Advocates of change

Three thought leaders’ predictions on the end of the world as we know it and what the year 2012 will bring

Alison Deeb

Tune in to Talk Radio 702 every Friday morning, and you’ll hear comedian Nik Rabinowitz waxing lyrical about “the week that wasn’t”. Applying his formula to 2011, there are various milestones that made last year the year that wasn’t, from the global economic meltdown and Julius Malema’s disciplinary hearing to the passing of the Protection of State Information Bill and the post-Fifa Soccer World Cup hangover that loomed over the country.

If any sentiment defined 2011, it would have to be that of uncertainty. And to a large extent, that uncertainty has journeyed with us in the new year, but there were significant lessons to be learnt from the year that wasn’t, and applying these hard earned nuggets of wisdom in the months ahead could possibly turn 2012 into one of the most successful years yet.

Chaos and change have always inspired new eras – all we need to do is embrace and harness them in our favour. Thought leaders Alison Deeb (CEO, The Jupiter Drawing Room), Michael Jackson (professional speaker) and Professor Nick Binedell (Founding Director and Sasol Chair of Strategic Management of the Gordon Institute of Business Science) unpack the year that was and the year that is to come, giving valuable advice for how best to take on 2012.

Business unusual

Michael Jackson’s first piece of advice for the year ahead is to approach it with a completely different mindset.

Michael Jackson

“Don’t set a New Year’s resolution, set a life resolution. Think differently about where you are and where you’re going. We tend to sit back and become very passive, but we need to constantly reinvent ourselves and our circumstances. That’s my goal for 2012 – doing what you did this year is not going to help you next year, not if the world is changing as fast as it is.”

Alison Deeb applies the same mindset to doing business in 2012. “Business as usual is not business as usual; we need to work smarter and faster and use the power of creativity to make a real difference.” That’s the advice of a woman who has climbed the ad agency ladder by living the slogan “Make ideas happen”, which hangs prominently on her pinboard.

“There’s no doubt that 2011 was tougher than 2010,” she says. “For me the key word in 2011 was value, and this applied across all industries. Was the consumer seeing value in the offering? ‘Do I have the right product, at the right time, in the right place and at the right price?’ were the vital ‘back to basics’ questions business was asking. Business was also evaluating their value chain in the process – ‘Do I have the right people, the right partners, the right suppliers, and am I ahead of my competitors?’ More than ever, as a nation we need to be spirited, competitive, astute, and a lot more proactive going forward.”

South Africa may have been somewhat shielded from the recession, but businesses operating in 2011 felt the ripple effect that is now flowing into 2012. As change speaker Michael Jackson points out, people expected a recovery in 2011 and that recovery was slow in coming. South Africans grappled with the bank crisis and then the government crisis, causing instabilities in the market that nobody really understood.

“What we saw in 2011 was stagnation,” he says. “There was no moving forward, we were all just treading water. Even the Chinese are being forced to slow down, and it looks like they might have to bail out Europe, as they did America, so they will become the most dominant force on the planet.

“We also had the situation in Greece, which is kind of ironic to me: the first civilization in the Western world was really Greek, and they may very well have caused the death of the current Western civilization, as Europe cannot withstand the debt they’re in.”

As the balance of world superpowers sway their way into 2012, South Africa too finds itself swaying from reliance on government and the powers that be towards self sustainability and entrepreneurship. This country has quite a unique history and track record where entrepreneurship is concerned, and as far as doing business in 2012 is concerned, this is an area that everyone should be focusing their energy on.

“There are very few countries of our size that have produced the kind of world champion companies that we have – like SAB Miller, MTN, Discovery, Bidvest. Entrepreneurship is in our DNA, and it’s crucial in South Africa,” explains Binedell, who firmly believes that South Africans should be talking less about job creation and more about business creation.

When we’re talking about entrepreneurship, economics and education closely follow suit. For all of his shortcomings, the spirited Julius Malema placed these three intertwined issues firmly on the agenda in 2011, raising questions about

the future facing South African youths that few were brave enough to answer.

Nick Binedell

“There’s an absolute link between being employable and being educated, but you can also be educated and unemployable,” says Binedell. “That’s one of the biggest challenges facing young people. Education is the ticket to the game, and the quality of the education you receive largely determines where in the stands you sit. The world around us is changing very fast, and thanks to technological advances and the knowledge economy, as we call it, the focus is on adding value to any job you do.”

So what exactly does that mean in a country whose matric pass rate in 2010 stood at a dismal 67.8%? In a country that didn’t have nearly enough jobs for those select few students that did manage to graduate and faced nothing but disillusionment upon trying (and failing) to enter the workplace?

“We’re facing a fundamental crisis, and it’s one that will really explode on us in 10 to 15 years time,” cautions Jackson. “It’s easy enough to turn a blind eye on this now, while things seem to be working, but you cannot keep growing and developing a burgeoning population without educating them.

“I don’t want to paint a picture of doom and gloom, however, and I believe that entrepreneurship is going to the new lifeblood of our economy. I don’t see many factories being built as we’re past that industrial age; so growth in

entrepreneurship is crucial. Every entrepreneur can employ two or three other people, which may well be where our solution lies.”

Adapt or die

More than ever before, the youth will have to be the masters of their own destiny and carve their own niche in the job market. Technology may have forever after blurred the boundary between life and work, but it has also enabled anyone with a smartphone and Internet access to sharpen their competitive edge and offer future employers another dimension to their job description, setting themselves above the rest. As Jackson points out, there are over one and a half million job descriptions in the world right now, and the average teenager will have 11 jobs and three career changes before the age of 35.

“There is no substitute for hard work and being the best you can be,” says Jackson, who travelled to 15 countries and worked 160 events (delivering keynote presentations) last year alone. You have to strive hard to be noticed and think differently, and you have all the mobile tools you need in your pocket.”

Creative, innovative ideas have never kept office hours, and rather than rebel against the idea that work is ever chasing you down on your smartphone, Jackson advises young and old to embrace technology and use it to their advantage.

“Change doesn’t come easy to humans, but we need to be aware of what’s changing around us all the time. Read about technology and become interested in it. Like it or not, it is the future.”

In closing

Highly successful in their own right, Jackson, Bindedell and Deeb’s advice for the year ahead shares striking common threads. Hard work and genuine passion for what you do will go a long way, especially in a world where we are all constantly connected and “on duty”, and setting yourself apart from the pack is the only way to survive and thrive. You will be hard-pressed to find three people more enthusiastic about the future of South Africa, and where others see problems and issues, they see business opportunities and room to innovate.

“I wish I was 20 again,” Binedell laments. “When I was in my 20s, there was quite a dark uncertainty facing this country, but the uncertainty we face today is a good uncertainty. Young people are going to be looking to Africa for business opportunities, they’re going to be working in different countries and doing different jobs. What a brilliant invitation!

“I read a lot of economic history books, and I’m reminded of Germany in the 1930s. The country was a mess and its people lost everything, but for the rest of the world, it was the beginning of a great creative era. The conflict in Germany was really the precursor to America rising and becoming a technical power, giving rise to the Silicone Valley and Apple.

“None of us know what will happen next, but we should all know what we will do tomorrow.”

*Article first published in the January issue of Sandton magazine. Photos supplied.