Acumen 19

DIKGANG MOSENEKE BUSINESSES MATTER

Issue 19

QUALI HEALTH REVOLUTIONISING SA'S HEALTHCARE THE MBA DATING GAME HOW TO WIN R39.95 incl vat

• First Quarter, 2017

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN A JOB TO BE DONE

contents Issue 19 • First Quarter, 2017

Issue 19 • First Quarter, 2017

features

P.22

DIKGANG MOSENEKE Businesses matter

DIKGANG MOSENEKE BUSINESSES MATTER

Issue 19

QUALI HEALTH REVOLUTIONISING SA'S HEALTHCARE THE MBA DATING GAME HOW TO WIN

P.18

R39.95 incl vat

• First Quarter, 2017

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN A JOB TO BE DONE

ON THE COVER Photo: Mzu Nhlabati

CLAYTON CHRISTENSEN A Job to Be Done

P.34

QUALI HEALTH Revolutionising SA's healthcare

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

P.26 ACUMEN IS ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN APP for your iPad or iPhone in the Apple App Store, as well as in the Google Play store for your Android device.

THE MBA DATING GAME How to Win

P.22

et cetera

p.02 Contents p.04 Contributors p.08 From the Editor p.10 Network

opinion

p.14

Some Jugaad for What Ails You GIBS Dean Prof. Nicola Kleyn explores a new way of approaching our fast- changing world, called Jugaad.

p.16 Requiem for Multiculturalism

Columnist Trudi Makhaya thinks

multiculturalism may be dead. p.17 Invest in Leadership to Win

Dan Moyane calls for a fresh emphasis

on leadership.

south africa

p.30 Coalition Governing

And its unique set of challenges. p.38

Inside the Medical Atom

Sarah Wild examines SA's nuclear medicine industry and the constraints to its growth.

general management

p.54 Brands Behaving Badly

Eugene Yiga explores what to do when

your brand goes bad. p.56 The Rise of Workplace Suicide

Eugene Yiga asks if executive suicide is on

the rise?

dynamic markets p.58 Zambia’s Mutati “Doesn’t Want

the Holy Trinity”

Godfrey Mutizwa reports on Zambia's new Finance Minister.

Asia correspondent Kate Whitehead looks at the business landscape in the Philippines.

p.64 Eight Places to go in

the Philippines

And then Kate gives her recommendations

on the Philippines' top places to visit.

entrepreneurship

p.66

Co-working Takes Root Sean Christie chats to Paul Keursten, the Hollander driving the co-working phenomenon in SA.

Present Form?

Ancillar Mangena wonders if Uber's current business model will survive.

p.46 An Advocate for the

African Lion

Cara Bouwer asks the Lion Whisperer about the business of saving big cats.

p.52

Interesting Times

Chris Gibbons sees some very unsettled times ahead for both South Africa and the rest of the planet.

future p.72 Are You an Ambidextrous

Business Leader?

Dion Chang says you need to learn to juggle to future-proof your business.

renew

p.74 Tsar Performer Travel expert Caroline Hurry explores the

glories of St. Petersburg.

p.76 The Finer Things

Cheska Stark's fashion picks for Autumn. p.78 Forward Motion

Jacques Marais goes running in the dark,

while Stephen Smith falls for the Renault

Mégane GT.

p.60 Doing Business in the Philippines p.80 Techno

p.42 Will Uber Survive in its

P.74

P.38

strategy p.70 Unknowability and Uncertainty

Prof. Adrian Saville examines how to build a

business that can survive uncertain times.

Techno wizard Aki Anastasiou visits the world's biggest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.

p.82 Books

Chris Gibbons reviews Clayton

Christensen's latest exploration of

innovation and joins Sean Christie under

Nelson Mandela Boulevard. p.84 Wine

John Maytham switches to chenin blanc,

finds a terrific shiraz and samples a top-

notch Bordeaux blend. p.86 Thandiswa Mazwai Gives Us the

Jazz Album

Victor Dlamini listens to Thandiswa Mazwai and her new jazz album.

looking backwards

p.88 Killing Me Softly

Sam Cowen uses a little kindness.

Like a scalpel.

4

contributors

CARA BOUWER is a

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

freelance journalist and editor.

She’s been published in a variety of local titles including Business Day, Private Life, Destiny and Sawubona.

She cut her teeth at Penta Publications in the early 1990s before moving on to Business Day where she made history by becoming the newspaper’s youngest sports editor and the first woman to hold this title on a national daily in South Africa. She later became the paper’s chief subeditor.

DION CHANG is an

innovator, creative thinker and visionary. He is a soughtafter trend analyst and, while his feet remain firmly planted on African soil, he uses a global perspective to source new ideas, gauge the zeitgeist and identify cuttingedge trends. He contributes to various print publications and online portals as a freelance journalist and social commentator.

SEAN CHRISTIE is an award-winning South African features writer and essayist who has contributed articles to most of the country's mainstream news publications, mainly on land, environmental, foreign policy, literature and diaspora issues. He recently became the first person to walk the length of Johannesburg's Jukskei River and is writing a book about a community of Tanzanian stowaways who live under Cape Town's Nelson Mandela Boulevard.

GODFREY MUTIZWA

is a freelance writer based in Johannesburg. He has covered African affairs for more than 30 years across the print and broadcast media working for both regional and international news organisations. Previously, Godfrey was Chief Editor of CNBC Africa and before that spent a decade at Bloomberg News and Reuters covering African business news.

VICTOR DLAMINI

is a writer, columnist, communicator and portrait photographer with a deep interest in social issues.

He collects art and music, especially jazz. He graduated cum laude in English at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg.

DAN MOYANE is a seasoned broadcaster with 35 years of experience under his belt, having worked as a news reporter, editor and presenter. His broadcasting credentials include Radio Mozambique’s English Service, BBC, Talk Radio 702, SABC and eNCA. Currently he anchors Morning News Today on eNCA on weekdays from 6 to 9am.

He has been responsible for corporate communication and corporate social investment at MMI Holdings since 2009.

GAYE CROSSLEY holds a BCom from Wits University.

She has lived in a variety of countries including England, Ireland, Bahrain, Australia and New Zealand. A fulltime freelancer for six years, she has a keen interest in sustainability issues. After involvement in several entrepreneurial start-ups, she has a deep respect for those who have succeeded in SA’s challenging business landscape.

TRUDI MAKHAYA is

CEO of Makhaya Advisory, an economic and competition policy consultancy. She also writes regularly for Business Day, was previously Deputy Competition Commissioner and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford where she earned an MBA and a Master’s degree in development economics.

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contributors

EUGENE YIGA graduated with distinctions in financial accounting and classical piano but his career then took an interesting turn when he spent two-and-half years working in branding and communications at two of South Africa’s top market research companies. He also spent over three-and-a-half years working at an eLearning start-up before dedicating himself to his business as a full-time award-winning writer. Eugeneyiga. com

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

managing editor Zenzile Hlongwane HlongwaneZ@gibs.co.za cover photography Mzu Nhlabati layout and production Contact Media and Communications (Pty) Ltd designer Quinten Tolken

PROF. ADRIAN SAVILLE

is Professor of Economics and Competitive Strategy at GIBS, and Chief Strategist at Citadel. He has lectured and taught widely in both South Africa and around the world, has received the Excellence in Teaching Award at GIBS on nine occasions since 2007, and in 2012 was nominated for the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Business Professor of the Year Award. While completing his doctorate in economics, he formed an investment vehicle which became the forerunner to the investment business Cannon Asset Managers, now part of the Peregrine/ Citadel stable.

editor Chris Gibbons Gibbonsc@gibs.co.za

proofreader Angie Snyman publisher Sean Press Pressman@contactmedia.co.za Contact Media and Communications (Pty) Ltd 011 789 6339 advertising sales Damian Murphy Damian@contactmedia.co.za 082 888 1137

KATE WHITEHEAD is a Hongkonger and has made the city her home since she was eight. She escaped for university and returned after her Master's degree. The author of two Hong Kong crime books – After Suzie and Hong Kong Murders – she's been on staff at The Hong Kong Standard, South China Morning Post and edited Cathay Pacific's Discovery magazine. She writes for CNN, Time and BBC Travel.

contributors Aki Anastasiou Cara Bouwer Dion Chang Prof. Clayton M. Christensen Sean Christie Gaye Crossley Sam Cowen Victor Dlamini Caroline Hurry Prof. Nicola Kleyn Trudi Makhaya Ancillar Mangena Jacques Marais John Maytham Godfrey Mutizwa Dan Moyane Prof. Adrian Saville Marc Shoul Stephen Smith Cheska Stark James van den Heever Kate Whitehead Sarah Wild Eugene Yiga marketing director Howard Fox Foxh@gibs.co.za contact Acumen 26 Melville Road, Illovo, Johannesburg P O Box 787602, Sandton, South Africa, 2146 011 771 4000 Acumen@gibs.co.za

Brought to you by:

Disclaimer: Acumen is the official publication of the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced externally, wholly or in part, in any form without the written consent of GIBS. The views and opinions expressed by the contributors to this publication are

SARAH WILD is a freelance

science journalist, specialising in South African science, technology and innovation. She has worked as science editor at Business Day and the Mail & Guardian, and in 2015, she won the CNN-MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Award for innovation.

not necessarily the views and opinions of the publishers, GIBS or its associates.

While every effort has been taken to ensure the completeness or accuracy of the published information, errors and omissions may occur. The publishers, GIBS and its associates cannot accept responsibility for any loss, damage or inconvenience that may arise from the unauthorised use of this publication.

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8

editor’s note

LEADING IN UNCERTAIN TIMES Words Chris Gibbons

Does it suffice just to call the times in which we live ‘uncertain’?

With Trump in the White House, Putin on the rampage in cyberspace and Brexit looming, to say nothing of the ANC’s Presidential succession battle on our own doorstep, you might be forgiven for trying out some more robust words: ‘dangerous’ or ‘alarming’ or ‘fraught’ or even ‘frightening’. But whatever epithet you pick, what is certain is that business leaders need to be better prepared than ever to deal with all this ambiguity.

But how do you in fact prepare for a future that is essentially unknowable?

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

No, buying a crystal ball or throwing the bones won’t help you. Instead, you need to read Acumen’s ace futurologist Dion Chang who says you’re going to need to become ambidextrous.

The concept comes from two US business school professors, Charles O’Reilly of Stanford and Michael Tushman of Harvard. It’s developed in their new book, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma, in which they ask why so many very large, well-financed and well-staffed corporations have failed in the face of new technology while others have succeeded? Among the failures are the likes of Blockbuster, Kodak, Rubbermaid and Bethlehem Steel. On the still-going-strong side of the ledger, they list the likes of Netflix, IBM, GKN and BF Goodrich.

O’Reilly and Tushman’s conclusion is that the latter can attribute their success to “ambidextrous leaders who were able and willing to exploit existing assets and capabilities in mature businesses and, when needed, reconfigure these to develop new strengths.”

The failures, say the pair, came about because “the leaders of these companies were rigid in one way or another – unable or unwilling to sense new opportunities and to reconfigure the firm’s assets in ways that permitted the company to survive and prosper.”

Their analysis and insight is acute, but I contend that these are the same qualities needed to lead in uncertain times, such as the ones we face at the moment.

These qualities have also been described elsewhere as agile management, including the ability to see many different points of view.

Yet another approach is Defence/ Offence (Defend and Attack, if you don’t like the Americanism!) which suggests that companies need to ensure existing operations are as slick, low-cost and efficient as possible, while maintaining a notable war chest and scanning the horizon intensely for new trends and opportunities. When the opportunity appears, the company can pounce quickly.

This was the modus operandi described

by Naspers Chairman Koos Bekker to me in Acumen 18, as he recounted his phenomenal success with Chinese Internet company Ten Cent.

In this edition, I write about the local and global problems facing South Africa, but our Cover Story features someone who has spent his life not only facing some extraordinary challenges but also reconfiguring his career in a truly ambidextrous and agile manner. Justretired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke was not only a student activist jailed on Robben Island for 10 years, but also became a fine trial lawyer, BEE

pioneer with Nail, and chairperson of newly privatised Telkom, before ascending to the Supreme Court.

What makes him truly special, from Acumen’s point of view, though, is his absolutely clear understanding that South Africa has 25 million people living in abject poverty and that to lift them out requires jobs. Jobs which are created by business. As he says in his new memoir, “Businesses matter.”

It’s a message that needs to be trumpeted by every politician right across the political spectrum, but just saying the words is easy. Turning them into meaningful, sustainable action is fiendishly difficult, especially in such uncertain times at home and abroad.

Success will need a very special kind of ambidextrous and agile leadership.

P.S. To stand a chance of winning your own signed copy of Dikgang Moseneke’s book, My Own Liberator, read our Cover Story and then turn to page 71

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network

NETWORK Words Acumen Contributors

Our regular look at GIBS’ events and guests.

Ben Magara

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

REBUILDING PLATINUM Significant cost rationalisation and efforts to repair relationships with employees and unions mean that platinum producer Lonmin is now “able to sustainably withstand the low platinum price environment,” CEO Ben Magara told a recent GIBS Forum.

The crash in the global commodity cycle has seen the platinum price struggling to regain lost ground. “The turndown had lasted much longer than expected, and we have had to make tough decisions,” Magara said.

Lonmin’s 2016 rights issue – its third in recent years – was part of an effort to minimise and rationalise capital expenditure by focusing on long-term mining operations and cutting the workforce by 6 000 jobs. “We worked hard on our relationship and engagement with the unions to make sure they understood the facts and realities of the situation,” Magara said.

Managing a migrant workforce, salary demands and housing were among the complexities of managing a mining business, he explained. “But without a profitable business, we can’t do anything. Business needs to make money and to be profitable in order to help solve social problems. All stakeholders want a successful Lonmin, as they all depend on it,” he added.

Magara said every stakeholder present on the day of the Marikana massacre was to blame for the event: “No one is innocent. The Farlam Commission, or Marikana Commission of Inquiry, was a painful process but it was necessary for healing. All stakeholders need to take responsibility and make sure it never happens again.

“As sad and as tragic as Marikana was, it can be a catalyst for change and a better world.”

network

11

FISHING IN GLOBAL WATERS Grace Harding, CEO of global seafood restaurant brand Ocean Basket, offered lessons to entrepreneurs at a GIBS Forum late last year on how to grow a local business into a truly global brand.

A pioneer in the fast casual dining category, offering freshly prepared, high-quality food, Harding said Ocean Basket’s success “is down to simple things.”

The restaurant brand has grown from just one store in 1995 into a successful franchise consisting of 204 stores in 16 countries, including Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Malta and Cyprus, with expansion plans in place for a further 76 stores. The brand has indirectly created employment opportunities for over 7 000 people worldwide, “Which is both a cool and a terrifying feeling.”

Upon joining Ocean Basket in 2012, Harding said international expansion was almost completely halted as the business’s founders realised the company didn’t have the appropriate infrastructure and framework for successful global expansion.

“We decided things had to change. As a business that had been run by entrepreneurs, there were very few systems in existence.

The business has a strong foundation, but we had to capture it, write it down and build a framework in order to prepare for growth.”

Harding explained that the brief from shareholders was not to gear up the business for a sale or in preparation for a listing, but to gear it up in order to have global brand recognition and longevity. Business owners must remain clear and focused on their brand at all times, Harding explained.

Harding added that Ocean Basket’s global expansion strategy focused on territories where it would be possible to open a significant number of stores, so as to achieve brand recognition.

Current emphasis is on increasing store numbers in the Middle East and Asia.

It is also important to guard against ego, coined Harding – rather than taking Ocean Basket to New York or London, the group has instead decided to open in territories such as Kazakhstan and Qatar, with plans to open soon in Beijing.

After unsuccessful forays into markets such as Sweden and Greece, Harding admitted that in business “there are certain lessons you just have to learn – there is no way to avoid it.”

Mxolisi Mgojo

CREATING THE MINE OF THE FUTURE Diversified mining group Exxaro intends to alter its business model in order to create new revenue streams in a manner that addresses the country’s need for water, food and energy security. That’s according to its CEO Mxolisi Mgojo, who told a GIBS Forum that while coal would remain at the core of Exxaro for the immediate future, the company was still working on the right strategy to ensure it remained relevant in the future.

Mgojo said businesses should not remain what they are, lest they become redundant in a rapidly changing world: “Businesses should not be afraid of cannibalising themselves and breaking their own business model so that they can create a new one,” he explained.

Innovation in the mining industry was no longer a nice-to-have, and investments in technology were not for their own sake, but rather necessary to make organisations sustainable, Mgojo said.

In order to help current mining businesses understand and create a culture of innovation, technology was necessary to make business robust and resilient: “We must take the things of the future and bring them into the present by creating a culture of innovation. We must embrace innovation because it is part of what we are today, and what we have to be in the future,” he said.

Operating a coal business of today, while searching for the company of the future was at times “schizophrenic”, Mgojo admitted, but argued the two could co-exist: “Creating a digital organisation by bringing in data analytics and big data, while leveraging from the future means using innovations to help improve productivity and efficiency to drive costs down today.”

Grace Harding

Mgojo said it was important to acknowledge that South African mining companies had lost their lead in the industry to other countries, and the only way to recapture their edge would be through modernisation. “We have to come to the realisation that mechanisation is a necessity if we want to compete globally. The question is how can we create and develop our capability as a country going forward.”

12

network

Foresight panelists: moderator GIBS Dean Nicola Kleyn, Telkom Chairman Jabu Mabuza, Pretoria University Vice-Chancellor and Principal Cheryl de la Rey, UCT Constitutional Law Prof. Pierre de Vos, Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy, Banking Association of SA MD Cas Coovadia, and Executive Director of SECTION27 Mark Heywood.

FORESIGHT 2017

2016 was a gruelling year for business, civil society and South Africa’s young democracy. But the country has proved its resilience and ability to rise to a challenge. That was the consensus view among a panel of leaders from business, academia, government and civil society gathered at GIBS to

discuss the year that was and contemplate the issues facing the country in the year ahead. Key issues for 2017 identified by the panel: anaemic economic growth, persistent unemployment, continued political uncertainty and unrest at institutions of higher learning.

DIGITAL DISRUPTION II

US AMBASSADOR

“You can’t be digital outside, if you’re not digital inside.”

A very clear warning to all business owners and leaders grappling with the twin challenges of innovation and digital disruption, which came from the Managing Director of Accenture Digital, Lee Naik, speaking at the second sell-out Digital Disruption Conference at GIBS of 2016.

A packed auditorium heard Naik state very clearly that “our insincerity in the digital world will be our undoing.” He added that “if the CEO and Board are not sponsoring the move to digital, it won’t happen.”

His words were echoed by Pieter Theron, Partner Advisory Services and Industry 4.0 Head at PwC, who pointed to the gains being achieved in manufacturing, automotive and mining through digital innovation.

These were gains in efficiency which led to lower costs and increased revenue, said Theron.

Challenges remain, said Theron, pointing to a lack of digital training as well as an absence of digital culture within organisations.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Barclays Africa Head of Digital Product Management Brett St.Clair asked why Silicon Valley was able to disrupt and we, in South Africa, are not?

His answer was simple: “Over there, they are digital, they think digital.”

St.Clair exhorted businesses to “Build, test, release. Repeat.” But in doing so, he explained that the most important part of this process – “the secret sauce” – was to give employees safe spaces in which to fail. “You need a culture of safe spaces,” he said.

Patrick Gaspard

South Africa and the United States have long enjoyed a “broad and deep” relationship and it would be “difficult to imagine a future where it would not remain strong,” said outgoing US Ambassador to South Africa, Patrick Gaspard. Gaspard was speaking at a GIBS Forum immediately following the election of Donald Trump as US President.

Fears around the continued existence of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade agreement under the incoming Trump administration are unfounded, Gaspard said.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to eradicate all trade partnerships not beneficial to American workers, but Gaspard explained the AGOA treaty had been ratified by the United States Congress, and that only Congress could enact any changes to the agreement in the future.

AGOA extends preferential access to the US for African countries until 2025. “Elected officials do realise that we live in an increasingly interconnected world,” he said.

Lee Naik

Pieter Theron

A self-confessed optimist, Gaspard maintained that “We have already seen a certain amount of shifting and softening on positions proposed during the campaign, and I am increasingly optimistic that the incoming administration will come to view South Africa as a key partner, as it has been for many years.”

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13

TECHNOLOGY IS THE KEY TO REVOLUTIONISING THE MODERN SUPPLY CHAIN Supply chain leaders are increasingly viewing technology as a source of competitive advantage that is critical for reducing costs, increasing efficiency and fostering customer intimacy.

Technology enables granular-level transparency across supply chains, and current industry must-haves include tools to help supply chain professionals to better leverage their operational assets, and to exploit a broader array of data to enhance decision-making.

Technology today extends far beyond the domain of the IT department, and the successful supply chain professional – like all business leaders – must be prepared for new approaches, mindset changes and new technology that is disrupting complete business models, says Imperial Logistics chief strategy officer Cobus Rossouw. “3D printing is a disruptive technology that is set to redefine spare parts logistics, for example. Disrupt yourself now, before others beat you to it. If you wait, you will lose out,” he urges.

Digitisation is a buzzword that is no longer limited to the IT department, and Rossouw says that Imperial Logistics is responding to the evolving technology and digitisation demands of its markets and clients by ensuring that the group maintains a market-leading position in these areas. “We offer a host of digital products for our customers, to help them shape the future and prepare them for future markets. We have also developed and implemented outstanding digital training for our employees, to ensure that they are well prepared for the upcoming technologies and innovations.”

“Imperial Logistics International, for example, has its own Supply Chain Lab in Berlin,” says Rossouw. “Using the co-working complex of the WeWork operator at the Sony Centre, this Imperial Lab is developing solutions that are tailored to customers’ needs, working in conjunction with specialists, industry insiders and IT students from the start-up scene. Being right at the heart of the start-up scene, we gain information about any innovations very quickly and will obtain benefits in digitising our services,” adds Rossouw.

He believes that the supply chain industry can learn from digital champions like Google and Uber. “We must focus on agility and innovation to lead the digital logistics industry and step into new markets. In this digital age, we can learn from everybody and

Cobus Rossouw, Chief Strategy officer

we are teaching everyone, if needed. It is no longer about what is mine – we can work together on what is ours. Collaboration, crowd-sourcing, crowd-innovation and crowd-xyz are the new approaches that we must embrace, and we must change our mindset to capitalise on the opportunities that they present.”

Rossouw predicts that mobile technology, big data, web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and SaaS (software as a service) are some of the technology developments that will have an increasingly powerful impact on supply chains in the future. “There will be many more apps for all kinds of augmented reality and virtual reality mobile and wearable devices. Data owners are going to be the big winners, and web APIs are a must for all new services on the market. SaaS usage will also increase in the future and force hybrid infrastructure environments,” he expands. “This means that the IT departments of logistic providers will have to focus on and specialise in logistics and customers, and not on data centres and hosting.”

The “Internet of Things” is another technology concept that the successful, future-proof supply chain cannot afford to ignore, he stresses. “This will enable machine-to-machine communication and – bundled with big data and analytics – it will result in the creation of a new kind of artificial intelligence.” Robotics and self-driving vehicles also top the list of powerful new technologies that will impact supply chains in the future, Rossouw concludes

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14

dean's note

SOME JUGAAD FOR WHAT AILS YOU Words Professor Nicola Kleyn

2016 was the year when Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan theory appeared to have been in full force as the world witnessed the hatching of coal-faced cygnets with names like Brexit and President Trump.

The impact of multiple unexpected, largescale events has an interesting impact on the human psyche. The typical response is to batten down the hatches, ride out whatever social, economic or political storm is brewing and hope for better days.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani astutely noted that “hope is not a strategy”. Not that I’m suggesting that we abandon hope, but clearly identifying coping strategies in times of change needs to be on the radar of individuals and organisations trying to thrive in volatile times. Building our understanding of how to learn and relearn is a theme that’s surfacing repeatedly across a range of fields including behavioural economics, psychology and design thinking.

Such multidisciplinary research is shedding more light on how to not only roll with the punches, but to identify opportunities in an era where technological advancements are providing opportunities to individuals and small teams across the world. Gone are the days when innovation capability resided predominately in government or large corporate research facilities. The potential impact of the man- or womanin-the-street, whether in their capacity as citizen, entrepreneur or consumer has never been stronger.

But accessing these opportunities calls for us to unlearn some of the bad habits acquired over decades. Whether driven by an increasingly fragile planet, hungry competitors, or simply a sense of timeurgency amplified by social media, if we are to succeed faster, we have to fail faster.

