was earning between R10 000 and R15 000 per month on the wedding circuit, so I decided to take the leap and resigned from my full-time job. Some of the early challenges I faced included finding more clients and packaging our products in the right way. We were struggling to maintain growth and weren’t making enough profit. The bookkeeping wasn’t great, either. I also really wanted to break into the corporate market.

I heard about Raizcorp from a friend of mine who was on the programme but, at first, I didn’t take him seriously. Then, one day, I heard DJ Sbu from Metro FM talking to Allon Raiz and decided then and there that I needed to apply to join a Raizcorp programme.

Raizcorp taught me how to package my products in a way that makes the big guys listen, and in a way that makes people take me seriously. I have learned how to speak the right language and to ensure that we deliver on what we promise. One of the main highlights was having a financial guide helping me with my budget. We’d sit at the beginning of the year and discuss how much I’d like to make for that year. Then we’d talk about how many clients I would need to approach every week and what resources I would need. When I joined, our annual turnover was R200 000 and three years later it was over R2 million.

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Before I started the programme, I was debating whether or not I should learn photography and videography, but Raizcorp taught me that my role is to decide what products to offer, what people to hire and how to motivate them. I don’t need to do the actual editing. I was a technician who became an entrepreneur. The emphasis that my guides put on systems and processes meant that when I expanded my offices from Durban to Johannesburg, it was so much easier. We were able to get new clients in Johannesburg from the very first month.

Our biggest market had always been weddings but, after graduating from Raizcorp, I decided to shut down the wedding side of the business because my dream has always been to do corporate work and TV ads. For the first few months, our turnover dropped but has now grown to almost match what it was. Even better, we have been shooting ads that have been broadcast on eNCA, SABC and CNN. Late last year we also introduced digital marketing which means that we can offer a platform for broader distribution of the corporate videos we shoot – instead of having them shown just once at special events. Our USP is that we both develop content and manage it online. My advice to all aspiring entrepreneurs is to find proper mentorship, even if you think you know it all already. Also, no matter how small your business, you need to take care of your finances and books.

You have to know how much you make and what your expenses are. I also think you should avoid cheap labour. I believe you need to hire good people who know what they’re doing. In the end, they pay for themselves. You simply cannot do everything on your own. You should also always remember why you started your business. Write down your vision as a reminder for when you feel discouraged and want to give up.

I would like to express my gratitude to Engen and Raizcorp for investing money, time and resources into not only us, as entrepreneurs, but into making South Africa a better place. Nurturing entrepreneurs has a hugely positive impact on the communities we come from. Not only have we been given the opportunity to create more employment and wealth, but we are sending a strong message to our communities about what is possible. You can never quantify or monetise giving a community hope. What Engen and Raizcorp are doing is bigger than business. It is nation building!

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DARLING SWEET CONTINUES TO GROW ... and celebrates with a surprise!

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arling Sweet, one of South Africa’s premier toffee manufacturers started in the Western Cape town of Darling only four years ago and has already become a household name and a firm favourite with local and international sweet-toothed fans. The company’s rise has been fairly meteoric and we sat down with founders and confectioners Hentie van der Merwe and Frits van Ryneveld for a nostalgic looks at the past five years ...

Tell us what you were doing five years ago?

Hentie: I was head of Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University’s Visual Arts Department.

Frits: I had an antique shop in Darling, but also was a full-time medical rep for a generic pharmaceutical company. And five years ago I hadn’t met Hentie yet!

How did Darling Sweet start? Can you remember the day four years ago when you were inspired to start Darling Sweet?

H: Soon after having met in 2013, Frits mentioned that he wanted to find someone to provide him with toffee to sell in his antique shop. I suggested we find a local toffee manufacturer to supply us with toffees that we put our own label on. There really was only one supplier to approach and, after our initial meeting, they advised that they were too busy and would not be able to supply us. So I decided to design a recipe for Frits since, in addition to art, cooking and food has always been a passion of mine.

Frits was away at the time so I set about making toffee which kept me busy all weekend. By the time I had fetched him at the airport I had more or less worked out the recipe for our classic toffee, and so I wrapped the final batch in tissue paper, put a big bow on it and gave it to him when he came through the airport gates. And so Darling Sweet was born!

Why toffees?

F: Real traditional toffees are something that reminds me of a happy childhood. On the confectionery scene so much has changed over the years and real honest handcrafted products had become something of the past. But since the early 90s, quite a few handcrafted confectionery companies have started producing nougat, fudge, chocolate and a soft toffee. But not the real traditional hard toffee that I knew from my childhood.

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Where did the recipe come from?

H & F: We did a lot of research - looking at traditional recipes, old recipe books like Kook en Geniet, the famous historical recipe book of Hildegonda Duckitt (who was a Darling resident), the internet and of course the university library.

We even asked our moms! After much trial and error, we found the one that produced a toffee that was not only delicious but also robust enough to be produced on an industrial scale!

What did the first day of Darling Sweet manufacturing look like?

H: It was Monday, 14 July 2014, and the university was still on their mid-term break. We had spent 10 days converting Frits’ 24m2 antique shop into a confectionery kitchen and that day we interviewed and employed our first two members of staff and I set about training them in the art of toffee making on our one gas cooker. We made a single batch that day while Frits painted doors and carried in furniture needed and got the area ready. The whole village was very supportive, but thought we were crazy! We had a lot of people popping in to see what we were up to.

Who came up with the name?

H: We were having dinner at friends and one of the guests suggested we call it Darling Sweet, and we both instantly liked it and decided that Darling Sweet it is. ‘Sweet’ has a nice ring to it and also allows us to not limit ourselves to toffees only.

How did Tannie Evita come to lend her name to your classic toffee?

F: Pieter-Dirk Uys is a hugely supportive man and contacted me one day and said ‘Why not a toffee for the tannie?’ We were very excited with the idea and decided to change our Classic Toffee to Tannie Evita’s Classic Toffee. Thus paying tribute to South Africa’s most famous white woman and for the work she has done for our country. We also donate money to The Darling Trust which she set up and are actively involved in it. We manage the Evita’s Crafters group, which is an initiative for job creation and empowerment for women in our community, and Hentie is also an active trustee and recently arranged the Charity Dinner with Tannie Evita that raised a lot of money.

What inspires the different flavours?

H: Initially our idea was to develop a series of flavours inspired by the Swartland, hence our Honey & Salt toffee flavour, seeing as Darling is surrounded by seven salt pans. Also, honey and the sour fig plant being typical of this area. However we soon decided that there are classic toffee flavour favourites that we just had to do like our Liquorice and Mint flavours which are very popular.

Any that didn’t work out?

F: Due to the difficulty and labour intensiveness we discontinued our Sour Fig Toffee. We also had an Orange & Pomegranate flavour but we were not happy with the pomegranate aril in the toffee, so we changed it to Orange & Cranberry. Our two wines flavours - Red Wine & Chocolate and Ormonde Wines Toffees have been discontinued since our whole range is now Kosher and Halal. But watch this space, there are new flavours coming soon!

Where do you see yourselves in five year’s time?

H & F: We want to keep growing the brand and entrenching our footprint nationally and internationally. We plan to explore the export market after our successful initial export to the US. We also have plans to add other confectionery to our toffee range, the first of which we are about to launch. It’s very exciting and a real turning point in our company’s history. One of our other main aims is job creation and career development and building a sustainable business creating opportunities for our rural community.

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Cryptocurrencies: new form of colonialism or upliftment opportunity?

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he rise of cryptocurrencies has both positive and negative implications for Africa, and the world. How their use is managed will determine how well they benefit those most in need.

It is quite clear that we are developing into a society that is completely driven by information and reliant on technology.

As we evolve along this path, those that succeed will be those who are able to equip themselves to handle this future by grasping the fact that the entire paradigm has shifted significantly, believes Fay Mukaddam, CEO of 4AX. The business world has moved beyond the idea that if it isn’t made of bricks and mortar, then a company has no value.

The classic illustration of this principle is that of Uber, which despite being one of the largest transport organisations in the world, actually owns no vehicles. “When one looks at it

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like this, there is no real reason for the financial services and capital markets to be any different. After all, the aim of the game, whatever the industry, is always to see how we can; encourage the inclusion and participation of as many people as possible within financial markets, and make things simpler for the client or end-user, using available technology,” says Mukaddam.

“With this in mind, there is both room and a need for a platform like Blockchain, which we believe offers enormous potential not just to the financial sector, but to industries across the spectrum. Of course, the one that is most often talked about in finance is cryptocurrencies, which is ultimately nothing more than an application built on top of Blockchain technology,” she adds. There are a lot of conflicting opinions across global markets as to the benefits cryptocurrencies may

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continent, as a solution that can effect real change as a driver of financial inclusion, and thereby help to close the massive socio-economic disparity gap,” says Mukaddam. “If we consider just the opportunities this opens for cross-border trading in Africa, the benefits are obvious. No doubt there are challenges that come with this, not the least of which is the sovereignty issues relating to the taxes and customs fees that would be applicable, were we talking about a physical entity.”

However, Mukaddam still believes that cryptocurrencies offer immense opportunities in terms of economic development where, for example, the BRICS community would be able to undertake cross-border trade without all the suffocating regulations that currently govern such a process. “The ease of trade and of movement that comes with this will ultimately help to encourage trade with partners, irrespective of where they are in the world.”

“I am, in fact, less concerned about the technology than I am the regulatory oversight, as it is imperative to ensure that there is full transparency and disclosure, to eliminate the possibility of fraud or malicious circumvention of due process,” says Mukaddam.

There are speculative market concerns that cryptocurrencies hold the potential to launch a new cycle of economic colonialism, where the rich use it to oppress the poor.

offer. Mukaddam believes that, “before we can truly attribute value to it, we need to both understand what it does and how it may improve things. We also need to contemplate the fears and anxieties it raises, such as the concern around moving large values across borders in a situation where there is no regulatory control.”

Mukaddam is of the opinion that there is certainly more value to be gained from such technologies than there are things to be feared. “The answer most likely lies in managing it and contextualising it properly. The regulators certainly need to approach it from this angle, rather than from a point of fear and anxiety. As the latter will only lead to them wanting to shut it down.”

“From an African perspective, I think we clearly need to recognise the potential that cryptocurrencies offer to the

“I am however more of the positive view that fintech, such as cryptocurrencies etc., have the potential to effectively reduce the gap between the haves and have-nots, almost overnight.

Where there is innovation, there is positive possibilities for all,” adds Mukaddam. “Though, to uplift a significant portion of the African continent, due consideration and appropriate steps must be taken to regulate these new asset classes, as well as education initiatives to ramp up on financial knowledge and literacy. We must ensure that ordinary citizens are not being defrauded, or are continuously excluded from participating in capital and financial markets. We simply cannot allow those that need to be uplifted to be taken advantage of or oppressed by exclusion.”

“When it comes to potentially game-changing technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, it is important for markets and authorities, alike, to not allow themselves to be steered by fear of change. Rather, the focus should be on how we can positively map our way through the challenges and utilise such innovation to drive change – and change that will have meaningful impact on positively transforming people’s lives,” concludes Mukaddam.

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Plain language can advance your career

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instein once famously said: “Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler”, an approach that some of the world’s most famous leaders have used to their benefit. You too can use it to benefit your career and improve your leadership qualities.

“Plain language is way of communicating that focuses on the reader,” says plain language specialist, Frances Gordon.

