No need to panic

Not many know this, but Christo Wiese’s first business venture was a chicken farm in Upington. It was, as Wiese recounts to veteran Sunday Times journalist Adele Shevel in her new book on what makes business leaders tick, “a total, unmitigated disaster”.

But crucially, Wiese says that throughout his business career, he never panicked — even when all the portents looked particularly grim.

“In the 1994 election people started buying bully beef. I used to make fun of these people because I just thought they were mad, but the reality is that a calamity was a distinct possibility,” he says.

This will resonate with many entrepreneurs, a majority of whom seem to be dreamy optimists.

Of course, they almost have to be, which is probably why you often need a board of directors to temper the more outlandishly rosy ambitions with a bit of

realpolitik . But even the most Pollyanna-ish executives will have had their faith rattled in recent weeks.

Besides local issues (think the rapidly revolving door in the finance ministry, events which are being spoken of in government circles as 9/12 — being the date on which Nhlanhla Nene was fired), global stock exchanges have had their worst beginning to a year in memory.

Trillions in value has disappeared off markets, from Japan, the US and Europe.

Yet, in every disaster lurks an opportunity for someone — and clearly, the braver investors aren’t shying away at the moment. Construction stocks, last year’s vanishing investment, have surged since the last edition of this magazine, which asked whether investors ought to reconsider the value in this sector.

In the past month, Group Five has risen 18%, Murray & Roberts has built up 17%, Stefanutti Stocks has climbed 10% and WBHO has gained 13%.

So if the recovery has started in construction, what of mining? And what of Anglo American, a company still seen through sentimental goggles by older investors who remember the days in the late 1980s when Anglo had a finger in just about every pie in this country.

Today, as Charlotte Mathews recounts in her fantastic cover story, Anglo is slashing its portfolio from 55 assets to just 16 — keeping only diamond business De Beers, platinum and copper.

Is it a case of Anglo panicking too quickly, and not showing the sort of plucky resolve that Wiese evidently did? Perhaps, but given its debt, it almost had no choice at this point.

Is there still value in Anglo American? Definitely; and CEO Mark Cutifani has done well to unharness it. It’s just a pity that doing so has come at the cost of slicing off the limbs of a local icon.