Deeply, profoundly, perilous

Given the past from which we have emerged, government’s incapacity to deliver services was perhaps predictable, maybe even inevitable. The reasons, however, should not be the focus. Crises of capacity loom, or have already dawned, over the delivery of almost every basic service, endangering South Africa’s political and economic prospects. The picture is bleak, but it needn’t be.

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Better parents mean better leaders

The age-old question, “What makes a leader a leader, or what makes one person able to guide, inspire and lead over and above another?” remains an unanswered one. Are leaders born with temperamental traits that simply make them great leaders? Or were they nurtured in a particular way? The endless nature-nurture debate lies at the core of the question.

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Brian Coppin goes from cashier to CEO

I have always wondered who the clever souls behind the Fruit & Veg City stores were, since I had once dabbled in a far less onerous aspect of retail and had my fingers badly burnt. To make your living flogging lettuce and beetroot always seemed to me to be a particularly cruel means of making a living. I imagined disconsolate greengrocers flinging themselves under the wheels of their suppliers’ trucks in order to finally not have to worry about all those rotting cabbages. So when invited to interview Brian Coppin, I jumped at the chance, at least as much by my own curiosity at what made this retail genius tick. I visualised an obsessive control freak who had aged before his time and had short shrift for anyone not associated with the bottom line. The person I encountered was someone entirely different from my naïve imaginings.

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Proof that two heads are sometimes better than one

“It was our personal f***-you to Fifa” – this from King James Group creative director, Alistair King. The question that garnered that response related to airline kulula.com’s recent troubles with the soccer governing body. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.

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