Failure is however a waste of time unless

we can reflect on it and learn from it (fast, of course!). If we are to adapt, we have to learn to embrace negative outcomes as learning opportunities and leverage the insights from diverse teams to figure out where we went wrong and why. And then it’s back to the drawing board to hatch and implement the next try. This perspective takes a level of optimism, creativity and openness that’s not typically a feature of many large organisations.

This “fast-fail” approach is gaining momentum and has been popularised by a number of authors. For those who wish to learn more without having to plunge into academic treatises, Matthew Syed’s Black Box Thinking is an easy yet thoughtprovoking read.

Interestingly, I discovered another perspective whilst rummaging through a bookshop on a recent visit to India.

Although it may sound Nordic, Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi and Punjabi word.

Ratan Tata notes that “it does not have an exact English translation, partly because it is derived from the common Indian experience of innovating frugal, homespun and simple solutions to the myriad problems that beset everyday life in India”. It’s the opposite of the cartoons of William Heath Robinson, the English illustrator known for his drawings of complicated machines to achieve simple objectives. Jugaad is about simple innovations that improve quality of life at low cost through improvisation. A search of Jugaad in Google Images will render scores of home-made contraptions that came about because someone took a small step to make life better.

In their book Jugaad Innovation, authors Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu and Simone Ahuja identify a number of core principles that underpin Jugaad. Their discussion focuses on key behaviours that underpin these types of innovation – not just in rural India, but anywhere where success will rest on the incremental improvements effected by individuals and small groups seeking to improve the status quo quickly and without significant investment. They emphasise the importance of seeing opportunity in adversity, doing more with less, embracing flexibility, simplicity and intuition.

Jugaad reminds us that although global events beyond our control may significantly change our terrain, the solutions don’t always lie in the halls of political office or the corporate corridors of power. The ability to effect change sits with all of us. And whilst solutions may sometimes be inelegant, incremental and makeshift, the impact of millions embracing Jugaad, whether in their work, play or living spaces could be profound.

And whilst corporates are waiting for the next big thing to appear out of the R&D departments, who’s to say a little Jugaad might not be what’s required?

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opinion

REQUIEM FOR MULTICULTURALISM Words Trudi Makhaya

Is the idea of a global, interdependent, cosmopolitan world order dead?

Could it all have been a fantasy, propagated by rootless elites with no regard for the experience of the ordinary, somewhat traditional citizen or worker?

I ask these questions because the forces that were unleashed in 2016, here but especially abroad, suggest that too many people have chosen to retreat into their laagers.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

The promise of multiculturalism, that diverse people could live and work together, guided mostly by meritocracy and liberal values, is being abandoned.

As the world is jolted into the post-Brexit, Trumpian era, the South African postapartheid project is also facing increased scepticism. The rainbow has been fading, as racism, xenophobia and patriarchy continue to taint daily interactions and remain embedded in many institutions.

One of my favourite authors, Zadie Smith, comes to mind when it comes to these questions. Her first novel, White Teeth, first published in 2000 and set in her beloved melting pot of northwest London, fixed her status in the public imagination as the poster child of multiculturalism. As a bi-racial woman writing about migration, identity and integration, she represented the spirit of that moment when old boundaries between races, nationalities and cultures were being erased. The world she paints in White Teeth is not utopian and she is not naïve about the complications that arise when cultures collide. But all that is in the past. She reports that she is now regularly accosted by readers wanting to know how she feels about the decline of multiculturalism. In a speech she gave on receiving the 2016 Welt Literature Prize, she remarks on how the idea of a melting

pot must have seemed like a provisional, experimental notion to those who are rooted in homogenous communities.

Whereas she had taken her colourful London neighbourhood for granted, as just another way of living, not a trial.

It’s no great mystery how we got here.

Economists such as Dani Rodrik have long pointed out that the blind spot of globalisation, and its associated ideas, is how it treats its ‘losers’. In a world where capital, goods and, to a limited extent, people are mobile, there will be those who find themselves on the wrong end of outsourcing, international trade or migration. Their skills are no longer valued the same way, or they are completely displaced by workers elsewhere and familiar neighbourhoods no longer look the same way. In the past, the ‘losers’ have been typically associated with the developing world. They were easily dismissed as the uneducated or unemployable. But the losers in the wealthy, industrialised economies have also found their voice. Now it seems that wherever you look, poor or rich country alike, rural enclave or megacity, ordinary people have lost their patience with economic insecurity. The blame is laid at the door of the outsider, the foreign, the offshore.

Yet it strikes me that the homogenous, ‘pure’ world that is hankered for by those nostalgic followers of Trump, Farage, Le Pen, Hofmeyr and others is irretrievable from the past. You can’t unknow your neighbour. When societies attempt to retreat from globalisation and multiculturalism, it becomes a defensive gesture. From then on, they define themselves against the ‘other’ that

is to be feared. Homogeneity is no longer innocent and an accident of history, but an aggressive act to keep intruders out.

In South Africa, problematic attitudes are rising across the spectrum. Racist incidents keep popping up in the news cycle. But even amongst the supposedly progressive, one finds that some segments of the ‘fallist’ movement define Africanness in a narrow way that rejects all that appears to originate outside the continent.

There will be beneficiaries from protectionism and exclusion, as there were from openness. The irony is that it won’t be the ordinary men and women who voted for Trump or who drive out foreign-owned businesses in the townships. Once again, it will be a narrow elite that reaps the rents from an inwardlooking economic and social policy. The modern world, despite all the undeniable progress that has been made, struggles to sustain a politics of inclusion. There is no need to perform a requiem for globalisation and multiculturalism just yet. This moment, too, shall pass.

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The question that remains is how humanity will forge ahead without, once again, leaving too many behind

opinion

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INVEST IN LEADERSHIP TO WIN Words Dan Moyane

South Africa has too many managers and not enough leaders.

Recently we have witnessed growing crises in the top echelons at a management in a number of public institutions and stateowned entities. A number of different factors are behind the various disasters. A lot has been said and written about them but in my view there is one common theme – leadership or lack of it.

A lot of research has been done over the years about leadership yet it appears that we are still not cracking it. Across all spheres of our society leadership remains scarce. But management is abundant in South Africa.

The private sector also suffers from a dearth of leadership skills. Corporate South Africa spends millions of rand more annually on technical, managerial and administrative skills than it does on leadership development. Moreover, companies tend to restrict their leadership development programmes, that they do with business schools, to a few handpicked senior and middle managers who have been promoted through the ranks. While some of these managers may be deserving candidates, the companies tend to forget the fundamental truth that you can’t be promoted to be a leader.

Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2014 pointed out that leadership “remains the No. 1 talent issue facing organisations around the world” but only 13% of those who were surveyed said they did an excellent job of developing leaders at all levels. I would guess that South Africa would mirror this global trend.

Why is leadership more vital than management? I was fortunate recently to listen to René Carayol, one of the world’s leading authentic business gurus, who

specialises in leadership, culture and transformation. Carayol says leadership is what makes the difference between winning organisations and those who stay behind. So it follows that if you want to be ahead in the game, you must have leaders across all levels of your organisation. The difference, according to Carayol, is that “leadership is an art and management is a science”. Leadership is not a title.

Leadership is an attitude. You can train a manager not a leader, Carayol emphasises.

The key question therefore is: are the people who head many of our institutions leaders or managers? Are the people who head many of our organisations doing an excellent job of developing leaders across all levels? Who do they surround themselves with? Should we then be surprised when many of our institutions are mired in performance issues, lack of growth, and management and boardroom crises?

Russel Botman, former Rector and ViceChancellor of Stellenbosch University, once said that “Africa needs a new generation of responsible leaders who will be willing to place the public good before self-interest”.

In the same vein Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, when commemorating the third anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s death in December 2016, said “We want a society where leaders regard themselves as servant leaders rather than leaders who shout ‘follow our lead’.”

So where are these “responsible and servant leaders”? If leadership is an attitude, then it talks to behaviour, which obviously relates to values.

You see, leadership values go hand in hand with workplace ethics. They are not

spoken. They are lived. It is what you do that is observed. What you say is worthless unless you do it. It is the visible daily living of the expressed values that creates trust.

This is about authenticity. We are very fortunate in our country that we had a Nelson Mandela not so long ago among us. But it appears we are failing to emulate his example of authentic leadership, which in my view trumps all kinds of leadership.

Organisational behaviour expert Dr. Ngao Motsei, puts it very well: “Leadership is also an expression of who we are.

‘Everywhere you go, there you are’!”

Mandela had a vision and he united us behind it. In his presence he made you feel great, so it was not about him. He was true to who he was.

Now this is the kind of leadership that our country requires today across organisations – private and public – if we are to regain our moral compass and thrive as a nation. At the very basic, if we want to be a winning nation, we must invest more in developing the right kind of leaders

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dialogue

A JOB TO BE DONE Professor Clayton Christensen, in conversation with Chris Gibbons

Professor Clayton Christensen, of Harvard Business School, is one of the world's most influential academics. He originally developed the Innovator's Dilemma in an eponymous book and coined the phrase 'disruptive innovation'. In his just-published and latest work, Competing Against Luck – The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice, he moves from asking why companies fail to why they succeed and propounds the theory of Jobs to Be Done.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

PROFESSOR CHRISTENSEN, YOUR JOURNEY FROM DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION THEORY TO THE THEORY OF JOBS TO BE DONE BEGAN WITH A MILKSHAKE?

In the mid-1990s, two consultants from Detroit asked if they could visit my office at Harvard Business School to learn more about my then newly published theory of disruptive innovation.

Bob Moesta and his partner at the time, Rick Pedi, shared with me a project for a food fast chain: how to sell more milkshakes.

The chain had spent months studying the problem in incredible detail. They tried many things in response to customer feedback, innovations specifically intended to satisfy the highest number of potential milkshake buyers. Within months, something notable happened: Nothing.

As we discussed the theory, I could see that it could tell me very clearly what the established companies in the market would do in the face of an impending disruption from small bakers and

snack food companies, but as we talked, it became clear that the theory of disruption did not provide a clear and complete causal explanation of what a company should do offensively to be successful; if you do this and not that, you will win. As I’d been focused on understanding why great companies fail, I realised I had never really thought about the reverse problem: how do successful companies know how to grow?

So we thought of approaching the question in a totally different way: “I wonder what job arises in people’s lives that causes them to come to this restaurant to ‘hire’ a milkshake?”

For me, framing innovation challenges through the lens of jobs customers are trying to get done was an exciting breakthrough. It offered what the theory of disruption couldn’t: an understanding of what causes customers to pull products or services into their lives.

PHOTO: EVGENIA ELISEEVA

Left to right David S. Duncan, Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon

dialogue

AND ALONG THE WAY, A COLLEAGUE ENCOUNTERED A DINING ROOM TABLE?

Yes, that very same colleague, Bob Moesta. He was charged with helping bolster sales of new homes and condominiums for a midsize Detroit-area building company in an increasingly difficult market. The company had targeted downsizers, and the units they had developed were priced to appeal to that segment with high-end, customisable touches to give a sense of luxury.

But in spite of having lots of traffic to their units, few visits ended up converting to a sale. Although it had calculated the costbenefit analysis of all the details in each unit, it actually had very little idea what made the difference between attracting a tyrekicker and a serious buyer. The focus had been all about what else they could add to the condos to make them appeal to buyers and that was not working.

But Moesta took a different approach by setting out to learn what job the condominium was hired to do for people who had already bought a unit. The conversations revealed an unusual clue: the dining room table. Though prospective customers who came through the units repeatedly told the company they wanted a big living room, a large second bedroom and a breakfast bar, they were stressed about what to do with their existing dining room table. Moesta and his colleagues couldn’t quite understand why the dining room table was such a big deal. In most cases people were referring to well-used, out-of-date furniture that might best be given to charity – or relegated to the local dump.

But as Moesta sat at his own dining room table with his family over Christmas, he suddenly understood. Every birthday was spent around that table. Every Christmas. Homework was spread out on the table. The children had made forts under it. Even the dings and scratches all had a story. The table represented family.

What was stopping buyers from making the decision to move was not something that the construction company had failed to offer, but rather the anxiety that came from giving up something that had profound meaning. That realisation helped Moesta and his team begin to understand the struggle these potential home buyers faced. They went in thinking they were in the business of new home construction, but realised they were actually in the business of moving lives. With this understanding of the Job to Be Done, dozens of small, but important, changes were made to the offering – like creating space in the units for a classic dining room table. The company also focused on helping buyers with the anxiety of the move itself, which included providing moving services and a sorting room space on the premises where new owners could take their time making decisions about what to keep and what to discard. Everything was designed to signal to buyers: we get you.

SO WHAT DOES JOBS THEORY PROPOSE?

We define a ‘Job to Be Done’ as the progress a customer seeks in particular circumstances. Both parts of that definition are important: a customer is looking to achieve something that he or she has been struggling with and the circumstances in which

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she is trying to achieve that matter in how she’ll try to solve that struggle. A well-defined job, which should have not only functional, but emotional and social dimensions, offers a kind of innovation blueprint.

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM IDENTIFYING CLASSIC CUSTOMER NEEDS?

This is very different from the traditional marketing concept of “needs” because it entails a much higher degree of specificity about what you’re solving for. Needs are ever-present and that makes them necessarily more generic. “I need to eat” is a statement that is almost always true. “I need to feel healthy.”

“I need to save for retirement.” Those needs are important to consumers, but their generality provides only the vaguest of direction to innovators as to how to satisfy them. Needs are analogous to trends – directionally useful, but totally insufficient for defining exactly what will cause a customer to choose one product or service over another. Jobs takes into account a far more complex picture. The circumstances in which I need to eat, and the other set of needs that might be critical to me at that moment, can vary widely.

THIS WOULD MEAN THAT THE EXPERIENCE OF USING A PRODUCT, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH IT IS USED, ARE PROBABLY AS IMPORTANT AS THE PRODUCT’S BASIC UTILITY?

What’s important is that the new product solves a job to be done that is being underserved – for example, the first transistor radios had poor audio quality, but they allowed my brothers and I to listen to rock ‘n’ roll music outside of the earshot of our mother. Having a radio in our pocket – even with its poor audio quality – was infinitely better than having nothing.

IT SOUNDS AS THOUGH HIGH LEVELS OF LISTENING, WATCHING, SEEING AND PERCEIVING ARE ALL GOING TO BE NEEDED – HARD, YET THOUGHTFUL AND SENSITIVE, WORK?

Absolutely. The definition of what we mean by a ‘job’ is highly specific and precise. It’s not an all-purpose catch phrase for something that a customer wants or needs. It’s not just a catchy buzzword. Finding and understanding jobs – and then creating the right product or service to solve them – takes work.

Identifying and understanding the job to be done is the foundation, but it’s only the first step. There are multiple layers to the Jobs Theory construct to ensure that you create products that customers will not only want to buy, but products they’re willing to pay premium prices for. Discovering the job is key, but it’s just the beginning.

After you’ve uncovered and understood the job, you create a ‘job spec’ that identifies what will matter to the customer in solving his or her job. This is how you distinguish your offering from all other possible competitors.

But to do all this well takes a holistic effort – from the original insight that led to the identification of the job all the way through to the product finding its way into the hands of a consumer – involving the decisions and influence of virtually everyone in the

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dialogue

company. Even great innovators who are crystal clear on the jobs their customers are hiring their products and services to do can easily lose their way. Pressures of return on net assets (RONA), well-intended efficiency drives, and decisions made every day on the front lines of business can have a profound effect on the successful (or unsuccessful) delivery of a great solution to a job.

There are so many ways to stumble on the journey. But the pay-off for getting it right is enormous.

CAN CUSTOMERS ALWAYS SEE THE JOB THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE BEFORE THE PRODUCT COMES ALONG? OR DOES THE INVENTOR – INNOVATOR? – SEE THE CUSTOMER THROUGH A DIFFERENT LENS?

Most companies want to stay closely connected to their customers to make sure they’re creating the products and services those customers want. Rarely, though, can customers articulate their requirements accurately or completely – their motivations are more complex and their pathways to purchase more elaborate than they can describe. But you can get to the bottom of it. What they hire – and equally importantly, what they fire – tells a story. That story is about the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of their desire for progress – and what prevents them from getting there. The challenge is in becoming part sleuth and part documentary filmmaker – piecing together clues and observations – to reveal what ‘jobs’ customers are trying to get done.

ALL OF THIS IN A WORLD SWAMPED BY A TSUNAMI OF CUSTOMER-RELATED DATA – ARE WE WASTING OUR TIME WITH ALL OF THAT?

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

The healthiest mindset for innovation is that nearly all data is built upon human bias and judgement.

Deity does not create data and then bestow it upon mankind. All data is man-made. Somebody, at some point, decided what data to collect, how to organise it, how to present it and how to infer meaning from it – and it embeds all kinds of false rigour into the process. Data has the same agenda as the person who created it, wittingly or unwittingly. For all the time that senior leaders spend analysing data, they should be making equal investments to determine what data should be created in the first place. What dimensions of the phenomena should we collect data on and what dimensions of the phenomena should we ignore?

DOES THIS MEAN THAT WE CAN – IN YOUR WORDS – “ELEVATE INNOVATION FROM HIT-OR-MISS TO PREDICTABLE”? AND IF SO, HOW – IS THERE A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL APPROACH?

• Competing with Nothing – You can learn as much about a job to be done from people who aren’t hiring any product or service as you can from those who are. We call this ‘non-consumption,’ when consumers can’t find any solution that actually satisfies their job and they opt to do nothing instead.

• Workarounds and Compensating Behaviours – As an innovator, spotting consumers who are struggling to resolve a job to be done by cobbling together workarounds or compensating behaviours can show you’re on the right track.

I wouldn’t call it a one-size-fits-all approach, but businesses can absolutely improve their innovation track record by uncovering their customers’ Jobs to Be Done. Here’s how:

• Look for What People Don’t Want to Do – I think I have as many jobs of not wanting to do something, as ones that I’m trying to positively do. I call them ‘negative jobs’. In my experience, ‘negative jobs’ (jobs that people really don’t want to have to do) are often the best innovation opportunities.

• Finding a Job Close to Home – Understanding the unresolved jobs in your own life can provide fertile territory for innovation.

• Unusual Uses – You can learn a lot by observing how your customers use your products, especially when they use them in a way that is different from what the company has envisioned

Competing Against Luck – The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon and David S. Duncan, Harper Business, R490 (Exclusivebooks.co.za) See a Review on p82 in this edition.

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dialogue

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south africa

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke

BUSINESSES MATTER Words Chris Gibbons

In a clarion call for change in South Africa, recently retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke makes it very clear that attitudes towards business need to change, especially among young people.

“Businesses matter,” states Moseneke midway through a coruscating epilogue to his just-published memoir, My Own Liberator. “We must shift the paradigm away from political party bigotry and contestation towards models that emphasise hard-nosed economic skills. Businesses matter.

New goods and services are primal. Economic activity has everything to do with the destruction of the social burden.

“The economy, not the political elite, yields jobs,” says Moseneke.

Hailed as one of South Africa’s finest-ever legal minds, Moseneke is as clear as possible about the core problem.

Speaking to a packed auditorium when his book was launched at GIBS, he reminded his audience that “There are 50 million of us and half of us are very, very poor. The remaining 25 million are sitting anywhere from just above the breadline to very rich.”

south africa

This was the issue left unaddressed in 1994, he said, even though he was part of the team that drafted the new constitution.

“When the constitution was negotiated, the parties skirted around the need for social change. The negotiators did not stare in the eye the historical structural inequality in the economy.

There was no pact on how to achieve the equality and social justice the constitution promised.”

He calls this “a far-reaching omission given the inequality embedded in the social structure of the country…”

Drawing on A Manifesto for Social Change: How to Save South Africa by Moeletsi Mbeki and Nobantu Mbeki, which he calls “a terrifying diagnosis”, Moseneke warns that “The spectre of a stagnant economy yielding widening social inequality, stubborn unemployment, and a growing and poor underclass is not only stressful but also deeply at odds with our notions of a just society.

This threatens to wipe out our democratic dividend.”

Or, as he put it at the GIBS book launch: “How do we let the economic underclass into the larger social and economic activity in our land? This is the area in which we ought to convert ourselves into our own liberators, otherwise we’re going to be stuck in the past.”

EDUCATION

Moseneke believes that we should be “pointing our young people to some obvious and burning questions.

“For example, how, within the discipline of our constitution, do we collectively reconfigure the social structure of our economy?

What structural changes to the economy are necessary to create a wider spread of access to productive existing and new assets?”

Education would be a starting point. As he put it at GIBS, he wants to see “the strongest, the brightest and the most sensitive amongst us saying how do we get full and proper and relevant access to education?”

Moseneke is also Chancellor of Wits University and he made clear to the audience his backing for the push towards free, universal education: “We need education sorely and the constitution documents this entitlement in Section 29. It does something quite near magical, actually. Entitlement to education is absolute and that’s without qualification, and it says further education is subject to progressive realisation and the availability of resources. It really means, at least in constitutional terms, that the state has a duty, progressively, to make further education accessible.”

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. . . THE TEENAGE ACTIVIST HAD BEEN SAVAGELY BEATEN AND TORTURED BY APARTHEID POLICE OFFICERS . . . ” It had been done in the Scandinavian countries and Switzerland, he noted, so it would be possible to conceive a plan “that will move progressively towards universal access. And resources will have to be arranged and rearranged in a way that permits that, which implies reprioritising a number of things. It may be that we can’t afford so many bodyguards, it may be that we can’t afford our political elite any housing, it may be that parliamentarians must buy their own food.”

Another important point from the epilogue to My Own Liberator: “We must again remind the youth of the indispensable place of learning and acquiring useful skills. Let us restore hard work and determination to their rightful places.”

Moseneke has practiced what he preaches. Having served time on Robben Island, he emerged in 1973 with a BA and BJuris, both completed via UNISA. These laid the foundation for his stellar legal career.

At the time of his GIBS address, Wits was under great pressure from protesting students and it was uncertain as to whether or not it would re-open to finish the academic year.

Moseneke said the university should be kept open: “We should try and have a full academic year, and we should continue to protect the assets that we have and young people who would like to write and finish their exams. We are 36 000 students strong and we have to find that balance between 36 000 vis-à-vis 2 000 who are unhappy.”

A NATIONAL DEBATE

Another of his “obvious and burning questions” is “by which fiat should the economic debate be kick-started again and in earnest?

Should all social classes be drawn around the table to fashion a restructuring plan?”

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south africa

Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke and Stephen Grootes

Moseneke acknowledges that this has been tried before: “Yes, but it is far more urgent now than ever before in the 22 years of democracy South Africa has had.”

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Nor can we leave it to the politicians. “The political elite alone are unlikely to achieve that fiat despite their perennial claim that they can fix the economy and create jobs. History has shown us differently.”

He amplified this view during his address at GIBS: “If I had anything to do with it, I would get out there and set up a Marshall Plan and ask all our best brains to come and say, what are the things we ought to do to destroy poverty, together?”

HONESTY “Above all,” he says in his book’s epilogue, “we must assure our youth that honesty matters. Integrity, particularly in public life, in business, at the workplace and in all social interactions is indispensable. Truthfulness and honest dealing in the public space must never be sacrificed at the altar of convenience or self-benefit.”

Throughout his public life, Moseneke has been hailed as a shining example of this very integrity. Some observers believe it’s why he never became Chief Justice, a role for which he was so obviously suited, although others speculate that it’s because his political roots trace back to the PAC, of which he was Deputy President, and not the ANC. Nor does he answer the question in My Own Liberator, saying only that he will address it in a subsequent legal memoir.

It was a theme to which he returned at GIBS. “The one general principle is that public power is conferred on us, the courts, on cabinet, on the Public Protector, on the National Director of Public Prosecutions, on IPID, on all of us, on our behalf. Why? To do good. So public power can never be conferred to advance ulterior purposes. The only reason why we do hold the power, those of us in public space, is to deliver all the goods that a democracy promises.

“Good governance, openness, fairness, accountability, improving the lives of people, closing the social distance, growing the economy so all of us can be part of an inclusive progression,

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so all I leave you with is that public power is never given by the constitution for patronage, for self-enrichment, for any of those would-be illegitimate purposes for deploying and using power and people confer it only for that purpose and never any other.”

A PERSONAL JOURNEY

My Own Liberator is far more than the story of one man’s life.

Almost every event of personal significance to Moseneke mirrors an event of similar significance in South Africa’s dramatic journey towards democracy.

