Humans have been communicating with each other since time immemorial. Some of the earliest forms of exchanging information are cave paintings, oral storytelling, smoke signals and even the beating of drums.
The way we communicate has developed in leaps and bounds since those prehistoric days. Today, if you have something to say, the chances of a broken telephone scenario should be less likely.
As tools to communicate have modernized, so people have been able to connect more easily over longer distances. One of greatest instruments is social media, which has refashioned the way women connect and network with each other.
“I think the world of social media has been the greatest revolution, there’s no censorship, there’s no gatekeepers you join an online community and the networking occurs in that community. It’s one of the best things that has ever happened,” says Judi Nwokedi, who is member of the South African chapter of the International Women’s Forum (IWFSA), a network which connects preeminent women around the world.
“These days you don’t have to be in a physical space to be inspired.”
The value of networking in all its forms cannot be underestimated. It has become essential to business success. As a result, there has been a proliferation of national, regional and international networks targeting women.
Although businesswomen and -men often network for the same reasons, including extending their client base and contacts, just like communicating, we go about it in very different ways.
Eva Muraya, of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an organization that trains and empowers emerging women leaders and entrepreneurs across the world, says this is proof of the increasing potential of networks to be used as vehicles to enhance knowledge sharing and professional and business growth.
“Additionally online resources such as www.wisdomexchangetv.com have revolutionized information sharing and peer learning by creating a platform through which women trailblazers from Africa can motivate and inspire other women through sharing their stories which are captured on video,” says Muraya, who is also the CEO of Kenya’s Brand Strategy and Design (EA) Ltd.
The traditional old boys’ club of clinching business deals over cognac and cigars is a seldom seen feature in women’s networks – and it is not often that you come across women in these circles.
“There are the structured opportunities. If you, for example, look at the WEF (World Economic Forum)… none of the organizers would be naïve or stupid enough to exclude women. But often it is at the CEO level, the chair level, at the president level, so automatically your numbers are reduced,” says Nwokedi, who is a leader in nuclear energy and infrastructure on the continent.
Nwokedi says the boys’ club is about wealth creation, and women have a lot of catching up to do.
“In order to make a gain you first have to be organized, and that is why we form these women’s organizations, because the first thing they are going to say is, ‘make the business case’. We have to disaggregate the data to see how many engineers there are; how many female engineers there are; how many black female engineers there are; how many young black females there are. You have to drill down. In order for us to say, ‘things have got to change’ we have got to prove why and then we have to develop a program that gets that dividend. It’s a lot of work and men don’t have to do that.”
Networks are especially important for women, who more often than not face inequality in the workplace and at home.
“[Networking] was initially conceptualized according to the American idea, by women who are CEOs; women who are presidents; women who are chairs. Because once you are at the top… it’s extremely lonely. You couldn’t afford to let your guard down in the boardroom or even in your corporation, because that is perceived as weakness when it comes to women. So women then get together to support each other when they are the top of their craft,” says Nwokedi.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s 2010 Women’s Report , women need to do improve the way they network.
The report finds women entrepreneurs and business owners are inclined to have smaller and less diverse networks than their male counterparts. They are also more likely to seek guidance from family members.
“Men’s networks tended to be as large or larger than those of women… to encompass more people in one’s work: entrepreneurial, professional, and market environment… Academic research suggests that entrepreneurs having broad and diverse networks are more likely to have better access to the information and knowledge that is associated with high growth potential and venture performance.”
Although there is recognition that women need to catch up in fully utilising networks, they do use a variety of forums on the continent to connect. These include roundtables, think tanks, seminars, workshops, conferences, LinkedIn, and cocktail events. And of course political parties will always remain an excellent way of establishing contacts.
In South Africa, the IWFSA recognizes the need for mentorship and nurturing. It has a strategic leadership program with the Gordon Institute of Business Science. The year-long course prepares senior women with leadership potential for top posts in their organizations.
The next big network to keep your eye on is the Brics Women’s Initiative. It is being steered by a group of key women, including Nwokedi. It aims to increase women’s participation in Africa as well as in the member countries of Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Although the group recognized at its last summit there was a need for women-owned ventures, the recently formed Brics Business Council tells a very different story. It comprises 25 people, and only two of them are women.
“Because the criteria (is not) a 50/50 representation, there are fewer women…
“It’s not even institutionally that women are excluded; it’s organically that they are excluded. You need to re-engineer the institutional arrangements to make sure women are included,” says Nwokedi. i

Subverting  the old boys club: New ways of networking

More than five years ago, she found herself on the wrong side of history when South Africa’s ruling party opted for leaders whom it believed would be more connected to the country’s poor and working class.
But now Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who has been in the background since then, has been appointed as a leader of the world’s largest bureaucracy, the United Nations (UN).
For the next four years, she will serve as the executive director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, known colloquially as UN Women.
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“It’s always been a defining feature for me, that if anything works, it must work for women. I have always known that this is my benchmark and I must get there as quickly as possible… If I cannot facilitate change, God forbid!” she says.
The body, which was formed in 2010, is tasked with promoting women’s rights and their participation in global affairs. UN Women can boast some successes, such as helping women gain seats in seven national elections, and reforming laws and policies in 26 countries to increase women’s access to economic assets and social protection.
But Mlambo-Ngcuka has her work cut out for her. Although there are calls, which she supports, to develop a stand-alone UN goal to achieve gender equality, the organization faces serious challenges, including inadequate funding.
Also, in a time when the world has to deal with economic uncertainty, more than often, budget cuts negatively affect the progress of women and entrench gender inequalities.
Mlambo-Ngcuka joins a list of women who were shining stars in former South African president Thabo Mbeki’s cabinet and have since left the country to take up international positions&#8230; Mlambo-Ngcuka, African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and special envoy on gender at the African Development Bank, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, could all, arguably, in their own right lead South Africa.
However, the experience Mlambo-Ngcuka gained while she served in government, and her well-known
tenacity, will now be put to use on the global stage.
She insists Africa will be a priority, but not at the expense of other regions.
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“When you think about Africa, the first thing that comes to your mind is poverty. And yet there’s a lot of good things in Africa… I want for us to start picturing a different Africa and bring forward that Africa does have resources. That there is a fighting spirit that we need to harness,” she says.
Mlambo-Ngcuka is not alone in her approach. For far too long, Africa has been depicted as the begging bowl of the world , a perception that Dlamini-Zuma also wants to remedy.
Mlambo-Ngcula says she plans to work closely with Dlamini-Zuma, as well as Africa’s two women presidents, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from Liberia and Malawi’s Joyce Banda.
“I would want to go to these women on the issues I’m going to be pushing forward as they relate to Africa. I actually want to harness their stature and the influence they have to make a push. Also, I will need them in working with the other leaders in Africa.”
There are strategic countries on the continent whose buy-in Mlambo-Ngcuka will have to get, such as Nigeria, with its wealth of powerful and influential women.
Women across the world face a multitude of challenges, which change in severity depending on where they live and what their social standing is. Mlambo-Ngcuka believes that if she can improve the quality of education and reproductive health, her time at the UN will not have been wasted.
“One of the things that is uniquely disabling sometimes to women, is failure to address their reproductive health. Women have an unwanted baby when they are not ready to support the child. You trigger inter-generational poverty and the life of that woman comes to a standstill. So allowing women to reach their full potential without having to deal with the responsibility of having a family they have not planned for, is, for me, very important.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka took office in August 2013 and has a number of initial ideas on how she will improve UN Women. When her predecessor, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, resigned to focus on politics, she was criticized in some quarters for not leaving much of a legacy. Some of this was blamed on her role being confined to raising awareness about women’s living conditions and UN Women having no executive powers.
“I don’t want to be all gung-ho right at the beginning, and maybe create that vibe for myself, but really, I am also concerned. I cannot leave my country to be a token. We need to do something that is destiny-changing for women.
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“In my discussions with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, he made it very clear it is important that we make an impact on women. I am hoping that I can lean on him and when it turns out actually that there isn’t scope for that, I can go and speak to him.”
Mlambo-Ngcuka’s strategy is not to reinvent the wheel, but to build on what people are currently doing. Her aim is to give UN Women a much stronger presence and make sure that women’s issues are more visible.
“I want to make sure women are in your face… I just feel our voice is a bit muzzled, a bit timid. And I feel that this is one time where you want to lead from the front.”

