breakwater business - Graduate School of Business

Ticking all the right boxes
New rankings and accreditations 6
BREAKWATER BUSINESS
Volume 14 #1 May 2013
Corporate culture – culprit or cure?
Moving from compliance to collaboration 34
Beyond the band-aid
Creating change through innovation 52
The
Marikana
BREAKWATER BUSINESS
CONTENTS
Volume 14 #1 May 2013
School News
Features
Ticking all the right boxes 6
Africa finding its own way 14
GSB turns heads at international competition 7
Cows for currency 16
Working to unlock Africa’s economic potential 8
Welcome to Africa 18
Innovation hub to build South African business and
society 9
Boosting project success 19
Six CSR traps and how to avoid them 20
Righting the world’s wrongs through education 10
The Marikana crossroads 22
Seeking balance and harmony in society 10
TRAINING
COURSE
Infrastructure utilities around the world are facing far-reaching
changes: restructuring in the state-owned electricity industries
to improve performance; growing participation of the private
sector and the emergence of Independent Power Producers; new
regulatory regimes; and the reforming of utilities with the dual
responsibility of improving services for the poor while ensuring
economic development.
The 2013 Managing Power Sector Reform and Regulation in Africa
course will expose managers and professionals in the sector to the
frontiers of the international experience and best practices.
Coming soon: business in 3D 30
Building whisperer shows how SA cities can wise up 12
MANAGING POWER
SECTOR REFORM AND
REGULATION IN AFRICA
Making a Reel impact 13
7–11 OCTOBER 2013
Research
The course has a strong emphasis on economic regulation.
Measuring investment change 25
The course will:
Equip delegates with the insights needed to manage farreaching restructuring and change in the electricity sector
Provide a detailed understanding of regulatory frameworks
and instruments to achieve desired economic, social and
environmental goals within the context of restructuring
the electricity sector
Facilitate the development of a peer network in Africa for
ongoing knowledge exchange
Coaching helps plug learning gap 28
The course is offered by the Management Programme in Infrastructure Reform and Regulation
(MIR) at the UCT Graduate School of Business.
Africa’s turn to switch to online learning 26
Colin Firer tribute 11
Stopping gender violence before it starts 32
Lady Gaga and the corporate differentiator 40
Shooting the rapids 42
The fault lines that are limiting SA’s progress 46
Putting the right heads together 47
The measure of success 48
Corporate culture – culprit or cure? 34
Beyond the band-aid: change through innovation 52
Five things first-line managers should know 37
Missing a sustainability trick 38
Alumni News
What lies beneath 44
Consultants with a heart 54
GPs hold key to successful roll-out of NHI 50
Back to school 55
Class notes 56
For more information or to apply please visit
www.gsb.uct.ac.za/infrastructure
or contact Ann Wium at 021 406 1314.
May 2013
Volume 14 #1
BWB
3
Poor Numbers
Other books
published by
UCT Press
How we are misled by African development
statistics and what to do about it
Publisher: UCT Press
Recommended retail
price: R220 (incl. VAT)
The book starts with an
arresting question: ‘How
do they even come up
with these numbers?’.
Based on his research
and interviews in eight
African countries from
2007 to 2011, including
Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda, the author was able to
observe first-hand how national statisticians compile
their GDP data. He was struck by how inaccurate and
misleading these numbers are, despite the fact that
they are used to make ‘critical decisions that allocate
scarce resources’.
In Zambia, where officials are desperate to meet
Millennium Development Goals, Jerven observes how
social development data are getting better, while the
availability and reliability of economic development
data are getting worse. This is ironic given the fact
that, as he puts it, ‘all of the central questions in
development revolve around the measure of the
production and consumption of goods and services’.
Having assessed the extent of the inaccuracy in
African economic statistics, the book goes on to
examine the policy implications of these data problems
and, ultimately, what can be done about it.
About the author
Morten Jerven is Assistant Professor in the School for
International Studies at Simon Fraser University, Canada.
4
Win a copy of the book
UCT Press is giving away a copy of this book. E-mail
‘Breakwater Business Entry’ and your contact details
to [email protected]
BWB
Volume 14 #1
Author:
Anna McCord
ISBN:
978 1 91989 548 2
Size:
228 x 152mm
Extent:
254 pages
Format:
Soft cover
Publication
date
October 2012
Retail
Price:
R265.00 (incl. VAT)
ABOUT THE BOOK
This book critically explores the concept of the Public
Works Programme (PWP) and interrogates its social
protection performance in the context of chronic
poverty. It reviews over 200 PWPs in eastern and
southern Africa using original research drawn from
extensive field analysis, interviews and survey work,
and examines six international PWP case studies – in
India, Argentina, Ireland, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the
USA.
The failure of
decenTralisaTion
n
in souTh africa
T
local governmen
Complexity and unantic
ipated consequences
Authors:
Andrew Siddle &
Thomas Koelbe
Print ISBN: 978 1 91989 505 5
Web ISBN: 978 1 92051 656 7
ePub ISBN: 978 1 92051 657 4
s Koelble
Andrew Siddle and Thoma
Size:
228 x 152mm
Extent:
320 pages
Format:
Soft cover
Publication
date:
July 2012
Retail Price: R350.00 (incl. VAT)
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION 2013
Call: +27 (0)21 406 1490 | Email: [email protected] | Web: www.gsb.uct.ac.za
CORNERSTONE
PROGRAMMES
Finance for Non-Financial
Managers
The language of accounting
and finance will be taught in a
practical, accessible way.
R14 400
20 – 23 May 2013 OR
14 – 17 October 2013
Lean Leadership
Create a lean organisation,
department or team that has the
right combination of philosophy,
people, process and problem
solving.
R12 800
13 – 15 May 2013
Strategic Marketing in
Emerging Economies
Learn how to develop competitive
and sustainable strategic brands.
R16 300
22 – 25 July 2013
The New Manager
New managers grow in
confidence as leaders,
with personal mastery and
collaborative management.
R27 000
5 – 17 May 2013 OR
29 September – 11 October 2013
Project Management
Learn to apply the basics of
project management from a
business perspective that supports
organisational strategy.
R16 300
12 – 15 August 2013
Strategic Thinking & Execution
For Growth
Enhance strategic thinking
skills, and the ability to achieve
effective implementation.
R16 300
27 – 29 August 2013
HR as a Strategic Business
Partner
Acquire the skills needed to reposition yourself as a strategic
partner to the business.
R17 900
Module 1: 16 – 18 September 2013
Module 2: 14 – 15 October 2013
ABOUT THE BOOK
Through empirical research conducted at 37
municipalities across the country, this study finds
that they are frequently incapable of meeting the
demands imposed upon them by a highly complex
model of government. This complexity, coupled with
the absence of essential conditions for success and the
presence of a number of threats which are commonly
identified in decentralised systems, leads to the failure
of policy and the erosion of sound local governance.
LEADERSHIP
PROGRAMMES
MASTER
CLASSES
Full Colour Thinking
The new Full Colour Thinking master
class is a two-day transformational
journey that creates powerful
change-makers to redefine the new
global business agenda
R6 000
29 & 30 October 2013
Women in Leadership
Programme
Take leadership to the next
level while building a network of
support and influence.
R26 300
Module 1: 18 – 21 November 2013
Module 2: 11 – 14 March 2013
Executive Development
Programme
This Executive learning
experience showcases the latest
developments in management
practices for sustainable strategic
advantage in emerging markets.
R68 000
18 – 31 August 2013 (Gauteng)
Programme for Management
Development
Gain a broad organisational
perspective and enhance
managerial understanding and
capabilities.
R50 400
25 August – 7 September 2013 OR
3 – 16 November 2013
SPECIALIST
PROGRAMMES
Find - Make - Grow - Realise
Designed to provide delegates
with a deep understanding of
investing in early stage growth
companies.
R7 500
4 - 5 June (Cape Town)
Property Development
Programme
Engage with a full range of
disciplines within property
development.
Members: R28 100
Non-members: R36 500
21 July – 2 August 2013
Housing Finance for SubSaharan Africa
Learn how to objectively analyse
housing finance in current market
conditions.
R17 000
7 – 12 October 2013
Managing Power Sector Reform
& Regulation in Africa
Explore international regulatory
regimes and best practise in
managing them.
R18 500
7 – 11 October 2013
Business Acumen for Artists
This course will teach artists
everything they need to know
about basic business; from how to
manage their finances to how to
market themselves more effectively
and critically – to negotiate
decisively when pitching a product
and pricing an idea.
R7 500
26 August – 18 November 2013
(Monday evenings only)
Leading Executive Programme
Senior Executives will experience
profound personal and leadership
transformation.
R64 200
20 October – 2 November 2013
UCT Press publications are available at
leading bookshops countrywide. Also
available online at www.uctpress.co.za
www.uctpress.co.za
May 2013
EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
CONTRIBUTORS
Dave Marrs
David Furlonger
Dave Marrs is a former Business
Day finance editor who now runs the
publication’s Cape Town bureau. He is
also chief lead writer, a columnist and
editor of the Bottom Line. He can be
found rowing in False Bay or building
boats in his garage in his spare time. In
this issue he considers the state of SA
after Marikana on page 22.
David Furlonger is Editor-at-Large of
the Financial Mail, and the author of
that publication’s Ranking The MBAs
annual report. British-born, he has
worked in publishing and broadcasting
in the UK, Australia, Zimbabwe and
South Africa. On page 48 he presents
an insider’s view on the future of the
MBA programme in SA, particularly
in light of proposed changes in
legislation.
Nancy Richards
Nancy Richards is a freelance print
and radio journalist. She presents
Otherwise: Talking Women, The
Enviro-show and SAfm Literature on
SAfm104-107 and writes for a variety of
publications. An advocate of women’s
rights she writes on page 32 about
gender violence in SA and what’s to
be done about it.
François Bonnici
François Bonnici is the director of the
Bertha Centre for Social Innovation
and Entrepreneurship at the UCT
Graduate School of Business, which
is seeking to catalyse bold new
thinking and action in business and
society. On page 14 he shows how
change-makers at community level
across Africa are showing how social
innovation and entrepreneurship can
create more prosperity for all.
6
BWB
Volume 14 #1
Rising to meet challenging times
Walter Baets
The content of this issue is darker
than usual – because we are living
in difficult times. South Africa post
Marikana, is grappling with challenging
questions and having to do so in an
economic and social climate that is
poised on a knife edge. Increasing
levels of gender violence, a widening
gap between rich and poor, a falling
currency and credit downgradings – all
of these threaten the future success of
the country.
Now more than ever we have a choice
about how we respond to these issues.
So while articles like “The Marikana
crossroads” on pages 22–24 and
“Stopping gender violence before it
starts” on page 32 and 33 lay these
challenges bare, there are more articles
that show us how to move forward
creatively and passionately. Research
by Ralph Hamann on page 34 looks at
Ralph Hamann
Ralph Hamann is an associate professor
and research director at the UCT Graduate
School of Business, director of Future
Measure, and advisor to the Transnet
Programme in Sustainable Development at
the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
His work in re-engineering corporate culture
and strategy so that it is better integrated
with social and environmental realities is
shared on page 20.
Mark Peters
Mark Peters is the co-convenor of the new
Strategic Marketing in Emerging Economies
Programme at the UCT Graduate School
of Business. He is passionate about
developing management talent and helping
corporates meet strategic objectives and
writes on how marketers can survive the
white water rapids of emerging markets
on page 42.
Fortune Gamanya
Fortune Gamanya is the programme
director for the Lean Leadership
Programme at the GSB. She is a
leadership and team development
facilitator with extensive experience in
the automotive industry in SA and on
the continent. Gamanya is also the
national communications coordinator
of the South African Organisation
Development Network. She discusses
the role of lean leadership as a corporate
differentiator in business on page 40.
Director’s
message
Breakwater Business
is the magazine for alumni and friends of the
Graduate School of Business at the University of
Cape Town
Editor Jane Notten
Design and Layout
Pedri Koen
Feature writers
Gareth Coetzee; Andrea Botha; Tracy Gilpin;
John Scharges
Publisher Rothko +27 (0) 21 448 9457
PR/Design/Marketing
AdvertisingPicasso
+27 (0) 21 469 2400
[email protected]
Julius Akinyemi
Julius Akinyemi is the Bertha Innovation
Fellow at the UCT Graduate School of
Business and Resident Entrepreneur at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Media Lab in the US, working on the
commercialisation of technology innovation.
On page 16 he shares ideas on how to
unlock the wealth of African nations through
social innovation and entrepreneurship.
May 2013
Editorial board Walter Baets
Linda Buckley
Cherry Burchell
Jenny Carter
Linda Fasham
Segran Nair
Tom Ryan
The Graduate School of Business
University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3
Rondebosch 7701
Cape Town
Tel: +27 (0) 21 406 1922
Fax: +27 (0) 21 461 0996
Email: [email protected]
Website:www.gsb.uct.ac.za
May 2013
how culture can shift within big mining
companies to avert the kind of clashes
witnessed at Marikana, on page 28 we
see how novel applications of coaching
are helping to plug learning gaps at
the University of Johannesburg and on
page 52 we examine the successes of
our first graduating class of the Social
Innovation Lab.
Social
innovation
and
entrepreneurship is rapidly becoming a
defining element of what we do at the
GSB. At the start of this year a snap
poll of the 2013 MBA class indicated
that 60% chose the GSB specifically
because of the work it is doing in
this space. This makes us a formidable
group of students, academics, business
practioners and others working towards
a common goal of business for better
and I believe you will see evidence of this
throughout this magazine.
BOARD of ADVISORS
Dr Iqbal Survé (chairman)
Members:
Mr Roger Crawford
Mr Mark Cutifani
Mr Ismail Dockrat
Mr Paul Edwards
Ms Nolitha Fakude
Prof Meyer Feldberg
Dr Lulu Gwagwa
Prof Jim Joseph
Mr Ian Kantor
Mr Mike Levett
Dr Namane Magau
Ms Kim McFarland
Mr Andrew Mundell
Mr Ralph Mupita
Prof Mike Page
Mr Trevor Peterson
Mr Crispin Sonn
Mr Roddy Sparks
Mr Japie van Niekerk
Prof Danie Visser
Mr Sandile Zungu
Executive Chairman and Founder, Sekunjalo Investments Ltd; Chair,
UCT Graduate School of Business Advisory Board.
Executive Director, Government Affairs & Policy, Johnson & Johnson
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti
CEO, Denel Aviation
Executive Chairman, Merryn Capital
President, Black Management Forum; Human Resources Director,
Sasol
Dean Emeritus, Columbia Business School
CEO, Lereko Investments (Pty) Ltd
Professor in the Practice of Public Policy Studies; Leader in Residence,
Centre for Leadership and Public Values
Chief Executive, Bank Insinger de Beaufort, Amsterdam
Director of Companies
Managing Director, Business and Development Solutions
Global Operations Officer, Investec Asset Management
District Manager – ABI, SA Breweries
CEO Life & Savings, Old Mutual
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Bentley University,
USA
CMC Financial Enterprises CC
Managing Director, Mass Foundation Cluster, Old Mutual
Chairman, NMC (construction company)
Partner, Quorum Capital & Nucleus Supply Chain Management
Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Cape Town
Executive Chairman, Zungu Investments Company
Volume 14 #1
BWB
7
Ticking all the
right boxes
New rankings and accreditations mark the GSB as the top business school in Africa.
The GSB is making its presence felt on the world stage of
business schools this year. With a strong performance in key
international rankings and accreditations from two leading
accrediting bodies under its belt, the school is now well on its
way to achieving triple-crowned status.
In January, the prestigious Financial Times (FT) of London’s
Global MBA Top 100 ranked the GSB’s full-time MBA 74th in its
2013 ranking. Once again the school is the only African business
school to make the list.
The GSB was also highlighted in the FT ranking as offering
the second best value-for-money MBA in the world. This is
the ninth consecutive year the GSB has been listed in what
is widely considered to be the premier ranking of business
schools worldwide.
Director of the GSB, Walter Baets, said that “Rankings, as
a recognition of quality, have important implications for all
customers of the business school; students and companies
want to know that the business school they select has
international recognition.”
The GSB also featured strongly in the latest QS Global 200
Business Schools Report, making its mark as the best of
just three Emerging Global: Middle East and Africa business
schools in the rankings with the most appeal and recognition
among international employers.
The QS Global 200 Business Schools Report ratings are
based on details provided by over 3,300 employers who actively
recruit MBA graduates. The GSB achieved a substantial lead
over its regional peers, clearly reflected in its impressive
average graduate salary of US$82,000, compared to the
US$50,000 for graduates of the University of Witwatersrand,
and the American University in Cairo’s figure of US$70,000.
The proportion of international students at UCT’s GSB stands
at 25% compared to AUC’s 3%.
Rankings, as a recognition of quality, have
important implications for all customers of
the business school; students and companies
want to know that the business school they
select has international recognition.
The school’s outstanding performance in the global rankings
is backed up by the formal recognition it is garnering from
the world’s leading accrediting bodies. “Like good investment
companies, we take a long-term view of the business school and
are constantly working on the fundamentals to improve them,
and that shows up in rankings like the FT and QS, but also, more
reliably, in the accreditations we receive from external accrediting
agencies,” said Baets.
8
BWB
Volume 14 #1
Winning ways: The GSB team from left, Marc Low, Nicholas Simigiannis, Mark Kritzinger, Bruce Longmore and Johannes Schüler.
GSB turns heads
at competition
Competing for the first time in the John Molson International Case Competition in January,
the UCT Graduate School of Business finished fourth out of 36.
The GSB’s waterfront campus: the school is rapidly establishing itself as the
premier business school on the African continent.
In 2012 the GSB received AMBA accreditation from the
Association of MBAs, the international impartial authority
on postgraduate MBA education. The AMBA accreditation is
considered the global benchmark for MBA, DBA and MBM
programmes, and represents the highest standard of achievement.
AMBA accreditation combined with the 2013 re-accreditation by
the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD),
the stamp of approval of the European Quality Improvement
System (EQUIS), means that the school is only one step away
from being “triple-crowned” accredited. The GSB’s application for
a third accreditation from The Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business (AACSB) is currently being processed.
Out of 13,670 schools offering business degree programmes
worldwide, only 57 are triple-crown accredited.
Baets said the accreditations taken alongside the rankings
should inspire confidence in current and prospective students that
the UCT GSB offers an MBA on a par with the best in the world,
and that a qualification from the business school will allow them
to compete on a global level.
“We aim both to raise the profile of emerging market business
schools as centres of excellence and thought leadership, and
to provide local and international students with the skills they
need to take on the challenges of this decade’s emerging
markets,” he said.
May 2013
In stories, the underdog might not win but always captures
the heart of the audience and so it was at the John Molson
International Case Competition in Montreal this January,
where the UCT Graduate School of Business, while not
grabbing the top spot, definitely made a lasting impression.
Placing fourth overall, the first-time contender UCT GSB
was knocked out of the semi-finals, but not before securing its
position as a serious contestant for 2014.
“The team was exceptional, getting better with each round,”
said team coach and MBA lecturer, Johannes Schüler. “They
delivered an absolutely outstanding semi-finals presentation,
with their bold and well thought-out strategy and roll-out plan.”
Attracting up to a thousand people a day, some of them major
businessmen, the John Molson International Case Competition
is the oldest and largest company analysis competition in the
world. Between the 6th and 11th of January, hundreds of MBA
students representing business schools from more than a
dozen countries competed for the first prize of US$10 000.
A panel of judges, made up of 270 senior business executives
from different industries, assessed the competing teams’
abilities to analyse business cases and to come up with
solutions for real business problems in a set time. They were
judged on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of
implementation of the solutions and plans submitted.
“The teams are given three hours to analyse these unpublished
cases using what they’ve learned while doing their MBA and
then develop and submit their solutions and a detailed plan of
action to the panel,” said Schüler.
Winning first prize was University of Technology Sydney.
Second and third prize went to Queensland University of
Technology and McMaster University respectively.
“This is the largest competition of its kind in the world and
receives many applications every year, of which only 36 schools
May 2013
are accepted,” said Schüler. “To come fourth overall in a
competition of such prestige is incredible. The GSB had a very
strong team.”
