On Work and Revolution

Advaita Naidoo, MD Africa at Jack Hammer, joins Debbie on this episode, to unpack why Gen Z has become the workplace’s favourite scapegoat. 

Their view is that every generation arrives “not work ready”, but this generation is judged on social media, shaped by lockdown and friction-free parenting, and has watched employers advertise cultures they don’t deliver. The deeper risk, Advaita warns, is that managers who skip training in favour of AI or impatience are starving their own leadership pipeline. The advice runs both ways: leaders must explain the “why” and drop the “I had it hard, so should they” mindset, while young professionals must show up in person, learn to tolerate friction and stop labelling every discomfort as toxic.

Advaita and Debbie dig into how: 

• Broken promises breed disloyalty. Employers sold purpose and belonging, Gen Z believed it, and loyalty has to run both ways.
• Friction-free upbringings meet friction-heavy workplaces. Lockdown, one-click everything and “snowplow” parenting left many with less tolerance for criticism.
• Skipping the training is a leadership-pipeline risk. Handing junior work to AI or ignoring it because it’s easier will cost organisations later.
• Both sides have homework. Managers should explain the reasoning behind how things are done. Gen Z should prioritise presence, tolerate friction and learn the difference between toxic and merely tough.

Follow Debbie on LinkedIn here

Follow Advaita on LinkedIn here

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

She turned down a $50 million check because it wasn't her strategy - then spent ten years proving she was right. In this episode, Debbie sits down with Samantha "Sam" Pokroy, founder and CEO of Sanari Capital, a private equity firm focused on high-growth mid-market businesses across Africa. Sam gets candid about the "dark night" her firm's first deal collapsed, the double standard women face on technical credibility in finance, and why disappointment has repeatedly redirected her toward something better. It's an honest, often funny account of what building a business from nothing actually costs.

Follow Debbie on LinkedIn here

Follow Sam on LinkedIn here

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

Rui Morais, CEO of Dis-Chem Pharmacies and prior to that, the youngest CFO of a listed company in South Africa, sits down with Debbie Goodman to discuss the real story behind Dis-Chem's much-misreported restructure, and why it's actually a signal of bold ambition, not downsizing. With 200 new roles being created alongside the reorganisation, Rui explains how Dis-Chem is evolving from a retail pharmacy into South Africa's healthcare authority, backed by an innovation hub, strategic partnerships, and a board deeply aligned on purpose. 

The conversation goes behind the scenes of one of the most publicly scrutinized CEO successions in South African corporate history, exploring the unexpected tension, identity shifts, and emotional complexity that no governance framework fully prepares you for. Throughout, Rui emerges as a leader who is deeply purposeful, refreshingly candid, and unafraid to swing for the fences.

Follow Debbie on LinkedIn here

Follow Rui on LinkedIn here

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

Far from a polished highlight reel, Lee Naik, CEO of TransUnion Africa, unpacks the unglamorous realities of turnaround leadership - the loneliness, the self-doubt, the early mornings, and the moments where the buck unquestionably stops with you. 

Key takeaways that will resonate with anyone navigating high-stakes leadership: 

The turnaround reality: Every major CEO role today carries transformation work; the skill is learning to listen first, resist acting on assumptions, and distinguish symptoms from root issues. 

Purposeful leadership over P&L thinking: Lee argues that connecting your personal "why" to the organisation's mission is not airy-fairy - it's the fuel that sustains leaders through the hardest stretches. 

The loneliness at the top: True leadership loneliness isn't about being friendless; it's about the specific weight of decisions too sensitive or complex to process with your own team. 

Resilience and rejection: From childhood rejections to corporate setbacks, Lee frames disappointment not as failure but as the essential pathway between where you are and your North Star.

Follow Debbie on LinkedIn here

Follow Lee on LinkedIn here

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

In this rich and candid conversation, Debbie chats with Nonku Pitje, CEO of Discovery Corporate and Employee Benefits - the first woman and first Black person to hold that role - whose 22-year journey through eight roles at Discovery is itself a masterclass in growth through staying. Nonku reframes the women-in-the-workplace conversation away from confidence and imposter syndrome, instead exposing the structural and financial forces that leave women retiring with 30% less than men. She shares the work behind Discovery Women Move, a platform by and for women that achieved its gender representation goal 18 months ahead of schedule, and draws a powerful line between financial insecurity and emotional wellbeing. Throughout, Nonku weaves in deeply personal stories, from her mother's "20 Rands from starvation" to the solemn weight of her own appointment as CEO, leaving listeners with one clear word: possibility.

Nonku and Debbie discuss:

The structural gender wealth gap

The myth of the so-called "ambition gap"

Role modeling as the most powerful intervention

The financial-emotional wellbeing link

Possibility as a leadership legacy

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

Jurie Strydom is the newly appointed Group CEO of Old Mutual, one of South Africa's most iconic financial institutions, who took an unconventional path to the top — stepping out of a portfolio NED life and back into the fire.

He unpacks the surprisingly low-stakes experience of interviewing for the CEO role with a board he already sat on, the whiplash of going from a considered portfolio life to a full-throttle executive role within days, and his near-obsessive focus on accelerating decision-making as the primary unlock for organisational speed. 

With characteristic directness, Jurie is candid about what he hasn't gotten right - including work-life balance in the first six months - and reflects on the deeper philosophy that job satisfaction must come from impact, not the size of the title.

Jurie and Debbie discuss:

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

In this first episode of the CEO Series, Debbie sits down with Jeanette Marais, who made history in August 2023 as the first female CEO of a large listed financial services group in South Africa when she took the helm at Momentum Group. Jeanette shares her journey from being a "girl from the Free State" to leading a 16,000-person organization, revealing the unexpected challenges of the role - from navigating 13 board members to making the bold decision to lead with purpose over profit metrics. She opens up about the gruelling seven-month selection process, her unconventional remote leadership approach (commuting weekly between provinces), and why receiving harsh feedback became her greatest gift. This conversation cuts through the typical CEO talking points to expose the real experience of stepping into the top seat, complete with 3 AM wake-ups and the courage to be "fundamentally unreasonable."

Helpful Links:

Follow Jeanette on LinkedIn

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

Connect with Ronak on LinkedIn HERE

Ronak's website

Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn HERE

Jack Hammer website

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧

Helpful Links:
Follow Debbie on LinkedIn

Visit the Jack Hammer website

On Work and Revolution podcast exposes the real forces reshaping leadership, talent, and the future of work. Hosted by Debbie Goodman - CEO of Jack Hammer Global, a top executive search firm, author, advisor, and speaker - this podcast dives into bold ideas and honest conversations with CEO's reshaping today’s workplaces and redefining what great leadership looks like.

If you’re a CEO, founder, or changemaker hungry for real insight into workplace trends, hiring strategy, and organizational transformation, this is your space to listen, learn, and lead differently.

✦ Explore more insights, guest details, and episode transcripts at: jhammerglobal.com

✦ Follow Debbie on LinkedIn | YouTube

✦ Subscribe, share, and spark your own work revolution. 🎧