SA’s global citizen: The new head of UN Women wants to redefine the world for women.

A couple of weeks ago I went on a real vacation. I didn’t bring my computer, I shut off my phone. The only time I even thought about work was when my mind wondered to topics of long term strategy. I didn’t worry about the day-to-day operations at my company even once. Why? I did not need to. I had a strong and capable team that kept everything moving forward in my absence.
Early in my corporate career, a manager leaving on vacation said to me, “Unless my house is burning down, don’t contact me.”
I was shocked by his brazen disinterest in work while he vacationed. “This guy is not going to last long,” I thought. Instead, it was one of the best leadership lessons I ever received. He had a chance to take a well-needed break. His team members had a chance to stretch their leadership, develop confidence, and grow. His actions were signs of an effective leader. But most leaders balk at the idea that a manager-level employee would even think of telling others that they will not be available during their vacation.
&nbsp;
<h4>Surviving vacation</h4>
In his Forbes article Take A Serious Vacation: A CEO’s Advice To All CEOs, Jim Moffatt, the chairman and chief executive of Deloitte Consulting LLP, says, “If your business can’t survive your vacation, you’ve got a bigger problem.” He suggests that leaders and managers treat their vacations as a “test” – not just of the leader’s ability to take a break, but of what happens to the organization when they are absent for an extended period of time.
However, the inability to take a vacation isn’t limited to the corner office. A recent study by Kelton Research commissioned by the Radisson hotel chain indicates that nearly half of the total American workforce doesn’t use all of their allotted vacation days. From my experience leading HR functions at mid to large sized companies, I can confirm that the core offenders are managers and leaders. And when asked why this group of hard working professionals left vacation days on the table, most sighted their fear of losing momentum or missing quarterly or annual objectives. In other words, they felt that things would fall apart as soon as they left.
Perhaps these managers and leaders are a product of a workforce that simply has too much on their plate. Kelton’s study did find that heavy workloads were one of the primary reasons workers decided not to take more time off. If this is the case, organizations must ask a critical question – who is taking a break from the day-to-day operations to think about the long-term strategy of the business?
&nbsp;
<h4>The problem with doers</h4>
If corporations don’t ask and answer this important question, they may very well find themselves with an organization full of doers and no leaders. While all companies certainly need both, employees need to be able to recognize and respect the difference. An organization full of doers is simply not going to last.
The story of Edwin H. Land and Polaroid is a glaring example of the fate of an organization of doers, brilliant as they may be. As Polaroid grew, Land had teams of people working in shifts at his side. As one team wore out, the next team rotated in to continue the work. Land was at the core of everything at Polaroid and was even accused of wearing the same clothing for eighteen consecutive days because he refused to take a break. Subsequently, his successors mismanaged the company and the once-great organization headed into a downward spiral. In his 2012 book Instant: The Story of Polaroid, Christopher Bonanos tells the story of Polaroid’s competitor Kodak referring to Land’s company as “He” instead of Polaroid. In October 2001, Polaroid declared bankruptcy.
I have worked for both doers and leaders. Despite the hours doers work, I always learned more from the leaders. One of the best leaders I worked for told me that as an HR executive I should be sitting in the lobby greeting employees and reading the paper. This is a bit extreme, but what he was saying is that I needed to spend my time thinking about the big picture – our people strategy to drive our business forward. I shouldn’t be down in the weeds chasing up performance reviews, reviewing improvement plans, or attending every vendor meeting. He encouraged me to build a strong team to do that work.
The other problem with doers is that they frequently don’t lead by example. It is disingenuous when a leader tells me to stop working and take a vacation or recover from an illness, but a week later they show up to work coughing and sneezing. Some doers will boast about not having taken a proper vacation in 10 years. Working for these leaders, I never felt I was allowed to fully unplug despite their encouragement to do so. As with all aspects of effective leadership, walking the talk is the only way to create lasting change.
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<h4>Making yourself redundant</h4>
A leader is not doing their followers, boss, or organization any favors by building a team that can’t function without them. They have a duty of care to teach their followers to fish instead of fishing for them. At day’s end, the true test of effective leadership manifests itself when a leader is absent.
The one thing that all effective leaders do is make themselves redundant so they can move on to even greater challenges and help more people – knowing that the team they built will flourish and carry on the mission. All my personal success as a leader has been a result of living this principle. The only boasting I do is about taking all my vacation each year. I encourage you to do
the same.
As a leader or manager, here are three simple questions you should ask of yourself daily to ensure you are practicing effective leadership and building sustainable teams and organizations:
<ol>
<li>Can I go on vacation without my computer and phone?</li>
<li>If I get sick, can I focus on getting better without working or being in contact?</li>
<li>If I quit today, would my team/organization continue to be successful and grow with minimal disruption?</li>
</ol>
If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to all the above questions, you need to either build a new team, develop the one you have, start trusting your people to work on their own making it okay to fail and learn from mistakes, or move into a role that does not require people management.

Make Yourself Redundant:

It is widely accepted that for many countries on the continent gross domestic product (GDP) is understated. The question is by how much.
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Ghana created quite a stir when revisions to its GDP data announced in 2010 showed that the country’s economy was 60% bigger than previously believed. Ghana was thus transformed overnight from a low-income to a middle-income country. This happened as GDP per capita, an important measure of wealth, rocketed from about $550 to $1,100.
The news prompted the World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, Shantayanan Devarajan, to declare Africa a “statistical tragedy”. Granted, it is an overstatement. But his comment emphasizes the implications of this shortcoming – if the data is inaccurate, those governments and development agencies could be making poor decisions.
What happened was that Ghana changed the base year for its data from 1993 to 2006, taking into account the deep structural changes in the economy during that period.
The base year is the reference year in terms of GDP, expressed at constant prices, and it determines the importance which various sectors have for the economy. In Ghana’s case, the country’s registry of business was out of date and the national accounts failed to capture the output of these companies. According to the Ghana Statistical Service, the share of services in the economy rose from 36.1%  to 51.1%, while the contributions of industry and agriculture both fell.
Many economies in the region have base years which are more than a decade old – which compares poorly with the international best practice of revising the base every five years. This is particularly significant in the case of Nigeria, the continent’s second-biggest economy, which has announced it is in the process of changing its base year from 1990 to 2010. The new GDP figures will be announced next year. There is a general perception that after taking telecommunications and entertainment into account, the economy will be about 40% bigger than it is at present.
According to the regional research head for Africa at Standard Chartered, Razia Khan, the revision means that Nigeria’s economy will be just 10% smaller than South Africa’s. With its economy growing at around 7% a year, compared with South Africa’s pace of less than 3%, the Nigerian economy is likely to be the biggest on the continent by 2015. The revision will also affect the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria’s economy already accounts for nearly one-fifth of the region’s total output, so an upgrade means that the combined economies of sub-Saharan Africa will be significantly bigger than estimated at present.
This poses the question: how many other economies on the continent are also bigger than the current data suggests? According to Kim Zieschang, the Division Chief of the Statistics Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Washington-based lender anticipates providing technical assistance to a “large number” of sub-Saharan African countries, and in fact is already doing so. This means that many countries have asked the IMF for help in upgrading their economic statistics, just as Ghana and Nigeria have done.
According to Lyal White, Director of the Centre for Dynamic Markets at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, there are two problems, one is the absence of data and the other is the poor quality of data presently available. Many sub-Saharan African economies have large informal sectors which are notoriously difficult to cover.
It is likely that that there will be upward revisions of GDP data in other countries in the region, but the magnitude of those changes are difficult to assess ahead of the conclusion of their processes, Zieschang says. What is certain is that the revisions will radically alter the ranking of sub-Saharan African countries by size.
So what do the changes mean for countries in the region? Global investors are likely to sit up and take note of bigger economies, which will be more attractive destinations for their capital. There will be more information on which sectors to invest in, and governments will have a better idea of what to do to foster development and growth. Some of the ratios which gauge the quality of a country’s economy will improve – debt to GDP ratios will fall, as will budget deficits, which are also measured as a ratio of the size of the economy.
On the downside this could encourage governments to spend a bit more recklessly. At the same time, the ratios of official revenue to GDP will fall, putting pressure on governments to increase their tax base. A significant drawback is that richer countries may no longer qualify for aid or concessional loans from international agencies. Nonetheless, IMF officials say there would be a good case to revise upwards the thresholds for this type of support.
On the upside the pending upward revisions to GDP data will present sub-Saharan Africa as a more significant player in the global arena.

