When last did you do something for the first time? And when you did, did you go it alone — or collaborate? I’d recommend the latter, especially if you don’t know where to start.
There’s a reason proverbs endure; they distil truths. One of my favourites is the old African saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It neatly captures one of the more extraordinary experiences I’ve had recently.
About a year ago, I began talking to some brilliant academics about getting published by Harvard. My thought was simple: If you’re going to do something, do it big. What’s emerged since has far exceeded my expectations.
I recently opened my inbox to a message from Sue Swart, Case Study Hub Administrator at the Gordon Institute of Business Science: “At last we can announce that our GIBS collection of cases has been published by Harvard Business Publishing. The cases are live in the HBE catalogue on the HBS Higher Education website, and also in the HBR.org store.”
My heart skipped a beat. It had been months since our submission. I clicked through to HBR.org, typed in my name, and there it was, under the Harvard banner, authored by Adrian Saville, Anastasia Mamabolo, and me (!).
The case study titled: “Disrupting the Banking Landscape with Kiosks for Financial Inclusion” opens a small window into an extraordinary business – one that TIME recently named among the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025, alongside the likes of SpaceX and On Cloud, for “its inclusive, accessible digital banking model and transformative scale in emerging markets.”
A key driver of Tyme’s success is its ‘phygital’ model – a smart blend of low-cost physical kiosks inside retail partners in South Africa and the Philippines, with more countries in its sights. It’s a model that makes world-class banking accessible to mass-market customers who’ve long been written off as “unbankable.”
The Harvard case captures just one facet of the story. I suspect you’ll be hearing much more about Tyme in the years ahead. For now, though, I can’t help but grin like the Cheshire Cat.
