Bill Gates makes many instructive remarks in his 2008 annual letter as chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I have singled out a few of those remarks for discussion in this article. Before I start to discuss the remarks, let me say a couple of things about Bill Gates that will make it easier for me to do my discussion and make sense to the reader.
Bill Gates is among the richest people in the world. In 2006, he left his full-time job as CEO of the company he built from scratch, Microsoft, to dedicate his world-class abilities and resources to the work of his foundation. His foundation runs developmental programmes among the needy and deprived societies, mostly in some dark and remote parts of the world. Their programmes cover areas such health, education and agriculture. Overall, they work in areas which governments and business sectors normally ignore for one reason or another.
The first of his remarks that I want to refer to says that the countries were Microsoft does business are far more stable and have a lot more infrastructure than most of the places where the foundation carries out its work. He goes on to detail the challenges faced by his foundation as a result of the shortcomings in the operating environment. You have to give full credit to Bill Gates for his courage and vision to leave the comfort of the world he knows for the unpredictability of one he does not know. This is one of the few ways available in which the world can extend the benefits of democracy as advocated by President Barack Obama and many others.
Sadly there is very little of this type of thinking or action in our country. We do not have enough cases of people who are successful or have resources working in the underprivileged environments to become change catalysts or agents. When the BEE initiatives started in this country some years ago, some of us thought we would see major investments in community infrastructure development programmes as a result of black people starting to have the resources they need to shape their destiny and deal with poverty in general.
We thought a whole talent management revolution would be created to stem the tide of talent wastage, especially from the poor segments of our society. But so far very little has been forthcoming. We thought steps would be taken to manage talent better and stop the practice of allocating resources and responsibilities on the basis of arbitrary tosses of coins and individual whims. We thought new pathways would be created to improve talent management paradigms and practices by giving communities the capacity they require to bake their own cakes instead of depending on crumbs from those who wield economic power.
Another important remark Bill Gates makes is that he finds his new job as fulfilling and rewarding as his old job at Microsoft. He says he still finds ample opportunities to achieve big breakthroughs. He still finds joy in bringing smart people together to build teams and, also, he finds that the levels of intelligence and dedication of the new people he works with are as impressive as those of the people he used to work with.
I have had a rare privilege to spend one half of my life in impoverished villages and townships and the other half in urbanised areas working and studying. I agree completely with Bill Gates that from a talent concentration point of view, there is absolutely no difference between the quality of people in the two places. Two major factors that normally have to be dealt with are the maturity and the real interest of the talent management systems or practitioners.
When I applied for my first full-time job in a big company as a security practitioner protecting gold, the only experience closest to the job I was interested in was that I had grown up looking after goats. It took plenty of courage and imagination for the interviewers to buy my story that looking after goats had actually prepared me to look after gold. But once they had made the decision to hire me, they never regretted.
We need bold and imaginative talent management processes and practitioners to rescue South Africa from the culture of disqualification, exclusion and exploitation. We need to create new paradigms and practices where people will be matched to opportunities based on the infiniteness of the human potential rather than being excluded on the basis of lack of imagination or naked self-perpetuation on the part of those in power.
The last remark I want to talk about from Bill Gates relates to his statement that says the crisis in the global financial market must be managed in such a way that we do not come out of the crisis with a world that is even more unequal than it was before the crisis.
It is so refreshing to hear all these things from a man who, in his youth, had a vision and a courage to leave a privileged position as a student at Harvard University to do with his life what he believed was both his passion and mission. And boy did he succeed beyond everybody’s wildest dreams at that! People like Bill Gates are examples of what the great Mahatma Ghandi meant when he said we must be the change we want to see in the world.
South Africa is a classic example of a society where the gap between the wealth of the rich and the miseries of the poor is both obscene and indefensible. And, in line with Bill Gates` remarks about infrastructure challenges, efforts by good people to assist in the development of communities are hampered by poor infrastructure. But people like Bill Gates know the dangers and risks of wallowing in opulence when a big part of humanity is unhealthy, unsheltered and hungry.
It took talent and courage from very unlikely people to produce the historical landmark of 09 August 1956. It took talent and courage from yet very unlikely people to produce another historical landmark on 16 June 1976. And by the look of things, South Africa is gravitating towards another public holiday for another group of unlikely people. We are headed for a public holiday for the poor and marginalised if the course of transformation continues to be frustrated and aborted.
Gibson Sakong
Executive Chairman – Montshepetja Academy
3 Comments until now.
I MUST SAY THAT NOT ONLY DO WE HAVE PEOPLE WHO DO GREAT JOBS, WE ALSO HAVE PEOPLE WHO ACKNOWLEDGE GOOD THINGS. IT STRIKES ME HOW EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE WHO SACRIFICE THEIR WEALTH FOR THE POOR ARE ALWAYS FROM OUTSIDE COUNTRIES. I AM CERTAIN THAT MOST PEOPLE MAY THINK ITIS BECAUSE WE DO NOT ACKNIOWLEDGE, BUT IT IS BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE PEOPLE WHO GO ALL OUT INSTEAD THEY LIMIT SERVICES TO THEIR FAVOURITES.
WE HAVE OUR VERY OWN MOTSEPE WHO HAS BLESSED US WITH K MOTSEPE TOURNAMENTS AND TOOK OVER SUNDOWNS OWNERSHIP. SOCCER IS THE GENTLEMANS FAVOURITE, HE DID HIMSELF A FAVOUR. WE AS THE SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH HAVE TAUGHT OURSELVES TO WAIT FOR OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE.
TAKE A GRAND LOOK AT THE CURRENT SITUATION, OUR GOVERNMENT PRIDES ITSELF OF GETTING THE GREAT BARACK OBAMA TO COME T0O A SUMMIT THAT WILL BE HELD HERE. WHAT DOES THAT TELL US? IT TELLS US THAT WE ARE DEPENDANT O0N OTHER COUNTRIES, THUS WE ALWAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HELP FROM OUTSIDE.
THIS FOR ME IS A CHALLENDGE TO THE YOUTH. WE MUST, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, DO THINGS OURSELVES IN ORDER TO GET THE NEW GENERATION ACQUAINTED WITH LOCAL FIGURES. IT IS NOT AT ALL A FAULT TO SAY THAT THE PAST GENERATION WHICH STILL EXISTS HAS NO MORE TIME TO DO THAT WORK AS THEY ARE IN OUR EYES GONNERS.
I WONDER IF Mr SAKONG EVER TAKES TIME TO GIVE HIMSELF SOME CREDIT, HE DESERVES IT.
I am getting worried about the youth of S.A and the country’s development and this says to me, people are not willing to share their ideas to get the South Africa moving.
The new generation which is us should not fail its future but stand up and help one another to develop a great country.
I like the fact that Sundowns now has the cheerleadear group to encoure ladies to have the herat for any kind of sportuing activities, that is a thanks to Babalwa Mneno of the Sundowns cheerleader group.
The prayer of my heart is to SHARE the ideas that we have, ACKNOWLEDGE what others do and HELP were we can.
I MUST SAY, THE WORDS YOU SHARED AND HIGHLIGHTED ARE BROAD. IF ANYONE WOULD ADD TO THIS I OWE THEM LOTS, YOU SAID A MOUTHFULL STELLA AND IT IS GREAT. I LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING YOU IN HE FAMILY OF MoAc.
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