Can Africa shrug off  the resource curse?

Is Africa a statistical tragedy?

So goes Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina’s searing satirical piece, entitled ‘How to Write About Africa’, which appeared in Granta magazine in 2005 and subsequently went viral.
The article offered comic relief to many Africans who had bottled up resentment to the centuries-old narratives about the ‘Dark Continent’, which were more often than not shaped by non-Africans.
In recent years, many more Africans have joined Wainaina’s ranks – evangelists trampling these stereotypes and spreading the gospel of ‘Africa rising’.
As part of this new narrative, the news media constantly reminds us that Africa is home to six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies. This year, The Economist declared Africa “the world’s fastest-growing continent”, while Time noted Africa is “the world’s next economic powerhouse”. A few years back, a McKinsey &amp; Co report described our economies as “lions on the move”.
Indeed these lions have newfound assertiveness, thanks to a period of relative political stability, a decade-long economic surge, changing geo-political relations on the back of China’s growth, and access to social media platforms.
In this mission to redefine the long-battered image of Africa, Kenya offers an interesting case study. Much of the country’s confidence comes from its status as a regional economic hub, political heavyweight and technology leader.
Kenya is also, arguably, leading the African pushback against Western media’s tendency to cover mostly coups, wars, famine, hunger and diseases on the continent.
“These are the images that we must aggressively seek to banish from the global media space and sphere about Africa. Not because they do not exist, rather, that they will belong to a past, an inglorious past, that we seek forever to consign to the annals of history,” Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta declared on World Press Freedom Day earlier this year.
With Kenyans at the forefront of Africa’s tech movement, it’s no surprise that the younger generation is using social media to challenge stereotypical images. In the lead-up to the March general elections, KoTs (Kenyans on Twitter) were increasingly vocal about which stories Western media chose to cover.
KoTs used #someonetellCNN to force the broadcast giant to apologize. An international correspondent had allegedly stage-managed  a report showing some Rift Valley residents planning retribution attacks for the 2007/8 post-election violence.
Not only are Kenyans challenging Western narratives, they are also producing their own. For many Kenyans, one of the lasting images of the media coverage of the election is that of NTV anchor Larry Madowo’s ‘helicopter journalism’. On election day, Madowo started off with a live report from a polling station in Nairobi. A short while later, he was reporting from Garissa Town, then Lamu, then Tana River County.
Another example came after the poll. Kenyan student Waringa Kamau, who is studying at the Washington and Lee University in the United States, wanted to find out if KoTs’ concerns that Western media deliberately portrays Africa in a negative light extended beyond her fellow Kenyans. Her documentary, Africa in Western Media, shows that the students she interviewed agreed with KoTs.
With the growing optimism, there is also an increasing concern that the news media is under pressure to downplay any negative accounts. Kenyan media has been criticized by Kenyans themselves for trivializing some of the violence and irregularities that occurred during the run-up to the elections.
Even the broader ‘Africa rising’ narrative has been condemned. It is accused of implicitly concealing the fragility of Africa’s economic growth and the various challenges that could hold the continent back from genuine, inclusive development. Some of these are ongoing aid dependence, governance issues and the fact that the economic surge is largely driven by the extractive industry, as Rick Rowden points out in his Foreign Policy article, ‘The Myth of Africa’s Rise’.
So, while a shift from the ‘hopeless Africa’ narrative is long overdue, Kenyans and their African sisters and sisters may need to move into a new paradigm, where happenings on the ground are examined more closely.
We need to find the balance when telling our own stories, otherwise the image of Africa rising will not hold and the journey to inclusive development may be stalled before it starts.

A new story about

While a sunny Friday beckons at your office window, you feel cooped up inside with a pile of work. If only you could be on the golf course: feeling the breeze; practising your swing and enjoying a cold one at the 19th hole. But the guilt you’d feel about leaving your in-tray until Monday, far outweighs the benefits of a little exercise. It’s time to start thinking differently about golf. If you change your perspective and play the game with the right mindset, it can be a powerful business tool that can bring you much further than your nagging in-tray.
&nbsp;
<h4>The Game Of Fortune</h4>
In his book Deals on the Green: Lessons on Business and Golf from America’s Top Executives, David Rynecki explains the secret that many a successful executive has learned: golf can be one of the most powerful tools in your business briefcase.
“No matter how sophisticated the tools become—the email and teleconferencing, the BlackBerrys and Powerpoint presentations—golf remains the true communication hub of business.”
In fact, 90% of Fortune 500-listed CEOs play golf, according to the Chicago Tribune. However, whether this is because the game teaches certain skills that are valuable in business, or because it has simply become a fraternity for like-minded businesspeople over the years, is unclear.
Whatever the reason, the results are the same: golf improves your business game. In a study by Pompeu Fabra University, in Spain, researchers found that CEOs who are not regular golfers are paid 17% less than those who are, and for every stroke a CEO’s handicap increases, he receives 6% less in salary plus bonuses.
&nbsp;
<h4>Pressure Test</h4>
If money isn’t what drives you, here’s more motivation to pick up that driver and get swinging: golf is also a useful personality test.
“Golf teaches you about a person’s reactions in adversity, how they deal competitively with situations, because with golf there is such an easy mechanism to take advantage of the rules,” writes Rynecki.
“I’m not worried about their skills as a player, but rather how they conduct themselves, as golf, like business and life, will test you in a multitude of ways,” he says.
Golf’s challenge is to stay calm under pressure, think strategically and act gentlemanly even when you’d much rather repeatedly bash your club against the nearest tree, when your game goes south. It calls for competitiveness, focus and discipline; qualities that get you ahead in the boardroom too.
&nbsp;
<h4>The Great Equaliser</h4>
Golf affords you the chance to conduct business without the pressures of the office environment. One of the virtues of the game is that people of any age can play. You wouldn’t want your 65-year-old client to have a heart attack while running after your squash serve, but golf allows him to do things at his own pace, and have enough breath to talk while he does so.
It’s the great equaliser: “[Golf gives you] the opportunity to spend quality time with like-minded people from all walks of life. No matter who you are or what you do professionally, golf is a real leveller,” says Ebrahim Matthews, MD of Diners Club, South Africa.
Even if you’re not Tiger Woods, ditch that in-tray and get onto the course for some practice. In golf, losing doesn’t mean losing out!

