Finance Monthly - Global Awards 2022

Finance Monthly Global Awards 2022 South Africa 20 www.finance-monthly.com What drives you toachieve the best possible results for your clients? The Group CEO of Pepkor, Pieter Erasmus, has always taught us that before we tackle any initiative, we should ask ourselves: What problem of my customer are you solving? This approach keeps us on an even keel while we direct the organisation with the following values: respect, accountability, and passion. Maintaining our client relationships through all their life stages is something that we are very proud of. Canyou tell usmoreaboutwhat you like to read? I am an avid reader and constantly have two to three books on the go at any point in time. I read philosophy, psychology, business, management, fiction and fantasy. I believe that forming your own opinion on any subject requires consultation across a broad spectrum, and to remain creative in life and work, you need to exercise the creative part of your brain – hence the fantasy. The business author that I most relate to is Tony Manning. He is forthright, insightful, brief, to the point, and very smart. Inbrief, canyoudescribe Tenacity’sproject initiation methodology? Tenacity has been established for some time now, but we approach development with a typical fintech start-up mentality. We identify a group of dedicated resources and we dress a room for them to all sit in together, filled with foosball machines and bean bags, coffee makers and ‘open fridges’ and allow the team to gel, chill and develop together. The big differentiator is that once we have the product developed, we can integrate it into a well-oiled and well-run operation with sufficient clients to offer it to. This is where many start-ups fail; they have good ideas and even good development, but they fail to operationalise or have no clients to offer their great idea or product to. Doyouhaveacreedor philosophy thatmotivates yourwork? Keep it simple, take responsibility, retain the customer as frontand-centre and execute with passion. This philosophy is inherent in our values, our general approach to business and problemsolving, and the way we deal with each other. In a working environment, we often spend more hours with work colleagues than with family, so the work environment and reward structure need to be nurturing without losing focus on the goals and, ultimately, the customer. Is thereaparticular career accomplishment that youaremost proudof havingachieved? I believe that every day is an achievement, but the two milestones that really stand out for me are starting a credit card

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