Moseneke was just 15 years old in 1963 when he was sentenced to 10 years in jail. His crime, called sabotage, was wanting to change South Africa’s political system, which reduced people with black skins to a lower, humiliating form of existence. It was called apartheid. Prior to his trial, the teenage activist had been savagely beaten and tortured by apartheid police officers, who sneered at him all the while, warning that he would be going away for a very long time. Little did they know they were forging not only a superb lawyer but also a fully fledged revolutionary, a freedom fighter intensely determined to secure justice and dignity for all South Africans.

On leaving Robben Island, the 25-year-old Moseneke walked straight into a severe banning order, but went on to quickly secure an LLB and become one of a small handful of black lawyers. Choosing to stay in South Africa, rather than join either the PAC or ANC in exile, Moseneke then proceeded to defend a veritable who’s who of struggle stalwarts, as they battled the brutish predations of apartheid’s legal system. During this time,

he also worked underground for the PAC and became its Deputy President when the organisation was unbanned in 1990.

By 1994, he had been part of the team drafting the new constitution, and also oversaw the first democratic elections as Deputy Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission. A step away from the law saw him involved with one of the country’s first and biggest BEE firms, Nail, and thence to newly listed Telkom as its Chair, and finally returning to the law with a short spell in the Pretoria High Court, before joining the constitutional Court in 2002 and becoming Deputy Chief Justice three years later.

It’s an impressive career by any measure, and were we simply to note that its course parallels South Africa’s journey from oppression to emancipation, it would make My Own Liberator an important biography. There is now an entire generation too young to have seen the public signs for ‘Blankes’ and ‘Nie-Blankes’, let alone to have understood the Kafkaesque sadism attached to banning orders and the rest of apartheid’s bureaucracy.

They should read Moseneke’s book for those insights alone, if nothing else.

But the synthesis between the personal story of one man and the story of a nation brings us exactly to the point of the book’s epilogue. The man’s journey may be nearing completion, but the nation’s has just begun and until we address the issues laid out in such stark clarity by Dikgang Moseneke, South Africa and all who live here will not be able to travel much further

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. . . PUBLIC POWER CAN NEVER BE CONFERRED TO ADVANCE ULTERIOR PURPOSES ” My Own Liberator by Dikgang Moseneke is published by PanMacmillan in hardback. R306 (Exclusivebooks.co.za)

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south africa

DATING GAME OR COUPLE’S COUNSELLING? Words Gaye Crossley

Business, like life, assumes that to find your perfect fit you have to kiss a lot of frogs. Does having an MBA, or searching for MBA candidates, remove some of the warts from the equation?

The first MBA offered was from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. The degree was created in response to the increasing industrialisation sweeping the United States; businesses were demanding a more “scientific” approach to business administration and management. Now, more than a century later, the degree has grown into an unprecedented international brand.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

More than a decade later and an MBA still offers students the opportunity to gain a 360-degree view of an organisation. Karl Hofmeyr, Professor of Leadership at GIBS, puts it this way: “The MBA is a broadening degree that teaches students all the different elements of a business in a very integrated and challenging way. This broad exposure to business [allows students] to lead at a higher level. They can be more strategic because they now understand how all sides of the business fit together.”

Nevertheless, the MBA is now criticised for being oversubscribed. Current MBA student and Regional Manager for Business Services at Nedbank, Mathew Allan, says: “I think the MBA qualification has been diluted significantly because every single tertiary institution, whether academic or private, is now offering it.” This view is further enforced by Debbie GoodmanBhyat, CEO of South African executive recruitment firm Jack Hammer: “I think an MBA is a great additional qualification, but it is no longer considered to be this extraordinary advantage that it was in the past.”

This, however, has not dampened the spirits of people wanting an MBA qualification, with record numbers enrolled in MBA institutions across the country. Marina Knox, Citadel Director: Human Capital, gives some insight into why companies continue to prize MBAs: “An MBA personifies tenacity, a person’s willingness to sacrifice and do the hard work in order to improve themselves.” These are strong qualities in a person and can serve

to enhance their appeal in the eyes of a current or future employer.

Like anyone involved in the dating game knows, ensuring your attractiveness to potential partners is essential; so it behoves both MBA graduates, and their employers, to align their expectations to ensure they create a happy and fruitful long-term relationship.

THE MBA GRADUATE You’re on the road to a top MBA, or you already have one. But, in this day and age, that may not be enough. While an MBA holds the promise of catapulting a graduate’s career, how can an MBA put their best foot forward and attract the attention of that devilishly desirable employer? Like any other dating game, there are rules.

And an MBA needs to follow them to stand out.

COMMITTING FOR THE RIGHT REASONS Before even embarking on this relationship, potential MBAs have to be clear about their motivations. Finding value from a degree like an MBA requires a very clear vision for the future. Doing the degree solely to get a raise, a promotion or a new job, may leave graduates disillusioned.

Nedbank’s Allan says: “Be very clear about what you want to achieve. It is an incredibly expensive programme that may not deliver the kind of value you are looking for.”

Goodman-Bhyat, drawing on her experience at Jack Hammer, adds: “People should only invest in the degree if they are genuinely interested in acquiring the knowledge that they are going to be given in the material and content. Otherwise they could be horribly disappointed to find that the degree ends up being meaningless in the context of career advancement.”

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years I don’t believe an MBA is going to add the same value to me as an individual, or for me employing people. I think people will really need to have a differential MBA where you are getting your qualification from a top institution.”

This sentiment is backed up by GIBS Professor Hofmeyr, who says: “I think companies are looking more carefully at where the person has done the MBA. There are world-class MBAs being offered in South Africa, and those [individuals] will be given preference.”

Apart from giving MBAs an edge, each school comes with its unique set of values. Lerato Motshudi, Alexander Forbes Medical Advisor, says: “There is something different about the character that each school builds. Each school seems to have a different set of ethics, values and view of life and work.”

TEMPER YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Often the image on that dating site is far removed from the reality of the person who arrives for the date. Similarly, the expectation of what an MBA can do for a career can be horribly disappointing; leading to undue frustration.

Sisa Ntshona

In other words, doing the degree has to fulfil a very personal need in the applicant. Allan sums this up by saying: “You have to be very clear about what you want from this qualification and how you are going to utilise it once you have achieved it.”

100% COMMITMENT

For long-term success, all relationships need 100% commitment.

An MBA is no different. An MBA degree is an arduous process that requires complete focus and discipline. CEO of SA Tourism and a GIBS MBA alumnus, Sisa Ntshona, says: “Sometimes I look back and think, how did I do it? You get out of your social circles, family circles and you are literally focused on your MBA for two years. It is a huge sacrifice.”

The rigour of this degree means that applicants must have more than just their own personal buy-in. They need the unwavering support of their family and their employer. Allan offers this advice: “As a starting point, get the backing of the people around you because it is an incredibly tough degree.”

Once your support structure is on-side, Ntshona recommends: “You have to be all in. Don’t have one foot in and one foot out.

Choose the right programme that fits your lifestyle and your work commitments. Ask yourself why you are doing it? Then do the course, do the thesis, commit all the way through.”

SPARKLE WITH THE BIG BRANDS

With an ever-growing pool of MBA qualifications to choose from, one of the best ways to get noticed is to qualify with a top-tier MBA. Allan says: “We really are at a tipping point. In five to 10

Goodman-Bhyat believes students are often taken in by the hype published by business schools around their MBA programmes: “People should be aware that universities are commercial enterprises. When it comes to their degrees, applicants need to look at the marketing as they would any other type of advertising.

They must not believe everything they read in terms of what the degree is going to do for them.”

Hofmeyr elaborates: “There is a danger that MBAs assume that once they have graduated that the world is going to open up to them. It is no longer that simple. The reality is that you still need the experience and relationships that will enable you to take on more senior leadership roles.”

MAKE THE FIRST MOVE

Having a very clearly defined career path is critical for anyone participating in an MBA programme as this will help MBAs to make the best use of their learnings. Marius Meyer, CEO of the South African Board for People Practices (SABPP), says: “I would expect an MBA student to come with an action plan before the course even starts. A business asks ‘why am I investing in this person if they are not going to apply the skills?’ I would build in from day one to have a [review] after every course module.”

Allan agrees, noting that it is important for MBAs to work closely with human resources (HR) and also with line managers, to ensure they have a clear plan around their career progression.

“From my side, I have a very well-defined and well-structured

BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE ”

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BUSINESSES WANT MBAS TO PROVE THEY ARE ADDING VALUE TO THE PARTNERSHIP ” career development plan in place with my organisation that is being driven quite extensively by my executive. This will enable me to effectively utilise my MBA.”

UPSELL YOUR SKILLS

“What we have noticed is that people, shortly after having completed their MBA, often change career directions.” This interesting observation is made by Goodman-Bhyat. “[The degree] provides a catalyst for some kind of shift or change.” It is for this reason that the CV becomes a very valuable tool for any MBA graduate.

Goodman-Bhyat offers some advice to MBAs who are looking to move on to their next corporate relationship: “People will say that they’ve got great leadership, or they are great on delivery, but they seldom really point to the evidence, the initiative or the work that they have done.”

Meyer backs up this view: “What is important to me is to really make competencies visible on a CV. So instead of saying ‘I have an MBA’ say ‘I have the following competencies’. You need to give tangible evidence of outputs and results to the main competencies. Having those competencies would impress me far more than saying you have an MBA.”

BE A PROACTIVE PARTNER

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Businesses want MBAs to prove they are adding value to the partnership. Certainly, Ntshona believes MBA graduates need to take their qualifications seriously: “I think companies are tired of being taken for a ride. They are not necessarily seeing a correlation between your degree and your performance.”

Meyer explains what companies are looking for: “If a business invests R200 000 into an employee, they want to know what this person will bring back. [MBAs] need to show the rands and cents value of the investment at the end of the process. If an MBA can prove the return on investment (ROI), then I think there would be much more positive engagement from the business’s side.”

Offering some pro-active advice, Meyer adds: “If I did an MBA, I would arrange a meeting with the executive committee to present what I have done and tell them what value I can add to the business over the next 18 months. If an MBA came with that attitude, it would impress any business leader. [MBAs] need to be much more proactive around showing how their skills can enhance a business.”

Citadel’s Knox confirms that “what companies want and value or recognise is the ability [for MBA graduates] to apply insight and thinking. They want to ‘see’ the skills, knowledge, and expanded thinking in action.”

Meyer also encourages MBA graduates to form personal relationships with experts in the different areas of the business.

“This will ensure that education is translated into skills.” But it is important, he stresses, that MBAs drive this process.

USING YOUR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ)

A love match needs more than raw ambition, it also needs EQ. Ntshona believes interpersonal skills are the biggest learning any MBA will take from the degree. “An MBA enables you to interact with different people across different industries and it enables you to grow skills that you don’t actually learn in the classroom.”

And it is these skills that will really launch an MBA’s career to the next level. Allan says: “Unless you are able to team up your MBA with some sort of emotional intelligence it is going to be very difficult, especially when you are trying to manage different groups and teams within the business.”

Knox agrees, noting: “Emotional intelligence and savvy are critical. Anyone can be academically smart, but the ability to relate to people and self-insight are key elements in any candidate.”

TAKE IT SLOWLY

Importantly in today’s busy and demanding world, MBAs need to take it slowly. Hofmeyr says: “I don’t think you should expect to be CEO on graduation; you need more experience and more exposure in the trenches in the business before you can be a CEO. Senior leaders have a level of experience that has been gathered over a period of time.” But, he adds: “How do managers learn?

70% experience, 20% relationships (which includes being coached, being mentored, working with colleagues and leading a team), and 10% is formal training and education.”

EMBRACE BEING SINGLE

Finally, if you feel you no longer belong in the environment you are in, “stop complaining and create an environment you do fit into”, says Ntshona, who believes a lot of MBA graduates battle to assimilate back into the work place after completing their MBA. Often, he says, graduates return to their old desks, doing their same jobs. “I chatted to a lot of my peers and we were all frustrated. It was slightly depressing.”

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It is probably for this reason that many MBAs move on shortly after graduating, either finding a more challenging position or launching their own business. Hofmeyr says: “We encourage people doing GIBS’ full-time MBA to start their own businesses…

Surely one of the biggest challenges for SA is people who get up and start businesses and employ people. The MBA is a wonderful launching pad for that and any business school should be encouraging their graduates to go out and start a business.”

THE EMPLOYER

Relationships are a two-way street. As with the MBA graduates, there are also rules for companies when it comes to attracting and retaining these highly qualified individuals. Employers can no longer educate people, raise their hopes and expectations and then fail to follow through.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT CANDIDATE

An investment into an MBA graduate is sizeable, from the course fees to time off work. So companies are advised to ensure the candidates they choose to support are indeed the best candidates.

SA Tourism boss Ntshona says: “Organisations have budgets of millions to upskill people, and then two months before [the end of the financial year] they look around quickly, and slot in some people to do the course. I think the choice has to be a lot more deliberate.”

Allan from Nedbank agrees, saying: “The starting point for businesses is to look at the history of performance. A top performer is always going to be a top performer and an underperformer is always going to be an underperformer.”

He agrees companies need to carefully select potential candidates. “I would rather take someone who is younger, eager and looking for more than just the qualification they hold,” says Allan. “I would find people who are battling to come to terms with managing businesses and groups of people. I find those are the types of people would get real value.”

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

It’s no good wooing an MBA and then not planning your life together. In fact, this seems to be where businesses fall most short when it comes to developing MBA talent.

SABPP’s Meyer believes that many companies simply don’t have a clear view of what graduates are expected to do or contribute to the business. “Companies need to start guiding graduates to apply their knowledge and skills,” he says.

MBA. They want to see me utilise it fully. I think if it was just left up to me, it would almost be a waste of my time, because you just get thrown back into the mix and you do the same thing.”

Meyer advises companies to have a concrete plan in place, one that is not left to chance. “One solution is to build into the personal development plan of graduates an ROI strategy. This forces engagement between the company and the graduate.”

Meyer believes that ROI reviews are a proactive way to get MBA graduates to actively apply their new skill set within the organisation from the get-go.

EXPECTING A PRINCE AND GETTING THE FROG

When MBAs graduate, they often expect to be welcomed back to the workplace with a ticker tape parade and confetti. Ntshona offers this advice to both MBAs and employers: “It is not only about the paper, but the experience. People have been stretched and pulled. They now see the world differently. They have different skills. They have more confidence. They have improved thought processes. Their loyalty is sky-high. They expect to be fast tracked.”

Psychologically it is important to note that MBAs feel they deserve rewards for their sacrifices, be it with more money, promotions, international opportunities or leadership opportunities. Often, however, these hopes are completely unrealistic, and it is up to the company to not only manage these expectations, but to pre-empt them.

Hofmeyr says: “[Companies] need to have regular discussions with the graduate and, as far as possible, understand and manage their expectations of the MBA. Companies need to understand there may be unrealistic expectations, but at the risk of exaggerating, this is a life-changing experience.”

MAKING YOUR MBA FEEL APPRECIATED

Everyone needs to feel needed, but it seems that many companies don’t always take the time to acknowledge their MBA graduates.

Ntshona expands on his frustrations when he finished his degree: “What really irritated me was that I could not understand how this organisation could make such a significant investment in me and then not want to reap the reward.” Although bound by a work-back contract, he spoke to his boss and served his notice.

“I wanted to explore something else. I needed to hone the skills I had learnt and practice them.”

Line managers, and HR to a degree, need to actively support MBAs, agrees Allan. “I am very lucky in that somebody to whom I speak on a continual basis has taken an active interest in my

Allan feels the same way: “Organisations in their entirety need to start utilising their people skills and human capital differently.

You cannot expect to put individuals back into the same position and hope they return double-digit growth on what was previously delivered.”

“IT’S NO GOOD WOOING AN MBA AND THEN NOT PLANNING YOUR LIFE TOGETHER”

This is echoed by Jana Marais, Editor of Media 24’s Finweek, and a GIBS MBA alumna: “People want to be challenged, given opportunities to grow and make a positive contribution to the business.” While Alexander Forbes’ Motshudi offers this advice to companies: “Acknowledge what MBAs are bringing to the table. Diversify their exposure and give them opportunities to contribute in different ways. Those who stay with their employers are those who were given something different to do.”

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COALITION GOVERNING Words Cara Bouwer

The US has never embraced the idea. Britain gave it another whirl in 2010. Germany, Switzerland and Israel have been doing it for years. Coalition governing comes with a unique set of challenges; as South African politicians are fast discovering.

Until the 3 August 2016 local government elections and resultant coalitions in top metros such as the City of Tshwane, City of Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay, coalitions were largely the preserve of the Mother City. But now this co-operative form of governance is stepping out of the Western Cape.

Is this an indication of more to come? The experts seem to think so, with many using the 2016 poll as a barometer for 2019 when South Africa goes to the polls for national government elections.

Author and academic Sanusha Naidu believes there is much to play for over the next two years, during which time the ANC must learn to wear several hats: that of uncontested ruling party, the main party in a coalition and the opposition. The months since August have highlighted how difficult the ANC finds adapting, says Naidu. “They didn’t do well [in opposition] in the Western Cape. They disintegrated at the provincial level, with internal issues, squabbles and legitimacy crises. Some even say their policies in the Western Cape were fairly defensive.”

The ANC needs to re-educate itself, she says. “[The ANC] has to think how they engineer coalition-making now, at the local government level, in preparation for the outcome of 2019,” she says. That requires extricating themselves from their internal denialism, “starting to think like an opposition” and holding the likes of the DA accountable.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

“I will be very curious to see how it plays out before the policy conference [in June 2017], although the elective conference [at end 2017] is our marker in terms of what will happen to the ANC in 2019. And we are getting a lot of conflicting messages,” she says.

While uncertainty persists around President Jacob Zuma’s future, political commentator Justice Malala believes he isn’t going anywhere soon. While this could be seen as a boon for opposition parties, Malala is quick to point out that, so far, the real winners post-August are the electorate. Speaking at the Ashburton Investments Roadshow in late 2016, Malala said: “I was in Cape Town last week and friends were asking when I go back [to Johannesburg], and they said: ‘Well enjoy Cape Town North’….

This city is run by the DA and there has been not a single person saying ‘no, this is wrong’. For me that is a powerful thing.”

Malala hopes the next two years will force all parties to start putting words into action. But therein lies the rub of coalition governing, which requires a delicate balance of give and take.

This represents a huge downside for metros sorely in need of action. Referencing the loose arrangement between the EFF and the DA in the City of Johannesburg, Malala recalls: “The first day that [Mayor] Herman Mashaba was in office he said ‘refuse removal in the city is not working, I’m going to break it up into seven pieces and sell it off to young entrepreneurs’. The EFF said he’d be out office in the next three days because that is privatising a national asset. Has he done it? No.” Similarly, Mashaba’s hands are tied over land invasions. “It’s state land and they can’t remove those people because the EFF has a view that you don’t move people,” says Malala.

PERSONAL POLITICS REARS ITS HEAD

Certainly the EFF’s impact runs deep. But, given recent comments

by EFF leader Julius Malema on eNCA’s CheckPoint that spoke of a merging of the EFF and ANC, Naidu believes there is more to watch on this front. If this is Malema’s long-term play, then the very longevity of co-operation at metro level could be at stake.

Malala agrees: “I think both (DA leader Mmusi) Maimane and Malema are going to have to do something about these coalitions to give them some formality or health. I think that, particularly in the City of Johannesburg, the ANC and the EFF could end up running it. Tshwane is a slightly different story.”

How the electorate views these political moves will be an issue, says Naidu, who believes coalition governing already “irritates and frustrates the electorate”. They may become even more disillusioned if action at municipal level is derailed by political manoeuvrings.

COMPETITION IN THE POLITICAL ARENA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO LIFT HUMAN PERFORMANCE . . . ”

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Justice Malala

THE COALITION CHALLENGE South Africa is blessed with an example of how coalitions might work in the history of the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape. Based on comments by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille in her new memoir, Not Without a Fight, it was not an easy ride in the face of ANC ‘dirty tricks’ and DA infighting.

Dr. Mzukisi Qobo, co-author of The Fall of the ANC: What Next? and a senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria, believes problems are inevitable. “The metros are going to ask tough questions when the [Gauteng] Premier sets out his 10-point

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Mzukisi Qobo

plan during the Premier’s address [in early 2017]. They will want certain things that he didn’t think of and co-operation will be hard. All you have to do is look at the Western Cape… there was a difficult relationship between the ANC at the provincial level and the [DA-run] City of Cape Town.”

Qobo notes that as a result of these political shenanigans “certain things almost died, Wesgro (the Western Cape’s trade and investment body) almost collapsed because the City said “we are not going to put our money into this’’, because there were [concerns] around transparency and how the money was used.

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CAPE TOWN . . .

ISN’T THE IDEAL POSTER CHILD WHEN IT COMES TO ADDRESSING INEQUALITY . . . ” property prices any time soon. However, he does believe that strong local and provincial government competition is often a positive driving factor. “Western Cape’s advantage has been strong competition in elections, with the province changing hands quite frequently since 1994. Competition in the political arena has the potential to lift human performance… It can improve urban quality of life should it translate into quality service delivery, and this, in turn, can attract skills and drive longer-term economic growth.”

PLAYING OUT IN PRACTICE

Sanusha Naidu

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Tourism Cape Town is another entity that almost died. Then, of course, the ANC lost the provincial government and the province got back to working together again. You may get a similar thing happening in Gauteng.”

Sisa Ntshona, the newly appointed CEO of SA Tourism, has a more optimistic view. He feels the events of 3 August may trigger the development of a performance culture. “However,” he warns, “if all this change does not translate into economic prosperity for everyone then it means naught. If anything it will add to the turmoil. Those are the challenges which are sitting on any coalition that exists: how do you satisfy these things when they are sitting with different views?”

Putting on his tourism hat, Ntshona says the outcome of elections have a huge role to play in how the world views South Africa; which has implications for overseas tourism numbers. He is less certain that it will make a difference locally. “Will people be more inclined to travel to certain geographical areas in the country because it is DA managed or under the ANC? I don’t think so.”

Similarly, according to FNB property analyst John Loos, don’t expect any ‘semigration’ to DA-led coalition metros to drive up

Cape Town, it must be noted, isn’t the ideal poster child when it comes to addressing inequality, which explains the reaction of trade union Cosatu following the EFF’s agreement to support the DA against the ANC; a move, it said, would negatively impact the working class. While that remains to be seen, Naidu does agree that the ongoing issue of safety and security on the Cape Flats highlights poverty and inequality in the Western Cape. In Gauteng, she says, “people voted for the DA, and now they have to deliver. You can’t keep papering over the cracks.”

Unless political parties and coalitions actively tackle issues, the likes of Mandela Rhodes Scholar Nompumelelo Zinhle Manzini feels the youth in particular will take to the streets: “More social unrest can be expected in 2017 if the government does not do anything to address the needs of the poor and the lower working class.”

Manzini stresses that any growth must create opportunities for the youth. “I don’t have any hope in the coalition system that has transpired post the August elections yet, perhaps once we see them in action we can have a different conversation. I wonder whether the change in the political landscape will leave the youth in the same place they were before the change. One can only hope that the youth will be able to capitalise on this shift; if they are able to do this it will give us an idea of how serious the DA is about bringing their so-called ‘change’ to our country.”

It seems the jury is still out as to whether South Africa’s political parties learn their roles in this new dance. Ntshona, for one, welcomes the ‘internal levelling’ that has come to metro politics. “This will be hectic but it will create an equilibrium where everyone is watching their back and not becoming complacent.”

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Dr. Nthabiseng Legoete

DISRUPTING HEALTH Words James van den Heever

Developed by a GIBS alumna, Quali Health demonstrates how new thinking can demolish established ways of thinking – and change people’s lives.

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Diepsloot’s bustling Peach Street is Capitalism 101, a graphic illustration of the fact that identifying and servicing the needs of our fellow humans is the primary mainspring of all economic activity. But it also demonstrates that much of business simply follows existing patterns. Whether it’s a township street, a mall or the JSE, what has been successful tends to be replicated ad infinitum.

. . . WE ARE STILL TESTING WHAT WORKS,” SHE SAYS, BUT IT’S CLEAR THE DIRECTION IS FORWARD”

Well and good, but the real power of capitalism lies in its ability to generate new and innovative ways of servicing these human needs. Such disruptions can turn established ways of doing things upside down, undermining existing business models but also yielding big rewards. These rewards are seldom just material; most true disruptors are motivated as much by their idea as the prospect of wealth.

healthcare business – I want to democratise quality healthcare,” says Dr. Legoete. “They just couldn’t get it.”

Not surprisingly, such disruptors are rare.

