MOTIVATING AN INDUSTRY The inspiring story behind
“We can all be extraordinary, we just have to believe in ourselves. Don’t allow yourself to be held back by a lack of faith and self confidence.”
Julie Solomon Properties
THE LIFE & STYLE OF BUSINESS How these innovators balance work and pleasure
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MARCH APRIL 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.ZA
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JULIE SOLOMON
Founder JSP
BUYING BITCOIN
The digital gold rush
LEADING VOICES
The time to listen is now
What is IoT all about? The Internet of Things (IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items — embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
Logistics optimization
Cloud and Services + Platform
Factory optimization
Smart grid
Integrated operations centre
Smart Factory
Smart City Intelligent medical devices
Home energy management Traffic flow optimization
Comms network optimization Hospital optimization
Smart Highway Smart Hospital Automated car system
Connected ambulances
Intelligent digital signage
Connected traffic cameras
C OV E R STORY
24
TH E R EA L ESTATE DY NAMO Julie Solomon of JSP inspires and innovates the property industry By Sonwabo Macingwana
“ Having integrity with a chameleon-like instinct for the sales process, as well as a high level of energy and passion a good agent knows you have to be first off the starting block.�
S P E CIAL F E ATURE
56
TH E LI FE ST YLE OF BUS INE SS Discover how industry innovators manage to balance work and life
“My passion for making a change in the world has given me a passion to live in the moment, and to constantly seek out new adventures.” - JaCo Venter, page 57.
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NE X T 14
RE GUL AR S 08
Taking a brand global
10
DAVI D TLA LE
16
C RY PTOC UR R ENCY Is it time to invest?
32
L E S SONS I N OPT IM ISM How these industry leaders manage to smile
From the Editor
Recommender
11
Screen Time
89
UCT Column
91
64
Fast Bytes & Events
Inspiring tomorrow’s innovators today
Instilling ethical leadership in businesses
L E A D I NG VOI CE S
95
By Nicola O’Donoghue
“I want to be remembered for my legacy and how I have touched and changed people’s lives.” - David Tlale, page 22.
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AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY CEO Grant Fredericks
grant.fredericks@africannewsagency.com
ART DIRECTOR
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Evans Manyonga
evans.manyonga@anapublishing.com
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
Stacey Storbeck-Nel stacey.nel@anapublishing.com
By Digital Publishing
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Walter Hayward
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ADVERTISING SALES EXECUTIVES Keith Hill, Tony Malek, Mandla Mangena, Kevin Petersen, Jacky Villet
OFFICE MANAGER
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PUBLISHED BY
PUBLISHING EDITOR Robbie Stammers
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FAST COMPANY INTERNATIONAL TEAM CHAIRMAN
Joe Mansueto, Mansueto Ventures
CEO
Eric Schurenberg
EDITOR
Robert Safian
DEPUTY EDITOR David Lidsky
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Noah Robischon
Susan Ball susan.ball@anapublishing.com
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
SOUTH AFRICAN EDITORIAL BOARD
DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL STRATEGY
Jill Bernstein
Louise Marsland, Anneleigh Jacobsen, Prof. Walter Baets, Pepe Marais, Alistair King, Koo Govender, Abey Mokgwatsane, Kheepe Moremi, Ellis Mnyandu, Thabang Skwambane
Lori Hoffman
EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS
Ted Keller
Amy Farley, Gabriella Brondani Rego, Jill Bernstein, Simon Capstick-Dale, Michael O’Carroll, Mills Soko, Nicola O’Donoghue, Robert Safian, Sonwabo Macingwana, Unam Tsitsa
ARTISTS
Cover: Red Dot PR Frazer Harrison Gallo Images/Getty Images, Melissa Golden, Herring & Herring, Jessie English, Laurel Golio, Arturo Olmos, Adobe Stock, Freepix.com, Indio Design
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Florian Bachleda
DESIGN DIRECTOR Editor-in-chief: Evans Manyonga Physical address: 176 Main Road, Claremont, 7700, Cape Town Postal address: PO Box 23692, Claremont, 7735 Telephone: +27 (0) 21 683 0005 Websites: www.fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.co.za www.anapublishing.com
PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Sarah Filippi
ART DIRECTOR Alice Alves
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR April Mokwa
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER Christina Cranley
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Mark Rosenberg
No article or any part of any article in Fast Company South Africa may be reproduced without the prior written consent of the publisher. The information provided and opinions expressed in this publication are provided in good faith, but do not necessarily represent the opinions of Mansueto Ventures in the USA, Insights Publishing or the editor. Neither this magazine, the publisher or Mansueto Ventures in the USA can be held legally liable in any way for damages of any kind whatsoever arising directly or indirectly from any facts or information provided or omitted in these pages, or from any statements made or withheld by this publication. Fast Company is a registered title under Mansueto Ventures and is licensed to Insights Publishing for use in southern Africa only.
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KINGJAMES 42522
TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH INNOVATION Imagine contact lenses that measure the glucose levels in a diabetic wearer’s tears, or a hoverboard that relies on magnetic levitation, or weather-mapping Loon balloons. These are some of the radically creative inventions conceived by X – the “Moonshot Factory” at Alphabet, Google’s parent company. X is an excellent example of how an idea-enabling environment can champion invention that’s commercially viable – that is, innovation. It is this type of innovation that gives entrepreneurs a competitive edge and could fuel the discovery of the “next Google”. Mokaedi Dilotsotlhe, Santam’s Executive Head of Brand and Marketing, says entrepreneurs looking for faster market penetration, growth, and an enticing company culture must start with the strategic implementation of creativity. Dilotsotlhe argues that innovation is also pivotal to problem-solving, which is evidenced by initiatives like Santam’s Safety Ideas programme. “Run in partnership with LaunchLab, an initiative of Stellenbosch University’s innovation company
Innovus, the Safety Ideas competition rewards smart solutions to the real-world, safety-focused challenges South Africans face. “At Santam, we believe entrepreneurs need to similarly incentivise innovation by mining their respective industries for opportunities to create efficiency,” says Dilotsotlhe.
The road to innovation Instill innovation into your business in the following ways: 1. Create a culture that rewards thinking differently. This kind of culture transformed companies like Microsoft, catalysing the enabling environment that fuelled the computer giant’s cloud-based and artificial intelligence offerings. For SME owners, it’s vital to foster a culture of idea generation so that all employees feel empowered to problem-solve and pursue passion projects.
All employees should see each other as valuable resources to be tapped into. Set aside the time for creative sharing sessions targeted at addressing specific challenges. 3. Be agile. Innovation can bring about speedy solutions to rapid market changes. Hand in hand with this is not fearing failure or dodging the dreaded “analysis paralysis”, as overthinking worst-case scenarios can squash a positive culture of risk-taking. 4. Find ways to replicate good ideas. Innovation is about improving efficiency and productivity. Think of some replicable ideas that save money, time and admin. 5. Develop diversity in your organisation. Encouraging diverse groups of people to work together will break down traditional silos and allow for the plethora of perspectives necessary to think laterally.
2. Nurture an open exchange of ideas. Working collaboratively and sharing knowledge is the key to a company reaching its full potential.
Santam is an authorised financial services provider (licence number 3416).
Insurance good and proper
It all makes sense A shrilling alarm clock, rushed early-morning showers, frantic drive in the bumper-to-bumper traffic, and that desk and chair for the day. Culminating in a drive home in the same hectic traffic and ultimately an exhausted you in the living room, slumped on the couch. That describes an average day for most people. Let’s do this again. A four-hour work day, a thriving culture of creativity, a fulfilled and balanced you and a number of set goals ripe for the picking. Sound better? It all depends on the set of spectacles you wear. The undeniable fact is we are creatures of habit and essentially yearn for physiological fulfilment. Our theme for this edition is lifestyle businesses. In simple terms, a lifestyle business is a business in which you are the sole employee, making a reasonable living with the freedom to do all the things you want, when you want and how you want. Instead of just being self-employed, a lifestyle business is about working in a way that sustains the lifestyle you yearn for – whether that’s having more time to spend with your family or being able to pursue other hobbies and passions. In essence, a lifestyle business is supposed to give you more control over your life than you would have from working a 9-5 job. There are various hybrids of this model. For instance, one can argue that a lifestyle business doesn’t equate to running a tiny business as an alternative to having a job. Nor does it have to be solely owned and administrated. The business could be scaled to any desired size and still retain the core ethos. The key requirement of a lifestyle business is just that it should allow the entrepreneur/owner to live how he or she wants to live now, while running the company.
“ I T ALL DEPENDS ON THE SET OF SPECTACLES YOU WEAR. THE UNDENIABLE FACT IS WE ARE CREATURES OF HABIT AND ESSENTIALLY YEARN FOR PHYSIOLOGICAL FULFILMENT.”
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Complimenting this theme, one of our main features looks at several business leaders and how they balance their work and personal life. Business can be personally taxing, yet these individuals have found a way to make it work. Our cover personality is Julie Solomon, a trailblazer who has been disrupting the property market in South Africa. Her story makes for interesting and inspiring reading. Read, learn and enjoy. Always remember it’s never too late (or too early) to follow your passion.
Evans Manyonga evans@fastcompany.co.za @Nyasha1e
A 7 DAY HOLIDAY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WORTH R100.000 & 1 YEAR FREE SOLAR ENERGY FOR YOUR SCHOOL
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What are you loving right now?
THE RITZ HOTEL Miami-style luxury and opulence mixed with traditional glitz makes this a winner in terms of hotels I have visited this year. Re-opened last year after extensive renovations The Ritz Hotel has held its glamorous place for the past 45 years. The hotel is also situated less than 500 metres from the ocean and the famous Sea Point Promenade. This is definitely a must visit next time you are in Cape Town. Jason Maudy Regional Head: Alto tech
As a busy working mum, juggling diaries and keeping on top of my children’s schedules is key. Here are two useful apps that are fantastic.
ENGAGE SCHOOL APP The Engage School app, which many schools are migrating to, is fantastic. It is secure and has options to download on my PC, laptop, tablet and mobile phone. At a glance, I know which lesson my child is in at any given moment and what topics are being covered. I can check homework, exam schedules and keep an eye on marks, merits and de-merits. I can also communicate directly with teachers and all the term reports are available. Parents can update contact details, medical aid details and all incidents are recorded, and they get an alert immediately.
LIVE CONNECTED APP The other recently launched app is Live Connected – an app built on the African proverb that it takes a village to raise a child. This app enables me as a parent to put my “village” online. Whether it’s an au pair, aunt, helper, driver, eldest child, husband, sister or neighbour – Live Connected has the ability to monitor, schedule pick-ups, send reminders and open two-way communication within the village concerning the children’s activities and milestones. It’s secure and available free to download on the Apple Store and on Google Play. Tambu Jonhera PR Consultant: Headlines
FAST COMPANY RECOMMENDS BOOK: WHAT A GREAT IDEA - MIKE BRUTON South Africa is a diverse and remarkable country driven by innovative ideas and this book showcases some of the greatest ideas and inventions the country has offered the world. The oil of Olay, the Kreepy Krauly and the CAT scanner were all dreamt up by South Africans. The Africanis is a unique breed of dog, the Pinotage and Mrs Ball’s Chutney are famous throughout the world. From DryBath to Walkie Talkies, Appletiser to insect-repellent socks, Vuvuzelas to Makarapas – this book explores some of these game-changing inventions in detail. Meet the new generation of inventors and innovators, including Elon Musk, Viness Pillay, Tony Budden and Ludwick Marishane.
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Fast Company SA takes a look at five of the best streaming apps making waves in 2018 HULU
NETFLIX The great-granddaddy of streaming services remains the best choice. As you probably know, Netflix provides unlimited streaming of TV shows, movies, comedy specials and original programming (including Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards and the fourth season of Arrested Development) for a monthly subscription fee. No other service has yet to give Netflix an honest-to-goodness run for its money in terms of selection, quality and performance consistency. You can even create up to five different profiles on a single account to make sure that your favourite content doesn’t mess up recommendations for your friends and loved ones.
If you want to keep current with the latest TV shows, but don’t feel like investing in a cable subscription or an HD antenna, Hulu is the best solution. This service provides access to most major network shows (aside from CBS’ programmes) and a handful of cable shows the day after they air. It also lets subscribers access a show’s current season — or often all of the programme’s seasons. In addition, the service hosts a number of original shows (including joint ventures with the BBC, like The Wrong Mans and season 4 of The Thick of It), a selection of offbeat movies and a surprising amount of classic anime series. Even with a paid subscription, you have to sit through commercials, but far fewer than if you watched the same shows on cable.
AMAZON PRIME INSTANT VIDEO For those who do most of their shopping online, Amazon Prime is a no-brainer. For $99 (R1150) per year, you get free two-day shipping on your purchases, a free Kindle book each month, and unlimited access to both Amazon Music and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Like Netflix, Amazon Video is a veritable buffet of movies, television and original programming, like Alpha House, Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. Thanks to a deal with Viacom — which controls Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon — Amazon Prime arguably has a better selection of comedy and children’s programming than its competitors. The service also offers unlimited access to an extensive collection from HBO’s back catalogue of classics such as The Sopranos and The Wire. The separate Amazon Video provides easy access to current movies, but it’s an à la carte service.
HBO NOW HBO, the original premium content channel, now offers two ways to stream: HBO GO (if you have HBO from a cable or satellite package) and HBO NOW (for cord-cutters). Don’t worry about any differences, as the service’s dual streaming services offer the same top-shelf content you get from the cable channel itself. And its library isn’t just limited to only Game of Thrones (the premiere water-cooler-talk TV show), as new seasons of Westworld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep are coming up in following seasons. For those looking to keep track of current events, Vice News Tonight offers beautifully produced nightly programming and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver gives audiences sorely needed laughs. At $14.99 (R170) per month for HBO NOW, it can be a little pricey.
VEVO MTV gave up on music videos years ago, but that doesn’t mean the days of music videos, filmed concerts and band documentaries are gone forever. Vevo is every bit the spiritual successor to the music-centric networks of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Not only can you look up music videos for all of your favourite bands, but you can also follow ongoing documentary series, check out up-and-coming artists and even watch a live stream of curated music videos that runs 24/7. The service skews a bit heavy on pop and hip-hop, but then again, doesn’t all music television?
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FAST COMPANY PROMOTION
Is your company ready to join the next generation of African innovators? Startupbootcamp Africa is building on its inaugural success in 2017 as the largest multi-corporate backed venture accelerator on the continent. The 2018 programme is already looking bigger, better and bolder. Startupbootcamp (SBC), a global family of industryfocused accelerators, last year launched its first-ever Africa-based programme. SBC Africa is a world-class accelerator focused on highgrowth startups in blockchain technologies, connected devices, payment solutions, capital markets & asset management, integrated supply chain, e-commerce, fintech, retail-tech, insure-tech, alternative financing, identity management, digital connectivity, data & behavioural analytics and enabling technologies and other tech-related sectors. Building on the success of its inaugural 2017 Cape Town tech venture accelerator programme, SBC Africa is currently on its FastTrack tour for 2018 – scouting top-tier tech startups to join the programme’s second year. The first-ever Cape Town-based SBC Africa Accelerator was a roaring success with 32 corporate agreements (including pilots and proof-of-concepts and commercial engagements) signed during the accelerator, and five joint startup collaborations forged. “To sign 32 agreements is above average for any SBC programme in the network. However, when compared to other first-time programmes, SBC Africa is the top
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performing programme. Even in very mature markets such as the US and Europe it generally takes three years for a programme to find its stride. We surpassed expectations in our very first year and this is unprecedented across the global SBC footprint,” says Zachariah George, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of the SBC Africa accelerator. Widely recognised as one of the world’s most influential global innovation accelerators, SBC in Africa kicks off 2018 by hosting a FastTrack world tour between February and May that will include 19 FastTracks across 15 countries in search of the next generation of Africa-focused startup talent. “We think of Africa as the Cradle of Innovation and the Cradle of Disruption. The inescapable reality is that the population in African cities will increase by 400-800% over the next 80 years, and innovation must happen as a fundamental necessity for survival. We believe that there is going to be a level of disruption in Africa that is unrivalled in modern history. “There is no other place on the planet where they’ve dealt with this scale of growth and we view this as a golden opportunity,” says Philip Kiracofe, co-founder and CEO of SBC Africa. SBC FastTracks are informal events hosted all over the world and the aim is for the SBC team, mentors, corporate sponsors, investors and thought leaders to have the opportunity to meet the most suitable high-growth ventures interested in joining the 2018 programme. The Startup teams that attend a FastTrack are 20% more likely to be Startupbootcamp invited to the final Selection Days where the ultimate Top 10 will be Africa Alumni Class of 2017 invited to join the three-month programme that will be hosted in celebrating a Cape Town starting August 13th, 2018. successful Demo Any startup operating in the FinTech, CyberSecurity, InsurTech, Day at the eCommerce, SmartCities, RetailTech and related industries is Inaugural SBC Africa Accelerator encouraged to join in the FastTracks. last year. For each FastTrack, applications close three days before the event. The final deadline for innovators and entrepreneurs to apply online for the final three-month accelerator is 24 May 2018. Over the three-month final programme, the 10-selected high potential startups from across the globe will accelerate their companies with the help of the SBC team of entrepreneurs, investors, and partners. In three months, the selected teams will achieve what normally would take them 12-18 months, by leveraging direct access to key contacts in the industry. The SBC Africa programme is proudly endorsed by heavyweight sponsors Old Mutual, RCS, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Nedbank and Woolworths Financial Services, in global partnership with Amazon Web Services, Cisco and Google Cloud. Apply to your local FastTrack now by visiting http://bit.ly/sbcafrica. Click on your chosen FastTrack, click Apply Now and fill out the short online form. Remember, applications close three days before each event.
Fast Track Near You: DAY MONTH
CITY
For more information on our FastTracks visit
30
January
Zurich
http://bit.ly/SBCFastTracks
19
February
Cape Town
Applications for the accelerator program
21
February
Johannesburg
close 24 May.
26
February
Gaborone
28
February
Harare
19
March
Kigali
21
March
Kampala
23
March
Nairobi
7
April
Lagos
9
April
Abidjan
12
April
Accra
18
April
Durban
24
April
Dubai
26
April
Cairo
9
May
Johannesburg
14
May
Tel Aviv
16
May
Paris
18
May
London
22
May
Cape Town
Join Africa’s biggest multi-corporate backed accelerator
Direct access to top corporate leaders & deal makers Gain insight and advice from top innovators and investors Collaborate and network with leading startups
M Y W AY By Sonwabo Macingwana
HOW FASHION GURU DAVID TLALE RAISED HIS BRAND TO COMPETE ON A GLOBAL SCALE Giving up on
internal auditing, one of the highest paying careers, to study fashion could have been a futile pursuit of happiness, but the decision paid off for fashion designer and style influencer David Tlale when he launched his own label 16 years ago, and has to date reached a global presence. Tlale chats to Fast Company South Africa about his journey building an innovative brand.