Bruce Longmore, Nicholas Simigiannis, Marc Low and Mark
Kritzinger made up the team that some said was unique
because of its professionalism and soul.
Attracting up to a thousand people a day,
some of them major businessmen, the John
Molson International Case Competition is
the oldest and largest company analysis
competition in the world.
The GSB’s overall standing after five cases, going into the
semi-finals and having won four out of five cases, was 165
points, placing them second behind Munster University with
187 points. But in the semi-finals they faced tough competition
in the University of Queensland and the University of Calgary;
Queensland went on to the finals.
“The team stood out from the rest because of their very
intelligent, innovative solutions that were insightful and
practical,” said Schüler. The team was one of only two to
represent Africa, the other being from the University of Lagos,
Nigeria.
“The competition is very tough. You’re doing something that
otherwise would take eight weeks, in three hours,” said Schüler.
The experience of this year’s case competition will help in
preparations for next year and in choosing a team. Schüler is
looking forward to next year as he believes the GSB has a strong
chance of doing well again.
Volume 14 #1
BWB
9
Working to unlock
Innovation hub to build
economic potential
South African business and society
Julius Akinyemi, Visiting Innovation Fellow at the UCT Graduate
School of Business, is excited to be part of
the unique experiment that is Workshop 17.
UCT Graduate School of Business and
V&A Waterfront collaboration to invent,
prototype and test unorthodox solutions and
approaches to African challenges.
Nigerian-born Julius Akinyemi has brought his passion for
innovation to Cape Town as part of a new initiative at the
UCT Graduate School of Business. Rather than importing
innovative ideas from the developed world, Akinyemi says,
Africa must learn to develop its own. As Visiting Innovation
Fellow, he will be working with the Bertha Centre for Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship and others at the business
school to develop Workshop 17 – Africa’s first inclusive
innovation hub.
“We’re in a time where innovation is of the utmost
importance for economics, it is the engine that drives economic
development,” he says. “As Africans we have to develop our
own ideas, develop the capacity for innovation, and be creative
in how we leverage existing technologies and capabilities and
nuance them for the African context.”
Akinyemi knows what he is talking about. He has worked
in the banking sector as senior vice-president for emerging
technologies and wireless business technology at Wells Fargo
Bank, in IT as global director of emerging technologies for
PepsiCo Incorporated, and more recently at MIT Media Lab in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, as resident entrepreneur.
It was here that he initiated the Unleashing the Wealth of Nations
project, which explores the commercialisation of technology
innovation to empower people in developing nations to invent new
opportunities for themselves and their societies.
One of his own innovations, being piloted in Senegal at the
moment, is an online register that can be accessed through
mobile technology to capture information about a population,
which is then used to convert complex traditional valuation
systems into globally understood and accepted common
currency in a virtual commodity exchange, mobilising the
currently dormant trillions of dollars in local assets and
generating capital in local communities.
This is one innovation that is aimed at putting in place
at least one “pillar of prosperity” in Africa. Through his
extensive research into the economics of Adam Smith,
Akinyemi has identified five pillars that prop up a nation’s
prosperity: property rights; the civil laws by which to ensure
and protect those rights; capital generation; innovation and
entrepreneurship; and adequate infrastructure.
And it is around these pillars of prosperity that the new
innovation hub, Workshop 17, will be focusing its attention.
“This is the first inclusive innovation hub in Africa and is
unique in the world because it is more than just an incubator,”
10
Africa’s
BWB
Volume 14 #1
The UCT Graduate School of Business and the V&A
Waterfront are collaborating on a shared innovation
initiative that is expected to make a significant difference
to South Africa on a socio-economic level.
The two have launched an innovation hub modelled on
the world renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Dubbed
Workshop 17, the hub is a dedicated physical space to
invent, prototype and test emerging products, create new
business models, services and start businesses aligned to
African markets. This shared innovation model will provide
a collaborative, living laboratory for the greatest minds,
social innovators, entrepreneurs, foundations, government
and industry players on the continent.
Workshop 17 will become the place globally
to realise and apply radical new ideas to
the business, social and environmental
opportunities we face in Africa.
Well placed: Julius Akinyemi is bringing some of the MIT Media Lab’s
magic to the GSB.
says Akinyemi. “It is a place where everything from research
right through to sourcing capital for new businesses is done
under one roof. No one else in the world is doing it this way.”
The beauty of it, according to Akinyemi, and indeed what
excites him so much about being a part of the hub, is that
Workshop 17 will eventually become a platform from which
the fruits of Africa’s intellectual capacity can be presented to
the world.
“It is so exciting to be a part of the cross-pollination of ideas
and disciplines and to be present when out of it emerges almost
serendipitously, unexpected and powerful results,” he says.
And he believes Cape Town is the ideal city for this kind of
innovative work because here there is a will, a passion and
capacity to solve problems creatively.
“I have always been passionate about developing Africa’s
innovative capabilities, building the continent’s capacity to
develop its economies,” he says. “And I’m so excited to be in
this place at this time, working with the GSB, because this will
be the catalyst that will change the continent."
May 2013
Workshop 17 will be positioned as a unique and powerful
node in the growing network of hubs across the continent.
David Green, CEO of the V&A Waterfront, said: “Enterprise
development is crucial to economic development in South Africa
and economic growth requires business leaders and business
schools to assume moral custodianship and work together
with partners to create a supportive environment that fosters
enterprise business development in our country. Significant job
creation can only come from entrepreneurship and innovation.”
“The FT Global rankings consistently rank the GSB as
Africa’s top business school, and in collaboration with the V&A
Waterfront, Workshop 17 will become the place globally to
realise and apply radical new ideas to the business, social and
environmental opportunities we face in Africa,” said Professor
Baets, Director of the GSB.
The project will bring together people who innovate and develop
ideas, funders and those who can commercialise the ideas, in
one dedicated space. Once home to the SA Maritime Museum,
Workshop 17 is situated parallel to the Robinson Dry Dock at the
V&A Waterfront. The building occupies the site of the original
Electric Light and Power Station that was built circa 1890.
May 2013
Great minds: MPhil students who are working at the heart of the new
Workshop 17 initiative, back from left: Aireni Omerri, and Lynn Asiimwe.
Front: Heloise Greef, Mehul Sangham, and Lee Brooks.
Founding Director of the Workshop 17 initiative, GSB’s
Tamsin Jones calls it the “big warehouse with the big vision”
and says that the initiative will leverage the GSB’s strengths
in business model design, inclusive innovation and systems
thinking.
A 2013 Masters programme is the first project stream for
Workshop 17. Julius Akinyemi, Visiting Innovation Fellow at
the GSB, says that the multi-disciplinary and collaborative
approach of this Masters is a key component of Workshop 17.
This approach teams up discipline experts with all members
of the community to allow designers, engineers, artists,
scientists and users to work together and to explore pressing
challenges anew.
Development work on the existing Workshop 17 space is
ongoing. The initial R1,5 million of funding for the initiative
came from the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and
Entrepreneurship. Additionally, the UCT Vice-Chancellor’s
Strategic Fund has made R3,6 million available and the GSB is
now seeking corporate and foundation partners and members
to refit the space.
“Workshop 17 is another landmark step for the GSB, the V&A
Waterfront, and for the City of Cape Town – as well as for this
continent. We are creating an innovation ecosystem for the
next generation of doers,” said Jones.
Volume 14 #1
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11
Seeking balance and
harmony in society
Two of Farai Kapfudzaruwa’s fondest memories of his
childhood in Harare, Zimbabwe, are the stack of yellow
National Geographic magazines his dad collected and his days
spent in constant contact with nature. As a newly appointed
researcher at the UCT Graduate
S c h o o l
of Business he, in many ways,
p a y s
daily homage to both.
“I think deep down, because
m
y
Righting the world’s
wrongs through education
Growing up in a tough working-class community in West
Philadelphia in the US, Nosakhere Griffin-EL learned early on
how societal ills can inhibit dreams. If it hadn’t been for his
strict, African history-bookworm mother, Nosakhere may have
been sucked into the drug world that swallowed his friends.
Instead, he became an activist and academic, looking to right
the systemic wrongs of the world through education.
“For me, education is one of the most important fundamental
human rights,” he says.
From a young age, Griffin-EL says he began to see himself as
part of “this massive, global African community.” An active leader
throughout his high school years he joined the Philadelphia
Freedom Schools Movement, where he participated in citywide
school reform initiatives, and went on to study at Lincoln
University of Pennsylvania, becoming the youngest candidate to
win the presidency of that institution.
His approach is a highly individualistic one and this has brought
him to the UCT Graduate School of Business to work on the
school’s free online learning platform, Free-for-All. He oversees
the curriculum and course outlines, and communicates with
partnering organisations.
Still in its early stages, Free-for-All is a content platform
designed for entrepreneurs across Africa to introduce them to
entrepreneurial concepts that can immediately be applied to their
businesses.
He believes that this education platform will give young people
the opportunity to develop entrepreneurial visions and will be a
forum where they can engage with concepts, extract meaning, and
learn by doing: “We wanted a way to develop entrepreneurship and
this free online space is the way to go.”
He says education is failing people on many levels and that
a lack of love and passion in the education system is inhibiting
people’s potential. “The essence of education, when you break
down the word, is to ‘bring out’, not transfer,” he says and this is
what he passionately practices.
Griffin-EL is also embarking on new research at the school,
looking at educational reform initiatives based upon community
being active in the reform.
“From an activist point of view, community development starts
with a healthy, inclusive, loving, and diverse educational system.”
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Volume 14 #1
father was a geography teacher and I was in constant contact
with nature, I wanted to become an academic, to understand
nature, protect it, and write about it like they did in those old
National Geographic magazines my dad loved so much,” he
says.
Kapfudzaruwa moved to Cape Town in 2006 to do his MPhil
in Environmental Management. He met and collaborated with
Ralph Hamann, research director at the GSB, and moved with
him to the GSB to continue their work on sustainability issues
and to complete his PhD in business and climate change.
As a sustainable enterprise and emergent change researcher
his focus is now on corporate social responsibility and
environmental management. Here he tries to incorporate
principles from nature – balance and harmony – in a social
environment.
“The work we’re doing now is very important, when you
consider what happened at Marikana,” he says. “The violence
there was mostly due to social development issues that
weren’t being addressed,” he says. “The inequality was felt
heavily by the workers and the communities that surround
the mines, and they were not experiencing the benefits of the
mining corporations’ profits.”
He says his research is aimed at influencing policy and
will consider models from around the world where a more
inclusive corporate model has been adopted successfully,
where companies have integrated their corporate social
responsibility into their operations.
“The Marikana situation was a ticking time bomb, and it
could happen again,” he says. “The problem is that all this
talk about, and investment in, corporate social responsibility
leads nowhere unless companies fully integrate these
responsibilities into their core strategies.”
May 2013
Celebrating Colin Firer
a friend and teacher
Emeritus professor of finance at the GSB is
remembered by friends and colleagues.
Colin Firer, recently retired finance professor at the UCT
Graduate School of Business, sadly passed away this March.
Remembered by all who had the fortune of knowing him as
a truly engaged person, Colin was a dedicated academic,
teacher, mentor, husband and father who made a significant
academic and leadership contribution to the GSB.
“He could be very direct and to the point, which meant that
people always knew where they stood with him, but he was always
fair in all his dealings with students and staff. Some will remember
that in overly long meetings Colin would nod off – only to suddenly
open his eyes and make an incisive and relevant point, often with
sharp wit,” says Frank Horwitz, past director of the GSB who
worked with Colin from the 1980s onwards, first at Wits Business
School and then at the GSB.
His excellent humour could always be relied on, as his friend
and colleague Ailsa Smith, senior lecturer in communications
at the GSB, points out: “He was witty, frequently irreverent and
revelled in puns and word games, whether he or another was
making the joke. Often Colin’s presence in an office could be
detected by the sound of the occupant laughing.”
Although we will miss him very much,
we must be grateful that this scholar,
teacher, thinker and man of robust values
was our friend.
As an educator, Colin was a consummate professional – he
injected life and energy into his profession that endeared him to
his colleagues and students. And his professional achievements
were many: Colin held the Len Abrahamse Chair of Business
Administration in the field of Finance, and was a prolific publisher,
with 77 papers published in a range of finance disciplines, and
co-authoring two books on finance.
Prior to joining UCT in 1997, he was the Deputy Dean of the
Faculty of Management at the University of the Witwatersrand
and Professor of Business Administration in the field of Financial
Management at Wits Business School. He brought practical
experience to these positions, having spent 11 years in the
manufacturing and retail industries.
In 2004 Colin accepted the position of Academic Director at
the GSB, which he held until his retirement in 2009. His tenure
in this position saw growth in new programmes and student
enrolments. “While his firm ideas at first seemed inflexible, it
didn’t take long to realise that this was actually an adherence
May 2012
to his key core principles: putting students at the centre of
decision-making within the rules of the university,” comments
another friend and colleague, Linda Ronnie. “In this role, Colin
remained supportive, encouraging, and as time passed, a sense
of professionalism around curriculum issues, student processes,
and quality procedures began to permeate the school.”
One of the most important aspects of Colin’s life was his love of
family: his adored wife Pearl, his love for and pride in his daughter
Lisa, son Robert, and his three beautiful grandchildren.
Ailsa Smith says he and Pearl welcomed people into their
home with ceaseless kindness and generosity: “I never left the
Firer home without a sense of having been cherished and of
having been in the company of really good people. He was also
a good friend to many of us because he exemplified the qualities
of good friendship. This man of numbers was also rich in words
and brought this richness to any conversation. He read widely:
books, plays, poetry. He enjoyed films. He studied the Talmud
and reflected on its teachings. The range of Colin’s interests
included hiking, and his details of his Sunday hikes brimmed
with enjoyment and appreciation. Sharing ideas, feelings and
experiences was a big part of his friendship.”
“Colin Firer lived his values. In today’s world, this can be said
about very few people,” adds Linda Ronnie.
As a testament to the man he was, over 200 people came to
honour him as he was laid to rest. The GSB community also held
a memorial to honour Colin on 19 April.
“Although we will miss him very much, we must be grateful
that this scholar, teacher, thinker and man of robust values was
our friend,” says Smith.
Volume 14 #1
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13
Building whisperer
Making a
shows how SA cities can wise up
The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and
Entrepreneurship and the GSB’s Net Impact
chapter get behind local innovators.
GSB event kickstarts much-needed conversation on the need for smarter, more energyefficient buildings.
The next big story: Cape Town has the potential to be a smart city.
South African cities have the potential to be the first truly
energy-smart cities on the African continent and the man who
knows how to make this happen is David Bartlett, head of
IBM’s Smarter Buildings initiative.
A guest of the UCT Graduate School of Business and Cape
Town-based IT consulting and solutions company Innov8 earlier
this year, Bartlett has been heralded as the “building whisperer”
by the likes of Forbes and Facilities Engineering on account of his
insight into smarter infrastructure solutions and how wasteful
energy practices affect the bottom line in businesses of all sizes.
Bartlett said there is a global urgency to create smarter
cities, corporate buildings and campuses. He has worked with
numerous universities and cities in the USA and Europe to
implement smarter systems – often resulting in radical savings
and improved quality of life. He said he was inspired to visit
South Africa because there was the opportunity to do the same
at UCT and in Cape Town.
“Universities are the natural game changer (towards more
sustainable cities). Their agenda is to help move things forward,”
he said. “I see the University of Cape Town and the City of Cape
Town as being the next big story.”
Buildings currently consume over 40% of the world’s energy
and emit more carbon dioxide into the environment than cars. By
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2025, buildings will be the largest energy consumers on earth with
energy costs alone representing about 30% of an office building’s
total operating costs. What’s more, up to 50% of energy and
water used in buildings is wasted, on average.
In South Africa, World Bank statistics show that 62% of
South Africa’s population live in urban areas. This is predicted
to grow by 1,2% annually. With more of the population living
and working in urban areas across the country, and the
energy demand expected to double by 2030, the need to create
sustainable cities is becoming non-negotiable.
“The ultimate smart city, building or campus is one where all
the systems share information with each other,” said Bartlett,
who added that smarter buildings can save as much as 40%
on energy costs, 50% on water, and up to 30% on building
maintenance.
Innov8 Africa and UCT are leading the charge in
developing expertise and capacity in sustainable cities and
solutions in Africa. Innov8 Africa is investing heavily in
building a sustainability solutions practice while UCT is the
first university on the continent to sign the International
Sustainable University Network Charter and has embarked on
a major drive to make its campuses smarter by building on its
existing IT infrastructure to introduce sustainability controls
of utilities and buildings.
You can’t have true sustainability unless it
involves people, and urban infrastructure is
a critical part of this.
Innov8 is also in discussions with the UCT GSB to launch
a first-of-its-kind postgraduate diploma in smart building
innovation, in order to lay the groundwork for an expected
surge of interest in this area.
“We are at the tipping point,” said Innov8 Africa Group CEO
Anthony Nartey. “There is vast potential in South Africa to
become a global hub of expertise in this area.”
Director of the UCT GSB, Walter Baets agreed: “We need to
move in this direction if we are committed to sustainability that
is also inclusive,” he said. “You can’t have true sustainability
unless it involves people, and urban infrastructure is a critical
part of this.”
“Smart buildings are not only about saving energy, natural
resources and money, but also about improving quality of life.
David Bartlett is the perfect person to get this very important
conversation going,” said Baets.
May 2013
Reel impact
Flair for innovation: The Reel Gardening-GSB team from left: Claire Reid,
Sean Blanckenberg, Greg Macfarlane and Dianna Moore.
Africa’s capacity for innovation has been put on the map
by a GSB team competing successfully in two international
social venture competitions.
Messages of congratulations from around the world have
gone to the Reel Gardening team for their win in the Hult Prize
London regional competition in February. Beating 50 teams
from universities in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, they
will now go on to New York for a six-week full-time incubation
programme and to compete against five other teams for a
million dollars from the Clinton Global Initiative later this year.
The team also won the Europe, Middle-East, Africa regional
round of the Global Social Venture Competition in February
and went on to compete against 18 other regional winners at
the University of Berkley in April where, although they did not
walk away with the prize of $50 000, they did make the top six.
In the past, African teams have not featured
much in these global competitions, because
they do not get the support or sponsorship
they need from institutions and aren’t
encouraged to enter such competitions.
The Reel Gardening–UCT Graduate School of Business
team was formed in November last year during the Student
Social Venture programme (SSVP), hosted by the GSB’s Net
Impact Chapter and the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation
and Entrepreneurship. The programme was created to improve
the quality and performance of African universities at global
student social business plan competitions.
Director of the Bertha Centre, Dr François Bonnici, said that
in the past African teams have not featured much in these
global competitions because they do not get the support or
May 2013
sponsorship they need from institutions and aren’t encouraged
to enter such competitions.
Through the SSVP, where people with ideas are paired up
with MBA students to flesh out social business plans and
come up with robust ways of ensuring scalability and impact,
the team leveraged their diversity of skills to enhance the core
of Reel Gardening’s concept into one that is turning heads
in the international social investment community. The Reel
Gardening team was joined by Dianna Moore from the GSB’s
Social Innovation Lab and Greg Macfarlane, a 2013 Bertha
Centre Scholar from the GSB Modular MBA programme.
Macfarlane said the potential for Reel Gardening was
immediately apparent.
“They manufacture a product that makes gardening easy
despite education and language barriers, and when you pair
that with the thinking around global food security issues,
the potential for massive impact becomes obvious,” he says.
“These seed packages do not even need soil to grow, an
innovation that completely changes the game.”
Claire Reid, founder of Reel Gardening, created a very
convenient way to package seeds that ensures germination
and reduces the amount of water used in the germination
phase by 80%. The seeds are packaged in biodegradable
material filled with fertilizer.
According to Reel Gardening project manager Emily Jones,
the drive behind the business strategy was to make gardening
convenient initially, but a more developmental aspect to it
began to emerge.
“We started doing community development programmes,
and corporate social responsibility projects where we helped
communities start vegetable gardens,” she said. And although
the impact they made was considerable, the scalability as well
as the affordability posed a difficult problem.
Out of four teams entered into the competition under the
UCT banner, the Reel Gardening team was the only team
accepted to compete in the GSVC Regional Finals whilst they
and one other team from UCT’s SSVP (The Food Security App)
were selected to compete in the Hult Prize London round.