A short few blocks from Peach Street, there’s a real chance that just such a disruption is coming quietly to the boil. It has the potential to reshape the healthcare industry and, in the process, bring quality healthcare within the reach of more South Africans.

DEMOCRATISING QUALITY HEALTHCARE

Quali Health is the brainchild of Nthabiseng Legoete, a medical doctor who has just completed her MBA at GIBS. Dr. Legoete qualified as a medical doctor 12 years ago and has spent nine of those years in the private healthcare sector, an experience that convinced her that this was a business model ripe for disruption. However, unlike many, she does not see the health sector as a set of mutually incompatible opposites, with the solution depending on getting the expensive but efficient private sector effectively to subsidise a sclerotic public health sector characterised by queues, inefficiency and variable quality. Rather, she believes rethinking the private healthcare model would make many of its benefits accessible to a much greater pool of people – thus, presumably, lessening the strain on the public system.

“Most people wanted to pigeonhole me as an NGO that needed funding, but what I wanted was investment into a new type of

So severe was the disconnect, she had to self-fund the project.

However, since she opened in May and people could see what she meant, it seems that funders have woken up to the potential of her model.

So what’s it all about – and just what is the model?

Located in a small centre close to Peach Street, next door to a popular butchery, Quali Health’s premises are spacious and minimalist but not without a certain stylishness – think an industrial coffee bar with lime-green accents.

What becomes obvious is that Dr. Legoete has essentially applied the thinking one would normally associate with manufacturing to healthcare. The system is designed to move patients (here called guests) through a defined set of processes to achieve the desired outcome – diagnosis and treatment – as quickly as possible. One key selling point, and one that anybody using the public health system would value: there are simply no queues. Patients move rapidly from reception, where their basic demographic details are captured, to a nurse’s station for vital signs, to the cashier for the payment of the R250 all-in fee, and then onto the consultation rooms for diagnosis and then to the dispensary.

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GETTING IT RIGHT

GETTING THE BEST DEAL

A number of key principles underlie this process, and could be said to constitute the essence of Dr. Legoete’s business model.

The tight integration of medical/ business processes and technology segues into another principle, which could be summarised as supply chain smarts. Quali Health uses a lowcost pathologist, for one thing, and can do many tests on site.

Alternative sourcing of the all-important medical technology yields huge savings, sometimes of several hundreds of percent.

The first principle is to use appropriately qualified staff for the job in hand. Thus, the personnel taking vital signs are not registered nurses but are rather drawn from the lower gradings – in short, no Rolls-Royces used for a bakkie’s job. The same thinking is evident in the medical area as such – most patients are seen by a clinical associate, with the practice’s two doctors fulfilling a quality-assurance role. They see only those patients who need that level of attention.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

“Seventy to 80% of our cases are typical of the normal general practice, so they don’t need an expensive consultation with a doctor,” Dr. Legoete observes.

In relation to staff, it’s worth mentioning that the nursing staff is drawn from the local community: transport is less of an issue and nurses are empowered by being able to deal with patients in their home language. Dr. Legoete has also reduced shift times from the conventional 12 hours to eight, and staggered them to ensure staff levels align with patient numbers.

“Better working conditions for the nurses, and staff generally, means that they are more likely to provide the kind of experience that brings guests back,” Dr. Legoete notes.

A second key principle is the use of technology. At one level, this means that all patient records are in one place and available to everyone. More profoundly, though, the use of smart medical technology means that high-quality care can be delivered by lessqualified personnel. Thus, at the nurses’ stations, the vital signs are taken by the machines and automatically uploaded onto the patient record.

Dr. Legoete is busy negotiating backward integration into one of the pharmaceutical wholesalers to reduce costs further.

Another principle could be summed up as collaboration for customer-centricity. One example, based on patient feedback, is the alliance with a local taxi service to get people home at an affordable cost, and another with a low-cost ambulance service to get patients who need “definitive care” to the nearest public hospital – a journey of some 40 kilometres. Customer-centricity is inherent in the concept of calling patients “guests”, and in the health coach who ensures that patients understand their treatment, and gets them to rate the service they received.

FACTORY SMARTS MEET MEDICINE Two fundamental principles underpin everything, both ultimately derived from manufacturing. First, process and technology can be used intelligently to deliver a quality product or service within a context of high volumes; the second reminds one of Kaizen, a commitment to continuous, incremental refinement in the quest of perfection. Together, they provide a robust framework for meeting the high standards essential in healthcare, while also being responsive to patient and staff needs and feedback.

Quali Health opened in May 2016 and reached breakeven (62 patients a day) in August – clear indication it is tapping into a market need. Funders have seen the light, and Dr. Legoete says she plans to launch five sites in the course of the next six months

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The Safari-1 reactor at Pelindaba

INSIDE THE MEDICAL ATOM Words Sarah Wild

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

How fast can you move a cow filled with Moly to a patient who needs Moly before Moly degrades and dies?

It's a logistics question that goes to the heart of South Africa's nuclear medicine industry, which produces about a quarter of the world's radioisotopes.

It is dark outside when the radioactive substance comes out of South Africa’s Safari-1 reactor, is packaged and readied for transportation to OR Tambo International Airport.

In the quiet hills not far from Hartbeespoort Dam, staff are working the very-late night shift or very-early morning shift, depending on how you look at it, to make nuclear medicine. This is the real hurdle to overcome in producing nuclear medicine: time and logistics are always against you. Known as a radioisotope, it has already begun decaying and needs to get on a plane as quickly as possible, so that it can be administered to a person waiting in a hospital in South Africa or in one of 50 other countries. Using it, doctors will be able to image and diagnose someone’s cancer and ultimately choose the best treatment for them.

South Africa is one of the world’s leaders in medical radioisotope production, with production sites at iThemba Laboratory for Accelerator-Based Sciences (iThemba LABS) in the Western Cape and the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa’s (Necsa’s) Pelindaba campus in the North West.

Pelindaba is home to the continent’s only research reactor, Safari-1, which stands for South African Fundamental Atomic Research Installation. The 20MW reactor is used for materials testing and production, not electricity generation such as at Koeberg nuclear power station.

In the 2015-16 financial year, NTP Radioisotopes, which produces radiopharmaceuticals, brought in more than R905 million in local and international revenue, according to Necsa’s annual report.

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“Nuclear medicine using radioisotopes has wide clinical applications,” says Prof. Mike Sathekge, Head of Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital. “It offers additional treatment plans and improves methods for early detection…

“It is preferable to other methods because it is uniquely suited to tissue characterisation, early assessment of the extent and severity of the disease, and treatment of the disease.”

Part of its popularity is that this diagnostic tool is non-invasive and proven safe in small doses. It is injected into the patient, where – because it emits radiation – it can be tracked. But because of its relatively short half-life, it soon breaks down completely and leaves the patient’s system. For some radioisotopes, doctors need specialised equipment to image them in a person’s body. Others do not.

MOLY

NTP Radioisotopes, a fully owned Necsa subsidiary, is responsible for radioisotope production in the country. It used to be a business unit of the corporation which oversees the continent’s only nuclear research reactor, but was incorporated in 2008.

“We only have so many reactors in the world, and only so many manufacturers,” says Tina Eboka, NTP Group Chief. “There is a high barrier to entry [into the market] which is what makes it so competitive. It’s a question of how do you do it safely, reliably, and on time. You can’t produce [radioisotopes] and keep them, just in case.” They are decaying and within minutes, in some cases, and hours, in others, they will be useless to doctors and patients.

The issue is not the science – it is the logistics. NTP even has its own logistics company. “Your staff have to come in like a soccer team, ready to play,” Eboka says. “If you’re not ready, you’re not going to be on the platform.”

NTP produces a number of radioisotopes, but its major cash cow is Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), affectionately known as “Moly”.

This radioisotope has a half-life of 66 hours before it decays into Technetium-99 (Te-99) which is what gets injected into the patient.

Te-99, with its six-hour half-life, is logistically impossible to send overseas, so NTP exports its parent radioisotope, Mo-99.

Necsa Head of Communications and Media Elliot Mulane has previously said: “Most international flights that leave OR Tambo International Airport contain one of these medical isotopes, encased in a special container. The container can be compared to the black box on the plane – it’s that hardy.”

THE COW

The Mo-99 arrives at the hospital in a cylindrical container called a “cow”, says Professor Annare Ellmann, Head of Nuclear Medicine at Tygerberg Hospital and the University of Stellenbosch.

“There is molybdenum inside the cow, and you get out technetium.

That’s actually what we use. We regularly buy NTP’s molybdenumtechnetium generators, [in fact we have a] delivery once a week. It is the backbone of what we use in nuclear medicine.”

Technetium can be used on its own, but doctors usually make it organ-specific by combining it with a “labelling kit” which contains

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. . . THIS DIAGNOSTIC TOOL IS NON-INVASIVE AND PROVEN SAFE IN SMALL DOSES” chemicals that collect in specific organs. This mixture is injected into the patient.

Iodine, for example, collects in the thyroid. So if a doctor is trying to diagnose thyroid cancer, they will use a kit containing iodine.

“Molybdenum is our bread and butter,” says Professor Willy Vangu, the Head of Nuclear Medicine at Donald Gordon Medical Centre and Wits University.

“About 95% of what we use is produced at Pelindaba,” he says.

Sathekge points out that Te-99’s six-hour half-life is just enough time for use in diagnosing a patient. “It lasts long enough to get the scans and tests that physicians need, but it does not stay in your body for an extended period of time,” he says. “It allows us to examine the metabolic process without significant harm to the patient, with rapid diagnosis and non-invasive diagnostic procedures of almost all the systems [in a person’s body] from the brain, heart, thyroid, lungs, liver, bowels, kidneys and bone or skeleton.”

CYCLOTRON

Another radiopharmaceutical that is becoming increasingly important is 18F-FDG, so much so that in 2012 iThemba LABS purchased a dedicated cyclotron for radioisotope production. It is based at the facility’s Western Cape campus so that it can supply that part of South Africa – the radioisotope would not survive the flight from OR Tambo to Cape Town.

18F-FDG – which stands for fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose – behaves like glucose when it is ingested into the body, but unlike glucose your body cannot break it down. After 12 hours, it has passed through your system and is basically untraceable.

This tricks the cancer cells, which voraciously consume glucose.

Thinking it is glucose, they accumulate the 18F-FDG which has been introduced into the patient, allowing doctors to create a 3D image of the tumour.

There are two drawbacks to 18F-FDG: its half-life is 110 minutes, after which it is not effective. This adds to the time pressure because two hours after it leaves the production facility, it is basically useless. The other problem is that you need a PET scanner to detect the 18F-FDG. PET, otherwise known as positron emission tomography, is a medical imaging technique. The PET scanner detects the radiation that is being emitted by the radiopharmaceutical that the patient has consumed, and creates an image of its concentration.

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SOUTH AFRICA IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADERS IN MEDICAL RADIOISOTOPE PRODUCTION . . . ” CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Because of its sensitivity, 18F-FDG is a fundamental tool for diagnosing the extent and stage of aggressive cancers. “It helps in eliminating unnecessary diagnostic procedures, prompt selection of optimal treatment, improved radiotherapy targeting, avoidance of futile aggressive treatment and improved quality of life,” University of Pretoria’s Sathekge says.

The ability to diagnose cancer accurately and quickly is becoming increasingly important in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. According to an article in medical journal The Lancet Oncology, “The cancer burden in Africa is projected to become a leading cause of morbidity and mortality as a result of growing and ageing populations and decreasing mortality from infectious diseases.”

Globally, scientists expect a 75% increase in the number of new cancer cases, from 12.7 million in 2008 to 22.2 million by 2030.

But at the moment, in South Africa, nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals are limited to relatively big towns and cities, Sathekge says.

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It isn’t only the province of the rich, either, although it is prohibitively expensive. “The costs range from R2 600 for a thyroid scan to as high as R27 000 for a PET/CT scan,” he says.

“These prices are the ones used by the private sector, while a poor patient receiving the same procedure at a public university will be exempted from paying such fees.”

In 2012, Tygerberg Hospital performed more than 9 000 procedures on more than 4 000 patients. Tygerberg’s nuclear medicine department was “very busy”, Ellmann says. She had not responded to queries for more up-to-date information at the time of going to press.

“There are more procedures than patients because one patient could have a bone scan, then a PET scan, then something else.”

Even though South Africa produces about a quarter of the world’s radioisotopes, most people are not aware of this capability. “If I, as a patient, don’t know that I could have this as a diagnostic option, I can’t ask for it,” Eboka says.

A selling point for NTP in the international community is that it produces its radioisotopes using low-enriched uranium (LEU)

rather than high-enriched uranium (HEU). HEU can be used to make nuclear weapons.

South Africa is the only country in the world to have willingly halted its nuclear weapons programme, which hinged on uranium enrichment for warheads.

“South Africa was [also] the first country in the world to successfully implement commercial scale LEU-based Mo-99 and I-131 [another radioisotope for imaging thyroid cancer] production,” according to Necsa’s most recent annual report.

“More than three-quarters of Mo-99 produced by NTP currently comes from LEU targets.”

The majority of NTP’s sales are in North America (28.8%), while “rest of the world, including South Africa” is at 28.1%, followed by the Far East (21.7%), Europe (15.6%) and South America (5.8%).

“We’ve grown amazingly outside the continent. We have not touched the continent,” says Eboka.

CONSTRAINTS

According to Necsa’s 2015-16 annual report, South Africa has approximately 60 nuclear medicine practitioners. This is substantially higher than the numbers for other sub-Saharan African countries.

This – along with the relatively prohibitive price of nuclear medicine – is a limiting factor in trying to grow NTP’s footprint on the continent.

Eboka points to International Atomic Energy Agency efforts to develop nuclear medicine capacity in African countries. There are a lot of doctors being trained, she says.

“We need to look at tackling it country by country. We have a logistics company, and deliver on time in 40 countries, surely we can do it in six hours on the continent out of OR Tambo,” Eboka adds. “The game on the continent is interesting – there is a lot of need.”

However, she is cautious: the goal for the company, which she took over in 2014, is to make it sustainable. “You can grow, and grow into oblivion. The science itself is wonderful, the technology and capabilities [at NTP] are world class, but… we need to be clear on our sustainability.”

The Safari-1 reactor at Pelindaba

THERANOSTICS – TREATING AS YOU DIAGNOSE

While radiopharmaceuticals have revolutionised diagnostics, they also offer promise for treatment.

Known as ‘theranostics’ – a somewhat onerous amalgamation of therapeutics and diagnostics – this treatment option allows physicians to treat cancer cells as they identify them.

In a paper published in the journal Current Drug Delivery, the authors write: “Theranostics … aims to eliminate multistep procedures, reduce delays in treatment and improve patient care. It offers various advantages like improved diagnosis, tumor-specific delivery of drugs, [and] reduced lethal effects to normal tissues.”

Last year, University of Pretoria’s Prof. Mike Sathekge in conjunction with colleagues from NTP and Germany’s ITG Isotopes Technologies Garching performed a new anticancer procedure in a human being for the first time. The procedure, aimed at secondary cancer in bones (where a person’s cancer has metastasised into their bone tissue), employs a substance known as Lutetium-177 (III)-labelled DOTA-Zoledronate. DOTA-Zoledronate (where DOTA is an acid) emits low-level radiation at the site of the cancer cells and kills them. Sathekge has also performed theranostic procedures for prostate cancer.

“Theranostics is a combination of diagnosis and therapeutics using the same molecule, thus leading to a custom-made treatment plan,” Sathekge says.

WHAT IS A RADIOISOTOPE?

A radioisotope is an atom that has an unstable nucleus, which means it will emit radiation and decay in an effort to become more stable. Its decay is measured by its half-life, which is the time it takes for half of the substance to decay.

These atoms can be created using a nuclear reactor, such as the research reactor at Pelindaba, or Themba LABS’ cyclotron, a machine that accelerates protons and neutrons, the building blocks of matter, and smashes them into a material. Once it has undergone regulatory testing and is safe for humans, it is called a radiopharmaceutical, which is what the patient will consume.

.

Sometimes, other substances are added to the radioisotope, which allows the radiopharmaceutical to accumulate in certain parts of the body

IT ISN’T ONLY THE PROVINCE OF THE RICH, EITHER, ALTHOUGH IT IS PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE”

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WILL UBER SURVIVE IN ITS PRESENT FORM? Words Ancillar Mangena

It is survival of the fittest in this fast-moving story coming to a street corner near you in Africa. Slick disruptor, Uber, is fighting with scores of taxi companies for your fare and taking heavy blows.

As if the cut-price app-wielding transport company doesn’t have enough problems, Uber is taking a backlash from metered taxi drivers and even its so-called partners are turning against it.

For Uber, it has been remarkable growth. Since 2013, the online ride-hailing service has taken off in 12 cities in sub-Saharan Africa with no advertising. Its disruptive nature and low prices have put its name on everyone’s lips. It connects to customers through a smartphone app that tracks the journey. It also claims to look after its drivers with the PR-style promise of being CEO of their own company and working when they want in their own cars.

Little by little, this dream of dominating the taxi ranks of the world is crumbling in Africa. For a start, many drivers complain they are exploited. Angrily, they have joined the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU) and plan to take the company to the Labour Court – the antithesis of the Uber free market philosophy. That could be a stumbling block.

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The dispute is – Uber takes a cut from every trip; 20% for UberX and 25% for Uber Black. Good business, bad PR. “They take a quarter of what I make every trip. They’re treating us like rubbish. We are not even involved in the running of the business yet we are the so-called ‘driver-partners’,” says Joseph Munzvenaga, an Uber driver in Cape Town, who has been with Uber for two-and-a-half years.

“I joined because we didn’t have to deal with cash and admin and they also promised us to be our own boss and get a chance to earn up to R10 000. We have to work long hours for little income. The cost of living is too much; we’re not benefitting from Uber. They just came to Africa to abuse Africans.”

Julian Wenn, another Cape Town Uber driver says exploitation by Uber is an understatement.

“When people are desperate they will do anything. When a firm like Uber has you tuned into the channel of desperation you are bound to be exploited. The sad part is most drivers still don’t realise just how much they are being exploited,” he says.

INDEPENDENT OR NOT?

What may stand up in the Labour Court, for the defence, is that Uber classifies its drivers as independent contractors and not employees, hence they can avoid paying insurances and other costs companies pay to employees.

Whatever the morals of it, it’s all part of the equation that makes Uber money. According to Fortune magazine, employing drivers on full-time contracts would cost Uber $4.1 billion; money Uber may not be able to recoup. For example, a metered taxi would charge R350 for a trip from Fourways to Hillbrow and Uber would charge about R100 less. This means that Uber gets more clients through its cheaper prices but drivers work more for less.

Backlash from taxi drivers is not the only problem. Uber, that built a business on word of mouth, has also found that reputations, in Africa, can be fragile.

SAFETY

Talk in Johannesburg right now is about an attack on a couple travelling home in an Uber from a nightclub in Sunninghill. The couple’s friend, Akshar Sewkuran, says two men were hiding in the boot and broke into the car by pushing through the back seats. The attackers got into the front, stabbed his friend and bundled his girlfriend into the boot.

“The kidnappers then took them to Tembisa, were they forced them to draw money after which they blindfolded them and tied their hands. They were then held in a house in the township where they were kept through the night and subjected my friend to random beatings through the early hours of the morning,” says Sewkuran.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

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The couple survived but this is merely one of the many incidents.

In July last year, another two men hid in the boot of an Uber in Fourways, north of Johannesburg, and pushed through to assault, rob and rape a 64-year-old client.

These incidents are likely to chip away at Uber’s chances of longterm growth.

In Kenya, another driver, Samuel Openg, says, “One day Uber will wake up and not have drivers. When you are attacked, your car is damaged and you have to pay costs when there isn’t even enough money. I know we are desperate in Africa but we will move to other ride-sharing service if this persists.”

In February last year, an Uber driver was attacked and his car torched in Nairobi. Then, in March‚ another was shot dead in his car in Cape Town. Uber drivers around the world have faced threats and protests from regular taxi operators, who say cheap fares from Uber drivers are driving them out of business.

MORE RULES, PLEASE

Safety issues aside, it’s far from simple.

In South Africa, metered taxis are demanding a clamp down on this new kid on the block. They claim it’s operating illegally, flouting regulations and putting passengers at risk. They want it regulated or, better still, banned.

WE CAN’T COMPETE WITH THESE GUYS EVEN IF WE WANTED TO” “Uber is not a very fair competitor when you come to this industry because of their prices – they’re next to nothing. It’s actually destroying the economy of the country – that’s what they are doing,” said Lucas Seale, the spokesperson for the Gauteng Metered Taxi Operations.

In Kenya, the Taxi Cab Association called for a withdrawal of Uber, also citing the lack of regulation. The call came on the day violence flared up, in the capital Nairobi, as taxi drivers attacked Uber drivers. The Association Organising Secretary Job Nzioka says Uber is cheaper because they are not subjected to hefty levies by authorities. Here metered taxi drivers pay a monthly inspection fee (R797), monthly parking fee (R956) and an operating fee (R1 116) which Uber doesn’t.

Even Uber’s attempt to drop its prices appears to have backfired.

In April, Uber dropped prices by R1 per kilometre and that provoked more violence.

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. . . ALL DRIVERS ARE INDEPENDENT OPERATORS AND ARE FREE TO WORK WHEN THEY WANT” , 2016 Quarter • Fourth Issue 18

“We can’t compete with these guys even if we wanted to. Their prices are very low but we can’t afford to do that as long we follow regulations. I fail to understand how they can operate freely yet they are being criminal and not paying taxes like any other regular public transport company,” says metered taxi driver Andrew Macharaira.

It’s not only in Africa. In Paris, cab drivers blocked the city in protest; operations were banned in Germany after a court ruled that Uber violated transport laws; in South Korea employees linked to the company were charged with running an illegal taxi firm.

Governments in Africa have shown signs that intervention could be around the corner.

South Africa’s Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters says given the security risks that come with e-hailing services, safety should be a priority.

“As an international company and given its experience in India and other countries, where similar occurrences happened, Uber as a company should have done better. I enjoin them to unreservedly apologise to the affected family and the people of South Africa for this unfortunate incident,” she says.

Uber spokesperson Samantha Allenberg says all drivers are independent operators and are free to work when they want.

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“Uber is not a taxi nor is it a taxi or transportation company.

Ride-sharing apps like Uber make it affordable and more efficient for riders to get around – especially in places where there is little public transport,” says Allenberg.

Uber has had to redesign its technology to survive the tough times in Africa.

“We have announced the addition of a senior member, Deon du Toit, to the security team as well as safety improvements for riders and drivers. In addition to the driver image, vehicle type and licence plate, riders across South Africa will see the colour of the vehicle when they request a ride... This is the first step in introducing this feature across sub-Saharan Africa and will go a long way to helping ensuring riders get in the correct vehicle with the correct driver-partner,” says Allenberg.

It is also launching a trial in-vehicle SOS button in Johannesburg.

“This update will allow driver-partners to connect to a broad base of emergency services and receive advice in a critical situation.

Should the pilot prove useful this feature could be introduced to the other cities across South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa,” she says.

Despite its troubles in Africa, Uber’s ambition is to be ubiquitous.

AT LEAST SOMEONE’S HAPPY

“Our ongoing conversation with regulators has also seen positive milestones in Nigeria and Ghana. We launched Uber in Lagos in 2014, and extended our reach in Nigeria in March 2016 to Abuja.

This has inspired the Nigerian government to take steps towards an official approach to ride-sharing, culminating in a unanimous vote by the Nigerian House in favour of a resolution supporting ride-sharing.”

Allenberg says they are thrilled that Nigeria is taking steps to building ride-sharing into transportation policies.

“Our launch in Ghana was underpinned by an important Statement of Understanding signed between Uber and the Ghanaian Ministry of Transport, which officially welcomed Uber in Ghana’s largest city. It is a start in producing a new, forwardlooking regulatory framework that allows for ride-sharing technology and regulates its use and adoption,” she says.

Although Uber has faced violence and questions over regulation, it has bigger problems to deal with.

In some parts of the continent, streets are not as well mapped.

To overcome this, in Kenya, Uber is testing a pilot program with local directions start-up OkHi, which uses smartphones and digital images to overcome inaccurate or non-existent postal codes, street names or physical addresses.

In the midst of blood and chaos, investors think that Uber will not just survive, but thrive. They have put their money to drive Uber’s valuation up to $68 billion; much higher than Facebook when it was six years old.

The heat may be on but Uber is playing it cool with its app

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At the cutting edge of South Africa’s fight to save the African lion from exploitation, Richardson is a conservationist, an activist and a spokesman for a species that cannot advocate for itself.