Where did your interest in fashion start? I used to see some students on campus all dressed in grunge and very interesting fashion whilst studying auditing. I approached one of them and asked him about the clothes he was wearing and he happened to be studying fashion. From there on I went to visit fashion students in their classrooms to see what they were doing and I enjoyed it from day one. It was an amazing first impression and I thought this is actually what I would like to study. Can you tell us more about your new show THE INTERN and how it came about? The Intern by David Tlale is a programme I conceptualised in 2012. It started in KwaZulu-Natal and I later ran it as a competition in Gauteng before it gained TV attention. The Intern is mostly focused on empowering young people and young designers who want to step up from being graduate students and get ready for the industry. Our main focus is to make sure that we transfer skills and give them the knowledge about the ins and outs of the fashion industry, thus we partner with people like FP&M Seta who are making this programme possible. Cricket South Africa announced you as one of the ambassador for the 2018 PinkFriday One Day International between the Proteas and India that took place in February, how did this initiative come about? Cricket South Africa announced me as one of the ambassadors after we agreed on collaboration between CSA and my brand David Tlale. I was keen when they approached me. The task was to bring fashion flair into the whole cricket seen and to make sure it was much more appealing to fashionistas, celebrities, the cricket lovers as well as the players. I found this very interesting.
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Photographs by: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
The African Armani
What was school like for young David Tlale? I was raised in Vosloorus in the East Rand in Johannesburg by a single mom. I studied at Dithomo Primary School and finished high school at Thuto Lesedi Secondary School. I later enrolled myself at Setlogelo Technikon, which is now better known as the Tshwane University, where I studied internal auditing. I dropped out seven months into my auditing classes because I hated it, and decided to study fashion at Waal University.
Designer David Tlale walks the runway with models at the David Tlale fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2014 at The Pavilion at Lincoln Centre in New York City.
What’s the recipe for a successful fashion show or collection? It is the narrative, the colours, how you take your audiences on a journey and how you tell them about your influences to get their full attention with a narrative that evokes a thought process. Without a proper narrative you can easily get lost in translation. What is your creative process? My creative process varies from time to time. Sometimes I get my inspiration when I am travelling, listening to music, by types of fabric, patterns, art galleries or even by walking down the streets in Johannesburg or anywhere in the world. I don’t have a manual, it’s almost an organic process. You are a well respected designer in Africa and across the globe, what would you consider as your ultimate goal? Our ultimate goal as a brand is to become a global one that is made in South Africa for the global market. To make sure that we learn and walk in the footsteps of great brands like Gucci, and to become a brand that’s available on a global scale. What would you consider as your most notable accomplishment? Our most notable accomplishment has been building a brand in South Africa, and this year we are celebrating 16 years in the industry and we are still going strong. The fact that we are still standing, growing and are now starting to supply retail stores like Edgars, Spree and Luminance is an accomplishment. We are also starting to do much more work in the continent like in Lagos in Ghana, Cote De’vore, Paris, Dubai and New York. We feel like we are right at the beginning of our journey. The 16 years in the industry have brought some of the brightest and insightful experience.
30 SECOND BIO David Tlale
FAVOURITE QUOTE “Life is a journey celebrated in style.” FAVOURITE BOOK The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz FAVOURITE DESTINATION Mumbai, India FAVOURITE CITY Johannesburg FAVOURITE TECH GADGET My phone IDEAL DAY I don’t have that, each day is as different as the next HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX Reading, dining and listening to good music BIGGEST INSPIRATION Giorgio Armani BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE When I decided to quit auditing and study fashion design
What are your thoughts on South Africa’s fashion and textile industry? I believe the country’s fashion and textile industry is growing and we are in a space where we learn to understand the business side of fashion. In the past, we used to make clothes without the business sense, but now we are starting to understand that it goes beyond putting together a collection and sales are one of the important aspects of the business. Our industry is producing and competing at a global stage – internationally and locally – and our products are proudly made in South Africa and tell the story of what South Africa is about. What can we expect from David Tlale in the near future, any upcoming exhibition or collection? What you can expect from our brand is product availability nationwide and some showcases locally and internationally. We are launching a few new brands, the first being bridal collections. The collections will be mostly focused on the global market as our main target audience, and will be in line with the latest trends so that people – and the world – can start consuming the brand David Tlale. As an award-winning fashion designer and style influencer, what advice would you give to young aspiring fashion designers and fashion houses? Education is key. Young aspiring designers must go to school and become educated, learn more and have knowledge of the career path. One needs to be well equipped with skills and knowledge before they get into the industry and know exactly what they are bringing to the table. Designers do not copy or repeat what other designers are doing, whether locally or internationally. You have to make sure that you bring your A-game and make sure you have a distinct signature. Look at the likes of MaXhosa, Thula Sindi, and the Gavin Rajah’s, you can tell that we have a particular signature. It is important for aspiring fashion designer to do that as well, and be willing to learn and be willing to work hard because the industry is not for the faint hearted. What does David Tlale want to be remembered for? I want to be remembered for my legacy and how I have touched and changed people’s lives or perceptions about the fashion industry. And to be remembered as an African child who made it possible to take it locally and internationally.
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THE DIGITAL GOLD RUSH 16 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A MARCH APRIL 2018
Not 12 months ago the word “Bitcoin” remained strictly in the domain of cybergeeks and its mention would have induced only a few shrugs around the office water cooler. But since the per coin value of the world’s first cryptocurrency reached nearly $20 000 (R230k) in December 2017 from less than $0.01 in 2009, everyone’s paying attention and the digital gold rush is on. B y S i m o n C a p s t i c k-D a l e
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While it’s widely speculated the combined market value of cryptocurrencies will reach $1 trillion in 2018, financial forecasters are divided on whether growth can continue on this sharp incline or the reoccurring – but so far short-lived – market corrections are warning signs of a bubble about to burst. Since the dust (read hysteria) of late 2017 settled after we all heard the got-rich-quick stories of timely crypto-investors, digital currencies – especially Bitcoin – have become increasingly attractive to investors by showing market resilience. The massive cryptocurrency sell-off in January cut a large chunk off the market value; but it has recovered many times before from heavy downswings, and the latest dip coincided with the market correction on Wall Street, after a long bull run for all indices. With the rise of Bitcoin, the blockchain technology behind the decentralised public ledger which records all transactions on its network has become the new talking point. Though again, few agree on the real impact this technology might have outside of its obvious benefits in financial services; and whether the blockchain becomes just a glorified database without a coin (cryptocurrency). But whether sceptical of its broader applications or not, the global blockchain community has exploded. At numerous conferences worldwide, blockchain advocates are outlining opportunities for innovation and disruption using the technology across numerous industry and business sectors. Proposed use cases
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extend beyond that of cryptocurrency – and decentralised peer-to-peer payments – to wider applications in supply chains, asset registries, smart contracts and identity management. Also on the agenda are imminent cryptocurrency regulations, and how authorities plan to incorporate these into existing frameworks designed around centralised fiat currency. While the US is undecided about how to classify cryptocurrencies as an asset, the IRS has ruled for tax purposes that they should be viewed as property – not currency. In China, there are reports of the government’s plans to put an outright ban on cryptocurrency trading. Meanwhile, the South African Reserve Bank has not yet implemented regulations, and SARS has specified nothing more than that all asset transactions attract tax and laws still apply.
Q&A: LUNO Fast Company caught up with Marcus Swanepoel (CEO) and Werner van Rooyen (Head of Marketing & Communications) for Luno, a leading digital currency platform for trading, storing and learning about cryptocurrency with offices in Cape Town, London and Singapore. How did you enter the world of digital currency and what motivated you to found Luno? As a group of five founders, we all came from finance and technology backgrounds and saw the long-term potential for digital currencies to empower consumers worldwide. By making money easier, faster and safer to use, we could provide economic opportunity and equal access to a better financial system for all. We believe that upgrading the financial system through decentralised digital currencies will ultimately improve the lives of everyone using them. To which company traits do you attribute Luno’s success in the digital currencies marketplace? Firstly, teamwork. Secondly, our core focus is on being the easiest and safest place to buy, sell and learn about digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. We spend an incredible amount of time and resources to make our platform more simple, elegant and educational for the consumer. Some of the behind-the-scenes work we do, which also enhances our customers’ experience, includes advanced anti-fraud and verification automation. Luno offers one of the few digital currency exchanges legally accepting South African customers. Why do you believe digital currency exchanges in this country are in short supply? On the surface, it might seem quite straightforward to create a digital currency exchange, but building a highly secure and compliant platform with everything from a user-friendly interface and safe digital currency storage, to education and customer support – across multiple countries and platforms – is a highly complex endeavour. For these reasons, the barriers to entry are harder to overcome than they might appear from the outset. What specific challenges have you had to overcome in the South African market? When dealing with people’s hard-earned money, they need to trust that you’re a secure custodian, which takes a lot of effort and patience. We are now heading into our fifth year of operation in South Africa. Continuous hard work and incorporating valuable feedback from our customers has certainly aided our progress. Are mainstream investors looking to cryptocurrency as a means of diversifying their portfolios? Absolutely. There’s already a large – and accelerating – influx of institutional investment into the cryptocurrency space. Some have found digital currencies
to be a hedge or alternative asset class for their portfolios because of the similarities between digital currencies – notably Bitcoin – and gold: both are limited in supply, but traded and desired around the world. Another reason that many institutional and long-term investors are taking positions on digital currencies is their lack of contagion and correlation with other asset classes. No matter what the stock market, property market or other industries are doing, cryptocurrency remains unaffected by inevitable fluctuations in these asset classes. How do you feel about the imminent cryptocurrency regulations? At Luno, not only are we aware that industry regulation is on the horizon, but our team fully embraces it. In light of ongoing discussions with banks, regulators and other fintech companies worldwide, we remain very optimistic about the positive impact that regulation will bring to the digital currency space. In the meantime, while the cryptocurrency space remains unregulated, Luno abides by the laws and regulations which apply to the financial services industry and banks of the 40 countries in which we operate. As a business, we have always emphasised regulatory compliance and consumer protection, which include advanced Know Your Customer (KYC), Antimoney Laundering (AML) and Anti-terror Financing (ATF) measures to mitigate risks, and respond to threats and suspicious activity. Do you foresee regulation helping to abate some of the uncertainty around cryptocurrency? Yes, most definitely. Cryptocurrency regulation will bring much-needed clarity to businesses like ours, as well as consumers. Regulations will enforce tighter controls, which serve as preventative measures against fraud and other financial crimes, while keeping our customers’ money and personal information safe. Industry regulation could bring more talent and capital investment into the industry, helping to unlock business models and bringing more advanced products to market. Is there potential for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to change the global financial ecosystem? Yes, most certainly. Core to our beliefs as a business is that decentralised digital currency will form the basis of the future of finance because they are faster, cheaper and easier to use for consumers. Cryptocurrencies can fundamentally change how the world views and uses money by offering more privacy, freedom – and ultimately equality by giving everyone access to the same financial system. We believe that cryptocurrency has the potential to do what email did to the post office: almost without thinking, we can send it from anywhere at the click of a button, at almost zero cost. Bitcoin is the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies, but are there any other altcoins that have caught your attention? A world of multiple digital currencies seems a likely future scenario, but we probably won’t have the thousands that are in existence today. There is plenty of innovation happening in the digital currency space and we are very interested to see which technology or currency becomes the dominant one. We expect one digital currency – most likely Bitcoin – to continue playing a dominant role, because of its properties as a store of wealth and the significant network effects it has shown so far. Bitcoin is the pioneering, tried-and-trusted digital currency: it is owned, understood and integrated into systems by people, businesses, governments and banks worldwide.
Luno is a leading digital currency platform for trading, storing and learning about cryptocurrency with offices in Cape Town, London and Singapore.
In the future, how might blockchain technology outside of financial services affect the way businesses, systems and processes are run? It’s difficult to predict these things early on. For instance, we might have been excited about what the Internet would bring when it went mainstream in the nineties, but so much innovation only came many years later. When considering the use of blockchain technology for other applications, we are wary of overvaluing the blockchain and undervaluing Bitcoin. If you’re going to discount the first global, successful use of a blockchain in Bitcoin, you might be putting the cart before the horse. We aren’t saying blockchain should be ignored altogether, but we feel it’s important to consider the theoretical benefits, and practical limitations of blockchain technology, such as existing industry structure, timing and human incentives. Furthermore, blockchains are not about technology alone. Some of the key benefits of a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is that it is interoperable and doesn’t require you to trust another counterparty. So while blockchain technology – or some other form of permissionless distributed databases – has broader applications, by separating the blockchain from cryptocurrency, the system potentially loses some of the key characteristics which make it so innovative.
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WANTED
The Tutu 2.0 Pendant – an amalgamation of African and Western finesse Indeed, the public has spoken! Thabisa Mjo’s African and Western infused Pendant light has been recently deemed as South Africa’s most beautiful object this year. By Unam Tsitsa
Thabisa Mjo, creative director of interior and product design company Mash.T Design Studio is the winner of 2018’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa. Being deeply embedded in a generation that is constantly seeking aesthetic presence at every turn, Mjo’s pendant light substitutes as an aesthetic pleasure that barely requires you to tilt your head up to notice it. Nominated by entrepreneur Thato Kgatlanye, Mjo’s functional lamp is a reimagining of the ballerina tutu. Every year, Design Indaba embarks on a journey to find the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz SA. This endeavour then manifests as a competition that becomes open to the public. In February every year, the nominations are released and the masses are given an opportunity to cast their votes towards the Most Beautiful Object in SA award.
In her pursuit to create something different from the traditional, Mjo drew inspiration from African and Western styles. According to Mjo, it is referred to as the Pendant light because it is an advancement of the iconic ballet outfit mixed
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with the hallmarks of an African counterpart, the Xibelani skirt. The Xibelani skirt is often worn by Tsonga women and is famous for its structural, tiered layers and colourful vertical pleats. Her team created the Tutu 2.0 Pendant light
using thin steel rods as a frame, reinforced with tightly woven strands of wool and hundreds of red and black beads, not only making it an alluring piece, but also making it sturdy within its design. Mjo’s varied sources of inspiration converge
to form something distinctive – a daring chandelier that becomes the centrepiece of any room. For more information, visit: www.designjoburg. com/exhibitors/mash-tdesign-studio/
FAST COMPANY PROMOTION
Expanding through innovation Discovering, connecting and growing South Africa’s small to medium innovative enterprises
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FAST COMPANY PROMOTION
South Africa’s small businesses represent 90% in all economies and contribute 40% towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). However, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups are still facing real challenges within the industrial ecosystem. The start-up failure rate is alarming and worrisome, with 80% of small business likely to fail within the first five years of inception. The Innovation Hub is an innovation agency which fosters transformation and entrepreneurship, as well as the full development and operation of The Innovation Hub Science and Technology Park. It was established by the Gauteng Provincial Government through its Department of Economic Development, to leverage innovation in order to promote economic progress and competitiveness within Gauteng. It is a trusted innovation agency and partner of choice in fostering transformation and entrepreneurship, and a driver for economic development, change and industry competitiveness through innovation. The Innovation Hub enables smart businesses to develop and commercialise innovation and technology through creating new business opportunities and adding value to mature companies, fostering entrepreneurship and incubating new innovative companies. As well as generating knowledge-based companies and jobs, building attractive spaces for emerging knowledge workers and enhancing the synergy between industry, government, academic, research institutions and partnerships.
indigenous knowledge-based nutraceuticals, nutrients, cosmeceuticals, cosmetics) and agriculture (agro-/food-processing, bio-processing, smart agriculture) sector. The support is provided in collaboration with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and eGoliBio Life Sciences. The latter is an incubator that serves as a development agency for the commercialisation of bioscience products to identify potential entrepreneurs with innovative technologies to convert biosciences research into commercially viable venture. The Climate Innovation Centre South Africa (CIC) provides business development support to start-ups and small businesses
BURGEONING SUCCESS OF BUSINESSES Committed to helping small business owners to become tomorrow’s business legends. The Innovation Hub utilises several enterprise development programmes to accelerate innovation in South Africa. These programmes include: Maxum Business Incubator,which consists of Maxum Smart, an enterprise development programme which offers business development support to start-up companies in the smart industry (ICT and advanced manufacturing). Maxum Digital provides business development support to digital start-ups in gaming, animation and virtual reality, as well as supports unemployed graduates and township youth in collaboration with Wits University. Maxum Digital strives to place South Africa as a frontrunner of gaming, animation and virtual reality by supporting and training entrepreneurs with a passion for the industry. And Maxum Media, which provides business development support to media production start-ups in collaboration with Kagiso Media and Urban Brew Studios. BioPark@Gauteng focuses on bioeconomy (agro processing and health), and therefore provides business development support to start-ups in the health sector (biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics,
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operating in the green economy sector (focusing on energy, water and waste sectors). It was established in collaboration with the World Bank infoDev and is also supported by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). eKasiLabs is a business incubator operating in various townships in Gauteng, in collaboration with various partners, including academic institutions and local government. The incubator promotes a local culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, by providing business development support to startups in different sectors, that can contribute to the growth and development of the township economy. mLab Southern Africa is a registered non-profit organisation that is powered through the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Department of Science & Technology, The Innovation Hub, the V&A Waterfront and the World Bank infoDev. It is a mobile applications laboratory, which incubates innovation and entrepreneurship in the mobile channel, in order to stimulate the use of mobile solutions in government service delivery.
HARNESSING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION In the skills development sector, The Innovation Hub renders a range of
skills development programmes which include: CoachLab: a youth-targeted skills development and postgraduate leadership development programme, which focuses on ICT and engineering sectors through internships, mentorships and learnerships. It aims to bridge the gap between academia and the demands of the industry. It is managed by The Innovation Hub in collaboration with prominent industry partners, government and academia. Code Tribe (an extension of CoachLab) is a bursary programme aimed at developing the next generation of software developers. The programme trains young mobile developers for the Android Operating System, backend and Cloud platforms while using SCRUM Agile methodologies. FabLab is a school programme aimed at promoting the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at school level and creates a platform for identifying and nurturing entrepreneurs at an early age.
FOSTERING INNOVATION The Innovation Hub runs the following innovation-enabling activities. OpenIX is an Open Innovation Exchange that delivers tangible solutions to real challenges posted by solution seekers in government and the private sector. The platform connects leading African researchers and entrepreneurs with new opportunities to commercialise their innovations. Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) Innovation Competitions, recognise, reward and celebrate top innovators in the ICT, Biosciences, Green and Medical technology sectors. The competitions target innovative ideas that have a potential to significantly impact the Gauteng economy. Mo-vation is an information sharing platform that aims to build a culture of innovation, collaboration and learning amongst entrepreneurs at any level. An entrepreneur shares their experiences and knowledge in their industry and the audience participates with
their own questions and stories from different sectors to create an atmosphere of belonging, to network and grow. Innov8 is a a flagship networking and collaboration platform that provides an opportunity for industry thought leaders to share their experiences and offer advice to the entrepreneurial community.
INNOVATION ENABLING SPACES The Innovation Hub also offers collaborative spaces both in The Science Park and throughout the Gauteng region. Office Space/Tenants: The Innovation Hub provides high quality office space to knowledge-based enterprises in a number of multi-tenant buildings. These include individual serviced offices, with flexibility to accommodate large and small companies. Conferences, events and meetings: The Innovation Hub has 11 conference venues with the capacity to accommodate up to 250 people in cinema style. The facilities include a 15-seater video conferencing room, VIP lounge and various hot desk options. Land for development: The Innovation Hub Science and Technology Park is strategically located at the heart of the Smart Corridor within close proximity of leading research, academic and national institutions such as CSIR, University of Pretoria and the Department of Science and Technology. Individual plots are available on-site for companies looking for land to build offices, that are uniquely designed on a long-term lease basis. Companies operating in The Innovation Hub’s priority sectors have preference, as they are well-suited to benefit from the vibrant atmosphere exuded by an innovative community.