“It was a privilege for us to offer our support as a business
school and as the Bertha Centre in helping the team prepare
for the competition where they would face polished and
competitive international teams from the best universities in
the world,” said Bonnici.
Founder of non-profit social venture company Purple Cow
Ventures, Riad Masoet, sponsored the team for the trip to London.
Jones said the experience has been amazing so far and
that the international exposure and UCT GSB mentorship has
helped tremendously in furthering Reel Gardening’s efforts to
make a real difference.
Volume 14 #1
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15
Africa finding
its own way
Change-makers at community level across Africa are
igniting hope and showing the rest of the world a route
towards greater prosperity for all.
By Walter Baets and François Bonnici
Africa’s economic revival has been attributed to rising
commodity prices, improved economic and political
governance, relative peace in the region, increased foreign
investment, improved regulatory environments and by
extension a more agreeable business environment, but
there are many challenges that remain if the continent
wants to continue on its rapid and surprising growth path.
The UN Economic Commission for Africa’s Economic
Report on Africa 2012: Unleashing Africa’s potential as a pole
of global growth argues that Africa needs to further improve
governance, and needs “long-term development planning and
industrial policy, as well as enhanced investment in education,
infrastructure, technology, agriculture and climate change
mitigation and adaptation, all of which aim to foster access of
the poor to production assets and employment opportunities.”
Already much is being done to meet these pivotal challenges.
And it is with these experiments that Africa is proving its true
potential. By the creativity and perseverance of African people
to find solutions for their most pressing problems, the continent
is becoming a powerhouse in reverse innovation – innovation
no longer driven by the Western camps. Not only is the rest
of the world interested in the continent for its market and its
resources, but much attention is being paid to the lessons that
can be learned from a continent whose time has come.
The greatest manifestation of this perseverance is in the
emergence of social innovation in Africa.
And this is where Africa needs support, not in aid but in
investments into innovation and social entrepreneurship. When
aligning political and social goals with economic ones, an
emerging and ostensibly effective way to meet those goals is
through social enterprise. Investing in local social innovations
that are self-sustaining and provide products and services that
address major social challenges is key.
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This is where Africa needs
aid but in investments into
social entrepreneurship.
As Hilde Schwab, co-founder of the Schwab Foundation for
Social Entrepreneurship, said at the World Economic Forum on
Africa in May last year: “The next chapter for Africa requires
us to look both at the tremendous opportunities for economic
growth, and the challenges that the continent faces in being
able to tap into this growth. Social entrepreneurs, and their
innovations promoting inclusive economic growth, are critical
to improving the state of the world, and therefore the work we
do at the World Economic Forum.”
At the WEF this year, four social entrepreneurs working in Africa
were recognised as Social Entrepreneurs of the Year for their
pioneering work.
Aleke Dondo received an award for his social enterprise,
Juhudi Kilimo, which provides asset financing to small-holding
farmers in East Africa. Already 7,500 farmers, roughly half of
which are women, have received financing and on average the
client’s income has doubled and in some cases tripled as a result
of the loan. To ensure that the borrower and their family are not
further indebted by the loan, Juhudi Kilimo offers compulsory
low cost asset insurance and life insurance.
Olivia van Rooyen created The Kuyasa Fund in 1999 to give
the low-income portion of the South African population access to
credit. The fund provides demand-led, short-term loans to finance
incremental building, and an investment mechanism offering the
poor investment opportunities in housing. Kuyasa believes that
education, health and social status of the household improves by
improving the quality of housing.
The Kuyasa Fund example perfectly highlights the approach
people in Africa are starting to take. Instead of taking a corrective
approach – people demand housing, governments build housing
(not a very successful approach historically) – a transformative
approach is being taken: finding ways to unlock the potential of
people and empowering them to change their circumstances
May 2013
May 2013
in creative, sustainable ways. This encourages enterprise and
problem-solving rather than entrenching dependency.
Juliana Rotich’s Ushahidi builds web-based tools for
democratising information, increasing transparency. It has two
million users, and has had 17 million unique visitors since 2008,
strengthening democracy and economic development in Brazil
and Uganda. It has facilitated market efficiency through making
biogas market prices and production available across six countries
in Africa. Through the use of cellphones to spread accurate
information, governments are now more responsive, transparent
and accountable.
Evans Wadonga’s Sustainable Development for All builds
solar lanterns made from recycled material that provide free,
individualised light in remote areas of Kenya. Without electricity
families have had to rely on kerosene and paraffin, both known to
have adverse health risks. The lanterns have improved education
in these areas – last year 14 000 households had lanterns and the
secondary school drop-out rates decreased from 7% to 5,3% in just
two years. The initiative has also reduced poverty as the enterprise
is scalable. Users become producers and sellers
of the lanterns.
It is these types of innovations that make
a major difference and that have the most
support, not in
potential for developing Africa further, socially,
innovation and
economically and politically, improving the
continent’s influence as a global economic
growth pole.
Such grand experiments differentiate
Africa from continents locked in the mindset
of benchmarking themselves against European and Western
economic and social development standards and approaches,
even as those old powers are now growing feebler. Africa is
finding its own way.
Policymakers and governments should focus on enabling social
entrepreneurs through regulation and partnerships, and the
business world should invest in these enterprises directly and help
find ways of ensuring successful scalability. These enterprises
are on the frontiers of change in the world and set the bar for all
stakeholders in society going forward. The imperative is to unleash
the power of the people, their resourcefulness and creativity, and
allow them to take more active roles in developing their nations.
Mirjam Schoening, former head of the Schwab Foundation
for Social Entrepreneurship, said it best at the Social
Entrepreneur of the Year awards: “While the primary focus
of social entrepreneurs is to make a specific change in
one area, such as access to finance or affordable housing,
social entrepreneurs’ approach to delivering social impact,
which utilises innovative and effective business models and
cross-sector collaborations, has inspired change among
governments and the private sector alike.
“In effect, social entrepreneurs are not only delivering change
to communities, they are transforming the way governments and
companies serve their constituents as well.”
These four entrepreneurs are examples of how Africa is
working to improve itself. With strategic support, the inherent
spirit of our fellow Africans to improve the trajectory of the
continent could become the sustainable fuel that’s needed –
the light fighting the encroaching darkness; a light others will
soon covet.
Volume 14 #1
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17
Cows for currency
The shape of a modern
marketplace
Rethinking the commodity exchange system
will bring more citizens into the economy
and grow individual, regional and global
prosperity. By Julius Akinyemi
It’s time to rethink the commodity exchange system to build the
self-reliance of individuals and unleash the wealth of nations.
The current commodity trading landscape excludes those who
are unbanked and offline. Many of these people are in Africa (and
other emerging economies) and have valuable commodities and
assets to sell: sugar, wheat, cotton, maize, coffee, arable land,
livestock and machinery.
These citizens need to be brought into the formal economy.
This would enable them to move from day-to-day subsistence or
survival mode to personal wealth creation and growth.
In the same way that the first organised exchange was
created out of necessity in Chicago in 1848, due
to the inability of sellers to access buyers, a
virtual exchange is essential to bring buyers
and disenfranchised sellers together, and
into the global marketplace today.
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On average, 70% of
business transactions
in emerging economies
are done in cash; in some
African countries, up to 90% of
transactions are unrecorded. When there is no record
of the transaction, there is often no recognition of the value
of the assets in play. A seller often needs cash more than they
need their produce, and haggling is part of the deal. It’s not part of
culture to know the value of assets and this is why commodities are
often undervalued in developing countries, particularly in Africa.
If these assets were recognised and properly valued it
would be possible to mobilise trillions of dormant dollars
in developing nations and generate local capital that
fuels the economy via commodities trading. One
of the ways to achieve this would be to register
people, and record their assets and life
events on a global digital database, and
through economic modeling.
By bringing developing economies
into the digital marketplace in this
way, we could give identity to the
nameless and faceless individuals
who are currently excluded from
commodity trading.
Citizens’ assets would become currency
nodes in the global financial nervous
system that would enable them to participate
in the world’s market economy and free trade.
Investors would still look for the best return
on their investment at an acceptable risk.
Given that most developing countries’
May 2013
assets are underpriced, these countries stand to gain from
competing investments, as has already been seen with China’s
investments in Africa. This capability will rebalance the investment
allocation and uplift some of the balance of payment to narrow the
disparity of wealth.
To create such a system is entirely achievable. The first
step is to create a database of citizens’ assets – machinery,
livestock, farmland and the type of produce: cocoa, coffee,
rubber, apples and so on. The registry should also contain
data mining capabilities and localised economic models
that deliver “communal wealth” to all corners of the
world without the enormous traditional capital
outlay. The second step is to create an “open
information exchange platform” – in effect, an
information brokerage that creates a virtual
market place where buyers and sellers can be
matched automatically.
Such an e-registry has endless possibilities,
and could match up not only buyers and sellers,
but also SMMEs with approved microlenders;
entrepreneurs with venture capitalists; and virtual
doctors with patients.
But for the system to work several other factors
need to be in play: A virtual marketplace requires
virtual money for a start, and one of the implications
of this is that a common digital currency would need to
be introduced. Banks do not like it, but we are already seeing
the European Central Bank issuing guidelines around digital
currency, so there is acceptance that it will be part of the
future of money.
Another requirement of a mobile commodity exchange
platform is a system of automatic compliance controls that
would include self-reporting capabilities in line with local
regulatory requirements. The platform could provide access
for trading with price quotes by commodity type on a real time
basis and via SMS; digital futures contracts; and partnerships
with local banks for financial settlement of trades. This process
alone would improve financial inclusiveness.
Both the e-registry and open information exchange platform
could be built to scale from the communal market to national
or global levels. They are architected for agility to respond
quickly to local nuances. Above all, everyone benefits
from the creation of a positive wealth-advancing ecosystem: local farmers or producers would benefit
from achieving a true market price; suppliers
would enjoy a wider commodities offering;
improved transportation needs would mean
opportunities for logistics service providers;
and governments would benefit from every
recorded transaction as a tax base.
One of the keys to success of the digital
marketplace is, of course, the most
ubiquitous item of this day and age – the
handheld device or smart phone.
Jeffrey Sachs, senior UN advisor
and the director of the Earth
Institute, says “Mobile phones
and wireless internet end
isolation, and will therefore
May 2013
prove to be the most transformative technology of
economic development of our time.”
He is right: widely accessible mobile technology is a
major cog in the transformation of the commodities trading
landscape. Digital technology can make financial transaction
trade inclusive.
On average, 70% of business transactions
in emerging economies are done in cash;
in some African countries, up to 90% of
transactions are unrecorded. When there
is no record of the transaction, there is
often no recognition of the value of the
assets in play.
Converting the unbanked is another process that must
happen in order to create a digital marketplace – another
step in mobilising dormant assets. Every citizen should be a
customer of a bank; anyone who can monetise their assets
should be of interest to a bank.
The rewards for getting it right are significant.
If we can extend organised virtual commodity exchanges
to the rural areas of the world, we can create and grow local
wealth and improve global prosperity. We will enhance the
freedom of trade in most economies and bring free market
pricing to producers that have been taken advantage of by
warlords that could be described, in the words of RK Slosson
in 1878 against the Chicago market manipulators, as “members
of a filching machine”.
The implications of wealth creation for the previously
excluded hold untold riches both figuratively and literally.
Perhaps the most fundamental of these is the alleviation of
poverty and the transformation of markets from developing to
developed. With a digital commodity exchange, this could all
be possible.
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By Gareth Coetzee
Attention is on Africa as the new
business destination of the world.
But, without guidance on the ground,
grand business plans can decay into
regrettable adventures. By Gareth Coetzee
Africa’s economies have been called
“lions on the move”. “High growth, high
return”, is the mantra of investors looking
for a way into the pride. But business
commentators advise investors to study
each economy as a separate, complex
entity, to respect it, and to find an expert
guide if they want to take advantage of
this growth.
multinational corporations, supply chain
development that is slumbering in the
African sun, limited commitment to intraregional trade, unskilled workers, and poor
brand and reputation building.
She said that several investors have
failed, over-eager to capitalise on Africa’s
commercial opportunities but ill-informed
about how to go about doing that.
Long gone are the days of colonialists coming in and
taking money and living off the continent’s wealth. Africa is
looking for partnerships.
“The statistics often associated with the
rise of Africa as a business destination
don’t reflect the reality on the ground,” says
Dianna Games, CEO of Africa@Work – a
company dedicated to facilitating business
in Africa – at a roundtable discussion held
at the UCT Graduate School of Business
(GSB) recently.
She said that the main insight into
African business that emerged from her
extensive research for her latest book,
Business in Africa: Corporate Insights,
is that doing business in Africa can be
“bafflingly complex”.
“Only once you’re on the ground, running
a business, does the real Africa emerge;
unique in every way,” she says.
Part of this complexity includes a
growing suspicion among governments of
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“In an era of Afro-optimism we fail to
see how small and dysfunctional these
countries and economies are,” says
Games. “The biggest economies could
come to a complete standstill overnight.”
She says the only chance of success in
these markets is through partnerships with
local businesses but that the potential for
meaningful acquisitions and partnerships
has been greatly ignored.
An exception is the Rezidor Hotel Group.
The group’s Neil Hughes says that local
partners are immensely valuable to the
hotel chain.
“The first thing we do when we enter
a market is find a partner. You need a
partner that can plug you into the network,
introduce you to the right people, and help
you enter the market,” he says.
Kuseni Dlamini, former CEO of Old
Mutual SA & Emerging Markets, finds
that doing business on the continent is
not as difficult as it used to be because
Africa is open to new business, if mutually
beneficial partnerships are involved.
“Things have certainly progressed. My
experience has been that it is easier to do
business in Africa than in Latin America,
Asia and India.”
But the playing fields have changed, he
says. “Long gone are the days of colonialists
coming in and taking money and living off
the continent’s wealth. Africa is looking
for partnerships,” he says. “The nature of
the partnership and the richness of the
relationships will determine sustainability.”
Par tnerships
also
help
with
acclimatising to the nature of consumers
in these markets, with better insights into
their wants and needs – it is the rising
consumerism in Africa that is driving major
business interest. Again, investors must
respect these consumers.
“African consumers are becoming very
discerning brand-wise: Africa will not be
a dumping ground for cheap products
that do not sell elsewhere,” says Dlamini.
“The whole idea of Africa as a dumping
site for sub-par products and services has
to change.”
As a continent, Games says, Africa
needs to get its local and regional
strategies in order, while at the same
time strengthening institutions to improve
regulatory environments and avoid neocolonial relationships.
There is reason to be optimistic, she
says, but a more informed approach
and support from local partners will
ensure that optimism translates into
sustainable success.
May 2013
The exact failure rate of projects in a
business and corporate environment is
difficult to capture, but studies place it
somewhere between 40% and 70%. While
there is no consensus on the failure rate,
there is consensus about what is needed
to improve success.
Dennis Comninos, internationally
recognised author and consultant,
and programme director of the UCT
Graduate School of Business Project
Management programme, says it all
starts with taking a strategic approach
to project management – choosing
the right project, having the right
organisational support, defining goals
well, and executing it all smoothly.
Project managers can achieve greater
success by focusing on three key
principles:
Capturing knowledge ensures
organisational learning
“Being able to identify and capture
knowledge more effectively, including
channelling organisational wisdom, is at
the heart of all project success,” says
Comninos.
Research by UCT research student
Terry van Graan shows that capturing and
sharing the right knowledge is strategically
critical in today’s business environment,
which is characterised by increasingly
complex operational challenges, more
geographically dispersed teams, more
data, information and technology,
and a haemorrhaging of experienced
practitioners across sectors.
Van Graan shows that only 20% of an
organisation’s knowledge is explicit, in
the forms of documents, procedures,
processes and databases. The other 80%
is tacit, in the form of undocumented,
unshared, untapped know-how. To be
May 2013
project success
to Africa
BOOSTING
WELCOME
Taking a strategic
approach to project
management
makes for more
successful projects.
Improved communication improves
collaboration
One of the indicators that organisations
are not capturing and using knowledge
effectively is the radical growth in
corporate emails. A recent report by
technology market research firm, The
Radicati Group Incorporated, shows that
the typical corporate user in 2009 sent
and received 167 messages daily. This is
expected to grow to 219 messages daily
in 2013.
A far more effective use of technology
to improve communication and knowledge
flow is social media. A McKinsey Global
Institute study shows that for 4,200 major
companies, social media unlocked $1.3
trillion, two-thirds of which has been
ascribed to improved communication and
collaboration.
“Making it easier for teams inside
and outside of the organisation to
communicate with each other makes
collaboration seamless and reduces losses
in productivity and time,” says Comninos.
Reducing waste improves gains
The principle of reducing waste applies to
areas other than time. IBM, for example,
saved $442 million by reducing its energy
use between 1990 and 2011 at key sites.
By applying smart technology and smart
building approaches, the company could
use energy in ways that were efficient and
had the most impact for any given project
on any given day.
By keeping these three principles top
of mind project managers will be able to
effectively manage projects that add the
most strategic value to their organisations,
says Comninos. Having the right
knowledge, seamless communication
and the ability to cut down on waste
improves decision-making, team design,
organisational support and project
selection, all of which will help in keeping
project failures to a minimum.
effective, organisations have to find ways
to leverage the knowledge that exists in the
heads of professionals, who experience
the projects first hand, and convert it into
easily accessible explicit knowledge that
can be used to guide future projects.
The Project Management
programme runs from 12–15
August in Cape Town. For
more information contact
Tracy Kimberly on 021 406
1346 or visit www.gsb.uct.
ac.za/projectmanagement.
Volume 14 #1
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Trap 5: Complexity
One of the reasons why
corporate decision-makers
struggle to think about the
broader
socio-ecological
systems on which they depend
is because of the complex causeand-effect relationships between
various elements of these systems
interacting on various spatial and
temporal scales. This dynamic complexity
is complemented by high degrees of social
complexity, especially in a diverse and highly
unequal society such as South Africa. There
are many different ways of seeing the world
and identifying each other’s interests and
inter-dependencies. In this context, too many
business leaders prefer to focus on their view
of the world and that of their shareholders.
CSR must blend corporate strategy with an understanding
of the company’s socio-economic context to ensure that
both business and society prosper in the future. By Ralph Hamann
In the wake of Marikana and the farm strikes, the relationship
between business and society is again in the limelight. In
particular, these events have highlighted six traps in the
way businesses think about and enact Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) in their activities that may be contributing
to the problem. Finding ways to escape from these traps will
help to define and build a better future for all parties.
THE TRAPS
Trap 1: Terminology
The term “CSR” has arguably reached its sell-by date. It has
historical baggage. It is often conflated with philanthropy or
charity. Especially in South Africa, it has burdensome connotations
of redressing past sins and it ignores the important business
opportunities associated with sustainability. At leading business
schools, there are fewer courses with CSR in the title. Instead
there are lectures in strategy, sustainability, or social innovation.
Trap 2: Charity
One of the main problems with CSR, here in South Africa but
also elsewhere, is that it has emphasised charity or philanthropy.
Ten years ago, for example, mines supported schools or mobile
clinics as part of their CSR. They did not have a systematic
plan to address the serious social and environmental problems
around the mines of migrant labour and worker housing policies,
which were at least in part connected to their core business
strategies. Marikana was the painful wake-up call. This emphasis
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on charity still clouds discussions of CSR and prevents social
and environmental issues being discussed in strategy making.
Trap 3: Compliance
Despite progressive legislation in South Africa, all too often
companies think that if they are complying with regulations, on top
of some charity, they are being good corporate citizens. For example,
a micro-finance company sponsors a few bursaries and paper
recycling initiatives but does not concern itself with responsible
lending because they are satisfied that they are complying with the
National Credit Act. A focus on compliance emphasises the letter of
the law, but not its spirit, and this can prevent companies from really
grappling with how they can better address the material social and
environmental issues facing their organisation.
Trap 4: Myopia
Because many companies have been resisting a strategic
approach to social and environmental issues, their vision has
been overly constricted in terms of both space and time. Too
few executive teams are really grappling with the broader social
and environmental systems, on which their value chain depends,
and on the longer-term developments in these systems. Too few
companies are looking beyond their core operations at the value
chain as the focus of their strategic attention and not enough are
carefully thinking about tipping points in the socio-ecological
systems, which can lead to ecological collapse or social unrest.
