Risky Business

Professor Dewald van Niekerk, Director of the African Centre for Disaster Studies at North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus, maintains that the task of disaster management is to minimise disaster risks and implement management systems to deal with their impact. A reactive focus that is shifted to disaster risk management and reduction is therefore required. In any society, a portion of risk is created by people. This can be seen in the manner in which people settle and develop, in urban planning, in agricultural and land use management, and in natural-resource management. Unmonitored use of these human interventions results in the increased vulnerability of resources, with the risk portion of such vulnerability being primarily human in nature. However, if the human component of risk is managed, the potential results of this vulnerability are lessened.

 

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How to Build a Happy Sandpit

Colin Browne, a British-born South African, comes from a large Irish family spread all over the world. Though he regards himself as having a world-view, he considers himself to be typically South African in the way he thinks, and in particular how he approaches problems. South Africa is where he chooses to do his work, as he believes this country offers the greatest potential for exploration in his area of expertise: organisational culture needed. His book, How to Build a Happy Sandpit, was inspired by a very poor hiring decision in which a terrible culture fit was hired into his business and went on to create a toxic environment which took considerable effort to resolve. Personal responsibility and accountability are major drivers of his, however, and he accepts that, he and his partners were responsible for hiring her in the first place. It was after all a choice. Admittedly her résumé ticked all the right boxes, but it did not correlate with her character and that led Browne on an exploration of culture building that he could apply as a more effective filtering process in the future.

 

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Excellerate Property Services Continues

Excellerate Property Services (EPS), which was formed following the Excellerate Group’s acquisition of a stake in JHI Properties in 2010, is continuing on its focused, strategic growth path, says Marna van der Walt, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EPS in October 2012 after being CEO of JHI Properties. Says Van der Walt: “Over the past three years, EPS has not only capitalised on the synergies with JHI and made significant inroads into the market, but is now also moving forward into a dynamic new growth phase which encompasses the entire Group and sees us expanding our activities and presence in Southern Africa and other countries on the African continent.” EPS has a comprehensive footprint in South Africa, with major representation in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, as well as offices and partnerships in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Ghana and Kenya. In the near future, EPS will be rolling out new offices in Nigeria, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Senegal and Côte D’Noire.

 

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