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FLIPPING PROPERTIES AND TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIES Business t ycoon and real estate mogul Julie Solomon of JSP innovates and inspires against all odds By S onwabo Macingwana
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FROM AVOIDING INSOLVENCY AND BEING DIAGNOSED WITH A BR AIN TUMOUR, TO BEING HONOURED WITH A H ALL OF FAME AWARD BY THE WORLD’S L ARGEST RE AL ESTATE AGENCY, PROPERT Y MOGUL JULIE SOLOMON H AS WON AG AINST ALL ODDS. 26 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A MARCH APRIL 2018
a two-armed property business encompassing the selling and letting part of the Julie Solomon Properties brand and the real estate coaching and training side of the business. You first studied drama and became a professional actress; how did you get into the property business and what was your motivation? When my daughter was eight years old, I was working for a Fast-Moving Consumer Goods company, working long hours and travelling both locally and internationally, and I realised that I both needed and wanted to spend more time with my daughter, to be more involved with her school activities. I had to find a career that afforded me this flexibility of time, as well as bring in a good enough income to be able to afford taking care of my daughter and I. As I had always been interested in property and renovating property, I took the step of starting as an estate agent and within three months I was the top sales person in that branch. I took to selling properties like a duck to water, and loved it.
Julie Solomon was born and raised in Benoni on the East Rand of Joburg. She joined a family of six and third born of four daughters, with a father who had a construction business and a mother who worked as an executive secretary. As a teenager, she was keen to become independent and start earning her own income. As a result, she completed her last two years of high school in one by attending a college, and excelled in business studies. She now holds a Damelin Marketing and Sales Diploma, as well as completed numerous sales and marketing training courses. Solomon started her career working as a marketing assistant, a secretary, sales rep, manager, and later becoming a national sales and operations manager for Unilever, a British-Dutch transnational consumer goods company co-headquartered in London. She also ran different businesses, imported costume jewellery, importing and wholesaling promotional and novelty items, having supplied Steers, Spur and Nando’s with their children’s toy pack give-aways. To date, intuitive Solomon runs her award winning real estate company –
You bought your first property at the age of 23; how did you transform the realty profession into the integrated business it is today? I was raised with the notion that “why pay off someone else’s property?”. Owning my own home made me feel grounded, grown-up and independent. I then worked in the property industry for almost ten years before venturing out on my own and starting the Julie Solomon Property brand. I was determined to address the usual customer and client complaints about the estate agency business and strive to be different, innovative and to take care of my client’s needs before my own. I have created a boutique type of business through hard work, dedication and a passion for property. Would you consider yourself a real estate dynamo? Ah, that’s not easy to answer. According to my clients and associates in the industry, I
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Julie Solomon inspires the audience at one of her successful JSP Seminars
kick butt and sell more property, quicker, at better prices for my clients, and have an eye for a good deal - if that makes me a dynamo then yes, I am one. You almost faced insolvency twice, what would you consider caused it and what kept you firm and determined to keep going? I did lose my business and had to start all over again, but I must add, neither of those businesses were in property. I have always done exceptionally well when it comes to investing in and selling property. The mistakes I made in those other ventures could so easily have been avoided had I had the business coaching that I have invested in over the last three years. One big mistake was being too trusting in a partner - I have learnt from my business coach, JT Foxx, just how important it is to ‘trust but verify’. Of course, having my coach hold me accountable has pushed me further than I thought was possible. What are the best principles to follow when buying, selling or investing in property? Do your homework, know your numbers, be knowledgeable, don’t procrastinate and up-skill yourself if need be, so you feel confident to make the right decision. When selling, just call Julie Solomon, she’ll handle it for you! You’ve worked with Rawson Properties, the RE/MAX brand and other real estate agents, what are your thoughts on collaboration? Collaboration can be both good and bad. It largely depends on whether there is a genuine common purpose and not whether one party stands to gain far more than the other. For
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a collaboration to be successful you definitely need to find similar levels of success, passion and integrity before even venturing down that path. You are also an international speaker, property coach, trainer and shared the stage with influential names, the likes of JT Foxx, John Travolta, Randi Zuckerberg, Patrice Motsepe, Ndaba Mandela, and many more elite luminaries, can you tell us more about the ethos of Julie Solomon Property Seminars? I absolutely love the speaking side of my business – having the opportunity to share my success and failures with fellow motivated people in other countries, as well as South Africa, is inspiring and heart warming. If my experience can inspire or motivate another, then I can feel very satisfied that I am doing some good in the world. Over the years, I am so often asked about how to invest in property, how to find a good deal, etc. I decided my next step would be to show, encourage and coach South Africans that they too can increase their net worth, to start a property portfolio to give them and their family a better life by gaining practical, sensible, hands-on advice from someone who has done it themselves. I’ve been involved in thousands of property transactions worth billions of rands. I’ve bought, sold, renovated, flipped and HMO’d properties over a period of thirty years. Now I want to encourage others to be confident enough to take that first step because the benefits and the financial rewards will be life changing. I want to give South Africans the know-how, no frills or bullshit advice that will benefit them. Straight forward, down to earth - I like to keep it real.
“ I was determined to address the usual customer and client complaints about the estate agency business and strive to be different, innovative and to take care of my client’s needs before my own.”
Fifty percent of the world’s wealth is in property, what makes a good and successful real estate agent? Unfortunately, too many agents just chase the commission and don’t themselves invest in
30 SECOND BIO
Julie Solomon FAVOURITE QUOTE If it’s up to me, it has to be! FAVOURITE BOOK Tony Robbins - MONEY Master the Game FAVOURITE DESTINATION Thailand FAVOURITE CITY Cape Town FAVOURITE TECH GADGET Apple watch
property. The top agents, and there are some incredibly successful, professional agents in our country, have the ability to combine both wanting to close a deal and knowing how to do it at the betterment of their clients – buyer and seller. Having integrity with a chameleon-like instinct for the sales process, as well as a high level of energy and passion – a good agent knows you have to be first off the starting block. What has been your greatest challenge to date? Being diagnosed with a brain tumour and undergoing a seven hour surgery to remove it, learning to cope with the recovery period by not being too impatient and being kind to myself. What are your business’s most notable accomplishments to date? The rapid growth of the business and the recognition of the JSP brand, doubling the turnover each year since inception almost four years ago, and firmly establishing the brand as the go-to company in the area. What is the one thing that makes you different from other real estate agents? Results, straight forward honesty and being customer focused backed up by knowledge and skill. You’ve won numerous awards, what would you consider as your most memorable accolade? Yes, there have been many and as a true sales person I admit I
IDEAL DAY A walk on the beach with my two dogs, sell a property and conduct a seminar teaching others how to become a “property millionaire” HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX Painting BIGGEST INSPIRATION My daughter and my business coaches from the JT Foxx Organisation BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE The day I held my daughter for the first time
enjoy receiving them. Being recognised for achievement is wonderful, but no one award stands out more than the others. I did win the top sales award in KZN for two years in a row from the last company I worked for and then a Hall of Fame Award from the world’s largest real estate company. To what would you attribute the success of the business? Focusing on solving my client’s problems, offering a solution, creating a desire to be successful and instilling the belief that success is attainable with knowledge, passion and hard work. You are currently based in KZN/ Durban, what can we expect in the near future, are you considering expanding to other provinces? The coaching and real estate seminars have already expanded to several other areas with plans to launch into more cities this year. What are your thoughts on South Africa’s real estate industry? We still have one of the worlds “cheapest” real estate and whilst 2017 was a challenge for the industry seeing little growth, it is still a highly viable investment commodity, provided we take cognisance of the cyclical nature of it. As my mentor, George Ross, in an interview with him said, “no one is making any more land – go grab yourself a piece.” As an entrepreneur and property expert, what advice would you give to people accumulating property bonds and individuals venturing into the property business? You don’t need to buy to live, rather buy to let. Use someone else’s money to buy and have someone else pay for it, and if you don’t know how, find yourself a trustworthy coach and learn from an expert. Any additional insight? We can all be extraordinary, we just have to believe in ourselves. Don’t allow yourself to be held back by a lack of faith and self confidence.
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BEHIND THE BRAND
SOS - Save Our Schools A community-oriented business collaboration that aims to educate Cape Town youth about the water crisis and, in effect, ensure it doesn’t happen again.
SOS – We all know the term and its popular usage. SOS became associated with such phrases as “Save our Ship” – a crisis on the open water or simply a water crisis. Cape Town is predicted to be the first of the so called “modern world’s major cities” which could completely run out of municipal drinking water. Think about that for a moment – run dry? What does that actually mean, and how could this happen? There are many explanations and reasons, and most people living or interested in Cape Town have been bombarded with reasoning and excuses from political mismanagement of a three-year-long “coincidence drought” or poorly maintained water supply systems. As all politically managed societies, we are quick to blame and only thereafter to find solutions to deal with the crisis. The fact is that “water scarcity” is a new norm that we need to acknowledge, and most actions depend on the individual to change their behaviour, not only whilst the crisis is ongoing, but thereafter and moving forward. The fundamental problem is the kind of lifestyle many are living. There’s almost a sense of entitlement that we have a right to consume as much as we want. The attitude and reaction of most posts on social media
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is indignation. It’s “we pay our taxes and therefore this should be provided”, but this is not the case if we want to avoid a possible #DayZero. The biggest solution we need and actually have is education. If we get the facts delivered and provide expert knowledge and advice, we’ll be set to better handle this new reality. “We can no longer live with the idea that this would be a short-term drought and that things would return to normal,” says Shelley Humphreys, Director of Water4CapeTown. “Climate change is a ‘real’ issue, and it’s only begun to dawn on us how much the demand for water will just keep increasing.” Humphreys reached out to climate change ambassadors and one organisation stood out – The Climate Reality Project. Spearheaded by former Vice President of the US Al Gore, the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth was released in 2006 and highlighted the very real issues of climate change. The sequel An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power has recently been released, and documents Gore’s continuing advocacy around the world, training an army of activists and influencing international climate policy with an important message – the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion. Water4CapeTown has partnered with the V&A Waterfront to help educate about the water crisis with a series of events in March 2018. “Pancho Campo, a member of the Advisory Board of the Climate Reality Project, will be flying in from his hometown of Marbella, Spain to be the keynote speaker and host for World Water Day, as well as the screening at the Amphitheatre of The
“ T HE BIGGEST SOLUTION WE NEED AND ACTUALLY HAVE IS EDUCATION. IF WE GET THE FACTS DELIVERED AND PROVIDE EXPERT KNOWLEDGE AND ADVICE, WE’LL BE SET TO BETTER HANDLE THIS NEW REALITY.”
Isuzu, Swish Property Group and other sponsors have collaborated to created the SOS - Save Our Schools campaign.
Inconvenient Sequel. “He will also be our honourable guest and host for our Water-“less” Art Dinner Auction, where we will be raising funds for the Water4CapeTown charity,” says Humphreys. She advises that this series of events will be leading up to a water-focussed climate change event in November with the big man himself, Al Gore, as the
keynote speaker. Humphreys along with committed partners, Swish Property Group, ISUZU and JoJo created the programme SOS – Save Our Schools. “The campaign is intended to help make permanent decreases in individual daily water usage in response to the mandated reduction targets. We believe the most efficient way to do so is through our children,” says Humphreys. ISUZU, with a clear vision to establish a foundation for sustainable, long-term business growth in the South African market, offered to supply, not only their deep knowledge around the safest and most sustainable way to transport nonpotable water to the needed schools via 10 trucks, but also manpower to support the demanding requirements of carrying out the daily task of filling and re-filling the school’s non-potable tanks. Swish Property Group has partnered with the campaign to assist with the donation of non-potable water, which is sourced from the Woodstock Quarter development. “The basement of the development is below the water table, so there is a constant flow of water being pumped out and we wanted to assist this essential campaign in delivering this water to the schools in our direct community. With 11 other major cities reportedly destined for the same drought issues, it is essential that Cape Town shows leadership and solutiondriven conversations within Government and City Council. SOS is a clear example of a community-centric campaign bringing together businesses to collaborate and resolve pertinent issues about sanitation and education surrounding the current water crisis. “The SOS campaign will be officially launched on World Water Day at The Clock Tower on Thursday, 22 March and I invite everyone to come and celebrate with us on this very important day,” adds Humphreys.
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
Following pages: Set designer: Wunderkind; groomers: Kay Louro, Zuleika Viera, Kim White
THE FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN. CHANGE IS COMING FASTER THAN EVER. IT’S CRUCIAL TO FOCUS ON THE POSSIBILITIES AHEAD. HERE’S HOW.
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CA R L A HA R R I S Vice chairman, managing director, and senior client adviser, Morgan Stanley
BRE A K T HE MOL D Carla Harris built her reputation on Wall Street by shepherding billions of dollars through initial public offerings. She now oversees Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab. To gain an edge, she says, companies must start by having “a lot of different people in the room.” Here is her playbook for attracting—and keeping—diverse talent.
Look Harder Hiring managers often hide behind the claim that qualified, diverse candidates seem scarce. “The easy answer is, ‘It’s hard to find them.’ When I hear people say that, I know right away they’re not really committed to making it happen, because the talented women and people of color—they’re out there.”
Cultivate Success “When you bring somebody into your organisation and have gone through all that trouble to find them, recruit them, pay them top dollar—there is no reason that they should fail. If they don’t do well, something is happening in your culture, and you should check that.”
Lean on the Next Generation Millennials, Harris says, expect to see diversity in the upper ranks, “and they are getting into positions of leadership faster than we did. That is what’s going to cause companies that have been around for a long time to change.” Photograph by Jessie English
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
JESSICA ALBA Founder, The Honest Company
GROW F ROM SE T B ACKS The Honest Company has grown to offer more than 100 all-natural, non-toxic household products in stores across the US, but the six-year-old business has also weathered lawsuits, a CEO change, and a recent funding round that reportedly cut its valuation to below unicorn status. Founder Jessica Alba has become even more determined to stay focused on her original goals. To face business hurdles, she has drawn on lessons from her experience in Hollywood.
Ditch Bad Partners
Establish Your Own Goals
Don’t Trust the Hype
When first pitching her company, Alba found that her fame was a double-edged sword. “When I talked to my lawyers, managers, agents about the idea, they said, ‘Why don’t you just license your brand and do a perfume or something?’ I was like, ‘No, I want to build a consumer packaged goods company.’ They didn’t know how to do that,” she says, “so they tried to make me feel small and dumb.”
Alba says that the media obsession around her company’s high valuation reminded her of her days as a rising movie star. “People were like, ‘You came out of nowhere!’ And I was on the cover of all these magazines. I never believed the hype. I knew why I was doing what I was doing—and it’s the same with this company. Ultimately, I want people to live healthy, happy lives. That’s all that matters to me.”
Alba encountered plenty of people who didn’t take her seriously or wanted to coopt her idea. “When you try to partner with people, and it’s not their idea, they sort of morph your vision into what they know. I kept going down all of these roads with different partners, where they could give me the capital to start a company, but ultimately it wasn’t going to be the company that I wanted to build.”
Photograph by Herring & Herring
Having mentors who are women is important to Alba. “I over-index on calling them and asking them things, because there’s just stuff that we go through,” she says. “In a lot of situations, we are treated differently.”
LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
AT TA C H MEANING “It’s much easier to work hard and put in the time when there is a constant reminder that our efforts are helping people succeed.” Ryan Williams Cofounder and president, Jopwell
BE PERSONAL “People are craving human interaction. That’s going to move the needle more than any technology you could ever dream up.” Tina Sharkey Cofounder and CEO, Brandless
LET DOWN YOUR GUARD
Maelle Gavet COO, Compass
GET A GROOVE ON “We have an open office culture that’s really fun. It bothers me when it’s too quiet. We play cool music. The team gets very stressed out when I play ’70s country.” John Foley Cofounder and CEO, Peloton
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Photographs by Jessie English and Herring & Herring
Jessie English (Williams, Sharkey, Foley, Gavet, Warren, Katz); Herring & Herring (Cohen)
“When people feel like they can talk freely and really be themselves, it makes it easier to collaborate.”
DON’T OVERTHINK “I lead from the heart. If something touches my heart, then I speak on it. There is great power in being direct.” Andy Cohen Host, Watch What Happens Live
LEAP WITH CONFIDENCE “My mentees know that I will push them off the ledge with wet wings and let them dry on the way down. Train yourself to go toward fear, not run away from it.” Tiffany Warren Chief diversity officer, Omnicom
DEVELOP ALLIES “Our model is [to co-operate] with government. The ingredient that can overcome anything is government wanting to tackle a problem.” Dan Katz Director of public policy and US projects, Virgin Hyperloop One
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
WOW YOUR CUSTOMERS “Be something people will be so thrilled about that they’ll advocate for you, evangelise for you. Religion is a highly motivating thing, and that’s what a good brand is too.” Scott Norton Cofounder, Sir Kensington’s
TURN SUCCESS INTO MORE SUCCESS “The easiest way to keep a culture positive is to keep winning. If you’re a football team and not winning, it’s going to be tough on morale.” Tamara Ingram CEO, J. Walter Thompson
KEEP THE FAITH S E E W H AT ’ S AHEAD “Sometimes diversity is talked about as charity, but in a world that’s increasingly diverse, it is an economic imperative to the bottom line.”
“Whatever is going on, your number-one responsibility is to have a mindset at work that says, ‘We can solve this.’ ” David Miliband President and CEO, International Rescue Committee
Rashad Robinson Executive director, Color of Change
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Photographs by Jessie English
U N L E A S H TA L E N T “When people don’t have to compromise who they are in order to survive, then all energies are focused on the possibilities.” Lisa Skeete Tatum Cofounder and CEO, Landit
GIVE CREDIT “Compensation is important to keep people engaged, but so is a willingness to allow teams to own their wins.” Clint Kisker Cofounder and president, MWM
BE AN I N ST I G ATO R “Before you take a stand on political issues, actually have policies that are inclusive.” Aria Finger CEO, Do Something
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
KNOW YOUR WORTH “Ultimately, a brand has to think about how it is going to add value to someone’s life.” Vivian Rosenthal CEO, Snaps
CHOOSE YOUR STYLE “You can make waves or [be a] wave rider. You can never do both at the same time.”
Jessie English (Motonaga, Rosenthal, Falkenberg, Zagone, Whitaker); Herring & Herring (Waithe, Levick)
Mark Motonaga Partner, Rios Clementi Hale
ANSWER TO YOUR HEART “You never know how an audience will respond to your art, but I don’t think that’s the artist’s concern.” Lena Waithe Writer and actor, Master of None
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Photographs by Jessie English and Herring & Herring
READ THE CUES “Effective communication means taking in not just what’s said but what’s unsaid, which is often more important.” Kai Falkenberg First deputy commissioner, NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment
RESPECT RENEGADES “We forget that it was universities who were the first adopters of internet technology. They created the platform on which the internet was built. That’s not disruption; that’s enabling.” Ryan Zagone Director of regulatory relations, Ripple
ENCOURAGE BALANCE “People have lives outside of the workplace. Acknowledging that lifts the entire organisation.” Jeff Levick CEO, The Players’ Tribune
EMBRACE CRAZY “A lot of times things that are quite serious come about from what at first looked a little ridiculous.” Amy Whitaker Author and assistant professor, New York University
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
OBEY THE GOLDEN RULE “Don’t try to sell down the pipeline nonsense you wouldn’t buy yourself.” Michael Lastoria Cofounder and CEO, &pizza
SET THE TONE “There will always be challenges, and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to find the silver lining. But what’s the alternative? And [who] wants to work in that environment?” Debra Anderson Cofounder and chief strategy officer, Datavized Technologies
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B E PA S S I O N AT E “We have huge arguments about how to move forward. We had a blowout fight the other day. Someone has to fall on their sword.” Gregg Renfrew Founder and CEO, Beautycounter
Photographs by Jessie English, Laurel Golio, and Arturo Olmos
P L AY N I C E “I can’t do it without a team. My head would be spinning—you would think I was in The Exorcist.” Michael Strahan Cofounder, SMAC Entertainment
MAKE ’EM LAUGH “Good leaders know that humour and tenacity will get them further than anger and chaos.”