Golf Means Business

Who says being a caddie lacks romance?
Two Zimbabweans, both alike in dignity, in the United States where we lay our scene: one a professional golfer, the other a hairdresser.
Ryan Cairns, a former number-one golfer in Zimbabwe, was in the United States when he came across Tammy Birkett’s profile on Facebook. He liked what he saw and thought he had met her before but when he made contact, it turned out they were complete strangers.
“The only reason I accepted [his friend request] was because we had 120 mutual friends,” says Birkett.
Their conversations became more frequent and, as fate would have it, on an auspicious day they were booked on the same flight from New York to Zimbabwe. They checked in together and after 16 hours there was love in the air. After the two began dating, Cairns popped the question: will you caddie for me?
Their first game together was at the Sunshine Big Easy Tour in 2012. Cairns played well, perhaps he was trying to impress Birkett, and landed his first professional win. It was also a first for Birkett as a caddie. She learnt that there was more to it than knowing the yardage, pin placements and which club to use.
“At the time I had run out of money and instead of me paying, she paid for herself. She sponsored her own trip down to South Africa from Harare… [We] ended up winning the tournament and my career turned around. She took a chance on me and that made a huge difference,” says Cairns.
Like any relationship the bond between caddie and player is developed through trials and successes on the green. When Cairns is struggling, Birkett knows just what to do.
“One thing that I always say is, ‘Imagine yourself in a couple of hours when we are watching a movie, chilling, and you’re not even going to have this bad feeling that you have right now, so there is no point in holding onto that.’”
Birkett, who is now in her second year as a caddie, says that her biggest problem—besides being one of the few female caddies—is getting in line with the pedantic.
“When I first started, there were so many rules around the green like walking on your lines… you can’t talk, whisper at certain times and moving the bag was such an issue.”
Across the Beitbridge border, in South Africa, another caddie shares his secret of success.
It was the summer of 1998 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge, also known as the million-dollar golf challenge. As the tournament came to a close Tiger Woods seemed the likely winner. But with a then course record of 24 under par, Nick Price walked away with the trophy. A few steps behind him, carrying his bag, stood Tiger Lekhulene.
“We had beaten Tiger Woods. How many people can say that they beat Tiger Woods?” says Lekhulene.
Beating his namesake was the end of a very long road for Lekhulene. At the age of 14, he began his career as a caddie at Randpark Golf Club in Johannesburg, to pay for his school fees. He matriculated and became a fulltime caddie for top players, including Ian Palmer, Sally Little and Des Terblanche. Of all the players he has carried for, none of them have won as many tournaments as Price. For the past 33 years, Lekhulene has carried for him and is proud to call him a friend.
“I met Nicky by chance. He came to practice at Randpark and asked me to pick up balls for him. After his practice he asked me to caddie for him… he won the first professional game I caddied for him [Asseng TV Challenge Series], in 1979.”
Although caddies advise the player on what club to use and how to play the shot, at the end of the day they know not to overstep.
“You can discuss how to hit a shot but the final decision is up to him, he is the one who is going to hit the ball. You can’t force him to play a shot that he doesn’t want to play,” says Lekhulene.
Although Lekhulene enjoys his career, he says that his biggest issue is in the politics of the game.
“Golfers are not giving professional caddies a fair chance as they used to. I feel white people no longer feel like they should be giving black people so much money. They would rather have their cousins, fathers or family members caddie for them and give them the money. This is placing our careers as professionally-trained caddies at risk,” says Lekhulene.
Both Lekhulene and Birkett agree that there are perks. You get to see the world, make a good living and on top of your pay you often get a very good commission. According to the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, caddies’ salaries differ from caddie to caddie, as it is an agreement between the caddie and the golfer.
Although Lekhulene and Birkett have taken different paths, they both became caddies to top golfers in Africa, proving that there is no set way to become a caddie. Sometimes it takes hard work; sometimes it’s a meeting on the green; and sometimes it’s a romance on a social networking site.

Will You Caddie For Me, Dear?

Millions loved her, millions more hated her; few could ignore her. When former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel in London, on April 8, it knocked the rest of the news off the bulletins for days.
It was the end of a life that made waves from Brussels to Africa with an attitude that could both divide and inspire. When she joined Parliament in 1959, the grocer’s daughter from Grantham was one of the few women in a legislature that resembled a gentleman’s club. In her years in Westminster she overcame prejudice against women and people from humble backgrounds.
“You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning,” said Thatcher in one of her most famous speeches, in 1980.
The Iron Lady—as the Russians dubbed her—criticized Europe, sacked her ministers, went to war with Argentina, poured harsh words and legislation on the unions and scorned Africa’s biggest liberation movement.
Thatcher called the African National Congress (ANC) terrorists, she refused to recognize the party and cast doubt on its ability to govern. Despite this, according to Thomas Wheeler, a research associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Thatcher found apartheid unacceptable, even though she didn’t believe in sanctions. Zambian president, Kenneth Kaunda, clashed with Thatcher over apartheid at a Commonwealth conference in Lusaka, but the two ended up dancing the night away in the ballroom.
“We acknowledge that she was one of the strong leaders in Britain and Europe to an extent that some of her policies dominate discourse in the public service structures of the world,” the ANC was gracious enough to say.
Thatcher also had little time for the liberation forces of Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia. In 1979, Thatcher banned her envoy from meeting with ZANU leader Robert Mugabe; refusing to talk with someone she regarded a terrorist, until he became Prime Minister. At the time, Britain was mulling over whether to recognize the interim government of the late Bishop Abel Muzorewa. His was the first black-led administration in Zimbabwe, but nationalists saw it as a puppet regime.
Many Rhodesian British passport holders helped vote in Thatcher in the May 1979 election in the hope that it would postpone independence. Ironically, it was Thatcher who pushed through the Lancaster House talks in London, later that year, that ushered in independence on April 18, 1980—the night when the Union flag came down for the last time and Bob Marley played to jubilant thousands at Rufaro Stadium in Harare.
Two years later the Iron Lady was rusting. Her social welfare cut backs angered the poor and led to riots in 1981; by 1982 she was the most unpopular British Prime Minister in history. When British forces repelled the Argentinians from the Falkland Islands in 1982, Thatcher rode a wave of popularity to a landslide victory in 1983.
On that night, covering my first election, I asked one of the more experienced journalists what this victory meant.
“Fewer and fewer people are going to get richer and richer,” he had said on that night.
So it was. Thatcher borrowed free market theory from the Chicago Business School to turn Britain from a dowdy backwater, laden with regulation and exchange controls, into a dynamic capitalist economy. When she deregulated the financial markets of London in 1986, it made fortunes for the dealers and drew capital and expertise from around the world.
On the way, Thatcher crushed the trade union movement, including a victory over the powerful National Union of Mineworkers in 1985, the union which had brought down the Ted Heath government in the early 1970s.
“If you want to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs but she picked up the shells and smashed them against the wall,” said her former opponent, former Labor leader, Neil Kinnock.
Unrest over the growing inequality of wealth and a riot over a highly unpopular Poll Tax in 1990 sealed Thatcher’s fate and by the end of the year her cabinet colleagues had ousted her in favor of John Major.
In death, Thatcher may have won over many sympathizers from Africa. Thousands of British people organized parties to crow over her death and many people on this continent are likely to frown upon that.
Thatcher was cremated after her funeral on April 17, at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

