SA Rocks

A friend of mine recently started a little business that is keeping her hands, or shoes, full. This is a short interview with the owner and artist of Laced Up, Stephanie van der Jagt. Laced up basically provides customers with custom shoe artwork.

You can check out the Facebook group or email Steph at: svdjdesigns@gmail.com

So Steph, tell me about laced up… what exactly do you do, to what and how?

Hey Nick. So the whole concept started when one of my best mates was moving overseas for a couple years and I wanted to make him something that was unique and that he could use but was a once off. He was really into ‘All Stars’ at the time so i just decided what better way then to personalise a pair of sneakers for him.

So basically its whatever you can imagine, from football insignia to lyrics to national logos to band images, all hand drawn and styled onto a shoe. The color ones are the most poular but I have just done some black outlined images on a pair of grey sneakers and the look amazing!
Is this a side project for you or a fulltime thing?

It started off as a side project but the more it grows and the more opportunities arise the more I just dive in I guess.

Have you only promoted Laced Up on Facebook and online or do you do some “real world” marketing?

at the moment its only online but I’m starting some ‘real world’ marketing where I will be placing single sample shoes in stores with flyers attached to the lacers just to get the product out there a bit more.

How long does it take you to finish a design?

Once I have the shoe the turn over is about 2 days. obviously this depends on lead times depending on how many pairs I have on order at one time.

Do you only do shoes?

At the moment I’m only doing shoes but I am looking at adding other products mid-year such as hats etc.

How can people get in touch with you?
the best way is email svdjdesigns@gmail.com as then I have a written version of their idea that I can go back to.

What sort of price ranges do you cater for? Can I afford the wonders of your work?

The price at the moment is a two part thing. part one- the shoe. there is no mark up on this as its your choice what brand of shoe you want. either you can supply it or I can buy them for you. then the designs cost R150 for the standard heal to mid foot and R215 for the entire shoe.

Anything else you’d like to add that I’ve left out?!

It really is an endless process that allows the customers any option in style and design – it is a truley customised once off piece.

Thanks for taking part in helping me explain to my readers what it is that you do.

Rocking stuff.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The World Economic Forum recently released a list of young global leaders. We’ve read online that Vinny Lingham was selected as part of the top of top, the cream of the crop and featured in the top 200 to 300 list.

Yet there is more to this incredible story from Vinny. Sub-Saharan African is full to the brim with leaders that I think many of us have never even heard of yet the world is recognising them.

The 2008 list of young global leaders featured a handful of South Africans, namely:

Mark Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Teba Bank, South Africa

Natalie Du Toit, Athlete and Ability Rights Activist, South Africa

Yolanda Cuba, Chief Executive Officer, Mvelaphanda Holdings, South Africa

Tumi Makgabo, Head of Communications, 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee, South Africa

Ernie Els, Founder, The Ernie Els and Fancourt Foundation, South Africa

Paul van Zyl, Executive Vice-President, International Centre for Transitional Justice, South Africa

Michael Jordaan, Chief Executive, First National Bank (South Africa) FirstRand, South Africa

Sunette Pienaar, Executive Chairperson, Heartbeat Centre for Community Development, South Africa

David Munro, Deputy Chief Executive, Corporate and Investment Banking, Standard Bank Group, South Africa

Lisa Kropman, Founder, Investec, South Africa

Allon Raiz, Founder, Raizcorp, South Africa

Kuseni Dlamini, Executive Chairman, Richards Bay Coal Terminal, South Africa

Ferial Haffajee, Editor-in-chief, Mail & Guardian, South Africa

Here’s a short intro video to what the young global leaders is intended to be

So here’s to those who making their mark on the world and representing not only Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa but South Africa too.

Popularity: 6% [?]

As I have already blogged I was asked by the lovely Max Kaizen to attend a debate at the Sandton Sun.

The Unexpected Business Case for staying in SA sparked my interest immediately. The event is about to get underway. Mike Stopforth and Paul Jacobson are already at their seats on the panel with their Macs right in front of them. Nice.