Jessie English (Anderson, Renfrew, Stern, Bhatt); Laurel Golio (Lastoria); Arturo Olmos (Strahan)
Caryl Stern President and CEO, UNICEF USA
EXPLORE THE UNKNOWN “The best ideas come from the strangest places.” Baiju Bhatt Cofounder, Robinhood
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LESSONS IN OPTIMISM
WORK EVERY ROOM “Leadership is a choice. It’s not just on high, being in a glass tower. It’s all about connection, which builds trust, which builds empathy.” Claude Silver Chief heart officer, VaynerMedia
NURTURE THE EMBERS “Good ideas do not spread on their own. And that’s especially true in the public sector. Bike share was started 35 years ago.” Jim Anderson Head of government innovation programs, Bloomberg Philanthropies
F I N D T H E B E AT “My number-one rule is what I call the first law of jazz: The first time you sit in with a new combo, you listen more than you play.” Art Markman Professor of psychology and marketing, University of Texas at Austin
SMASH BARRIERS “As an artist, you create the work you want to create, regardless of the medium and the industry. We need to knock down the facade between the art and commercial worlds.” Shantell Martin Visual artist
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Photographs by Jessie English
EMPOWER PEOPLE “Giving work is so much more powerful than giving other types of aid. Work is at the core of human dignity. When we deny refugees the right to work, we are denying them a fundamental human right.” Leila Janah Founder and CEO, Samasource
ENJOY THE UPGRADE “Right now, the world is filled with opportunities to replace ordinary with something that is extraordinary or experiential.” Chris Kelly Cofounder and president, Convene
P O L I S H T H AT C RY STA L BA L L “If you want to know how the future will be, study how a billionaire lives today. It will be a world where things you don’t want to do will be done for you, [so you can engage in] what is fun and immersive.” Dan Clay Senior associate, Lippincott
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IS YOUR COMPANY
‘LIFESTYLE
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DESTINED TO BE A
BUSINESS’? It’s a concept that is on the rise and could revolutionise the workspace B y G a b r i e l l a B r o n d a n i Re g o
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When I hear people talking about lifestyle businesses, I always think back to an article written by Sir Richard Branson on Virgin.com titled, “Why we’re letting Virgin staff take as much holiday as they want” In it, Branson talks about a Netflix policy which permits all salaried staff to take off whenever they want for as long as they want. “There is no need to ask for prior approval and neither the employees themselves nor their managers are asked or expected to keep track of their days away from the office. It is left to the employee alone to decide if and when he or she feels like taking a few hours, a day, a week or a month off, the assumption being that they are only going to do it when they feel a hundred per cent comfortable that they and their team are up to date on every project and that their absence will not in any way damage the business – or, for that matter, their careers!” As such, Virgin adopted the same policy where staff are encouraged to take as much time off as they need, when they need it (provided they are on top of their work, of course). The interesting thing to note is that the article was written and shared in 2014 – a good four years ago, showing how relevant the ideas and ideology of Virgin still are, more so now in a time where more lifestyle businesses are on the rise. For me, Sir Richard Branson is a good example of a lifestyle employer,
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and is someone who truly understands the importance of people within a business to make it a success. More so, he understands the immense value the right working environment can have on people and a business (be it a lifestyle business or a traditional business). One needs only look at The Base (by Virgin Atlantic) – a state of the art facility where Virgin Atlantic cabin crew go through all their training. “You’ll often see our staff being put through their paces on the rig and life-size mock-up plane which sits right in the middle of the building. It offers a contemporary, dynamic and flexible workspace that truly reflects our spirit and passion for putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. “The building has lots of varied spaces from open and collaborative to secluded and focus-driven spaces, which not only encourages a more activity based working style, but it also supports the wellbeing of our staff. The VHQ is a really fantastic place to work, there’s also a natural light-filled restaurant and coffee bar which is open throughout the day – perfect for meals, meetings or simply musing on your next big idea.” Virgin Atlantic is but one example of a global company doing cool things to empower and inspire its people. There are a few, closer to home, who are also ensuring staff can fit work around their lifestyles and personal needs and aspirations. • Jono Bruton is a digital warrior for EasyEquities, and is the founder of proudly South African lifestyle clothing brand, Dead Reckoning. Jono began his journey with leading fintech company, EasyEquities, two years ago. Fortunately for him, EasyEquities was not only innovative with their product offerings and services, but also with their company culture. “If you ask most people at EasyEquities what it is they do, chances are they will say they work with EasyEquities. More so, you will also find that they run their own small businesses as well. I am one such person. In this digital age, I am afforded the opportunity to work from home in my small seaside town of Gonubie. “Most of my work with EasyEquities only requires an internet connection and I am always available for a video session on Skype with my colleagues. It’s almost as if I really am sitting in the office up in JHB. During my lunch breaks, I can go for a surf or take a walk on the beach with my three-legged pooch named Tria,” says Bruton. The company culture of EasyEquities is one where you make sure your work is always up to date, but also that you are using your initiative, and, most importantly, adding value to the business. “If you are doing this, what you do with
your spare time is your prerogative. This has allowed me to start up a clothing brand called Dead Reckoning and also a community enablement project called Salty Hour. Both of these businesses take up all my spare time, but when you are doing something for the love of it, it really just feels like it is time spent doing something for yourself, which is important in life. “Personally, I think entrepreneurship has been drastically overrated. Not everyone is built to be the boss of a company, but they could be built to be the boss of themselves. Enter: Lifestyle Business. By applying self-discipline and great work ethic there is the possibility to work for a boss, and at the same time still be your own boss. “Forward-thinking companies have tested this by taking the chance to cut costs without retrenching, by allowing staff to work remotely from home, therefore cutting costs on office space overheads and all the other peripherals. As a result, staff save on commuting and obviously this is great for the company’s carbon footprint.” • When Colin Ford, word nerd and co-founding partner of lifestyle business, CN&CO, was diagnosed with depression in 2014, he was working in a very strict nine-to-five environment. He was required to account for every 15 minutes of his day and submit time-sheets for himself and his team – about 10 or 12 people – every week. He also saw a therapist once a week and attended lectures at Wits, where he was doing his honours. “I loved the work I did and the people I worked with, but in order to see my therapist and get to my classes on time, I somehow needed to work in four hours a week, wherever and however I could. Some weeks we would have events or run training sessions after hours or on weekends, which was fine. But some weeks were slower and I would find myself making up completely pointless and fruitless things to do, adding a few minutes on to a task here or there, or shuffling time around in the reports to make them add up. Guess how that affected my anxiety levels. And guess how that affected my depression. “Some mornings I would sit in my car for half an hour in the car park, summoning up the energy just to walk into the office and face people. Eventually I quit and took six months off, during which time I finished my degree, did a bit of
A lifestyle business affords employees the convenience of either working from home or taking personal time for hobbies and sport.
freelance work and focused on pulling myself together. “It’s a funny thing this depression – and it’s a real thing. Some days it just arrives and sucks the life out of me. On those days, it’s a massive effort just to get out of bed, never mind having to travel into work. There’s hardly any energy for myself, which makes sharing my energy with others practically impossible.” Because Ford now works in a lifestyle business, he can just sit at his desk at home when he’s in a funk. He can be productive and get stuff done without distraction. If he needs to clear his head he can go and read a book for half an hour, watch the news, play some online Scrabble, take his dogs for a walk… and then get back to what he’s working on with renewed vigour and attention. “The work I’m doing now, I’m doing properly. I’m doing it to add value to our business and our clients’ businesses, not simply to fill a time sheet. This in itself is hugely therapeutic. I’m still managing my depression, but on my terms and with the full support of everyone in my life who is special to me. Plus, I’m getting a lot more done at work and in all other areas of my life.”
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FAST COMPANY PROMOTION
Focusing on South Africa’s Special Economic Zones South Africa has eight (8) Special Economic Zones located in dif ferent provinces, namely: COEGA INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ZONE (SEZ) (EASTERN CAPE) The Coega IDZ is the largest in Southern Africa. It is strategically located in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality on the East-West trade route, to service both world and African markets. The Coega IDZ leverages public-sector investment to attract foreign and domestic direct investment in the manufacturing sector with an export orientation. The IDZ has attracted investment in the agro-processing, automotive, aquaculture, energy, metals logistics and business process services sectors. For more information, visit www.coega.co.za
RICHARDS BAY SEZ (KWAZULU-NATAL) The Richards Bay IDZ is a purpose-built and secure industrial estate on the north-eastern South African coast. The N2 business corridor links the province’s two major ports, Durban and Richards Bay, and connects with Maputo in Mozambique and, ultimately, areas of East Africa. It is linked to an international sea port of Richards Bay, tailored for the manufacturing and storage of minerals and products to boost beneficiation, investment, economic growth and, most importantly, the development of skills and employment. First-world infrastructure allows for full exploitation of the area’s natural and strategic advantages. Through the superb industrial infrastructure, wellestablished network of shipments, and tax- and duty-free incentives, the IDZ aims to encourage international competitiveness and attract export-orientated manufacturing investment. For more information, visit www.rbidz.co.za
EAST LONDON SEZ (EASTERN CAPE) Innovation, efficiency, growth and sustainability are key to the East London IDZ (ELIDZ). The zone has become a prime industrial park, renowned for its customised solutions for various industries, including automotive, agro-processing and aquaculture. The ELIDZ offers growth-oriented companies a specialised manufacturing platform, innovative industrial and business solutions, and access to new markets and strategic industry networks. The ELIDZ is an ideal choice for the location of exported manufacturing and processing, providing investors with connections to major markets, locally and across the globe. For more information, visit www.elidz.co.za
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SALDANHA BAY SEZ (WESTERN CAPE) This IDZ will serve as the primary oil, gas and marine repair engineering and logistics services complex in Africa, servicing the needs of the upstream oil exploration industry and production service companies operating in the oil and gas fields off SubSaharan Africa. Situated approximately two hours north of Cape Town, the SBIDZ will include logistics, repairs and maintenance, and fabrication activities. For more information, visit www.sbidz.co.za
DUBE TRADEPORT SEZ (KWAZULU-NATAL) Dube TradePort is a catalyst for global trade and a portal between KwaZulu-Natal and the world. It is the only facility in Africa that brings together an international airport, cargo terminal, warehousing, offices, retail sector, hotels and agricultural area. Located 30km north of Durban, Dube TradePort is positioned between the two biggest sea ports of Southern Africa, and linked to the rest of Africa by road and rail. Areas that have been designated as the IDZ are the Dube TradeZone and the Dube AgriZone. The Dube TradeZone focuses on manufacturing and valueaddition primarily for automotive, electronics and fashion garments. The facility involves warehousing, manufacturing, assembling real estate resource, complete with a single facility in which all freight-forwarders and shippers are located (Dube TradeHouse), which enjoys a direct link to the adjacent Dube Cargo Terminal via an elevated cargo conveyor system. The Dube AgriZone is a high-tech, future-farming facility that hosts the continent’s largest climate-controlled growing area under glass and focuses on high-value, niche agricultural and horticultural products. The AgriLab will look into specialised tissue culture, greenhouses, and flowers and plants, all of which require swift air transportation. For more information, visit www.dubetradeport.co.za
MALUTI-A-PHOFUNG SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE (SEZ) (FREE STATE) Maluti-A-Phofung SEZ in Harrismith, Free State, lies at the midpoint of the crucial Durban-Johannesburg logistics route. This newly established SEZ offers exporters a logistics base that facilitates access to the Port of Durban, and intermodal logistics solutions for the transfer of freight between road and rail. The zone is well-suited and licensed for general manufacturing, offering a convenient production base for light and medium manufacturing. With excellent logistics links by road or rail to South Africa’s industrial heartland, the Port of Durban and the southern Bloemfontein-Cape Town route, the SEZ is a natural choice for investors seeking a costeffective location to service domestic and export markets. In addition, the SEZ intends building on existing strengths to attract agro-processing industries to an area that has good access to the products of the agriculturally rich Free State. It harbours intentions of acting as an agglomeration, storage and logistics point for agricultural produce. Owned by the Free State Development Corporation, this site has existing facilities that can be leased immediately, and is currently upgrading both the internal road and utility infrastructure to meet expected demand. For more information, visit www.fdc.co.za
OR TAMBO SEZ (GAUTENG) The OR Tambo IDZ aims to develop land around OR Tambo International Airport to stimulate economic development through the
use of the IDZ mechanism. The OR Tambo IDZ supports the growth of the beneficiation of precious metals and minerals sector, with a focus on light, high-margin, export-oriented manufacturing of South African precious and semi-precious metals. The multi-site development at OR Tambo IDZ consists of several industry-specific precincts and will be developed in phases over a 10- to 15-year period. For more information, visit www.ggda.co.za
MUSINA-MAKHADO SEZ (LIMPOPO) The Musina-Makhado SEZ comprises two geographical locations that address unique industrial clusters. The site in Musina targets the light industrial and agro-processing clusters, while the Makhado site is a metallurgical/mineral beneficiation complex. A third site has been identified to target the petrochemical industries. The SEZ is strategically located along the N1 North-South route into the Southern African Development Community (SADC), very close to the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. For more information, visit www.lieda.co.za
SEZ TAX INCENTIVES A package of tax incentives is available to companies locating in certain SEZs, subject to specific criteria. The tax incentives that companies may qualify for include VAT and customs relief if located within a Customs-Controlled Area (CCA), employment tax incentive, building allowance and reduced corporate income tax rate. Business located within a CCA will qualify for VAT and customs relief (similar to that for the current IDZs). The employment tax incentive will be available to businesses located in any SEZ. Businesses operating within approved SEZs (by the Minister of Finance, after consultation with the Minister of Trade and Industry) will be eligible for two additional tax incentives. Firstly, all such businesses can claim accelerated depreciation allowances on capital structures (buildings) and, secondly, certain companies (carrying on qualifying activities within an approved SEZ) will benefit from a reduced corporate tax rate (i.e. 15% instead of 28%).
VAT AND CUSTOMS RELIEF Companies located within a CCA will be eligible for VAT and customs relief, as per the current IDZs. Characteristics of a CCA include the following: • Import duty rebate and VAT exemption on imports of productionrelated raw materials, including machinery and assets, to be used in production with the aim of exporting the finished products; • VAT suspension under specific conditions for supplies procured in South Africa; and Efficient and expedited customs administration. More information on CCAs can be found on the SARS website www.sars.gov.za
EMPLOYMENT TAX INCENTIVE All employers of low-salaried employees (below R60 000 per annum) in any SEZ will be entitled to the employment tax incentive (ETI). This aims to encourage employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers. However, the employee age restriction will not apply to SEZs. It reduces an employer’s cost of hiring people through a cost-sharing mechanism with the Government, while leaving the wage the employee receives unaffected. The employer can claim the ETI and reduce the amount of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax payable by the amount of the total ETI calculated in respect of all qualifying employees.
BUILDING ALLOWANCE Businesses operating within approved SEZs (by the Minister of Finance, after consultation with the Minister of Trade and Industry) may be eligible for an accelerated depreciation allowance on capital structures (buildings). The special rate of capital (depreciation) allowances in lieu of normal allowances will be available for erecting or improving buildings and other fixed structures. This rate will equal 10% per annum over 10 years.
REDUCED CORPORATE INCOME TAX RATE Certain companies qualify for a reduced corporate income tax rate of 15%, instead of the current 28% headline rate. To qualify, the following conditions must be satisfied: • The company must be located in a SEZ that is approved by the Minister of Finance; • It must be incorporated or effectively managed in South Africa; • At least 90% of the income must be derived from the carrying on of business or provision of services within that SEZ; and • The company must not be engaging in activities listed in the Government Gazette No. 39930.
NON FISCAL (NATIONAL AND SEZ LEVEL) • Integrated and simplified investment procedure • World-class infrastructure • Much more secure and safe neighbourhood Setting up your enterprise in one of South Africa’s Special Economic Zones could be the best business decision you’ve ever made.
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BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES IN A DIGITAL WORKING WORLD When organisations go through a digital transformation, they have to adopt new ways of working and their behaviours have to change in order to adopt and use the new technology platforms in the most effective way. By Liesbeth Botha, Change leader at PwC Africa
hat are these “new ways of working”, and what behavioural changes do we see? We’ll explore four of these: the self-help culture, collaboration, “always on”, and how meetings are changing. In the world of “apps”, and with the emphasis on a good user experience in the development of applications, it becomes easier and more intuitive to use and navigate the software solutions. When a new solution is rolled out, the training of users is easier and more pleasant, in some cases almost playful. The nature of modern solutions is also that the “normal” user has a lot of functionality at their disposal and it’s easy to become an expert. What happens then, or should happen, is that back office and support staff doing admin work are reduced, and staff at higher levels in the organisation do more for themselves and delegate less. This type of behavioural change seems to be quite difficult for the older generation, whether it is because of status, or whether it is just not easy for them to learn new tricks. Either way, the result is that the adoption for the more senior staff is in general slower and more difficult. The modern productivity platforms, such as Google’s G Suite in particular, but also Microsoft’s platform and several other products and apps, are essentially collaboration tools – they enable people to work together better and in real-time. The origins of these products and platforms are mainly email and calendar functionality, and the ability to create digital documents and send these around as attachments to emails.
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This original functionality basically mimicked the paper-based process, which has developed over centuries. Adoption of email, and writing a digital document meant learning how to use a computer to do things that we were already doing on paper and in mailing systems. We were, however, almost always working alone when writing, or at least aspired to the one-man office, or a private study at home. Enter the shared-folder apps such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Sharepoint, and the ability to simultaneously work on the same document with other users such as in Google’s Docs, Sheets and Slides apps. Always knowing where things are and working together in real time on documents, presentations and budgets create a whole new paradigm. Our colleagues see and know what we’re doing and thinking in real time, and everyone’s much more productive together, but suddenly the pace is almost too fast. We’ve grown used to the waiting time between sending and receiving a document from a co-worker, so we can do other stuff. Now we have to plan our days in a whole different way. The “always on” world created by digital is entirely at odds with the nine-to-five workplace culture that many of us grew up in. At first, we embraced it, and worked harder and longer hours, because we could extend our workplace to our homes, but then we became overworked. Enter the concepts of “work-life balance” and “flexible working” in terms of hours and location. These are attempts to get our boundaries back that we have lost because of the always on, always available, always able to work that digital has enabled. Discipline now doesn’t mean getting to work on time every morning – it means making sure that you take regular breaks, be “device-free” in some circumstances and to contain your social media time. Besides writing and thinking, the other core daily activity of the knowledge economy is conducting meetings. Our physical workspaces and even some of the most important roles in the organisation have been designed to facilitate and conduct meetings. Our status is built around meetings – where you meet, who you meet with, what you eat and drink during your meetings, and the job grade level of the minute-taker.
