The Friday Shoutout Archives

The Friday Shoutout: Nova Economics

On Friday we submitted the report we’ve been working on for the last 4 months. It was around 170 pages and contained 70 000 words. We’d worked until 3 in the morning, putting the finishing touches on the doc.

It was a really intense process, but it was really enjoyable and I was able to learn so much. And that’s mostly because of the amazing company that I do my work with, Nova Economics.

Nova Economics was founded by Kay Walsh three years ago as a niche economics and strategy consulting firm. She previously worked at Monitor Deloitte and RMB as a consultant and economist, and has done work from consulting to big government firms to small education NGOs.

The reason Nova (and Kay and Sam) are my Friday Shoutout is that I am so so lucky to have a work environment and colleagues like these. Here are just some of the things that make it so special:

Complete flexibility: we get to our work wherever and whenever we want. It could be in a coffee shop on a Tuesday morning or at 3am on a Thursday
Understanding of mental health: within our little team of three, we communicate openly about mental health issues. And there is a lot of space that’s allowed when things aren’t going so well
Lots of responsibility: at Nova we get work that is challenging and given significant amounts of responsibility. We’ve been given the chance to present at big meetings and hold important interviews.
Great learning: because we get given lots of responsibility, we’re able to learn a significant amount on a day to day basis.
Great pay: speaks for itself 😉
Wonderful chats and lunches: our discussions range from politics to economics, genetics to green industrial policy. And every lunch is spent in full conversation.
Awesome projects: I’ve worked on three projects so far. The first for a listed company in manufacturing. Then for a government agency doing work on beef genomics. And most recently for the provincial government on a green economic development project.

I’ve loved the work I’ve done with Nova. And my colleagues, Kay and Sam have been incredible.

So a shoutout to the team, thanks for being so awesome!

Image was taken at our work lunch on a wine estate in Stellies 🙂

Blog: 256/365

Song of the day: Zedd and Elley Duhe – Happy Now

Published by rspazzoli on July 22, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: The School of Life

In school we learn a bunch of practical and technical subjects. Maths, science, biology, accounting etc. And in university, many people choose technical paths: accounting, law, finance, economics.

A big component of our life learning is left out of this. Understanding basic philosophy and psychology concepts, learning about the self and relationships.

A channel on YouTube does a great job of doing this. They’re called the School of Life, and they post videos on various critical life lessons and discussions.

They’re a great resource, and I’ve learnt a bunch of stuff that I would never have learnt in the formal education system. So do yourself a favour and check them out 🙂

Song of the day: Tom Petty – Free falling

Blog 160/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

Published by rspazzoli on April 20, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: The Bulungula Incubator

In February I attended the first Bertha Centre collective at the UCT GSB. The guest speaker was Réjane Woodroffe, the founder of the Bulungula incubator. She spoke about her personal journey and how she went on to found the incubator (you can listen to the audio from the session here)

Réjane’s story is really interesting. She grew up in the cape flats and studied a Business Science degree at UCT. After this she spent a few years in investment banking before founding the incubator.

On the website the incubator is described as follows:

WE ARE a non-profit organisation established in 2007 although our work in the area began in 2004 with the establishment of the eco-sustainable and award winning community owned, Bulungula Lodge (www.bulungula.com). We are located in a remote rural area known as the Xhora Mouth Administrative Area which is based in the Mbhashe municipality on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. The Mbhashe municipality is one of the poorest in the country.

And their mission is as follows:

OUR MISSION is to be a catalyst in the creation of vibrant and sustainable rural communities. We work with our community members from CONCEPTION to CAREER with an integrated development strategy in education, health and nutrition and sustainable livelihoods. All projects are designed, prioritised, implemented and managed in partnership with our community and through traditional and elected leadership structures.