He has become a symbol of anti-canned hunting sentiment. Like many others in the industry he deplores the killing of tamed animals within a confined space to sate the wants of high-rolling trophy hunters. He also advocates against the trade in lion parts including bones, skin, fat and full skeletons.

With an estimated 20 000 wild lions left on the continent, Richardson drives home his message by raising awareness about the plight of lions and speaking out against the breeding of these animals for hunting purposes; this includes tackling related activities like cub petting, which allows members of the public to interact and play with lion cubs which are ultimately destined to be sold on to hunting syndicates or bred themselves for a similar purpose. It is widely regarded that the practice of cub petting

directly supports the contentious canned hunting industry, which Richardson likens to fishing with dynamite in a pond and then saying you are a fisherman.

When it comes to hunting, Richardson is clear: “When you strip hunting down to the nuts and bolts, it is about money.”

South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs puts the revenue generated by trophy or canned hunting at over R1 billion (2013 figures). According to the film Blood Lions by Ian Michler, hunters pay in the region of US$54 000 to kill a lioness and US$48 000 for a black maned lion. Most of these hunts, according to Africa Check, take place on private game farms, so it is hardly surprising that Richardson flatly dubs the game industry in South Africa as a hunting concern. “I accept hunting as a management tool, but certain species should not be hunted, whether as a management tool or business, because it sets the wrong precedent. One of those species is lion.”

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AN ADVOCATE FOR THE AFRICAN LION Words Cara Bouwer Photographs Marc Shoul

A little breathless and distracted, Kevin Richardson answers the phone. “Sorry, I’m walking.” With lions, I think. This is the Lion Whisperer after all. But no, “I’m in a mall with my kids.” It seems this conservationist has a pragmatic side.

With so many lions affected by this trade, a small sanctuary of some 30 lions might seem like a drop in the ocean, and indeed Richardson’s work may seem idealistic to some, while others criticise him for exploiting the very animals he hopes to save to raise money and for frolicking with them himself while talking out against such practices.

Richardson’s dream to create a haven for lions born to a fate of canned hunting started a little over a decade ago. Having worked previously in a lion park where cub petting was allowed, Richardson says he was originally part of the problem. Looking back, he recalls: “I worked for a park that bred lions and offered cub petting and I was caught up with this thing of forming relationships with lions. When I wiped the poo out of my eyes I realised I didn’t like what I was doing. It took a long time to extricate myself, it was quite a process and in the process I had to set up a business and get investors.”

Above: The Lion Whisperer as South Africans have come to know him… standing toe-to-toe with a proud Vayetse.

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Right: Showing volunteers the ropes.

Richardson advocates for ethical volunteering, which doesn’t involve cub petting and selling the lions on for ‘canned lion hunting’.

Below: The Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary comprises 13 predator enclosures – including for hyenas – and a large central enrichment area which the predators are rotated through every couple of weeks.

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The extraction began in earnest when two of the cubs he’d hand-raised from an early age, Meg and Ami, were sold to a breeding farm. Richardson fought to have them retrieved and his vision of a refuge for the animals he’d built such an affinity for was born. Now formalised as the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary, his lions – including Ami and Meg – are not bred and he talks of quality of life and caring for them “until the day they die”. The sanctuary is permanently based on a section of the Welgedacht Private Game Reserve, part of the Dinokeng Game Reserve, an hour’s drive from Johannesburg.

The sanctuary is not, explains Richardson, currently open to the public although “in [2017] we’ll be doing a bit of tented accommodation and ethical day visits, allowing people to see what the sanctuary is all about and what our stance is on the lion trade and captive breeding”. No petting, though, just educating the public and allowing the lions to interact on their terms.

He keeps his sanctuary going through a combination of paid-for volunteer tourism (attracting people from around the world who pay upwards of US$2 900 for the opportunity to work in African conversation for four weeks), donations and sponsorships. He keeps his sponsors happy through marketing exposure via his social media channels, which focuses on both his ‘Lion Whisperer’ brand (so dubbed in 2007 by British newspaper The Daily Mail) and the lions in his care who have become celebrities in their own right.

“There are many elements which make up the income we need,” Richardson explains. “It’s not a cheap thing to do.

When you want to stop the trade and stop petting cubs then

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Right: Face of a king … Bobcat surveys his domain at the Dinokeng Game Reserve.

you have to think out of the box. It’s all very well rescuing lions, everyone high fives you, but how do you support them?”

There are a number of strings to Richardson’s business model which he refers to as ‘balancing the pillars’. He explains: “We do ethical volunteering. I do my own documentary films as well as product endorsements with outdoor-related brands that have automatically aligned with me [like watch brand Casio, clothing brands Craghoppers and Carhartt, and Zamberlan shoes]. That’s been a revenue stream.” In early 2016, for example, MercedesBenz South Africa commissioned photographer Adrian Steirn to capture the essence of The Lion Whisperer and his unique bonds for a glossy G-Class advertising campaign. By lending his face, and those of his lions, to the brand, Richardson is able to fund his sanctuary’s activities.

The YouTube channel LionWhispererTV – “which creates awareness and entertainment” – is another pillar which tells the stories of the lions and Richardson’s connection with them. The channel has over 240 000 subscribers and has garnered over 28 million views since its inception in March 2014. Shot largely using GoPro (another sponsor’s) cameras, which allow viewers to get close to the lions, the channel is a storytelling goldmine. This is a deliberate move on Richardson’s part. “As much as people like to think they relate to animals, they relate to people. If you can put it into a context that a human can relate to, then they get it,” he explains. “That is where we have placed ourselves, in creating characters.”

Right now the business is working on being sustainable without relying on Richardson’s high profile. “Five or seven years ago I

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was a performing monkey. So it’s been a bit of a process weening people off that,” says Richardson, although he understands how leveraging off this exposure helps his cause and how intertwined the sanctuary is with his personal brand. Merchandising is helping this cause, and supporters can buy branded merchandise directly off the site or get their hands on a copy of Richardson’s books, Part of the Pride or The Lion Ranger, or the White Lion DVD. “People know me and they trust me,” he says. This must be nurtured, which is why Richardson is currently in the process of taking over the NGO which handles the donation facility on his www.lionwhisperer.co.za website. He’ll turn the non-profit into a purely lion-focused endeavour, directing donations both to his sanctuary and “to the organisations I feel are doing a good Left: Richardson created his haven to ensure lions born to a fate of canned hunting can enjoy quality of life “until the day they die”.

Below left: Taking a stroll in the African bush… not in a shopping mall.

Below: The Lion Whisperer has been criticised by some for his close interactions with the lions in his care; others praise him for his anti-hunting stance. Here Richardson’s lions enjoy being taken from their enclosures to enjoy a walk with their adopted human.

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job and need support”. Until now donations have not been a significant focus. “We do take donations; we don’t beg for them.

However, the demand came from my following who admired the fact that I took a stance and they wanted to donate.”

When you consider the costs involved in running the sanctuary it is clear that every bit helps. “If you took it down to the bare minimum it’s probably US$15 000 to US$20 000 a month to make ends meet,” he says. This money goes to rent, animal enclosures, lion food, staff salaries, vet bills, transport; essentially expenses not dissimilar to those of any other business.

Adds Richardson: “But it’s never stagnant, we’re always growing and we always need something else, be it a bigger enclosure, or solar power, or trying to stop people throwing things at the lions.”

Ultimately, it always comes back to the lions. Animals like Meg and Ami, or, more recently, youngsters George and Yame, who were saved from cub petting. The sanctuary can only support so many lions, but Richardson will continue taking in lions in need, and while breeding and canned hunting continues there will always be animals in need of Richardson’s refuge. Only when the practice stops will there be no need for such a sanctuary; and that seems a long way off

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INTERESTING TIMES Words Chris Gibbons

By the time you read this, Donald J. Trump would have been sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. If I had written those words 24 months ago, you would have laughed uncontrollably. Even 12 months ago, while your laughter might have been more subdued, Trump-as-President still looked a very far-fetched idea. Not any more.

Trump has made it clear – at least in the run-up to his election – that he doesn’t much care for Africa, nor does he appear to know a great deal about it either. A celebrated 2013 Tweet by Trump described South Africa as “a crime-ridden mess that is just waiting to explode” adding that this was “not a good situation for the people!”

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Outgoing US Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard told a GIBS Forum in November last year that he was confident trade relations between his country and South Africa would remain unchanged: “I am increasingly optimistic that the incoming administration will come to view South Africa as a key partner, as it has been for many years.”

A key element in the relationship is South Africa’s access to AGOA – the African Growth and Opportunities Act – a trade deal that gives African countries special access to US markets. Gaspard explained that AGOA extends this access until 2025. The treaty had been ratified by the US Congress and only Congress could enact any changes to the agreement in the future.

Writing in a Tutwa Consulting Group newsletter just after Trump’s election, South Africa’s foremost international trade expert Peter Draper was less optimistic. Referring to Trump’s heavily protectionist pre-election comments, Draper suggested that “… should the darkest scenarios unfold, it is highly likely that global trade, investment, and growth will be seriously, and negatively, affected. This would be likely to tip South Africa into economic

recession, which would undoubtedly exacerbate our already heated politics, and deepen our social crisis.”

BREXIT

At the same time, Britain lurches towards a painful and expensive departure from the European Union (EU). Prime Minister Theresa May has not yet pushed the Big Green Button to trigger Article 50 and formally start the process, but is expected to do so imminently.

Speaking at another GIBS Forum shortly after the Brexit vote, British High Commissioner Dame Judith Macgregor made it clear that the full implications of her country’s decision to leave the EU were unclear (see Acumen 18). Nearly nine months later, reports confirm that that’s still very much the case in London, Brussels and everywhere else, too.

The good news for South Africa is that we have existing trade relations with the remaining 27 members of the EU; the bad news is that Britain on its own is a very sizeable trading partner of and investor in this country, and when it comes to financial services, the links between Johannesburg and London go very deep indeed.

Until the final terms of Brexit are hammered out, it’s almost impossible to say where it will leave South Africa.

THE PUTIN FACTOR

We also need to paint on a wider canvas. In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has been in an aggressive mood for some while.

Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, including the annexation of the Crimea, along with more recent activity backing the al-Assad regime in Syria, are well documented.

Commentators speculate that Putin is resorting to a crude, populist nationalism as a result of a faltering economy and dropping oil prices. In other words, his government is running short of money and he needs to divert the citizenry’s attention.

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Donald Trump

Compared with many other countries in the world, South Africa has frequently been prey to the old Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times!” But at the start of 2017, that same curse applies to plenty of other places, too. So what does the next year or so hold in store for us here on the southern tip of Africa?

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ANY ESCALATION OF TENSIONS BETWEEN CHINA AND THE US WOULD SEND SHOCKWAVES THROUGH THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. . . ” Vladimir Putin

old saying goes, but given the way the ANC branches – read the party’s power-brokers – elect their leaders, there’s not a lot ordinary South Africans can do about that either.

A more nuanced view is that Russia has always demanded and seldom received international respect and recognition. That’s certainly been the case since the early 1800s, when Russian armies were a key part of the coalition that eventually brought Napoleon to heel; only when the Soviet Union was saving Europe’s bacon during World War II and later, as a nuclear superpower during the Cold War, did that change. Putin – and many around him – want to roll back history and restore Russia’s former glory.

OIL

South Africa’s position here is opaque. We are part of BRICS – the alliance of nations that includes Russia, Brazil, India and China – but very much the junior partner. The Zuma government is also believed to have signed a top-secret deal to buy nuclear reactors from Russia with allegations of kickbacks going to Gupta-esque associates of the President. How true any of this is remains to be seen and there is now an intense level of public scrutiny. Leave out any nuclear component and trade between Russia and South Africa is limited.

As an oil-importing nation, South Africa will certainly feel that increase, but were the price to go back to $80 per barrel, which is where the Saudis are understood to want it, domestic inflation would spike quite sharply. Rising inflation could tip the Reserve Bank’s hand and spark an increase in interest rates. That, in turn, could push the country into recession just as effectively as Trump, Brexit or anything that happens in Moscow, Beijing or anywhere else.

CHINA

China, on the other hand, is a major investor here and a major market for many of our exported commodities. Its President, Xi Jinping, appears to be taking an increasingly tough line in foreign policy terms and also against domestic dissent. Witness repeated incidents in the South China Sea, the disappearance of vocal pro-democracy supporters from Hong Kong and Beijing’s shrill reaction to then-President Elect Trump’s decision to receive a phone call from the President of Taiwan.

Just like the deal that has been cooked up between Russia and OPEC. It’s designed to cut production of oil around the world and push prices back up. At the centre of OPEC sits Saudi Arabia, whose finances have also been hammered since oil fell from around the $120 per barrel level two years ago to around $40 per barrel in the middle of last year. So far the effect has been marginal, with oil rising to around $55 per barrel.

Yes, the world is a very uncertain place right now. Worryingly, just about everything that may or may not happen is firmly beyond our control.

Interesting times, indeed!

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Any escalation of tensions between China and the US would send shockwaves through the global economy and South Africa would be staring at Peter Draper’s ‘darkest scenario’. On the upside, Trump has appointed an old friend of President Xi’s as his ambassador to China and picked Rex Tillerson, a business mogul with close ties to Putin and Russia, as his Secretary of State.

Maybe there’s a hard-headed reality to Trump that the world hasn’t yet seen, obscured by all his “Make America Great Again” bluster?

Throw into the uncertainty mix our own domestic politics, with the election of a new ANC President due before year’s end.

That person will almost certainly become South Africa’s next President. Cyril Ramaphosa, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or Zweli Mkhize? You pays your money and takes your chances, as the

Xi Jinping

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Tiger Woods

BRANDS BEHAVING BADLY Words Eugene Yiga

Your strategic alliances matter when it comes to looking after your reputation, as three top experts explain.

“Reputations matter,” she says. “There’s no getting around it.

And your reputation is at risk if those you align yourself with have different values, standards, and morals to yours. That’s why you should partner at your peril, especially if you don’t have the right governance processes to check that your core values are aligned.”

Le Roux explains that we like to do business with organisations and people we resonate with because, on a basic level, we can trust that they have our best interests at heart. This is particularly true when it comes to sponsorship of sports stars.

“People like backing and associating with a champion at the top of their game because it makes them look good too,” she says.

“That’s why companies invest substantial resources in individuals who excel on the sports field.”

SET WELL-DEFINED PARAMETERS

Many brands use celebrity endorsements as reinforcement or “proof ” of their positioning and delivery of the brand promise.

And because a brand is defined not by what is says but by what it does, a brand “goes bad” when there is difference between its promise (what it says) and its performance (what it does).

“The significance and impact of this disparity can be and is greatly amplified through social media, specifically if the brand – or the brand affiliates, like endorsing celebrities – fails to behave in a brand-appropriate manner,” says Doug de Villiers, CEO of Intergroup (www.intergroupconsulting.com). “That said, brand celebrity (or ambassador) endorsement is a powerful way of espousing and proving the brand’s values, thereby creating a strong consumer affiliation.”

Still, there are countless examples of endorsements gone wrong, from Lance Armstrong to Tiger Woods. That’s why Janine Hills, CEO of Vuma Reputation Management (www.vumareputation. com), believes that the best way to protect your brand is by setting well-defined parameters for ambassadors.

“The value of reputation is difficult to quantify, but reputational harm can be the kiss of death,” she says. “The goodwill that

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

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“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation,” George Washington once said. “For it is better to be alone than in bad company.” These words resonate with Regine le Roux, Managing Director of Reputation Matters (www. reputationmatters.co.za), a firm believer that the reputations of those who are associated with your organisation have a direct impact on your own.

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names carry is among the most valuable assets of a brand. And the idea that there’s no such thing as bad publicity is laughable; those days are long gone. That’s why organisations must apply caution when choosing brand ambassadors.”

Hills believes that there are nine dimensions to building and maintaining an organisation’s brand reputation: employer attractiveness, business performance, ethics and business practices, transparency, social responsibility, management quality, marketing and sales effectiveness, innovativeness, and quality of products and services. These should be taken into account whenever any communication takes place.

“In selecting an ambassador, it is advisable to determine upfront which of the nine dimensions of brand management that person adds value to,” she says. “Whichever dimension the brand ambassador complements, they must be provided with a strict set of guidelines when it comes to behaviours and expectations. If these checks and balances are not in place, the manner in which that ambassador represents the brand cannot be managed.”

OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION

But how should a brand respond when an ambassador does something foolish? People are fallible after all. And individual endorsements, especially if they are the main brand premise, can hold significant risk.

“Brand owners need to consider their brand communications and affiliation mix to mitigate against the dangers of having all their reputational eggs in one basket, and should ensure a balanced brand communications and endorsement portfolio,” De Villiers says. “When a brand ambassador behaves in a manner inconsistent with the brand’s values – and remember that employees are also brand ambassadors – the reaction of the brand owner is probably more powerful than the off-brand action of the ambassador.”

PHOTO: GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES/HANDOUT

While there’s nothing worse than an ill-considered reaction, De Villiers explains that the brand must take action and, most important, communicate this action as quickly as possible. This generally takes the form of a) acknowledgment of the issue, b) acknowledgement and apology for the impact on the customer, c) clear communication on actions to be taken, and d) assurance of impact on the customer.

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PEOPLE ARE FALLIBLE AFTER ALL” “Get all the facts first,” Le Roux says. “Dropping someone on an assumption of a questionable action could do more damage to your reputation. Once you have all the information, determine whether the relationship can be continued. And whether or not it does continue, it’s important to let your supporters know what your decision is and why. Why are you no longer supporting the person? Or, if you are supporting them, what are you basing your decision on? Open lines of communication are crucial to build trust and enhance your reputation with all your other associates.”

BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS

What about the other side of the coin? How should a brand respond when it behaves in a way that’s inconsistent with its values, like VW vociferously promising greener cars but effectively delivering something different? And how should a brand ambassador respond when he or she behaves in a way that is damaging to the brand?

“Brand endorsers are generally well-recognised and established brands in their own right; it’s a key part of being celebrity,” De Villiers says. “Of course most brand ambassadors provide this service to brand owners for compensation; sometimes significant amounts of money. Brand ambassadors should therefore ensure that they do have behavioural affinity with brands they endorse.

Otherwise it comes across as disingenuous. And no one wants to be that.”

De Villiers also believes that if the ambassador’s personality and resultant behaviour is out of whack with the brand’s values, he or she is probably looking for trouble in the first place, and reputational (and economic) ruin will most likely follow. But if a brand ambassador does something silly, the process is the same as that for the brand owner: own up, apologise to both the audience and the brand, communicate what you will do to address the situation, and do something that proves your intent.

“Be accountable for your actions, acknowledge that you’ve messed up, communicate what you plan on doing to fix the situation, and then do what you say you’re going to do,” Le Roux says. “Your reputation will never be rescued if you give lip service with no action.”

Ultimately, it’s no longer about simply attaching a celebrity or sportsperson to a brand and getting on with it. Instead, it’s about paying careful attention to the guidelines and parameters set for the ambassador and the brand in the first place.

Lance Armstrong

“The one thing an organisation cannot control is perception, especially in a world driven by social media,” Hills says. “What people say about your organisation online has become the single most important reflection of its quality, reliability and skills.

The reality is that no organisation will get it right every time.

That’s why reputation management is more important than ever before.”

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THE RISE OF WORKPLACE SUICIDE Words Eugene Yiga

Organisations and individuals need to be aware of the growing risk of suicide for senior employees.

“It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death.”

These words are from The Death of Ivan Ilyich, a 19th century novella by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. And yet they could just as easily be from the suicide note of a corporate executive in the modern world.

“Stress can be defined as the physiological and psychological response of any person seeking to adapt or adjust to internal and external pressures or demands,” says psychiatrist Dr. Frans Korb. “It can lead to burnout and to psychiatric illness, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, and substance abuse.”

Stress can also lead to suicide, as was the case when at least 19 people took their lives at France Telecom amidst heavy job cuts in 2008 and 2009. And while Korb’s recent study considered workplace depression as a whole, he believes that those in high positions attract high levels of stress.

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“Depression can lead to suicide if not managed adequately,” he says. “And if there are not adequate programmes in place for high-level positions, this will lead to high levels of stress, burnout, and the psychiatric disorders as above. An awareness of stress, burnout, and depression in the workplace is thus essential, together with training in stress management tools and techniques.”

NOT ALL STRESS IS CREATED EQUAL

Sometimes the pressure to perform can inspire greater results.

But when on-going “bad stress” leaves us feeling that the demands placed upon us outweigh the practical or emotional resources we have available, the result is psychological or emotional strain.

“Stressful events on their own do not necessarily lead to one attempting suicide,” says counselling psychologist Tamara Zanella. “However, they can be a contributing factor in negative thinking, low mood, burnout and depression. Psychiatric, psychological and biological factors could predispose a person to suicidal behaviour, whilst stressful life events interact with such factors to increase risk. This is why suicidal behaviours are often preceded by stressful events.”

Zanella explains that burnout can affect every aspect of functioning and have a negative effect on both work and personal life. When there is a constant sense of powerlessness about being able to change one’s circumstances, it’s easy to feel frustrated, demotivated, undervalued and overwhelmed.

“If left untreated there is a risk that the individual could suffer from depression,” she says. “Depression is associated with an increased risk for suicide so one needs to be mindful of the impact that on-going stress and burnout at work can have.”

THE OVERWHELMING FEELING OF HELPLESSNESS

There are several reasons why an individual might consider suicide. Many who have survived an attempt will say that they did not necessarily want to die but felt that there was no hope of anything ever being different. They see taking their own life as the only way to end their suffering and pain.

“Thoughts of suicide can be best understood as a means of transmitting a ‘message’ or as a need for escape,” says clinical psychologist Dr. Colinda Linde. “These thoughts can be transient and dismissed from the mind, in someone who is not suffering from depression or burnout. For example, if you wake up tired after a week of deadlines and too little sleep, thinking ‘I just want to lie here and sleep forever’ could be seen as an urge to escape.

Thoughts like these are a common feature of being in the modern workplace. And if they are transient as well as reactive after a high-stress period, they will often resolve. It is when they become a repeating theme, and when they accompany signs of depression that they become a danger.”

Linde explains that burnout and depression tend to develop over time, which can make their symptoms hard to detect until they are acute. Burnout often slides into depression, with the former being associated with negative mood, fatigue, and cynicism with respect to work, until these feelings and thoughts start to seep into the person’s whole life. Depression shrinks a person’s world. There is not much focus on meaningful activity or close relationships, and the future is seen without any hope of change.

This is when the thought of a permanent escape becomes real and a person may consider suicide.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

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“Paradoxically, the person who is seriously planning suicide is often not likely to talk about it or outwardly threaten to take their life,” Linde says. “In fact, when a depressed person has made a decision to end their pain, they often appear to be in a good mood and can be quite upbeat. Their thinking is impaired to an extreme point so they can only see that this plan will end their unhappiness, but not what it will mean for those left behind.

There is little rational thought or logic, and cognitive distortions can even make them believe it is for the greater good.”

IMPULSIVE DECISIONS WITH FATAL CONSEQUENCES

If you suspect someone is severely burnt out, and seems depressed, it’s important to pay attention to any signs that could signal suicidal thinking and planning. For example, if someone changes their behaviour in terms of social withdrawal, gives away their special possessions, or is clearly in a low and/or agitated mood for two to four weeks or more, it is important to watch and listen.

“They may not directly say they are suicidal, but comments like ‘The world would be a better place without me’ or regular selfdeprecation like ‘I’m such an idiot’ or ‘I can’t get anything right’ may be clues that they are depressed to the point of considering escape via suicide,” Linde says. “In the case of burnout, there may only be impaired performance and exhaustion, but there are thoughts and comments that will be significant and cause for alarm. For example, if someone would like to be in an accident or have a serious health issue just to have a rest from work – and I have heard both of these many times – it is a serious signal of burnout having developed into depression.”

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DEPRESSION CAN LEAD TO SUICIDE IF NOT MANAGED ADEQUATELY” Educating organisations on the signs of depression and burnout is the best first step. HR managers and CEOs cannot be aware of how everyone is feeling but team members are more familiar with each other’s behaviour and will more likely notice if there is a sudden change or if the symptoms mentioned start becoming regular.

“When people work in silos it is easier for burnout and depression to creep in unnoticed, or for a crisis to cause implosion due to lack of real or perceived support,” Linde says. “That’s why regular catch-ups, even when there is high pressure and it seems like a waste to have a two-minute chat, are helpful. This provides a sense of hope that there is a person who hears you, and could help when you feel stuck.”