So from here on end I’ll be updating as the debate goes down. I’ll try and save the post and update every few minutes. I’ll also be tweeting the event as much as I can so follow my twitter stream if you feel so inclined.

The panelists setting up pre-debate

17:05

As per usual at events like this people trickle in. Painful. Why can’t South Africans (read humans around the world) ever be timeous?

It also looks like each panelist is either going to be using Google to gather facts/stats or will be presenting something along the way. Interesting. Paul mentioned that his approach is a bit out there but in some strange way comes back to the SA Rocks mantra of Positive Action. Let’s hope Paul!

17:15

Things are underway. “We are not trying to agree or disagree with one another, we are trying to open debate.” – David Donde

All panelists are doing a 5 min presentation. Then debate will open.

Mike Stopforth

First sad year for Mike as he seriously considered leaving SA. Went abroad and it was like he was shopping for a new place to live instead of being excited to stay in SA.

“Despite economic constraints we [SA] see opportunities opening to us all over.”

“The more people that leave, the less likely we are to solve the problems that face us.”
“There are always opportunities to create links, network and build relationships. As companies there is a desire to say How do we build together” – this is the foundation of Mike’s talk.

I’ll add Mike’s short video tomorrow

Paul Jacobson

Paul has a VERY big photo up on the screen.

Paul says he has a different take on (messes with Microphone) the topic today. No pie-chart, graphs or anything like that. He’s talking from his own thoughts and perceptions.

“We live in an environment which isn’t fixated on laws as rules. Rules tend to be more like guidelines here.”

Living in this enviro – a loose sense of rules – makes a fair amount of wiggle room in SA. This gives rise to opportunism in SA. Either there is not enough regulation or an absence altogether.

Less regulation = more innovation (not sure I agree with Paul here). This can lead to lack of respect for judicial independence and integrity. Which also leads to a notion of endless corruption.

YET – there seems to be a fair amount of potential despite bribery or what have you. Some of the reasons being telecommunications industry is opening up (How is this not going to be affected by the lack of integrity and ethics in SA?).

Respect for human rights is NB = freedom of expression.

With all the possibilities it is still going to be a rocky road ahead.

Democratic institutions still under threat. Yet we have the promise of a new world. IF we are prepared to adapt to a new reality of moral and ethical relativism. If we can do this, we can find a space to thrive.

Joshin Raghubar

A lot of South Africans have struggled with the “stay or go”.

What does topic mean by “unexpected”… is it stating obviously that it’s unexpected to leave or to stay?

It’s not a race thing anymore. Many diverse cultures are leaving.

Business Case – meant to be rational and backed up with empirical evidence. But humans are not rational. The choice to stay and go is not a rational one in the end.

We need to rationalise our irrationality.

Do you have to leave to make it big?? – Joshin believes to REALLY make it big, you have to STAY. If you really want to “shoot the lights out” you need to be in SA.

UK – People are comfortably poor.

Let’s rationalise things: Total Access – we have total access to anyone if we really want to get to them. It’s relatively easy to pick up the phone and meet someone. (Agreed fully).

If you want access… just ASK.

Untold Opportunity – in first world countries alot of ideas have been done. Here, there is room for growth, experimentation and the ability to learn from the mistakes of the world. At the top skills level we are producing world class people.

Gateway to the continent – Africa is the final untouched market and globally people are scrambling for it. SA is still seen as the gateway to Africa. Abroad people are paying up to $250 a pop to listen to what SA is doing in the markets.

Skilled people benefit disproportionately – The skilled will benefit with a larger slice of the pie.

We speak English

Technology trumps geography – (I love this) Anything you can send down a wire is up for grabs. We as South Africans are in a position to benefit from this.

Expand your world views. If you leave stay South African, don’t become an ex-South African. (Great quote).

What narrative do you want to play for yourself? There are very few more compelling than the triumph over adversity.

Branco Brkic

Branco displaying pictures that represent reality in SA today in place of a presentation.

“Really worried about the state of SA. Fork in the road and we aren’t sure which way the country will go. We have serious problems (not challenges).”

Not certain we will sort out our issues.