Lead indicators include the prices of oil and food, high inequality,
and distrust in government.
May 2013
Problems such as the informal
settlements around platinum
mines, or rising hunger among
poor communities around the
country, cannot be addressed by
companies acting in isolation.
Trap 6: Competition
Market competition is a vital force for continuous
improvements in the quality and price of goods and
services, and it helps drive the kind of innovation in
products, processes and business models that we
desperately need for a sustainability transition. But it
can also stifle the kind of collective and collaborative
action that is often required to address complex social
and environmental problems. Problems such as the
informal settlements around platinum mines, or
rising hunger among poor communities around the
country, cannot be addressed by companies acting
in isolation. For instance, on the platinum belt, it
is sometimes bizarre how companies have tried to
gain reputational benefits through their charitable
activities, when a collective approach is clearly
called for on issues such as education, health, or
settlement upgrading.
THE WAY OUT
Fortunately, there are some alternative strategies
emerging in how companies approach CSR that offer
South Africa a pathway to a better future. Some of the
ways through which companies are escaping, or could
escape, from these traps include an increased focus on
strategic integration, systems thinking and value-chain
approaches, and greater collaboration.
May 2013
Escape 1: Strategic integration
A growing number of companies
are recognising the need
to integrate social and
environmental
concerns
into core strategy making
and implementation. This
recognition is being driven
in part by painful events like
Marikana, which illustrate
that current approaches are not
working in anybody’s favour. What
will be the Marikana event for other
industries, such as food? The farm strikes
were possibly a sign of things to come.
Another key driver is the global movement toward
integrated reporting, which will require companies
to report not just on past performance, but also
on how they plan to create value in the long term,
bearing in mind social and environmental systems.
South Africa is the first country in the world to
require integrated reporting by listed companies.
Finally, leading management thinkers like Michael
Porter have encouraged a move from CSR to more
integrated approaches, emphasising also the opportunities
for companies.
Escape 2: Systems thinking and value chain
approaches
There are a number of important initiatives that are
seeking to reconfigure value chains and the systemic
context in which firms operate. Fairtrade and other
related labelling initiatives are an example of this.
There are also company-specific initiatives, such as
Woolworths’ Farming for the Future programme, in
which the retailer is making systematic investments
in its food suppliers’ farming practices; or Puma’s
Environmental Profit and Loss statements, which is
revolutionising the way people think about product
development and marketing.
Escape 3: Collaboration
Finally, there are important initiatives under way to
support more collaborative approaches to complex
social and environmental problems. Internationally, a
prominent example is the Marine Stewardship Council,
which involves some of the main fishing companies in
an effort to sustain fish stocks.
Worryingly, there are few such examples of this kind
of collaboration in South Africa. This is a big part of the
challenge in coming years.
Local businesses should heed the lessons and
insights that recent social unrest on the mines and
farms present. If we don’t integrate an understanding
of companies’ socio-ecological context in strategy
making and execution, and if we don’t recognise the
need for improved collaborative action, these challenges
have a nasty habit of turning around and biting us – as
we have seen so clearly.
Volume 14 #1
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And what of the business community’s role in ensuring South Africa does
not become a failed state and instead, as Sunter puts it, takes the path that
leads to it joining the “Premier League”?
The Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the Marikana tragedy has
heard a range of conflicting opinions on the causes of the wildcat
strikes that preceded the miners’ deaths, but there appears to be general
agreement that mineworkers on the platinum belt have for years lived in
appalling conditions that invited social instability. Some of the blame
for this must fall on the local and provincial authorities, which have
all too often failed to deliver basic services to the formal or informal
settlements that have sprung up in the region. But the mines themselves
clearly have a stake in their employees’ well-being, a responsibility many
would appear to have neglected.
The
Marikana
crossroads
Some of the blame for this must fall on the local and provincial authorities,
which have all too often failed to deliver basic services to the formal
or informal settlements that have sprung up in the region. But the
mines themselves clearly have a stake in their employees’ well-being, a
responsibility many would appear to have neglected.
In the case of Marikana, it emerged that mine owner Lonmin had given its
employees, most of them migrant workers, the option of receiving a living
out allowance rather than staying in mine-owned housing. Many duly took
the money but then chose to live in informal settlements, either because
the allowance was insufficient to cover formal accommodation, or because
there was none available close to the mine, or because they wanted to send
more cash home to their families. Should Lonmin be lauded for treating its
employees like adults capable of deciding for themselves what was in their
own best interests, or condemned for avoiding its responsibilities?
Similarly, raids conducted in the area by the National Credit Regulator,
when it emerged after the massacre that many of the strikers were
hopelessly over-borrowed and that this was a factor in their demand for
an immediate doubling of their salaries, revealed that reckless lending
practices were rife. A significant portion of the Marikana workforce was
receiving only a fraction of their salaries each month because the rest was
dedicated to servicing debt.
Since many of these repayments took the form of garnishee orders
served on the employer, mine management must have been aware of the
social effect on its workers. Again, the question arises: was Lonmin
morally obliged to intervene in a paternalistic fashion, or was the
poor financial decision-making on the part of its employees, and
the apparent corruption of the legal system, simply none of
its business?
The Bench Marks Foundation, a non-profit
organisation run by churches that monitors corporate
social responsibility in South Africa, has been
highly critical of Lonmin and other platinum miners,
accusing them of either failing to implement the
social plans that were negotiated as part of the terms
of their mining licences, or merely going through the
motions so as to be able to tick the right boxes.
Foundation chairperson Reverend Jo Seoka wrote in a
report published shortly before the shootings that although
the platinum companies produced glossy annual sustainability
reports highlighting their achievements, they “have failed on the
whole to meet the principles for global corporate responsibility”. He
South Africa needs to take the
road less travelled towards
building a collaborative and
enabling state and business has a
crucial role to play in this. By Dave Marrs
SCENARIO planner and former Anglo American executive Clem Sunter
famously warned in the wake of the Marikana mine massacre that South
Africa now stood “at a 50/50 crossroads, where it can either move in a
positive direction or, equally possible, in a negative one”.
The positive route would demand a “collaborative and enabling state, supporting
an engaged and active citizenry demanding better service delivery and government
accountability”, Sunter said. Developments in South Africa since he made this
assessment would appear to have done little to change his conclusion. The African
National Congress has strongly endorsed the National Development Plan (NDP),
an economic road map that would take the country in a positive direction were it to
be followed. Yet, at the same time new allegations of corruption erupt on an almost
daily basis, state officials remain highly resistant to being held to account and there
is considerable scepticism in society over the state’s capacity to implement the NDP.
Civil society is certainly becoming more vocal in demanding better service delivery, as
Sunter hoped it would, but it is far from clear that this will be achieved any time soon.
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May 2013
May 2013
Volume 14 #1
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25
described the corporate social responsibility programmes in the
platinum belt as "top-down, designed by experts and imposed on
communities. There is very little evidence that communities are
actually consulted about their needs, or about their frustrations
concerning the impact of mining operations on their lives."
The foundation claims to have come across a number of
failed corporate social responsibility projects in the platinum
belt, including a multimillion rand hydroponics project set up
by Lonmin that was meant to introduce a high-tech farming
method in an area where the soil had been rendered barren
by mining. The project collapsed following a dispute with a
subcontractor and was not revived.
The Chamber of Mines has subsequently contracted the
National Research Foundation (NRF) – the country’s main
research funding agency – to identify the socioeconomic
drivers that caused the violence at Marikana and other
mines. It is highly likely that, as in the proceedings of the
Farlam Commission, flaws in the mining companies’ approach
to corporate responsibility will feature prominently. In the
case of Lonmin, part of the problem would appear to have
been a lack of engagement on the part of management
– while its headquarters are nominally in South Africa,
executive decision-making has historically occurred largely
in the UK, where its main shareholders are domiciled. This
should change following the appointment of Anglo American
Platinum executive Ben Magara as new Lonmin CEO with
effect from July.
But are executives receiving appropriate training to cope
with the demands that are increasingly being placed on
them to achieve outcomes other than a narrow focus on the
bottom line? In the past, the answer would have to have been
no, but as UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB) director
Walter Baets points out, this is rapidly changing. He says
that according to research shared at the latest deans and
directors conference hosted by the European Foundation for
Management Development, the vast majority of businesses
want the MBAs they hire today to have the right mindset rather
than the right skills set. In fact they value mindset (by which
they mean soft skills, ethics and values) as seven times more
important.
Equally important is a culture of innovation. The GSB has
recently taken steps to stimulate innovation to tackle the
challenges that bedevil emerging markets such as poor
service delivery and food shortages, including offering
unconventional thinkers an opportunity to enrol in an
MPhil degree with a focus on Inclusive Innovation
Studies. The programme, which is in part inspired
by the MIT Media Lab’s multidisciplinary approach
to innovation, aims to gather creative people from
across the spectrum of disciplines to work
together on complex challenges facing
developing economies.
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“Responsible management education is not only about
sustainability or corporate social responsibility, or even the
green economy,” says Baets. “Responsible management means
developing inclusive ways of using business management for
improving the wealth of people, the quality of life of those
people, and to create a healthy world, where everyone gets a
fair chance to be part of it.”
While failed corporate responsibility projects are bound to get
all the media attention after incidents like Marikana, one does
not have to scratch the surface too deeply to find examples
of initiatives that are making a real difference in people’s
lives. Anglo American’s Entrepreneur Internship Programme
(EIP), for instance, helps historically disadvantaged South
Africans who do not have access to the requisite skills, industry
knowledge, business networks or other vital support, gain
business experience and develop their own businesses.
And, recent research conducted by the GSB shows that more
than half of the South African investment landscape is aware
of the importance of investing not only for financial gain but
also for positive social impact. The research, published in the
2013 South African Investing for Impact Barometer, revealed
that 51% of private equity and venture capital investors and
54% of asset managers surveyed reported that they have been
investing for social impact.
According to Cape Town-based asset manager Cadiz, there
is still plenty of scope for growth; although South Africa’s
life and pension fund savings pool has grown to more than
R3 trillion, less than 1% is currently invested in socially
responsible projects or dedicated to high impact unlisted
credit. This compares to about 10% in the USA, which is
ironic considering the multitude of social imbalances
that need to be addressed in South Africa,
especially high levels of unemployment,
infrastructure backlogs, a desperate need
for affordable and subsidised housing
and financially sustainable SMMEs, which
constantly struggle to access the capital
needed to expand.
Carron Howard, who manages Cadiz Protected
High Impact Fund (CPHIF) and the Cadiz Enterprise
Development Fund, believes that in time this asset
class will become a building block in most balanced
fund mandates. The CPHIF’s track record shows that it is
possible to generate commercial returns as well as high
social impact – the investment return delivered by the fund
outperformed the All Bond Index, Prime and the Consumer
Price Index plus 3% over the five year period to February this
year.
It seems the South African companies and investors who
have taken to heart Nelson Mandela’s advice that “the time is
always right to do right” are finding that it in the long run it
pays, too.
May 2013
Measuring
investment
change
New annual survey at
the GSB is set to track
progress in the nascent
investing for impact market.
By Gareth Coetzee
New research from the UCT Graduate
School of Business shows that
more than 50% of the South African
investment landscape is aware of the
importance of investing not only for
financial gain but for positive social
impact as well.
The research, published in the South
African Investing for Impact Barometer
reveals that 51% of private equity and
venture capital investors and 54% of
asset managers surveyed reported that
they have been investing for social
impact. A small subsection of private
equity and venture capital investors,
3%, and asset managers, 6%, go further
and describe themselves as “impact
investors”.
The Barometer, a new annual survey
published by the Bertha Centre for Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the
UCT GSB, aims to provide an annual
snapshot of the still nascent investing
for impact market in South Africa. This
is the first time in Africa that such
a publication has been attempted. Dr
Stephanie Giamporcaro, the academic
brain behind the Barometer, said that by
aggregating information on the industry
in this way they hope to help academics,
researchers, investment professionals,
journalists, civil society and policy
May 2013
makers to grasp, in a more tangible way,
what is actually happening in this field.
“In recent years there has been a
marked international interest in
investments that seek financial returns
but that also aspire to proactively
achieve a positive impact on society
as a whole,” says Giamporcaro. “This is
the first time in Africa that information
about this growing sector of investment
has been collected in one place. We
were pleasantly surprised to see that
such a large number of firms are aware
of this form of investing because to a
large extent the investing for impact
market in South Africa is nascent and
fragmented.”
The Barometer, which will be updated
annually, includes detailed data on
South African asset managers, which
have been identified as implementing
investing for impact strategies through
specific funds labelled under the SRI
umbrella (an acronym used to refer
to social responsible investment or
sustainable and responsible investing). It
also explores what is happening in terms
of investing for impact strategies among
South African private equity and venture
capital firms and ventures into the
sphere of enterprise incubators, which
are taking the first step to boost social
innovation. Data was systematically
sourced from studies, reports, brochures
and websites of professional associations
and investment funds.
This first edition of the Barometer
reveals that international standards or
initiatives such as the Principles for
Responsible Investment (PRI) and the
Carbon Disclosure Project are known
to asset managers involved in the SRI
space but much less so to private equity
and capital venture firms.
To date the PRI has been signed
by 75% of the asset managers but by
only 15% of the private equity and
venture capital firms surveyed. One
asset manager and two private equity
and venture capital firms in the survey
manage impact pioneer funds as rated
by the Global Impact Investing Rating
System (GIIRS).
“This data will form the baseline as we
continue to track trends in the sector,”
says François Bonnici, Director of the
Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and
Entrepreneurship. “As a business school
we feel we have a responsibility to
gather this kind of information and make
it available to the market, to produce an
overall perspective of it, and to provide
the right tools for making more informed
investment decisions,” he says.
Volume 14 #1
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Africa’s turn
to switch to
online learning
As the online education race heats up, African institutions
of higher learning need to consider what their legacy will be
as they ask: will online learning be the panacea for Africa’s
learning deficit? By Walter Baets
Nowadays having an online learning option if you are an
institution of higher learning is de rigueur. And if part of that
option is free to access, even better. In Africa, with its dire
need for education and skills, this should be more than mere
etiquette. It should be an imperative and could well herald a
new era for the way Africans engage with education – if it is
done right.
The shift to empower people with accessible knowledge is
well under way in Africa. A new report by eLearning Africa
says that many educational institutions on the continent are
embracing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in
the dissemination of learning materials in some shape or form. In
South Africa, Regenesys Business School was among the first to
join the fray with the launch in November last year of a free online
business platform which makes all of its intellectual capital freely
available to whoever wants to access it. Although people making
use of this will not be able to get a degree or a qualification without
payment, this is an important step in the right direction.
The GSB launched its own online learning tool – “free-for-all” –
earlier this year. It is a content platform designed for entrepreneurs
across Africa to introduce them to entrepreneurial concepts that
can immediately be applied to their businesses.
But will these initiatives actually accomplish what it is hoped
they will? Will free or partly free online studies be a panacea to
Africa’s learning deficit? And, from a business education point of
view, will online programmes stimulate entrepreneurial growth
and improve practical business acumen?
Research in this area is still scarce, but a recent study
carried out by BusinessWeek showed that despite the rush
by most top-tier institutions to get online, online certificates
are not in fact helping people find jobs, even though these
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certificates are from the likes of Stanford, Harvard and MIT.
The big businesses remain steadfast about hiring people with
traditional, full-time degrees, believing that this still equips
people better for the working world.
Learning really only comes alive when it
is given personal meaning. What is being
learned is only one small part of the
equation, how it is then used counts for
everything.
This study speaks to the fact that there are many things to
consider if online education is going to replace more traditional
forms of education and be truly effective – especially in the African
context where unemployment is high, skills low, and access to
education at all levels limited. To be effective online learning must
be delivered in an appropriate way, a way that is based on an
understanding of what learning is, how people learn, and why they
feel the need to learn.
Simply making intellectual content available online will not
necessarily add up to learning. Learning is a complex process
that takes place in the head of the learner who engages with
the material that is presented in a certain way – and in a
certain context.
A key part of this is that learning needs to be experiential; simply
reading or hearing the material is not enough. People need to
experience learning. They need to feel it happening, similar to an
athlete who can feel the burn in their muscles as they train, but
May 2013
also notice their improvement when they shave a few seconds
from a lap or lift heavier weights. For learners this should happen,
if done right, through interaction with peers in the classroom or
back in the workplace via action learning projects where learning
is doing, where theory is put into practice. The athlete does not get
faster by reading about how to improve economy of movement, or
studying the greatest runner’s style. He gets faster when he puts
it all into action, applies it to his movement and his stride style.
In the online environment, it is crucial that learners are given
the incentive to embark on this kind of experiential learning
journey. Content must be delivered in a way that demands them
to try it out. The GSB’s free-for-all platform, for example, is built
around traditional business concepts, but learners are also
given the tools and motivation to apply these to their lives and
May 2013
their work. This gives them
the opportunity to feel how
these concepts translate
into work on the ground.
Learning really only
comes alive when it is
given personal meaning.
What is being learned
is only one small part of
the equation, how it is
then used counts for
everything – and this
will be different for
every learner (be
they a coach, a small business owner, a
banker or a social entrepreneur). Different
skills are needed for different situations
and occupations. These skills and
competencies can be based on similar
concepts, but in each context the concept is
applied differently.
Learning is not a commodity. It is impossible
to have a one-size-fits-all approach to learning.
It has to be geared towards a specific purpose
otherwise it is entirely limited to a transfer of
concepts where the learner – like an empty vessel
– is filled up with cargo. The problem with this
is that cargo can just as easily be unloaded
again. For learning to stick it has to be about
more than the content and more about process
and context. And a good process, verified by a
diploma from a good institution that understands
this, is like the Bill of Lading that endures long after the
cargo has been off loaded.
The online education revolution is here. You only need
to visit websites like Coursera to see that for yourself. And
really it is a blessing for the many who have little chance
of accessing high quality, credible educational material –
especially business material. But instead of blindly following
the international heavy hitters in a rush to render content
accessible online, higher learning institutions in Africa –
business schools in particular – should become even more
rigorous about their roles and responsibilities in developing
the intellectual capacity of nations. They should listen to the
market place for clues about which skills and competencies
are most needed and seek ways to make these available so as
to be relevant and to make an impact.
If the aim is truly to empower more people to learn and to
be effective in business, as entrepreneurs and in their chosen
professions, then any other course of action is sterile.
Volume 14 #1
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BWB
plug learning
Coaching helps
30
Volume 14 #1
Research from the Centre for
Coaching at the UCT Graduate
School of Business has
demonstrated that coaching can
help struggling students reach their
academic goals more easily.
By Andrea Botha
The high dropout rate among black
South African students has been a
concern in education circles for many
years, but a novel approach by the
University of Johannesburg (UJ) in
association with the Centre for Coaching
at the UCT Graduate School of Business
has come up with a practical solution –
life coaching.
Their research shows that students who
are academically bright can still struggle
in their studies not because of a lack of
ability or academic input but because of
a lack of support on an emotional and
psychological level.
This offers a fresh perspective on
alarming recent research by the Human
Sciences Research Council, which
revealed that up to 40% of South African
students drop out in their first year at
university. Only 15% finish their degrees in
the specified time and black students make
up the biggest percentage of dropouts.
In many top professions – like medicine,
engineering and chartered accountancy,
black membership is extremely low. The
South African Institute of Chartered
Accountants (SAICA), for example,
noted recently that only 24% of chartered
accountants living in SA are black and
just 19% of its total membership is black.
The situation has had many institutions
scratching their heads. Despite the fact
that there are numerous interventions to
boost the numbers of black professionals
– SAICA, for example, established the
Thuthuka development programme in 2002
to assist African and coloured academically
strong learners, who are from families
that cannot support them financially – the
numbers remain stubbornly low. Clearly
something else is at play and the clue may
lie in the personal circumstances of those
aspiring to become CAs.
The UJ research targeted chartered
accounting bursary students in their
final year and set out to establish
whether an innovative life coaching
project could help improve academic
throughput. They invited third-year CA
May 2013
students, who were all holders of a
Thuthuka bursary, to participate in the
project on a voluntary basis.
