Genius

Bruce Whitfield

Description

South Africa and its fraught political economy provide a fascinating case study into how it takes a particular brand of genius to thrive in a difficult domestic environment and to take the ideas and the businesses that deliver them from local to global.

Genius tells the stories of some of the extraordinary individuals, companies and industries whose ideas, products and raw materials solve problems and add value across the globe. Greatness comes from acting on purpose, and there is a generation of South Africans solving problems for the future. Learn how Pratley beat Armstrong to the moon, how a former Eskom quantity surveyor capitalised on Britain’s obsession with meerkats to create the UK’s most visible price comparison website, how to take a Mediterranean-style food concept to the Mediterranean, and how a device designed to beat diamond smuggling made it from the set of a popular US hospital drama into emergency rooms and pathology labs across the US.

Genius examines what it takes to thrive in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and divisive global environment. These are lessons for anyone looking to succeed anywhere against the odds.

Sujets

• Gestion de carrière
• China
• Business
• Development
• Economics
• Economic growth
• Treasury
• Modern history
• Cyril Ramaphosa
• 21st century
• Entrepreneurship
• entrepreneur
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Economic Development
• Personal Success

Informations

• Publié par: Pan Macmillan South Africa
• Date de parution: 01 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781770108462
• Langue: English

Extrait

‘ Genius is a must-read for everyone who wants to start or grow a business.’
– hylton kallner
‘ Genius is a page-turner of a business book. Most importantly, it will inspire its readers about what can be achieved in the world, even by players from a small, African economy.’
– business day
‘If the constant barrage of bad news is getting you down, then this book will provide a welcome antidote. Truth be told, life in South Africa has always been challenging – and yet despite this, through sheer chutzpah, luck and great ideas, entrepreneurs and businesses haven’t only managed to survive, they’ve thrived.’
– you magazine
‘ Genius examines what it takes to thrive in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and divisive global environment. These are lessons for anyone looking to succeed anywhere against the odds.’
– money marketing
‘I thought The Upside of Down could not be bested, but Genius takes the cake. To experience the journey of these incredible South Africans and how much value we have delivered in so many industries around the world is truly heart-warming. So proud! Thank you for sharing their stories.’
– shane wafer
‘Whitfield’s range in Genius is extensive. He covers South Africa’s agriculture, viticulture, banking, film making, medical science, food, fishing, apple juice, and mining. Genius is entertaining, informative and, above all, in a country and a time where we need it, upbeat and inspirational.’
– cape argus

Genius
How to Thrive at the Edge of Chaos
UPDATED EDITION
Bruce Whitfield
MACMILLAN

First published in 2022
This edition published in 2023
by Pan Macmillan South Africa
Private Bag x 19
Northlands
Johannesburg
2116
www.panmacmillan.co.za
isbn 978-1-77010-845-5
e- isbn 978-1-77010-846-2
© 2022, 2023 Bruce Whitfield
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Editing by Sally Hines
Proofreading by Wesley Thompson
Design and typesetting by Triple M Design, Johannesburg
Cover design by publicide

For Catherine,
this book would not have happened without you.

Contents
Author’s Note – February 2023
Setting the Scene
Chapter 1 . The Economy
Chapter 2 . The Quiz
Chapter 3 . Mining – The Backbone of Everything
Chapter 4 . Agriculture – Growing with the Best in the World
Chapter 5 . The Big, Bold Booze Bonanza
Chapter 6 . South African Wine Comes of Age
Chapter 7 . Juice Juice Baby
Chapter 8 . Fishing Where the Fish Are
Chapter 9 . Food, Glorious Food
Chapter 10 . Banking in the Big Leagues4
Chapter 11 . Medtech at the Cutting Edge
Chapter 12 . Bling, Rings and Shiny Things
Chapter 13 . Dreamers, Doers and Superachievers
Chapter 14 . Start-ups Lead the Way
Chapter 15 . People You Don’t Want to Export
Chapter 16 . Future Imperfect
Acknowledgements
Also by Bruce Whitfield