Find a private psychologist or psychiatrist through www. therapist-directory.co.za. The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (www.sadag.org) also has referrals, advice, and a toll-free suicide crisis line (0800 567 567).

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ZAMBIA’S MUTATI “DOESN’T WANT THE HOLY TRINITY” Words Godfrey Mutizwa

Apart from presenting the country’s latest budget like he originated it, Mutati helped put the final touches to Zambia Plus, a homegrown growth plan that he has already presented to the International Monetary Fund in Washington and hopes will help restore and anchor investor confidence.

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The 57-year-old minister’s message to his countrymen is simple: “We need to change spending habits. You can’t spend what you don’t have.’’

And so he has gone about demonstrating that. In 2017, he wants the budget deficit down to 7% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), from about 10% in 2016. To plug that hole, he is raising taxes, slashing subsidies and pulling government funding of new projects, preferring public and private partnerships or concessions.

“We are saying in 2017 that the deficit mentality must change.

Let us make Zambia grow again for the future and the stumbling block is the deficit mentality. We need to disconnect from this deficit mentality.’’

It’s tough medicine for an economy that has had a hard landing.

From a high perch among Africa’s 10 fastest-growing economies post the new millennium, the country has seen growth more than

Felix Mutati

halve to an estimated 3% last year, from 7.1% two years earlier and a peak of 7.6% in 2010. That’s been reflected in what Mutati has called the holy trinity: the fiscal, current account and trade deficits.

It’s one biblical comparison Mutati, a devout Christian, doesn’t care much for.

“It’s a holy trinity we don’t want,’’ he told a business breakfast organised by the local unit of global advisory firm KMPG in Lusaka in November last year after presenting his maiden budget.

DOCTORING COPPER Africa’s second-biggest copper producer got into economic trouble quickly after its growth spurt. Economists blame unbridled borrowing during the commodities boom, poor policy choices by previous governments and southern Africa’s worst drought in 35 years.

In 2015 everything came to a head after a more than a doubling in the government’s fiscal deficit and the lowest copper prices in seven years as Chinese growth slowed at a time when government expenditure was accelerating. At the same time, the drought cut production of the staple maize and reduced electricity generation, hitting mines and industries.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

In just six weeks Felix Mutati, Zambia’s new Finance Minister, brought a new energy to an ailing economy that has business enthusing about the country’s economic prospects.

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Zambian commentators say it’s a situation the accountant in Mutati will analyse better than his predecessor Alex Chikwanda, who had served for the previous five years and under whose watch financial discipline had deteriorated.

“His more measured, analytical approach and frankly more business-friendly and modern approach to business will make a change from the rough gruff ABC who, despite being a wealthy businessman in his own right, never really dropped his suspicion of capitalism and exploiters…’’ wrote Brian Mulenga, a contributor to Zambia Reports, a Lusaka based news website.

THE POLITICAL HIGH WIRE

However, Mutati’s path to run the nation’s purse has not been straightforward and some say he remains politically vulnerable.

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. . . SLOWER REGIONAL AND GLOBAL ECONOMIC GROWTH, WHICH IS HURTING DEMAND FOR COPPER . . . ”

Until his appointment as Finance Minister by President Edgar Lungu after disputed elections in August last year, Mutati had been president of a faction of the opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy, a position he took uncontested last May. In the run-up to the elections, Mutati had aligned his faction with Lungu’s Patriotic Front.

It says it’s currently preparing what it called a Systematic Country Diagnostic, which will help improve understanding of how poverty reduction can be expedited and form the basis of the bank’s Country Partnership Framework from August 2016. It also notes Zambia is finalising its 7th National Development, which is key to life after copper.

He previously served as Minister of Energy and Water Development from 2002 to 2004 and as Trade and Commerce Minister from 2004 to 2011 when the MMD was in power.

“For example, by leveraging the joint potential of agriculture and tourism, the government can galvanise and stimulate diversification,’’ the bank said.

Before entering politics, Mutati, who studied accountancy in the UK, served as Finance Director of ZESCO, Zambia’s power utility, where he was credited with helping turn around the company’s financial fortunes. He first entered parliament in 2001 and was appointed Deputy Finance Minister the following year.

IT’S STRUCTURAL

On being appointed Finance Minister, Mutati said the country should embrace a programme with the International Monetary Fund and other development partners, rather than being afraid of it. He expects the programme will be in place by March of this year and says Zambia is negotiating from a position of strength.

HEADWINDS

But Africa Confidential says tough times lie ahead for Africa’s second-largest copper producer after the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The much-needed International Monetary Fund financial package... will be accompanied by drastic cutbacks and a drop in living standards,’’ according to the publication. “Major cuts to fuel, electricity and food subsidies are due…’’, it said, noting power shortages remain, amid elevated inflation levels and high interests.

The World Bank says the country continues to face external headwinds including slower regional and global economic growth, which is hurting demand for copper, still the nation’s largest foreign exchange earner at more than 70%. Moreover, the Washington-based lender sees production of the metal declining from 2019, making the case for diversification of the economy even more urgent.

The bank forecasts growth accelerating to 4% this year and 4.2% in 2018, buoyed by improvements in agriculture and mining.

For tax expert Benson Mubanga, the minister’s list of challenges is endless. He cites an inefficient civil service which leads to poor service delivery while at the same time it gobbles up more than half of the budget. In addition, revenue leaks continue to undermine government efforts to fund development.

“The auditor general’s report for 2015 shows a lot of funds misapplications, unretired imprest and unaccounted for funds,’’ Mubanga said. “This poses a challenges of fiscal discipline.’’

In addition, corruption and a lack of political will remain major challenges, Mubanga said. The increased tax rates in the budget may also hamper compliance, a point Mutati himself addresses when he speaks of the need to increase understanding between business and the government.

“Business must be built on mutual trust and confidence,’’ Mutati said in Kitwe, northern Zambia, the heartland of the country’s mainstay mining industry. The government ”... will continue expanding opportunities for minerals because the government is mindful that mining still remains key in the economy in contributing to the foreign exchange and job creation.’’

Mutati has built his messaging around simple ideas; the government would only be able to meet its political obligations when business thrived and the economy was healthy enough for it to levy taxes, he says. “I need you to thrive for me to thrive.’’

In Zambia’s mining sector, the lynchpin of the economy since independence, his message has struck a chord.

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“It’s early days but I have nothing to complain about yet,’’ Nathan Chishimba, President of the Zambia Chamber of Mines said.

“However we a need a stable mining environment.’’

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GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

DOING BUSINESS IN THE PHILIPPINES Words Kate Whitehead

The Philippines has the fastest-growing economy in Asia, even surpassing that of China. This comes as a surprise to those familiar with the region, not least of all because the country once carried the ominous title of the “sick man of Asia” thanks to the damaging economic policies rolled out during former President Ferdinand Marcos’s regime.

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Manila, Philippines

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. . . THREE OF US AGAINST THE WORLD: CHINA, PHILIPPINES AND RUSSIA. IT’S THE ONLY WAY” The Philippines economy grew 7% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2016, beating already optimistic forecasts and making the economic growth target of 6%-7% set by President Rodrigo Duterte – who assumed office in June last year – look eminently achievable.

But it’s not the Philippines economy that has been in the news. Rather it’s Duterte’s brutal anti-drug campaign making world headlines. He kicked off his presidency by encouraging the police and others to kill people they suspected of using or selling drugs. More than 4 500 people were killed by police and vigilantes in the first six months of his presidency.

The United Nations, European Union and United States condemned the programme and Duterte, who is known for not mincing his words, shot back calling President Obama “a son of a whore”.

Duterte’s relationship with the new US President Donald Trump is off to quite a different start. In December, Trump called Duterte and wished him success in his campaign against drugs. Both men are known for their blunt speech and populist positions and Duterte may well sense a kindred spirit, but he has made it clear that the Philippines’ future is with China. Speaking to business leaders in Beijing in October he said: “America has lost now. I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow. And maybe I will go to Russia and talk to Putin and tell him there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.”

TAMING INFLATION

It remains to be seen how the Philippines’ firebrand leader will guide the economy, but the country’s massive reversal of fortunes began long before he came on the scene. Oxford Business Group Managing Editor Paulius Kuncinas says the key was succeeding in stabilising inflation that in turn boosted investment and economic growth. He credits the change beginning with former president Gloria Arroyo (2001-2010) and with policies continued by the next president, Benigno Aquino (2010-2016).

“After the 2008 economic crisis, policy became very prudent in terms of the macro. It wasn’t just the Philippines that focused on stable foreign reserves, but they benefitted the most because previously they were seen as the basket case,” says Kuncinas.

Also working in the Philippines’ favour are its demographics. The population of 100 million is young with an average age of just 20, meaning that the country will continue to enjoy this demographic dividend for another 20 years. And unlike other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, the Philippines is not driven by manufacturing.

“You don’t experience the same kind of decline in output in a serviced-based economy. The BPO [business process outsourcing] sector starts with a simple call centre and then develops into more sophisticated back office supplies,” says Kuncinas.

The BPO sector now accounts for 10% of the country’s GDP and competes head on head with India in terms of value. Other key growth drivers are real estate, which has been red hot for several years, and the phenomenon known as the Overseas Foreign Worker (OFW), which accounts for more than another 10% of GDP. “They remit money back home which fuels consumption – the family can continue their lifestyle, upgrade their lifestyle. Those OFWs who have worked overseas for a while may have surplus money to build houses,” says Sharon Yam, Managing Director of TMF Philippines.

Kuncinas notes that the economy is driven by consumption – unlike China that is driven by investment – and this gives it protection during economic downturns. When the 2008 crisis hit, the Philippines didn’t suffer, which helped create a confidence that the country would continue to grow regardless of the challenges.

GROWING PAINS

All this sounds positive and exciting – and it is – but it must be kept in perspective. The Philippines is still a low-income country – the average wage is well below that of Indonesia and Thailand.

And the sudden growth has created a lot of pressure, particularly in the capital. Metro Manila has attracted millions of migrant workers and the city is permanently gridlocked. What’s more, the government was unprepared for the rush of migrants to the capital and lacks a master plan.

“The government lacks access to long-term money, so it can’t afford to invest in infrastructure. It’s way behind the rest of Asia in terms of infrastructure,” says Kuncinas.

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. . . PREVIOUSLY THEY WERE SEEN AS THE BASKET CASE ” Terrible traffic congestion means people in Metro Manila can sometimes spend three or four hours on their daily commute because they can’t afford to live in the centre where the offices are. This could be resolved if offices were moved outside the city centre which has begun happening in a small way. The focus on Metro Manila means that entire regions in the Philippines are underdeveloped, but investors continue to focus on the capital because the outer areas lack good roads and airports.

Yam agrees that more investment is needed: “The Philippines is a big country and it has enough resources to make it a better country, but that will be dependent on investment. It will come from inside – its own people – and from outside,” she says.

RED TAPE

Another challenge for investors coming in is negotiating the many rules and regulations surrounding business. Unlike places such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which are fairly transparent, bureaucracy in the Philippines can be complex.

“It’s a large country and there are a number of levels of bureaucracy so you need to have someone with local expertise to know and address issues,” says Yam. According to the constitution of the Phillipines – ratified in 1987 – foreign investors can’t own more than 49% of a company. For some this might be seen as a deterrent, a signal that it’s a closed economy. It’s certainly something for investors to consider going into the market.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

OPPORTUNITIES

Knowing the challenges, but with an eye on the phenomenal growth, where does the smart money go in the Philippines?

Kuncinas believes firmly that serviced-based sectors are the way to go and sees the Philippines becoming the service centre for Asia and the rest of the world. The key to a labour-intensive economy is to know how to unlock productivity. There is plenty of talent in the country and Filipinos have a strong work ethic, so foreign companies coming in should focus on hiring talent at competitive wages and bring in the technology and training to develop managers.

“If I were a foreign company I’d look for a business model where you bring in your own unique solution, you find the talent, you recruit them and you expand,” says Kuncinas.

He sees an excellent opportunity for ASEAN businesses that often have regional companies but tend to be poorly integrated.

For example, a bank in Singapore or Malaysia might need to outsource some of their back office and need skilled people who are not available in their country. Another good business opportunity would be to set up a call centre or business centre for the engineering, gas or oil industry.

Kuncinas also expects to see the call centre business model become more sophisticated and branch out into the legal and health sectors. For example, a business might process health scans, analyse X-rays or read a diagnosis and give immediate advice on the phone.

“Basically anything that can be done remotely – the time zones don’t matter because Filipinos are very flexible,” says Kuncinas.

Training is a potential challenge. The Philippines has a talented workforce with good education – almost everyone speaks English – but there is an issue about skill set.

“There is a mismatch between what the universities teach and what the market needs. That gap can be filled by vocational training centres or training on the job – it’s not insurmountable, but it’s a challenge,” says Kuncinas.

TOURISM

Another good area for business investment is tourism. The Philippines has the potential to be in the same league as Thailand and Indonesia in terms of tourism, says Kuncinas. The Filipinos are naturally warm and friendly people and the hospitality culture is strong, making it a good place to visit, although the drawback remains infrastructure. Better roads and more airports would open up more of the country to visitors and the tourist dollar.

This is already happening. TMF Group is receiving more requests from clients – mostly from the Asia region – looking to establish hotels in the Philippines.

“They are targeting tourists and also the business traveller market. There are a growing number of people coming regularly to the Philippines to do business so this is a market to watch,” she says.

Looking at the big picture, the future looks good. Kuncinas is very bullish on the Philippines and believes the sweet spot will last another decade, but he urges the government not to sit back.

“They need to recalibrate and focus less on consumption and services. I would like to see more investment in infrastructure.

There are also opportunities in mining, some resources to be explored,” he says.

ETIQUETTE

Don’t expect snappy decision-making in the Philippines.

Businesses usually operate under a hierarchical management style and information must be passed up the food chain to the top decision-maker.

dynamic markets

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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

White Beach in Boracay, the Philippines

Filipinos are known for having a rather relaxed approach to timekeeping and may not always be punctual. On first meeting you will be expected to exchange business cards that you should present and receive with both hands. Most Filipinos have two names – a full name and a nickname. On first meeting, use their formal name and title to show that you understand their position in the company and after that you will most likely be invited to call them by their nickname.

As in many Asian cultures, the concept of “face” is important. In a business context – and socially, too – never publicly contradict or criticise someone. If you show anger or disagreement towards a business contact this will cause them to lose face and will not only upset that person but also negatively impact the relationship. If you have an issue with someone, it’s best to take the person aside and discreetly discuss it with them or else use an intermediary.

Likewise, Filipinos avoid confrontation and are more likely to give an indirect answer than a flat-out no. This is all part of saving face. Try to keep an even temper during negotiations and

if you’re not getting a straight answer to a direct question look out for body language and tone as indicators of which way the wind is blowing. To hasten the decision-making process, it could be worth detailing the tasks required on each side in a written document and presenting that.

.

Connections and trust are important to Filipinos so take the time to get to know your business contacts and try to avoid switching members of your team midway through a project or negotiation

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MORE INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE”

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dynamic markets

EIGHT PLACES TO GO IN THE PHILIPPINES Words Kate Whitehaed

When the business is done, take some time for yourself to explore a magical part of the planet.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Soft white sand, dazzling water and knockout sunsets – it’s little wonder that Boracay is arguably the Philippines’ top beach destination, drawing beach-lovers from around the world. The four kilometre-long White Beach, lined with restaurants, hotels and dive shops is the top draw. If you’re after a quieter, less-developed stretch of sand to lay your towel then head north to the picturesque Diniwid Beach. It’s only a short walk or quick tricycle ride from the White Beach throng, but worlds apart in terms of vibe.

VIGAN

There’s nothing else like it in the Philippines, a throwback to Spanish colonial days when horse-drawn carriages clipclopped through the streets. The architecture dates back to the 16th century and combines cultural elements from Europe, the Philippines and China resulting in a culture and townscape you won’t find anywhere else in Asia. No wonder it’s the Philippines’ first – and only – UNESCO World Heritage City.

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK

BORACAY

dynamic markets

CHOCOLATE HILLS

BANAUE RICE TERRACES

MAYON VOLCANO

CEBU

EL NIDO

TUBBATAHA REEF

This series of hills in Bohol – a short ferry ride from Cebu – looks like giant mole hills. In the dry, dry season the green grass turns brown, giving the hills a chocolate colour and earning them their moniker. The more than 1 700 hills are about 20 to 30-metres high and spread over 20 square miles. There is no consensus on how they were formed, but the most commonly accepted theory is that they are the weathered formations of marine limestone on top of a layer of impermeable clay.

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK

This is the world’s most perfect cone-shaped volcano. It is also one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines – there have been 49 eruptions since the first documented activity in 1616, the worst of which was in 1814 when 1 200 people were killed. Towering almost 8 000 feet above sea level, it can be seen from miles around so you don’t need to worry about getting too close to enjoy it.

If you enjoyed the karst scenery of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam or Krabi in the Philippines you will love El Nido, which is made up of 45 islands and islets. The main town is packed with restaurants and beachside bars, but splash a little cash and stay somewhere absolutely stunning and more remote in the archipelago where the water is so clear you can see the fish in the sea.

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Brought to the Philippines about 2 000 years ago by the Chinese, the mud-walled rice terraces are World Heritage listed. It’s also a chance to learn about the Ifugao tribe that were once headhunters and built the terraces. Directly accessible from Manila, Banaue can get rather overrun by tourists, but its easy to escape the crowd by going to nearby villages such as Kambulo and Pula which have their own terraces.

If Manila seems overwhelming try Cebu. The second-largest city in the Philippines, it has the noise, energy and buzz of the capital, but is more manageable. Once you get past the loud horns of the jeepneys and taxi fumes there is much to explore.

Cebu has a rich history with plenty of historical sites, churches, temples and museums worth visiting. And in the evening check out the nightlife at the upscale Lahug district.

Several miles off the coast of Palawan Island, this is considered by many to be the ultimate spot for diving. There are two huge coral reefs separated by a eight-kilometre channel to explore and more than 500 fish species. Expect to see turtles, manta rays, eagle rays, blacktip reef sharks and even hammerhead sharks. The best time to visit is from March to June

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entrepreneurship

CO-WORKING TAKES ROOT Words Sean Christie

Paul Keursten: the Dutchman driving the co-working phenomenon in SA

Paul Keursten, Mark Seftel, Westleigh Wilkinson

entrepreneurship

As one of the many new fronts of the vaunted fourth industrial revolution, co-working has become a close word associate of entrepreneurism. Certainly, many entrepreneurs have come out in favour of co-working set-ups, but are we to automatically regard those who drive co-working initiatives as entrepreneurs themselves? Stripped of the expensive coffee machines and colourful chairs, most co-working initiatives are little more than a straightforward real estate play – rentable office space dressedup. And as with any phenomenon that consistently falls short of its claims to originality, there is a fairly high risk of regression, with associated financial losses.

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WHAT THE CORAL REEF IS TO SEA LIFE, WE WANT TO BE FOR HUMAN IDEAS AND INNOVATION . . . ”

But an hour with Utrecht-based entrepreneur and co-working apostle Paul Keursten convinced this sceptic that the initiatives at the interesting end of the alternative workspace movement are onto something profound and important.

them,” he said, adding that, unlike most co-working initiatives, OPEN also offers corporate memberships, so that corporate employees “can choose to work around people and ideas they would never ordinarily come into contact with”.

I caught up with Keursten in Workshop17 at the V&A Waterfront’s Watershed. Workshop17 is a a 2 500m2 co-working hub managed on behalf of the V&A Waterfront by OPEN, the business Keursten founded together with Mark Seftel in 2011, and soon afterwards developed its first co-working space in Maboneng, Johannesburg.

Tall, bespectacled and softly spoken, he offered me a choice of the facilities for our interview: two seminar rooms for up to 70 people, two large rooms for up to 20 people, four 6-seater rooms, the open-access central domain with its coffee shop and free work stations, or any number of booths within the glassed-off members’ area.

Borrowed metaphors are worrisome, and so I decided to deploy my most challenging observation, which is that traditional business model thinking does not attach any value to communities, however coral reef-like they might be. This, I said, surely dimmed OPEN’s prospects of attracting any real investment.

I opted for a member booth, and made a show of settling into the sumptuous cushioning.

“User-friendliness is important to us,” said Keursten, looking a little self-conscious.

“We do strive to offer the best of lighting, acoustics, Internet speed, ergonomics, coffee and so forth, but we’re not into aesthetic for the sake of it. If people were continually saying I really love this space, can I get the name of your architect, we would have failed in terms of our aims.”

LIKE CORAL

The primary aim at OPEN is the “creation of collaborative communities of professionals”, something Keursten believes the traditional office set-up cannot foster. I said I was familiar with the argument: that data, software and the uptake of smart devices have fundamentally changed the ways in which we work, but that the spaces in which we work haven’t adapted.

“That’s part of it,” said Keursten, “but in fact the traditional office was stifling innovation long before technology expanded the field of options. Traditional offices are all about exclusivity, which does not foster innovation. A big inspiration for us is the work of Steven Johnson, author of the book Where Good Ideas Come From. He begins with the example of the coral reef, and explains that so much life flourishes in these spaces because the coral reef is a non-judgemental system where a variety of species live and thrive in close proximity. What the coral reef is to sea life, we want to be for human ideas and innovation, and to this end we have aimed to attract dynamic individuals, start-ups and incubators into a space designed to facilitate interaction between

Keursten answered with a clever simile.

“If a community is thriving, it will grow itself. In that sense it’s like software: if you have a great platform, and it creates traction, you will attach a higher value to it. We’re like the software of property,” he said, and he might well have had in mind the example of shared office space start-up WeWork Cos., which in March 2016 claimed a company valuation of US$16billion – vastly higher than a host of more traditional landlords with far larger property holdings, thanks to the way that WeWork has convinced tens of thousands of its members that they are participating in a new way of being in the world (enabling WeWork to essentially sell lifestyle, on top of workspace).

LEARNING AND WORKING

There is no question of OPEN seeking to emulate WeWork, however, for the simple reason that Keursten was playing with the principles of co-working as an Education Technology undergraduate in the late 80s, when WeWork founder Adam Neumann was still in primary school.

Workshop 17, V&A Waterfront

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entrepreneurship

. . . THE BEST WORK IS DONE

BY AUTONOMOUS PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN NETWORKS . . . ” “We believed then what people now know to be true: that the best work is done by autonomous professionals working in networks, where relationships are based on reciprocal appeal. We felt that enabling these sorts of people would require new kinds of systems, platforms and spaces,” he said.

Workshop17, V&A Waterfront

“From the outset of my studies I felt I could learn as much or more in the work environment as I could from my lessons, and was constantly looking for ways to combine paid work with study,” he said.

“My Master’s degree at the University of Twente, for example, was based on work I had been doing for a client – focusing on how to innovate teaching and learning with the introduction of computers. On the strength of this work I was accepted as a PhD candidate, to further my research,” he said.

After completing his Master’s his clients stayed with him and some new clients joined, in spite of his light experience and limited professional network. Based on this, Keursten received the support of what would now be referred to as his university’s “incubator set-up”.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

In practice this meant that the University of Twente essentially kickstarted the setting up, in 1989, of Keursten’s first business, which he named Profound.

“I focused on what I could do, and never pretended to know what I did not know. This was a life lesson. These days you see lots of young people trying too hard to appear senior, but I preferred to tell clients that if I was not going to learn through the process of our engagement, I wouldn’t be doing my job well. I built my consultancy on the belief that curiosity is a far better driver than experience,” he said.

In 1996 Keursten joined forces with two education scientists called Joseph Kessels and Cora Smit, who shared his aim of breaking down the barriers to knowledge accumulation and application within workspaces. Together they founded Kessels&Smit, which was soon a 50-consultant organisation with a presence in three European countries.

“We wanted to become a company without managers or hierarchy of any kind, based on the principles of personal entrepreneurship and reciprocity,” said Keursten.

Kessels&Smit became its own laboratory, in part by developing an open, non-hierarchical office. It was an experience that inspired Keursten to found, in 2007, the first co-working office space in the Netherlands: Maliebaan45.

MABONENG

In the same year business brought Keursten to South Africa, where he met the property developer Jonathan Liebmann, then in the process of developing an arts, hospitality and retail hub in downtown Johannesburg called Maboneng. Liebmann introduced him to Mark Seftel, who was considering setting up a workspace for technology professionals. They joined forces and founded OPEN Maboneng. Westleigh Wilkinson joined as third partner, adding considerable eventing and operational expertise. “We were fully aware we needed to self-start and self-fund our first space, to move beyond talk and show what we could achieve,” said Keursten. “OPEN Maboneng became both our laboratory and our brochure,” he said. The Workshop17 opportunity arose from OPEN Maboneng, and Keursten believes this is just the beginning.