“There are a range of plain language techniques anyone can learn to use, that will benefit their communication and, quite probably, further their careers,” she said.

In today’s global world, whether you’re in London, Johannesburg, Sydney or New York, inevitably a diverse group of people find themselves having to collaborate in multicultural and multi-disciplinary teams. People with different cultures, different social contexts, who speak different languages, need to work alongside each other. This situation is ripe for misunderstanding and lost meanings that take time and effort to sort out.

Business is all about functional communication, it is focused on getting the job done, which usually means getting a message across clearly, the first time,” says Gordon. “This is true in an African and global context. With business becoming increasingly global it is more important than ever to learn

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to work effectively with different cultures and languages which really means communicating effectively with a diverse audience.

“Unclear communication in a corporate context, means more emails or phone calls to clarify what was meant. It boils down to customers calling the call centre or employees spending more time on queries than necessary, this ultimately costs the business money,” she said.

Gordon says that world leaders know the benefits of using plain language techniques to ensure their communication is more effective because it is easy for everyone to understand.

“People respond well when they fully understand what someone is saying, especially in a business context,” Gordon says. “When you use plain language techniques, you will get the action you asked for, and that is good for the bottom line.”

One such captain of industry is Elon Musk. Gordon said, “Musk is very well-known for banning the use of acronyms at SpaceX. He sent a memo out to staff banning unnecessary acronyms.

In the memo he makes a few very good points that ring true for most corporates. The letter to staff said: “There is a creeping tendency to use made up acronyms at SpaceX. Excessive use of made up acronyms is a significant impediment to communication and keeping communication good as we

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grow is incredibly important. No one can actually remember all these acronyms and people don’t want to seem dumb in a meeting, so they just sit there in ignorance. This is particularly tough on new employees. That needs to stop immediately or I will take drastic action.”

Gordon says, “I am sure most of us have been in meetings too nervous of sounding uninformed to ask what acronyms mean. In fact, we’ve found time and time again, that the fear of not sounding clever is the ultimate impediment to clear communication. In fact, the opposite is true. Our own user testing at Simplified shows that it’s clear, confident communication – not impenetrable jargon – that makes people sound professional.”

“Steve Jobs was another business leader who understood plain language techniques like focusing on the reader,” she said. “When he spoke to audiences, he made sure they knew why the information was important to them. This is true in writing too, if you write from a reader’s point of view, rather than your own, reader’s are more likely to respond and engage with what you are saying,” she said.

“Steve Job was also very good at putting information into short, punchy points,” said Gordon. “He understood that people don’t like to read anymore. They want information in 140 characters, punchy sound bites or strong visuals. Just because you have spent three weeks preparing a report, does not mean your boss or client will spend time reading it. People often only read the summary. Our user testing has proven time and time again, that people are not reading documents from beginning to end. They are skimming and jumping to different sections that interest them, people do not have the time or motivation to read. Plain language helps writers structure their content so that readers get the intended message, even if they do not read the whole document,” she said.

Some other global leaders in politics, business and industry, like Barack Obama and Warren Buffet have also used simple, efficient communication, to connect with people, lead people and ultimately further their careers.

Obama signed the Plain Writing Act of 2010 that requires all government documents to be written in plain language. This progressive Act defines plain language as communication that is “clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or field and intended audience.”

Warren Buffet wrote the foreword to the Plain English Handbook, published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which outlined how disclosure documents for the SEC should be written - in plain language. In his forward Buffet points to the most central plain language technique, which is to write with your reader in mind.

“Even when giving bad news, it needs to be done in a way that people get the message early on,” says Gordon. “When you are being fired you don’t want to have to read five pages of how sorry the company is, in business it is important to get the message across effectively. It’s functional writing.” To his detriment, a top executive from Microsoft learnt this lesson when he fired 10% of his staff, 12 500 people, in the eleventh paragraph of an email so full of business-speak it was difficult to understand.

“Training is a good way to get all staff to understand the importance of plain language and the benefits it has to the business and their own careers,” says Gordon. “Training courses explain the plain language principles are easy to implement and that anyone can learn. These are important principles for business writing, for all level of employees, whether you’re writing internal emails, or emails to clients, reports or proposals.

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EDITORIAL

What’s Hot or Not Have you heard about the Leap Motion?

Leap Motion intends to shock the world by creating a more advanced idea that will allow people to control their desktop using their fingers but without touching the screen. It will allow the user to scroll the web page, zoom in the map and photos, sign documents and even play games through hands and finger movements.

More work for your eyes and less work for your hands Thanks to the Eye Tribe Eye tracking it’s definitely not a child’s play and it has been an idea that has proved to be a challenge for tech specialists. Eye Tribe successfully managed to create the technology that will allow users to control their tablets and play flight stimulator only with your eyes movements.

It’s mainly taking the ordinary eye-tracking technology and merging it with a front-facing camera as well as some serious computer-vision algorithm, voila and fruit slicing done with the eyes.

Getting to know the Project Fiona Project Fiona is the first generation of the gaming tablet. It features next generation Intel® Core i7 processor geared to render all your favourite PC games, all at the palm of your hand.

The amazing headsets that paint a picture to the listener’s minds Oculus Rift is regarded as one of the best 3D headsets in the market, being able to convince the user mentally that they are actually inside a video game.

In the Rift’s virtual world, you could turn your head around with ultra-low latency to view the world in high motion display.

SmartThings connects several devices at once SmartThings aims to enter the history books by creating a device that will also connect to other devices. It intends to connect digital or non digital devices together to benefit the user. This device may help the user to save time and energy.

You could track who’s been inside your house, turn on the lights while you’re entering a room, shut windows and doors when you leave the house. www.zdnet.com

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PERSPECTIVE

Customer experience: you’re most probably doing it wrong

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one are the days of customer service consisting of treating buyers with common courtesy.

“Customer service has been disrupted by an expectation of a total customer experience that is dictated by the customer, not company policies,” says Juanita Vorster, a professional speaker on the topic of success in a disrupted world.

According to Vorster the disruption to the age-old practice of keeping customers happy resulted from a combination of technological advancements and societal changes. These collided into a perfect storm that is leaving companies breathless as they try to balance what customers want with what they can reasonably offer.

Omni-hours The always on nature of the omni-channel customer experience has brought with it several challenges.

Companies that have traditionally been used to having some time to regroup, restock, and rest now have to create procedures that have to adapt to a customer habit of instant gratification.

An auto-responder with an estimated timeline for feedback might generate some patience. Vorster says that chatbots powered by artificial intelligence are however quickly rising to the rescue of brands struggling to deliver to their desired level of excellence at all hours.

These tools can help to answer basic queries and might even be very effective in resolving complete matters.

Omni-channel “Customers shape their own experiences by combining several methods of gathering information on a company and its products or services,” explains Vorster.

“It’s not strange to find someone standing in front of a shelf in a retail store, checking the reviews and price of the same product online, and even purchasing the product from a competitor’s online platform … all while in the store.”

Companies offering services rather than products have also not been spared in the digitisation of the customer experience. Customers expect the same offering – or at least something very similar – whether they interact with a brand via online platforms or in a physical space.

In addition to customer service training companies now need to invest in understanding how customers use online platforms to shape their total experience.

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Omni-advice Customer experience is shaped by touchpoints with a brand across multiple channels and over a longer timeline than just the actual buying decision. The total experience is also shaped by what their circle of influence – friends, family, and an extended online network – has shared about their own experience with a brand and its products or services.

Buying decisions are therefore made with much more than product specifications or service delivery promises in mind.

“Customer service respresentative these days have to be able to do more that solve product or service related issues,” says Vorster. “They also have be able to win the trust of a customer whose mind might have been made up by a spread of user-based comments posted online.”

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Omni-cycle Customers shaping their own experiences with channels and inputs that are not dictated by brands have also had a significant impact on the traditional sales funnel. Instead of linear thinking that develops an opportunity into a lead and eventually into a sale, customer experience agents have to adopt a matrix thinking approach. According to Vorster this approach allows for fluidly moving back and forth between the phases of the customer journey based on the preferences of each customer.

“The age of industrialisation has allowed for the creation of many standardised policies and procedures focused on increasing profits and reducing expense by keeping customers happy,” says Vorster.

“The age of information now demands that brands allow for the flexibility that is required as the customer truly becomes the king.”

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PERSPECTIVE

BPM is dead.

Long live BPS. O

ver the last few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has started to permeate all markets as organisations across the board have begun looking for ways to harness the value that combining the IoT within other business process management (BPM) initiatives could realise for the business.

“This disruptive integration will impact organisations of every type and size,” says Richard Firth, CEO of MIP Holdings.

“Think of the benefits that bringing analytics, mobile, big data and social into business processes could bring in terms of better decision making and improved agility.”

Firth describes this new trend as Business Process Socialisation (BPS) or Business to Machine to Consumer (B2M2C), essentially the maturing of Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C). “This is the ultimate maturing of traditional BPM or workflow, and will essentially manage an SLA within an organisation’s workflow process all the way to the consumer or customer.”

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He adds that this BPS process is the beginning of a strategy that will allow machines to answer a digitally connected consumer automatically via bots, AI or AR. The key to organisations moving with this strategy is redefining how important workflow automation is inside a business.

A business moving with this strategy must understand that a consumer will actually have a bird’s eye view through the entire supply chain with ‘warts and all’ and, finally, the process must allow for a consumer to simply break out of automation and speak to a human.

The break out from automation is important for consumers. Michael Fitzgerald, senior analyst at Celent (Boston) and co-author with Craig Weber of the report ‘Innovation in Insurance: A North American Consumer View’ says that the results of Celent’s research challenged two long-held assumptions: first, that younger consumers prefer self-service over the web above all other interaction types, and secondly that they do not want to conduct business by personal interaction. “But they answered overwhelmingly

PERSPECTIVE

that they preferred face-to-face interaction for complex transactions,” he reports.

According to Firth, the intention of BPS is to drive the digital revolution within a business ecosystem. “This goes beyond the digital strategy, as it is far more detailed in its implementation. It is about tuning and optimising to gain a competitive advantage. It guarantees business agility, and gives organisations the ability to adapt quickly.”

It gives birth to the digitally connected consumer, he adds. “It allows for re-usable activities that integrate with systems, user interfaces, apps and devices, giving the user full control, and real-time consumer SLA management to the business.”

He says it is also the process whereby we will begin to connect the actual systems with the consumer via a device or simple voice. “Think of it as the real enabler of the IOT world. Some businesses may think that their consumers will be using a device to access the company’s supply chain but once a company even considers a mobile app then they have entered the world of IOT. When thinking of implementing a simple mobile app, the company must consider Android, IOS and Windows for a start. Already just three operating systems but hundreds of different devices. This world gets complex quickly.”

There are two ways to strategically implement this strategy. The first is a company’s operational implementation of customer-centricity, effectively bringing the consumer into an operational process to effect decisions that in any business used to be made by ‘supervisors’via overrides. Well, the consumers can make these decisions today and take full ownership or responsibility for their decisions. The second

is via data mining and the artificial intelligence that follows.

However, the first step will bring the data so desperately needed for the second step to be effective.

Firth says the IoT, also referred to as the Internet of everything (IoE), has been disrupting businesses for some time. “Today’s world is increasingly connected. We see a plethora of devices connected to the Internet and to each other through a slew of sensors. The possibility of harnessing this data, and getting real-time insight from consumers to improve decision making is hugely exciting for businesses. It could take competition to a new level.”