According to Erica du Toit, senior
lecturer in the Department of Accountancy
in UJ’s Faculty of Economic and Financial
Sciences Department, students are under
immense pressure to perform well, but
have limited support to cope with the
pressure.
“Students are trained extremely well
technically, but not much has been done
to date in order to help them cope with
their own unique issues and problems on a
personal level,” she says.
Research has shown that there is a link
between low socio-economic status and
low academic achievement.
“Their
personal
circumstances
could play a significant role in these
students’ struggle for excellent academic
performance,” says du Toit.
“We believe that by teaching students
the ability to self-correct and self-regulate
within each of their unique life contexts,
a well-rounded student with leadership
abilities, ethics and a drive for life-long
learning can emerge. So we wanted to test
this belief.”
The coaching project set out to
investigate the correlation between
students who received life coaching and
their academic performance. And the
results speak for themselves. Of the 27
students who had coaching, 78% gained
admission to the prestigious CA honours
programme. Only 62% of the students who
chose not to receive coaching managed
to qualify. The combined rate of students
admitted into the honours class in 2012
was 72% – a 30% improvement on last year.
Each student underwent a personalised
coaching programme which consisted
of 10 individual sessions with their
selected coach over a period of three
May 2013
months. Thuthuka students all had strong
academic potential, but came from rural,
underperforming schools and from
families with severe financial needs.
More than 50% of the students
registered at UJ are first-generation
university students within their family and
community, and a significant number have
a low Living Standards Medium.
intervention,” says du Toit. “Then we’ll
consider ways to assist students with
these programmes in future.”
Janine Everson, academic director of
the Centre for Coaching, says supporting
students in this way could go a long way
towards changing their lives and shifting
the statistics in careers like chartered
accountancy.
Students who are academically bright can still struggle in
their studies not because of a lack of ability or academic
input – but because of a lack of support on an emotional
and psychological level.
One of the success stories of the project
was Nosipho (not her real name), a bright
student from the Vaal Triangle who was
battling personal problems, financial
issues (despite having a bursary) and a
heavy academic load. Raised by a mother
who was a domestic worker, Nosipho was
also feeling guilty about being financially
dependent on her mother. She easily
became over-emotional, lost focus in
her studies and was battling with her
personal relationships. Her dream of
becoming a chartered accountant and
creating a new life for herself and her
family was under threat.
But after just seven sessions with a
life coach, she learned to manage her
emotions better, find structure in her
studies and was eventually selected for
the Honours and CTA programme.
She went from a default position of,
“I don’t deserve to be on campus” and
“I cannot do it” to achieving her goals.
“We are now waiting for the finalisation
of the quantitative research study for
more proof of the correlation between
academic performance and a coaching
“We often underestimate how a
person’s background, their social
stratification, and personal history
affect their ability to achieve their
goals. This research project illustrated
that coaching can play a major role
in improving the success rates in the
higher education system, especially with
students who come from disadvantaged
and troubled backgrounds, and who have
been exposed to sub-par education,”
she says.
The Centre for Coaching coaches used
an integral coaching approach, which
explores all the constitutional elements
of being human – spiritual, cognitive,
emotional, relational and somatic (of the
body) – in order to tease out a person’s
natural potential.
“There is no such thing as a mediocre
human being. People need the right
kind of support, within the right
environment, for them to find, identify
and express their unique potential,” says
Craig O’Flaherty, director of the Centre
for Coaching. “Coaching enables that
process.”
Volume 14 #1
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31
Coming soon:
business in 3D
Last year the National Business
Ethics Survey in the US revealed a rather
depressing trend: workers and management
report that unethical behaviour increases when the
market climbs, and falls when times get tough.
In other words, while a lot of fuss is made about ethics and
sustainability and the lack thereof in business – especially when
a crisis hits (Enron, Marikana, Barclays, Lehman Brothers) – on
the ground, in practice, the majority are quite happy to carry on
with business as usual when things are not so bad.
But whether we want to admit it or not, the golden era of
unrestrained business is drawing to a close. If ethical concerns
are not enough to drive change, very real environmental
constraints are demanding that business cleans up its
act. As Ban Ki-moon put it at the World Economic Forum
in 2011: “The current model is global suicide. We need
a revolution. Revolutionary thinking. Revolutionary action.
Natural resources are becoming more and more scarce.”
Unfortunately, business is not good at revolutions. Four
decades of business ethics training, along with public
humiliation for offenders, has not resulted in the sea change
needed to turn things around. Can we hope that the response
to environmental challenges will be any different?
Tom Ryan, a professor at the UCT Graduate School of
Business, says yes. He maintains that the key to changing
behaviour is to observe and understand what people in business
do on a daily basis – and then intervene in that system.
“A system is perfectly designed to do what it does,” he says.
“If we don’t like what a system does we need to redesign it –
improving matters is about design. We need to design a new way
for managers to think and act in practice.”
Ryan, who developed the world-renowned Executive MBA
programme at the GSB, has seen a lot of management fads come
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Volume 14 #1
and go during his long tenure as a business professor, but he
remains optimistic that it is possible to design wiser systems for
business. And it starts, he says at business schools.
“At the moment, most business schools teach a particular
mindset. We want to get students focused on the economic world
and then we tell them – and oh, by the way, you also have to
worry about ethics and sustainability. Our business schools train
people to think in one dimension only. We pay lip service to the
triple bottom line, but how much time is spent actually thinking
about what this really means it in the average boardroom?”
Triple bottom line thinking is limited, agrees Sara Shley,
co-steward and one of the original architects of the Society for
Organisational Learning’s Sustainability Consortium. Writing
in the Oxford Leadership Journal she says that the focus on the
triple bottom line may draw people away from the qualities
and attitudes they need if they are to genuinely make a
difference in developing sustainable organisations, practices,
and communities.
“The way that most people operate with the triple bottom
line ignores the real synergy among its three dimensions –
social, economic, and ecological. In practice, efforts tend
to be fragmented; companies institute social policies, green
practices, and financial reporting systems without ever linking
them together,” she says.
Ryan, who is a systems thinker and has no difficulty with
linking things together, wants to get managers to understand
May 2013
To bring about the revolution needed to change the way
business operates in a world with limits, managers need
to move beyond the triple bottom line to think in three
dimensions. By Jane Notten
this too. To graft ethics and sustainability onto the DNA of
management practice, he says business schools must train
business students to think in 3D and do what they do every day
anyway – make decisions and judgments – more rigorously. It
sounds simple, because it actually is.
Once their thinking starts to change, it is
impossible for them not to change with it.
All decisions have consequences, reasons Ryan. So the
trick is to get students – who turn into business managers
and leaders – to make sure that they have thought through
the consequences of their decisions and how they will impact
on the viability of the business on many different levels – not
just on shareholder value. To help them get there, Ryan has
developed a very simple model that instead of just evaluating
the viability of an idea on an economic level, posits two other
dimensions to consider when making a decision: ecological
and social. On each of these three axes students must consider
the robustness of resources available, the homeostatic
capacity (i.e. the ability to maintain internal equilibrium) and
the adaptive capacity of the idea. Each of these three elements
have been identified by research as hallmarks of successful
organisations, those that are able to adapt and find ways to
May 2013
add value as they pass through the
natural life cycle of an organisation.
“Decisions will either build, destroy or
maintain viability on any given dimension. As soon
as you destroy viability in one of the three dimensions, you
run the risk of destroying the overall viability of the business.
In getting managers to grasp this you are well on the way to
getting them to change how they act, to changing – in fact –
the system,” says Ryan.
Of course everyone will have a different answer when
applying this model – but that is partly the beauty of it. It is
not about right and wrong, says Ryan.
“There will be different answers, but that doesn’t matter
because we are getting people to think hard on these issues
and once their thinking starts to change, it is impossible for
them not to change with it.
It may not look like a revolution, but the model does contain
the seeds of radical change. The world is rapidly approaching
some unavoidable limits. Does business – as Donella H
Meadows, one of the lead authors of the pioneering book
Limits to Growth, says – want to stop by crashing into a brick
wall or stop by applying the brakes purposefully?
And there are opportunities there too. “Companies that
are breaking the mould are moving beyond corporate social
responsibility to social innovation. These companies are the
vanguard of the new paradigm,” says Rosabeth Moss Kanter
in Harvard Business Review. “They view community needs
as opportunities to develop ideas and demonstrate business
technologies, to find and serve new markets, and to solve
longstanding business problems.”
Ryan’s model offers a practical and easily implementable
way of applying the brakes and changing the system from
within so that ethics and sustainability are not just topics for
dinner table conversation but are integral to doing business.
Volume 14 #1
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33
STOPPING gender
before it starts
violence
A society that doesn’t look after its
women is a society in trouble and
by that measure South Africa is
a nation in grave difficulties. The
question is, what are we all to do
about it? By Nancy Richards
Sanette has Hazel in a grip of iron. She
grabbed her aggressively from behind
and Hazel is immobilised, her face
frozen with fear. “Shift your hips to one
side,” Sanette barks, “then bang him
in the balls with your fist.” Paralysed
with anxiety, Hazel eventually builds up
courage. Tentatively at first, she drops
her fist, then bangs – again and again.
The captor releases her grip and drops
back. The victim’s relief is tangible.
This scene plays out in the SAfm radio
studio after a phone-in on the woman’s
show asking the question “How safe do
you feel as a woman in South Africa?”
Panellist, self-defence teacher Sanette
Smit, takes the stance that women would
feel a whole lot safer if they knew how to
protect themselves. To prove her point she
demonstrates a nifty defence technique
to producer Hazel Makuzeni. “It might
come in handy one day,” she grins. Indeed
it might. Hazel lives in Khayelitsha; the
threat of violent attack stalks her daily.
According to statistics from the Institute
of Safety and Security, many women feel
unsafe in their neighbourhoods. Though
79% feel most unsafe in all public places,
33% on public transport, 20% in their own
home – and for 78%, in the workplace was
where they felt the safest.
But back to the radio show. Asked why
women felt so unsafe, another panellist,
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Volume 14 #1
Yaliwe Clark of the African Gender
Institute at UCT, pointed to more statistics:
“Between 2010 and 2012, 77% of women
in Limpopo experienced some form of
violence, 51% in Gauteng, 45% in the
Western Cape, 36% in KZN.” And she
reminded listeners that last year Interpol
referred to South Africa as the country with
the highest incident of rape in the world.
So why would a woman feel safe?
A male listener, Zama, mourned the
passing of chivalry, “If I see a woman in
trouble on a train I will defend her. More
men need to learn to do that.” He went
on to say that men from rural areas were
not used to seeing women in very short
skirts. “So ladies,” he asked, “please dress
in such a way that we don’t get carried
away, we get carried away easily.” Zama
said this as an amusing afterthought, but
it’s a gut response implying... “if only you
women weren’t so provocative...”. And so
the blame comes back to women.
In a presentation at the UCT Graduate
School of Business in March on the state
of gender-based violence in South Africa,
founder member of the Western Cape
Network on Violence against Women and
Director of UCT’s Children’s Institute,
Associate Professor Shanaaz Mathews,
also pointed to evidence of woman-blame
as a cause for violence. Interviewing men
in prison for the murder of their female
partners, she found “even ten years later,
some still claim it was her fault, ‘her
behaviour that made me do it’.”
From an extensive research study by the
Children’s Institute, Mathews went on to
reveal that many of the men perpetrating
violence had been victims of it in their
childhood. And amongst factors prevalent
in rapists were: adverse childhood
experiences and witness to abuse as well
as unbalanced perceptions of gender
roles and low self-esteem. Absent fathers,
inaccessible mothers, easy access to
alcohol, drugs and firearms, peer pressure
and personality disorders all play a part, as
does the brutal legacy of apartheid.
May 2013
But the cyclical nature of gender-based
violence is not confined to perpetrators.
Mathews also noted that an abused
girl child is at far greater risk of being
abused as a woman – and subsequently
of internalising her pain, often masking it
with drugs or alcohol. Many women, she
said, disclosed their own abuse for the
first time only after their children had been
abused. Given the number of girls and
boys experiencing abuse one way or the
other, of concern is how many will grow up
inflicting it on their own children one day.
So what’s to be done? It’s been said
that a society that doesn’t look after its
women is a society in trouble. Recent
government responses to the trouble have
included displays of muscle and money.
Following the shocking rape of Anene
Booysen earlier this year, school children
were made to recite an anti-violence
pledge in assembly. More Thuthuzela care
centres are to be built – one stop facilities
as part of SA’s anti-rape strategy aiming
to reduce secondary trauma for victims
and improve conviction rates, a National
Council against Gender-Based Violence
was launched to “develop a coordinated
response against the scourge”, and the
May 2013
Sexual Offences Courts are to be reopened
to deal with the rocketing rate of cases. All
are attempts to fix the damage rather than
address the root.
ourselves we need to start: in our own
homes and in our own offices. We could
ask ourselves not just how government
does or doesn’t respond, but how do
we as individuals respond? To everyday
incidents and irritations at home or at
work, do we listen or do we lash out? Do
we treat one another – family, colleagues,
friends or strangers with respect, take into
account feelings and circumstances, take
the trouble to understand? Perhaps with
such small acts from all of us it’s possible
a ripple revolution of non-violence could
be started.
Gender-based violence, both physical and emotional, is
widespread and way more likely to affect each and every
one of us than we think.
Unquestionably the root of violence is
deeply embedded. Unemployment and
poverty contribute enormously, though it
would be a mistake to assume violence
is the preserve of the poor – aggression,
rape and femicide straddle communities
of all income brackets. As do alcohol,
drugs and guns.
Kubi Rama, deputy director of Gender
Links, says: “The biggest problem is not
violence from strangers, but violence in
our own homes.” And Mathews agrees,
“Don’t assume the woman you work with
every day isn’t a victim.” The point is
that gender-based violence, both physical
and emotional, is widespread and way
more likely to affect each and every one
of us than we think. So maybe it’s with
The danger is to feed into the conspiracy
of silence by ignoring gender-based
violence. Business has huge potential to
show leadership here, firstly by recognising
it as a pervasive social ill and taking
responsibility in ensuring that, within the
working environment, there are platforms
in place to address it. And secondly, by
standing up and being counted beyond
commercial interests. There are many
NGOs working with these issues on the
ground for whom financial partnership
with a corporate could mean the difference
between staying open and closing down.
Given South Africa’s violent statistics
perhaps it’s time to think beyond coy CSI
projects, to show perpetrators that you
mean business – and victims that you care.
Volume 14 #1
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35
Corporate
culture – culprit or
cure?
Research from the UCT
Graduate School of
Business suggests that
the only way to break the
deadlock of violent clashes
between communities and
mines is for corporate
culture to step beyond
regulatory compliance and
rigid project planning –
towards real collaboration.
There is a need to strike a balance between
meeting the expectations of stakeholders
and being responsible social actors on the
one hand, and remaining competitive as
a business by not setting precedents at
unreasonable levels, on the other.
quickly condemned the use of violence, police intervention
was perceived by many in the community as having taken
place on behalf of the mine. This further damaged corporatecommunity relations.
The socio-economic context at Mogalakwena mine is one
of poverty and historical exclusion. As one resident put it, “a
hungry stomach is a dangerous stomach.” Anglo Platinum’s
inadequate attention to this context in their social impact
management and resettlement planning contributed in large
part to the conflict.
By Tracy Gilpin
The relationship between mining companies and the
communities around their mines is an often frosty
one. From Marikana to this year’s clashes at Anglo
American Platinum, it is evident that companies risk
both reputation and profitability when trouble erupts
in and around their operations.
Large-scale mining operations transform not only the
physical landscape of an area, but also social, economic
and political landscapes, they also frequently exacerbate
local inequities and social ills, disrupt traditional lifestyles,
and leave toxic environmental legacies that endure long after
mine closures.
Ralph Hamann, Associate Professor and Research Director
at the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB), and co-author
of a new study on the issue, says that too often mining
companies prefer to emphasise the technical and logistical
aspects of due diligence over these more nuanced social
complexities within communities. They do so at their peril.
“There is a need to strike a balance between meeting the
expectations of stakeholders and being responsible social
actors on the one hand, and remaining competitive as a
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Volume 14 #1
business by not setting precedents at unreasonable levels, on
the other,” says Hamann.
This was the lesson learned by Anglo Platinum, the country’s
largest platinum producer and the case study at the heart of
Hamann’s research.
Anglo Platinum has received many awards for its
sustainability reports and practices, yet it sparked a human
rights controversy, which hit the world headlines in 2008,
May 2013
over the resettling of two villages at its Mogalakwena mine in
Limpopo Province.
Despite carrying out various studies, establishing community
representation in the initial stages of the project, and making
commitments for the benefit of the local population, they were
met with protests and road blockages on the day they were
due to resettle the villages. Police fired rubber bullets into
the crowd, causing some injuries, and while Anglo Platinum
May 2013
Through the human rights lens
As soon as the controversy erupted, Anglo Platinum established
a task team and tried other ways to improve relations, including
initiating a Community Engagement Forum, but with limited
success. Relocation of the villages eventually went
ahead under negotiated terms, but unhappy community
members sought the help of a well-known independent
lawyer to defend their interests in court focusing the
world’s attention on the mine and its human rights record.
Anlgo Platinum’s response to these legal challenges was
perceived by some stakeholders as defensive and narrowly
compliance-oriented, which led to increased allegations of
human rights violations and bullying.
Subsequently, the South African Human Rights Commission
(SAHRC) undertook its first investigation of human rights issues
in the mining sector, and released its report in November 2008.
It stopped short of accusing Anglo Platinum of human rights
violations, but included a long list of recommendations to improve
resettlement practices and corporate social responsibility.
“The Human Rights Commission’s report, as well as the
company’s initial response to it, highlighted that many of the
problems were related to the company’s emphasis on legal
compliance rather than a more holistic approach to community
engagement focused on dialogue, negotiation, inclusiveness and
human rights,” suggests Hamann.
Volume 14 #1
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37
5 things first-line managers
should know
Giving community members more influence
over decision-making, and supporting this
with corporate structures attuned to
authentic
communication with community
National
Environmental
Consent or consultation
members, is more likely to avoid the
Management Act of 1998.
Although Anglo Platinum
However, legal compliance
maintained that individual
kind of conflicts experienced at
is not – on its own – enough.
agreements were signed with
Mogalakwena mine.
The GSB research argues that the
100% of homeowners, and that
this constituted Free, Prior and
Informed Consent (FPIC), there was
some disagreement about whether 100%
consent to relocation by affected communities was
an achievable goal.
Internationally, support for FPIC is growing, particularly for
extractive industry projects, given their significant environmental
impacts and frequent tendency to be highly disruptive to the
local social context. Yet mining companies frequently argue that
endorsing FPIC as a standard for all mining operations would
bring many projects to a standstill.
Hamann and his fellow authors suggest that, “Rather than
being seen as a burden to operations, recommendations of the
World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review on FPIC deserve
consideration as a possible way to improve not only corporatecommunity relations, but also more general corporate outcomes.
“Of course it is a challenge to manage the sort of processes
needed to achieve consent within communities who themselves
are characterised by diverging interests and relationships with
the mine, but giving community members more influence over
decision-making, and supporting this with corporate structures
attuned to authentic communication with community members,
is more likely to avoid the kind of conflicts experienced at
Mogalakwena mine.”
Putting such systems in place is complex and costs accrue
before a mine is generating income. This underscores the need
for social management to be fully integrated into the corporate
strategic planning process, rather than tacked on as an extension
of a public relations strategy.
The challenge is exacerbated by regulatory uncertainty. The
research recommends that in public policy, greater clarity is
needed on the degree and manner in which companies engage
with communities. In particular, the Petroleum and Mineral
Resources Development Act of 2002 gives less attention to
the need to consult local communities compared to the more
comprehensive discussion on community participation in the
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Volume 14 #1
Mogalakwena experience illustrates
that even with more consistent and robust
guidance in public policy, fostering improved
corporate-community relations is always going to
require more than regulatory compliance and narrow adherence
to the technical and logistical facets of due diligence. Over and
above compliance, Hamann says, companies have to be willing
and able to shift their internal cultures.