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All of this is changing with Skype, Google’s Meet and the collaborative productivity tools. We can instantaneously have a meeting, anywhere, and share notes that become the agreed minutes without cumbersome iterations, or even the agenda point to agree on the minutes of the previous meeting. People’s roles are affected, and our workplaces have to be reconceptualised for these behaviour changes. The concept of a meeting might disappear, or have already disappeared in some cultures, and perhaps we’ll just have conversations and discussions going forward. On the one hand old habits die hard, and it’s difficult to teach an old dog new tricks, but on the other hand, we love to explore, experiment and play with new toys, and humans are curious and inquisitive creatures. Some of us will learn and mould these new behaviours to make us more efficient – evolution and survival of the fittest will take care of the rest.
“ T HE NATURE OF MODERN SOLUTIONS IS ALSO THAT THE ‘NORMAL’ USER HAS A LOT OF FUNCTIONALITY AT THEIR DISPOSAL AND IT’S EASY TO BECOME AN EXPERT.”
3
6 - 7 JUNE 2018 Sandton Convention Centre, JHB
LIFESTYLE OF BUSINESS WE TALK TO INDUSTRY INNOVATORS AND DISCOVER HOW THEY MANAGE TO BALANCE WORK AND LIFE B y S o nwa b o M a c i n g wa n a & U n a m Ts i t s a
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CHANGING THE WO RLD WITH SOLAR 30 SECOND BIO JaCo Venter Zeroth Energy CEO JaCo Venter is making
FAVOURITE QUOTE “Everything is energy and that is all there is to it.” - Albert Einstein
renewable energy fun for students through his company’s competition on solar energy.
Zeroth Energy is a consulting company that supplies solar systems for sectional complexes, retirement villages, commercial businesses, industrials, schools and fuel stations. Venter shared his vision for Zeroth and the significance of the competition. Can you give us more information on Zeroth Energy? Zeroth Energy is an energy wholesaler. We are a supermarket for quality energy, and with a network of unbelievable Zerothaccredited suppliers and energy brokers we facilitate and speed up the energy change in Africa to renewable sources. How did the idea of the business come about? Did you see a gap in the market? I asked myself this: why does Africa receive 54% of the worldwide sunshine, but only has about 1% of the world’s renewable energy mix? I believe that I can change this. Why renewable energy? Our planet is moving into a very high consuming energy world and renewable energy is the answer to a sustainable living environment for our future generations. What is Zeroth’s simply green process? Our simply green process has three easy steps. Step 1: Contact Zeroth Energy for your closest Zeroth-accredited energy broker. Step 2: Your energy broker will help you to choose the best possible unique solution with the best possible price from the best accredited companies. Step 3: Enjoy and watch your new solar power station being installed.
Can you tell us more about Zeroth’s competition for schools? Zeroth Energy is looking for the pupil (Grade 1 to 12) with the most creative way of telling us, and the whole of South Africa, “why solar is cool”. The learner with the best answer will win a holiday to anywhere in the world, for themselves and their family, worth R100, 000, as well as win their school a year of free solar energy. What are the key points of this competition and what was the inspiration behind the idea? Nelson Mandela’s famous words “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world” say it all. Our competition is merely there to create a fun and exciting way for our children to learn and tell us and the world “why solar is cool”, and in that way learn that with solar you can change the entire world. What lifestyle elements complement your professional life? My passion for making a change in the world has given me a passion to live in the moment, and to constantly seek out new adventures with new experiences, which brings me so much happiness in life. What would you attribute the success of the business to? Persistence. Try and try and try again. Nelson Mandela said it the best: “everything seems impossible until it’s done”. I also wouldn’t have been able to do this without the Zeroth family and people involved today, who have helped mould this special company we all love.
FAVOURITE BOOK: Think and Grow Rich, written by Napoleon Hill, almost 100 years ago. FAVOURITE DESTINATION The next one. FAVOURITE CITY: Cape Town FAVOURITE TECH GADGET My phone IDEAL DAY: Yoga, loads of love, filled with spectacular healthy food, and exploring nature with an unbelievable sunset and gratefulness for life. HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX By enjoying the magnificent beauty of nature around us. BIGGEST INSPIRATION Nelson Mandela. Your legacy lives on. BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE Every single new moment. They are all unique and when we look at them in their uniqueness we find joy in every moment.
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DR IV ING AUTO M OT I V E DE TAILING INTO T HE F UT URE
30 SECOND BIO
Lorenzo Escobar FAVOURITE QUOTE “When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world” – George Washington Carver
From unemployed student to starting Inception Automotive Detailing. Born and partly raised in the Philippines, Lorenzo Escobar has become a tour de force in the car detailing industry, affording himself monumental opportunities
FAVOURITE BOOK How to win friends and influence people – Dale Carnegie
at a tender age.
Born in the Philippines and the youngest of four children, in 2002, Lorenzo Escobar’s family moved to Canada in search of better opportunities. Between serving the Canadian Army, studying and holding down a part-time job at a retail store, he had little time to do what normal 17-year-olds do. What is Inception Automotive Detailing? At the age of 18, I founded Inception Automotive Detailing (IAD). The company started as a mobile service, helping more than 200 clients across the Greater Toronto Area at their homes and workplaces. IAD has one primary role and that is to provide clients the new car driving experience. Regardless of the vehicle, Inception treats every vehicle with the same unrivalled workmanship many clients expect. How did you get into Automotive Detailing? Growing up I was always into cars. I attended a trade show with my dad, where we saw what a difference polish on a car can make. I started polishing his car and soon his friends and neighbours were asking me to do their cars too. This was the beginning of my passion. You later founded MedPro 3D in 2014. What prompted you to start a second company? Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. I am always looking to see what the problem is and create a solution to fix it in a way that benefits everyone. Medpro 3D is a medical rapid
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prototyping company located in Mississauga, Ontario. We convert medical images from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerised Tomography (CT) into 3D model replications of the patients’ organs. The 3D models are also used to enhance the learning experience for medical students. The company is currently in its pre-launch stages conducting pilot studies in South East Asia with private hospitals. Apart from your business ventures, you have a large international network and travel tremendously as a result. How does this affect the functioning of your business? With today’s technology, I can run the business from anywhere in the world. Once you grow the business and build a proper team, the business can run without my direct input. It’s all about empowering your people to make decisions while you are away and holding them accountable. What is your key approach to an entrepreneurial spirit? The core of my entrepreneurial spirit is a willingness to find a problem in the world and create a solution to fix it in a way that benefits everyone. What lifestyle elements closely complement your professional life? Travelling – it’s always a mix between business and pleasure.
FAVOURITE DESTINATION I’m a global citizen FAVOURITE CITY Can’t pick just one FAVOURITE TECH GADGET Smartphone IDEAL DAY Nothing is ideal; I prefer having days that are different HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX Video Games BIGGEST INSPIRATION Elon Musk – tendency of pushing mankind to its limits. Sir Richard Branson – he’s a visionary, forward thinker. BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE When I’m in the position to work “on” the business as opposed to “in” the business which allows me to work remotely and travel.
E MPOWERING WO M E N T HRO UG H E NTR EPR ENEU RS HI P
30 SECOND BIO Sizakele Marutlulle
FAVOURITE QUOTE “In a world that does its best to turn you into something you are not, the hardest battle to fight is to remain true to yourself. Never stop fighting” - E.E. Cummings
Corporate strategist, problem-solver, global speaker, fire starter, cultural creative and PhD scholar at Wits School of Diversit y, Sizakele Marutlulle is redefining entrepreneurship
A middle child and an only girl, sandwiched between two brothers, Marutlulle was born in Mapetla Extension, Soweto and ran the streets with her cousins and brothers. She has the scars to prove it! Marutlulle finished university at DurbanWestville (now UKZN) with a BA and BA Hons, and received an MA in Communication Sociology from Wits, which is where she will be graduating this year with her PhD. Additional qualifications include a Strategic Management Course from the New School for Social Research, New York. She also self-funded to study film production at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, as well as completed a course on Operational Excellence at Harvard Business School. You coined the term ‘Fentrepreneur’. How did this come about? It felt cumbersome to keep referencing women in business, female business leaders, etc. so I thought there was a tidier way to reference this all-important group. When I say “Fentrepreneur”, I am speaking of a special breed of entrepreneur – one who is a self-starter, resilient, disciplined, resourceful, compassionate and charitable. Marutlulle & Co is a strategy and ideas lab. What does this mean? The strategy part delivers end-to-end brand thinking to companies at various stages of development. The ideas lab drives ideation and encourages experimentation. We help companies innovate and design new futures, therefore unlocking new realities for sustainable growth.
You believe that ‘Investing in Women is investing in Community’. How do you believe that investments, particularly in women, fuel the growth of communities? Without falling into the cracks of female stereotyping – it has been established that when you invest in women you truly are investing in wider society. Women tend to uplift others and have a greater propensity to share and collaborate. This, I attribute to early stage socialisation, wherein the girlchild is encouraged to ‘connect’ and the boychild to detach. What has been the biggest achievement of your career to date? Honestly, there isn’t a single moment. My high is each time I have had a direct impact on people and businesses. What does the future hold for Marutlulle & Co? Pan-African impact and world-domination. We aim to be at the forefront of creatively solving Africa’s challenges – and working with future-facing business to transform charity into social economy.
FAVOURITE BOOK The Four Agreements – Don M. Ruiz FAVOURITE DESTINATION Anywhere with an ocean view FAVOURITE CITY New York – I lost my hair there and gained a million memories FAVOURITE TECH GADGET My 1st generation MacBook Air, still works more than 10 years later IDEAL DAY Sunday – because I unplug from all tech and all human interaction. It is my day of renewal.
Can you share some pivotal milestones since the inception of Marutlulle & Co? Client testimonials are always more affirming – when they report that since our intervention they can see a material impact on their business. I prefer to look to client testimonials as the litmus test – as well as their willingness to recommend us to others. They, in effect, act as our endorsers and ambassadors.
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FR OM FARMIN G BAC KGRO UND S TO BANK ING F U T URE S
30 SECOND BIO
Yatin Narsal, CEO of Bank Zero FAVOURITE QUOTE “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci
Banking purveyors Yatin Narsai and former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan create an intuitive startup – the world’s first digital bank
Yatin Narsai and Michael Jordaan both grew up on small farms, but never knew that one day they would chair and executive South Africa’s biggest banks. The two burgeoning businessmen in their 19 years of friendship met in 1999, working in different business units at First Rand Bank and First National Bank (FNB). Together, they have incepted the world’s first and only digital bank, Bank Zero, and is set to disrupt an entire industry. The new venture is not focussed on money, but rather targets cost cutting and tapping technology to give consumers a competitive service. How did you get into banking? Yatin: I was always interested in business and come from a family of entrepreneurs. IT reflects how business thinks as it informs its future through IT requirements/projects. I often saw bigger business opportunities which led me to taking on business roles. It was fun seeing how clear business vision and direction lead to fast tracking of IT projects and alignment across many business units. This was quickly followed by innovations as we grew from strength to strength. Michael: I followed financial markets as a child, got stimulated by economic theories as a student and came to see banking as being at the centre of the economy. I just wanted in, even though I knew fairly little of what really happens behind the counter. Can you give us more insight into Bank Zero and what it’s about? Yatin: More will be revealed later. For now, we’re very focused on integrating with the National Payments System and thereafter
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start testing with a group of customers. Michael: At the end of 2018, we hope to launch a new digital bank that will have an app for smartphones and a card for everyday use. We will offer richer functionality than the current banks and at far more affordable prices. We are targeting individuals as well as businesses. How did the idea of the start-up bank come about, did you see a gap in the market? Yatin: Michael and I kept in touch and had the firm belief that we could create a better way – the core vision crystallised in a workshop that also identified our name, Bank Zero. It was a chaotic process and involved lots of debates and short papers and, of course, some good wine. It all started when I looked at high margin banking activities that FinTech could re-invent. There were many such opportunities and as we unpacked each into more detail we “synchronised” on this idea. That was very special as we knew this synchronous meeting of the minds had tremendous gravitas. Michael: Banking in this country is too expensive and South Africans save too little. Entrepreneurs have a way of turning problems into opportunities, so Bank Zero wants to solve this by reducing electronic banking fees and offering better deposit rates. Why digital banking? Yatin: The digital paradigm as seen through the world of apps is transforming society. It has unleashed a higher level of freedom, some behavioural quirks, better control and most importantly, everyone demands it. The saying “if there isn’t an app for it, they won’t
FAVOURITE BOOK The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman FAVOURITE DESTINATION De Hoop Nature Reserve FAVOURITE CITY New York FAVOURITE TECH GADGET Smartwatch IDEAL DAY Mountain bike ride with the family followed by relaxation and a great braai HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX Music and a decent wine or champers BIGGEST INSPIRATION Birth of my two daughters BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE Getting out of the corporate world. It was a close call, but fortunately I was freed to embark on the Bank Zero journey, my third and most exciting career.
go for it” holds very true. Interestingly, without the app ecosystem, the likes of Uber wouldn’t exist, and without Uber we’d be robbed of a personal car and driver that’s always available and never sick or broken. We’re just beginning our digital journey – for new banks it’s the only starting point. Combining the app ecosystem with open source and tons of freeware makes for an incredible cocktail – in the right hands, the impossible becomes possible. Michael: If one had to re-invent banking today one would not start with legacy systems or branches but try and do everything on smartphones, just like WhatsApp, Facebook or Google. Banking is inherently digital. What sets Bank Zero apart from other physical banks? Yatin: Bank Zero from the start will offer superior functionality through well-designed banking products and services. Without being burdened with deep expensive legacy platforms, Bank Zero is enabled to innovate at much lower cost as expensive bolt-on attempts are not done. Bank Zero will cater for all types of businesses, including those that have complex banking needs. (Bank Zero addresses these needs simply and elegantly). It’s banking platform is secure, using latest thinking, cutting-edge technology and more. The Bank Zero platform enables a smart ecosystem for true connectedness in a digitally, socially connected world. Bank Zero’s features include a simple fee structure, fast and easy processes with no paperwork – everything happens digitally and at all times the customer is aware of progress within a process. Great clutter-free customer experience – really easy to get on board and get going financial control – knowing what’s really happening in your account at all times. Michael: The team is working on richer functionality, ease of use and competitive pricing. The South African Reserve Bank issued Bank Zero a provisional licence for practice, what does this accreditation mean? Yatin: This was the equivalent of doing two PhD’s at once and certainly the hardest thing I ever had to do. Top three accomplishments are: Use of the mutual banks framework to achieve superior capital efficiency that benefits all
customers (a cornerstone of mutuality). We delivered a comprehensive business plan demonstrating that we as a team are fully knowledgeable of the complex realities of running a bank, for example FICA regulation (including recent amendments). We did everything (business plan, financial model, policies etc.) ourselves! We literally started with a blank page and several hundred pages later we were granted the provisional license. Once Bank Zero becomes operational, the benefits to South Africans will be significant. This is innovation at its best. Michael: We can now take the next step, which is to integrate into the sophisticated South African payment system and then revert to the SARB for final approval. Being app driven, how will customers transit or withdraw cash with Bank Zero? Is it ATM compatible? Yatin: To access cash, customers can use ATMs both locally and internationally using their Bank Zero chip and pin card. Cash-out and cash-in at major local retailers will also be available. Michael: Yes, the Bank Zero card will work at any ATM or retailer. Cash facilities will also be enabled at the point-of-sales of major retailers. How will Bank Zero nurture a savings culture in South Africa? Yatin: Bank Zero will help nurture a strong savings culture by creating easy ways for financial communities like clubs, families and businesses to save individually or together. Customers can become shareholders, based on the type of savings products they have with us, thereby enabling further savings. Other specific innovations around savings will be shown later. Michael: Better deposit rates and better financial management tools that puts the customer in charge of finances.
30 SECOND BIO
Michael Jordaan, Chairman of Bank Zero. FAVOURITE QUOTE “Be here now” FAVOURITE BOOK The Story of San Michele – Axel Munthe FAVOURITE DESTINATION Churchaven, West Coast FAVOURITE CITY San Francisco FAVOURITE TECH GADGET iPhone IDEAL DAY Having my family and friends around me HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX Books, wine, family and mates BIGGEST INSPIRATION Reading about people that are doing great things BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE Birth of my kids
What would you attribute the success of the start-up to? Yatin: It’s still too early to tell, but our key ingredients are: co-founders take no salaries – we have maximum “skin in the game”. We know each other well, we encourage everyone to speak their mind. We have a “simple living, high thinking” ethos, we drink the finest coffee, go for little walks. Michael: It is a small but highly competent team that has all the significant skin in the game.
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SECURING THE DIGITAL AGE
30 SECOND BIO Carey van Vlaanderen
CEO of ESET southern Africa Carey van Vlaanderen enhances a cyber-securit y culture in the southern hemisphere, with her record award-winning antivirus software company
ESET is an IT security company that offers an extensive range of solutions that spotlight safer technology, a pioneering firm of antivirus protection and award-winning threat-detection software. How did you get into business? It all stems back to the year 2003, we created 4D Digital Security (the now 4Di Group) setup as an information security business that focused on security audits, penetration testing and various security services. It was during the process of growing our own business that the need for a viable antivirus solution came about. We found the ESET NOD32 product to be a technical standout, and identified an opportunity with ESET HQ, Slovakia, to secure distribution rights in Sub-Saharan Africa as the company sought to expand their international distribution network around that time. ESET Southern Africa has since grown from strength to strength, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of every milestone as I celebrate 15 years with them. Why cybersecurity? Cybersecurity is a highly dynamic space. I find it compelling and I really like how the industry is always moving forward, always changing, and constantly redefining itself. ESET has been developing award-winning software for the IT industry for three decades. What would you attribute the success of the company to? I’d say that the main success combination has been matching and delivering stand-out
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products with equal service. We push premium products, and we back them with unfailing technical support. Something else that I think still makes any company successful is the “all in” attitude. ESET applies this across all spheres of its business model starting at its core, where employees are unfailing enthusiasts that lend themselves to all areas of the business when needed, truly solidifying the crux of the ESET brand. Do you believe in separating your personal life and your professional commitments? It is important that I separate my professional and personal commitments; otherwise, it will be difficult to focus on or enjoy either completely. Working closely with family is extremely rewarding but difficult if the personal and professional lines are blurred. I strive for balance and flexibility so that I allow myself to maximise my professional potential whilst giving unapologetic amounts of effort to be an equally notable wife, and mother to two lovely youngins. What lifestyle elements complement your professional life? I like to exercise and lead a healthy diet, to keep a healthy state and mind. Whether it be a run, a hike, or a hockey game, I’m inclined to the outdoors. I find that it has a ripple effect on my ability to focus and build stamina for both work and life. I also often indulge my inner-kid when I’m with my children, my most treasured outlet.
FAVOURITE QUOTE “The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you or gives you a sense of meaning, accomplishment and passion. Then it’s no longer just work, but playtime too.” - Terry Orlick, Author of In Pursuit of Happiness. FAVOURITE BOOK Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts FAVOURITE DESTINATION Cape St Francis, Eastern Cape FAVOURITE CITY Cape Town FAVOURITE TECH GADGET Garmin Sports Watch IDEAL DAY All you can eat Sushi Luncheon with a sea view! HOW DO YOU UNWIND AND RELAX I indulge in a plethora of outdoor activities BIGGEST INSPIRATION My Mum and Dad BEST MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE The days I said “I Do”, and “Welcome to the World” x2.
