Classic Business

We have movement, at last, from deep within the bowels of an incapacitated state that has yet to show it can unblock a constipated pipeline of reforms that will help bring South Africa’s growth back to life.

The president used his morning letter to trumpet the news that the laxatives are taking affect.Government has now gazetted ministerial determinations that will enable the development of more than 11,800 megawatts (MW) of additional power generation. To give a sense of the scale of this development, South Africa currently has in the region of over 30,000 MW of electricity available on the national grid each day.

This is over a third of our current capacity that will go out to tender

But is this a mere borborygmi or are we truly now on the road to real reforms.

Michael Avery speaks to Chris Yelland, Energy analyst, consultant, and MD at EE Business Intelligence and Alistair Campbell MD of Vantage GreenX, a debt fund manager with significant experience in funding renewable independent power projects, about the development.

Misheck Mutize, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town

Data from Atlas VPN reveals that data leaks reached an all-time high in the first half of 2020, with over 27 billion records put at risk. Compared to the same period last year, the number of leaked records through June 30th grew nearly sixfold (by 492%). And as we’ve seen recently with the Experian breach and the Momentum hack, the cyber threats we face as businesses are ever present. The data breach at Experian, one of SA’s largest credit bureaus, will probably go down in history as the country’s largest and a self-created blunder. Experian accidentally engineered the data breach when it willingly handed over personal details belonging to as many as 24-million consumers and nearly 800,000 businesses to an individual that it now describes as a “fraudster”.

Not surprising that Warren Buffet recently listed cyber security as his top risk to business. Colin Erasmus, Modern Workplace Business Group Lead at Microsoft , evening Colin talks to Michael Avery about why we aren’t getting better at preventing them?

Vusi Fele, chief procurement officer at Absa Group

Businesses must take note that The Minister of Employment & Labour has published for comment a Draft Code of Practice on the Prevention and Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (Code).

Nerine Kahn, & Joy Beckett co-founders of Employment Relations Exchange talk to Michael Avery about what the Code means for employers and employees as workplace bullying is officially listed.

Interested parties have until 19 October 2020 to submit comments on the Code.

Makwe Masilela, CIO of Makwe Fund Managers & Nick Kunze, portfolio manager at Sanlam Private Wealth

In this weekly feature Michael Avery gets up close and personal with South Africa’s business and political economy leaders, to uncover what makes them tick, keeps them up at night and keeps them going through the Covid storm. The Coronavirus pandemic has proved to be the mother of all economic storms for entrepreneurs. Just think about how many times sailing is used as a metaphor or analogy in business. How many times have you heard leaders use the term 'to navigate' through 'troubled or stormy waters', or 're-chart the course', or use a story as an 'anchor'or 'compass' for the business? Countless times I've heard references to 'the winds of change' or the need for 'a strong hand on the tiller'. Keeping the business on 'an even keel' or behaving in a way that's 'above board', 'staying afloat', 'battening down the hatches' and 'sailing close to the wind' are just some of the phrases that litter business language.

This week’s guest has taken the sailing metaphor and applied it liberally through his latest book about how to respond to a crisis in business.

He was helping businesses change tac at the age most of us were lucky if we changed our dorm room bed sheets. He helped his dad turn around the family business before venturing into the world of corporate finance and taking a gap to tour the US in a chevy with wooden panelling, straight of national lampoons where he had a career changing light bulb moment.

He then returned to South Africa armed with this knowledge and has subsequently carved a niche as the country’s foremost sme turnaround specialist and can rightfully wear the hard earned crown of guru, Pavlo Phitidis, talks to Michael Avery about his second book, called Reset Rebuild Reignite and it’s all about building your business to thrive in a crisis.

Miyelani Holeni, chief revenue officer at Ntiyiso Consulting

Ineke Prinsloo, head of customer insights at Consulta

Andy Du Plessis, managing director of FoodForward SA