Clem Sunter is gone, a foxy national treasure our tribe just loved

Key topics:Scenario-planning pioneer: “High Road vs Low Road” for SABizNews favourite: beloved keynote voice for the tribeFuture-first thinker: entrepreneurs + the “green flag” warningSign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Alec Hogg.It is with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to Clem Sunter, a man whose mind was as expansive as the scenarios he so brilliantly crafted. He died this afternoon after a year-long struggle with cancer. The last time we spoke was around this time last year, when he called to profusely apologise that he would not be able to deliver the closing address at the 7th BizNews Conference as he had done the year before. He confided that he’d been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the disease would require his full attention. It was a sad moment - Clem loved sharing his insights with the tribe and had been genuinely excited about doing so once more at the Hermanus gathering. The Oxford graduate and one-time budding pop star who loved sharing how he was a warm-up act for the Rolling Stones, was a favourite of the SA mining giant Harry Oppenheimer. He was more than just a corporate executive, a best-selling author, or a renowned futurist. Clem was, as I discovered over decades of engagement in our shared home suburb of Parkview in Joburg and more recently in the Cape, a genuinely warm human being, a "lad from Kensington" whose life took an extraordinary turn thanks to a chance encounter in Cornwall.We at BizNews have lost a favourite son. Clem was arguably the most popular commentator on our podcasts and among the most anticipated keynote speakers at BizNews Conferences. But beyond the sheer numbers of the tribe who loved his insights, it was his spirit—optimistic, pragmatic, and fiercely intellectual—that resonated so deeply.I had the privilege of interviewing Clem in 2020 for a retrospective on his life, a conversation that feels all the more poignant now. We spoke during the strange, quiet days of the Covid-19 lockdown, a scenario even he admitted had no historical precedent. Yet, true to form, Clem wasn’t rattled. He saw it as a necessary pause, a chance to adjust to long-term consequences, much like the great wars of the past century.Clem’s journey to South Africa was a twist of fate. Born during the Second World War, he grew up in post-war Britain, sailing model boats in Kensington Gardens in London. His path to becoming a key figure in Anglo American wasn't plotted in a boardroom but sparked by a girl sitting on a wall outside a Cornish pub. She invited him to supper with her father, the managing director of Anglo in London, leading to a job offer that changed his life. As Clem told me, life is full of unexpected crossroads; happiness is often about taking the right turn when you hit one.His career at Anglo American was spectacular, culminating in his becoming head of the Gold and Uranium division. But his most enduring legacy lies in the work he did in the 1980s. He recruited Shell's pioneering futurist Pierre Wack to bring scenario planning to South Africa - an eccentric whose "hooded eyes and goatee beard," looked every bit the futurist. He famously lit incense sticks instead of Gauloises in the Anglo committee room, quipping that he thought about the future better when smelling incense. Clem loved Wack's work and followed his example - to South Africa's great benefit.Sunter's work, "The World and South Africa in the 1990s," changed the national conversation. Clem presented the "High Road" of negotiation and settlement versus the "Low Road" of confrontation and civil war to tens of thousands of people, from the Cabinet to the Broederbond to mass meetings in KwaMashu. It wasn't just analysis; it was an intervention. He helped shift the national psyche from conflict to consensus.Clem’s philosophy was built on the concept of the fox and the hedgehog, an idea he borrowed from the Greek poet Archilochus and popularised in his best-selling books. The hedgehog knows one big thing, but the fox knows many little things. Clem was the ultimate fox—agile, adaptable, and always scanning the horizon for flags. He believed that to survive and thrive, especially in a volatile world, we all need to be a little more "foxy".In our last interview, Clem was still looking forward. He argued passionately for a new economic model, one that didn't rely on big business but on empowering entrepreneurs. He envisioned big companies allocating 20% of their supply chains to small businesses, creating a "dual logic economy" similar to the one he studied in Japan. He wanted South Africa to find and nurture its own 1,000 top entrepreneurs, the future Elon Musks and Siya Xuza’s, rather than waiting for salvation from the top down.He also warned us about the environment. Long before it was fashionable, Clem raised the "green flag," cautioning that climate change would be the defining issue of the next century. He noted that while his generation might have put economic development first, today's youth—Generation Z—see the planet's health as existential.Clem Sunter taught us to think of the future not as a fixed destination but as a series of possibilities we have the power to shape. He challenged us to look for the flags, to weigh the probabilities, and to have the courage to choose the High Road.As he told me, he always ended his talks with a blessing: "May the fox be with you". Today, we return that blessing. Farewell, Clem. Your wisdom, your wit, and your friendship will be sorely missed. You have left us with the tools to navigate the uncertain times ahead..Listen to the full interview from 2020 on The Alec Hogg Show below

Clem Sunter is gone, a foxy national treasure our tribe just loved

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