He says the IoT has shown its disruptive capabilities in consumer and retail for some time now, through the introduction of smart systems, including lights, security, thermostats and other appliances. “However, within the last few years, the IoT is starting to seep into other markets as organisations have started thinking about the real value that combining IoT with BPM could bring to the business. In fact, the integration of BPM with analytics, social and mobile into current processes and business applications could bring tremendous agility with respect to crucial business decisions.”

Through BPS, organisations can gain far higher levels of efficiency, agility, flexibility and responsiveness, which in turn can help them better support changing business requirements. “Just think of the benefits: Far quicker access to information from any device or environment with a consumer-centric focus. Moreover, better customer feedback that leads to improved process lifecycles. The possibilities are endless.”

Long live BPS, Long live!

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x

E propriation has muddied the land reform field; don’t expect a win

By Professor Nhlanhla Cyril Mbatha, UNISA Business School

A

s the land debate cautiously manoeuvres its way towards the end goal of articulating the grounds under which there can be land expropriation without compensation in section 25 of the South Africa’s Constitution, Professor Nhlanhla Cyril Mbatha, a professor within Unisa’s Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL), cautions that critical questions have been overlooked within the debate. He says that re-wording section 25 known as the ‘the property clause’ may not provide the much sought-after solution to land that is anticipated by South Africa’s communities.

A separate committee has been established in parliament to begin the process of redrafting section 25 of the constitution. This after both houses of the legislature have agreed to adopt the joint constitutional review committee’s (CRC) report which recommends that section 25 of the constitution be amended to allow land expropriation without compensation. The National Assembly wants to settle the issue of amending section 25 to allow for land expropriation without compensation by 31 March 2019, before the mandate of the current parliament expires.

[ With so much attention placed on land expropriation without compensation, the core problems of land redistribution, restitution and tenure security that have defined the past 25 years have been largely overlooked. ] The critical points that should have been included in this debate are why land transfers have moved so slowly - and just how slowly have they been over the last 25 years? And why is it that so many land reform projects have been unsuccessful?

Compensation not pivotal to land redistribution challenges It is important to consider that land expropriation without compensation is one aspect of the land reform programme.

Evidence points to the fact that compensation has not been the stumbling block in land reform in the majority of land transfers and projects.

In the body of research that has emerged within the last 15 years on land ownership and tenure, there has not been a recorded case where financial compensation to current land owners was the obstacle to land expropriation. While there have been reports of instances where seemingly a great deal of money was paid to game farms, for example, this has never been a general trend.

Nevertheless, allegations brought against farmers, prior to the 2005 Land Summit, suggested that farmers had inflated land prices over market value in cases of both redistribution and restitution. Despite these allegations, research evidence has not supported the allegations.

For example, of the 34 sugar cane farmland cases transferred under the redistribution programme in northern KwaZulu-

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PERSPECTIVE

Natal in the early to mid-2000s (reported in 2010) the prices paid for farmland did not indicate higher than market related premiums having been paid to sellers. In March 2018, the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, said that government had spent R50-billion to acquire 4% of total registered land. Her statement in fact points to the fact that prices for land acquired under the land reform programme have been much lower than those expected in land markets. Four percent of agricultural land is more about 4.4-million hectares in size. The price of vacant land in remote areas currently varies from R50 000 to R200 000 per hectare. Hence this means than 4.4-million (4% of agricultural land) would at a minimum have cost government R220-billion (and at most R880-billion) in market value. Therefore, the reported value of R50-billion for 4% of land registered under Black ownership indicates that the land acquired within the land reform programme has not been overpriced.

Additionally, this 4% of registered land is below non-official estimates of about 7 million hectares of land that has been transferred under the land reform project. This implies that about 3 million hectares of land may have been transferred without formal title deeds for formal registration. Alternatively, it illustrates how government agencies have not kept good land registration records for the reform. The land registration is obscured further by land under traditional leadership, whose occupants do not have title deeds.

Moreover, a spending of R50 billion over 25 years on land acquisition indicates the land reform project over the years did not receive government’s highest priority. In relative terms, R50 billion is only about 2,2% of the fiscal budget of 2018 alone. In the same 2018 budget, government was able to set aside R57 billion as an emergency fund for higher education, but less money has been spent on land acquisitions over a period of almost 25 years.

and credible property valuation services is another indication that government agencies understand that problems in land reform have mainly been procedural in nature and not financial. For example, government valuation agencies would take up too long to finalise the valuation process. In some reported cases the processes would conclude three years after initiation, by which time market prices have gone up.

This too does not support claims that demand for financial compensation at above market prices has been the problem.

What we know is that the non-financial issues, some of which have been listed above, would still need to be addressed, even if the constitution can be amended. For example, the backlog of outstanding cases at the SA Land Court, need to be finalised. These were estimated at more than 20 000 cases after 2014. Community issues around the collective management of acquired land resources must be addressed as well. For example, these are issues that derail projects where disputes are never settled among community members regarding who forms part of lists of beneficiaries and who does not and who should or can represent communities in decision making bodies such as Community Property Associations (CPAs).

Such community disputes plague processes before claims are lodged, during hearing and even after land resources have been transferred to communities.

Looking beyond expropriation without

compensation To conclude, research has not highlighted expropriation without compensation (or even inflated land prices) as the key challenges to fair and timeous land reform in this country. Rather it infers that it is issues of poorly implemented administrative processes, inadequate capacity and an astounding lack of government support, including financially as illustrated by comparatively merge fiscal budget allocations, that impede the process.

If these issues are not adequately acknowledged for what they are and addressed properly; there is no hope in building a sustainable, workable land reform programme, with or without compensation for expropriated land. A lack of meaningful funding and poorly conceived and weakly implemented processes that have given rise to backlogs and bottlenecks will not automatically fall away, no matter how the wording of the property clause may change.

Land redistribution hamstrung by poorly managed administrative processes. The establishment of the Office of the Valuer-General in 2014 in terms of the Property Valuation Act (Act no17 of 2014) with the mandate to support the programme of Land Reform through providing independent

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PERSPECTIVE

Cybercrimeas-a-service on the rise

W

ith cybercrime-as-a-service opening the door to anyone wanting to make a quick buck, organisations have to worry about amateur attackers as well as seasoned professionals. With hacking tools available on the dark Web for only a few hundred dollars, the enterprise faces more threats than ever before.

“Today’s cyber criminal doesn’t need to be a technical wizard,” says Simon Campbell-Young, MD of Credence Security. “All he needs is a few hundred dollars and a computer. A recent report by Armor revealed that the dark market is riddled with tools and services that can be used to commit various attacks.

For example, it costs as little as $10 an hour for a DDoS attack, and around $200 for spam for hire.”

Users can purchase remote access to compromised PCs for around $13 a month, and can rent an exploit kit for $80 per day or $500 a week. “Even more alarming is how some cyber

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criminal groups now offer updates and troubleshooting for their tools, a criminal version of customer support.”

He says ransomware attacks, a scourge that has soared in popularity over the last year, can also be committed by those with little to no technical savvy. “Ransomware kits are available to rent from around $1000 a month, which may seem steep - but the return on investment can be several hundred times higher than that. Some criminals even let buyers test out the product for a day or two to see if they like it first.”

In fact, he suggests that the growth of ransomware-as-aservice (RaaS) is one of the drivers behind the massive spike in ransomware attacks over the last year. “The ease of which anyone can buy a ransomware kit is cause for concern, and explains why so many individuals are doing it. Not only is it practically money for jam, with a small investment seeing a potentially massive profit, there’s the added attraction that people have the perception that you’re not really physically

PERSPECTIVE

stealing anything. These attacks are distant enough from the victim, it’s almost a ‘passive’ crime, that makes it easier for people who wouldn’t normally steal to carry out.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, he says. “You name it, the dark market has it for sale. Stolen credit cards and personal data, hacked social media profiles, airline reward points, even passports from foreign countries are freely available. Illegal businesses on the dark Web sell every possible tool of the trade, enabling anyone to launch a cyber attack.”

Security leaders are worrying about cyber espionage, and state-sponsored attacks, but they need to understand that sophisticated attackers are making a career out of bringing organisations to their knees, he adds. “Although nation-state attackers are very well funded and determined, they have specific targets in mind. A very real danger comes from the crime-as-a-service business, that not only sells tools to anyone

with the cash, they are available for hire, and could potentially take out any business in their cross hairs.”

Companies must practice good cyber-hygiene, as well as engage with their peers to anticipate what the dark market will come up with next, Campbell-Young says. “As quickly as the bad guys invent a new tool or services, security practitioners need to develop new defences. It’s no good just monitoring the threat landscape, the industry needs to work together to anticipate the next moves.”

From an enterprise security point of view, the actual threats remain the same, but the number of people involved with them is growing exponentially, he concludes.

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STATEYOURCASE - Invincible Valves

Pam du Plessis, Managing Director, Invincible Valves

widely regarded as one of the top valve distributors, reconditioners and rubber liners in the South African market.

Currently it provides a wide range of both local and imported valves that are used in industries as diverse as the mining, petro-chemical, energy generation and water and sanitation sectors.

“Trust is an important element in our business, equally important is the fact that we can demonstrate experience and understanding of customer needs that stretches back over three decades,” shares Pam du Plessis, Managing Director at Invincible Valves.

Trust and experience coupled with the willingness to go the extra mile for customers has been the bedrock of the company’s success over the years.

A Lasting Impression

By Valdi Pereira

Innovation The company’s workshop allows it to conduct repairs or recondition valves for customers. In addition, the rubber lining division offers flexible solutions While it is often argued that business is made up of many to customers as it is able to undertake rubber lining work as per client complex elements working in harmony to deliver a product or specification on not only valves but also service to a customer, one indisputable fact remains unchanged tanks, pipes and a variety of fittings. and that is the need for a business to build and maintain a trust It has also remained attuned to client relationship with its customers. needs and with tightening economic conditions having an impact on its customers’ bottom lines it has expanded its product range to include cheaper variants of its valves, without sacrificing the quality for which it has become his is an important aspect in the on-going success of known over the years.

Invincible Valves, which has been servicing industry in “Fundamentally a valve is device for controlling the South Africa since the eighties and has latterly expanded passage of fluid, which in the case of our customers often its reach across the continent and the globe. contains some sort of media, from one point to another,” says du Plessis. “The technology behind it is not very complicated Growing Range and the designs and approaches to building valves are also Originally established as a valve reconditioning and rubber well established.” lining business, the company expanded it services and is now Despite the fact that the fundamentals of valve design are

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STATEYOURCASE - Invincible Valves

well known Invincible Valves prides itself in its innovation and development programme, aimed at further enhancing the valves it provides its customers.

In this respect the company has already achieved a great deal with the introduction of the Inval range of valves, which has been well received by the market. Like any entrepreneurially focused company with an eye on the success of its customers, the company is already focused on its

Trust is an important element in our business, equally important is the fact that we can demonstrate experience and understanding of customer needs.

Governance Focus In the rough and tumble business world, where longterm strategic objectives, profit motives and the desire to contribute meaningfully to social and community development, can easily become blurred, du Plessis says that an adherence to good corporate governance practices has always been an important element in her success.

“A good governance structure forces one to re-consider what you have achieved and what you still need to do to obtain the business results you have envisaged. The business environment is constantly changing and it is important to consider the impact of your business plans in light of the various risks that can quickly emerge and impact negatively on a business,” observes du Plessis.