What makes Bulungula different

Apart from being an incredible, award winning social enterprise, there are a few things that really stand out for me that make this organisation different:

The founders live in the area with the community.
Every 5 years, the founders leave the project entirely on its own to function for a few months. The reason for this is that they want it to be as sustainable as possible and not depend on them.
The community is involved in the decision making and running of the project
The organisation is owned by the community through a trust. All the profits are fed back in to the community directly
The incubator focuses on all aspects of development. They look at everything from education to employment and health.

If you’d like to find out more about this organisation, check out this video (it’s only 4min and really amazing) or visit their website.

I’m really inspired by the work done at the Bulungula Incubator and can’t wait to see it continue to grow 🙂

Image is of the Storms River canyon in the Eastern Cape, taken when I visited the area in 2016 🙂

Song of the day: Roses - Chainsmokers

Blog 152/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

Published by rspazzoli on April 13, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: GreenCape

Over the past few weeks I’ve been given the opportunity to learn a little about an organisation called Green Cape. So who are they? As per their website:

GreenCape support businesses and investors in the green economy to remove barriers to establishment and growth. We also support local, provincial and national government to build a resilient green economy.

So basically, GreenCape is an agency that pulls together all the actors in the green economy and catalyses green growth in the Western Cape. Their work spans a wide range of things, from waste management and renewable energy to green finance and water management.

If you’re interested in this kind of work I’d highly recommend checking out their website. Their market intelligence reports are fascinating and they’ve got really interesting news and career opportunities.

Looking forward to everything that comes from them in the future!

Image was taken at in Franschoek this week 🙂

Song of the day: Seinabo Sey - Younger (Kygo Remix)

Blog 146/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on April 6, 2018 | Permalink

Friday Shoutout: The Department of Coffee

Every year the Strategic Thinking students get given a project where they have to develop a strategy for an existing business. This year we decided that they should do the project on the Department of Coffee, one of the most epic businesses in Cape Town. We brought Wonga, one of the founders, to speak to the class last week Friday.

Department of Coffee started around 5 years ago when a three friends decided they wanted to bring “coffee culture” to Khayelitsha. At the time the only coffee available in the township was the instant kind, and they wanted to change that.

Since then they have opened a number of stores around the city. And they’ve been featured in national and international news (including CNN, KFM, SABC and more).

They have had some ups and downs though. Last year their main shop was broken into and all their equipment was stolen. But through a crowd fund and a generous individual donation, they were able to get things going again.

These three have done wonders in bringing coffee culture to the township. I can’t wait to see what our students produce for them. And I can’t wait to see them grow in the future!

If you want to see more, a former UCT student put together this video on the Department of coffee

(Quick shoutout to Kayleen... Happy twennyNOYN!

Image is from Travelground and can be accessed here. I sadly forgot to take a picture during the lecture

Song of the day: Love is only a feeling - The Darkness

Blog 139/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on March 30, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: Silulo

Today Luvuyo Rani gave a guest lecture to my Strategic Thinking class. Luvuyo is one of the founders of Silulo, an internet cafe, computer training centre and technology company based in the townships. It started 14 years ago out the boot of a car and has now trained 33 000 students, employs 200 people and has more than 40 branches. Luvuyo was recently awarded social entrepreneur of the year at the World Economic Forum.

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Luvuyo speak in the class 5 times. He has also assisted with some of my entrepreneurial work and advised me on university projects. Every time I see him I learn something new.

Business in the township for the township

One point that Luvuyo emphasized today is that of building businesses in the township. And, importantly, building these to fill the needs of the township. The dominant narrative around townships is that they are places devoid of true entrepreneurship. Luvuyo proves otherwise.

And he’s putting his money where is mouth is. This month he’s launching a business incubator in Mitchells Plain. The objective of the incubator is to help scale township businesses and help them serve the areas where they come from.

I cannot wait to see the incubator come to life. I’m in constant awe of what Luvuyo and Silulo have achieved!

Thanks again for coming to talk to our students!