FAST COMPANY PROMOTION
Modifying the business domain For an evolving and fast moving company such as BDO South Africa, a new merger has successfully paved a way for partnership advancement through a great cultural fit bet ween t wo businesses; BDO South Africa and Grant Thornton Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. By Unam Tsitsa
Binder Dijker Otte (BDO), a network originally formed in 1963, has always been agile and quick to respond to the everchanging nature of the global community. The merger with Grant Thornton Cape Town and Port Elizabeth comes as barely a shock, but rather a contextual understanding in relation to the company’s core goal which is to upscale their business and service offering in addition to taking full advantage of opportunities in the auditing and advisory profession. The merger is an essential part of BDO’s business, both nationally and globally, with the long-term goal to inflate annual revenue to over R800 million by 2019. The new resources prompted by the effect of the merger will further strengthen the existing skills of BDO South Africa, and permit the organisation to open itself up to varied expansion opportunities that are thoroughly embedded within the market.
MARK STEWART – CEO The goal of BDO is designed to meet the national and international standards of its clients. How does the merger with Grant Thornton contribute to this overall goal? A focus on regulation and quality is increasingly required by global service providers. We believe that scale is important in being able to make the necessary investment in technology and skills. The merger provides us with an opportunity to make these investments, to provide our clients with the quality expected of an international firm, in an efficient manner through the use of technology and by people who have the skills to add value to our clients’ businesses. Can you explain what the BDO and Grant Thornton merger is, and what can be expected from it? The merger is the amalgamation of the Grant Thornton business into the national business of BDO South Africa. The merged services will strengthen and complement those previously offered by BDO, and will offer a greater range of services to our clients. The merger will strengthen the BDO representation in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and will add skills to the national practice of BDO. The increased scale of the
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Mark Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of BDO South Africa.
business will allow us to develop particular sector skills to provide opportunities for our people, and a greater level of professional service for our clients. BDO South Africa has had major discussions with several firms over the past few years, but Grant Thornton came out as the strongest cultural fit for BDO. Can you tell us what sets Grant Thornton apart? The Grant Thornton partners are well known to BDO and share similar goals of focussing on client service, developing their people, delivering a quality product and creating a sustainable professional services business. The services we offer, and the market we serve are very similar, which means that we can leverage off an existing base to build new service lines and enter new markets. Furthermore, the type of people we have in the business have similar values, and the alignment of our staff will contribute greatly to the success of the merger and to the servicing of our clients.
IAN SCOTT – MANAGING PARTNER, CAPE TOWN The merger is a key part of BDO’s business strategy, which is to increase the annual revenue globally to R800 million by 2019. How does the company aim to reach this goal by next year? Following the recent mergers in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and with the Corporate Advisory Services joining as well, the goal of R800 million will be achieved with a bit of organic growth by 2019. That said, BDO has ambition to grow still further and to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in the marketplace. Further lateral hires, and or mergers with likeminded partners and firms are continually discussed and if it’s a good strategic fit, then the turnover could surpass the current target. BDO South Africa prides itself with an audit methodology that facilitates and enhances audit quality. With the merger in place, how will this affect the audit methodology and value? Management of audit risk and the reliability of the audit process are cornerstones of audit firms which wish to grow and be sustainable. South Africa has fallen from Number 1 in the world for financial reporting standards to Number 30 as a result of the recent public scandals. The recently announced enquiry into state corruption could lead to more revelations. BDO has continually invested in their audit methodology and quality. Although we have only recently started to adopt the BDO APT audit tool, we have been pleasantly surprised by its structure, capabilities and that it is tailored for different industries. We thus believe that BDOs audit methodology and quality will enhance audit services to clients without excessive increases in costs.
HOW BOLDTHINKING EXECUTIVES, ACTIVISTS, AND FOUNDERS ARE HARNESSING TODAY’S UNCERTAINTY TO CREATE A BETTER TOMORROW
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LEADIN
Walmart’s Marc Lore and Fabletics’s Kate Hudson
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Nike’s Hannah Jones and soccer star and activist Abby Wambach
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G VOICES
Blue Hill’s Dan Barber and the Kitchen’s Kimbal Musk
Page 72 Cult-brand stewards at Away, Glossier, Sweetgreen, and Walker & Company
Page 76 Ford CEO Jim Hackett
Page 82 Cannabisindustry pioneers
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“What assets can we leverage in a way that no one else can?” asks Lore, right. Says Hudson, “You want to excite customers.”
R ETH INK ING R ETAI L Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore and Fabletics cofounder Kate Hudson discuss our data-driven future.
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Photographs by Herring & Herring
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A As e-commerce continues to show double-digit year-over-year growth in the multitrillion-dollar US retail market, two notable figures in the space — Jet.com cofounder and Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore and Fabletics cofounder Kate Hudson — share with Fast Company’s Robert Safian why being a digitally native company offers a leg up.
It’s a challenging time for retailers. Do digitally native brands have an advantage? M A R C LO R E : I think that digitally native brands are the future. Having that direct connection to the customer is very important. Millennial shoppers want to not only buy the product but know where the product’s made, the environmental position of the company, the social impact that the company’s making. And then when you look at the margin structure where you can sell to the entire country from one location, it becomes really powerful financially. You need to do two, three, four hundred million-ish [in revenue], and then you start to generate an incredible profit margin. The problem is it takes a lot of capital to get [there] as a single branded retailer. Once the venture community starts to appreciate that it’s a lot of capital up front but then huge upside, you’re going to see a lot more money being pumped into that area. K AT E H U D S O N : Connection is everything. If you have both the online and the physical retail, [it creates] a two to three times more valuable customer. M L : Yes, we’re finding at Walmart that when people shop both online and in-store, they shop twice as much. When we get people who shop only in-store to shop online, they actually buy more in the store after that. Kate, Fabletics has an unusual model in that it’s membership-based, right? K H : You can purchase at retail prices, or you can be part of the flexible membership VIP program, which offers lower prices and exclusive products. Your clothing is only available through Fabletics — no third parties. Why? K H : Well, for one thing, it’s working. We’ve had 21% growth each year. And because we’re tech-focused, we’re able to know what our customers want and create less waste. We’re able to place our stores strategically. If people are taking a sports bra into the dressing room but not buying it, or buying it and returning it, we realize that they like it, but it’s not fitting right, so we’re able to fix it right away. Knowledge allows you to take more risks. We can create things and go, “Let’s just see what happens with this.” How is your use of data evolving? M L : Voice will be the next big way to leverage
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data. It will enable people to communicate either in their car or home or on their device and shop in a conversational way with a robot in the way that they would with a specialist on the showroom floor of a retailer. That robot will know you as well as your mom and dad. K H : [Sighs] You’re sighing—
K H : Robots.
You don’t want to have a robot in your store?
K H : It makes me kind of sad. But we roll with
the times.
M L : In 10 years, you’ll be able to put on
a pair of glasses and be immersed into experiences that display products in their native environment. So you can just put on the glasses and say, “I’m interested in going camping” and be transported to a campsite and be able to walk the site. They’re doing holograms now inside of VR that are super real. The quality of the imagery and the experience would blow people’s minds. The bandwidth isn’t there to commercialise it yet, but in 10 years it’s going to change how people shop. It’s going to completely change the game. So we’ll go into Fabletics and put on our headgear? K H : Yeah, I will be the hologram. This vision is expensive to build. Does that give larger incumbents like Walmart an edge? M L : Walmart wouldn’t be building the hardware. There are plenty of companies out there building the hardware, and we’re thinking about where the hardware is going to be in 5 or 10 years that intersects with the software. We are about merchandising and creating immersive shopping experiences. To date, you’ve had to do it in very fixed and rigid ways in a brick-and-mortar store, but in the future, you’ll be able to create these really immersive, dynamic, interactive shopping experiences that are personalised to the individual. And it won’t be that expensive because you’ll be able to leverage the software across millions or tens of millions of users. K H : We’re in the business of wanting to please our customer and know them. That’s how we create loyalty. But you also want to excite them and bring them things they haven’t seen before. M L : We’ve got a lot of work to do on Walmart
.com with the basic experience, just making sure you can find the product, the information’s there, it’s priced right, and it’s delivered with a great experience. I spend most of my time on this kind of stuff, building the foundation. At the same time, I’m focused on Store 8, which is an incubator looking at the future of retail, like virtual reality and voice and how the brick-andmortar store is going to change. What assets can we leverage in a way that no one else can? For us, it comes down to the 4 600 stores. Those stores are within 16 kilometres of 90% of the [US] population. If you fast-forward into the future, there’s no reason why we couldn’t deliver to 90% of the population [our] 100 000 top products—including fresh and frozen food—in two hours, or at least same day. There’s no cheaper way to get product forward deployed. What’s your view on Amazon? K H : They’re making great TV. Honestly, it’s
Jet.com founder and Walmart.com CEO Lore emphasises “one-toone connection with the customer.”
the David and Goliath story—except for a company like Walmart, which I think can be positioned to take on an Amazon. I don’t look at it as competition. There’s Amazon and then there’s what we’re doing and how to build on that. M L : Digitally native brands like Fabletics can compete really well with Amazon or Walmart or any retailer. If you have that one-to-one connection with the customer, you’re going to be somewhat insulated. In the future, mass merchants are all going to have the same assortment. So how do you differentiate? Typically what companies have done is look for private label brands, and that’s what we’re doing with Bonobos and ModCloth. There’s a lot of romanticism around the idea of starting your own business. It’s hard, right? K H : It’s really hard. M L : You have to be prepared to work like you’ve never worked before.
K ATE HUD SON Cofounder, Fabletics What she’s known for After acting in 22 films, Hudson launched Fabletics, a subscriptionbased athletic-wear brand, in 2013. It is now the fastest-growing division of parent company TechStyle Fashion Group, with almost R3 billion in annual revenue.
Latest move Fabletics launched digital first, but the company has increased its physical presence, adding six new stores in 2017 for a total of 24. Celebrities such as Demi Lovato and Olympic athlete Will Claye have partnered with the brand on popular capsule collections.
MAR C LORE CEO, Walmart e-commerce US What he’s known for Lore was the cofounder of online shopping site Quidsi, which sold to Amazon in 2011. Three years later, he cofounded Jet.com—the e-commerce site that sold to Walmart for R35.6 billion last year. Now Lore spearheads Walmart’s online shopping division.
Latest move To compete with Amazon, Lore has been beefing up the company’s online offerings through acquisitions: most recently, the clothing e-tailers Bonobos and ModCloth.
Art credit teekay
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LEADING
GUTTER CREDIT TK
VOICES
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Art credit teekay
Jones, left, and Wambach are fighting for progress with “radical candour.”
E X PA N DI N G T HE F IE LD
GUTTER CREDIT TK
Nike’s Hannah Jones and soccer great Abby Wambach are finding powerful, targeted ways to foster respect for the planet and all who live—and play—on it.
PArt h o t ocredit g r a p h steekay by Herring & Herring
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LEADING VOICES
E Environmental protection and equal opportunity are two of today’s most pressing global issues. Nike sustainability head Hannah Jones and soccer star Abby Wambach talk with Fast Company’s Jill Bernstein about how international corporations and individuals alike can bring meaningful change to the world.
“A brand that doesn’t stand for something,” says Jones, “is no longer a brand worth working for.”
How did you two become challengers of the status quo? A B BY WA M B AC H : The thing that led me into activism is that I am a little different. I’m so lucky for that. I always try to fight for the little guy or the voiceless, because in certain parts of my life I’m the minority, whether because I’m gay or a woman. That’s where any true activism is born—my heartbreaks. Find out what breaks your
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heart and do whatever you can to fix it. H A N N A H J O N E S : When I was 16, I had a white Mohawk and I was a DJ on a pirate radio station that kept getting raided by police. Let’s just say that my parents didn’t think that was an entirely good career plan. But I had a mentor who sat me down one day and said, “Hannah, at some stage you’re going to have to work out for yourself whether you are more powerful shouting at the system
HAN N A H JON E S Chief sustainabilit y officer, Nike What she’s known for Jones, who is also VP of the company’s Innovation Accelerator, is in charge of developing novel materials and encouraging ethical manufacturing processes so that Nike can grow while also reducing its impact on the world.
Latest move Nike’s Flyleather shoe, released in September, is lighter and more durable than leather. It’s made from leather scraps and synthetic material and has a dramatically lower carbon footprint.
ABBY WA M BACH Soccer star, activist, author What she’s known for “You can’t just rail,” Wambach says. “You have to have solutions.”
from the outside or changing it from the inside.” That has guided everything I’ve done ever since. Athletics is a powerful platform for change. It’s got a global reach, a workforce that spans from the factory to the playing field, and celebrity role models. How do these things help you with your current efforts?
H J : When I grew up in the UK, girls didn’t play soccer; we just didn’t. What Abby and other women in sport are doing is telling girls around the world, “You get to play soccer.” This is the new normal. [At Nike,] we’re all about innovating the new normal. Leather has a really big environmental footprint, but everybody loves leather. So our [new Flyleather] shoes are made of waste that comes from the leather process. It’s
Wambach is the highestscoring international soccer player of all time, with 184 career goals. After winning the Women’s World Cup in 2015, she retired from the sport and has been dedicating her time to fighting for equality. She is also a Nike-endorsed athlete.
Latest move Forward, Wambach’s memoir, was a New York Times best seller last year.
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engineered. It reduces the carbon footprint by 80% and the water footprint by 90%. Oh, and by the way, it’s four times lighter than anything else that you’ve ever used, so athletes love it. AW: Whether we realise it or not, we have all been poisoned a little bit by what I call the patriarchy. There weren’t enough girls’ soccer teams to play on when I was young that were good enough, that would challenge me and make me a better player, so I had to play on the boys’ team. I always used to say, “I had four older brothers growing up and they made me really tough.” Well, that is so not feminist of me. So I have to rethink, like, Why did I say that? Because I’ve been conditioned to believe that men, that my brothers, made me tough. [But] I am really tough, with or without my brothers, okay? Having two older sisters, as well, made me tough. It made me badass in my own right. When we’re trying to inspire girls, we have to really consider, How poisoned am I? We have to first look in the mirror. From there, we can make true, positive change. Creating change involves communicating and connecting with people emotionally. How do you go about that? H J : Sustainability was always framed as something that was counter to business success, that if you made a product that was sustainable, somehow it would be less good or more expensive. And sometimes that’s been true. I mean, think of green, scratchy toilet paper. Not good, right? The reframe that happened is that we stopped seeing sustainability and labour rights as a risk and burden [and instead] as a source of innovation. Whether it’s about women’s rights or sustainability or women in the supply chain, if you flip it to be about an innovation opportunity, people step into that space with less fear. And that creates possibility. AW: Think about what’s happening in our culture. We’re getting inundated with crazy. If we can separate ourselves from the crazy for a brief moment, we have a beautiful opportunity. When Philando Castile was killed, Twitter went crazy. And I was scared to say the wrong thing. Everybody gets ridiculed whether you say something or you don’t say something, or you say it the wrong way or you misspell it. Sydney Leroux, my teammate, who is a woman of colour, texted me and said, “Abby, your silence is deafening.” So my advice is to just say something and know that [if] it’s grounded
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with the right intention, it will be heard with that same intention. And if somebody takes it wrong, that’s on them, you know? We just have to say something. How do you choose the words? H J : We [at Nike] talk a lot about safe spaces. I like the words brave spaces because I like radical candour and courageous conversations. It starts by surrounding yourself with people who don’t think like you and don’t look like you and have different backgrounds. If you contest narrative and language and ideas and solutions within that space where everybody feels they belong and they have a voice, you’re going to understand pretty quickly whether your language and your idea has resonance. I think it’s the catalyst that you need to spark new solutions. AW: We’re all in shock in certain ways. It’s like you can’t talk to the person across the aisle. I think that that’s bullshit, truthfully. The only way we can actually start having conversations is to enter with curiosity instead of predetermined judgment. Fear can’t stand proximity. So if you learn how to talk with people, you will find commonalities. And if you’re questioning whether you should do something, whether it’s going to piss people off, think again. H J : There is a difference between being disruptive and destructive. If you’re disruptive and you’re constructive, then you push the argument forward, you push the idea forward. But disruptive as a destructive force just takes us back. AW: It’s immature, right? You can’t just rail. You have to have solutions. President Trump caused a stir in professional sports when he started tweeting negatively about player protests. Abby, you spoke out in favour of players being able to express themselves, and Nike quickly issued a statement in support of athletes. What are your roles in these larger cultural debates? AW: I’m not going to say that it’s not complicated. My former teammate, Megan Rapinoe, had been taking the knee in support of [Colin Kaepernick]. It’s a conversation that has completely lost the initial meaning. Now it’s about respect and the flag instead of what it was truly about, which is black lives being brutally assaulted by police officers. Having played on the National Team for the better part
of my career, I am a fierce patriot. Last year, when this conversation was going on with Megan, I found myself really conflicted. It wasn’t because of Colin or Megan, it’s because of this thing that I’m trying to figure out, the institution that I was raised in, the things I talk about as a US citizen and as a patriot. What am I standing and pledging allegiance to? Truthfully, Colin Kaepernick is an American hero, somebody who has put his life’s work at risk and is paying the price for it. If he were to go back and try to change things, do I think he would do anything differently? Hell no. Because of the conversation this is sparking. We have to keep the conversation going in the direction of where it began. HJ: I sit in a corporation for which this is an incredibly important conversation. We learned the hard way that when you don’t use your voice for advocating for good and you don’t stand up for your values, that silence quickly becomes misinterpreted. We come from a long heritage with [Nike founder] Phil Knight of always standing for the athlete, always. He is fierce about it. At key moments in cultural context, political context, we have to stand for what we believe in. And we believe in the science of climate change, so we have stood loudly and proudly for the Paris agreement. We have built up coalitions of the willing to fight for [it]. And when the administration decided to withdraw from the agreement, we were overt about our disagreement. We have consistently stood with LGBTQIA, including being part of the amicus brief for civil union. We continue to stand for it. We have stood against the immigration ban. And then we’ve stood with all those who knelt. We will continue to use our voice. It’s not an easy space. But a brand that doesn’t stand for something is no longer a brand worth working for. You two seem to accentuate the positives, even in difficult situations. Why? H J : William Gibson, the sci-fi writer, said the future is here, it’s just not distributed equally. Think about the sustainability movement— you fly across the world and you see windmill farms everywhere. It doesn’t matter what the US administration is doing; we are all moving to renewable energy. Nike will be at 100% renewable energy in all our facilities in the Americas within the next couple of years. And it’s not just because it’s an act of benevolence. It’s because it’s good for business.
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BRE AKO U T BRANDS
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How a handful of forward-thinking leaders are disrupting entire sectors by cultivating strong, emotionally invested communities
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P h o t o g r a p h s bArt y H ecredit r r i n g &teekay Herring
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Emily Weiss, Jen Rubio, Nicolas Jammet, and Tristan Walker are each creating products that inspire passion for their companies.
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S Salad. Suitcases. Razors. Face wash. None of these words typically inspire enthusiasm. But when associated with certain fast-growing enterprises, the reactions can be rapturous. Sweetgreen’s Nicolas Jammet, Away’s Jen Rubio, Walker & Company’s Tristan Walker, and Glossier’s Emily Weiss talk to Fast Company’s Amy Farley about creating products that provoke passion.
“The insight that we had at Glossier,” says Weiss, “was to encourage every woman to become her own expert.”
When we talk about cult brands, we often mean companies that have been able to identify a void in the marketplace. Was this on your mind when you were founding your business? E M I LY W E I S S : Beauty has traditionally been brands telling customers that they have some kind of inadequacy or that they should ascribe to a specific idea of perfection.
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The insight that we had at Glossier was to encourage every woman to become her own expert. T R I STA N WA L K E R : I couldn’t shave, and I was frustrated. I thought, Here is an industry that’s been around for 100 years and, [because] I have curly hair on my face, I couldn’t use any of the mass-market tools that existed. And the shopping experience sucked:
EMILY W E ISS Founder and CEO, Glossier What she’s known for Into the Gloss, the beauty blog Weiss launched in 2010, got famous people to open up about their skincare and makeup regimens. Weiss parlayed these insights into the direct-to-consumer beauty brand Glossier, which now has more than 20 product lines.