THE IRON LADY AND THE TERRORISTS

Everybody remembers Nick Leeson, the young trader who broke Barings Bank—where the Queen was a customer—but few recall the African connection.
It was the last couple of pages of a report written by the board of banking supervision issued on behalf of the Bank of England, alleged that Leeson had a number of assets in South Africa.
This document was issued six months after the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995, when Leeson lost it GBP 862 million pounds ($1.4 billion) through unauthorized trading.
“I’d never been to South Africa at that stage. The only connection I can draw is that we did have a couple of South African clients that we transacted futures for…but that’s the only South African connection,” says Leeson.
The 46-year-old was in Johannesburg for a few days speaking about risk management, compliance and corporate responsibility laced with his remarkable story.
Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London and had funded the Napoleonic wars. Leeson, the son of a plasterer from Watford, was seen as the whizzkid in the Singapore office.
He made huge profits for the bank and was very successful in speculative trades, but lost his midas touch when he tried to hide losses from bad trades in an error account called 88888. It had been set up to cover up a mistake made by an inexperienced trader. Instead of taking a loss, Leeson played the odds in an attempt to recover money.
It all fell apart when Leeson placed a short straddle—a risky strategy an investor uses when he or she believes that a stock&#8217;s price will not move up or down significantly—on the Nikkei, banking on the exchange remaining stable overnight. Leeson should have been safe in such a position, but the Japanese earthquake on January 17, 1995, in Kobe caused the Nikkei to go into free-fall.
Facing huge losses with Asian markets in panic, he tried to recover the losses with short-term gambles based on the recovery of the Nikkei. Unfortunately, the earthquake dashed these hopes.
Back in London, the Bank of England rejected a bailout days before Barings declared bankruptcy. The Bank almost went bust in the 1890s over investments on Latin American bonds, this time there was no reprieve.
Feeling helpless, Leeson fled the country leaving a scribbled note saying “I’m sorry”. He was arrested in Germany, and nine months later was extradited to Singapore where he was sentenced to more than six years in prison.
Leeson was the only Englishman in a prison full of triad gangs. He was locked up in a tiny cell with two others for 23 three hours a day.
In prison, Leeson was diagnosed with colon cancer and lost weight and most of his hair from chemotherapy. The Singapore authorities were determined not to allow their high profile prisoner to die behind bars and assigned him the doctor of former Singapore president, Lee Kuan Yew. In prison, Leeson wrote his autobiography, while back in London Sir David Frost was producing a film about his life.
“The film came out before I did,” he chuckled.
Writer and director of the film, James Dearden, pretending to be Leeson’s uncle, flew to Singapore to discuss the plans with him, but little passed between the two.
“That’s the only input I had in the movie. It was a standard 15-minute visit. The questions he was asking weren’t specifically about what was going on. It was more like how are you, have you seen your aunt? He only asked a few questions concerning the movie,” says Leeson.
Then Leeson was released after four and a half years on the grounds of his health and good behaviour. He has now recovered fully from cancer and lives in Galway, Ireland with his second wife and three children.
In 2006, he became CEO of Galway United, a professional football club. He resigned in 2011, but remains a shareholder. While working at the football club Leeson published his second book, Back from the Brink, Coping with Stress.
Leeson has tried his hand at online poker and is now a speaker for conferences and dinner’s around the world, getting paid to talk about risk and corporate responsibility—even though he’s the face of catastrophic failure in both fields.
Thirteen years after his release from prison, Leeson was appointed as an alternative insolvency practitioner at GDP Partnership, a financial firm, in Ireland, in April. He is assisting over-indebted borrowers negotiate deals with their banks. Whatever he does in life, he will be labelled with two words—rogue trader.
“When stuff was written in the paper it was always painful to read. Sometimes it still is now. My name is always prefaced with ‘rogue trader’ which is okay, the book is called that. Sometimes you get ‘disgraced banker’ or ‘fraudster’, a couple of those words still anger me, but you kind of have to take it on the chin.”
Leeson took the losses that took him to prison on the chin and maintains that he never profited from his unauthorised trading.

Did Rogue  Trader Millions End Up In Africa?

Foreign-owned banks in Zimbabwe are prepared to brave the current wave of uncertainty emanating from the country’s controversial indigenization policy which could lead to “significant changes” in the shareholding structure of the banks as they are also under pressure to raise $100 million in statutory capital.
“The new capitalization requirements and compliance with indigenization will likely result in major changes in the structure of the banking sector as players try to comply with those two requirements,” says Willard Zireva, the chairman of MBCA Bank, the Zimbabwean unit of Nedbank.
The indigenization policy, which was promulgated in 2008, requires that foreign-owned companies cede 51% of their shares into the hands of black Zimbabwean groups. President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party are apparently pushing for the policy ahead of elections expected in July this year, while Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party will try to reverse the policy, saying it is not investor-friendly.
The government has, however, not swiftly moved in on the banks as Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Dr Gideon Gono, insists that forcing the banks to cede 51% shares will destabilize the already fragile banking sector. More than three locally-owned banks have already collapsed in the past year after succumbing to operational constraints, low liquidity levels and low capital bases.
It is the larger, foreign-owned banks—Barclays, Standard Chartered and the Zimbabwe units of Standard Bank and Nedbank—that have brought stability to the banking sector. Only about three local banks are considered stable and these include CBZ, FBC and ZB banks. Zimbabwe has 22 banks, most of them commercial.
“The smaller, locally-owned banks are less stable than the larger, more established foreign banks. We have… 22 banks functioning in an economy which is much too small for that number of banks,” says Zimbabwean economist John Robertson.
While economists and investment fund managers have warned that the indigenization policy and the placid nature of Zimbabwe’s regulatory framework may push investors out of the country, foreign banks are prepared to brave the current chill in Zimbabwe’s operating environment.
Dennis Mambure, the spokesperson at Barclays Zimbabwe, which has been left out of a deal that saw Barclays Africa operations merge with South Africa’s Absa Bank, says the bank is keen to comply with Zimbabwe’s policies. He insists that the bank had made submissions to the government and that negotiations are ongoing.
“Barclays operates within the confines of the legal and regulatory framework of the country. At no time has the bank disregarded any regulatory directive or obligation. Barclays Bank has made all submissions required by the laws on indigenization to the relevant authorities. Engagement with authorities on these submissions is on-going and Barclays is not at liberty to disclose the content of those confidential discussions,” says Mambure.
Interestingly, Mugabe has called for lower indigenization compliance thresholds for the foreign banks. He said in a televised interview, ahead of his 89th birthday celebrations, that the 51% threshold was not rigid, adding that the banking sector could be considered for lower thresholds, further complicating the placid nature of the regulatory environment in Zimbabwe.
This has been interpreted as a victory for the banks who had earlier argued against the 51% compliance thresholds. But youth development, indigenization and empowerment minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, appears to have the final say as to what thresholds the banks will have to comply with. He told FORBES AFRICA in an interview this month that the banks have to show willingness to comply.
“The minister can use his powers to consider variations. The banks have to come forward and submit their plans and we can even consider different timeframes for compliance,” he says.
Gono called for flexibility in implementation of the empowerment policy in the banking sector. “You need to be flexible when you come to the banking sector… because you cannot indigenize technology. You cannot apply the same rules that you are applying everywhere to the banking sector. I am going to defend that position,” he told a breakfast meeting of industrialists
Despite the earlier softening in the government’s stance regarding indigenization compliance for foreign banks in Zimbabwe, Kasukuwere in March wrote to the foreign banks asking them to be fully compliant with the contentious policy by the end of June.
The new directive by Kasukuwere stokes up the fight between him, the central bank governor and finance minister, Tendai Biti. Gono says that he will defend Mugabe’s reasoning in calling for compliance variations below the mandatory 51%.
However, the Zimbabwean unit of Standard Chartered has welcomed Mugabe’s statement, saying the bank is committed to its employees and clients in Zimbabwe, hence the bank’s willingness to comply with the indigenization policy.
“We remain committed to the long-term interests of our staff and customers in Zimbabwe, and to continuing to facilitate the development and growth of the economy. We welcome President Robert Mugabe’s comments. Standard Chartered has taken the conscious decision to continue to maintain our long-standing commitment to doing business in Zimbabwe,” says the bank’s spokesperson, Lillian Hapanyengwi.
Economists say that Zimbabwe’s regulatory framework is uncertain as regulations change without notice while there are always variations in how the laws are implemented. The Bankers Association of Zimbabwe say the banks are engaging the government on their own while the association’s president, George Guvamatanga, the head of Barclays in Zimbabwe, says he is still weighing the implications of Mugabe’s statement.