Main image was taken during Luvuyo’s talk. Image at the end of the post is a selfie with Luvuyo and his new General Manager, Bongiwe. This lecture theatre is where I teach every week. It’s pretty intimidating but I’ve gotten used to it 🙂

Song of the day: Rudimental - These Days

Blog 125/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on March 16, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: Jonga

Today’s shoutout goes to one of the most exciting social enterprises in South Africa: Jonga. The CEO and co-founder, Ntsako, came and gave a talk to the students in the Strategic Thinking course.

Jonga describe themselves on their website as follows:

“Jonga is a tech start up and social enterprise that provides simple, low cost and most importantly community based alert systems for lower to middle income households. It consists of an alarm and app combo that notify you and allow you to panic when being burgled or just allows you to panic when experiencing or witnessing crime whilst in the streets. It then sends a panic notification along with your location to all the Jonga app users within the area. Its purpose is to allow for real crime reporting, making people aware about potential threats in the vicinity and lastly prompting community watch responses.”

Launch

The team launched their device last week, after an extensive period of development. They’ve made some great partnerships over that time, including media houses, angel investors and startup competitions. And they’ll be rolling out their devices in association with Santam, one of South Africa’s biggest insurers.

Did I mention that all they are did all of this during their undergraduate degrees?

I am in awe of the work done by this team, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for them!

Image was from today’s guest lecture about Jonga delivered by Ntsako.

Song of the day: Major Happy - Fred V and Grafix

Blog 118/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on March 9, 2018 | Permalink

The Friday Shoutout: Phaphama SEDI

In 2013 I joined an organisation that fundamentally changed my life. It was called Siyaya, and it aimed to help entrepreneurs from developing areas in Cape Town by partnering them with students from the university. I worked as a consultant that year and in 2014 was the vice president of the organisation. We then formed a new organisation as an NGO, so that fund raising would be easier. And the new organisation was called Phaphama

Phaphama is in it’s fourth year of operation now. They have trained many entrepreneurs and are expanding to new areas around Cape Town. Some info about them is as follows:

“Phaphama Small Enterprise Development Initiative (S.E.D.I) in a Non-Profit Organisation that was established in 2014 by a group of students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), who are committed to promoting leadership, entrepreneurship and small enterprise development in communities in and around Cape Town. Phaphama runs a business development consulting programme in Khayelitsha. The programme runs over 7 months and consists of a series of business management skill sessions and business data collection and analysis. At present eighteen Khayelitsha-based businesses are selected annually to be a part of the project. The programme caters for a diverse array of meaningful local business ventures including, for example, Dlangakana Construction, Soulpix Photography and Lusanda Nail Salon to name a few.“

Applications

Applications for Phaphama SEDI are open and close on Monday 26 February. If you join the organisation you’ll be involved in assisting entrepreneurs from Khayelitsha and Philipi with their strategies and business development. It is a fantastic opportunity to experience business in real life, use your position of privilege as UCT students to assist with economic development and to share and grow your networks. There may also be opportunities from non-UCT individuals to get involved

To apply send a cover letter and CV to hmpjul002@myuct.ac.za by 26 February 2018. Contact me if you need more details

Funding

If you want to support Phaphama in other ways, you can do so by helping with funding. This goes towards providing transport for the consultants, organising sessions and other general operations. I’d encourage anyone who can donate to do so at this link.

If you’d like to contribute funding to them directly, please send me an email and let me know (rspazzoli@gmail.com)

Connect

I’ll be joining the Board of Directors of Phaphama this year as a non-executive director. If you want to get in touch, even if it’s just to come and see what they’re up to or link them up to someone, let me know.

Wishing the committee, the consultants and the entrepreneurs all the best for 2018!

Image was taken in 2014 with Siyaya, which became Phaphama/ The entrepreneurs are pictured with certificates for completing the program.

Song of the day: Born Ready (ft Hope Murphy)[Halogen Radio Edit] - Disco Fries

Blog 104/365. Read more about my #365of25 journey here

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Published by rspazzoli on February 23, 2018 | Permalink