We need to stay true to ourselves. Who is going to be in power, Zuma, Motlanthe? VERY NB.

The issue is that the situation, the way we feel about SA, is always influenced by your current level of success. “I’m not having great success at the moment and that influences my state of mind”.

Branco just left stage. Very ill. What a pity. He was on to something.

Debate begins:

Is immigration leaving a void or an opportunity?

“Africa is a rough place and that is probably what makes us able to succeed abroad. The only constant factor in SA is… change.”

“How many white people can speak a national black language?”

David Donde – built a global micro-brand and discovered it’s pretty cool to be African.

Andrew (Internet developer) – Intrigued by Paul and Joshin’s comments. Paul’s moral relativism.

Discussion around why South Africans are tolerant of crime. Paul: Laws are just disregarded in general. Thus we are tolerant.

To stay here you need: “Your own moral compass. Where you stand for your choices. On the other hand you need to accept that not everybody is going to see eye to eye with you. You need to find your place in society.” – Paul Jacobson.

I’ll have to stop writing now, taking part in the debate.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I will be attending a very interesting debate on Wednesday. It is being held and hosted by Epiphany.

Let me quickly jump back for a second. I have recently joined Zoopy.com as the GM of Gauteng and have spent the last week or so in Cape Town. Along the way I met some fantastic people, one of whom is Max Kaizen.

Max is a contributor here on SA Rocks and we have been threatening to bump in to one another for a while now. Eventually, Tuesday night we managed to get in touch with one another at Asoka in Kloof, CT.

Firstly let me just say what an absolutely fantastic venue Asoka is. Great jazz, cool people, mixed crowd, good cocktails and good company made the evening top notch.

But back to the Unexpected Business Case.

Max and I got talking about SA, as it happens fairly often with me. Then she mentioned a debate that is taking place in JHB on Wednesday and I couldn’t refuse the chance to attend.

Here’s the press release:

The UNEXPECTED business case affecting SA’s best and brightest
-a provocative public debate - why staying may be smart strategy
at the South African Business Schools Expo,

Sandton Sun, Johannesburg
Wednesday, 3 September 17h00 – 19h00

JOHANNESBURG – Amongst the financial doom & gloom, xenophobia, political incompetence and exit strategies traded over dinner; a question must be asked:
“Is there a business case for using South Africa as a platform in a global economy?”

Think tank engineers, Epiphany in collaboration with Huddlemind, executive education specialists, will be facilitating a dynamic debate at the South African Business School Expo to interrogate the perception that South Africans have to go elsewhere in the world to “make it big”.

Respected industry leaders: Branko Brkic (Editor, Maverick), Mike Stopforth (CEO, Cerebra), Paul Jacobson (New Media lawyer, Jacobson Attorneys) and Joshin Raghubar (Aspen Global Leadership fellow/ CEO, iKineo) present their opinion on the flight of human capital out of South Africa; and how the changes in technology, media, global economics and local politics have opened up gaps that the swift and smart can take advantage of now.

This is not a lecture by talking heads. Epiphany is tackling the question in a fresh way, through provocative public debate with powerful thought leaders – not only from the expert panel – but the audience too. Among them, social media powerhouse Nic Haralambous (editor, SA Rocks) will be on the floor to offer rich perspectives on opportunities most of us miss in our misery. The group session will be facilitated by David Donde (journalist, GQ and presenter 567/702).

Are there practical strategies to leveraging world-scale success from the bottom of Africa? There are companies and industries booming despite the downturn.
What are they doing that may be a little unusual?

This session is highly recommended if you’re considering a great trek of your own, or rapidly losing some of your company’s best and brightest.

Tickets are R250 (including admission to the Expo) available online (click here) at www.epiphany.usgeni.us
or contact Max Kaizen 082 832 6434 or max@usgeni.us

And for a bit more on each of the participating personalities:

Branko Brkic
Described as the guardian of the higher mind, Branko is the owner of Business Century, publisher and editor of business magazines Maverick and Empire.

