SA ‘an island with a self-management problem’

GILLIAN KLAWANSKY

“Two thirds of our border is sea. The other third comprises very small economies which collectively make up 22% of our GDP (gross domestic product). We don’t have a rival in our face, so we’ve gotten a bit lazy and careless, he said, speaking at an Hebrew Order of David (HOD) function last Wednesday.

“We may not understand how much we need to change because there isn’t a change agent near us. We self-manage, and because of our awkward history, that self-management tends to involve looking backwards. When you self-manage backwards, when your memory is more powerful than your vision, you’re doomed.”

However, in many other ways we aren’t an island, like in “rugby and business where we play in the global league”, Binedell said.

“Culturally, maybe one day we’ll play in the global league too, because we’ll overcome our differences and find a rhythm. When we embrace each other’s values and cultures and understand that we need each other, a great interdependency is created. I dream about how extraordinary it is to have so many cultures in our society, the possibilities of leveraging that in spite of all that’s happened.”

What’s important right now is to become “active citizens”, the GIBS strategy professor insisted in his talk about the future of South Africa. Binedell, who consults to local and international companies, said it was up to each generation to “claim our space” and exercise the democratic rights enshrined by our constitution – one of the most progressive in the world.

Keeping up with the everchanging world in which we find ourselves is key, he said. “We’ve been living in a particularly bumpy time for the past 10 years or so. Like all countries, we’re deeply affected by what’s happening globally in terms of constraints but also in terms of opportunities. We live in this deeply interconnected world that’s moving very quickly, and it behoves us all to try and get to grips with some of these changes and what they mean for us individually, for our families, our communities, the organisations in which we work, and for this country.”

Binedell lauded South Africa’s democracy. “We live in a constitutional order, and the law does apply even if unevenly. But in the past five or so years, we can salute the judiciary for having exercised its constitutional duties and given us the confidence to believe we’re a democracy, even when it comes to removing presidents which we’ve done more than once.”

He said he had faith in intergenerational change. “When I’m teaching MBA and master’s degree students, I’m seeing a significant change even in the past five years of who’s there, the energy they’re bringing, their business experience, and their confidence. Our generation can rely on the next generation, but we’ve got to shape the journey and shine the torch. The world has never changed this fast; humans have never had to adapt so quickly.”

Everything from Trump’s election to Brexit would have been impossible to predict just a few years ago, he argued. “We live in an uncertain world. It’s a world where, overall, life has improved for billions of people. The potential of this generation is extraordinary.”

Binedell argued that we need to generate “the habit of curious eyes”, to look at and explore what’s around us, to see things for ourselves rather than through the media. “Johannesburg is the heartland of our economy, the heartland of the African economy,” he said. “There’s nothing in Africa to compare to Sandton. It has the best multinationals and the best South African companies. We are in the centre of the centre. We’ve just got to see it.”

Despite South Africa’s achievements, there’s still much work to be done, Binedell said. It’s all about how fast you change. If you change slower than the world around you, you are lost. “This happens to countries, which can disappear in the blink of an eye like Venezuela, Syria, and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, the optimism fostered by the extraordinary growth in countries in Asia particularly is because they change faster than the world around them. It comes down to energy – their pure work rate, discipline, efficiency and values.”

Quoting Chairman Mao, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, who famously said, “When hurricanes come, build windmills,” Binedell said, “When things are going to change, capture the energy, don’t hide from it, embrace it. That will be our struggle. Not just can we learn, but can we unlearn faster than change happens around us?”

Binedell remains optimistic about the framework in which we’re operating. “The question will be, will the centre hold?” he asks. “Countries like ours are often run by a small group of elites. They shape the agenda or the narrative, and they shape society based on the decisions they make. Often, they’re unaccountable because we don’t know how to hold them to account. We’ve developed a political system where MPs aren’t accountable to us, they’re accountable to the party, which is an error.”

The middle class is vital, he said – its creativity, energy, and the nature of its social contract. The creation of trust within and between these groups, from upper to middle and lower strata is central. “Yet, we’re a low-trust economy. We aren’t literate about each other’s customs and traditions. That’s the job of the next generation – to ensure the centre will hold.”

In determining whether the centre will hold, one needs to look at three things within a country: infrastructure including roads and bandwidth; institutions, the quality of which determines how we live; and individuals. All these elements thrive in modernised societies. “South Africa has amazing infrastructure for our sized economy,” he said. “It’s not shared and its incomplete, but we have infrastructure.

“Ask whether society has the capacity to allow individuals of great talent to make the contribution they can,” he said. South Africa has produced remarkable individuals, from political icon Nelson Mandela to technological leader Elon Musk. “And in business terms, no country of our sized economy has produced more globally competitive companies than South Africa.”

Binedell acknowledged that many South Africans within our network are feeling pessimistic. More important than optimism or pessimism though, he argued, is whether one is knowledgeable or naïve. “Knowledgeable as in one has a whole view of this country. One understands its history and elements, and one has a comprehensive map. Societies, institutions, and great lives are made by knowledgeable optimists, by informed optimism.”