With a strong focus on finding the balance between cost and quality, an ensuring approach to customer service and a strong focus on strategic delivery of business objectives, Invincible Valves and their products, is clearly the preferred choice in their industry.

next potential success story.

“We have an engineer joining us as a full-time staff member during this year. His focus will be on continuous development and innovation of our product range,” notes du Plessis. “Even if the gains in terms of innovation are incremental, they can over the long-term have a positive impact on our customers’ operations.

“It also sends out an important message to customers in the sense that they realise we are not only focused on shifting a product to them, but that we are investing in helping them achieve efficiencies so that they have the opportunity to grow their business.”

Service Excellence While the mining sector is the company’s key market it has over the years taken the opportunity to diversify into a number of new areas, giving it access to a number of new markets and helping to bolster its standing in the market.

Du Plessis notes that it doesn’t matter which market they are servicing, the reality is that customers expect good service as a ‘given’ and view this as part of the product.

“One cannot afford to compromise on service excellence – it is absolutely key to the overall experience the client has of our product and we pay careful attention to this aspect,” she reveals. “In many instances it just comes down to ensuring that we have effective communication systems in place. It not only allows all stakeholders to understand the nature of a challenge, but it helps us learn from the challenge and improve our service offering.”

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IN THE KNOW

Get the nuts and bolts in place to stop data loss Sensitive business information, customer details, financials, transactions and product information, all forms part of important data in organisations and is the lifeblood of every business. But, how much control do businesses have over their data, do they know where it is, is it secure, and what are the risks to the business if that data is lost or compromised?

“These are questions that every business should know the answers to,” says Charl Ueckermann, CEO at AVeS Cyber Security. Protecting data should be prioritised as part of the business’s sustainability strategy because when data is compromised or lost, it is a major threat to business continuity.

Just ask any business that cannot recover their information because backups weren’t carried out before a server crash.

“Some data is also confidential.”

Not only do you not want to lose it, but you don’t want others to be able to access it without authorisation. This could put you or your business at risk of non-compliance with legislation that is in place to protect sensitive information and people’s privacy. Information Regulators can impose hefty fines on organisations that don’t take the necessary measures to

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protect the information they collect, process, and store.

“To effectively secure data and prevent data loss,” says Ueckermann, “Companies need to encrypt, backup, scan for vulnerabilities and make sure that patch management happens.”

The first step though is to know where the data lies.

Nowadays, data exists on servers, endpoints, mobile devices, on the internet and even copiers and printers. It resides in documents, in emails, in applications and peripheral devices like USBs. Of course, not all of this information is equally critical so classifying data – separating confidential from non-confidential data – is the next step. “Confidential information should be sorted from non-confidential data for data loss protection and backup strategies to be appropriately targeted.

In this way, protection can be data-centric, which means it is applied to the data itself rather than the device, network or user account.” When protection is at a data level, sensitive information can be encrypted before it leaves the network or is transferred to an approved device. “Furthermore, when

IN THE KNOW

The depth of the core components for protecting against data loss – namely encryption, backups, vulnerability scanning and patch management – will depend on an organisation’s specific security requirements and where they are on their IT security journey. Then there are the nuts and bolts that keep data secure, such as endpoint security, mobile security, firewalls amongst others.

“Certainly, some businesses are way ahead of others regarding data loss protection.

While some have reached a higher level of maturity, where IT is considered a strategic partner to the business and there is a proactive analysis of the security posture and trends, as well as management of risks, others have yet to determine which data is important to them and implement interventions to protect it.”

data loss prevention is data-centric, companies can leverage technologies to block unauthorised access to and use of certain types of information. Users can also be warned when they are about to do something with the data that could put it at risk,” explains Ueckermann.

Regular vulnerability scans of the IT infrastructure – including the network, firewalls and endpoints – are also necessary to protect it from data breaches or ransomware infections as a result of criminals exploiting vulnerabilities within the software. Vulnerability and Patch Management in security software, for instance, analyse the infrastructure to detect and eliminate vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications. Detected problems are ranked by severity and ‘fix’ recommendations are provided.

“This gives companies a picture of their data security standpoint and identifies where the potential vulnerabilities are that could pose a risk to data security. Oftentimes, security gaps are left open, because security updates have not been applied or patch management has not been done. Unpatched vulnerabilities, especially those in popular applications, can pose a significant threat to business’s IT security,” says Ueckermann.

According to Ueckermann, a holistic approach to data protection for the average business can be found in solutions like Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business Advanced.

It is an innovative platform, which provides security and management capabilities of all endpoints in progressive tiers of protection. It features award-winning anti-malware, data encryption, mobile threat defence, vulnerability and patch management, as well as device and application control tools.

The product allows managing up to 100,000 endpoints through a single server installation and through a single management console.

For organisations with a high security agenda, mechanisms must be built into all layers of their infrastructure and depending on the specific environment and business requirements, specialised software is necessary, such as intrusion protection technologies.

“If you are not sure where your company is on the continuum, and you are unable to answer questions like, ‘where is my data’ or ‘is my sensitive information protected against unauthorised access’, then it is time to speak to a specialist provider that can guide you on understanding and prioritising data security risks before implementing the most appropriate interventions to stop data loss,” concludes Ueckermann.

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IN THE KNOW

Craig Mitchelmore, Head of Intervate North at Intervate, a T-Systems company

O365 can make your business more productive - if you let it

By Craig Mitchelmore, Head of Intervate North at Intervate, a T-Systems company

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ne of the drivers of cloud migration is accessibility to cloud business systems like Microsoft Office 365 (O365). The idea of accessing office tools such as Word, Excel and others from anywhere and at any time, and the flexibility to add and remove users as required, is attractive.

However, many businesses already using the MS Office suite historically installed onto their employee laptops simply haven’t yet seen the benefits of moving to the O365 cloud platform.

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There are a host of capabilities housed within O365 - beyond the typically used Mail, Word, Excel and PowerPoint - that can deliver far more collaboration, significantly increase productivity and enhance information visibility for businesses who move to the cloud platform.

Stuck in a rut Companies often find themselves stuck in the rut of only making use of the solutions that they are familiar and comfortable with. Even organisations who migrate to O365 tend to stick to using the same tried and trusted programmes that they previously used on their regular Office suite, not realising that an entire business productivity and collaboration

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toolset lies at their fingertips, if they only tapped into it and had the courage to experiment with the magic of O365 in its entirety.

A combination of fear of the unknown and a general lack of awareness of the true power of O365 as a productivity suite keeps many organisations stuck in their comfort zones.

The fear stems more from the overabundance of new, unexplained software and updates that many users find themselves inundated with on a daily basis. When users are informed and taught about the possibilities and benefits of a new way of working collaboratively, it’s easier to take new approaches on board and with far more enthusiasm. And then, there’s the added benefit that O365 does not have those tedious, undefined updates all the time as they now happen in the background without impeding productivity.

Unlock potential O365 is not just a productivity suite; it’s a new way of working.

When people unlock the possibilities offered by all the additional applications included in O365, they typically find that their entire operations are more productive, more agile and vastly more collaborative.

Mobile agility and seamless interaction across devices are the obvious benefits of O365 and helps organisations to move completely away from the 8am – 5pm rigid style of working, allowing employees to work when and where they are most productive. This mindset of mobility is enabled through the engagement, collaboration and interactive tools across the O365 platform.

Some of the lesser used applications offered by the suite that will undoubtedly enhance a business’ capabilities include:

text from videos. Taking minutes in video recorded meetings is a simple as clicking a button, and freeing up people to be more productive • Flow – an easy workflow app that automates tasks quickly and transparently.

• Teams – A unified (chat, voice and video) communication and collaboration platform that simultaneously includes other apps, such as OneDrive, SharePoint, Planner, etc. to enable instant, real-time communication and full visibility across the workspace Microsoft Teams is a key application in O365 that many organisations underutilise. The app provides a virtual workroom for project collaboration, meetings and discussions, sharing and planning. It enables full traceability, document storage and visibility and could potentially replace the bulk of cumbersome email correspondence. These are but a few of the handy tools that could transform an organisation, removing it from the mire of traditional, slow processes.

Embrace the new way For businesses to realise the benefits of O365, ‘and other cloud business platforms’, they need to not only have seamless and responsive connectivity to the suite but must also actively drive its use. Intervate’s STICKi user adoption programmes is available to ensure employees are not only informed and trained, but actively enthusiastic to make full use of anything in O365 they are presented with.

The O365 suite will turn the way businesses currently operate entirely on its head. This is a daunting prospect for many organisations, however, the excitement of the opportunity to fast forward should supersede any qualms. Rather than hesitancy, businesses should embrace the possibilities and find a way to encourage users to leverage these tools.

• Power BI - a visualisation rich application for business intelligence that collects data from multiple sources to give dashboard insights for business to make informed - decisions.

• Delve - a smart tool that provides a personalised dashboard which displays recent and relevant collaboration on content, allowing for a quick snapshot of current workload, projects and people activity.

• Office Lens – A simple tool, yet one which users quickly find indispensable. Office Lens allows mobile users to scan any document or work surface and converts it into a PDF ready document for sharing and embedding.

• Sway – a powerful storyboard and content collaboration app which allows for easy content aggregation and enables more dynamic shared presentations.

• Stream – a video sharing app that not only enables simple video sharing, but also transcribes audio content to

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Lessons SMEs can learn from

Ethiopian Airlines Why continuous learning is essential to SME growth

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ccording to recent research conducted by the Small Business Institute of South Africa, local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are still economically fragile, with approximately 70% of emerging small businesses failing within the first two years of operation. While there is no quick-fix to the economic challenges that continue to plague South African small businesses, there are strategies that local SME owners can adopt to make their businesses more resilient to improve their chances of success.

One widely-publicised success story that is testament to this, is the growth of Ethiopian Airlines. In a region where most airlines have struggled to survive, Ethiopian Airlines surpassed its initial goals set in 2016 to become an award-winning international carrier.

Christo Botes, executive director at Business Partners Limited (BUSINESS/PARTNERS), says that there is a lot that local small business owners can learn from the airline’s success. “Although

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Ethiopian Airlines is a state-owned enterprise (SOE), the airline is run by autonomous leadership and has attained its success through a strong management system and a cost-efficient business model.”

Botes lists three crucial areas that business owners need to focus on, in order to ensure their small business is resilient and sustainable in today’s tough economic climate.

Ensure good and ethical leadership Cultivating strong governance practices is paramount, and central to this is being ethical and setting a good example, says Botes. “Having the right governance structures in place will contribute to a corruption-free and inclusive culture and will promote company growth from within. For example, there should not be a special dispensation for leaders compared to employees. Every service or privilege should have a price and form part of the remuneration package.”

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Set ambitious, yet attainable goals for the business Ethiopian Airlines set a goal to reach three million passengers and R15 billion in revenue by 2010. They surpassed this goal, and by 2016, the airline had reached 7.6 million passengers with revenue of R35 billion (R4 billion profit). “Bearing this in mind, entrepreneurs should note that the goals and targets set for their businesses should be challenging, but not unrealistic.”

He adds that an SME’s goals and targets should also be shared with the company’s employees to get buy-in and support so that they can assist with achieving these goals. “Open communication with employees is imperative as they are a key contributor to the company’s success.”