David Donde
David will be facilitating the session for Epiphany. He is a talkshow host on 702/Cape Talk and journalist at GQ on cars and lifestyle. He is a founder of Origin Coffee Roasting (singularly the best artisan roasted coffee in the country). Recognised as a global expert on the matter, David does talks on coffee; but also on branding, fair trade economics and the collapse of the middle market. He voices his strident opinion out in the web at daviddonde.com

Paul Jacobson
Paul is a new media lawyer working in Johannesburg. He has a general commercial legal practice, Jacobson Attorneys and focusses on new media and the law. He is currently a member of the Advisory Council on The Open Knowledge Definition Project, Sub-Committee 71L (Document description and processing languages) and is the legal advisor to a number of non-profit organisations. Paul speaks at universities and conferences globally about new media and the law and writes about these issues (and others) on his blog.

Joshin Raghubar
Joshin serves as a director of the Cape Information Technology Initiative (CITi). Chairman of the Bandwidth Barn which is Africa’s leading non-profit business incubator and accelerator for technology businesses. He has also recently joined the board of the South African Chamber of Commerce in America. Has has recently become a Global Leadership Fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (African Leadership Initiative). Somewhere between all of this, he is also CEO of marketing and communications firm iKineo.

Mike Stopforth
Mike is perhaps one of the most quoted people on social media in South Africa, helped set up Afrigator, is the brains behind Cerebra, and co-founded the 27Dinners. He’s an acclaimed public speaker, columnist and tells the likes of Toyota, Standard Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Samsung Mobile, ABSA, Converse and Calvin Klein what they should be doing online. For kicks he is an associate of the Institute of Technology Strategy and Innovation (ITSI), the Center for Complexity Studies

Popularity: 5% [?]

This weeks interview is with Candice Poole. Candice is started a company called Heartfelt Project. I wont leak any information, let’s have Candice tell us more:

Hi Candy, Thanks for chatting to SA Rocks.

Tell me a bit about Heart Felt Project.

Heartfelt Projects is a women empowering, job creation and skills development project. We bring you a range of products all proudly made in South Africa. Each item is a unique work of art hand signed by the artist. The Designs are not only one of a kind – but ones that come from the soul of each and every women. – They are currently available on T-shirts in white – but can also be introduced to bags, blankets and pillow cases by order.

How many people are involved in the project right now?

At the moment we have five ladies working on the project in Alexander, Johannesburg. There is one lady here in Grahamstown who is a Granny who up until now was barely surviving on her pension. I hope to grow the Grahamstown team soon, but our intention is to sustain the women, so we don’t want to grow too quickly without knowing that we are able to support them.

What is your personal goal for starting the project? What do you get out of this?

My personal goal is to make a difference in the lives of others. What better way to do it then by creating beautiful products that have soul. By empowering women, using my creative side and doing something that I love, I get happiness and joy!

What were the ladies you are empowering doing before you started helping them?

The group of ladies in Joburg were generally unemployed, either living off their pension or occasional part-time cleaning jobs. Their own goals are to be able to work for Heartfelt Projects full time so that they can look after their families.

How can the public help you?

The public can help us by buying our products, we can make up just about anything one desires.Heartfelt products make wonderful corporate gifts. I like to think of our company as a way of donating to a worthy cause, with the bonus of receiving a stunning item. We are very excited about how far we’ve already come with our Heartfelt project, and with the help of the public we feel we can take it even further. We do custom made orders for the corporate market, so contact us for your next corporate event.

In a very short time we were nominated for business of the year by the Roodepoort Chamber of Commerce. We got into the finals, so we must be doing something right.

Do you think that there is enough “charity” work going on in SA?

Yes and NO. I do feel that there are allot of wonderful people doing amazing things, we just need more people to stand together to help others.

Why Grahamstown? Why not move up to JHB or CT where things happen?

Grahamstown is my base and my intention is to have a group of ladies in every town in South Africa eventually. Although the products are being made here, our target market is in the bigger cities. At the end of the day our world is so small, so it doesn’t really matter where you are, as long as your heart is in the right place.

Thanks Candy and great work on your initiative, let’s hope that more people take your lead and get things moving in SA!

Popularity: 7% [?]