Ian Fuhr

Ian Fuhr

Building Brands

Ian Fuhr, founder of Sorbet, the largest chain of beauty salons in South Africa, describes how he built the Sorbet brand through offering unconditional refunds and careful training of staff in the company’s business philosophy. 

Robert Brozin

Robert Brozin

Corporate Culture

Robert Brozin, the co-Founder of Nando’s, a South African-based restaurant chain specializing in Portuguese food, describes the distinctive corporate culture based on diversity, respect and fun.

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana

Corporate Culture

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, as well as the former CEO of Telkom and FirstRand Group, describes the importance and results of maintaining high professional standards at his accounting firm.

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana

Corporate Culture

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, as well as the former CEO of Telkom and FirstRand Group, describes the actions he took to develop a corporate culture that empowered Black people at his accounting firm.

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana

Corruption

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, as well as the former CEO of Telkom and FirstRand Group, describes the challenges his accounting firm faced in its early days in the apartheid-era.

Hubert Danso

Hubert Danso

Diaspora

Hubert Danso, Chair of the South-African based financial services group Africa Investor, argues that making greater use of the African diaspora offers a huge business opportunity for Africa.

Savannah Maziya

Savannah Maziya

Diversification

Savannah Maziya, the founder of South Africa-based Bunengi Holdings, a project development, management and investment company that operates across Africa in infrastructure, natural resources and financial services, recounts how her involvement in the mining industry naturally led to involvement in both infrastructure and agriculture as the business needed to supply logistics as well as food for its workers.

Cas Coovadia

Cas Coovadia

Ethnicity and Race

Cas Coovadia, the long-running Managing Director of the Banking Association South Africa, argues that the government needs proactive policies to support the Black community because of the discrimination it experienced under apartheid.

Ian Fuhr

Ian Fuhr

Ethnicity and Race

Ian Fuhr, who later founded Sorbet, the largest chain of beauty salons in South Africa, describes his struggles to convince white-owned companies in South Africa in the 1990s to take racism in the workplace seriously, and how he developed a play on the subject to try to emphasize the importance of the issue.

Ian Fuhr

Ian Fuhr

Ethnicity and Race

Ian Fuhr, who later founded Sorbet, the largest chain of beauty salons in South Africa, describes how he was sent to a refinery owned by the Murray & Roberts group in the 1990s and encountered appalling racism at the top management. The CEO eventually took steps to implement change after it became clear that racism was badly impacting the company’s productivity, as black workers silently resisted in response.

Sizwe Nxasana

Sizwe Nxasana

Ethnicity and Race

Sizwe Nxasana, the founding partner of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, the largest Black accounting firm in South Africa, discusses the discrimination he experienced as a young Black accountant during the apartheid era, and how he initially built his business serving Black clients.

Peter Vundla

Peter Vundla

Ethnicity and Race

Peter Vundla, who co-founded the first Black-owned advertising agency HerdBuoys in South Africa in 1991, describes how hard it was for Black people to start a business in apartheid South Africa. They were forced to live in townships such as Soweto which were intended as labor camps rather than as locations for business.