Invest in talent through upskilling Botes also points out that there are significant benefits to growing skills inside one’s own organisation. “Ethiopian Airlines invested a substantial sum of money in becoming the masters of their own destiny by having fully-fledged schools for pilots training, aircraft maintenance technicians,

marketing and finance and also for cabin crew training. On a smaller scale, South African SMEs can also be the masters of their own destiny by playing an active role in training and empowering their personnel.” This, he says, will motivate staff to deliver better quality work and ultimately improve the product and service offering of the SME. “It is not only the size of the remuneration package that keeps an employee engaged in the business. Job satisfaction, feeling valued, sharing in the success of the business through incentive bonuses, career development, and being part of a company with the right values are also vital,” he adds. Lastly, Botes says that in order for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, they should never pass up opportunities to keep learning.

“Ultimately SME owners should strive to remain optimistic and inject positive energy into their businesses. However, they should also never stop taking lessons from other entrepreneurs and businesses around them, big or small, as this can be beneficial in taking an SME to the next level,” Botes concludes.

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Entrepreneurs, become better dealmakers by developing your negotiation skills 50

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ot every aspiring entrepreneur is a natural deal-maker.

Serial entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Aarya Legal, which offers legal services to entrepreneurs and owner-managed businesses, Maushami Chetty, has a unique perspective on the power of negotiation for small and growing businesses.

Zooming in on the neuroscience and emotions of good dealmaking, Chetty revealed valuable insights at a recent Entrepreneurship To The Point Session hosted by Property Point, the Growthpoint Properties initiative.

Chetty starts by pointing out that optimal brain functioning takes place when we trust people and when we feel like we’re rewarded. She says: “The human brain evolved along with commerce; we are highly social beings. We’ve adapted to cooperate for mutual benefit and our brain structures have evolved to make us better cooperative thinkers. Our brains are designed to negotiate and to crave rewards.”

On the other hand, when we feel threatened, the fight-andflight response can completely derail our ability to make good decisions. Chetty warns: “We may think that we are rational human beings, and that we make good decisions, but that isn’t always the case. The rational mind is relatively slow compared to the ‘animal’ part of your brain, which is completely instinctive. The rational mind is also slowed down by competing goals and, in stressful and threatening situations, you are more likely to make a gut decision, which is not rational.’’

But what does this all have to do with negotiating?

Negotiation is defined as a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement. So, for successful dealmaking it helps to go into negotiations with the aim of actually reaching an agreement.

“Even though, as social creatures, our brains crave reward, it is best to avoid falling into a mindset of win-lose, rather you want a win-win – or at least a perceived win-win,” advises Chetty.

“Some may think that it is a good tactic to push your negotiating counterpart, make them feel threatened, put them on edge. But, when people feel like that, they become irrational, so that makes it more difficult to control the negotiation,” notes Chetty.

Essentially, having either negotiating party in an irrational place puts desirable outcomes at risk.

Instead of antagonising your negotiation partner, Chetty’s experience has shown that helping them feel rewarded and valued has better results. One of the tools that she recommends is making a list of low-hanging fruit that you are willing to offer to concede, even if they don’t ask.

“Relating to your counterparts in a way that affirms them in these areas sets a positive foundation for discussions, improves collaborations and helps to influence the way that people behave.”

But, says Chetty, to use this advice, first entrepreneurs need to remember that they can and should negotiate. Small businesses may believe that they have no influence on big business, and for good reasons based on past experiences.

Things are changing, however, because the value that small businesses can add to big businesses is becoming better understood and increasingly recognised. “Big corporates are more willing to negotiate than you may expect. Yes, certain things are non-negotiable. But, if you don’t ask, you’ll never know. Try, you may be pleasantly surprised,” encourages Chetty. “Also, if your service is unique, presenting your own contract may be a great way to assist corporate legal teams to help understand a new type of business relationship.”

She feels entrepreneurs should always consider negotiating on price or value, risk and assumption of liability, intellectual property, security, confidentiality and non-disclosure and payment terms.

She also believes that working with big corporates isn’t the right move for every entrepreneur. “Sometimes it seems so tasty to work with big corporates, but it may not always be the best for your business. There are times when it is in your best interests to walk away.”

“It’s not easy at first. The more you do it, the better you get,” she reassures. “There’s always someone who has been negotiating longer than you and is better. All the same, often people will like you for doing the right things, even if they are aware of the techniques you are using.”

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The business of Tech

from a woman’s point of view O

nly 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa – out of 236 000 ICT (tech) roles, women occupy 56 000 of them. Rumbidzai Zawu, Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer at U-App was undeterred by the statistics when she launched U-APP with Joseph Nkhonjera in January 2016. The biggest concern at the time for the entrepreneurs was the finances. “We did not have the financial resources required to move it forward, however, we knew we needed some sort of support. Therefore we approached our contacts and were fortunate enough to find a software developer who we had established a relationship with many years ago who was willing to jump on board with us and help us advance our idea, despite the financial constraints,” says Zawu.

Finding support JvR Psychometrics believed in U-App and were willing to create a long-term relationship with the company. About 6 months later, the entrepreneurs entered U-App into a competition with BevCan and that went on to open doors of business support from the Standard Bank Entrepreneurial Development unit.

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“Having the support and backing of Standard Bank also opened doors of financial support from General Electric and we believe, more and more doors will open for us. This helped me realise that support does not always have to be financial, sometimes just having people who believe in your idea enough to back you physically makes a massive difference to how successful you could become,” adds Zawu.

What is U-App? U-App solves three main problems. It helps prospective students find up-to-date bursary information within South Africa. The U-App team is able to filter through all the tertiary institutions in South Africa and submit an individual’s details to the right institution offering a qualification of their choice within their price range and preferred province, therefore reducing the burden of doing this alone.

Additionally users from Grades 8 to 9 are able to take part in a career assessment that assists with subject choices for their Grade 10 transition. Users from Grades 10 to12, and even tertiary students, are also able to take part in a career assessment that helps them make more informed decisions about the right career path to follow for tertiary qualification choices.

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U-App was designed to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the young person who is battling with academic and career choices.

Seeing opportunity in the challenges “In Africa, we have always been behind with technological advancements. Therefore, the biggest challenge is convincing the targeted market within Africa, that what we have on offer is not a luxury just because it is not being presented in the ‘traditional’ form but rather a need. Additionally, coming across individuals who stereotype that technology is a male-based industry means they are immediately resistant to work with a female tech specialist,” says Zawu.

However Zawu views Africa’s position of being “behind” as an opportunity. “There are so many opportunities to imitate and improve what has already been done abroad and bring it back home because what’s old in America could well be new in Africa. So those opportunities are there, one just has to identify them,” says Zawu.

What Zawu finds most exciting about the tech industry is its unpredictability. “I believe there is still so much more to experience, innovate and improve within the tech industry and this is what makes me so interested in learning more and exploring more possibilities. She would like to encourage other women to learn from what fellow women have achieved in the technology space.

“It is no longer a surprise to hear that a woman is making big moves through technology. I can’t help but get excited that we have women such as Karen Nadasen (CEO of PayU) and Barbara Mallinson (CEO of Obami) who are making ground shaking moves as some of the top five tech women in South Africa,” adds Zawu. For Zawu, women are well on their way to becoming leaders in the tech space, and encourages women to explore the world of tech.

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Rejuvenating South Africa’s cities with a solid business case and social benefits

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ivercity Urban Property Fund is a newly launched investment fund, backed by the experience of some of South Africa’s leading property specialists and with a R2bn seed portfolio of landmark property assets, that is set to renew and re-energise the country’s urban centres.

As the fund’s name suggests, Divercity invests in South Africa’s major cities. It’s investment strategy, however, is even more precise; it focuses on pre-identified precincts or corridors within these cities, rather than on individual properties.

The names behind Divercity include some of the most experienced and respected property investors and developers in the country. Divercity’s major shareholders and stakeholders are Atterbury and Ithemba Property, with Talis Property Fund playing major part in forming the fund. Cornerstone investors are RMH Property and Nedbank Property Partners, subject to regulatory approval which is expected by the end of July.

The fund already has assets of R2bn. Its initial portfolio includes strategic buildings hand-picked from Atterbury’s, Ithemba’s and Talis’s portfolios, including Johannesburg landmarks Newtown Junction Mall, Talis House and Turbine Hall, and the iconic Pan Africa Mall in Alexandra coupled with 4,500 residential properties from the Ithemba stable. Divercity has also acquired some of the best properties in Maboneng from Propertuity, and it also owns Sterland Mall in Pretoria.

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These assets anchor the precincts in which Divercity has initially targeted its investment. In Johannesburg, its investment corridors span from Maboneng to the Newtown area around Turbine Hall and Newtown Junction Mall, and the Alexandra node surrounding Pan Africa Mall.

Divercity is, as a founding principle, committed to transformation. From its inception, a significant amount of equity already vests in black hands and, as it grows, it intends of further diversifying its shareholder base to become available to all South Africans. Furthermore, by investing in well located affordable housing in amenity-rich neighbourhoods, Divercity is also committed to the spatial transformation of South Africa’s cities.

Divercity has secured a development pipeline of a further R3bn of investment, and the funding required to roll it out.

This pipeline consists of over 3,000 new affordable residential units as well as prime inner-city office and retail space. The vision for the property income fund is to grow it towards a target of about R6bn in assets over the next three to four years and a stock exchange listing as a REIT (real estate investment trust).

Wouter de Vos, CEO of Atterbury Property Fund, says: “By clustering investment properties in specific precincts, not only does Divercity benefit from management efficiencies, but it also enjoys better control of assets by enhancing the intrinsic value around each of its core real estate investments.

Essentially, it is creating large-scale, mixed-use, mixed-income urban renewal precincts. In this way it also creates the density and scale to have a real impact on the cityscape.”

The fund invests in retail, commercial and residential properties. It intends to increase its balance of residential property over time in response to the massive demand for quality homes in its urban investment corridors. It is this residential development that it sees as a key ingredient to creating vibrant mixed-use precincts, and this is where Ithemba, a leader in the residential market, will play an important role.

Adding to the live-work-play attraction of these hubs, Divercity has also set its sights on adding more hospitals, clinics, schools, retail, and leisure to its precincts.

By creating critical mass with its focused investment zones, it is also better able to influence and control factors such as safety, sidewalks and roads. This not only ensures the highest standards for its property management, but also for the area around buildings, which ultimately creates better neighbourhoods to live and work in.

“While community is at the core of Divercity’s business model, the business case has been built around an asset class that we believe in and the returns it generates. The fact that it will also generate lots of positive social impact is an added benefit. This is a unique, scalable business and we’re excited to be part of its growth,” emphasises Rian Reyneke, CEO of Ithemba.

Evidence of this can be found in New York, London and beyond, where urban renewal has transformed decaying areas into the most highly sought-after and valued properties in the city. “We really want to take inner-city rejuvenation back to basics through the collective leadership of private and public sector as well as civil society stakeholder engagement,” says Tebogo Mogashoa, Chairman of Talis Property Fund.

“We are working on fresh property products and new innovation for our assets and their communities,” confirms de Vos. “We are incredibly proud of the sustainable efficiencies, cutting-edge urban design techniques and the technologies we are applying to create communities that are really vibrant, cool, and great places for people.”

Nurturing and developing a new generation of property skills, the executive teams of Atterbury, Ithemba and Talis guide Divercity’s dedicated management. As the fund grows towards critical mass, its trajectory includes transforming its management to become an empowered business. Each precinct will work with its stakeholders, such as its city, city improvement district and its community.

