Can the business world actually recover from the reset that it faced at the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the COVID-19 pandemic?
I ask this because of the feedback that I witnessed during interactions in business meetings I attended this week. A veteran businessman was talking to one of his younger colleagues and said, “Doing business these days has become very complicated. It was much simpler to run a company in the 1990s!”
It’s a paradox. We live in the most informed age in human history, with the world’s information at our fingertips. The internet has revolutionised the business landscape, providing a platform where entrepreneurs can live the American dream of making something out of nothing at the click of a button. Yet, this same digital age has also brought about unprecedented complexity and risk.
Given the current economic climate, it’s clear that we need to return to basics. South Africa, for instance, is still reeling from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and now faces the threat of economic turmoil in China. The urgency of the situation underscores the need to simplify our approach. However, as Busisiwe Mavuso, the CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, points out, this is where we are falling short.
The GNU must step up to the plate
The article points out that President Cyril Ramaphosa put together a government of national unity after the 29 May election failed to produce an outright winner. Some voters opted for other parties after 30 years of ANC-majority rule ended in rolling power cuts and logistics snarl-ups, an economy that has barely grown over the past decade, a jobless rate of 33%, endemic crime, and corruption.
“The beauty of what we have right now in the GNU is that policymaking has been liberated from Luthuli House,” Mavuso, 45, said in an interview Thursday, referring to the ANC’s headquarters. “There are going to be a whole lot more robust conversations about the policies that are put in place.”
The article adds that this includes talks about the National Health Insurance Act, which Ramaphosa signed into law less than two weeks before the national elections after years of wrangling. The legislation bans the private sector from offering cover for treatment available under the NHI, and opponents say it will neither remedy the healthcare system’s shortfalls nor be affordable for the state.
“The NHI as it stands is a farce — it’s unimplementable, it’s unfundable,” said Mavuso. “What it does seek to do is to decimate the private healthcare system,” she said.
Positive signals
The article points out that, while South Africa is “failing at the basics” and has missed opportunities to position itself as a viable destination for companies in free-market democracies to move their supply chains away from authoritarian regimes such as China, foundations laid in the prior administration are a positive signal that the trajectory is set to improve, she said.
To ensure South Africa’s growth trajectory is bolstered, the nation needs to address the backlog in visas by introducing more automated processes, have more of its biggest ports — ranked among the world’s worst performers — run privately, move more goods by rail rather than trucks, and scrap the NHI, Mavuso said.
The article adds that it also needs to streamline regulations for public-private partnerships to make them less complex, which the National Treasury has proposed.
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“We’ve already done a lot to propel ourselves and position ourselves to reclaiming our spot of being the gateway to investment to the African continent,” Mavuso said, pointing to efforts by the Department of Home Affairs under its new minister, Leon Schreiber, to address a backlog of 300 000 professional-skills visas for foreigners that’s employers say has hindered investment. Business basics
“When we look at the biggest problem that has made South Africa uninvestable, CEOs talk about how difficult our trading environment is,” Mavuso said. “The structural-reform agenda needs to be implemented.”
Bootcamp calls
The public voiced its intent when it voted the way it did in the May elections. We are desperate for political reform, and it is time for that political reform to develop and implement structural reform. Lets return to basics.
We live in interesting times.