“Our three-year strategy will see expansion in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Co-working hubs are also planned for Philippi and other less-privileged areas. We’re not expanding just for the sake of profit, but rather because our principles require that we grow and diversify our community, because the most incredible things happen when people from different backgrounds collide,” said Keursten, draining a cup of Rooibos.

I left Workshop17 impressed by Keursten’s experience and ambition, but a little concerned about the distance between his appealing vision and South African reality. In late 2016, as I was completing this article, I was delighted to learn that OPEN had entered into a partnership with Growthpoint Properties, which will see co-working hubs established in multiple locations in the Western Cape, Gauteng and Durban, totalling some 20 000m2 of space. This is the biggest local deal of its kind, and hard evidence that the revolution could well be stirring

.

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The merSETA is the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority, established through the Skills Development Act of 1998 (as amended). The merSETA facilitates skills development in the following sub-sectors: Metal and Engineering, Auto Manufacturing, Motor Retail and Components Manufacturing, New Tyre Manufacturing and Plastics Manufacturing.

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strategy

UNKNOWABILITY AND UNCERTAINTY Words Professor Adrian Saville

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Mike Tyson is not the most obvious person to go to for a business insight but perhaps if you say enough things eventually you will say something wise and informed. To this end, Tyson has a lovely observation where he says “Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth”.

If you think of the events of the past year, there’s no business that started the year without a set of expectations or without a set of plans about what was likely to materialise without some shock or surprise being inflicted. If anything, from a South African perspective, the year started filled with anxiety, most obviously fuelled by Nenegate of December 2015. But there were many other instances and examples of punches to the face for business that came in the form of currency volatility, interest rate hikes and sluggish economic growth.

It might be fair to talk about these types of events as “uncertain”, in that we know the economy will be in some shape but whether that shape is going to be feeble, reasonable or robust is a probabilistic result. In this way, there is a given probability that the South African economy might deliver low economic growth and stubborn price inflation, as it did in 2016. And from this it follows that different economic outcomes correspond with specific business effects and impacts.

But beyond uncertainty, we also need to throw into the mix what economists refer to as “unknowability”. These are events that are not so much low likelihood but almost impossible to imagine. Here we start to reach in the direction of recent events like the ascendance in South Africa of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

If we go back five years or so, and we had posed the question “Which party will make the biggest gains in South Africa’s municipal elections in 2016 and what are the policy implications from a business planning perspective?” it’s not unlikely that the EFF would have been named, it is entirely improbable. The same goes for a grander example in the case of the United States: if we went back to November 2015, and were asked to name the candidates who would be in the run-off for the presidential election a year later and identify the policy implications of their respective victories, neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump would have made an appearance in almost any scenario.

. . . RECOGNISE THAT BEYOND ‘RISK’ AND ‘UNCERTAINTY’ THERE IS ‘UNKNOWABILITY.”

The implication for business planning and the construction of effective strategy is to recognise that beyond “risk” and “uncertainty” there is “unknowability”.

Going into 2017, then, and perhaps on the relatively grand assumption that South Africa would have navigated or negotiated the last parts of 2016, it stands to reason that building a business for the new year, or for any year, for that matter, demands that some time is given to thinking about

strategy

economic landscapes, the layout of the environment and possible outcomes.

We call this ‘scenario planning’ and it’s important in putting together any business strategy.

But we also need to build businesses that are capable of weathering and withstanding the additional element of unknowability, things that are simply beyond forecastable.

Unimaginable, for the sake of a term.

On this front, there is a wide and growing body of evidence built out of our research that is based on more than 5 000 international businesses and over 1 000 South African companies that point to ingredients that are common to firms that are outliers when it comes to effective economic navigation. Whilst the elements are wide-ranging many of them also tend to defy conventional wisdom. For instance, the better navigators tend to run fat balance sheets; they don’t “hire guns”; they take lots of small bets rather than having “one grand goal”; they shy away from

large corporate transactions; and rather than trying to acquire growth, they favour organic growth.

Once effectively armed, navigating into the unknown invariably makes for more effective strategy and happier business journeys. Considering then the economic environment, and scenarios that might materialise in the near future, probably the single biggest factor to worry about from a business perspective is the Trump story.

Trump threatens a more insular United States, relatively slower world trade, more aggressive fiscal policy which will be good for the United States in the short term but bad long term, a more generous Federal reserve bank, which also would be good for the economy short term and not so good long term. For these reasons, the world under Trump looks a bit like a two-legged animal that moves fast in the very near term, slower in the long term from the perspective of the United States and, from a global perspective, net-net, the impact is negative. Add into that issues

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going on in Europe, where we see rising disenchantment with income inequality, entrenched unemployment, especially youth unemployment, and sluggish economic growth. This cocktail makes for a tough global economic environment.

In this negative commentary there are some flashes of positive from a South African perspective; this is important given that economic growth is the single most important fuel for company earnings in aggregate. But from a South African perspective, going into 2017, it looks like interest rates have peaked; consumer price inflation is slowing and might have a 4-number in front of it by the end of the year; commodity prices have improved; and all else equal, South African businesses are actually being offered a modest tailwind from what look set to be slightly better economic circumstances in 2017 than 2016.

As always, the real trick is to build business not for better times or bad times but for all economic times. Because that’s the world in which we live.

COMPETITION

MY OWN LIBERATOR This is your chance to win one of three signed copies of My Own Liberator, the justpublished autobiography of the former Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa, Dikgang Moseneke. It’s his life story, which mirrors the birth of the new South Africa, as well as a superb discourse on the fundamental principles of justice, politics and humanity.

To enter and stand a chance of winning a signed copy of My Own Liberator read our Cover Story on page 22, and answer the following questions:

Question 3: Dikgang Moseneke became Chairman and, for a period, acting CEO of which major South African telecommunications company?

Question 1: How old was Dikgang Moseneke Send your answers and contact details in 1963 when he was sentenced to 10 years by email to gibbonsc@gibs.co.za before imprisonment on Robben Island?

28 March 2017. All correct entries will be entered into a draw, which will be conducted Question 2: During the 1990-94

by GIBS Dean, Professor Nicola Kleyn. The negotiations which led to democracy, name of the winners will be published in the Dikgang Moseneke was second deputy next edition of Acumen president of which political party?

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future

ARE YOU AN AMBIDEXTROUS BUSINESS LEADER? Words Dion Chang

When delving into business's New World Order, there's a common struggle most business leaders are grappling with: bridging the divide between the old rules of business and the always shifting, and yet to be formalised, rules of the new.

This requires implementing what appears to be conflicting strategies simultaneously.

Say “Hello” to the concept of ambidextrous leadership.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

The C-Suite today feels less like a charming gentleman’s club of yesteryear (thankfully), and more like a not-so-slow lounge in a busy airport. Transience is the name of the game, in terms of business strategy, as well as the human capital that moves more rapidly and frequently, in and out of a company. These days simply running your business and keeping your head above water is a feat in itself, but in an age of constant disruption, this is not enough. The pace of change is accelerating, and curve balls seem to come from different sources, but fundamentally you can boil it down to three overarching challenges that all companies are grappling with – and none are simple “quick fixes”. They are like tectonic plates grinding underfoot. We can feel the tremors incrementally changing the business landscape, but so many companies only react when the earthquake hits.

Firstly, in a digital era every company, without exception, is having to merge institutional knowledge with new, high-tech implementation. It’s not only the challenge of merging the two but also the knock-on effect it will inevitably have on your organisational structure (OS) and skills requirements. Let’s call that the aftershock.

Secondly, there is a subtle but fundamental shift in the nature of what your business does. For example, technology and digitisation are having a remarkable ripple effect on the scale of marginal costs. Products are becoming cheaper and more abundant and with that many industries are shifting their mindset from selling products to providing solutions. However, selling solutions implies an integration of your product as well as a more focused approach on services. This again has a knock-on effect on your OS as well as skill sets.

The third challenge is more intangible: a parallel shift in mindset of moving from a purely sales-based company culture, to one

that is more values based. This is where the danger lies, as most business leaders brush this challenge off as “not fundamental to business”, but it has been proved that in this day and age companies need to pursue a purpose that goes beyond just a blind obsession with the bottom line. (I can hear all CFOs choking on their coffee as they read this, and therefore recommend they download the Havas “Project Superbrand” prosumer report). [http://mag.havas.com/prosumer-report/superbrand].

LEARN TO JUGGLE

In their new book, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma, co-authors, Charles O’Reilly and Michael Tushman, maintain that today, “companies don’t generally fail because of competition; it’s out-of-touch leadership that kills them”. They suggest leaders adopt an “ambidextrous approach”: continuing to invest in existing products or services while simultaneously cultivating a hunger to experiment, adapt and grow by innovating in new areas.

That’s easier said than done, but this is why innovative thinking in leadership has become so crucial for businesses today.

Are you this ambidextrous business leader? And by that I don’t mean being able to write with both hands, but rather, are you able to juggle seemingly inconsistent or contradictory business strategies simultaneously?

future

Kick-starting a future strategy for your business seems like a luxury when daily operations are this challenging, but truth be told, future-proofing your business has now become a priority.

Understandably, most leaders are quite happy to stick to their current formula that (seems) to be working just fine, and dismiss new innovation strategies as a waste of time and money, because “fundamentally it’s the same as what we’re doing now”. However, this is becoming a characteristic of highly inert organisations: they don’t view innovation – which could lead to pivoting the business model – as important. Running two, seemingly inconsistent, strategies in tandem is what is so paradoxical to leaders. It’s a waste of time and precious resources. Or is it?

The three challenges I’ve identified are undercurrents that are building momentum, and these are the same undercurrents that will erode your seemingly stable foundations on which your company sits. In terms of business disruption, history is repeating itself. The technology is more advanced but industries are being hit with the same force that the industrial revolution wielded in the century before last.

Take for example the challenges that railway companies faced in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Trains were invented in 1805, the first car was produced in 1885, and the first flight carrying passengers took off in 1914. Railway companies had a transport monopoly for nearly a century (just like legacy companies of today) and that made them complacent. They failed to preempt the impact of cars and passenger airlines because they defined their function and purpose too narrowly. They focused on the assets they had built up rather than what they could do with those assets (hear any warning bells yet?). They saw themselves as railway companies rather than transportation companies.

Today this sounds uncannily like what Uber has done, in turn, to the transportation industry.

Ironically, we’re still not learning these valuable lessons as history repeats itself. Today’s technological curve balls seem more complex, but in essence, the disruption is just faster and more ruthless.

BRAND AUDIT

The key to starting to think like an ambidextrous leader is to first audit your business’s purpose or brand identity. Again, most leaders think this unnecessary. I’m not sure why, because if you look at the three aforementioned challenges, it is very shortsighted not to think that your business template might need pivoting. It could be a small or large pivot, but an essential pivot nonetheless.

Reviewing your business’s purpose or identity will most likely have a ripple effect on the future trajectory of your business model. It’s a bit like renovating a room in your home. Once that room is spruced up, you immediately notice that the rest of the house needs attention, and so starts the domino effect. In business, the ripple effect starts with identifying disruption, then to reassessing the skill sets needed to meet the disruption, followed by rethinking the operating system – and culture – of your business. At home, it’s just a case of aesthetics, but in business if you don’t refresh and rethink your company’s purpose, the road to being outdated and irrelevant is swift.

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. . . FUTURE-PROOFING YOUR BUSINESS HAS NOW BECOME A PRIORITY” When interviewed about the book, Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator’s Dilemma, co-author Michael Tushman maintains that, “the most effective ambidextrous organizations get identity (i.e.: purpose) on the table fast. Once you do that, it is then possible to host internally inconsistent organisational architectures and to build linking mechanisms that help the company leverage common capabilities.”

However, he leaves a bitter pill for leadership to swallow when embarking on an ambidextrous approach: “If you just do identity without the structure or if you just do the strategy without the identity, it doesn’t work. In terms of the pragmatics of doing this, the senior teams need to talk.”

CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT

“The secret sauce is dialogue: Articulate the vision and the strategy and talk about the challenges in doing it. In every single negative example (listed in the book), it’s because the leadership team doesn’t have the ability to talk about and adjudicate and deal with the challenges of contradiction.”

And his parting shot? “The reason explorers get squashed is that the powerful side of the organisation crushes the future.

They crush it because fundamentally, the senior team doesn’t get the strategic importance or paradox; of being consistently inconsistent”.

In many large corporates you frequently hear the criticism that “the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing”. That was already symptomatic and problematic in an Old World Order.

In a New World Order that kind of company culture simply adds insult to injury. The shocking reality is that I see it on a daily basis when presenting future business trends to corporates. Resistance to change is ubiquitous – even when presented with evidence of on-coming disruption – as is the complacency that the company has weathered storms before.

When faced with that resistance I always remind leadership that in a digital era, one’s skills become obsolete at 40. A low blow – because most senior management is over 40 – but it’s also a harsh reality of our digital age. The Japanese even have a word to counter skills obsolescence. They call it “kaizen”: meaning “improvement”. When used in the business sense, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions of a business and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers.

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So ask yourself, “Just how good are your juggling skills?” In terms of “kaizen” learning to juggle might just be the most valuable skill you could master for the future of your company

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TSAR PERFORMER Words Caroline Hurry

Russia's royal city, St. Petersburg, is all about over-the-top opulence, Baroque palaces, art, and a high-minded culture. It’s Peter the Great’s living legacy.

You can traverse five subway lines, 67 stations, and 3 000 trains for just 35 Rubles (R7.50). Near the Narvskaya station, the 1814 Narva Triumphal Gate celebrates Russia’s victory over Napoleon.

Another must-stop is Nevsky Prospect on the Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya line, which is to St. Petersburg what the ChampsÉlysées is to Paris – the main pulsing artery lined with 18th century homes, neoclassical monuments and palaces.

More than 2 300 contemporary works at the Erarta Museum of Modern Art on the River Neva’s north bank offer a glimpse

into the hearts of the people, but it’s the Hermitage – Europe’s greatest art collection in four palaces stretching for 1.6km along the Neva banks – that tourists come from far and wide to see. You could spend a minute at each exhibit – more than 3 million of them – and you’d still need six years to see everything, according to our Tour de Force guide.

A hymn to sky-lit atriums, ceiling frescoes, chandeliers, marble statues, antique furniture, clocks and other priceless treasures, the Hermitage began as the private art collection of the Romanovs in the 18th century. Think key works by Da Vinci, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Titian, Monet, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Gauguin, Seurat, Pissarro, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso.

Better still, book a small private tour into the Treasure Room to see Siberian artifacts, Scythian gold from seven to four centuries BC, and a saddle cloth encrusted with 16 000 diamonds – a gift to Nicolas I from a sultan. You wonder about the nature of their

friendship in the face of such beneficence or do royals fling cash on impractical geegaws just for mos? Here, have a peacock clock...

OTT Peter Carl Fabergé’s exquisite trinkets at the eponymous museum within the Shuvalov Palace provide further proof of excessive royal expenditure. But nowhere is this more in evidence than at Catherine’s Palace in Pushkin, and Peterhof Palace in (er,) Peterhof. Both royal residences make today’s yacht-owning oligarchs look like cut-rate cheapskates.

Situated next to the Lyceum, alma mater of Alexander Pushkin, immortalised in bronze, Catherine’s Palace is the town’s main attraction.

A brass band entertains the waiting crowd outside the palatial gates with some nifty footwork in time to their Tchaikovsky tunes.

Being part of a package group means never having to queue, so we swept in with alacrity.

PHOTOS: SAINT PETERSBURG COMMITTEE FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

Start at Saint Petersburg’s metro, the world’s deepest underground. Descend into a subterranean art gallery, filled with chandeliers, marble pillars, intricate mosaics, and statues depicting collective farm workers from Kiev, Minsk and Siberia in the old Soviet Union. Opened in 1955, the stations – such as the 85m-deep Admiralteyskaya – doubled as bomb shelters during the Cold War, hence the big blast doors and air filters.

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Empress Elizabeth renovated this 1km2 white, gold and turquoise edifice – named after her mother Catherine I – using 100kg of gold on the Rococo roof alone. Domes and crosses twinkle like tsars over ponds, pavilions, marble statues, manicured lawns, and elaborate Baroque facades. Elizabeth really excelled at spending money. And this is just her summer residence!

Hawk-eyed babushkas dish out shoe covers to protect acres of decorative flooring and the grand marble staircase you ascend like Jacob’s ladder to a heavenly hall where a monumental fresco covers the ceiling.

Sunlight sparkling on gilt-framed mirrors amplifies the brilliance of the golden carvings and reclining cupids. Lapis lazuli, jasper and malachite line room after room but most spectacular is the Amber Chamber that Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli created in 1770 using 450kg of amber – a present to Peter the Great from Frederick of Prussia. German troops purloined the priceless panels in 1941. Gift envy? Who knows, but the amber was never seen again.

PETERHOF

Like Catherine’s bastion, the Peterhof Palace – an hour’s drive from Petersburg – was almost destroyed in World War II and restored by the Russians.

Here, it’s the Grand Cascade – modelled after Versailles – that will make you gasp.

Think three thundering waterfalls, 67 fountains and 37 golden statues including a huge rendering of Samson ripping a lion’s jaws to represent Russia’s victory over Sweden in the Great North War. Amid the epic gardens – brimming with marble statues, manicured paths, ornamental ponds, and trees – trick fountains spray unsuspecting visitors. You can imagine Peter the Great – a practical joker, by all accounts – chortling away as drenched noble women sank onto benches nearby, only to be sprayed again. Now giggling children set off the fountains with glee.

Back in the city, two golden landmarks dominate the St. Petersburg skyline – the 21.8m dome of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the 122.5m spire of Peter & Paul Fortress and Cathedral. St. Isaac’s French designer, Auguste Montferrand, fell from the dome scaffolding in 1837. Workers caught him just before he hit the ground – enough to turn any man religious, I’d say.

When lightning struck the Peter & Paul Cathedral, a peasant volunteered to touch up the gold leaf on the vertigo-inducing spire. Peter the Great rewarded his bravery with a neck tattoo that entitled him to imbibe freely in any of the city’s taverns.

The man died five years later from alcohol poisoning.

All the Romanovs lie here in marble tombs, including Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their children, butchered by Bolsheviks in 1918.

I haven’t even touched on the Church of Spilled Blood, the spectacular ballet, the dazzling array of restaurants, or the generosity of the Russian people that felt like a bear hug. There’s so much to see in this gorgeous city. Just go!

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PHOTOS: SAINT PETERSBURG COMMITTEE FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Between 1982 and 2003, the Amber Room was recreated at a cost of $12 million. This time around, icy glares seem to preclude

a second theft. Photographs, too, are forbidden and watching a barking babushka berate an errant foreigner for whipping out his selfie-stick provided a frisson of schadenfreude.

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Caroline Hurry was a guest of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development. (www.visit-petersburg.ru/en) Tour de Force (www.tourdeforce.travel) can devise any itinerary from scratch. Accommodation: The Grand Emerald Hotel www.grandhotelemerald.com/en).

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THE FINER THINGS Words Cheska Stark

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

HIS CHECKLIST 1.

Skinny-fit stretch cotton trousers, R499, Woolworths Your weekday wardrobe just got a whole lot more comfortable, yet stylish too, with these versatile cotton skinny pants.

2.

Clarins Men Shave Ease Oil, R295, Red Square This oil is used post shave to ease any burning and is especially great for sensitive skin.

3.

Ray-Ban sunglasses, R2 290, Sunglass Hut Channel your inner Top Gun character with these classic avaiator sunglasses.

4.

Wallet, R450, Old Khaki Updating your wallet isn’t something that men do often – you usually wait for Christmas don’t you? Well December is long gone so update your wallet yourself.

5.

Lace-up work shoes, R1 099, Thread & Miller Wow! This shoe’s worn-toe look gets you away from those super shiny models and its contrast in colours creates interest.

6.

Socks, R149, Happy Socks at Spree It’s time to have some fun with your workwear so cool socks are the way to go.

7.

Denim Shirt, R2 899, Scotch & Soda A denim shirt is that one item that you have to own season after season. Pair it with everything, dress it up or down.

8.

Golf tee, R1 199, Superdry This cool tee is bold and branded but that's quite on-trend for a more casual look. Embrace the lasting bits of summer while it's still here.

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HER CHECKLIST 1.

Jean Paul Gaultier Classique EDP, from R1 230, Red Square Expect top notes of rum essence while the sophisticated vanilla, orchid and daffodils are also there. It’s the sweetness from amber, sandalwood, tonka bean and bourbon vanilla which make it so well known.

2.

Leaf-print split-neck dress, R380, Woolworths If you don’t know that all things leafy and tropical are a trend right now then you have seriously been living under a rock. This particular dress can easily transition you between the seasons.

3.

Dolce & Gabbana sunnies, R3 490, Sunglass Hut Yes these make a statement! But a super stylish statement at that.

4.

Off-the-shoulder knit, R999, Witchery Get that seventies feeling. This nude knit is a perfect way to embrace the trend for the cooler weather. Wear this with a pencil skirt to work or jeans for weekend playtime.

5.

Earrings, R2 640, Kirsten Goss There isn’t a South African designer that we love more than Kirsten Goss. She simply knows how to create items of luxury which have a fun twist.

These earrings will add a pop of colour to your style as the days turn cooler.

6.

Watch, R329, Factorie Sometimes it is fun to play around with lessexpensive watches. We love this two-tone one’s playful strap.

7.

Parka, R1 299, Billabong For me, a parka is one of my most worn items each winter. It’s such an easy, casual look that looks well put together yet effortless.

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Mug, R169.99, Typo Have a little fun with your office coffee mug. Typo has some great finds: “Procaffeinating” has got to be one of our favourites.

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FORWARD MOTION Photographs Jacques Marais Words Jacques Marais and Stephen Smith

With or without an internal combustion motor, here are half-a-dozen ways to get ahead (and stay ahead) of the pack. Funky or fun. Far-fetched or absurd. Classic or alternative. Acumen’s motion maestros check out six incredible ways of having fun while moving from point A to point B…

HUMAN-POWERED

ON YOUR HEAD – EXTREME LIGHTS ASCENT LED RECHARGEABLE HEADLAMP WHAT IS IT: A headlamp with a large and adjustable hotspot, and boasting a beam of up to 159m. And with up to 180 hours of ‘run’ time, it is the perfect ‘run’ light.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: The incredible combo of extended battery life, minimal weight and up to 220 (REAL) Lumen makes the Ascent a brilliant – if you’ll excuse the pun – choice for ultra long-distance runners.

This light is particularly handy for those times you don’t have access to electricity out in the wilds, as it operates with 3 x AA batteries. The unit is super-light and offers increased visibility through a red light and reflective tape on the rear.

GIANT ANTHEM ADVANCED 27.5” 1 (2017) WHAT IS IT: The legendary Giant Anthem Advanced 27.5” 1 mountain bike returns to conquer today’s increasingly aggressive XC terrain. The 2017 model boasts some massive upgrades and improvements, making it the ideal machine for high-performance XC riders keen to minimise weight without sacrificing efficiency, suspension performance or control.

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: This 6th generation of the award-winning Anthem series continues the legacy of the cross-country Maestro suspension experience. Featuring an updated platform with 110mm of rear suspension travel and 120mm up front – not to mention the superior all-round performance of 27.5 inch wheels – this cuttingedge race bike has been updated for better efficiency and improved control on all terrain.

ON YOUR WAY – SCICON AEROCOMFORT MTB BIKE TRAVEL BAG WHAT IS IT: The Scicon AeroComfort MTB Bike Travel Bag is the only bike bag with integrated metal structure to ensure both increased safety and ultimate comfort. Best of all, it fits every MTB Size from 26” to 29”, and is therefore a must-have for every mountain biker who regularly travels.

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: This is an investment in your expensive MTB if you are an outdoorsy type constantly in search of the next cycling adventure around the globe.

You’re bound to save thousands of rand on bike repairs, as the AeroComfort MTB Bag is the best way to securely stow your bike on any long-distance plane, train or car journey.

DESIGN USPs: Features include a slide diffuser to vary between flood or spot beam, a 45° adjustable beam angle and a red LED warning light to indicate low battery levels. The lamp operates on 3x AA alkaline batteries, but there is a rechargeable version as well. The actual light source features both LED CREE P-E white and LED ø5.0mm ultra-red lights.

