Choose your role models wisely, Khusta advises
Business veteran gives tips – and takes a few digs – in Expo address
VETERAN Bay businessman and former anti-apartheid activist Khusta Jack brought both laughter and valuable insights to the fourth My City Talk Business Expo in Port Elizabeth yesterday, where he took swipes at top South African politicians, including the president.
A jovial and entertaining Jack was among a wide and eclectic range of speakers who addressed the Expo at the Father’s House Building in North End.
He was engaging the audience about whom to consider as role models when he drew a comparison between US President Donald Trump and President Jacob Zuma.
“They like to lie. That is the common trait between these two leaders,” Jack said, to chuckles from the floor.
The outspoken businessman had been tasked with describing the top five habits of a successful chief executive – a position he likened to a parent in a home or a captain of a ship.
“A CEO is a leader. A group that does not have a leader is in trouble,” he said.
He urged prospective entrepreneurs to seek out and study an appropriate role model before starting out in business.
“Don’t use fake role models. Like those struggle heroes who became politicians and then millionaires – they are pie-inthe-sky role models.
“This lie [politicians who use their positions to enrich themselves] has been going on for too long.
“Our contribution [to the struggle] was political goodwill and then it came to an end. Politicians have become like products that are available in abundance – the price for them drops.” He went on to warn against using political connections for business purposes.
Lumping Zuma into a group of leaders that included Trump and notorious former Ugandan despot Idi Amin, Jack quipped that they were all chief executives “whether you like it or not”.
He urged the audience to consider role models like successful Bay businessman Stephen Dondolo.
Jack’s five habits for a successful chief executive were effective communication of vision and goals, providing simple messages and instructions, avoiding ambiguity, empowering others, delegating authority and taking responsibility.
The event also saw addresses by representatives of entities including the St Francis Hospice, Sanral, Project Nelson Mandela Bay, Boomtown advertising agency and Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s Business Place small business support unit.
The topic of the municipal unit’s address, which was delivered by Grant Tobias, also drew a few wry smiles from the crowd. Tobias tackled the subject of “How to make a million and keep it”.
St Francis Hospice chief executive Trevor Wiblin, in a insightful address entitled, “How the landscape of non-profit organisations has changed”, said it was “as hilly and as potholed as ever”.
Pointing out that NPOs were filling a void by helping government to meet its constitutional obligations and that many NPOs were outstripping their government counterparts in delivering services and assistance, he said there were 710 registered NPOs in the Port Elizabeth area alone – and many more that were not registered.
In terms of registered NPOs, this meant there were about 11 000 people voluntarily providing time, skills and expertise to assist in Bay communities.