Latest move Weiss is expanding into new categories. Body Hero bodywash came out last year, and a debut fragrance, Glossier You, has its own pop-up store in New York City.
TRISTA N WAL K E R Founder and CEO, Walker & Company Brands What he’s known for “We’re not only changing behavior for the consumer,” Walker says, “but the industry as well.”
The former head of business development for Foursquare took a left turn out of tech to launch the health and beauty startup Walker & Company in 2013. His first product was Bevel Shave System, for men of colour.
Latest move I would have to go to these ethnic beauty aisles that are always next to the beauty aisle. So [Walker & Company shaving line Bevel] started with my problem, but I also wanted to build a brand that was culturally relevant. With [women’s haircare line] Form, we are giving you a personalised [haircare] product bundle and usage regimen, which really hasn’t been done in the space. We’ll
get a sense of the humidity in your zip code, whether you swim or exercise regularly, if you’ve had chemo treatments, if you’re pregnant. All of this stuff impacts your hair health. With both Bevel and Form, we’re not only changing behaviour for the consumer but the industry as well. N I C O L A S JA M M E T: When we looked around the food landscape, we didn’t understand
Last year, Walker debuted his second brand, Form, a haircare line for women (sold at Sephora) that addresses all hair types and textures.
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“We couldn’t think of anything more boring than [a store of] wallto-wall suitcases,” says Rubio. “We’re building context.”
is content so important? J R : When we were building Away, we noticed that there were few instances where people who were selling luggage actually talked about what you do with it—which blows my mind because travel is such a fun, exciting thing. People were talking about wheels and zippers and material, but no one was giving the context. [Today] our customers will actually call our customer service team and ask for travel tips and advice. E W: People have so many choices of whose story they want to listen to. Eighty percent of Glossier’s growth and sales come through peer-to-peer recommendations or our own channels. That goes to show that women are not necessarily listening to beauty brands. They are ultimately trusting their friends. So we see our community as coconspirators, co-builders, co-storytellers. We see the life of each product we launch starting once it hits [our customer’s] doorstep—once she unboxes it, takes a picture of it on social media, and tells her story. Emily, you recently created a representative programme that allows your customers to sell your products through their own Glossier web page. What have you learned from this? E W: It’s been interesting to think about what incentivises these women. Is it money? It’s actually not. So many of these women are interested in early access to product, in getting closer to our company. They want to come into our office and work with our creative team for the day, to help develop future products. That speaks to this idea of a cult brand being something that, quite literally, is a living and breathing group.
why the most delicious, compelling, and accessible food was always the least healthy. Why couldn’t you have all those things, but have a product that makes you physically feel good? J E N RU B I O : My luggage broke. I was looking for something to replace it, and that’s when I realised that there are very few luggage brands out there with the kind of affinity
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that we see in areas like beauty or fashion. My cofounder, Steph Korey, and I set out to create the perfect suitcase. But our mission is really to make travel more seamless, enjoyable, and accessible for people. Away also has its own podcast, along with a website and quarterly print magazine, called Here, devoted to travel stories. Why
Though it can be used by anyone, Bevel addresses the specific shaving needs of black men. But when you went into Target, Tristan, you discovered that a lot of Caucasian men were buying your products. Did that change the way you positioned the brand? T W: It didn’t change anything. In fact, it validated my thesis. We started Walker & Company with this belief that global culture is led by American culture, which is led by black culture. You think of food and music and dance—black culture inspires all these.
“We are on this constant evolution of understanding what it means to connect people to real food,” says Jammet.
JEN RUBIO Cofounder and creative director, Away What she’s known for After serving as head of social media for Warby Parker and global head of innovation for AllSaints, Rubio, along with cofounder Steph Korey, started the luggage brand Away in 2016 with a single carry-on-size roller bag. The company’s hard-side suitcase now comes in five sizes.
Latest move Rubio and Korey are opening new stores in a handful of cities and, with the launch of a podcast and print magazine, Away is positioning itself as a broader travel company.
N ICO L AS JAM M E T Cofounder and co-CEO, Sweetgreen What he’s known for Jammet and his cofounders, Nathaniel Ru and Jonathan Neman, launched Sweetgreen soon after graduating from Georgetown in 2007. With Jammet in charge of food operations, the fast-casual salad chain has grown to more than 80 locations in eight markets.
Seventy to 75% of our customers online are black men, and roughly 60% in Target are white men. I think that’s a function of us being so supported by the [hip-hop] community, and folks of all cultures and creeds are inspired by hip-hop. And because we’re not in the ethnic aisle. N J : It’s our responsibility as a brand to try to lead [customers] in a direction that we think
they want to go. Ten years ago, we wanted to make healthy food cool. A few years in, we decided people ought to know about this work we were doing on our supply chain. So we put up lists [in our restaurants] that had all of the farms and the sources where our food came from, which at the time, in fast food or any fast-casual segment, was kind of crazy. Today, if you’re in our space and you
Latest move Sweetgreen is bolstering its digital capacity: It went fully cashless last year in nearly all of its restaurants and has been taking more orders through its app, which allows customers to sync calorie counts with Apple Health.
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don’t show where your food comes from, that’s crazy. Something customers didn’t want five years ago, today they demand. There’s a certain growth imperative that comes with being a cult brand. How does that work at Sweetgreen, when sourcing your food from the right suppliers is such a priority? Does that slow things down? N J : The company we’re building, there is no real blueprint for it. When we go to any new region we have to rebuild the supply chain, identify the ingredients and supply network that is the most sustainable. And then, most importantly, we have to be 100% transparent. So though we look up to companies, like Starbucks, that have changed customer behaviour, there is no blueprint for scaling this kind of food. And that means building a whole different economic model. So it may mean more flexibility in store format, in how we get the food to people, or even in how we make it. We are on this constant evolution of understanding what it means to connect people to real food. Tristan, you’ve said that the publicity and awareness around Walker & Company has outpaced the actual business. What kind of pressure does that put on you? T W: For physical-products companies, like Bevel and Form, you need money to make money. But once your brand outpaces your business, folks walk into fundraising meetings assuming that your revenues are a certain level without even thinking. Now I have to spend the first few minutes convincing them that we want to build something that’s around 100 years from now. That’s my challenge: How do I take all this cult-brand impact and make people visualise what it could be in 100 years? E W: Any brand that exists on Instagram is inherently global. [Only] 50% of Glossier’s 800 000 followers are in the US. But because we have chosen to be direct-to-consumer, we fundamentally can’t keep up with the global demand. Distribution through a third party would be easier, but every time you launch in a new country as a beauty product, you need to print everything in that country’s language. Suddenly you’re ordering another 30 000 units of every one of your 35 products for a very small market.
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Like Tristan, we want to be around in 100 years—and being measured about it is, for us, the way to go. It’s just particularly difficult when half of your Instagram comments are, “I’m so excited about your fragrance, but I can’t have it!” What role does physical retail play in your strategy? J R : When we were thinking about building a retail space, we couldn’t think of anything more boring than wall-to-wall suitcases. Our New York flagship store is pretty big, but I would guess the actual floor space dedicated to selling luggage is about 30%. The rest of the store is a café filled with travel books and items we’ve curated either to bring with you on your travels or things that we have brought back. We’re building context. I walked past the store the other day and someone was actually on Kayak, booking a flight. I was like, It’s working! T W: People still love going to physical places. It’s not so much that physical retail is going to die; it’s just going to change. We were blessed to have Ron Johnson, [who oversaw] Apple retail, Target, and JCPenney, as an investor. I asked him, “Why did Apple retail work?” And what he said stuck with me. He said, “We built Apple retail stores for the 90% of people who walk in and don’t buy anything.” So when I think about Bevel, I wonder how can we have a Bevel retail [experience] that’s potentially not focused on haircuts. Like, what does that mean? A barbershop that isn’t focused on haircuts? It makes us reimagine everything. N J : Yeah, when people tell this narrative about retail Armageddon, I think that may be true for those that aren’t staying connected to their customer. Our retail experience has evolved like crazy over the past 10 years. Today, 40% of Sweetgreen’s transactions are digital. Three to four years ago, that was in the single digits. The most important thing is to look at your connection to the customer and how their behavior is changing. For us, it’s going to be hyperconvenient or hyperexperiential. People will want to come into a space, but there’s going to have to be a reason, whether it’s a sense of community or a sense of experience. E W: [Glossier’s] only [permanent] retail is our showroom in New York on the sixth floor of our office building. It’s about 102 square
metres. Last I checked, it did more sales per square foot than Apple. It sometimes has a thousand women coming up this rickety elevator [over] eight hours on a Saturday. How do you view partnerships, and do you worry that they distort the core brand? T W: I’d partner with Emily! E W: We believe in the power of the individual. And if you have many [individuals] who are electing your brand, who are excited about it and talking about it, then that is the equivalent of 10 Kardashians. So while it gives us great joy that Kim Instagrammed our Body Hero wash, we get much more excited, frankly, in seeing the power of the individual multiply and magnify. We see that as our partnerships. J R : We have built [Away] off the shoulders of other brands we respect. There’s such a wide group of people who travel and who we’re trying to reach. So we look at different verticals, look for the best brands in those industries, and then partner with them to reach people that we wouldn’t have otherwise. I think a very big part of our customer base right now has heard about us through a partnership. N J : As we’ve tried to connect people to real food, we’ve realised that there is this incredible opportunity to use different ways to [reach] them. Every year, we do a couple of collaborations and partnerships that, to Jen’s point, help us tell a different part of our story and talk to a different group of folks. We’ve worked with everyone from Kendrick Lamar to great chefs like Dan Barber and David Chang. It’s also a way for us to continue to have fun with the brand and keep ourselves inspired. In this political climate, are there potential customers that you just don’t care about, who you feel like it’s okay to reject or not address? T W: One of our most-liked Instagram posts was of Colin Kaepernick kneeling. We didn’t even feel like we were taking a risk [by posting it]. It was just like, This is a great photo and it represents something that is core to who we are. We leaned into it specifically because that’s expected from our customers. They’re talking about it, so why should we shy away from it?
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CHA RT ING NEW ROA DS
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Ford’s new CEO, Jim Hackett, is propelling the 115-year-old company into the future while respecting its celebrated past.
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P h o t o g r a p h bArt y H ecredit r r i n g &teekay Herring
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“[Cars] give a sense of control, independence, and freedom. In the future, that will matter too.”
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More than a century ago, Ford Motor Co. made the automobile a mass-market consumer product accessible to all. Last May, Jim Hackett took over as the company’s CEO and faced a challenge as big as anything Henry Ford ever encountered: to lead the company into a future defined by autonomous vehicles, clean fuel alternatives, and the concept of mobility as a tech-driven mobile service. Hackett talks to Fast Company’s Robert Safian about the need for agility and how it’s shaping his plans to recast Ford’s business model and culture. 86 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A MARCH APRIL 2018
You don’t mind the spotlight? It’s not painful, [but] I don’t seek it. It feeds some of the wrong things about the way people think of business. The cult of personality as a CEO, there are some people who can pull that off. Very few. I would rather be in the background and be known as a person who’s thoughtful, whom people love to work for, and then the team is in the spotlight. It is the way I was wired, with three older brothers. Roger Enrico, who helped lead Pepsi [from 1983 to 2003], said that leadership is having a point of view. The CEO can’t shrink from that. If you do, the company suffers from confusion, lack of direction. So in my first hundred days [as Ford CEO], we have developed a point of view of the future of the company: “smart vehicles in a smart world.” “A smart world”—the environment outside—you don’t have as much control over that, do you? The evolution of the environment is not only needed but is going to happen. For instance, you waste more time today trying to find a parking place than being stuck in traffic. Now, that’s just [about] trying to match the open parking place with where the car needs to go, which is going to help fuel efficiency, whether it’s electric or gas. It’s a “smart vehicle, smart environment, smart world” kind of example. People have to be mobile. We already know factions are discriminated against because they’re old and can’t get to a doctor, or they’re in a certain part of the city and they don’t have enough money, or they can’t get to the bus stop and it’s cold. Mobility has to be, as [Ford executive chairman] Bill Ford says, a fundamental human right. It’s something that we have to stand for. There’s a myth in the press that people are going to give up their vehicles. It’s an object that sits 90% of the time and you borrow money to pay for it. What’s the psychology of that? We do it because [cars] give a sense of control, independence, and freedom. In the
Photograph by Melissa Golden
future, that will matter too. As we build this smart world, we think we can have you vacillate between different kinds of mobile systems depending on what you want. You can have an ownership kind of feeling, and you can have a Chariot, which is the [ride-sharing] brand we’ve started in northern California. It’s 70% occupied by women every day. Why? They feel safe opting into this transport system. There’s 6 to 10 riders in it. You hail it with your phone, and it plots its path based on where the crowd wants to go. That’s mobility you won’t buy through a car dealer. But we will need car dealers in the future for autonomous vehicles, too. What’s Ford’s competitive advantage in this battle for the future of mobility? It’s this blue oval. When I joined the board, I got letters from my friends in business and the opening sentence in all of them was, “Jim, in 2008, when Ford didn’t take the money, I bought a Ford.” The sentiment was, you know, one for the good guys here. I’m not diminishing the other companies [that participated in the government bailout of the auto industry]. It was good for the world that those companies survived. But this team of people that ran the company kept it alive.
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You were previously the CEO of another company, Steelcase, which went through some transitions and culture changes. This is a different kind of spotlight. I had this interim assignment as the University of Michigan athletic director where I hired [former star quarterback] Jim Harbaugh as head football coach, so that spotlight was big.
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There are very few auto companies where there’s a family presence. You can’t believe the advantage. It’s a pixie dust in the values of the company, because family owners have a long-arc view of who they want to be. Bill Ford, whose great-grandfather started the company, told the world that cars can’t continue to operate the way they have been, because we’ll kill the world if China just cuts and pastes what we do. I am proud of working with a group of people who stand for those kinds of things. We didn’t take the [bailout] money, we care about the environment, we think mobility is a basic human right. What about Tesla? Is its model the one that automakers aspire to, even if they don’t necessarily aspire to be that brand? Who is that? [Laughs] If you’ve run a big company, enterprise computing is the underpinning of how something gets built. If you’re Tesla and you’re starting the company, you go and seek somebody who has a madefor-enterprise system: low cost, simple, and you’re going to make one product. So there is a pure genius running the company, but it isn’t the genius that drove that; it’s the economics. It’s also the waste at Ford that caused it to not evolve in that regard. That’s something I want to fix: You should have
no advantage ordering your Tesla versus ordering your Ford. Ford’s not stupid. It’s not that they don’t get it. It’s the weight of that [older] enterprise system. That’s the area where disruption sneaks in, and I call it a thief in the night. It steals your livelihood. What Tesla proved to us is that the next gen of propulsion, electrification—customers love it. But there is not one company in the world, we think, that makes pure profit on electrification. Tesla doesn’t. The investors are happy, though, because they see 500 000 orders for a new vehicle. That’s a confirmation of consumption. We’re the number-two company in the industry in non-internal combustion engines. We use hybrid and electrification. In October, we went to Wall Street and said, “Look, propulsion is a frame, the way a designer would think in the future. It doesn’t mean that electrification’s won the war for the next thousand years, right? Hydrogen’s there, there are all kinds of things.” Ford is committed to propulsion platforms that are beyond gas, that have zero emissions, that are kind to the planet. But our customers have to come with us. Right now, electrification represents 5% of the total sales of vehicles. If you wanted to put a car in your garage and charge it, your electrician may have to come
JIM HACK E T T President and CEO, Ford Motor Co. What he’s known for During his 33 years at the office-furniture maker Steelcase—with an almost-20-year tenure as CEO—Hackett streamlined and modernised the company. When he became CEO in 1994, he inherited a company that had just reported a R830 million loss. He did it by embracing design—he acquired the pioneering Ideo agency—and tech. He also explored new business models such as designing furniture for the healthcare industry. He took Steelcase public and grew revenues to almost R35 billion annually as well as profitability.
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Hackett reinvented the furniture maker Steelcase for the modern age and is now trying to do the same with Ford.
In November, Hackett closed a deal for a joint venture with the Chinese automaker Anhui Zotye to manufacture and market all-electric vehicles under a new Chinese brand. Ford added that it would also use the joint venture to explore mobility services in the booming Chinese market.
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in and install some kind of alternative capacity. These are things that the disruption didn’t address well. You can go to a gas station on every corner, the price is lower than in history, and [Ford’s] F-150 now gets 23 miles per gallon. How do you respond to the critique that climate change and the environment are not as important to car companies because they’re selling so many trucks and SUVs as opposed to electric vehicles? Well, you can have it all. That’s the new message. The way Ford got the F-150 from 8 miles per gallon to 23 is because three years ago the company made the single-largest investment ever in a transformation of an auto factory, changing the underpinnings [of the vehicle] from steel to aluminum. We had a CEO at the time who was a brilliant aerospace engineer, Al Mulally, so he knew how airplanes were built. It’s a big challenge to put the body panels and that aluminum together. [You] don’t just put a screw in them and they hold. The Ford advantage is that we know what people love about their cars. Tesla is getting some love. I don’t want to discredit them. But these platforms that they build on use what’s called a skateboard—that’s where all the battery structure is—and that’s limited what could be built on top of it cost-effectively. We’re working on different ways to pack batteries and store energy so you can have the vehicle that you love. Mustang, for example, is the number-one sports car in Europe. Can we marry the propulsion systems of the future with the passion people have for their trucks and cars? Of course. What will be the biggest obstacle to change at Ford five years from now? Regulations. I’m really proud that governments all over the world are making way for autonomy. They’re not holding back the evolution of it. But regulations have got to stay apace. Regulations that used to protect the way people were elected fairly haven’t caught up with the new technologies. That’s the same problem we’re going to have in vehicles. As you lead Ford forward into this murky future, how do you stay positive? Oh, my goodness. Well, you start with having a great father. We didn’t need an alarm clock. Every day, he woke us up. I don’t mean, “It’s time to get up!” I mean, his singing and the noise and the optimism, it just flowed through our home. I come to work every day with this sense that there’s something I’m going to learn. I’m optimistic about the way the world’s evolving, and Ford’s role in that.
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THE FA M I LY WAY Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., on the unending pressure to change, and the enduring wisdom of
H
his great-grandfather
How do you lead a legacy company like Ford through the major shifts the automotive industry is facing today, not to mention the economy in general? The only way to do it is with constant communication—and painting a picture of the future for our employees so that they understand both the challenges of what we’re up against and the tremendous opportunities we have going forward. And then get them excited and invested in those opportunities. The most important thing is to let them ask anything that they want to ask. It’s not enough to just stand up and give them a speech and tell them what’s on my mind. I really need to hear what’s on their mind. The worst thing you can do is mislead them, so if I don’t have all the answers I’m not going to pretend like I do. You hired Jim Hackett to run the company earlier this year. What led you to this decision? In my life, I’ve met very few original thinkers, and Jim is one of them. He was also a very successful CEO at Steelcase, somebody I believed could blend big strategic thinking and operational excellence.
