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May 2003 Karl Corbett, President
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May 2003 Karl Corbett, President
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Personal: A glimpse
at culture, and experiences worth sharing.
Professional:
Employee retention Conference
Political:
South Africa's history, economy and future.
-- APRIL 2003 press coverage on the conference
The Employee Retention Conference
| Our hotel venue is the Indaba Hotel,
200 rooms that look like a country estate.
Conference facilities, food, equipment and technical support- all excellent. |
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Employee turnover comes at two levels
in South Africa, for two very different reasons. HIV/AIDS decimates
the front line work force.
Opportunities overseas attract the educated to leave, at least for a period of years , for Europe, Saudi Arabia, places where the money is too good to pass up. Sasha's solutions and processes clearly apply to these challenges, attendees tell us. The human condition is the same, all over the world. |
| Our audience, 100 strong, represent multinationals
like Diebold and Nestle, Johannesburg City Council, the Gauteng province's
Premier, and South Africa's National Departments of Port Authority,
Transportation, Taxation, Agriculture and Railroads.
Hospitals, academics from several universities, consultants, retailers, steel producers and mines round out the group. Their response: speaker and conference ratings above 90%, with Sasha's sessions rated higher than all 5 local speakers. |
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There's no way we can talk, or they'll want to listen for three days, non-stop. We break up the proceedings with 5 local speakers, carefully chosen by conference sponsor Moruo Communications to add to our message without overlap. (Click here for the conference programme) Groups divide up, across the hall and hotel grounds, to take on assignments and form networks that will last long after the conference is over. Group work is taken seriously, people working long past the conference closing hour on Day 1, and bringing Powerpoints to support their presentations the following morning. We are dealing with a serious and talented group of upper-level management, hungry for American models and processes. |
| Basil Mogodi, president of
Moruo Communications, has built his events management firm in a hurry,
with 80% of staff working their first job. They have been trained,
encouraged and empowered, to the point that Naison Shilenge,
a soft spoken young man, is bold enough to find us 8,000 miles
away and bring us here. Basil and I spend most of the day after
the conference together, talking about business philosophy, keeping life
in balance, and just getting to know each other.
More business and another conference - later. For a day, we just enjoy our success and enjoy each others' company. |
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press coverage on the conference
A Personal View
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Even a quiet Sunday in downtown Johannesburg
means streets full of vendors, selling fresh fruits and vegetables, area
residents shopping and socializing.
The "Informal" sector of business means people on foot, selling to drivers at every intersection. Street booths and tables are licensed, creating some tax revenue. |
| Evenings were once fairly dangerous in
the downtown district. Street cameras have reduced crime, but
the damage was done. The finest hotel stands empty, and the stock
exchange has moved north to the suburbs.
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Back at our hotel, Inaba's food:
exceptional - Three buffets a day, with local fruits and specialties
you'll never see in Europe or America, and excellent cuisine that
makes visitors feel right at home.
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| The grounds are immaculate, with an outdoor
cafe that feels like Europe.
Incomparable service. A feeling that South Africans, across the
board, love Americans, at the hotel, and out on the streets.
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Marvelous crafts and artwork, enough to overwhelm the senses. Furniture, sculpture, pottery, and carvings
sold by the side of the road are often "big business" ventures, despite
their appearance, with foreign companies bringing in wares in quantity,
and taking the profits back across the borders of neighboring countries
to the north.
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press coverage on the conference
The Politics of South Africa
| Mandela's ruling party has offices downtown. Despite support and financing from the far left, the ANC has maintained what some people call "reasonable, even conservative" economic policies, and an attitude of reconciliation that's led South Africa through wrenching changes in less than a decade without a meltdown. |  |
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Nelson Mandela's current home, in
Houghton, north of Johannesburg. Nearby is the newly opened Mandela
foundation.
"Madiba", as he is known, has a stature in society we can't even imagine. It's as if George Washington were walking the streets, 10 years after his greatest accomplishments. Even the old line conservatives who supported the old regime see Mandela as a godsend, a miracle, the perfect person at the perfect time. |
| Soweto, the black township that was home of the greatest unrest during "the struggle": a study in contrast, with homes ranging from 1-room tin shacks to mini-mansions. |  |
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A distinct lack of space created by borders
in years past gives way to new neighborhoods, with larger homes
and a Southern California flavor, on the outskirts. The new
neighborhoods serve as a model for upward mobility and work ethic,
rather than a source of jealousy for those a block away living in
homes a fraction of the size.
Then there are the 'informal' neighborhoods, shacks of tin built in packed neighborhoods with an occasional public faucet and toilet. We stopped and walked through one of these, visited inside a home with two rooms - kitchen and bedroom , no table, no chairs, one bed for mother and two children - dirt streets, a daycare center with a church service held outdoors, singing acapella in Zulu.
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| A drive through the Soweto market - meandering dirt roads, live chickens for sales, second hand clothing laid out for display. The west side of Soweto, Desmond Tutu's home surrounded by a plastered wall, topped by electrified barbed wire. Winnie Mandela's home, said to be site of the murder of a young man , ostensibly an opposition spy, by the Mandela 'Soccer Club'. |  |
| Last stop, the Hector Pieterson museum,
on the site of his death in 1976, shot during the student uprising that
sparked 18 years of unrest, sanctions against South Africa. Numerous
photographs and videos, we invited our tour guide to join us, which did
reluctantly. (Pieterson's sister sold us our tickets)
Turns out our guide was there during the demonstrations, the day Pieterson was shot, and knew many of the leaders of the black consciousness movement . He narrated the history of the events with personal knowledge, and told us he never came into the museum with his tour guests, because it brings back memories of difficult days. He made the tour a powerful experience, and a reminder of how far South Africa has come. Museum info:
http://www.joburg.org.za/october/hector.stm |