BRAVING THE INDIGENIZATION CHILL

The future of architecture is evolving before my eyes on the laptop of Luca Frattari. In a series of keystrokes the architectural engineering Ph.D., now a business development manager at software firm Altair, thins out the blocky outer shell of a new skyscraper into a willowy exoskeleton that would stand out even among the gaudier designs in the Dubai skyline. Its irregular lattice leaves room for giant, undulating pools of window glass. Yet when he runs a wind-flow analysis on the simulation, the building’s organic form wicks away stiff breezes far more efficiently than a rectilinear structure. And the reduction in outer material gives the building an excellent chance of going up faster and for less money.
More things should look bony. Millions of years of evolution have honed the skeleton into the perfect shape for survival. Our hollow, long bones are thick and strong where needed, and light and flexible where possible. Their excesses were purged long ago.
Adapting nature’s forms to human problems, a trend called biomimicry, is an idea that has taken root at engineering-intensive firms such as Ford, General Motors, Boeing and Airbus, all of them hungry buyers of technology to improve the shapes of the machines and structures they build. The biggest computer-aided engineering software firms, Ansys, Dassault Systèmes and LMS International, a Siemens subsidiary, have enjoyed double-digit revenue growth in recent years as large customers snap up their pricey suites of simulation and material analysis software. Unseen by drivers and frequent fliers, the straight angles and solid forms under the skins of autos and airliners have been replaced over the past several years by funky-looking ribs that are lighter and stronger than the original. For each hundred pounds trimmed off a car, drivers could save about 1% to 2% on fuel economy, which could add up to billions of dollars nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Even shaving 1 gram off a water bottle would eliminate 160 million pounds of material per year, assuming consumption of 200 million bottles per day, says Thierry Marchal, Ansys’ director of industry marketing for consumer goods.
Altair of Troy, Mich. has a lead over its rivals in a particularly interesting field called topology optimization, according to research firm CIMdata. Altair’s OptiStruct software simulates on metal and carbon-fiber structures the same trial-and-error forces that have shaped bone growth over millennia—but repeats them at semiconductor speed until an engineer arrives at a design that meets the need without any excess material. The process can lead to unique and sometimes nonintuitive shapes that are often 20% to 30% lighter than traditionally formed structures.
The privately held company, cofounded by CEO James Scapa, a Ford veteran, and two others in 1985, got half of its estimated 2012 revenue of $240 million (up 13% from 2011) from the auto industry but is growing 30% year over year in aerospace and electronics, three times the growth of its steady auto business. Airbus used Altair software to shed a thousand pounds off the A380 by redesigning 13 wing ribs on each side of the plane. Altair now works with more than 3,000 clients, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA and the Department of Defense, but it is rapidly spreading the gospel of evolutionary perfection to a wider audience in consumer products and infrastructure and among commercial architects.
In October Altair released what it says is the first simulation and analysis software designed to be easily used by the engineering masses. Called solidThinking Inspire, it will be bundled into Altair’s flagship software package ($20,000 on average) or sold separately for $8,000. Early adopters of Inspire include auto supplier Key Safety Systems and the Pratt Institute in New York. Architects in the U.S. and Europe are planning high-rises to be unveiled later this year in Asia that will look like descendants of the biomorphic forms created by Antoni Gaudi and Frei Otto.
Altair got its inspiration for bone-based software 20 years ago when Scapa and his chief technology officer, Jim Brancheau, found Jeff Brennan in a lab at the University of Michigan. Brennan was a biomechanical engineer studying how humans bones grow; Scapa brought Brennan in to oversee what would become OptiStruct. Brennan spent the early 1990s schlepping a computer from one carmaker to another, struggling to get analytical engineers to accept his OptiStruct software’s counterintuitive visual results. After OptiStruct became part of Altair’s bigger HyperWorks software suite and no longer needed individual salesmen, Brennan eventually took over as CMO. “We brought Jeff in, and for years and years the competition couldn’t see why we did it—they said there was no market,” Scapa says. “Now they are trying to catch up.”
Altair says it has grown at a 14% compounded annual rate since 2004 but has no plans to go public. It is majority owned by its three founders and last raised money eight years ago selling an undisclosed minority stake to General Atlantic for $30 million. Scapa aims to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2020, a stretch goal that largely depends on how much Inspire broadens the user base.
Even if Altair fails to hit the billion-dollar goal, it will be an aesthetic victory for the rest of us as more buildings, cars, trains and gadgets take on the swooping curves beloved by nature.

The Evolution of Everyday Things

Picture this: the biggest horse racing event in Africa, with vast prize money and the top riders in the world. This is what Phindi Kema wanted, but a wrangle with the owners of a racecourse soured this dream. This has left the horse breeder frustrated, desperate and packing her bags. She is off to the United Kingdom, taking her skills with her.
Kema grew up on a farm. Her grandparents were farm laborers and her parents bred pigs, but she broke away and pursued a law degree at Fort Hare University—in the Eastern Cape. After she qualified, she worked as a coordinator for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission—a restorative judicial body, which was assembled after the abolition of apartheid in South Africa—and in various senior corporate positions, but the pull of the farm was strong and Kema returned to her roots. She bought a citrus farm near Addo Elephant National Park, in the Eastern Cape, through the Land Affairs Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) program and became a farmer in late 2006. She befriended her neighbor, Elwyn Phillips, who was a horse breeder, and bought his Elandskraal stud farm. She renamed it Iphi’Ntombi—meaning ‘where is the girl?’ in Zulu—after the Zimbabwean-bred champion filly Ipi Tombe.
“She [Ipi Tombe] had a great career and won international races and made a name for Africa. She is now breeding in Kentucky. I suppose, I set a challenge for myself right at the beginning of my career and I’m still at it.”
At the time Kema was the only African Thoroughbred horse breeder in the country. She picked up the trade quickly, but after three years she felt that it was time to move on. She pursued her dream of creating the biggest racing event on the African continent, which led to the start of her company, Africa Race International (ARI). Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, a horse racing and tote betting operator, approached Kema with a deal to buy Arlington Racecourse in the Eastern Cape. The deal was almost complete when Kema became suspicious of certain clauses in the contract. Phumelela wanted all financial guarantees 30 days after signing the agreement even though they had not set an occupation date. The other condition was that Kema had to use Phumelela’s license and was not allowed to purchase her own.
“This was not acceptable to me as it meant that Phumelela would be in control of my entire betting business and fixtures relating to my racing.”
Further research revealed that Phumelela had bought Arlington Racecourse for a mere R1 ($0.10) and expected Kema to pay R50 million ($5.4 million) for it. Kema later found that this was common practice in the industry.
When contacted on the issue, Phumelela declined to comment.
According to Kema, in the past five years, four of the country’s racecourses have been sold for property development. Gosforth Park was sold to Wes Bank and is now a racetrack for motorsport and Newmarket, in Johannesburg, has been sold to retail.
“While other countries are growing the sport, South Africa is stifling the growth of the industry. Other countries look at us and they actually mock South Africa because they understand that this model is not sustainable and this is a recipe for disaster.”
Kema was frustrated with the Arlington Racecourse deal and became vocal, but felt that her words fell on deaf ears. Then she lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission and backed the case with research from her team of lawyers and experts on international horseracing. She lodged another complaint with the public protector to investigate the 1997 agreement, regarding the selling of racecourses between the Gauteng provincial government and the racing industry.
“Further to that, I instituted an R80 million ($8.6 million) civil claim through the Equality Court against the Gauteng provincial government. The respondent failed to oppose the claim and missed the set deadline of October 5, 2012. The matter is still before the courts. I was then invited to Parliament to give the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry an account of what had happened and put forward recommendations. Lastly, I wrote a letter to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) to bring the matter to their attention.”
Kema says the government’s lack of knowledge on the subject made the process even longer and the fact that she was more knowledgeable did not go down well.
“Sometimes people with big titles do not enjoy being told that they have been duped, so they take what you say personally and react accordingly. This tends to ruffle more black and white feathers especially when it comes from a black woman.”
“I am appalled by the way the regulator runs the race office. I am resentful that the rich people have actually stolen the racing assets that belong to the country. This is what this whole issue is about […] that is what is killing South African horse racing.”
As things became complicated Kema’s life became court hearings, law suits and travel between Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. She could have easily backed down but the inspiration of her mother’s late father, Joseph Wilcot Kavie, kept her strong.
“He owned properties when black people under apartheid laws were prohibited from owning properties. He never saw himself as a victim; he turned every negative situation to his benefit if he could make it when the odds were against him, why would I fail? &#8230; That’s the thought that drives me… I admire so many people but Sol Kerzner, Phuthuma Nhleko and Sir Sam Jonah stand out because they are all groundbreakers, who comfortably transcended so many barriers and Africa has a reason to be proud.”
At the end of February, Kema moved to her spouse’s homeland of the United Kingdom. She’s on familiar ground, having visited the country many times and one of her fondest memories is her visit to the Queen’s stud farm. Her plan is to relax, reflect and possibly write a book.
“I like the British attitude and the UK is my adopted country because it has taught me so much of what I know. In as far as horseracing is concerned, I feel deeply connected with them because they are supportive of my aspirations and do not see me as a threat, precisely because they are experts in this field and therefore have no insecurities.”
So this front runner has removed the blinkers from people’s eyes, even when the odds were against her, she never spit the bit and now it’s time for her to canter.

