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The man who brought global super marketing principles to South Africa – Raymond Ackerman
The man who brought global super marketing principles to South Africa has died. Raymond Ackerman bought four small Cape Town stores from entrepreneur Jack Goldin after being fired as MD of Checkers by owners, the Greatermans Group which wanted him to raise grocery profit margins to those of clothing. He had two weeks’ severance pay,…
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20 years of financial journalism
I’d worked in radio as a general news reporter and (far too young) as an editor in South Africa and London for seven years and realised I needed to specialise. As I look back, it reminds me that we are nothing without others. Only one CEO I have ever met adamantly believed he’d made…
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TedX – What if banks incentivised climate action?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMNKTiwMw9E In this thought-provoking talk, journalist and author Bruce Whitfield examines the “poacher turned gamekeeper” approach pioneered by Rwanda’s former game ranger Edwin Sabuhoro. Drawing parallels to combat climate change, Bruce suggests incentivising industries for sustainable practices. Edwin’s solution successfully reduced poaching in Volcanoes National Park, and now Bruce proposes that banks can contribute…
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Strategic Opportunism
My dad’s name was Albert. Bert for short. There was a reason his older grandchildren named him “Bert the Flirt.” He was a good-looking, enormously fit and healthy 90-year-old and while always a devoted husband, was an unashamed flirt. The years were beginning to tell, but he was still playing up to three games of…