What do you think will be the largest hurdle your company will face over the next decade? The biggest challenge is going to be to keep the essence of our culture while hastening the clock speed at which we operate. It means making sure that our entire company can move at the speed of software even as we’re continuing to develop hardware. It’s doable, but it’s a change. Ford was founded 115 years ago. Is there a piece of leadership advice that you think works as well now as it did then? My great-grandfather [Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford] had a famous phrase. He said, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said, ‘A faster horse.’ ” The very foundation of our company was disruption. That’s our heritage.
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D i r e c t o r, U C T G r a d u a t e S c h o o l o f B u s i n e s s
A new dawn for business and government? Can business and government put aside their differences and work together to plot a path to greater prosperity for all?
In his inaugural State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke inspiringly of the need for unity and consensus as South Africa sets about the task of rebuilding after several disastrous years that have seen the economy stagnate and investment downgrades pile up. In particular, he emphasised the role that business can play in working with government and labour to restore confidence and stave off further investment downgrades. The truth is, there is much ground to be made up here. There has been a steady deterioration in relations between government and business in South Africa; conflict between these two key pillars of society is not a new phenomenon. As Michael Spicer, the former CEO of Business Leadership SA previously noted, South Africa’s history (most notably apartheid and race) has ensured that the kind of cultural homogeneity, shared world views and goals that underpin other successful societies have never characterised this country’s government-business relations. While the release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) ushered in a period of closer interaction between the two, it was short-lived. During former President Thabo Mbeki’s tenure, the ANC government frequently berated (rightly so, in some cases) the business community for criticising its policies and publicly voicing concerns about political risks. Despite adopting a market-friendly approach, it appeared that the Mbeki administration distrusted the overwhelmingly white business community. At the same time, business was concerned about the lack of clarity over economic policy within the Tripartite Alliance (comprising the ANC, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions). Under the Jacob Zuma administration, relations between business and government deteriorated even further. The #GuptaLeaks scandal exposed how a chosen few business leaders came to enjoy great success due to their political affiliations as opposed to their standing in the business community. This has been to the detriment of the country’s economic growth, and poverty alleviation measures have been limited as a result. The incident prompted an increasing number of business leaders to
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speak out against the quality of leadership in government. Instead of engaging and allaying the fears of the business sector, the Zuma administration chose to castigate it for a perceived lack of patriotism. Concepts like White Monopoly Capital and Radical Economic Transformation, which have made their way into the public domain, have only served to widen the chasm. Business is not blameless either. All too often its leaders have not provided a much-needed counterbalance to the government’s policy discourse. In many instances, the business sector’s stance on policy issues – notably around calls for transformation – has been defensive. Furthermore, the business sector has tended to display an arrogant and know-it-all attitude. None of this will help the country to overcome the devastating effects of unemployment, poverty and inequality, or to halt the decline of the economy, which is reeling from the effects of a triple credit ratings downgrade. Instead of working together to address these problems, business and government have opted to go it alone, often operating at cross-purposes to each other – as was seen vividly when the Chamber of Mines turned to the courts after government gazetted the new Mining Charter in June 2017. President Ramaphosa takes the helm at a time when the country at its lowest ebb since 1994. And while the new president holds out hope that the country will now have visionary and effective leadership from government, the question must be asked: can the current impasse between business and government realistically be bridged? The answer to this will ultimately hinge on whether the shattered trust between the two can be rebuilt. To rebuild trust, we need to cultivate new and meaningful relationships between decision-makers in both camps based on a mutual acceptance that they have different, but complementary strengths. In practical terms, a mechanism is needed to bring together business and key government departments to engage in constructive dialogue and idea-sharing. This mechanism should also facilitate the strategic and systematic management of the interactions between government and business. We need to develop a tangible sense of common purpose that centres on the pursuit of national interest. South Africa is at a crossroads. There is widespread agreement that we need inclusive structural transformation of the economy. We can either rise to the challenge and walk the path to prosperity together or we can continue on the current trajectory where progress is stifled and creative energies are burned up in the courtroom. The choice is ours to make.
“ A MECHANISM IS NEEDED TO BRING TOGETHER BUSINESS AND KEY GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS TO ENGAGE IN CONSTRUCTIVE DIALOGUE AND IDEA-SHARING.”
Mills Soko is the director of the UCT Graduate School of Business and an associate professor specialising in international trade and doing business in Africa. With a career that has spanned business, government, civil society and academia, he is uniquely positioned to understand the role these sectors have to play — collaboratively and individually — in addressing the critical issues of Africa’s development and competitiveness.
MOTIVATING AN INDUSTRY The inspiring story behind Julie Solomon Properties
THE LIFE & STYLE OF BUSINESS How these innovators balance work and pleasure
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“We can all be extraordinary, we just have to believe in ourselves. Don’t allow yourself to be held back by a lack of faith and self confidence.” JULIE SOLOMON
Founder JSP
BUYING BITCOIN
The digital gold rush
LEADING VOICES
The time to listen is now
MARCH APRIL 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.ZA
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FLIPPING PROPERTIES AND TRANSFORMING INDUSTRIES Business tycoon and real estate mogul Julie Solomon of JSP innovates and inspires against all odds By S onwabo Macingwana
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I T IS MORE THAN A M AG A ZINE, I T'S A MOV EMEN T
MARCH APRIL 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.ZA
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Fast Company SA takes a look at the innovative new ideas, services, research and news currently making waves in South Africa and abroad
SA TECH INVESTOR LAUNCHES $1M AFRICAN AI CHALLENGE South African investment firm Sagarmatha Technologies has opened applications for its AI Revolution Challenge which will see one African artificial intelligence (AI) start-up secure US$1 million (R12m) in development funding plus other value add-ons. The AI Revolution Challenge is aimed at promoting artificial intelligence on the African continent and showcasing emerging businesses and top talent working to build expertise in their countries. The company will provide the reward in development funding and more than double that in marketing value-ads and prizes to the
winner of the challenge. Applications close March 31, 2018, with applicants required to currently offer – or intend to offer – a product, service or platform that utilises AI techniques, as defined by relevant scientific research. The product or service must demonstrate commercial applications worldwide and have had minimum investment of $25 000. A panel of seasoned investors and experts in AI will select up to 20 start-ups to attend the final event in South Africa in May 2018, where the winner will be announced.
PROTEA HOTEL FIRES UP NEW DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMBIA Protea Hotels by Marriott has strengthened partnership with business giant Union Gold Zambia for an exciting new development in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. The result is the signing of Protea Hotel by Marriott Bonanza Estate in Lusaka. With 241 rooms, the hotel will be the largest operating hotel under the brand in the country and the brand’s 9th hotel with Union Gold Zambia. Strategically located within the new upmarket lifestyle hub, the hotel will be situated close to the international airport and major city landmarks. The hotel’s planned facilities are expected to provide a range of much needed amenities in the city, including additional conferencing venues, high-end food and beverage services, and a spa. Most exciting is the amphitheatre, which will attract mega events into the city. Protea Hotels by Marriott is Africa’s leading hospitality brand. 92 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A MARCH APRIL 2018
FAST BYTES
SAMSUNG ANNOUNCES WORLD’S FIRST OPEN CONNECTIVITY FOUNDATION Samsung Electronics announced Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) 1.3 certification for the Samsung ARTIK 05x series of modules, the first system on module family to be certified using new OCF standards for trust and connectivity for IoT. With the ARTIK 05x series, companies can quickly build Wi-Fi enabled edge products that meet OCF standards for interoperability and take advantage of the ARTIK platform’s built-in hardware and software solutions to ensure reliability, safety and privacy for connected products. Companies can now create products that work seamlessly with other OCF certified IoT devices regardless of their form factor, operating system or service providers. From simple edge nodes like sensors and controllers, to home appliances, healthcare monitors and smart factory gateways, the Samsung ARTIK IoT platform provides a complete end-to-end software, hardware and cloud solution for companies to easily link and more safely operate their products in a world that is increasingly connected.
KWESÉ ACQUIRES STAKE IN IFLIX AFRICA Pan-African media company Kwesé has acquired a significant stake in global entertainment company for emerging markets iflix Africa, which will now form part of Kwesé’s diverse broadcast offering as the core vehicle to deliver seamless mobile experiences to millions of viewers. Having set up operations in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa, iflix offers users the region’s most extensive collection of highly acclaimed local African and international series and movies, including first-to-market exclusive programming. This, in partnership with Kwesé’s broadcast operations and footprint, will create an exceptional mobile offering for consumers on the continent.
PHILIP MORRIS SOUTH AFRICA EXPANDS ITS RETAIL FOOTPRINT Philip Morris South Africa is expanding its retail footprint with the launch of two new kiosks in Johannesburg – Sandton City and Eastgate Mall – to sell IQOS, its revolutionary electronic tobacco device designed to heat rather than burn tobacco. The launch of the two pop-up stores follows the milestone opening of the first IQOS boutique store at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town in December, giving adult smokers a new smoke-free alternative to cigarettes. The revolutionary electronic tobacco device is designed to heat tobacco at a controlled temperature, producing an aerosol which contains less than 10% of the harmful chemicals found in ordinary cigarette smoke. The device is already on sale in over 31 markets globally. MARCH APRIL 2018 FASTCOMPANY.CO.Z A 93
Local conferences, talks and meetups we think are worth attending
MASTERING SAP BUSINESS ANALYTICS
INTERNET OF THINGS FORUM AFRICA EXHIBITION
Date: 12 - 14 March 2018 Time: 09:00 - 17:00 Venue: The Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg Cost of tickets: R 14 950 pp
Date: 14 - 15 March 2018 Time: 09:00 - 16:00 Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg Cost of tickets: R4 950 pp
The world has changed. In the last two years more data were produced globally than in all of history. The volume continues to grow exponentially resulting in massive economic and societal disruption. Traditional business processes are being totally transformed. Game changing developments in HANA, DataViz, UX, Self Service, IoT, Digital Analytics, Predictive Analytics and Cloud are the essential enablers of this transformation. Against this backdrop, industrial sponsors created Mastering SAP Business Analytics.Six months of research have led to the evolution of this unique conference program. It’s a result of countrywide face-to-face discussions with over 50 industry professionals speaking their mind. Seven key themes emerged from these roundtable discussions, around which Mastering SAP Business Analytics 2018 has been created.
The Internet of Things (IoT) Forum Africa Exhibition showcases products like gaming start-up, Gaming Battle Ground, in the Internet & Start-ups industry. This year’s IoT Forum Africa will bring together key industries for a day of top level content, solution based case studies and discussion. Industries include manufacturing, transport, health, logistics, government, energy, insurance, retail and automotive. The event is set to showcase cutting edge technologies from leading exhibitors and provide insight from world-class speakers sharing their unparalleled industry knowledge and real-life experiences.
E-MARKETING STRATEGIC SUMMIT
DECOREX DURBAN
Date: 15 - 16 March 2018 Time: 08:00 - 16:00 Venue: Southern Sun Fourways, Johannesburg Cost of tickets: R8 990 pp
Date: 21 - 25 March 2018 Time: 10:00 - 18:00 Venue: Durban International Convention Centre Cost of tickets: Adults R95, Students/Pensioners R 85, Children under 12 R20, Trade R85
The E-Marketing Strategic Summit covers all disciplines of marketing from fundamental research to its applications, recognising a wide area that calls for greater research, debate and action from both local to global levels. Some of the topics to be discussed in this year’s summit include: embracing digital transformation and digital culture, change or die, cutting through the noise, navigating the rising cost of consumer attention, assessing the customer experience, maturity of your organisation, virtual reality as a key to augmented, immersive storytelling, leveraging AI-led actionable insights for improved customer service, innovating with extreme personalisation at scale, etc.
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Decorex Durban is South Africa’s premier décor, design and lifestyle exhibition showcasing at the Durban ICC. Leaders in the décor, design and lifestyle trade, Decorex Durban, will inspire visitors to find their unique #rhythmoflife with a range of stylish services and products featuring at the exhibition. Cosponsored by Plascon, Decorex Durban sets the standard in the year’s latest interior and exterior décor with industry experts, high-end products and appliances, as well as endless inspiration all in one convenient location. Themed ‘Rhythm of Life’, Decorex Durban will feature the best 2018 trends in artful creations such as the Decorex Trend Haus, the Kitchen Trends Project and the Bathroom Trends Project.
FAST EVENTS
DESIGN THINKING AND EMPATHY GENERATION
POWER AND ELECTRICITY WORLD AFRICA
Date: 26 March 2018 Time: 08:00 - 17:00 Venue: 17 Dock Road, The Watershed, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town Cost of tickets: R3 200 pp
Date: 27 - 28 March 2018 Time: 08:00 - 17:00 Venue: Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg Cost of tickets: R16 990 pp
This one-day design thinking course has been created to help facilitators, practitioners and researchers renew their focus on empathy generation and what it means during a design thinking process. In this workshop, you will experience the creative power of true empathy. You will learn to distinguish empathy from emotional contagion, sympathy, empathic concern, empathic over arousal and personal distress. You will be given concepts to understand and tools to practice this often lacking, and much needed capacity. As you deepen your capacities for imagination, intuition and inspiration associated with the art of empathy, you will tap into resources for innovative design relevant to the creation of human-centred society.
The Power and Electricity World Africa Expo is the largest conference in Africa, providing the meeting place for buyers, sellers and their partners to do the deals that drive Africa’s energy sector. This is the place where buyers find solutions to their challenges, network and learn. This expo presents the largest gathering of solution providers to the African continent. In conjunction with The Solar Show, The Water Show and Energy Efficiency, it is all happening in one place.
TYREXPO AFRICA 2018
WORLD TRAVEL MARKET AFRICA
Date: 10 - 12 April 2018 Time: 10:00 - 17:00 Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg Cost of tickets: Free on registration
Date: 18 - 20 April 2018 Time: 10:00 - 18:00 Venue: Cape Town International Convention Centre Cost of tickets: R950 pp
Tyrexpo Africa is the only dedicated trade exhibition for Africa’s Tyre, Automotive Repair & Maintenance and Tyre Accessories market where over 3 000 industry players from Africa and the surrounding regions converge on a single platform to exchange ideas, expertise, products and innovations within the ecosystem. In this year’s event, expect to meet key decision makers from the various groups within the eco-system such as manufacturers, distributors, dealers, OEMs, fleet operators, and many more.
The World Travel Market Africa is Africa’s leading B2B exhibition for both inbound and outbound travel and tourism markets, presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to South African, African and international travel professionals. Through its industry networks, global reach and regional focus, WTM Africa creates exclusive business opportunities, provides industry professionals with quality contacts, content and communities. WTM Africa 2017 saw 624 exhibitors showcase their products and services to 5 117 trade professionals over three days, with 8 905 pre-scheduled appointments and two days of very successful speed networking. WTM Africa has become a true global marketplace for companies throughout the industry.
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NEXT By Nicola O’Donoghue,
F o u n d e r/ C E O o f O P C o n s u l t i n g
NICOLA O’DONOGHUE
Instilling Ethical Leadership in Businesses For years, the world has been shrinking, and I’m not talking about the polar ice caps melting. I’m talking about globalisation, which has been harnessing technological advancement and driving a global marketplace.
In July 2016, former US President Barrack Obama said that the process of globalisation is here to stay: what made globalisation possible can’t be stopped – the genie can’t go back in the bottle. Globalisation is irreversible and continues to challenge the local, regional, national and cultural boundaries that historically blocked material, ideological and social transformation. The world has become integrated and interdependent like never before, making globalisation one of the most powerful and pervasive influences on workplaces, communities, and lives of people. No country can afford to ignore an increasingly globalised world where interdependence is the norm and society is built upon networks and access to information. Africa is a continent of complexities, with a wide diversity of climate, topography, culture, peoples, and languages. This hallmark of complexity is also compounded by tribal divisiveness, wars, selfish leadership, wealth inequality, corruption and massive unemployment. Any attempt to discuss the impact of globalisation on African leaders and organisations should take this cultural context into consideration. There is a need for a broad understanding of this diverse landscape if the African perspective in leadership and organisational ethics is to be fully addressed and understood. Whilst there are enormous benefits to be gained from global integration, we must acknowledge that globalisation leads to widening inequalities. In this globalised world, capital is king and profit maximisation is seen by many as the only purpose of existence (for self and for business). Workers have limited leverage in this globalised world, which threatens to leave them behind as societies transform. A recent paper by Stellenbosch University researcher Anna Orthofer found that 10% of South Africans own 90%-95% of all South Africa’s wealth. In the era of globalisation, there has been little consideration for non-economic values, be it the people who work with organisations or the society that allows businesses to flourish. Whilst some organisations are
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starting to lay emphasis on their responsibilities towards employees, society and nature; corruption and selfish leadership is still the cornerstone of many African organisations. As African businesses respond to the new globalised normal; what steps should leaders take to ensure that their employees and communities are not left behind? It starts with leadership imbibing ethical values in life and in the management of organisations entrusted to their care. These leaders are the makers of tomorrow and will greatly influence the place that Africa occupies in the global economy. Ethical values determine the fundamental purpose of existence of a company. In simple words, values and ethics provide a code by which employees and leaders can analyse problems that come up in the day-to-day course of business operations. There are several approaches to embedding ethical values in organisations, ranging from laissez-faire to a highly proactive methodology that spells out specific behavioural expectations in detail. An organisation that adopts the laissez-faire approach to values and ethics allows employees and leaders, with little or no training, to make decisions for themselves based on their own judgments and standards of morality. In this regard, the employees and leaders are expected to do the “right thing” which is not specifically defined, placing the entire burden for ethical compliance upon the individual. Unfortunately, there are far too many examples of our leaders falling short in this respect. Defining and managing the values of a collective group of people within an organisation composes the practical application of organisational ethics. Ethical leaders strive for an organisation culture in which all employees are treated ethically and professionally, regardless of their race, religion, culture or lifestyles. Employees, who are the assets of an organisation, are shown “the right thing” to do is, and are expected to maintain the decorum and ambience of the workplace. If Africa is to solve its development problems of poverty, ignorance, corruption, disease and unemployment, more emphasis has to be placed on instilling ethical values in all businesses.
“ V ALUES AND ETHICS PROVIDE A CODE BY WHICH EMPLOYEES AND LEADERS CAN ANALYSE PROBLEMS THAT COME UP IN THE DAY-TO-DAY COURSE OF BUSINESS OPERATIONS.”
Nicola O’Donoghue, Founder/CEO of OP Consulting A seasoned leader and strategist, an expert in business communications, operational management, and people process design, O’Donoghue thrives on identifying and growing talent within organisations to build high performing companies. She is adept at behavioural change and motivating people to perform at their best, and loves to make new professional acquaintances. Reach out if you want to talk business development, process change, behavioural change and motivation. Mail or call her on nicola@opconsulting.co.za
SUBSCRIBE TO THE AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY FOR EXTENSIVE NEWS FROM SUBSCRIBE TO THE AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY THE AFRICAN FOR EXTENSIVE NEWS FROMCONTINENT THE AFRICAN CONTINENT African News Agency(ANA) is Africa’s first multimedia News-Wire syndication and PR Wire service. ANA is a commercialised, digital content generation and syndication service providing the very latest Africa’s first multimedia news syndication wire service, the African News Agency (ANA), and breaking news information and developments across all spheres of politics, business, current is now up and running. affairs, lifestyle and sport coverage from the African continent and globally. Catering for government departments, organisations , businesses, digital and and traditional publishers, Launched on 1 March 2015, ANA is a digital content-generation syndication service television and radio broadcasters as well as content providers and media outlets on the providing solid political, business, current affairs, lifestyle and sport coverageAfrican from the continent and worldwide. ANA has not only filled the gap left by the closure of the South African African continent. Press Association (SAPA), but we have also greatly improved the service offering at a greatly reduced price.
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