Award-Winning Global Storyteller
Bruce Whitfield is a bestselling author whose work explores how leadership, economics, and human behaviour intersect to shape progress.
Known for his investigative depth and accessible storytelling, Bruce writes books that challenge assumptions, reframe complexity, and inspire more constructive thinking about how we build companies, economies, and futures. His writing is grounded in decades of journalism, giving readers a rare blend of sharp insight, real-world context, and narratives that stay with you long after the last page.
It’s About Tyme:
Banking Beyond Borders
Pan Macmillan, 2025
Imagine starting with a bold mission in 2012: to achieve financial inclusion through a multi-country bank. Within a decade, this vision becomes one of the fastest-growing fintechs in the world.
Now imagine becoming the global poster child for AI in banking and receiving an email in June 2025, informing you that your company is one of Time magazine’s Top 100 most influential companies in the world.
This incredible story unfolds within the pages of It’s About Tyme. As Roger Grobler, a long-standing investor in Tyme puts it, ‘Courage and audacity are not just bold strategies – they’re the safest. Because playing it safe is, ironically, the riskiest thing you can do.’
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The One Thing:
Small Ideas, Big Outcomes
Pan Macmillan, 2024
What is the ‘One Thing’ that, if you were president for half an hour, you would order to be implemented so it could have a catalytic effect throughout the economy? Bruce challenged over 100 smart South Africans to identify the ‘One Thing’ that they would order to be implemented so it could have a catalytic effect throughout the economy. You will hear from a host of people, including:
- Sean Summers, tasked with turning around Pick n Pay, on the first step he would take to turn around the country
- Mining CEO Mike Teke on what he learned playing football on the fields of KwaThema, and how he would apply that to the country
- Wits Chancellor Judy Dlamini on the power of education
- Chair of the Businesswomen’s Association Mandisa Nkwanyana about harnessing the power of women as a catalyst for change.
You will also hear from those who inspire us to be more than we think we can be, such as maestro Ralf Schmitt, plus a range of money managers, editors, CEOs, academics and founders of some of the country’s most successful startups.
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Genius: How to thrive at the edge of chaos
Pan Macmillan, 2023
Genius tells the stories of some of the extraordinary individuals, companies and industries whose ideas, products and raw materials solve problems and add value across the globe. Greatness comes from acting on purpose and solving problems for the future.
Learn how Pratley beat Armstrong to the moon, how a former Eskom quantity surveyor capitalised on Britain’s obsession with meerkats to create the UK’s most visible price comparison website, how to take a Mediterranean-style food concept to the Mediterranean, and how a device designed to beat diamond smuggling made it from the set of a popular US hospital drama into emergency rooms and pathology labs across the US.
Genius tells these and many more stories and lessons on how to turn smart ideas into great businesses at home and then take those ideas global. It examines what it takes to thrive in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and divisive global environment. These are lessons for anyone looking to succeed anywhere against the odds.
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The Upside of Down:
How chaos and uncertainty breed opportunity.
Pan Macmillan, 2021
The proliferation of smart devices and the explosion of popular social media platforms have turned everyone into a purveyor of information.
It means our world is characterised by fake news, manipulated information feeds, and divisive social-media agendas.
Read how successful innovators assess risk, stay adaptable, and turn obstacles into momentum. Instead of being paralysed by fear, they take action, control what they can, and rewrite the stories they tell about complexity. This book shows how you can do the same by unlocking opportunity and building a mindset built for uncertainty.
It’s easy to believe that our time is the most challenging in human history, but this is just not true. The Upside of Down is an inspiring read to navigate the complexity of our times.
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