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ONLINE VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR

By So Interactive

‘Just-because-it-moves-and-makes-sounds-doesn’t-mean-I’mhanging-around-to-watch it’ seems to be the rule of thumb when it comes to online users’ approach to the massive number of videos they scroll through each day. What’s more disconcerting is, that “hanging around” amounts to roughly 10 seconds, as a whopping one fifth of viewers reportedly click ‘off’ a video, if they’re not hooked by the time the progress bar hits double digits. That’s why it’s important to get it right. First time, every time as a CMO, entrepreneur or brand ambassador.

Online video is a multi-faceted marketing beast with many variables that can make a big difference. To really cut it, you must get with the programme.

7 NO NONSENSE TIPS 1. NEWSFEEDS ARE ON MUTE. MAKE SURE YOU’RE NOT Silent movies are making a comeback and it’s all happening online. According to the statistics, 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, which means if you’re targeting the 99.9% of the market who can’t lip read, you need subtitles.

With subtitles you give the consumer in a coffee shop, or the paper pusher in the open plan office a chance to read your video message. Plus, there’s the added benefit that videos with captions are watched 12% longer.

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2. SPEAK TO THE CHOSEN FEW When it comes to video content, narrow down your audience.

The idea is to engage a niche sector of people, with specific needs aligned to your specific subject matter. Brand relevance is key here. Handy tools on platforms like Facebook allow you to choose the preferred audience in a preferred city for each post. The days of reaching a “wider audience” are not as cool, nor effective, as they used to be. Going wide has passed its sell-by date; keeping it close delivers return.

3. STAY IN SHAPE There are three shapes you can upload your video: square, landscape and vertical. Since every social media platform is different, it’s important to physically custom build your video to maximise its impact. Square videos take up 78% more space than landscape on a newsfeed, which makes it obvious to square up when you’re posting on Facebook. Built with vertical videos in mind, Instagram TV launched recently allowing users to post videos of up to 60 minutes long.

Considering the fact that the Instagram audience recently topped one billion a month, a long-form production in the upright position is therefore also worth looking in to.

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4. CAMERA, LIGHTS, STRATEGY Do I want website traffic? Do I want video views? Do I want sales? Or do I want engagement? Assigning an objective to your video is much better than going in blind. With a clear objective, you’d know how to better customise the call-toaction in order to achieve results. For instance, if you want engagement, ask your audience a question or create content that stirs emotion, getting them to share and comment. An effective pull strategy is as much part of the online video process as anything else that goes into the production.

5. PILLAR TALK IS A REAL THING When mapping out your content marketing, it’s best to start with a breakdown of content pillars. Think of it as a funnel of the “whats, whos and whys”: who will benefit from this video, what do we need to say to help them benefit from this video and why will they benefit from this video. Once you dot your i’s on this one, you may find that one video will not suffice; and it’ll be far more beneficial to chunk down your content into a series of videos. This way your content pillars create a whirlpool of fresh content resulting in brand impact and more traction.

6. THE SEO HOW TOs Don’t get caught out in the pretty picture department. It’s not why you’re in business. Your video content does not always need to blow the budget on epic aerial shots and location jumping. Simple and short “How-To” videos or tutorials work just as well, if not better. These info type vids speak to a given topic and have proven to have 46% more call to action and sharing effect than a cinematic Spielberg storyboard. Even better, your brand incidentally becomes a go-to authority on a shared topic of interest. Plus plus plus - it improves your SEO ranking exponentially. Rand Fishkin’s Moz is a good example of this kind of thought leadership content, with his instalment of the popular Whiteboard Friday.

7. YOUTUBE IS NOT A STRATEGY Death by YouTube is quickly becoming the post mortem of many digital brand plans. Considering that 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day, businesses often run the risk of believing that video content should only live on the YouTube platform. This is dangerous. While YouTube is a relevant platform for video, it is not the only platform that needs to make up your video content strategy. Your video

should live on a variety of platforms with a string of link-to’s and link-backs to your website. Native videos on Facebook have 10 times higher reach than YouTube links, and a video on your landing page can increase click conversions by over 80%. It’s a no brainer that your video content placement must be diversified, keeping your audience on a steady and exciting content journey.

The ‘moving pictures’ have come a long way since the days of The Three Stooges. Developments such as Instagram TV are further testament to the ongoing power video wields online, which makes it imperative to have a rock solid, well thoughtout strategy to go with your content. Statistics add by 2019, our online video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic. So think beyond the storyboard to get the most bang from your online campaign.

Speak to So Interactive for expert advice on online content creation and strategy.

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Technology, putting

the ‘resource’ in Human Resources

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he technology terms ‘machine learning’, ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI)’, ‘Big Data’ and ‘robotics’ are being thrown around with increasing ease these days. We’ve become very comfortable with these technologies, mainly because they are impacting every aspect of life and business. Markets have shifted, and companies are continually looking for ways to digitalise and stay ahead of the curve. For businesses, the most obvious impact is operational, as technology is leveraged to streamline and automate the working environment.

However, technology is also playing a big part in the Human Resources (HR) space through the likes of mobile applications, chatbots, predictive analytics and even automation. Says Andrew Hoseck, COO at In2IT Technologies, “Much like companies are dealing with a more tech-savvy clientele, HR departments are dealing with a more techsavvy workforce than previously known. Employees expect their employers to “know them”, and to be able to engage with them through multiple channels with the same results. “Traditional HR processes and systems are simply unable to cope with large-scale employee and employer requirements, particularly in environments where technology is implemented across every other part of the value chain, and staff are accustomed to being tech-savvy.”

Paper based processes are perceived as “old fashioned” and tedious, by both HR departments and employees alike.

With many organisations adopting a distributed, mobile workforce strategy, single interface systems can also be slow and restrictive, resulting in backlogs, system blockages and an inability to connect with every employee.

ENABLING BETTER HR Hoseck says that apart from meeting employee demands, technology can help to alleviate much of the pressures felt by HR departments. “Gone are the days of simple information portals with hundreds of policy and process documents that employees are expected to read through and understand.

Smart self-service employee portals let employees interact with a chatbot that can respond to questions in real time, with reference to appropriate policies and process definitions.

With minimal effort, HR departments can impart guidance and assistance to staff through whatever medium, without

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Andrew Hoseck, COO at In2IT Technologies

spending hours - and reams of paper - doing so,” he explains.

HR departments typically handle massive amounts of transactions on a daily basis. From records maintenance to training, on-boarding of staff to managing disciplinary action, HR is a hive of activity. Hoseck explains that many of these tasks can be automated by embracing technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), replacing some of the more mundane yet time consuming tasks so that HR can focus on other critical tasks that require more human interaction, such as mentoring.

IDENTIFYING AREAS OF CONCERN Organisations who are adapting to the digital economy have quickly realised the value of interacting with customers on various social media platforms, particularly the analysis of data from said platform which provides insights into the market’s perception of the company.

“Apart from the value of leveraging social media to interact with staff, HR departments can make positive use of predictive analytics to monitor employee satisfaction, as well as their behaviour with the brand,” says Hoseck.

“It’s easy to flag employees who may be behaving in a manner which can negatively affect brand perception in the marketplace, or internal company morale, and discreetly intervene. However predictive analytics may be able to spot potential pitfalls of this and similar behaviour before it

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happens, and HR can pre-emptively step in with support or assistance.” While online monitoring may be viewed by some as an invasion of privacy, this method is simply a modern adaptation of the traditional manager who would walk through the company to test the ‘temperature’, personally interacting with staff to pick up on problems or identify possible thought leaders.

Happier employees, better productivity Organisations who are able to respond proactively to the needs of their staff and implement changes before even employees know they want them, will benefit from a happier, more productive workforce. On top of this, employees won’t need to spend hours reading through monotonous - albeit essential company information packs, filling out handwritten leave applications and waiting days for approvals.

“Interactive platforms work in employees’ favour as well as employers’,” elaborates Hoseck. “For example, an employee who lies awake at midnight, concerned about a work issue can easily use their WhatsApp to interact with a virtual assistant to obtain guidance on a particular policy, or initiate a complaint or request, which automatically enters the HR system for action.”

IS THERE A DOWNSIDE? Hoseck cautions that, while technology is an enabler, it can have its drawback if not carefully researched, considered and

incorporated in alignment with HR policies.

“Embracing technology assists with establishing a business as an ‘employer of choice’, which has an impact on talent attraction and retention. If the company is behind technologically, it can create a negative perception of the organisation.”

“Technology can also be a double-edged sword, and the same application that enables more efficient HR processes can also make mistakes just as adeptly,” he adds, explaining that organisations needs to carefully consider aspects such as confidentiality and compliance, ensuring their technology is not in breach of either of these.

Keeping the ‘human’ in human resources. Despite the benefits of automation, chatbots and virtual assistance, there is little danger of the HR function being taken over by technology, according to Hoseck.

“There is still very much a need for human interaction in HR, and nothing can replace the human touch, mentorship, guidance and support that can only be provided by actual people,” he assures.

“Technology is a tool. As such, it is only effective when it is used correctly. HR is a highly skilled profession which can benefit from technologies which complement these skills, creating efficiencies and enhancing effectiveness so that HR professionals can focus on those areas where their personal skills are most required,” concludes Hoseck.

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LIFESTYLE

The Perfect Brainstorm Occasion G

for Corporate Strategy and

Agility Planning

lobal economic pressures has seen blue chip companies incorporating paradigm shift strategies to outmanoeuvre the competition via disruptor-style meetings; moving top performers out of the four walls of the corporate environment and into experiential, interactive and memorable venues such as the Hayward’s Safari Sanctuary situated on the edge of Johannesburg’s CBD. “More meetings are predicted to come online as corporates approach how to navigate and successfully survive the economic downturn. Current market diversity in turn calls for diversification within the corporate paradigm, along with greater expectations on a return for their meeting investment and this is where we provide a unique offering on the edge of town,” says owner Peter Hayward.

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LIFESTYLE

At Hayward’s, CEO’s and event organisers find the perfect disruptor-style environment for meetings, whether a threeday executive think tank, or a 200-strong training session or product launch, assembled in the middle of a natural environment, isolated from daily distractions and less than one hour’s drive from Johannesburg’s CBD and a stone’s throw from Pretoria. “As a networking point on the outskirts of two major city hubs, we are witnessing top south African companies implementing remedial strategies to out manoeuvre the cooling off of the economy,” says Peter.

“It’s a fresh environment in which to plan advantage over their competition, out of their usual place of business, and in an innovative and inspiring atmosphere.

“As a venue, Hayward’s Grand Safari Company is about exploration, exploration of cultures and the human dynamic.

The exploration of philosophy, responsibility and ethics for a new age. It is my dream that the Hayward’s Safari Sanctuary be one of the world’s foremost venues of preference; a place in which to discuss solutions to the leadership issues that face the planet in this new century.

A place for informal meetings of the mind, around an African safari campfire where the story of man began possibly millions of years ago. A place to discover new ways to move forward, in an inhospitable environment, unstructured, unencumbered and holistic and a place that epitomises the ‘time-out’ process.”

leisurely amble down an ancient mountain pass, they soon realise something totally unique is afoot; and they won’t leave the same themselves either. Of course, groups can also arrive

by Rovos Rail, helicopter, and chauffeured Range Rovers.

