The crucial role we can all play in promoting inclusion. Every election time one is reminded of the exciting prospect of South Africa’s transition to a constitutional democracy in 1994. Broad political inclusivity, it was thought, would become a panacea for most of the country’s socio-political ills, including those injustices created by a suppressive past. Now, 25 years on, that dream must surely lie mostly shattered, despite the futile attempts, amplified by election manife

Seeing the numbers through a different lens. (Click on picture above for free PDF copy of the book) Few professions have been through as much scrutiny and criticism as the accountants have in recent times. This in the wake of a number of high-profile scandals that not only questioned their lack of oversight, but whether they were indeed part of the malfeasance in some cases. It may have been somewhat overdone, but not unexpected. When things go wrong, it is fashionable to bla

Let's use our fury to restore business to its true purpose. It may take a while to unravel the wicked web that Steinhoff’s leaders and mercenary executives elsewhere have woven and who have flung another layer of tarnish on free enterprise. But after countless examples of the recent past and present, including the state capture thugs, we should now be very angry at those who play shareholder-value Sudoku for maximum self-gain: at executive remuneration which encourages this b

An enduring principle that can help rescue the economy. From a distance it looked like an ordinary broken stone. But when farm manager, Adrian Sutton, got closer, he realised that the piece of rock surrounded by cobbles of different sizes, was not shaped by accident. Its symmetrical design formed an axe-head that could fit into a large hand. It was later identified by experts as having been made during the earlier Stone Age between about 400,000 and a million years ago. They

Why company reporting fails to counter the assault on free enterprise. We all have memories that make us cringe in embarrassment. One of mine is when I had to cut short a talk to a group of about 50 accountants of a large paper company, and in my opening, put the simple question to them: “what contribution do you think your company is making?” I was expecting them to respond with: “producing paper”, or even a visionary “enabling people to record events and share ideas”. That