True leadership demands the spirit of a pioneer

*This content is brought to you by Thomas Oosthuizen

About three years ago, I was sitting in a make-do boardroom with two guys that ran a business selling commodity (unbranded) food to wholesalers. Being in the wholesale business is tough. Price pressure is omnipresent and the ability to charge a premium, even if the product you offer is indeed far better than competitors, is low.

There are many downsides. Whilst you run such a business, you are exposed to all the factors that erode value. No business can sustainably operate this way, less so when technology and other resources are making starting a business easier.

These guys wanted to create a business with a range of brands. They believed that is the way to escape the commodity trap and offer their wholesalers and consumers different brands that can attract a good margin. In the process they will create a company with brands that are trademarked, sell through consistent consumer demand and can become an asset.

Leverage the same resources better than peers.

Whilst everyone that has ever done this will know, this requires guts and risks, with no guarantees. To me, I knew there was no margin for error, either I got it right in what I had to do, or there goes my own reputation.

I feel very proud today to say “we” have done it (albeit that the hard work was done by them). They created a thriving company with real assets. Underpinned by great product formulations. The spirit of their commitment to constantly improve, is intoxicating.

Will they become a major company, no doubt they will? Despite wars, rocketing prices, low real wage increases and increasing competition. They do not have access to endless resources or any secret ingredient, they have the spirit of pioneers. When you are knocked down, you get-up and try again.

Similarly, I was in meetings in personal homes where ideas were created by people from scratch, today all those companies are large. All started knowing their chances of success were 50:50, at times less. Yet, perseverance made them do it. This is exactly what early SA pioneers like Dr Anton Rupert did when he started producing cigarettes, to grow to a company that today is the second largest luxury brands owner on earth. We can say the same for Adrian Gore of Discovery and Vitality, Laurie Dippenaar and JT Ferreira of FirstRand, Brian Joffe of Bidvest, Rene Otto of OUTsurance and MiWay, Christo Davel of 20twenty, the second online bank in the world at its time. Joe Stegman of Sasol. South Africa remains a can-do place. No excuse is ever big enough to stop believing that.

I was struck this morning when I saw Gillette now developed a shaver that warms itself up for winter. Simple idea, yet a brand with an uncanny pursuit to renew itself, year after year. Despite its age, it retains the spirit of a pioneer, even if it belongs to the largest fast-moving-consumer-goods company in the world, P&G. Complacency is never good. Not even when you are the leader by a wide margin.

Value demands risk. The spirit of a pioneer. More than anything, the leaders of the major technology companies today, are all pioneers. They believed in their ideas, found the money and attracted the right people.

For more information on Dr Thomas Brand, click here. 

When I was doing work for MTN across their network, I was struck by the incredible spirit of “can-do” of their people. I spent many evenings at dinner tables with bright young men and woman, some having studied at the best universities in the world, to listen to how they are constrained by corrupt governments that curtail their potential. Yet, they were dedicated to be their best.

The place where I encountered pioneership most, was in the UAE. For years, I was in some way involved in work in the UAE.

Emirates Airlines is the icon brand of the UAE. Early on in their history, I recall running a three-day workshop with the country managers of the Middle East and near-Asia region which included India. At the time it was the dominant portion of the Emirates revenue. What I loved, was the open-ness to debate, argue, deliver the best. Nothing was off the table, the spirit of the pioneer shone through. I was a part of the team, not an outsider. (The leader of this group at the time, later became the founder CEO of Air Dubai. A true leader with boundless energy, passion and ideas.)

The incredible dedication to create a global airline that will be the best, permeated everything Emirates ever did. There was an uncanny attention to detail.

Emirates became an icon of its industry in record time.

Some years later, I worked with a friend of mine on a project for the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank – or as they call it, ADCB. The bank was chaired by a member of the royal family. An amazing man in his early thirties, that worked at the best investment banks in the world in NYC. Someone that immediately introduced himself by his first name, no issues or formalities. Someone you could challenge and argue with and that wanted a viewpoint.

The most interesting part of this project was that we had to interview forty of their most affluent clients, Emiratis’ and expats. When it came to assess why they believed in the UAE, then a much smaller global hub than today, the word that came-up time and time again, was that it made them feel like “modern-day pioneers”. Like the first gold-diggers. Believing in a dream and pursuing it in a place where this was its very DNA.

Like technology giants found the ecosystem they need in California, pioneers found it in the UAE.

This was encapsulated in a beautiful line the agency Fallon in the US created for ADCB, “Long Live Ambition”.

Throughout my life, nothing ever inspired me more than the spirit of can-do, the spirit of tackling hard problems and solving them in “valuable” ways. Ways that build people, companies and wealth. There is nothing inspiring about normality. We all want to be a part of a winning team that do extra-ordinary things. Not for glory, but for living life to the full.

In the “old-world” we could get away with this. With the equalisation of technology access, global access to brands across borders, global payment systems available to all, global resourcing through interactive technology like Teams and Zoom, the ordinary no longer has a place. The so-called global village is here. Everyone now competes with the best anywhere on earth.

Steve Jobs wrote this, by now famous “poem”, that sums-up a pioneer. The start of Think Different, the DNA of Apple.

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Be a pioneer and enable your people to be that. That is our acid test for every day.

For more information on Dr Thomas Brand, click here. 

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