Participants enjoy hi-tech conferencing under canvas and dine in 5-star Dining and Theme tents and can breakaway or relax with a drink and a cigar in the Gin Tent, before retiring to ensuite accommodation in luxury Presidential and Hemingway style tents.

Full English breakfasts take place at the lake, buffet luncheons and sundowners at the watering hole after a Big 5 game drive (if required) and five course dinners, theme evenings and various camp activities can be included in the itinerary, along authentic entertainment themes, from African Desert Traders, to East African White Mischief. Additional event add-ons include aromatherapy, massage and anti-stress treatments and entertainment from ground musicians to full orchestras, art and photographic workshops, hot air ballooning, clay Pidgeon shooting and walking safaris.

Each corporate group is offered a bespoke experience, depending on the group size and focus, and Production Director Celia du Preez is on hand to assist in designing each event.Event planners are most welcome to attend a site meeting to discuss the group’s unique needs, alternatively visit www.haywardsafaris.com to look at events and expeditions on offer across South Africa, Namibia and East Africa.

SCOPE FOR NEW OPPORTUNITY The Hayward’s Safari Sanctuary situate in Boekenhoutskloof is a high-tech working environment set within an authentic5star safari environment. It serves as the perfect brainstorm setting for executives who don’t want to waste logistical time and budgets travelling too far out the city.

Offered a choice of travelling one hour to a traditional convention environment or travelling one hour to a natural and bespoke, and totally exclusive corporate environment, it’s a simple conclusion which one is going be the group’s preference, especially for those companies looking to communicate to a wide range of age-groups and cultures represented within their workforce.

Dig a bit deeper and Hayward’s Grand Safari Company wins hands down when it comes to the mathematics of big group eventing whether you want all the bells and whistles of an incentive event or pure communication and training events to relay new goals and objectives.

MEETING DYNAMICS From the moment guests disembark from their 4x4’s (approximately 800 meters from camp) and begin their

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THE ADVENT OF GREEN HOSPITALITY A

ccording to the Green Hotels Association, “Green Hotels are environmentally-friendly properties (where) managers are eager to institute programmes that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste - while saving money.”

In South Africa’s (as well as the world’s) current environmental climate the need to manage and maintain hospitality facilities that reduce water waste is more prevalent than ever. In an interview with eNCA, Professor Anthony Turton, A University of the Free State (UFC) water strategist stated that South Africa’s water crisis is far from over. While Turton urges the South African government to make some needed structural and financial adjustments to alleviate the economic strain of the water crisis, John J Coetzee (CEO at Green Worx Cleaning Solutions) believes that some responsibility also falls on citizens and facility and hospitality managers.

“We must create and sustain a world in which we are working with the environment, rather than against it. The travel and hospitality industries play a key role in how people from around the world come to see and understand the possibilities of green living. Managing a green hotel not only helps to cut back on the large-scale water waste that the hospitality industry is at risk of, but also has the potential of revealing a more sustainable way of life to a global audience,” says Coetzee.

He also points out that buildings that are built green must be properly maintained to remain green. Simply building with green products does not guarantee that a green star rated building will remain green. Careful and conscious eco-friendly maintenance

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John J Coetzee, CEO at Green Worx Cleaning Solutions

is required. Hospitality managers need to investigate how their buildings are being maintained. A key element of this would be looking at what products are being used to clean the buildings. Cleaning facilities with chemical products is damaging not only to the environment but also to staff and guests.

Green buildings need to be managed and maintained with cleaning products that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste. Coetzee continues: “Being a ‘green’ hotel means far more than just asking guests not to have their towels washed every day. It is about a conscious and concerted effort to make sure that each and every part of your facility management is in line with managing and maintaining an eco-friendly environment for all.”

As green living and awareness grows within popular culture, green hotels are becoming the desired destination for many

travelers. According to scmp.com millennials are amongst the highest percentile of today’s global travelers and they are twice as likely to select a location that can offer them ‘sustainable luxury’.

The article outlines Credit Suisse’s 2017 Global Investor report: millennials are driving sustainable practices in various industries, and quotes researcher Julie Saussier in the report: “Companies must deliver good social and environmental performance and engage in sustainable practices or their future growth could be at risk” Coetzee concludes that; “Building, managing and maintaining a green facility in the hospitality sector is not only our duty to the world and its inhabitants, but it also helps the successfulness of our businesses as we reduce costs and increase desirability amongst the sustainability conscious millennials.”

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IS TECHNOLOGY DESTROYING OUR HUMANNESS? T

he world is spinning with new technologies and we, the human inhabitants, are the willing prey!

Cindy Glass, Director and Co-founder of Step Up Education Centres says “With ever-increasing time spent on smartphones, iPads and in front of live-streamed TV, we are in danger of losing our humanness. Teeny toddlers, vulnerable teens, exhausted parents and even bored grandparents can be seen, heads-down, shoulders bent and disengaged from the real world as they spend endless hours scrolling through their devices.

Losing a smartphone is a big deal and people often feel a loss which is akin to losing a much-prized body part!”

Cindy highlights the following negative effects of too much screen time and says that they are serious enough for us, as parents, to STOP and take note!

• It affects cognitive development in young children as it literally effects the way in which our children’s brains develop!

• Too much screen time stifles creativity, imagination and playfulness which are essential to the wholesome development of children.

• Concentration, critical thinking, memory and other learning skills are effected as children focus mindlessly on information (whether real or not) as it just pours effortlessly into their subconscious!

• It affects mental and physical health as people become increasingly inactive and detached from the real world.

• It will harm your relationship with your children. With parents and children spending too much time on their devices, they run the risk of losing the positive human connections that are key to happy relationships! Children feel

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unacknowledged, unheard and unnoticed and this leads to negative behaviours, anxiety, stress and depression.

Cindy goes on to explain “We cannot ignore the dangers of too much exposure to the non-real world that the internet offers. We cannot afford to lose the beauty of life because we did not take a stand against the media (in all its forms)!”

Consider the following tips in reducing the amount of screen time that you allow for yourself and your children: 1. You have to set the example. Your children are more likely to do what you do, rather than what you say. You cannot expect your children to reduce their screen time if you do not do the same!

2. Have dedicated no-go-zones for devices. Family activities, mealtimes and even when driving in a car can be cell phone free zones.

3. Get outside! Plan activities that involve getting into nature- it is great for the soul and it will increase all the happyhormones in your bodies!

4. Encourage your children to get involved in activities beyond the school environment-sport, drama, music and art are great examples.

5. Very young children need to play with their hands and bodies, not on a device.

Cindy closes by reiterating “Remember, as parents, we must set the example. REAL people, real love, real joy, real honesty and integrity cannot be experienced through the internet!”

LIFESTYLE

An Olympian chef David Loate, a Sous Chef at Sun City, has been chosen to represent South Africa in the Culinary Olympics set to take place for the 25th time in 2020 in Stuttgart, Germany’s sixth largest city. He will be amongst some 2000 chefs from 50 nations participating in the world’s largest culinary competition. The national team will present pioneering culinary trends and vie for culinary Olympic gold medals.

38 year old Loate from Brits in the North West Province is equally excited as he is nervous.

“But I am definitely up for the challenge. I thrive on being challenged, the opportunity to learn new things and being given a platform to shine,” he says, having recently been part of a training camp held at Sun City.

In 2014, he approached Sun City’s Learning and Development (L&D) department for basic cooking classes and landed up in the HTA School of Culinary Art. In 2015, opportunity came knocking when a position of Sous Chef at the newly re-launched Sun Central became available.

David Loate, a Sous Chef at Sun City

“I applied and here I am, still having fun. I jumped at the opportunity as Sun Central is one of the resort’s busiest units,” he says enthusiastically.

According to Loate, it was his uncle who inspired him to pursue a career in the culinary arts.

“I fell in love with cooking from a very young age when my uncle, who used to be a chef, would cook and bake for us. Often, I’d help him out in the kitchen and enjoyed the experience,” he says.

Loate is still inspired by working at the vibrant Sun City.

“It is a beautiful environment, not many can claim to have such a backdrop for a workplace. The setting just inspires creativity. I also work with a wonderful team which helps to lighten my load. We also get to meet and interact with people from different parts of the world,” he says.”

He is looking forward to building on the experience he has gained so far as the South African team prepares for the Culinary Olympics. The team will be training continuously in a series of training camps until the competition in 2020.

While preparing for the Culinary Olympics, his “job” as a dad to two boys remains his priority.

“They are my priority and are like a breath of fresh air at the end of a hard day at work,” says Loate.

Raul de Lima, General Manager at Sun City, says: “We are enormously proud of David. To have one of our own chefs chosen to represent South Africa in the world’s most prestigious culinary competition is certainly a feather in our cap. This bears testimony to his passion and skills, as well as the commitment of the chefs who have taken the time to work with him over the years to hone his talents. We stand behind him every step of the way.”

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South Africans are discovering the mellow allure of America’s

Whiskey -- Bourbon

S

outh Africa’s growing numbers of Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey lovers are becoming increasingly appreciative of authentic American Bourbon, says Marc Pendlebury, whiskey aficionado and co-owner of Johannesburg’s first and only dedicated whisky bar, Whisky Brother.

“Bourbon has a rich and fascinating history, which adds to its allure. While it hasn’t been as well known in South Africa as Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey, well-informed and experienced whiskey drinkers appreciate what Bourbon can offer, with some exceptional releases out there, and our discerning customers are keen to get their hands on it.”

Offering a huge range of releases from super premium to entry level, American Bourbon has something to offer every whisk(e)y palate, from sweet, smooth spirits through to bold, robust drinks.

Age ’not the measure of quality’ The quality of a good whisky, like Bourbon can’t be determined by its price, age or the colour of the drink – it has to be tasted, says Pendlebury. “Bourbon gains its amber colour from the oak barrels it is aged in, so colour and age are not the only indicator of the quality of the drink. The best way to assess whether it’s a quality Bourbon is quite simply to taste it.”

Pendlebury advocates trying as many different Bourbon releases as possible, to learn to distinguish the tastes, aromas and textures of the various releases. A growing corps of South African whisky aficionados are doing exactly that, he says, bolstering the emergence of whisk(e)y bars in South Africa.

“There have probably been hundreds of thousands of whisk(e)y releases around the world throughout history,and this is part of the excitement for aficionados, who covet the rarest and seek out opportunities to taste them,” he says. And Bourbon, in a unique class of its own within the whisk(e)y realm, deserves greater recognition among South Africans who appreciate whisk(e)y, he says.

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100% malted barley, while the blends (which outsell malts 9:1) are also made predominantly with corn or wheat.

HOW TO TASTE BOURBON While American Whiskey distillers insist that Whiskey should be drunk ‘any way you like it’, there are recommended ways to best appreciate the distillers’ art: - Taste Bourbon neat, in a Glencairn-type tulip-shaped tasting glass that concentrates the aroma at the rim.

- With lips slightly parted, smell the Bourbon and rate the aroma, identifying specific notes.

- Take a sip, but don’t gulp it. Take a mouthful and ‘chew’ the drink, moving it around your mouth before swallowing.

Consider the flavours and the ‘mouth feel’ (is it creamy and smooth or does it have a bite?)

- Wait to appreciate the lingering ‘finish’. Bourbon will leave a short, medium or long finish, which could be described as smooth or mellow, through to crisp, dry, spicy or with a burn. It may even give you a warm sensation (which has been fondly termed the ‘Kentucky Hug’) after you’ve swallowed it.

