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ONE of the first questions I asked Capitec CEO Riaan Stassen when I interviewed him on Wednesday afternoon was whether he still felt excited about being involved in the running of his business. After all, it has been quite a spectacular ride up in the last five years with Capitec becoming firmly entrenched as a player in the local market.
His answer to me was good: "I'd far rather be in one of the branches right now rather than sitting here talking to you."
Fortunately, I am not the sensitive type and I think it gave me some insight into how Stassen and his team think.
Despite the success of the last few years, they are still incredibly passionate about what they are building at the bank and they take real pleasure in what they are building.
While it is great to see the share price running along to new record highs, you get the very distinct sense that stock performance is an after-thought, and the business they are building is front of mind
Sticking with the Capitec theme, Michiel le Roux (junior), the son of the founder and chairperson of the bank, recently opened a salad bar in Sandton.
At 26, Michiel is a good example for other young South Africans.
In his "unemployed" period, when the salad bar was getting off the ground, he managed to also write a book, The misadventures of a COPE Volunteer: My Crash Course in Politics, which has just hit book stores.
We were chatting the other day about entrepreneurship and business and I asked him what made him go through the slog of starting a business and taking the risk. His answer was short and sweet: "It's the adventure of building something."
Cosatu 0 - Capitec 4 726
That word "building" is very important when you look at small business. Too often the business owner's mindset is on "surviving" and not building, and I think this is where business owners go wrong.
Just as I admire Riaan Stassen for helping Capitec become a hugely disruptive force in South Africa, I take my hat off to Michiel because, as a young South African and entrepreneur, he has added some value to society. He doesn't whinge about how tough the economy is, or how "impossible" it is to get a book published, or how labour laws prohibit him from starting a business.
He gets out there he does it and he creates jobs. This is the kind of attitude we need from young adults in South Africa; not a "we demand or else" approach towards wages or industry.
My wife is an academic at Wits University and when they have to assess dissertations, the primary question asked is: what are you adding to the body of knowledge?
I think its a fantastic question that more South Africans should ask themselves when they wake up in the morning.
Stassen told me the story of when Capitec was trying to get off the ground in 2002. The founders were battling to get R10 000 in credit lines and every bank analyst was telling them they were crazy to be trying to take on the Big Four banks.
Well, 2010 has rolled around and Capitec is now a household name. It has proved that South Africa was crying out for a competitive new banking entrant. And in doing so, it has created 4 726 jobs - the precise thing for which the country is desperate.
It irritates me to read a statement from trade federation Cosatu, saying it disapproves of the proposed Wal-Mart/MassMart transaction because Wal-Mart is "notoriously anti-union".
I don't understand this logic. Globalisation issues aside, if Wal-Mart comes in, it has the ability to add value to South African workers by teaching them skills and international best practice - so how can the trade unions disapprove of this.
I am just a simple journalist, but the maths to me works like this: Michiel has created five jobs and Capitec has added 900 jobs in the last 12 months - what has Cosatu added?
So here is my question to you as South Africans: what are you going to add to the body of knowledge today?
His answer to me was good: "I'd far rather be in one of the branches right now rather than sitting here talking to you."
Fortunately, I am not the sensitive type and I think it gave me some insight into how Stassen and his team think.
Despite the success of the last few years, they are still incredibly passionate about what they are building at the bank and they take real pleasure in what they are building.
While it is great to see the share price running along to new record highs, you get the very distinct sense that stock performance is an after-thought, and the business they are building is front of mind
Sticking with the Capitec theme, Michiel le Roux (junior), the son of the founder and chairperson of the bank, recently opened a salad bar in Sandton.
At 26, Michiel is a good example for other young South Africans.
In his "unemployed" period, when the salad bar was getting off the ground, he managed to also write a book, The misadventures of a COPE Volunteer: My Crash Course in Politics, which has just hit book stores.
We were chatting the other day about entrepreneurship and business and I asked him what made him go through the slog of starting a business and taking the risk. His answer was short and sweet: "It's the adventure of building something."
Cosatu 0 - Capitec 4 726
That word "building" is very important when you look at small business. Too often the business owner's mindset is on "surviving" and not building, and I think this is where business owners go wrong.
Just as I admire Riaan Stassen for helping Capitec become a hugely disruptive force in South Africa, I take my hat off to Michiel because, as a young South African and entrepreneur, he has added some value to society. He doesn't whinge about how tough the economy is, or how "impossible" it is to get a book published, or how labour laws prohibit him from starting a business.
He gets out there he does it and he creates jobs. This is the kind of attitude we need from young adults in South Africa; not a "we demand or else" approach towards wages or industry.
My wife is an academic at Wits University and when they have to assess dissertations, the primary question asked is: what are you adding to the body of knowledge?
I think its a fantastic question that more South Africans should ask themselves when they wake up in the morning.
Stassen told me the story of when Capitec was trying to get off the ground in 2002. The founders were battling to get R10 000 in credit lines and every bank analyst was telling them they were crazy to be trying to take on the Big Four banks.
Well, 2010 has rolled around and Capitec is now a household name. It has proved that South Africa was crying out for a competitive new banking entrant. And in doing so, it has created 4 726 jobs - the precise thing for which the country is desperate.
It irritates me to read a statement from trade federation Cosatu, saying it disapproves of the proposed Wal-Mart/MassMart transaction because Wal-Mart is "notoriously anti-union".
I don't understand this logic. Globalisation issues aside, if Wal-Mart comes in, it has the ability to add value to South African workers by teaching them skills and international best practice - so how can the trade unions disapprove of this.
I am just a simple journalist, but the maths to me works like this: Michiel has created five jobs and Capitec has added 900 jobs in the last 12 months - what has Cosatu added?
So here is my question to you as South Africans: what are you going to add to the body of knowledge today?