Racing Uncertainty

Climbing Kilimanjaro is on the bucket list of most people on the African continent. Most of us at the ABN Group have had a personal ambition to make this trek but the opportunity came in the form of a corporate memo from our founder, Rakesh Wahi, who asked for volunteers. All of us that went on this mission enrolled without really understanding the implications of what we had signed up for.
What followed was four months of training and getting ready for our greatest test of physical and mental endurance. We went on several hikes as a team, culminating in the final climb of Sentinel Peak in Drakensburg, South Africa. Through this period we assessed the strengths and weaknesses of team members and came up with a marching order and buddy pairing that in retrospect were the main reasons for our success.
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A few days before we set off for the trip, I was given the responsibility to lead the 15-strong team, including two members joining from Murdoch University Dubai (an affiliate company). Rakesh gave me one task: Do what you need to but make sure that all 15 people make it to the top. Failure was not an option. For a mountain that has a 41% success rate for climbers, this was not an easy goal. Our head guide validated that of the 150 teams he had taken up the mountain over 10 years, only nine had a 100% success rate.
What followed between March 11 and 17 was one of the most exhilarating experiences of self-discovery for each and every one of the team members.
For corporate governance, our travel policy dictated that we set out from Johannesburg in two teams that regrouped in the sleepy town of Moshi in Tanzania. Some of us saw the magnitude of what lay ahead as we saw the majestic Kilimanjaro in the far distance, rising above the clouds at the same altitude at which we were flying. We assembled at the Keys Hotel and shared a memorable dinner of pizzas and beer and a final bath with the understanding that the next seven days would be spent in lesser luxuries.
After a group briefing and an introduction to the team of seven guides, 46 cooks and porters we set out on March 11 for the first day’s hike on the Rongai route. Most of us had packed about 13kg into our backpacks (constituting water and foodstuff) and a 14kg duffel bag was carried by our porters with all our clothing and provisions. We had expected rain on this hike but didn’t realize that it would hit us as soon as we started. Young children walked with us, nonchalantly in the rain, making us forget the discomfort. We ended the first day’s hike after an 11km march that we completed in four hours ending at an altitude of 2,400m. Other than the rain, this was an easy trek. As we walked to our camp site we were greeted by eight yellow tents pitched close together that were to become our home for the next six nights.
Our routine for the first five days was quite consistent; getting ready by 7.30AM, breakfast at 8AM and the daily march from 9AM to 2PM to reach the next base camp. We progressed steadily from 2,400m on day one, to 3,450m on day two, 3,683m on day three, 4,300m on day four and 4,730m on day five. Each day we would acclimatize by walking up about 200m in altitude with the concept of “walk high and sleep low”. We discovered, to our delight, that CNBC Africa presenter, Samantha Loring, is a qualified yoga instructor and she would make the team stretch and do breathing exercises that appeared frivolous when we started out but became our lifeline as we climbed above 4,000m.
Some events became common through our journey: The early breakfast of eggs, porridge and bananas, warm pea or cucumber soup for lunch, welcoming tea and Milo with popcorn at 4PM each day, before acclimatization, and soup with an overdose of starch and protein for dinner. The rule was to finish three liters of water at a bare minimum each day. One thing was clearly evident—organizers were making sure that we packed extra calories for the final assault on the last day.
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The build up for the first five days was gradual and most of the team managed to get by with little or no discomfort. Communications had died with the expended battery life of our cellphones and the solar charging devices were a disappointment. Despite the shortcomings, I did manage to speak with my five-year-old son, who was distraught that daddy was gone for a week; for all of us the contact with families remained comforting and a constant encouragement.
We started the assault on Uhuru Peak at midnight on March 16, with our headlamps providing the much-needed beacon of hope as we progressed slowly, but surely, up a 70 degree gradient. The temperature dipped to approximately -17 degrees and winds picked up as we reached 5,000m. The journey from there to Gilman’s Point, at 5,700m, took us about seven hours. As team leader I was put under the most severe test as I tried to help team members face their individual challenges. We stopped for comfort breaks periodically but stayed together through all that the mountain could throw at us and the whole team made it to Gilman’s Point. This was our first milestone. The journey to Uhuru Peak from Gilman’s Point took approximately two hours and we all finally summited at 9.15AM on March 16.
Reaching Uhuru Peak saw emotions flow from all team members. Tears of joy were the expression of accomplishment and pride that we all felt. Once rested, the team decided to do the Harlem Shake, which was undoubtedly the expression of insanity that overcame everyone for a moment. The team then made its way back to Kibo Hut in three hours to a well-deserved hot lunch and nap before moving down to the next base camp. The ABN team conquered Kilimanjaro to become only the 10th team that our guides had managed to all take up to the top of the mountain.
As team leader, I saw some changes in every one of my team. First and foremost, 15 individuals went up the mountain but one family of 15 came down having accomplished the mission successfully with a priceless bond that will be cherished forever. What did we all learn? Just one lesson: No goal is too great or too small to accomplish if you work slowly and steadily as a team. In addition to this, as a leader I learnt that a leader needs to show genuine concern for his team and be there for them, larger than life, when they need him most.
<h4>Rakesh Wahi—the vice chairman of the ABN360 Group—dreamed up and financed the trip. He is a fit 53-year-old, who spent nine years of active service as an officer in the Indian Army and knows all about rough roads and battles.</h4>
Why Kilimanjaro? 
“The trip was symbolic of where we see ourselves as a business. Climbing Africa’s highest mountain and the highest freestanding mountain in the world resonates with our vision to be Africa’s leading business media conglomerate. The true test of leaders is when you push them over the edge from their comfort zone into a zone of physical and mental hardship, and then observe their ability to think, rationalize, overcome hardship, carry their team members and reach a group goal. The behavior patterns of people change in such grueling conditions and personal survival can sometimes overtake a group goal. But, like in a battlefield, personal matters must become secondary to a bigger cause that everyone must believe in. That cause then defines the success of the team and motivates them to achieve the goal… This kind of physical and mental test cannot be achieved in a beach resort.”
How difficult was the ascent? 
“There were several challenging moments. From a physical point of view, many members developed different ailments from fever, fatigue, insect bites, sunburns and altitude sickness to nausea and stomach-related viruses. On the mental side, the main challenge came on summit night when people had to call for their inner strength to make it to the top.”
How did it feel to stand there proudly at the summit? 
“I could see emotions flowing down each one’s cheeks and the pride on their faces to have made it to the top together. When we started out, there were 15 people with different identities and backgrounds. When we reached the top, I could see that a family was born… On a personal level, it was a great achievement as my son, Sid, was also on the team. It was a great opportunity to spend time with him and see him face his own challenges to make it to the summit, despite getting altitude sickness and severe hypothermia.”
The Harlem Shake? 
“This was indeed a surprise item on the agenda. The average age of the team was under 30 and a lot of their language, music and conversations were foreign to me. I did however, enjoy everything that I heard. I was at a loss when I was asked to join in the Harlem Shake but did it as requested by the team. I rehearsed it with the team at 4,700m and they were overjoyed to see me participate. I think it was a victory lap for the modern generation and could well have been any other form of expression. I thought it was rather cute and unique when I saw the final product on YouTube; after all how many people have behaved like complete lunatics at 6,000m.”
&nbsp;

