Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene fell into the classic trap of not thinking far enough ahead when he made the fateful decision not to withdraw Caster Semenya from the Berlin competition. Most of the criticism and calls for his resignation have been from the emotional/human level, his failure as a CEO of Athletics SA…
It’s a strange feeling to watch the United States celebrate our heroes more effectively than we can. My father mailed me the link to the Arthur Ashe Courage Award presentation to Nelson Mandela which happened on the 19th July as part of the annual ESPY awards. If you haven’t seen it then stop reading now…
The Broccoli Project, the rewards programme for the poor that I wrote about recently, walked away with the 2nd prize in Hit Barcelona’s Global Entrepreneurship Competition this past week. Spanish company Bmat won first prize. The Broccoli Project also won the award for “best social value” walking away with total prize money of 25 000 euros…
Imagine sitting in a room in 1991 with a group of South African’s trying to map out what the nation would look like in 2002. At the time we were in the middle of negotiations, the country was racked in violence and uncertainty, we were yet to have our first democratic elections and predicting the…
The Broccoli Project, an innovative scheme created by Marc Anthony Zimmerman, offers rewards to the poor in exchange for socially beneficial behaviour. Zimmerman, a successful social entrepreneur was inspired by CK Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. He explains that while the rich are offered numerous incentives through reward schemes, there…
A friend told me about a house he was building. It took months to get it nearly complete. Lots of work by lots of people, creating something of beauty that everyone could admire. A week before completion vandals broke into the property and ripped the place to pieces, just for fun. Vandalism sits on the…
South Africa isn’t short of skills, people, resources or imagination. What it is short of is a common vision. Common implies most of us buy into it and will take whatever steps it takes to achieve it. Sometimes we will need to make sacrifices in the short term for the long. The world has known…
Even if I’m completely wrong. If there had been two ways that something could work out and I have chosen the incorrect one. If I had been smoking my socks and there is no validity in what I thought would happen. If it is now entirely clear that I have been unrealistic and out of…
I’ve met many people who have left South Africa or are planning to leave because of their kids. I think it’s a lousy reason. It’s seldom about the children and even if it was, it’s a mistake. Our children get more out of growing up in South Africa than they would in some safe little…
I spend some of my time coaching executives in South Africa and across Europe. I got thinking the other day what South Africa could need from a coach. I mean the whole country. Not the president — not any individual — all of us who live on this southern slab of Africa. All together —…