Author’s Note – February 2023
There is an old English proverb: ‘Give a dog a bad name and hang him.’ I am unsure as to its origins, but it means that once your reputation is damaged you will suffer difficulty and hardship.
Not that there was anything wrong with Genius: How to Take Smart Ideas Global .
It is a fine title. Thousands of people have bought it, and thankfully there is a need for a second edition. However, the moment copies of the first edition hit the shelves, I realised that I had put too narrow a focus on it.
This book has far wider appeal than just those who have a smart idea they wish to globalise. This is a book about great ideas put into practice, what it takes to deliver those, not just in a tough domestic environment but also to take them global. That is no small feat.
This is a story about sheer grit, determination, resilience, ambition and success, despite the often toxic environment in which the battle-hardened founders of South African enterprises build their businesses.
The African National Congress, which has been in power for nearly three decades, is unravelling, and that serves to make the environment in which these companies originated more complex and difficult to navigate. The slow-motion death spiral of the ANC as a political movement really should not matter. Political parties and the people who run them come and go. As Lord Robin Renwick, British ambassador to South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s, put it just before the 2022 December elective conference: ‘The ANC is addicted to state-run everything.’ That would be fine if it was any good at doing so, but it has moved from being a liberation movement to a party of hope and finally to a destructive economic force.
Hence this edition is entitled Genius: How to Thrive at the Edge of Chaos . It feels more appropriate. I challenge you to identify a single decade in the past 350 years that has been without strife in South Africa. As a long-forgotten contemporary of Jan Smuts, the statesman whose presence dominated the global stage for much of the first half of the twentieth century , said: ‘South Africa is the sort of place where things are never as bad as they could be, but never as good as they should be.’ It is always difficult, which is what makes these achievements that occur somewhere in the murky intersection between business, politics and civil society all the more remarkable.
Welcome to the second edition of Genius and thank you for picking it up.
I started this Author’s Note with a proverb, so I will end with one too: ‘Never judge a book by its cover.’
Of course, we all do. It is what distinguished this book from all the others you could have picked up. With thousands of titles from which to choose, you chose this one.
Now buckle up. Let us go for a ride!


Setting the Scene
We are a scintillating success waiting to happen. — Desmond Tutu
There was a time when South Africa was a critical cog in the complex machinery of global commerce. By virtue of its location on the southern tip of Africa, its geography gifted the country with a role in a system of trade that shaped the modern world. The Cape of Good Hope was a strategic, life-saving, stop-off point between Europe and Asia that not only enabled global trade but also played a critical role in leapfrogging global commerce and human development.
It is hard to imagine now that South Africa ever played that role. For about 200 years, it was the halfway point to almost every where, thanks to its location on the most valuable trade route in the world. Europe’s insatiable quest for spices drove commerce along its shores for hundreds of years. There was a time when spices were among the most valuable commodities on earth. Nutmeg, now a mere dusty sprinkle atop a rice pudding, was once worth more than its equivalent weight in gold. The same goes for cinnamon, one of the first spices traded in the ancient world when Indonesian rafts transported it to East Africa from Sri Lanka, from where local traders then carried it north to the Roman market.
It was first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, who used the Cape of Good Hope as a stopping-off point and monopolised spice distribution for centuries. As technology improved and the world became faster and more impatient, shipping moved from sail power to steam. Journey times shortened and advancements in technologies, such as onboard refrigeration, meant what had once been an obligatory stop at the southern tip of Africa was no longer required. When the Suez Canal opened for business in 1869, South Africa lost its global relevance.
The world’s interest might have ended there had it not been for the discovery of minerals. Within less than two decades, South Africa was once again the centre of global attention with the diamond rush to the northern Cape in 1870 and the discovery of the world’s richest single gold deposit on the Witwatersrand in 1886. The country became a magnet for a wide range of fortune hunters, opportunists, rogues and warmongers. Those discoveries led to the creation of the most advanced economy in Africa. While they generated extraordinary wealth, they also laid the groundwork for conflict, bloodshed and a system of violent political repression.
South Africa remains the favoured entry point to the sub- Saharan region for multinationals looking to exploit the multitude of business opportunities that are presented by the continent’s young, upwardly mobile and rapidly growing population. The region provides one of the most exciting consumer opportunities on the planet, and South Africa could once again become a vital link for global opportunity and expansion. But that role is by no means guaranteed as an accident-prone nation struggles to define itself in a highly competitive global environment.
The swagger South Africa demonstrated on the global stage in the first fifteen years of its young democracy, starting in 1994, is all but gone. A decade of widespread, private-sector-aided state corruption emptied the national coffers and pushed an already strained economy deeper into debt than at any other point in its long history. Tax collection plummeted amid falling business and consumer confidence. While foreign investment flows stalled, South African citizens who could afford it focused on offshoring as much of their wealth as possible, worried about the future value of the currency and wary that government might seek to nationalise private wealth.
Despite the real and legitimate worries about the future