“A challenge for the mining company in this case was
to implement an authentic community relations process in
the context of a corporate culture that was simultaneously
hierarchical and individualistic. It becomes necessary to
proactively address organisational culture within the company
and to recognise the implications of cultural differences between
the company and affected communities.”
Following the conflict, Anglo Platinum did take steps to effect an
internal shift in culture. They launched a company-wide internal
“Values and Culture Project” in 2009 involving a diagnostic
process that identified a set of core values from employee inputs,
rather than imposed from above, and implemented a range of
diverse events to make these values more prominently accepted
and recognised across the organisation.
An Anglo American Group-wide structure has since been put
in place to ensure social scientist expertise is incorporated into
all group mining operations.
While these efforts have not been enough to avoid all
further conflict, Hamann says that the case study illustrates
the importance of companies being willing to learn from
experiences such as the Mogalakwena conflict, and to take
steps towards collaboration and consultation.
“In the end regardless of who is to blame for the conflict,
it is in the interests of both sides to avoid a drawn out, legal
compliance-oriented battle. Corporate leaders must become
conscious of the fact that a collaborative problem-solving
approach can serve both parties and the economy of the
country much more effectively,” he says.
May 2013
Without the right skills and
support a new dream job can
turn into a nightmare. By Gareth Coetzee
1
2
3
First-line managers are often promoted
into management to play a vital role in
organisations but are left to fend for
themselves without the skills or training
to support them.
Jenny Carter, director of the New
Manager programme at the UCT Graduate
School of Business, says there are five
things first-line managers need do to
avoid having their dream job turn into a
nightmare.
a Polish business communication skills
“One of the most difficult things for people
to do is to get up in front of people and
present ideas clearly and convincingly.
Another challenge is writing well-argued
and accurate reports and proposals.
Business communication skills are some
of the most important skills to master as
managers, whether experienced or new,”
says Carter.
It also helps with the management of
teams and relationships in the workplace.
Open and honest communication
between team members and their leaders
is the cohesive element that solidifies,
strengthens and grows teams, and it is the
lubricant keeping the flow of work running
smoothly. Listening better is pivotal.
a Learn to think strategically
In their new role, first-line managers can
be strategic elements in the organisation,
applying new business thinking, innovating
across different processes and functions,
improving teams, and finding opportunities
for creating or maintaining a competitive
advantage.
May 2013
“An important part of strategy
is in harnessing the thinking of
many people, rather than any
single individual, to ensure that
many ideas surface for the good
of the organisation," says Carter.
4
5
a Get comfortable with
complexity and uncertainty
Organisations never operate within a
vacuum and first-line managers –
especially those in emerging markets
– need to start grappling with the
inherent complexity and uncertainty in
today’s business environments. They
need to keep informed about the latest
in regulations, political developments,
social needs, and they must question the
role of business in society.
aImprove management and leadership
through personal mastery
The most profound lesson a first-line
manager can learn, and one experienced
managers should remember, is that in
order to manage others you must first
manage yourself. Leaders these days are
expected to lead by example and this
hinges on one major thing: consistency.
“Everything from personal behaviour
and thinking to decision-making and
relational skills should be driven by a
keen adherence to personal values that
remain firm. Leaders do not sell out on
their personal values. They should be
their compass and have an impact on
others, encouraging and motivating them
to succeed. Leadership is cultivated, not
wished into form,” says Carter.
aInvest in professional development
programmes
Up-skilling is critical when entering a
new role in organisations. And as demands
on first-line managers are expected to grow
and change every year, short courses are
proving to be a cost effective and targeted
means to develop the critical skills needed.
A recent Harvard Business Review
study showed that offering professional
development to high-potential managers
keeps them from leaving for other
companies. A survey of 1,200 employees
showed that not receiving enough formal
training and development is often a key
reason for departure. Although on-the-job
training is important, most prefer efforts
that help strengthen the foundations for
their future careers.
The next New Manager
course runs from
29 September to 11 October
2013 in Cape Town. Call
Tracy Kimberley on
+27 (0) 21 406 1346 or email:
[email protected].
ac.za for more information.
Volume 14 #1
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39
Both China and South Africa are considered emerging
industrialised economies with high emissions relative to other
developing countries, making them ideal countries to compare
and contrast. While China has supplied a significant number of
CDM projects and generated a majority of CER volume, South
Africa, the leading CDM host country in Africa, has played a
negligible role, even taking into account differences in gross
domestic product (GDP), size of population and emissions.
CDM is now a lost opportunity for South Africa because the
main market for CDM, the European Emission Trading Scheme
(EU ETS), will no longer accept credits from non-Least Developed
Countries as of 1 January 2013. But understanding how China
got it right could help policy makers in South Africa to better
understand how to use market-based incentives to reduce
greenhouse gasses and meet reduction targets in future.
Missing a
sustainability
trick
New research from the UCT Graduate School of Business
shows that lack of policy direction and support has
prevented South Africa from capitalising on the financial
advantages of Clean Development Mechanism projects. But
it isn’t too late to learn from our mistakes. By Tracy Gilpin
South Africa is ideally placed to benefit from Clean
Development Mechanisms (CDM), but a decade on from
its ratification as part of the Kyoto Protocol the country
has failed – dismally – to leverage the potential of such
projects.
With just a 0,9% share of the worldwide registered annual
Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) credits, South Africa lags
behind other developing nations like China and India who between
them hold roughly 80%.
CDM, designed under the Kyoto protocol as one of three “flexible
mechanisms” to assist countries in reaching their carbon emission
targets, provides financial incentives for developing countries
to voluntarily contribute to emission reduction and promote
sustainable development. South Africa ratified the Kyoto Protocol
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Volume 14 #1
in 2002, and is eligible to implement CDM projects and trade CER
credits through the international compliance and voluntary carbon
markets, but growth in this area has been minimal.
According to John Fay, a sustainable enterprise and emergent
change researcher at UCT’s Graduate School of Business (GSB)
and lead author on a new study on CDM in South Africa, this is
largely because the country lacks policy direction.
The study, which offers a comparative analysis of CDM
experiences in China and South Africa, found that a strong
industrial and energy policy in the host country plays a crucial role
in the successful development of CDM.
“Active engagement by key government and private sector
stakeholders, along with a friendly business environment,
significantly impacts the utilisation of the mechanism,” says Fay.
May 2013
CDM management in China and South Africa
So what did China do exactly? CDM projects in China
are driven by the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC), along with involvement from
a number of Chinese governmental authorities.
The CDM Fund Management Centre, within
the Chinese CDM management structure,
is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance
and manages funds collected from
CER revenue fees charged by
government, and uses these for its
broader climate and sustainable
development objectives.
In
South
Africa,
the
Designated National Authority
(DNA), within the Department of
Energy, oversees the CDM. Since
its inception in 2004, its main task
has been to assess projects, determine
if they assist in achieving its sustainable
development goals, and issue formal host country
approval. They also support project developers and
promote CDM in South Africa to potential investors.
In 2007 the South Africa Clean Development Mechanism Industry
Association (SACDMIA) was launched to provide a platform for
CDM industry stakeholders to promote CDM investment, capacity
building, and research or facilitation. The association has so far
been ineffective.
The UCT GSB study sheds some light on why this is the
case by examining how China encouraged emission reduction
programmes. It reveals how the Chinese government worked
with project owners to encourage CDM uptake and ensure
sufficient local capacity. The establishment of provincial CDM
centres providing consultancy services was also instrumental
while the China DNA is credited with high standards of project
appraisal and rigour, successfully streamlining the submission
process. CDM in China is attractive to foreign players due to its
favourable investment environment, the size of the country and
robust GDP growth.
While CDM in South Africa has not generated a large number of
projects, South Africa’s DNA is well organised and highly regarded
both domestically and internationally. Its economy is based on a
high-emission structure, providing ample possibilities for CDM
May 2013
projects, along with a strong base of local project developers with
the technical expertise to develop projects in South Africa.
Uncertainty in South Africa
“But potential South African project owners in the public and
private sector perceive a lack of vision required to fully harness
CDM opportunities,” says the report. “This is compounded by
a lack of government capacity, public awareness and overall
education about climate change and CDM.
“The complexities of the CDM market have been a disincentive
to both public and private entities in South Africa. The uncertainty
surrounding the CDM market, including fluctuating market prices,
has created a situation that makes the upfront investment to access
the CDM a major deterrent to moving projects forward.”
In addition, a lack of South African designated operating
entities (DOEs) cause a major bottleneck to CDM projects.
The DOEs validate project integrity and adherence to setout methodology and verify the validity of generated
credits prior to issuance of CERs.
All project developers contacted during the
research process indicated issues with DOEs
as a major problem in South Africa due to
cost and availability.
At present, there is a lack of
meaningful governmental support
for low-carbon development in
energy production or industry,
exemplified by the dependence
on high-emission coal-based
power through Eskom.
Eskom has not successfully
engaged with CDM for its
own electricity generation or
efficiency measures and its lack
of willingness to engage directly with
CDM demonstrates a need for greater
co-ordination between the policy and development
framework and key entities.
Creating a conducive environment
The research shows, “The CDM is a market-based incentive,
therefore, a conducive business setting is essential for
successful implementation. Development drives CDM, not the
other way around.”
Considering the upfront investment required for CDM, ability to
source and unilaterally finance underlying project funding is key
to implementing CDM projects. China’s rapid expansion has been
facilitated by the availability of debt and equity, while funding in
South Africa has not been as readily available.
The 2012 UN Climate Change Conference agreed to extend
the Kyoto Protocol due to expire at the end of 2012. A successor
to the protocol is set to be developed by 2015 and implemented
by 2020. Uncertainty surrounding a post-2012 framework is
causing loss of confidence in the CDM market throughout the
world and is likely to affect CDM investment.
“This is an ideal time,” Fay believes, “for South Africa to
reflect on its overall CDM experience to better streamline
emission reductions and sustainable development into the
overall priorities.”
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Lady Gaga and the
corporate differentiator
Long before Toyota created the
Lean Way, a similar concept was
recorded as far back as the 16th
century when the imagination of the
French King Henry III was sparked as he
watched the Venice Arsenal build galley
ships, using a continuous flow process,
in less than one hour. Lean leadership is
far more than a trend. It works because
it taps into the fundamentals of human
behaviour – cooperation and teamwork,
creativity, validation and adaptability.
It is a philosophical mindset that, when
understood and practised correctly,
consistently helps others be their best
and keeps an organisation strong and
competitive. Done right, it is also a
lot of fun. People learn new things,
improve processes and achieve results
they never thought possible.
In the quest to stand out in the marketplace, great
companies are moving beyond differentiators to embrace
the philosophy of lean leadership. By Fortune Gamanya
If it’s true that art imitates life, then Lady Gaga would be a good indication of the challenges
facing businesses today in their effort to stand out from their competitors in a jam-packed
marketplace. If only it were as easy as dressing the marketing team in meat couture or
carrying the CEO into the office each morning in an egg.
For all companies the quest for market share begins with delivery of a service that offers quality
and value. But good companies realise quality is not enough if one is to retain and win new business.
Enter the differentiator. Businesses today have a tendency to spend much time and money figuring
out what sets them apart from their competitors. It’s usually at this point the marketers step in and
communicate these differentiators, top-down, to employees and customers.
But this strategy is wearing a bit thin. In crowded market places and in the age of social
marketing and instant information, employees and customers are looking for more than skin-deep
differentiators; they want meaning and responsiveness.
The most successful companies in the world, like Toyota and Apple, understand this and operate
beyond differentiators. They use an approach that is far more dynamic and penetrates from the
bottom up, a philosophy that creates thinking employees who drive innovation and problem-solving
whether it’s a mop they wield or a million rand budget.
These companies embody a philosophy known as lean leadership, which creates customer value
through empowered people. It is deeply rooted in the Toyota Way and the Toyota Production
System, both of which strongly advocate respect for the inherent human intelligence of their
people, trusting them and giving them enough freedom to manage their area of function in a
way that effectively takes the business forward.
They know that differentiators are far too static for the way business is done
today. Lean leadership offers a different, more successful approach by creating an
environment that allows organisations to remain in constant flux, able to pre-empt
and respond fluidly and continuously to clients’ changing needs, lifestyles and
the way they prefer to communicate.
These companies always manage to make the right move at crunch
time. They seem to have a crystal ball on the desk of every leader in their
organisation but in reality, they have for many years worked hard at
creating a constantly thinking, moving, changing, bottom-up culture
based on the lean leadership principle.
In the sort of switched-on world in which businesses
operate, there is a great need for a shift towards this
paradigm, using lean leadership as both a tool for cost
reduction and operational efficiency, as well as a
means to successfully transform organisational
culture and the mindset and behaviours of the
people who drive a business, its products and
service offering.
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do this successfully, every pair of hands
within an organisation, every brain, needs
to be engaged in problem-solving and
innovation.
Director of the Lean Institute Africa,
Norman Faull, says, “Lean leadership’s
strongest trait is that it allows for the
fastest response to a problem. It relies
on the continuous improvement of
processes, paired with respect for people,
no matter what their position within
the organisation. This leads to a nonhierarchical decision-making landscape,
where employees are empowered to
solve problems quickly.”
Employees who find their own
solutions are far more likely to practice
self-motivation and feel a greater sense
of ownership and responsibility. Few
companies can afford the time and
In crowded market places and in the age of social marketing
and instant information, employees and customers are looking
for more than skin-deep differentiators; they want meaning and
responsiveness.
People are at the heart of the lean
philosophy, which is based on five simple
tenents: involve all employees; live the
“bottom-up” approach; define realistic
sub goals/milestones and communicate
results; ensure constant communication;
and act and behave in a way that is
consistent with what you say.
And it is people who drive the philosophy
– and the organisation’s success. In any
organisation, innovation and problemsolving should eventually give rise to
what truly defines an organisation and
sets it apart from its competitors, and
this should be happening at the desks,
computers and telephones, where most
of the work is done.
It’s no longer good enough to once in
a while change a little here and there.
Improving products, processes, services,
technologies and implementing ideas
happens constantly in the most successful
companies and it is impossible for this to
be achieved by management alone. The
competition between companies is no
longer solely about how much market
share can be achieved, but how dynamic
a company is at adapting to change. To
May 2013
May 2013
resources needed to constantly motivate,
inspire and retain their human capital.
Lean leadership needs to become part
of the culture instead of one of a set of
values imposed from the top down.
Lean leadership’s merit is the
sustainability of its bottom-up philosophy:
a consistent way of thinking and being in
the vital role of leadership.
What it is not is a set-out recipe for
success. It is not a management project,
certainly not a one-off event. It is a
continuous way of thinking and behaving
for every person, department and team in
an organisation, a never-ending search
for a better way. It is an environment of
teamwork and improvement rather than
a top-down imposed set of values and
differentiators. Lean leadership, when
properly practised becomes a culture
of sustainability and innovation. It’s the
stuff that will have staff, customers and
stakeholders singing an organisation’s
praises from the rooftops.
No need then to radically alter the
corporate dress code, and CEOs can
continue to enter their offices in the usual
dignified way.
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Shooting
the
rapids
Marketing professionals and CMOs of the future will not
succeed unless armed with the sort of skills that allow
them to respond confidently to rapid and constant changes
inherent in emerging markets. By Mark Peters
If old-school chief marketing officers (CMOs) were like
entertainment directors on a cruise ship, today, a CMO
must have the skills of an adept kayaker, negotiating
a series of white water rapids that require continuous
assessment, readjustment and rapid response if marketing
strategy is to succeed in emerging markets.
The swift growth of emerging markets, with their explosion
of product choices and communication channels, is resulting
in rising consumer empowerment.
The digital revolution has created customers who can see
and say more about the organisations that serve them than
ever before. But this revolution has left many CMOs struggling
to respond quickly and appropriately to the changed customer
relationship.
Today it is impossible to completely control any information,
no matter how confidential. The agenda we need to apply to
marketing strategy is: we must be better and faster, constantly.
Operating in a permanent white water
environment, marketers must be
aware of the minutest change in
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conditions, know when to hold steady in the eddies or paddle
forward strongly. And when capsizing, have the skill to execute the
most important move of all – the Eskimo roll – holding breath and
nerve, confident of sound decision-making, and currents that will
once again pull the head above water.
Deliver value to empowered customers
A recent study published in McKinsey Quarterly suggests
three factors critical to capturing the loyalty of emergingmarket consumers: harnessing word-of-mouth effects,
emphasising in-store execution, and getting brands onto
shoppers’ shortlists for initial consideration.
Technology is increasing the depth of customer engagement,
but with some important twists that differ from mature-market
consumers who tend to have more experience with brands and
product categories than their emerging-market counterparts.
Word-of-mouth plays a disproportionate role in the decision
journeys of emerging-market consumers. Getting
consumers to consider a brand appears to
have an outsized impact on purchase
May 2012
decisions. Equally important is that CMOs place special
emphasis on what happens when products reach the shelves
of retailers. The in-store phase of the consumer decision
journey tends to be longer and more important in emerging
markets than in developed ones.
Part of the new customer relationship must focus on recognising
opportunity to create value for customers and reprioritise
investments to analyse digital channels – blogs, tweets, social
networks, peer reviews and consumer-generated content –
to access consumers’ honest, unmediated views, values and
expectations. Then make use of advanced analytics to recognise
preferences, trends and patterns across every touch point.
Three very important questions to ask: Am I gearing my
marketing people, programmes and processes to understand
individuals and not just markets? Which tools and processes
are being invested to better understand and respond to what
individual customers are saying and doing? And, how is
customers’ data and privacy being safeguarded in a multichannel, multi-device world?
Foster lasting connections
There is a significant opportunity to capitalise on digital
channels to stimulate conversations with existing and potential
customers, and create new types of relationships to reveal
untapped opportunities. Successful CMOs must engage with
customers at every stage of the customer life cycle, and
build online and offline communities to strengthen the brand.
Critical to this process is helping an organisation define and
activate the traits that make it unique, then working to meld
the internal and external faces of the enterprise.
The CMO of the future must synchronise marketing tactics
and investments to create and grow a pervasive and innovative
total customer relationship. Then take tangible steps to connect
customer insights with product and service development, and
stimulate customers to become brand or company advocates.
Capture value, measure results
No kayaker would make it far without studying the next stretch of
river to be travelled. He must pause in the eddies, know where the
rocks are, the distance to the next eddy, and where the rapids and
tides are likely to be most treacherous.
CMOs are increasingly having to show a real return on their
marketing expenditure. Their knowledge must stretch farther
than ever before and what they lack in knowledge they will
need to gain by hiring people with the technical, digital and
financial skills needed to augment strategic marketing in this
May 2012
new age of rapid change and real-time communication.
Capitalise on new tools to measure what matters. Use
advanced analytics and compelling metrics to improve decisionmaking and to demonstrate your accountability. Enhance
business acumen by adjusting your talent mix to increase
technical and financial skills, and grow your digital expertise by
finding new partners to supplement your in-house resources.
And lead by example – expand your horizons by enhancing your
personal financial, technical and digital savvy.
Fit for the future
You can carry on as before, and continue
to feel stretched. Or you can seize the
opportunity to transform your marketing
function by responding to these new
realities: the empowered customer is now
in charge of the business relationship.
A recent study conducted by IBM, involving some 1,700 CMOs
across the globe, suggests that the top three capabilities most
important to the personal success of CMOs in the next three
to five years will be: leadership abilities, listening to customer
insights and creative thinking.
You can carry on as before, and continue to feel stretched.
Or you can seize the opportunity to transform your marketing
function by responding to these new realities: the empowered
customer is now in charge of the business relationship.
Delivering customer value is paramount, and an
organisation’s behaviour as much a part of the value equation
as the products and services it provides. Lastly, the pressure
to be accountable to the business is not just a symptom of hard
times, it is a permanent shift that requires new approaches,
tools and skills.
In emerging markets all of this takes place against a backdrop
of uncertainty and complexity (political, social and cultural). In
this context, we can borrow a lot of good things developed in
marketing, but aspects need to be tailored to emerging market
contexts.
Now, undoubtedly, is the time for the CMO to climb into that
kayak, strap in, and get set for a thrilling, strategic journey along
the white water rapids of emerging markets.
Volume 14 #1
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What lies beneath
Good knowledge management is the ability to capture
knowledge and learnings from projects as close to real time
as possible, transfer the data and information, and apply those
learnings to future projects. And it is an essential benefit in our
knowledge-based economy.