A Breathing Break And A Harlem Shake  On The Rooftop Of Africa

It is 117 years since the first motor car came to Johannesburg, South Africa. According to historian Anna Smith’s book Johannesburg Firsts it was a Benz Voiturette that was driven around before a large crowd at the Wanderers track in Johannesburg. It was described as the “rage and topic of all Europe” and a noiseless carriage. Voiturette is the French word for a small car, and this first vehicle to arrive in Johannesburg struggled to make walking pace with its wheezing engine.
Now, years later, the truly ‘noiseless’ carriages are on their way to South Africa. They will come in the shape of an electric car called LEAF, which is an acronym for Leading, Environmentally-friendly, Affordable, Family car. However, one of the concerns about electric cars is that, because they tend to be so noiseless, unwary pedestrians do not hear them coming when crossing roads.
Like the wheezing Voiturette, this car is also a “rage and topic” in other parts of the world. It came onto the market in Japan and the United States in 2010 and the following year in Canada and Europe, where it has won the Car of the Year award. In February its global sales topped 50,000.
The LEAF is made by Nissan and will start selling in South Africa later this year. It is a fully electric five-door hatchback with a battery range said to be 175km. Production has begun in North America and Europe, after the car was initially only produced in Japan, and there are two more models in the pipeline.
Nissan says the improvements in the new models include an extended driving range, greater recyclability, more interior space, better charging performance, more equipment and, of course, a greater choice. Subtle styling changes to the nose of the car have improved its already impressive aerodynamic efficiency.
Government, business and conservationists are hopeful that it will start a trend away from South Africa’s carbon-belching road traffic towards a greener system. It is aimed also at reducing the country’s heavy reliance on imported and ever-more expensive oil.
If it takes off, the car could also see the construction of intermittent ‘filling stations’ with solar-power backup along the highways where drivers could recharge their cars. The idea is to make the least possible use of the coal-fired power grid, thereby further reducing reliance on climate-changing energy.
Nissan South Africa is working closely with the government to prepare the infrastructure, most notably the recharging network. To initiate the joint project, the company has given the Department of Environmental Affairs four of the cars to test over three years.
The use of solar power to recharge the cars is part of the test. At the project’s launch in February, the department’s minister, Edna Molewa, said a 15 kilowatt solar tracking device has been installed at Environmental Affairs’ new green building, which is still under construction. She said the installation would produce enough electricity to charge the cars and to feed excess electricity into the power grid as a way of offsetting the carbon footprint of the building’s construction.
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“Any carbon footprint of the vehicle is thus neutralized through the use of free solar energy generated by the tracker. Where charging is required overnight this is offset by the excess energy that the trackers produce during the day. The amount of electricity utilized for charging and running of the vehicle is carefully monitored and logged and is offset against the amount of electricity generated by the solar tracker.”
“It is envisaged that in future, these tracking devices will be installed on the major commuter routes for the direct charging of vehicles in real time. An e-transport location analysis will be conducted in partnership with other government agencies to inform the roll-out of the solar e-cars installation package at key transportation and commuter hubs countrywide, such as key government precincts, Gautrain stations, O.R. Tambo International Airport, key commercial centers and business districts,” she says Molewa.
The move towards greener vehicles is seen also to present opportunities for making the automotive and related industries greener. South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry has already gazetted the Electric Vehicle Industry Strategy, which is meant to guide investment into car manufacturing.
Other partners in the project are the Departments of Transport, Energy, and Science and Technology, South African Revenue Services, Eskom (the electricity supply commission), municipalities and other car manufacturers and suppliers.
Molewa said in her speech at the launch of the LEAF project that transition in the design and production of alternative propulsion systems should be aimed at maintaining and increasing South Africa’s global market share in the automotive sector, while meeting its commitment to decrease its carbon footprint.
South Africa is listed as the 18th largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, though in Africa it is by far the biggest, accounting for 80% of the continent’s output. The industry contributes around 6% to the gross domestic product and employs more than 230,000 people in manufacturing, distribution and sales.
For Molewa, the first step towards capturing part of the green-car market is for South Africa to develop and grow the market domestically. Hopes are pinned on such development to provide jobs. Molewa even speaks of the transition to a low-carbon and sustainable economy as a likely new engine of development.
But with the transportation sector said to be globally responsible for 30% of carbon emissions, and with the number of vehicles on the world’s roads edging towards one billion, a prime objective remains to reduce the amount of climate-changing gas coming from exhaust pipes. The LEAF project is a part of this objective.

Pull Over And Fill Your Tank  With Sunshine

“I slapped him in the face,” laughs Michael Eilertsen; the face belonged to Sir Richard Branson.
“I said ‘We are going to do a high five’ and he didn’t understand what a high five was… as I high fived him, his hand was floppy, so I hit him. And there’s a photo with [my hand on Branson’s face] and there I am smiling.”
There are many differences between Eilertsen and Branson, including their understanding of a high five, but there are also similarities.
“I think that we push boundaries like Richard does.… He wasn’t scared to take on the corporates and wasn’t scared to take on the established companies.”
It all goes back to childhood. When Eilertsen was in standard eight his parents made it clear to him that he would not get any pocket money. In 2000, during his first year at the University of Johannesburg, his penury and entrepreneurial spirit helped him create his company—Breakfast Boy.
The idea was a peach. Eilertsen sold breakfast packs for R10 ($1.08) during the morning bumper-to-bumper traffic in Johannesburg. His customers had little time for breakfast. It was simple: a muffin, a Snacker bar, fruit juice, fruit, yogurt, a spoon, a mint and a piece of paper with the business lesson of the week.
“[People] started phoning and booking and ordering breakfasts. Within two months I was employing my whole entrepreneurship class and they were at different intersections in and around Jo’burg. Eventually that just exploded and we started getting phoned to do promotions, because we were varsity students, and we were doing about 400 breakfasts per morning.”
After a customer bemoaned that they didn’t serve coffee, Eilertsen bought cofee-dispensing backpacks, also known as rocket packs, from Nestlé and increased the insulation so that the coffee would stay warmer for longer. The response was overwhelming and Eilertsen traveled to the United States to buy the rights for the rocket packs for the whole of Africa.
“If you set out to be a sideline player that’s all you’ll ever be. If you set out to be the best in your neighborhood then that’s all you’re going to be. You’ve got to set out to not only be the best in Johannesburg, but the best within Gauteng, the best within South Africa, the best within Africa; and if you don’t have that sort of mindset or mentality your business will never be anything more than that,” says Eilertsen.
The rocket packs were a success. Nestlé received numerous calls about them and Eilertsen became Nestlé’s selling arm in South Africa through a marketing firm, Major Tom, where he was a partner. A month later he landed a deal with South African Breweries (SAB), took over their beer backpacks, and after that he landed a three-year deal with Coca-Cola, for The Coca-Cola Cup.
“At the time, I had a warehouse full of 50,000 hectoliters of beer, we were at every concert there was. We had over 200 promoter girls working for us; we had access to every sports day because we were distributors and [at only 21] I was living the dream.”
After South Africa landed the Soccer World Cup in 2006, Eilertsen sold the business and used his knowledge of the streets to launch his next project, Boiling Point Marketing, which had people hand over their business card for a cappuccino.
In two years, Eilertsen had a database of more than 300,000 clients. He wondered what to do next.
On a morning in 2007, while taking a shower, LIVEOUTLOUD began to take shape. It was to be a luxury magazine for a select group of people by invite only.
“It [the magazine] has got to show their lifestyle and how they do all these things out loud and how they’re living out loud. And that’s where the name came from.”
The thing that separated the magazine from other publications was its unconventional approach to the industry.
“We’ve been specific that on any of the businesses that we start, we do not employ experts… we rather want to get out own ideas and create our own freshness,” says Eilertsen.
Within weeks, an offshoot, LIVEOUTLOUD Events, was launched.
“We started putting together these insane once-in-a-lifetime events that would allow our advertisers to bring all their products together and they could meet our subscribers face-to-face.”
Then Eilertsen noticed that some of his clients were missing their flights to the events. And since they hosted the events, why not sort out their travel arrangements too? This new business was TRAVELOUTLOUD.
The latest edition is the online vault application, PLAYOUTLOUD, whereby members compete for luxury brands through an online clicking battle.
Eilertsen says that the business venture that defined him was the roadside breakfast.
“The muffin business was enough to buy the backpacks, which made enough money to buy Boiling Point [which supplied] money to start the magazine.”
With success spurred on by a billboard he saw as a child, Eilertsen has no intention to slow down.
“That billboard had this picture of this amazing skyline. And at the top it said ‘The sky is the limit’ and at the bottom it said ‘Who are you to limit me to the sky.’”
Quite.

Tag: May 2013

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