The proud history of America’s Native Spirit described as ‘America’s Native Spirit’, Bourbon has a proud history and increasingly trending profile, thanks to its rich, mellow flavour drunk neat, and the complexity it lends to cocktails.

Bourbon is only produced in the United States – mostly in Kentucky, using at least 51% corn in the mashbill. Rye, barley and wheat typically makes up the rest of the blend in varying proportions. Bourbon must contain at least 51% corn and differs from Tennessee Whiskey in that Tennessee Whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal – known as the Lincoln County process.

American Rye Whiskey is different again, in that it is made from predominantly rye. American Whiskeys differ from Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey in more than just the spelling: Scotch and Irish whisky and whiskey are mostly distilled from malted barley. Only Scotch and Irish malts are made with

The proportion of corn to other grains impacts Bourbon’s flavour: a high proportion of corn and wheat typically makes Bourbon sweeter and lighter, while Bourbon with a high rye content will be spicier with a full-bodied flavour. Ageing, barreling, blending, limestone levels in the water, and even the climate the Bourbon is aged in will also impact the flavour, but Bourbons are typically described as sweeter and smoother than Tennessee Whiskey and Rye Whiskey, with notes ranging from toffee, caramel and vanilla through to nuts, spice, tobacco, fruit and leather.

Bourbon is distilled at 160 proof and aged in charred new oak barrels – usually for four to eight years – before being bottled at between 80 and 100 proof, which means contains 40 to 50 percent alcohol by volume. Unaged Bourbon, known as ‘White Dog’, is sharper, grainier, and gaining its own cult following as an interesting ingredient in cocktails.

Bourbon’s roots are tied to the migration of settlers west from the original colonies, in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In Bourbon County in Kentucky, corn flourished, and scores of small-scale farmers began distilling their own whiskey, stamping the county name ‘Old Bourbon’ onto the barrels for shipping.

By the late 1800s, there were hundreds of distilleries in Kentucky, but Prohibition from 1920 to 1933 changed the face of Bourbon production. Following Prohibition, the number of distilleries has grown again, with both major distilleries and artisanal distilleries springing up to meet increasing local and international demand for the spirit officially declared the ‘Official Spirit of America’ by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Bourbon is finding a receptive new market among Millennials and cocktail lovers worldwide, and interest in its history is driving millions of people to visit the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

As demand for all American Whiskeys surges, a renaissance is taking place among American distillers. Major distillers are expanding their portfolios and new craft distilleries are springing up, with over 1,315 craft distillers now active in the U.S. American whiskey imports to South Africa grew by more than 17% from 2016 to 2017, from US$8.9 million to over US$10.5 million last year. The growth was in line with an upward trend on all American distilled spirits imported to South Africa over the past year, reports Christine LoCascio, Senior Vice President International Issues and Trade, at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

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Write your own story We use writing instruments to record our stories. Richard Webb asks, ‘what if the pen itself is part of the story?’

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S

ome of the history’s greatest works began life in the most unassuming ways. Alec Issigonis famously penned his historic design of the 1959 Mini on a napkin. J.K. Rowling formulated her blockbuster ideas for Harry Potter on a pile of serviettes.

But what binds these and other inspired thinkers are their writing implements. Ernest Hemingway, the American novelist famed for his understated style favoured Montegrappa writing instruments – and their ‘Mightier than the Sword’ collection is named to celebrate the American novelist’s intimate relationship with the brand.

Winston Churchill was known to be a dedicated Montblanc fancier and has a pen named by the brand in his honour. In Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher, the author wrote in the back of his novel “One final note. This book was written with the world’s finest word processor, a Waterman cartridge fountain pen.” The pen King wrote of was the Waterman Hemisphere.

Just two decades ago we led analogue lives and digital was still relatively rare but today the opposite is true. Whilst I believe digitisation is the best thing that could have happened to fountain pens, why – in a world where everyone owns smartphones – do expensive, hand-crafted luxury pens enjoy something of a resurgence in popularity?

It may seem anachronistic, but I think the ritual of selecting a pen, the ink colour, and deciding which style to write in is much like the choreographic ritual associated with the Japanese tea ritual, Chanoyu. It is not just a sensuously rebellious act against modernity, you get to have the time to think about what you’re going to write, and there is something active and personal about the feel and sound as the pen glides over the paper.

But who still writes with pens like these, and why? Well, I do for starters. I’ve owned a fountain pen since I was 11, and like many others, I am increasingly interested in collecting them. Younger collectors are also seeking a more authentic, individual and tactile connection to the physical act of writing than the electronic devices they spend so much time with. This conscious choice among millennials also looks to be driven by a desire to express themselves through craftsmanship rather than mass-produced items.

Collecting fountain pens are not nearly as complex as watches or cars and there’s a special pride and joy in owning a beautifully crafted instrument. For those who value the artisan approach, the pens of L.E. Waterman, the ‘Father of the Modern Fountain Pen’ will be firmly on the wish-list.

Now regarded as one of the few remaining first-generation fountain pen companies, Waterman is a major manufacturer of luxury fountain pens.

A gold medal of excellence awarded at Exposition Universelle In Paris in 1900 saw Waterman adopted by the French public – a sentiment that continues today with all Waterman pens being French made. Founded in New York City by Lewis Edson Waterman in 1884, early Waterman pens were made of hard rubber and were equipped with 14K gold nibs, often with precious metal trim and overlays.

Many hundred-year old pens still give excellent writing performance and are in regular use, and their nibs are prized for their smoothness and flexibility. Far from being the exclusive domain of collectors, the current fountain pen renaissance sees interest growing in limited editions like the Blue Obsession Collection by Waterman, for example. Since 1940, blue has been emblematic of the Waterman brand, when the first blue ink bottle was produced. Each pen in this range is inspired by this provenance and is obsessively designed with precise details and encased in a striking blue hue.

It isn’t just a matter of materials and styling, however: the art of craftsman made pens has been characterised by constant technical innovation. For example, the iconic Hémisphere pen is part of the La Collection Privée by Waterman. In line with contemporary runway trends for metallic colours, these fashion-forward metallic shades create an array of fine writing options for the style-conscious writer.

Each pen is etched with intricate patterns that carry the brand’s identity. There are three new designs: Hémisphère Rose Cuivré, Hémisphère Saphir Nocturne and Hémisphère Bronze Satiné, with each model available as a fountain pen, ballpoint and rollerball. Designed and crafted by skilled artisans in France, La Collection Privée is a tribute to refined and versatile elegance Much of Waterman’s work is about telling stories, and this is where a good story makes all the difference, enticing both new and experienced pen connoisseurs to look at writing instruments in an unconventional way. These are pens for people who love beautiful design as much as they love the art of writing.

For me, handwriting with a fine fountain pen will always beat predictive text, and when you’re using a pen with some history behind it, the mundane can often become extraordinary.

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Why

‘unexceptional’ is cool

To most people, cars are more than just tools of travel, they fulfil an essential role in an emotional life, says Richard Webb.

By Richard Webb

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W

e spend so much time in cars that it is unavoidable that they should feature heavily in our most treasured memories. Cars are emotional triggers; it is no surprise that our enthusiasm for them is potent and powerful.

We feel a much greater connection with the cars our uncles drove, our first cars, the cars that got us through college; those humdrum everyday drivers that none of us will ever forget... because that’s where the stories of our lives unfolded. We can admire an Aston Martin or a Ferrari, but we will never feel the same way about it as we do about our first Mini or Escort.

So really, it is the unexceptional cars that we truly love, because they are part of the story of our lives. We’ve all heard about the Goodwood Festival of Speed or the hundreds of exotic but British insurance firm Hagerty International have organised their fifth annual ‘Festival of the Unexceptional’ to honour these mundane but very rare cars.

These cars were the workhorses of their day: the base model saloons, hatchbacks and estates that were sold in their millions between 1968 and 1989, and are now so rare. A five-strong judging panel of mundane motoring masterminds admired a selection of taupe, primrose yellow and lilac coloured family saloons and estates, many equipped with rubber flooring, squidgy vinyl seats, no radio, manual wind-up windows and ‘genuine’ faux Formica wood inserts.

“It was created in a response to highlight the attrition rate of some the best loved vehicles of our more recent motoring history,” says Hagerty’s Angus Forsythe. “It’s a celebration of everyday classics, the mundane and the oft-forgotten.” To me, this is a refreshing take on a car show awash with multi-million rand exotics completely out of the reach of so many. It should come as no surprise that the cars that really touch our lives are not the out-of-reach exotica that fill our youthful dreams, but the family cars that filled our parents’ drive ways. After all, when last did you see an unmolested Ford Cortina or Citroën GS on South African roads?

Narrative Media, a Cape Town based storytelling based company was chosen to create a coffee-table book and ‘Top-Trumps’ card game. Claim a copy of these official collector’s items in our free reader offer.

Simply follow richardmarkwebb on Instagram.com and mention ‘CEO Prize’ on any image to enter our free prize draw to stand a chance to win this book and a set of Unexceptional playing cards published by Narrative Media www.narrativeafrica.com

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IN CONVERSATION WITH

SPARK Schools’ co-founder and CEO

Stacey Brewer, co-founder and CEO of SPARK Schools

S

tacey Brewer, co-founder and CEO of SPARK Schools launched the independent network in 2012 and has been involved in its evolution and growth ever since. The schools use a blended learning model with adaptive software and individualised learning to increase student achievement and rely on a hybrid funding model, having attracted funding from both non-profit foundations focused on high impact philanthropy and from for-profit impact investors.

There are currently 15 SPARK Schools in South Africa - 14 in Gauteng and one in the Western Cape - with more planned for 2019, including the first high school.

We asked Brewer a few questions: When did you come up with the idea of SPARK Schools?

When I was doing my MBA at GIBS, I saw how we spend the greatest proportion of our budget and GDP on education and yet we are ranked bottom of the world.

I also noticed the emergence of low fee private schools, where parents were voting with their feet and choosing to send their kids to fee paying schools as opposed to free government schools.

I then did my thesis on a sustainable financial model for low fee private schools.

What was the trigger?

During my MBA, I spent some time looking at models across Africa, India and the US. We got a lot of inspiration from Rocketship Education in the USA. They pioneered blended learning which allows us to achieve our mission of providing high quality education at an affordable cost.

How do you decide where the schools should be?

We like to place our schools in transition zones where we are able to attract a diverse student

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base. Our schools are ideally placed between an affluent and a previously disadvantaged area.

What educational system do the schools follow?

We follow a blended learning model which is technology that is intergrated into the learning process. We have a lab rotation in our foundation phase and a flex model in our intermediate phase.

How do you keep school fee costs so low when compared with other private schools?* We are able to do this through our blended learning model that drives many cost efficiencies in order for us to be affordable.

A little bird tells us that you are opening a high school in 2019.

Can you tell us a bit about that?

We are launching our first high school in the Randburg area.

Our oldest children are in Grade 7 this year at Ferndale and we will now be able to follow their progress into high school.

Where do you see SPARK in five years time?

We aim to be operating at least 36 schools across the country and I hope to see many more schools having started to provide more choice to our families across South Africa.

What is the biggest challenge facing South Africa when it comes to education?

It is very complicated but I would say the number one problem is that we have very low expectations for our children and we do not believe that they can achieve.

If you were Minister of Education for one day what would you do?

I would not accept the job! But of I did I would make sure that Universities only accept top individuals into the education facility with the correct screening process to ensure that people have the right characteristics getting involved in this profession.

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