In the face of complicated operational challenges,
organisations need to develop the right radar to identify,
capture and share hidden knowledge. By Gareth Coetzee
It is never the visible tip of the iceberg that sinks ships. It
is the unseen ice below the surface that does the damage.
In order to avoid collisions, modern mariners use radar to
detect icebergs and see how large they are above and below
the surface.
So too should it be for organisations. Most companies
keep track of the tip of the knowledge iceberg that exists in
their structures, but many struggle to see below the surface.
The damage takes the form of missed opportunities, stunted
innovation and in worst-case scenarios – collapse.
According to Terry van Graan, Mphil Management Practice
research student at the UCT Graduate School of Business,
only 20% of an organisation’s knowledge is explicit, in the
form of documents, procedures, processes and databases.
The other 80% is tacit, in the form of undocumented, unshared,
untapped know-how.
A McKinsey Quarterly report points to the radical growth in
corporate email in the past decade as an indicator of how most
businesses struggle to access knowledge in their organisations.
Volumes of global corporate email grew from about 1.8 billion a
day in 1998 to more than 17 billion a day in 2004.
For van Graan, tapping into this under-the-surface knowledge
of the organisation is strategically critical, and can be especially
important for project management. His research is dedicated to
unearthing successful strategies for doing just that.
“In today’s business environment, managing through projects
has become the standard method of doing business and
now forms an integral part of an organisation’s business
strategy,” says van Graan. “Understanding how organisations
successfully harness knowledge and develop effective radar for
seeing the hidden part of the iceberg is critical for innovation
and future success.”
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It is, of course, easier said than done. Today the business
environment is characterised by increasingly complex operational
challenges, more geographically dispersed teams, more data,
information and technology, and a haemorrhaging of experienced
practitioners across sectors, proving problematic for successfully
managing projects and knowledge.
“But if knowledge is managed effectively, it can be used to
reduce project time, reduce costs, improve quality and improve
customer satisfaction as well as minimising the need for
‘reinventing the wheel’.”
Every project from start to finish is a well of new insights and
understandings: Why did this project go so horribly wrong?
What made this step in the process so successful? How well
did design and engineering work together this time? What made
communication between the teams so effortless today? Why did
we lose time during this process?
The key to effective knowledge management is to tap into this
kind of tacit knowledge that exists in the heads of professionals –
who experience the projects first hand – throughout an organisation
and convert it into easily accessible explicit knowledge. It is about
capturing what is learned today for what will be done tomorrow.
“Good knowledge management is the ability to capture
knowledge and learnings from projects as close to real time
as possible, transfer the data and information, and apply those
learnings to future projects. And it is an essential benefit in our
knowledge-based economy,” says van Graan.
NASA offers a prime example: the organisation relies heavily on
creating new knowledge and finding ways of sharing it. At the end of
the nineties the agency underwent a major knowledge management
makeover as they realised almost half of their workforce was
ageing and nearing retirement and that projects were changing in
nature – previously people worked on one project for many years,
May 2013
now people
would work
on a project for
two years and
then be replaced by
someone else who was
expected to know everything
about the project immediately.
The need to capture as much tacit
information as possible became urgent.
Part of the overhaul saw the design
and introduction of an in-house portal where
employees could share information from anywhere
in the world, and outside of it, through media devices.
This portal integrated knowledge from across the agency and
was made easily accessible to all employees any time. Ever
since, employees have been encouraged to share insights on
a daily basis. This portal forms part of a network of complex
IT infrastructure that feeds real-time data from research,
shuttle flights, simulators and projects, into this entire project
management system. In 2010 NASA was awarded first place
recognition by the 2010 North American Most Admired
Knowledge Enterprise panel. These awards recognise “global
leaders in effectively transforming enterprise knowledge into
wealth-creating ideas, products and solutions”.
“Putting in place certain stops for documenting and
learning such as NASA has done is very important,” says
May 2013
van Graan. For example,
in the oil industry – the bulk
of his research is based on
extensive interviews with
project managers from major
oil companies in South Africa –
there are different ways of encouraging
the flow of new knowledge.
Through the use of communications technology
like social media and in-house crowdsourcing
portals, regular and rigorous mentoring programmes,
classroom instruction, forums and communities of
practice, these companies are managing to bring to the
surface tacit knowledge, capture it successfully and then
make it accessible to others.
“Formalising the creating and sharing of knowledge ensures
that the organisations hold onto the increasingly valuable
innate knowledge they have, so as to improve their processes
and capitalise on any innovation that may arise,” he says.
Ultimately, van Graan believes there are endless benefits
to adopting knowledge management techniques but many
challenges exist in how to get the knowledge emerging in
the social chatter around the coffee pot to become standard
practice within an ever changing cycle of learning and doing.
The rewards for getting it right could be considerable. With
the right radar in place and with the bulk of the knowledge
iceberg coming into plain sight, organisations could reduce
their titanic losses on faulty projects.
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47
By Walter Baets
The long-expected announcement
earlier this year of Mamphela
Ramphele’s intention to launch a new
political crusade in South Africa has
done more than shake up the political
landscape of the country – it has
exposed some of the country’s more
pervasive fault lines.
Specifically, some responses by
media and other commentators to the
declaration paints a fascinating picture
of prevailing attitudes in South Africa –
and goes some way towards explaining
why the country is struggling to actualise
the promises of 1994.
The first of four fault lines that have
emerged from this discourse is a lack
of evidence-based opinion. With notable
exceptions, the majority of writing
on this matter has been filled with
personal opinion and speculation. While
freedom of speech is a vital part of any
democracy, opinion that is not grounded
in evidence is dangerous, demoralising
and ultimately pointless.
South Africa is filled with examples of
this kind of mud-slinging debate, from the
much-publicised words of Julius Malema
to the reporting on the Marikana incident.
Witness how difficult it was to find any
actual evidence around what happened
at Marikana. Despite concerted attempts
by reporters and others to establish the
facts, such as what exactly the strikers
were paid and whether there was an
intermediary involved, they remained
elusive. Meanwhile the opinions flew
back and forth.
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The fault lines
that are limiting SA’s progress
We all have
a role to play
in supporting
democracy and
creating a more
balanced society
that delivers a
better life for all.
This links to the second and third
fault lines: lack of responsibility and
accountability. At Marikana, part of the
difficulty in finding out what happened
was due to the fact that absolutely no
one – not the police, the company or
the protestors – was willing to take
responsibility for what happened. The
frantic pointing of fingers and shrugging
of shoulders prevents progress, there is
no doubt about it.
The fourth fault line that underpins
all of these is lack of respect. This is a
country where disrespectful attitudes run
as a seam through the discourse around
race, sex, labour, politics and just about
any other topic you care to examine. It
contributes to the high levels of violence
against women and children that has
recently manifested so dreadfully in the
murder of Anene Booysen, it played a
huge role in the Marikana tragedy and
it is alive and well in the way people are
talking about Ramphele.
Evidence-based thought and action,
responsibility, accountability and respect:
these are all hallmarks of successful
democracies and they are not flourishing
in South Africa.
Whether or not Ramphele is an abrasive
person or a saint or if she is successful on
the political stage, evidence from older
democracies in Europe tells us that having
a third credible voice in the political
landscape can strengthen and enrich
political debate and play an important
role in holding both the opposition and
party in power to account.
In fact we all have a role to play
here in supporting democracy and in
shifting the culture of speculation and
finger pointing towards a more balanced
society that delivers the better life for all
that we all want.
As much as most of us will agree that
we are in need of strong leadership, at
the same time the political discussion
going on opens the possibility for other
kinds of leadership to emerge. Working
to overcome the four fault lines, leaders
at all levels of society, be they in local
government, communities and civil society
or amongst the business community can
make their voices heard. If it can break
free of its limitations, this country has
great potential, not just to develop itself
as an important example of a successful
emerging market, but also to be a leader
in the development of the continent.
May 2013
Putting the right
heads together
A new partnership between the UCT
Graduate School of Business and Knife
Capital is boosting SA’s emerging
innovation infrastructure. By Gareth Coetzee
The UCT Graduate School of Business in association with
growth equity fund manager Knife Capital has launched
a new executive education programme to promote the
development of early-stage, high-growth entrepreneurial
activity in South Africa.
The initiative is the first of its kind to blend the research
rigour of a business school with practical investment thinking
and will advance innovation in the City of Cape Town, which
has already been identified as the most entrepreneurial city in
South Africa by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research
group at the UCT GSB.
The new programme is part of a wider
initiative at the GSB to explore unorthodox,
innovative and applied solutions to African
challenges.
Keet van Zyl, partner at Knife Capital and co-founder of Business
Angel Investment Group, AngelHub says, “Johannesburg might be
seen as the corporate capital, but there is a tremendous amount of
momentum in the early stage entrepreneurial space in Cape Town.
Between the universities, the number of core venture capitalists
that are Cape Town-based, angel investment activity and startup
community initiatives such as Silicon Cape, Cape Town arguably
has the highest output of ideas in the country.”
However, despite the mass influx of early-stage entrepreneurial
activity, these ideas don’t always have the opportunity to get past
the initial business plan stage, says van Zyl.
He believes that many entrepreneurs don’t know where to
begin when it comes to acquiring an investor for their idea and
need assistance with packaging their concepts into sustainable
business models.
“The same can be said for investors themselves, many of
whom want to support early-stage entrepreneurs, but prefer to
collaborate when choosing the right opportunity. While the right
networks exist to take advantage of deal referrals, more tools are
May 2013
needed to develop the
area. This means that
many opportunities are
being wasted,” he says.
The GSB Executive Education
course – dubbed FIND MAKE GROW
REALISE (FMGR) – is designed to plug
this gap. Van Zyl says that the programme
is for entrepreneurs and investors alike and will provide delegates
with the practical knowledge and a deep understanding of the
high-growth investment process. It will also get entrepreneurs
and investors into the same space – literally – as they share
the classroom for the duration of the two-day workshop. The
new programme is part of a wider initiative at the GSB to
explore unorthodox, innovative and applied solutions to African
challenges.
Dr François Bonnici, Director of the Bertha Centre for Social
Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the GSB, says, “We know
we need more creative and innovative in order to deliver
products and services and drive sustainable job creation and
the GSB is investing a lot of energy into growing this space.
Alongside existing initiatives housed within the Bertha Centre
and Workshop 17, this programme will play an intensely
practical role in driving this.”
The FMGR programme has also partnered with Microsoft’s
BizSpark initiative and AngelHub to offer the programme in
Johannesburg and give startups there technological support,
business know-how, and access to potential investors and
business networks.
AngelHub’s Brett Commaille says that truly successful
startup, tech and high growth ecosystems are built on
cooperation and the spirit of sharing, especially in terms of
knowledge and experience and that the FMGR programme
partnerships perfectly capture this.
“The phrase ‘Give before you get’ is one you often hear bandied
around Silicon Valley,” he says. “It involves those with experience
and resources giving back and sharing the knowledge they have
with those who are keen to learn.”
Volume 14 #1
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Uncertainty about the role of the MBA in SA reflects the
country’s identity crisis as a developing country. By David Furlonger
Research suggesting that graduates from internationally
accredited MBA programmes can expect faster promotion
and greater earning power will be music to the ears of those
schools’ marketers and to potential students who see the
degree as a passport to success.
But in developing countries like South Africa, where the national
need for management and leadership skills is every bit as great as
the individual’s, not everyone will celebrate the idea of personal
enrichment of a select few.
South Africa has one of the world’s biggest earnings gaps
between executives and employees. In 2012 President Jacob Zuma
asked South African business to freeze executives’ pay for a year in
response to a series of wildcat strikes by low-paid workers.
Prophet Analytics, a labour research consultancy, recently
published a list of South Africa’s most overpaid CEOs. There are
many ways to calculate executive pay. Prophet chooses company
returns on shareholder funds.
On this basis, it found that some of South Africa’s bestknown business people received double what they were worth
in 2012. They included Craig Venter of Allied Technologies,
Glyn Lewis of Northam Platinum, Nonkululeko NyembeziHeita of ArcelorMittal SA and Mike Upton of Group Five. (At
the other end of the scale, Netcare’s Richard Friedland was
South Africa’s most underpaid CEO.)
Not everyone will agree with Prophet’s calculation formula but
there is no doubt that executive pay is a touchy subject right now.
In an increasingly uncertain political and social environment, most
local business schools play down – publicly, at least – the financial
rewards of an MBA. They prefer to concentrate on management,
leadership, entrepreneurship and all the other skills they say the
country so desperately needs.
As it happens, research on behalf of the Financial Mail suggests
those who embark on a South African MBA in search of fame
and fortune will be sorely disappointed. For the magazine's 2012
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“Ranking The MBAs” annual, graduates were asked their reasons
for pursuing an MBA and whether it had met their expectations.
Pay and promotion were almost bottom of the success table. In
both cases, fewer than half of graduates said their degree had
brought the benefits they expected.
The biggest letdown of all was international mobility – the idea
that MBA graduates are in demand around the world. Barely onethird of those surveyed have found this to be the case. At the top of
the table, graduates found expectations were met best in business
education and personal skills advancement.
One of the challenges for South Africa
business schools is to persuade the
business community that their MBA
degrees meet the needs of the country’s
changing landscape.
But that’s the overall table. Dig deeper into individual schools
and we see a slightly different picture. The University of Cape
Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), for example, scores
above average in financial reward, promotion and international
mobility. Its status as one of South Africa’s few internationally
accredited business schools means it can deliver opportunities
that many others can’t.
At another school – accredited by South Africa’s Council
on Higher Education (CHE) but by no one else – only 12% of
graduates received the pay rises they believed their due, 21% were
promoted and 17% found their degree tradeable overseas. And not
just overseas. Only 8% found local employers were impressed.
Separate research among employers confirms they are becoming
less inclined to pay a premium to MBA graduates.
May 2013
One of the challenges for South African business schools is
to persuade the business community that their MBA degrees
meet the needs of the country’s changing landscape. The trouble
is, no one is quite sure what those needs are. Nowhere is this
uncertainty better illustrated than in the apparent dichotomy of
proposed plans for the future of MBAs in the country.
Worldwide, there has long been disagreement over the exact
nature of the MBA. Is it a true Master’s degree, with all the
academic rigour that implies, or an applied degree intended to
teach practical management skills?
South Africa is more uncertain than most which is why, in a
unique display of compromise, the CHE has recommended two
parallel MBAs – one academic and the other “professional”.
The former would include formal Master’s academic research,
including full dissertation, and the latter a lower level of applied
research.
If the proposal goes through – and support is not unanimous
– South Africa would be the first country to offer a dual MBA. In
theory, both degrees would carry equal academic weight in South
Africa. But maybe not elsewhere.
One international accreditation agency has described the
suggested professional qualification as “MBA Lite”.
Some have accused the CHE of muddled thinking over its
broader plans for modernising the MBA. For while the professional
version implies that practical national needs must be considered
alongside academic ones, this appears to be contradicted by its
proposal for stricter academic entry requirements for any MBA,
including a minimum four-year bachelor’s degree.
The CHE has argued that current requirements don’t match the
MBA’s Master’s status.
Given that most South African bachelor’s programmes last three
years, the proposed four-year minimum is a surprising development –
though, bizarrely, current proposals elsewhere in South Africa’s tertiary
education world could have an unintended consequence. Universities
say many school-leavers arrive at university functionally illiterate and
innumerate. So the idea has been floated of extending degrees by
one year, to incorporate a bridging programme. How this would affect
academically capable new students is not clear but, by default, this
could create the four-year bachelor’s required for MBA study. Whether
it would be accepted as such, is quite a different matter.
May 2013
Irrespective of what comes from that quarter, the tougher
academic requirements for MBA entry could exclude some
of those most in need of the degree and change the nature
of the qualification in South Africa. Business schools here
have traditionally taken a more practical approach than those
elsewhere. Unlike northern hemisphere markets, where the MBA
is often a direct extension of previous academic study – many
students go straight into an MBA from bachelor’s or honours
programmes – South African schools generally demand several
years’ business experience as a prerequisite for acceptance. They
argue that students must understand how business works first, so
they have the context for their MBA education.
It is an approach with support in business. Many companies
see MBAs as a necessary stepping-stone on the corporate
training ladder and accordingly sponsor the studies of
managers and executives.
In theory, the proposed new rules could scupper this, if
experienced executives with “only” a three-year bachelor’s
can’t enrol for an MBA. Will they, or their employers, be willing
to sacrifice an extra year of study to bring them up to the new
entry requirement?
GSB director Walter Baets said last year the proposals could
have “devastating” consequences for local schools. And not
just schools. South Africa lacks management skills and it
lacks leadership. Mark Rittenberg, leadership communications
professor at Berkeley, University of California, and a regular visitor
to South Africa, says that unless the country confronts the latter
urgently, it will regret it for generations to come. Business schools,
he says, have a huge responsibility for ensuring the country’s
leadership needs are met.
Maybe all this uncertainty about the role of the MBA reflects
South Africa’s identity crisis as a developing country. We are
a rare, though not unique, mix of first and third world. We
want to be the former but can never escape the latter. If we
were strictly first world, earnings and promotion might well be
the way to measure the value of an MBA. Of course, we must
never underestimate their importance or attraction. But our
third world reality demands other, developmental measures
of success – ones that will either make or break the long-term
future for all of us.
Volume 14 #1
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GPs hold key
clinical outcomes. Utilisation risk, beyond socioeconomic, age and gender profiles, is likely
to be adjusted progressively as more data is
collected in the NHI.
“GPs also expressed concerns about the
capacity of government to pay on time,” says
Professor Luiz. “Basic contractual parameters
must be set to avoid perverse incentives and
to incentivise practices financially to ensure
an adequately competitive market. The
contract must strengthen user power and
allow choice of provider. Rural areas may
need large contract adjustments to attract
more doctors.”
to successful roll-out of NHI
The National Health Insurance (NHI) system will rely
heavily on GPs to deliver primary healthcare, but are
doctors willing to deal with the service delivery and
cost implications to their practices? By Tracy Gilpin
Private GPs in South Africa are worried what the ambitious
new NHI system may do to their livelihoods.
Considered by many to be crucial to the successful roll-out of
the NHI over the next 14 years, a new study by the UCT Graduate
School of Business (GSB) together with co-authors from Wits
has revealed that the vast majority of GPs are concerned about
embracing new service delivery concepts and dealing with the
cost implications that meet NHI requirements.
The data collected from 598 solo private GPs in a selfadministered online questionnaire across South Africa suggest
that GPs are specifically uncomfortable with the lack of clarity
and risk control within the NHI. Cynicism is mostly related to the
specific NHI capitation proposal (the system of health tax and
medical payments for medical services to South African citizens
and permanent residents).
Of solo GPs, 24.2% rated their own understanding of capitation
as very poor to poor whereas 75.8% rated their understanding as
fair to very good.
According to John Luiz, Professor of Business, Society and
Government at the GSB and one of the authors of the study, it
is imperative that GPs’ concerns are effectively addressed by
government. “The importance of incorporating GPs into the
NHI workforce as a key driver to the operational plans of the
Department of Health cannot be underestimated,” he said.
“If done right, this may allow the public service to focus
on its stewardship role – strengthening priority programmes,
community participation and inter-sectoral action and improving
the health system overall.”
The risks and concerns
The NHI proposed for South Africa is a government-managed
central buyer of healthcare services that aims to improve access to
healthcare. It will be introduced over 14 years and membership is
compulsory for all South Africans and legal permanent residents.
Existing medical schemes would continue alongside the NHI.
According to the study, some 47% of GPs have a neutral stance
on a NHI, 21.5% support it and 32.5% do not.
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A different approach
In the face of these concerns, it is clear
that GPs are going to have to adapt the
way they work. In the study, the majority of
GPs polled stressed improved management
and employing and training more staff as key
strategies to ensure that NHI does not derail
their practices.
The need to rearrange traditional roles will
become crucial, particularly with three or four
additional staff and the expected high demand for
services. The GPs role will need to change from being a
direct provider, to one of consultant, and shifting tasks to
nurses. Non-doctors can lead 70% of consultations and much
PHC can be nurse-led, with doctors as consultants in their own
organisations.
