SA business execs to UK counterparts: Let’s swap challenges. Please?
By Alec Hogg
Two things hit me during this visit to London. First is how good walking is for the human body. Second: the vast difference between the challenges SA businesses face compared with those in the UK.
To the first point, there are obviously chubby Londoners hidden away somewhere, but in the normal course of a day you don't see many of them. Londoners, addicted as they are to "the tube", seem to walk everywhere. Briskly. And possess body shapes that show it. My Jawbone device, which measures my daily steps, says I hit 16 000 today – roughly double my daily quota at home. Without even trying.
On the second point, business leaders in the UK don't know how good they have it. In South Africa, organised business is digesting implications of the weekend's split in COSATU with justifiable concern. It is sure to herald even more violence-soaked strikes. More stoppages. More destruction.
The UK has its own hot news topic involving workers. The Confederation of British Industry is furious that UK Prime Minister David Cameron is lowering the number of migrant workers allowed in from Euroland. The CBI accuses Cameron of being out of touch. It says without these migrants, UK industry faces a serious labour shortage. The Brits, they say, simply refuse to do bottom end jobs. And to prove the point, London newspapers yesterday reported how a local sandwich maker is relocating production to Eastern Europe because it cannot attract staff here.
There can be few SA executives who wouldn't like swapping their challenges with their British counterparts.
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