DESIGN USPs: The Anthem Advanced ticks all the boxes: an advanced-grade composite mainframe for ideal blend of weight and stiffness; new SMC-composite technology upperrocker arm for increased durability and lighter weight; and Maestro Suspension Technology for the most efficient and independent suspension. The MegaDrive downtube connects the massive headtube and bottom bracket area for unmatched frame stiffness, and Over-Drive steerer tube ensures precise front-end steering stiffness.

DESIGN USPs: Scicon prides itself on making lightweight bags that are easy-topack and assemble. Their top of the range model boasts an extremely durable outer shell with high-density padding, external lateral shield cups for hub protection, a metal reinforced bottom and tear-resistant material. An MTB Anti-shock Bike Frame is included, while the double-padded inner wheel pockets with zippers are especially designed for larger MTB wheels. The bag is also fitted with 4x extra strong multidirectional wheels for easy handling.

GO GET IT : Available online from Extremelights.co.za

GO GET IT: Go to Giant-bicycles.com/za/stores for a list of dealers

GO GET IT: Available from specialised retailers and online from Za.sciconbags.com/

PRICE: R575

PRICE: R64 500

PRICE: R6 870

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FOR THE HEAD

FOR THE HEART

FOR THE PLANET

MOTORISED On the motorised side, we look at three machines similar at first glance, but with many a difference under the hood, so to speak.

Read on and see which appeals to your soul... New versions of old favourites is the theme of this month’s look into the world of motoring FOR THE HEART: RENAULT MÉGANE GT

FOR THE HEAD: CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: The new Mégane strikes a chord with its aggressive, modern styling and high-tech interior. An iPad-sized touchscreen dominates the dashboard and is used to control just about everything. Touches of stainless steel and some sort of blue anodised metal remind you that this is a sporty vehicle, and you can even change the colour of the ambient lighting to suit your mood. It’s got beautiful bucket seats that add to the driving fun.

WHAT IS IT: If you’ve ever considered buying a Toyota Fortuner, you should also have considered a Chev Trailblazer. It’s a seven-seat SUV, just like the Fortuner, and, to be honest, looks like a Fortuner too.

DESIGN USPs: The cutting-edge design sets the Mégane apart from the more staid, sensible (but brilliant!) Golf and Astra, while under the bonnet of the GT-Line model is a spirited petrol engine that has been turbocharged to produce 97kW and 205Nm from just a 1.2-litre capacity. A six-speed gearbox gets the power to the wheels and fuel consumption is claimed to be 6.4L/100km.

GO GET IT: The Mégane GT is priced at R343 900, and a 5-year/90 000km service plan and 5-year/150 000km warranty are standard. Visit Renault.co.za for more information.

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: Space on a grand scale is the primary reason why people consider the Trailblazer, coupled with decent off-road performance (in the 4x4 models) and a sense of rugged dependability.

DESIGN USPs: 2016 saw the Trailblazer given a subtle update, including a few cosmetic changes to the front and rear, a more advanced multimedia interface and daytime running lights. There’s also a Z71 model, with jazzy decals, blacked out wheels and things like remote vehicle start and extra safety and comfort features.

Engines available are 2.5-litre and 2.8-litre turbodiesels. The 2.5 can be had with either a manual gearbox or auto, while the 2.8 is automatic only. If you want a 4x4 you have to have the bigger engine and automatic gearbox.

GO GET IT: The entry-level Trailblazer is priced at R464 000, while the rangetopping Z71 4x4 automatic model costs R623 200. All models include a 5-year/120 000km warranty and 5-year/90 000km service plan. Visit Chevrolet.co.za for more information.

FOR THE PLANET: SMART FORFOUR WHAT IS IT: The better-known Smart ForTwo is a tiny little two-seater with virtually no boot. The ForFour that we’re talking about, though, is more practical for the normal person, with seating for four (it’s not just a clever name) and a little boot that you can actually put things in.

WHY DO YOU WANT IT: If you drive in a city and want something a little different, try a Smart. If you regularly do long trips through the Karoo, look elsewhere. It’s short, which makes it easy to park, and it has a tiny turning circle.

DESIGN USPs: You might be interested to know that while Smart is a Merc brand, the cars are based on the Renault Twingo. That said, Merc has made the ForFour a classy little number with lovely attention to detail and great quality materials. One feature that is fairly unique to the vehicle class is that the engine is in the rear, and it drives the rear wheels. While the fuel consumption is claimed to be a frog-friendly 4.1L/100km, the little 1-litre engine (52kW and 91Nm) needs to be revved to get going, which pushes real-world fuel consumption up. A 900cc turbo model (66kW and 135Nm) is also available, with an auto gearbox. Features like auto stop/start and cruise control are standard.

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GO GET IT: The ForFour is priced from R174 900 to R242 900, including a 3-year/60 000km service plan. Visit Smart.co.za.

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TECHNO Words Aki Anastasiou

CES

The 50th anniversary of the world’s biggest gadget and technology show, CES, gave us a fascinating insight into what the next 10 years hold in a technological world that is evolving at a blistering pace. CES 2017 in Las Vegas at the beginning of January saw more than 3 800 companies launching over 20 000 new products.

There were more than 180 000 visitors looking at the exhibits covering a space larger than 40 rugby fields.

Televisions always take centre stage but this year the automotive industry was also there in full force with their latest electric vehicles and sharing plans for an autonomous driving future. Drones were in abundance, 3D Printers are becoming more sophisticated and cheaper and wearable health devices were all the rage at CES 2017. Everything is getting connected and sharing information – the Internet of Things is heading into our lives faster than we can comprehend.

The technology that is driving everything was not even visible. The software, the artificial intelligence, the algorithms making sense of the data – those were the kingpins of CES 2017!

This is why the likes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Apple hold the keys to the digital highways. Are you ready for the future? Hold on tight! The pace of change is about to shift up a few notches.

LG SIGNATURE OLED TV

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

The television that stole the show at CES 2017

LG’s flagship OLED 4K television had everyone talking in Las Vegas. LG’s latest 4K TV has such a thin panel that it defies logic. Imagine a television the size of piece of cardboard sitting flush on your wall at home with an amazing picture quality. Well that’s the new LG Signature series – it literally attaches to the wall. It is just 2.57mm thick. The picture quality has become even sharper than the previous model. OLED (organic light-emitting diode) has truly revolutionised the picture of quality of televisions. The new model also features active HDR with 4K resolution. Prepare to be awed when this television arrives in South Africa later this year!

ZERA FOOD RECYCLER BY WHIRLPOOL

Make your own fertiliser within 24 hours from your kitchen waste This product I loved! We all throw kitchen waste into our bins but imagine making all that waste useful! The Zera Food Recycler looks like a dustbin but what it is does is magical. It reduces your food waste by over twothirds its original volume through a fully automated process. Within 24 hours you have fertiliser that you can use on your lawn and plants. It’s as simple as that! A really useful gadget in a world where we should all be recycling more effectively.

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SAMSUNG FAMILY HUB 2.0 FRIDGE A talking fridge that can do so much more

SLEEP NUMBER 360 SMART BED Even beds are not escaping digitisation!

Yes folks, you heard it. A smart bed! You’re probably wondering why on earth would you need something like this.

Let me explain…

The Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed is packed with sensors that analyse your sleep patterns. This bed adapts according to the way each person sleeps on each side of the bed. This is thanks to the ResponsiveAir™ technology that adjusts the bed’s comfort in real time via the two air chambers inside the mattress – gently contouring to each partner’s side, back or stomach profiles. Does your partner snore? Well this is where the bed gets really exciting. It is able to detect snoring and will gently adjust the snorer’s head by seven degrees until they stop snoring. And if you are one of those people that has cold feet in winter, no problem, this bed has foot-warming technology in the base to help you sleep better. Of course, the research has shown that when your feet are warmer you do sleep better – duh! And yes the bed knows your sleeping patterns, so it will automatically warm the bed up before you go to sleep. It also has a built in alarm that will gently wake you when you are at your lightest stage of sleep. Convinced yet? Oh, and did I mention that there is also an app that synchronises and analyses everything?

Samsung have updated their Family Hub Fridges by adding more features and functionality. Imagine your fridge with a massive screen built in – a digital board instead of attaching pieces of paper with magnets.

This is the modern fridge. It has voice commands to play music, stream television and keep the entire family’s agenda on a beautiful visual display. The new fridges also keep tabs on what’s inside your fridge thanks to the three cameras situated on the inside door. It takes a snapshot every time you open and close your fridge and synchronises this with the app so that when you are at the supermarket and not sure what is inside your fridge, just open your app and you can see the contents with ease.

Samsung is working on technology that will enable the fridge to know exactly what you use and will give you the option to order groceries automatically when you start running low. It also has a feature to suggest recipes based on what ingredients you have available in your fridge!

LEGO BOOST

Toys to take your kids into the world of technology Mention Lego and you automatically think back to your childhood, building things with coloured plastic blocks. Over the last decade Lego has revolutionised their offering by bringing technology into their iconic products. This year at CES, LEGO introduced Boost – a building set that combines coding and robotics to allow children to add movement, sound and even personality to their creations. Designed for kids seven and up, LEGO Boost is designed to make the young mind think laterally. It works together with an app to give you a visual representation of what you are doing. The app helps with the coding, design and to personalise what you are building. The actual kit is sophisticated with the app offering more than 60 different activities. It has many built-in sensors and tiny motors that will let the imagination of young kids run wild! I am willing to bet that they will sell more of these to adults than kids. I want one!

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BOOKS Words Chris Gibbons

COMPETING AGAINST LUCK – THE STORY OF INNOVATION AND CUSTOMER CHOICE

CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN, TADDY HALL, KAREN DILLON AND DAVID S. DUNCAN HARPER BUSINESS I R 490 Say the words “Innovation Theory” and within moments the name of Harvard Business School (HBS) Professor Clayton Christensen will come to mind. After all, he’s been studying and writing about innovation and disruption for much of the last 25 years.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

But along the way, Christensen has also been probing why so many apparent innovations fail and why so many companies go bust. Is it all just a matter of luck or is there really a way in which innovation could be made predictable and secure? His conclusion is based on the observation that most companies and executives don’t truly understand what happens when a customer buys their product. This reaches back to the insight of an earlier HBS Professor, Theodore Levitt, who noted that “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” As Christensen comments, “Customers don’t want products, they want solutions to their problems.”

To put it slightly differently, customers hire a product or service to get a particular job done. In Christensen’s words, “We define a ‘job’ as the progress that a person is trying to make in a particular circumstance. This definition of a job is not simply a new way of categorising customers or their problems. It’s key to understanding why they make the choices they make.”

He explains that the “Aha!” moment came for him when working with two senior executives who were trying to boost milkshake sales at a fast-food chain. They explored in great depth endless flavour and taste variations, but to no avail. Then Christensen approached the problem from a different angle, wondering why these consumers were hiring a milkshake and what job they wanted the milkshake to perform in their lives.

Many hours of research later they noticed that a large number of milkshakes were sold before 9am and an answer appeared: “… the early morning customers all had the same job to do: they had a long and boring ride to work. They needed something to keep the commute interesting. They weren’t really hungry yet, but they knew that in a couple of hours, they’d face a mid-morning stomach rumbling.”

But that’s a very different Job to Be Done from a parent buying a milkshake for a small child in the mid-afternoon. The circumstances are quite different and Christensen makes the vitally important point that understanding Jobs to Be Done Theory is nothing if you fail to understand the full richness of the customer experience.

However, if you grasp the theory and apply it correctly, Christensen asserts that it will remove the guesswork from innovation and take luck out of the equation.

Competing Against Luck is an elegant investigation and codification of Jobs to Be Done Theory and Christensen also plants some interesting thoughts that place it into broader human life, not just the buying and selling of products. For example, what job does a child hire a school for? Or a wife hire a husband? And are we doing those jobs as well as we can?

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MY OWN LIBERATOR

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UNDER NELSON MANDELA BOULEVARD – LIFE AMONG THE STOWAWAYS

DIKGANG MOSENEKE PANMACMILLAN I R 306 It is genuinely rare that a book deserves to be called “important”, but this is one. My Own Liberator is the autobiography of the man who was until recently South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice, and who remains one the country’s most able legal minds.

SEAN CHRISTIE JONATHAN BALL I R230 How aware are you of what goes on around you? Most people would answer “somewhat” or “very” but reality is different, especially if you’re a member of South Africa’s middle class, travelling to and from work in the luxury of an air-conditioned car.

At the most basic level, this is the personal story of a highly intelligent African born into the brutish embrace of the apartheid state. Sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island at the tender age of 15, Moseneke takes us on a journey which prompts those of us old enough to remember, and enables the younger reader to imagine and perhaps understand what growing up in those appalling conditions must have been like.

For example, if you are Capetonian, did you know that an entire community of almost exclusively male Tanzanians were, until very recently, living under Nelson Mandela Boulevard? My guess is probably not. Nor would you have known that they called themselves the Beachboys, all dedicated to stowing away on ships to flee Tanzania’s major port, Dar es Salaam and also, ultimately, Africa itself. Sea Power is their motto and their code.

At the same time, he shares glimpses of personal and family life: the strength of his parents as they visited him every six months while in jail, his marriage and the birth of his children. Even, later on, the death of his beloved son, Bo. There’s a humanity about Moseneke which shines through his pages.

Introduced to this group of people by photographer David Southwood, journalist Sean Christie is befriended by one of them, Adam Bashili, who enables him to penetrate this extraordinary society. It’s no coincidence that Christie writes regularly for Acumen on entrepreneurship: among the Beachboys, he encounters survival and trading skills at their most raw and vital. If you surrender to the wrong ship’s captain after stowing away or find yourself on the wrong end of a drug deal, you pay with your life.

The best comes right at the end, though. It takes the form of a coruscating epilogue in which he analyses the nature of democracy and power. As an essay on the theme it could easily stand alone, but it’s also a penetrating reflection of the deep principles which have guided this remarkable jurist through his life and career. It’s as if his mind and writing kick into a higher gear and we can glimpse the dazzling intellectual rigour which made Moseneke such a force at the Bar, on the Bench and when helping to draft South Africa’s Constitution.

That he never became Chief Justice is a travesty but on reading My Own Liberator it’s clear why. Rent-seekers, capturers of the state and crooked tenderpreneurs could never have found a more formidable, implacable foe; he was just far too dangerous for the top job.

These are society’s outcasts and Christie’s vivid prose carries us to the edge of their despair and into the heart of the slums of Dar es Salaam, as well as the underpasses and docklands of Cape Town.

That he himself wasn’t killed along the way is something of a miracle.

Similar groups of people, albeit doing and selling different things, exist under Johannesburg’s motorways, too. How many of us know anything about them, about their businesses and their lives?

I can’t help feeling that we would all be far better business leaders if we saw people like this and Christie’s stowaways more clearly. After all, how can we pretend to read things like markets if we can’t see what’s really happening around us?

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WINE Words John Maytham

Acumen’s wine expert picks three of the best at three different price points: Everyday, Dinner Party and Out To Impress.

EVERYDAY Here’s a provocative statement: It is almost impossible to find an inexpensive sauvignon blanc that isn’t either so insipid that tap water would be a better option; or so acidic that it could strip paint.

One has to pay at least R60 before one arrives at a sauvignon that offers even passing interest. Whereas there are many chenin blancs at a considerably lower price that offer substantial value. Chenin is enjoying a renaissance as a high price point grape of choice for small batch wines from older vineyards, made by young gun winemakers for the wine geek market; but also an opportunity for mass market producers, from

the Breedekloof Valley for example, to prove they too can make high price point chenins of the quality coming out of the Swartland. But for white wine drinkers with constrained budgets, a chenin should be first choice. Like the Cellar Selection Chenin Blanc from Kleine Zalze. It’s made with a minimum of fuss – extended less contact being the only cellar decision of any consequence. And it’s delicious – guava and pineapple on the nose, a richly fruity palate with considerable weight and texture and a citrus-based acidity that keeps it fresh and clean.

And it costs just R47 from the cellar door.

DINNER PARTY

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

I was contacted recently by a listener to my radio show on CapeTalk. She’s a member of an informal tasting group, and was grumpy that none of the wines she had taken along to the group’s monthly blind tasting sessions had ever been chosen as the best wine of the evening.

She told me the next gathering was focused on shiraz, with a price point around R100 and wanted my advice on what she should take along. I had no hesitation in recommending the Neil Ellis Groenekloof Shiraz 2014. I had been alerted to the wine by the gold medal it won at

the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show in 2016, and had drunk it many times subsequently. It puts many higher-priced examples of the grape to shame with its freshness, balance and quality.

Plenty of red fruit aromas carried through to the palate, with subtle hints of white pepper and dried herbs. Excellent structure, with a particularly pronounced mid-palate and grippy tannins. A memorable example of a cool climate shiraz. Oh – the listener took my advice, and, finally, the wine she provided was rated the best of the evening by her tasting group.

OUT TO IMPRESS Stark-Condé is one of the more beautiful wineries to visit. It’s almost at the end of the long, winding road through the Jonkershoek Valley, abutting the nature reserve. The tasting room is Balinese wood set on an island in the middle of the farm dam, and the Postcard Café serves great food with an even better view. The multinational story of the family that owns and manages the farm is also fascinating.

Hans-Peter Schrőder left South Africa many years ago and eventually settled in Japan where he married Midori. They returned to South Africa in the mid90s and bought the farm, bringing along with them daughter, Marie, and her husband, Jose Condé. He’s

an American with a Cuban father and Irish maternal roots. His training is in design and when the family moved to Cape Town, the intention was to open a design studio. But he decided instead to become the winemaker on the family farm, and wine-lovers are the better off as a result. The latest venture is a Bordeaux blend, Oude Nektar 2014. It follows a test run from the 2008 vintage that couldn’t be repeated because the vineyards burnt in the massive fires of that year and had to be re-planted. It’s worth the wait – elegance underscored by brooding intensity, with the richness of flavour befitting its status as a flagship wine. R550

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GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

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THANDISWA MAZWAI GIVES US THE JAZZ ALBUM Words & Pictures Victor Dlamini

In the year that she turned 40, Thandiswa Mazwai finally released a jazz album.

Given her voice, her politics, her love for the ballad form, her love for Nina Simone, for Letta Mbulu, for Abbey Lincoln, it was always inevitable that Mazwai would turn to Jazz. Named for her mother, Belede, this album is not just a bold musical statement, but a deeply political one too. Mazwai says that her mother’s teachings run as a golden thread throughout her music. Once can imagine the young Mazwai catching her first jazz music through her mother’s own listening.

It is this music that she is now distilling into her very own musical statements. It reminds anyone who needs reminding that the music has always reflected the politics of the day.

On the opening song, Jikijela, Mazwai sings the Letta Mbulu classic with palpable passion. She invokes the young voices of the #FeesMustFall movement whose call for free education and decolonisation connect the struggles of the youth from 1976 to 2016. In this song you hear the voices of today’s youth, like Nompumelelo Mkhabela, who states with quiet conviction, “We know who the enemy is”.

Mazwai says it was her mother who gave her such a strong sense of identity and this album pays homage not just to her mother, but the other influences in her life.

These include the musicians Letta Mbulu, Caiphus Semenya, Dorothy Masuka, Busi Mhlongo and Miriam Makeba. Her rendition of Busi Mhlongo’s Wakrazulwa is a reminder that the deepest jazz has always drawn from the spiritual songs. On this song Mazwai goes in way deep, echoing Mhlongo’s own religious notes. On stage, you could see the affection that Mazwai continues to have for Mhlongo’s work, and the way it inspires her to frame a strongly South African jazz language.

On a warm summer night in late November when the Soweto days are long, and the nights easy, Mazwai stunned the audience gathered for the album’s launch at the Soweto Theatre. Nduduzo Makhathini accompanied her at the piano, the two of them clearly sharing a strong mutual admiration. On the double bass, Herbie Tsoaeli was providing the kind of steady, inspired backing that is the hallmark of his work.

Like all the great music, Mazwai isn’t just content to interpret the work of others into the jazz idiom. Those who have followed her own career would not have been surprised to come across the song Ndiyahamba, one of her great hits, now transformed into a moody jazz ballad.

Hear this song and grasp just why she and

the pianist Nduduzo Makhathini make such an incredible pairing. Makhathini’s piano is soaring, triumphant, painting in the bold colours, in perfect counterpoint to Mazwai’s hypnotic chorus. The lyrics are startlingly simple, yet it is this very repetition that gives the song such power.

It is as if she’s under the spell of her own voice, and Makhathini is bearing witness to this moment of magic.

One of the classics that Mazwai turns to is the song Malaika. She brings to it a much-needed inventiveness, given that this song often floors those who miss its complex voicing. But she adds that she also sings this song for her own daughter, Malaika. At the performance in Soweto, Mazwai was beaming with quiet pride as she announced this number. It reflects, of course, the way in which the music can connect the various generations. Just as she celebrates the music that her mother listened to, one can imagine a time when her daughter will be playing the music that she heard Mazwai play. And therein lies the power of the jazz format with its ability to play over and over the standard songs.

But their freshness comes from the way each of the musicians give of themselves to this never-ending homage to the greatest art known to humankind

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looking backwards

KILLING ME SOFTLY Words Sam Cowen

“He’s actually not very good in bed.”

She was blonde, tall, busty and tanned.

Like a really sexy leather office chair.

She was also talking about a mutual acquaintance.

“Sammy darling,” she would say, “Mummy tells me you’re working so hard at mathematics!”

“I don’t think he likes sex. Either that or he’s gay. I really struggled.”

I would agree happily that I was indeed working so hard at mathematics.

Or that he just didn’t like her. But from where I was sitting, that was a stretch.

“And remember, it’s the effort that counts, not the marks. Not everyone can be good at mathematics no matter how hard they try. That’s what I tell people about my granddaughter. You can’t see it in her marks but she does apply herself.” My self-esteem crawled into a corner and died.

“And all that money he claims to have?

It’s a front. It’s a pity because he tries so hard.”

She was very confident in her words.

The handsome, successful, investment portfolio manager I thought I knew was diminishing before my eyes. The tail feathers were falling off the peacock.

“He lies about it to keep his clients, but a lot of them are dropping him, poor thing.

He’s even having to sell his house and shame, he loves that house.”

Yep, just a small brown apology of a bird.

Nasty niceness works everywhere.

One can (and does) complain about the demonic tendencies of a boss or a co-worker, but it just sounds like sour grapes when you whinge piteously about how unfair it is that Jane got a promotion when YOU are the one who stayed late and met deadlines. No, no! How much more effective does this sound?

CCPs.(Cougars in the carpark.) They are a fast-growing group of yummy mummies, all sucked and tucked to a point where a sharp cough might result in an orgasm.

They’re all friends for life, bound together by backhanded compliments. And they have this technique down pat.

“Peter is going to St. Johns for high school.

It’s a family tradition.”

“Really? That’s just wonderful, and so lovely that his grandparents can afford the fees for you.”

And: “Has Stacey had her boobs done?”

“But we’re still really close. I love him to bits.”

“Jane is so tenacious! I don’t know that I’d have been able to wait through two bosses and a department restructure to be earning in line with inflation!”

“Yes, aren’t they lovely? I’m sure David will stop looking at the au pair’s ‘pair’ quite as often.”

Lots and lots of bits.

Much better.

It’s like an arrow wrapped in velvet, you feel the soft before the pain.

It wasn’t too much of a surprise though. In anyone’s book he looked like a catch and he had, after all, broken up with her. If she had ranted about that like a woman scorned instead of speaking warmly and pityingly about his near-impotence, his financial crisis and his soon-to-behomeless status, no-one would have given it any credence. The allegations were horrible but delivered so charitably. Nice really is the new nasty. It’s the perfect way to deliver death blows to a psyche, or a reputation, all in the name of kindness.

You can work it up and down the corporate ladder.

The blonde hadn’t quite finished.

“My boss is a bitch!” is so 1980s. Here’s the 2017 version.

“We still speak almost every day,” she confided, topping up her wine.

She took a sip of wine.

GORDON INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS SCIENCE

have. I’ve never met anyone so terrifyingly nice, before or since.

My granny was a professional. I think she gave lessons. If she didn’t, she should

“She’s really come into her own since they decided to fast-track women in the company. She’s almost up to department standard!”

“What do you say to him?” I asked.

“I tell him that no matter what happens, I will always see him as one of my closest friends.”

How kind you are about this sad excuse for a manager! And with one sentence you’ve shattered any illusion of her competency forever.

Bless.

It’s at its most devastating among the

Boom

“And that you can barely see his bald patch.”

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When the fast lane isn’t fast enough

4327 | www.iww.co.za | cp

The Gautrain will get you where you need to be on time, every time.

gautrain.co.za | 0800 GAUTRAIN

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