Luiz says, “GPs will require innovative thinking concerning
organisational changes to build economies of scale.”
There have been innovative suggestions around virtual practices
and multidisciplinary teams as potentially more valuable than doctor
practice groups, but the study shows that government will have to find
ways to incentivise GPs to go this route.
The good news is that the study indicates that GPs are aware that strong
preventative action is required in their practices, which bodes well for the quality
of care and the embrace of strong community-based services envisaged in PHC
re-engineering under NHI.
In the end, says Luiz, NHI remains a funding mechanism and not a general panacea
for South African healthcare – but done right it does hold significant potential for
healthcare in the country. “Our study shows that a key to the success of the longplanned initiative is merging improved access to healthcare with a strong foundation
of preventive and promotive healthcare. It also shows practical ways that this could
be achieved. For example, by incentivising and empowering GPs to work in teams.”
Another useful contribution of the study is that it is able to put some numbers
on the table.
“This study allowed us to crunch some numbers to provide a useful bottom-up
costing to feed into the overall conversation on NHI costing and help direct policy
in this regard. NHI costing has been dominated by estimates of exorbitant cost
but we estimate that for around R16,9 billion, government could affordably use
GPs to develop the primary healthcare part of NHI to cover the entire South
African uninsured population.”
The opportunities are there, how they are managed will be up to those who
roll the system out in the years ahead. And listening to the voices, concerns and
ideas of the GPs on the front line of the primary healthcare system is a good place to
start, concludes Luiz.
Luiz says that at the heart of this resistance is
confusion over how GPs will get paid. Currently the
vast majority of GPs in South Africa operate according
to a fee-for-service payment system (where the patient
pays for each service, starting with the consultation).
Under the new NHI, the system is planned to switch to a
capitation payment (a tax or payment of the same amount
from each person). Although such a comprehensive switch in
health systems is ambitious, it does resonate with debates in the
industrialised world around escalating healthcare costs and the
apparent unaffordability of comprehensive health insurance.
NHI remains a funding mechanism and
not a general panacea for South African
healthcare – but done right it does hold
significant potential for healthcare in the
country.
In the sample, medical aid schemes dominate GP practices,
constituting almost 60%. Capitation is uncommon, with 60.6% of
respondents indicating that 0 - 10% of their patients are capitated.
However, 25% of GPs have more than 20% of their patients in a
capitation plan, which suggests that they are already playing a
prominent role in capitation.
Luiz says that another concern is the fear that under the new
system patients will consult for trivial reasons because the
service is free. As a way around this one GP suggested patient
co-payments, although there is evidence that incentives for the
provider are more powerful for containing costs. “Over-servicing
in the fee-for-service mode can shift to underservicing in the
capitation mode. Doctors will have to be challenged to synthesise
social justice and industrial efficiency to ethically balance demand
and supply,” he said.
Any future contract with GPs will need to address utilisation
in the framework of measurable patient satisfaction and
May 2013
May 2013
Volume 14 #1
BWB
53
BEYOND the band-aid
change through innovation
The Social Innovation
(SI) Lab at the UCT
Graduate School of
Business is producing
graduates who are
actively pursuing
new methods of
problem-solving in
order to change the
poverty and inequality
landscape of South
Africa. By John Scharges
The National Planning Commission’s diagnostic report
highlighted far-reaching challenges facing South Africa.
Persistent social, political, and economic problems,
including poverty and HIV/AIDS, continue to contribute
to high unemployment and income disparity – now the
worst in the world. More recent obstacles, such as low
capacity and high costs of broadband services, which
impede private sector development and innovation, mean
that South Africa, once a country known for technological
innovations, has been left in the dust.
How to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off is a
challenge that can seem overwhelming – but it is one that the
GSB is applying itself to, says Dr François Bonnici, Director of
the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
at the GSB.
“The multi-faceted challenges of today call for creative and
innovative solutions in the non-profit and public sectors that
are more efficient and human-centred in how they deliver
services to those who need them most,” he says.
Part of this involves taking a systems view of challenges
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Volume 14 #1
have on the prosperity of a country first hand, through his work
as project manager with the Carbon Trust in the United Kingdom.
The Carbon Trust is an initiative that aims to reduce a country’s
carbon emissions and help it become more resource efficient. In
2009 the UK team found an excess of energy usage was a leading
cause of the country’s carbon emission problems.
The multi-faceted challenges of today
call for creative and innovative solutions
in the non-profit and public sectors that
are more efficient and human-centred.
at
ok
o
l
to
ns
art h a le e
t
s
you throug whol
e
c
On lems ity, a utions
l
l
b
pro ossibi of so
p
of range elf.
s
new ents it
s
pre
and trying to think beyond just how to fix something, and
rather investigating how to change the methods that created
the problem.
Daniel Sullivan, a graduate from the Bertha Centre’s Social
Innovation (SI) Lab, which runs as a stream of the MBA at the
GSB, agrees that the habit of trying to “band-aid” the country’s
problems will only provide a temporary fix that can later lead to
even bigger issues.
“There is an important difference between transformative and
corrective problem-solving. Too often decision makers and leaders
apply quick-fix solutions, whereas what is needed are long-term
solutions that look to addressing how the problem occurred in the
first place,” he says.
Sullivan, who recently took up a new role as senior project
officer on the Cape Town World Design Capital team, has
experienced the impact that innovations and shifts in thinking can
May 2013
After running a trial in SMMEs they demonstrated that by
applying the widespread use of an advanced power metering
system, which provides a way to monitor energy usage, and
then analyses the data to offer effective energy management,
they could create cost-effective carbon savings for both the
UK and SMMEs alike. The trial demonstrated the potential
benefits, identified key barriers and clarified the action required
by the SMME community, government and energy suppliers to
implement the systems. As a result, advanced metering was
integrated into UK policy and has yielded far-reaching and
positive results for the country’s economy and carbon footprint.
Bonnici says that thinking such as this – the analysis of a
problem in order to offer new and efficient methods to tackle
it – is what the Bertha Centre and SI Lab aims to provoke. “The
SI Lab is a learning laboratory to strengthen and contextualise
personal and professional visions of transformation and
equip students with a broad set of capabilities to be effective
social innovators and entrepreneurs across all sectors. To
do so the lab, which is driven by collaborative thinking,
learner customisation, and in-depth engagement, offers an
integrated platform that threads together course work, field
work, innovation sessions and group work,” he says.
The lab ran for the first time in 2012 and the inaugural crop of
students – which included Sullivan - have generated some bright
new ideas. For example, they recently partnered with RLabs to
help design the Kukua Fund, a novel impact investment fund
aimed at discovering and investing in Africa’s high potential
internet and mobile start-ups driving social change.
The fund will provide micro investments to startups of up
to US$25,000, human capital and mentorship, and access to
networks as well as business development; this will in turn
promote further growth of the industry and job creation.
Another SI lab student – Dianna Moore – has put forward a
valuable thesis on strategies to integrate small-scale farmers
into the food retail supply chain to increase the sustainability
of this sector.
Sullivan says that the SI Lab was transformative and gave
him and his fellow students the skills to confront the problems
facing South Africa more proactively. And in his new role with
the Cape Town World Design Capital team, he is eager to apply
his newly acquired social innovation, systems and design
thinking and business savvy to the unique opportunities and
challenges facing the city.
Sullivan says he is interested to see if these principles can
be embedded into city projects. “Design thinking can be a way
May 2013
of addressing the illness as opposed to the symptoms. Take
the problem of housing as an example – we need aesthetic
and functional living spaces, but we also have to appreciate
the poor spatial planning that plagues Cape Town. If we look at
the system and consider the needs which a house fulfils, then
we may realise our definition of a house doesn’t necessarily
have to be four walls and a roof. This liberates us to look at
apartment or other designs that address the needs and deliver
their solutions within the defined constraints.
“Once you start to look at problems through a lens of
possibility, then a whole new range of solutions presents
itself. Hopefully the impact of this new approach will serve as
an example to others in ways to ignite sustainable, positive
change,” says Sullivan.
Bonnici agrees, and is enthusiastic about the positive
change that can be brought about by the next generation
of leaders: “Complex problems need fresh thinking; today’s
enterprises need entrepreneurs with the insights and
capabilities to build better organisations that have a positive
social and environmental impact in emerging markets. The SI
Lab was started because the GSB realised that in order to do
so, we need people in the trenches who have the training and
mindset to implement real-world change by applying practical
innovations.”
High-growth, high-return Africa is one of the most sought after frontier
destinations for global investment today. However, there are 54
countries on the continent, and even rigorous business plans can run
aground on the unique and complex set of circumstances found in each
of them. In interviews with global and African companies, Business in
Africa: Corporate Insights takes the reader to the coal face of doing
business on the continent, offering unique insights into the challenges
and peculiarities of operating in Africa.
Dianna Games is Chief Executive of African consulting company Africa @
Work and Hon CEO of the South Africa-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce.
The book, published by Penguin Books South Africa, is available at
Exclusive Books and CNA bookstores and at various online retailers
including Exclusive Books, Kalahari, Loot and Take A Lot.
Contact: Africa At Work: 082 331 4225
www.africaatwork.co.za
Volume 14 #1
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55
Back to school
Consultants with a heart
Business for good: The Goedgedacht Trust’s business model will form the basis of a new not-for-profit consultancy established by Executive MBA
graduates at the GSB.
Graduates from the 2011/2012 Executive MBA (EMBA) class of
the UCT Graduate School of Business have created a not-forprofit organisation that will use innovative business models
with a successful track record to support struggling and new
social development projects.
The organisation will initially draw on the Goedgedacht Trust’s
business model but plans to find other effective models to tackle
issues across all sectors, including government.
The Goedgedacht Trust is a South African charity for rural
children that has built a solid reputation as a successful social
innovation project in rural social development. For many years,
successive Executive MBA classes have been involved with the
Trust, helping to refine and improve its model and now they want
to extend this, and apply its successes in other contexts.
“Few public and private social development initiatives are fully
realising their intended outcomes, whereas the Goedgedacht Trust
has shown remarkable results,” says director of the GSB EMBA,
Tom Ryan. “Key to their success is a strategy of self-sustainability
in which they have established a number of revenue streams that
fund their social development programmes.”
In contrast to conventional business models, Goedgedacht has
the overarching objective of social viability. To realise this within its
broader mission and values it includes economic, ecological and
institutional viability, all of which contribute to its sustainability.
The business idea underpinning the new organisation is to use
knowledge management processes to surface the Goedgedacht
business model and develop it into a format for wider use.
Co-founder of the initiative, André Theys, says that the
company will be made up of members of the GSB Executive
MBA class, and so will be able to draw on a variety of expertise
and resources at little cost. “We want the entire 2013 class to
be members of this company to help ensure the sustainability
of the entity,” he says.
Goedgedacht-nominated representatives will make up the
rest of the organisation.
To achieve the goal of building a sustainable organisation
rather than a charity, the organisation will aim to generate
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income, but all profits will go towards running costs and
advancing its objectives. Revenue will be generated though the
fees charged for advisory services and the training provided.
There is so much scope in South Africa for
the application of these kinds of models
Three customer segments have shown interest in the
Goedgedacht business model and will make up the initial
target market for the organisation. These are: the South African
Department of Rural Development and Land Reform that needs to
increase the success rate of its rural development initiatives; the
mining houses that need to both invest in the current development
of local communities in which their mines are located and
provide credible social plans for the future development of these
communities when the mines reach the end of their economic life;
and rural municipalities that are responsible for the development
of local communities.
Theys says that the EMBA organisation will now begin to search
for other working models that could have a broader positive
impact. He believes that the practical implications of the EMBA
enterprise could have a significant impact on many challenges
that are currently bedevilling the country.
“There is so much scope in South Africa for the application of
these kinds of models – we aim to play our part in making these
organisations viable.”
As one of its revenue streams the
Goedgedacht Trust makes its spectacular
Cape Dutch Homestead available to hire for
weddings and other special events. For more
information please contact reservations@
goedgedacht.org.
May 2013
A new executive education programme at the UCT’s Graduate
School of Business is targeting leadership at schools to
improve the standard of education in South Africa and
ultimately create more employable South Africans.
In partnership with Capitec Bank Limited and The Principal’s
Trust, the Executive Management Programme for School Leaders
wants to combat shortcomings in the South African school system
by using strategies modelled on the GSB’s world-class adult
teaching and learning techniques.
“There are many examples of schools being very successful,
even with poor facilities and infrastructure, because of the inspiring
managerial and leadership qualities of the school principal,” says
Rick Haw, co-founder and former CEO of Haw & Inglis and founder
of the Principal’s Trust.
For Haw, the programme is the culmination of a long and very
personal journey. He started the Principal’s Trust because of a
conviction that to create more employable South Africans you
need first to fix the school system and to fix the schools you need
to invest in school leaders.
The South African Survey 2012 showed that the standard of
education in SA is lower than that of poorer countries in Africa.
An MBA alumnus and business owner, Haw says he has
experienced first-hand the frustrations of this poor school system
particularly as it translated into not being able to find people with
the right skills to work in his business.
He approached the business school to establish the programme
because he believes that what he gained during his MBA is worth
sharing with school leaders.
I believe my MBA changed the way I
managed and dealt with people for
the better. When I graduated as a civil
engineer, I thought most problems could
be fixed with a simple mathematically
based engineering solution.
“I believe my MBA changed the way I managed and dealt with
people for the better. When I graduated as a civil engineer, I thought
most problems could be fixed with a simple mathematically
based engineering solution. The MBA taught me that many of
the solutions to the problems associated with establishing a
successful business are brought about by an understanding of
individuals.”
Mandy Lebides, educator and consultant on the programme,
agrees with Haw that targeting leadership is critical because it
is the break down in leadership that precedes the break down
in schools.
Sbusiso Kumalo, Head of Corporate Affairs at Capitec Bank,
says the bank also shares this vision. “School leadership and
management make a crucial difference in learner performance
at schools and so we’ve proudly partnered with the GSB
May 2013
Proactive stance: MBA alumnus Rick Haw wants to tackle the skills crisis
head on.
to deliver the Executive Leadership Programme for School
Leaders,” he says.
The modular, 18-month programme is designed to bolster the
skills of school leaders, and cause a positive ripple effect that
will change the lives not only of the teaching staff and learners
at their school, but the parent body, the governing body and the
surrounding community.
“The programme will help principals manage and unravel
the complexity within the system,” says Lebides, adding that
principals will become their own experts, independent theorists
who know how to put their theories into action.
The partners hope that the programme will go some way
towards creating centres of excellence for learning and will help
to turn schools into happy and sought after places of learning
respected by the staff and the learners and the surrounding
community. It is also hoped that it will result in more skilled
matriculants who are ready and able to go on to make a positive
contribution to the economy.
The plan for the programme is to eventually grow to include
the entire school management team, creating an ecosystem of
reflective, critical support within each and every school.
“Our vision is to create an aspirational offering that is able to
define and create sustainable change in the lives of everyone
involved – and of course beyond – as the life of a leader touches
and influences so many,” says Linda Buckley, director of Executive
Education at the GSB.
Volume 14 #1
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57
The Butterfly Life Cycle – P.O.W.E.R’S Mission
Class notes
We transform women to empower them totally, taking them through the different stages of the Butterfly’s life cycle. We nurture them from the egg stage
(inexperienced, unskilled), through larva, pupa and until the adult stage where they become empowered and beautiful butterflies that are self sustainable
and able to ‘fly’.
David Nanson (MBA 2004) and
Andrew Milner (MBA 2004), through
their organisation SlipstreamBI,
have signed a deal with Shoprite to
provide the chain with tableau data
visualisation and enterprise reporting
software.
Darren Oddie (MBA 2004) recently
launched his company, AGILEci, the
first business intelligence consultancy
and customised software provider
designed for marketers.
Pupa
2. During this stage P.O.W.E.R
will be able to help and
guide the young ladies in the
direction of their strengths and
help them gain knowledge.
Craig and Olivia Adams (AIM 2005)
had a beautiful baby girl, Sadie Ann
Adams, on the 25 February 2013.
als
Egg
ls
The pupa is the first stage.
Adult insects structures
are formed. Most species
blends into the background.
Steve (MBA 2010) and Kim Beaumont
welcomed their second son, Aiden
Beaumont, on 15 October 2012.
Go
oa
ls
4.
4. P.O.W.E.R will be
there to help and
support the young
ladies as they move into
the workplace with pride
and confidence. They
can now support and
continue the cycle.
oa
Manfred Mathis (MBA 2009) and
Andrea, welcomed baby boy Jarno,
born on 11 February 2013, weighing
4360 grams and 56 cm long.
Theonevus
(Tinashe)
Chinyanga
(MBA 2010) and his wife welcomed a
baby girl on 29 October 2012.
Former director of the GSB, UCT
Emeritus Professor Frank Horwitz
(pictured below), has been awarded
the SAABP (SA Board for People
Practices) Lifetime Achievement
Award for his contributions to the field
of Human Resources.
Butterfly
1.
G
Isabella Welby-Solomon was born to
Eben Solomon (MBA 2010) and his
wife Enid, joining her sister and two
brothers, on 28 January 2013.
Piyush (MBA 2010) and Ragini Bharti
welcomed Shrey Bharti in December 2012.
3. At this point
P.O.W.E.R will be able
to help refine the young
ladies helping them into
the new form that will
become their structures
and successful career.
Now colourful butterfly are
usually seen. It is the mobile
stage for the species.
2.
Christian (MBA 2005) and Maike
Trede’s son Jonathan was born on 6
February 2013 at 21:17 (Namibian time)
in Windhoek, weighing 3,260g and 51
cm long.
The caterpillar (or larva) is the
worm-like stage of the butterfly.
It often has an interesting pattern
of stripes or patches. It is the
feeding and growth stage.
3. G
Lee Anne (nee Walker) (MBA 2010) and
Jamie Scott welcomed Hannah Elizabeth
Scott (pictured below) into the world on
6 February 2013.
Faye Lily Burnett (pictured below) was
born to Steven (MBA 2010) and Victoria
Burnett, on 14 December 2012.
ls
Congratulations to:
Announcements
a
Go
Births
Lava
The egg is tiny. The female
attaches the egg to leaves or
stems usually on or near the
intended carterpillar food.
1.P.O.W.E.R will be there to
assist any young female during this stage – as she will
need training and support.
Appointments
Bukekile Mashoko (MBA 2010/11)
recently obtained a new position with
Transnet as an Executive Manager:
Group Performance Monitoring and
Reporting.
Jonathan Marks (MBA 2001/02)
graduated in December last year with
a PhD from UCT and has now taken
up the position as Senior Lecturer and
Director: Full Time MBA Programme
at the Gordon Institute of Business
Science in Johannesburg.
Mission
P.O.W.E.R. is a non-profit membership-based organisation that was Founded by Kissmea Naude
Power envisions a world where no one is abused, poor, illiterate or marginalised; where members of communities have full and equal participation in the
processes that ensure their health, well-being and economic independence; and where everyone has the freedom to define the scope of their life, their
future and strive to achieve their full potential.
Bradley Lang, (AIM 2003) has been
promoted to heading up the Amsterdam
office for the Rotterdam School of
Management (Erasmus University).
Weddings
Letticia Nkumbula (MBA 2006) has
accepted a position as Management
Consultant at Accenture.
Classmates Morgan Jones (MBA 2009) and
Karen Yodaiken (MBA 2009) were married
in December 2012.
Company Overview
P.O.W.E.R. (Propagation of Women’s Empowerment Resources) is a non-profit membership-based organisation that was founded by Kissmea Naude in South
Africa in November 1996.
Women at this stage needed a vehicle to access business opportunities with the new RDP legislation in our new democracy in 1994. P.O.W.E.R. was
born as this vehicle. Power has evolved into an organisation that works tirelessly to assist women in business as well as aspiring entrepreneurs needing
assistance and guidance in their business and business ventures.
POWER helps women go from victim to survivor to active citizen. POWER provide financial aid through different government programmes, job training,
rights awareness and leadership education. For more information and membership application please email [email protected].
Tel: +27 ( 0)86 133 3917 • Fax: +27 (0) 866 114 666 • Email:[email protected] • website:womenempowerment.org.za
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BWB
Volume 14 #1
May 2013