The South African ICT landscape would have been a little poorer if Jeremy Waterman decided to design and construct bridges instead of building technology companies. A Mac fan, Waterman's first computer was the Apple II, acquired at the time when nobody was taking the PC revolution seriously at all. Waterman says at the time he got into technology, nobody believed there'd be a PC on every desk or in every home.
This was the late seventies and just after the time when a man called Steve Jobs had met Steve Wozniak and convinced him to build a computer, which was later sold to The Byte Shop for $500. Microprocessors had just been invented, which lay the foundation for the PC revolution. Having entered the business in its infancy, Waterman has been in the unique position of being able to watch the computer industry from the cradle to full maturation.
Waterman's start up, initially called LA Technology, has gone through many iterations. From sweating out the apartheid inspired recession through to blooming into an international concern following the acquisition by AccPac International, and the subsequent convergence with the Softline Group. Softline would eventually be bought by The Sage Group in the UK, and Accpac acquired by Sage in the US, realising a strong global reach for Waterman's company, which was renamed (and integrated into) Softline Accpac.
An institution in the mid-sector technology game, Softline Accpac has created its own mini economy, with 150 local partners whose business revenues are enabled through their association with the business applications company. Then, although not a creator of software, Softline Accpac has enabled local developers to benefit from the Accpac's global reach. A case in point is the story of a local developer, Peresoft, which identified the need for a cashbook for Accpac, and has subsequently built a thriving business piggybacking off the pervasive success of Accpac's accounting software package.
Waterman says at the time he got into technology, nobody believed there'd be a PC on every desk or in every home.
Mandy de Waal, ITWeb contributor
It is this legacy that Waterman stresses he wants to leave behind during an interview with ITWeb, during which he declared his wife questions his management skills. “My wife tells me I am a bad line manager, but I've spent my entire life doing just that,” says Waterman. “Historically I have been a fairly good decision-maker from a strategic perspective. I haven't chased many different dreams, but I have made some good decisions. I spend a lot of time thinking about decisions. Then I'm not a good detail person, although I spend a lot of my time dealing with details.”
I was warned that Waterman is somewhat reserved and can be media shy, but in our interview he was open, accessible and declarative. As ready to take risk as he obviously has been in a career that has taken him from his first pay packet of R400 to being the head of a company that's Africa's market leader for business applications.
ITWeb: What are the biggest lessons you have learned?
Jeremy Waterman: Early on, I was trained as an engineer and learned that if you don't like doing something, change it, and change it quickly. I went back and did an MBA, which opened up a lot of avenues, and enabled me to get out of the engineering world. A big lesson is enjoying what you do. If you are able to do this then even the tough times are interesting and fun. Don't be in a job you hate. If you don't like it, change it. Then don't be too scared of failure. If you don't fail at something you haven't tried very hard, haven't taken enough risk.
ITWeb: What would you have done differently?
Jeremy Waterman: This is not something I have an opinion on. I doubt I would have changed much.
ITWeb: What are the challenges and opportunities of being global?
Jeremy Waterman: What's interesting about Sage is its management approach. The business is completely 'glocal' in that it is a global company with a strong emphasis on local enablement. Sage leaves all its decision-making to the ground level. This is very unlike Oracle or SAP, which have highly structured companies. Sage is completely the opposite, with absolute autonomy at a local level, which means local management is in touch with the market; it's agile, can make decisions quickly and effectively, and position products strategically and adjust where necessary. There's no enforcement of going back to other decision-making processes at a higher level. Sage is a result driven company, and there isn't a lot of input as to how one should achieve the goals. You must just achieve them. This is what our business partners appreciated. They can come in, have a discussion, and then leave with a decision. In that sense I think we're unique in the markets we operate in.
Because of the way Sage is structured, we haven't done much differently from when we were independent. We have access to global products and information sharing, but in reality my day-to-day job is no different from when I was independent, which is great. What has changed though is our access to products. We have access to new products, which take us into new market segments, which is exciting. Entering new markets and challenging the top end players, especially when you know they are not as agile as you are, is a lot of fun. Let's face it, SAP and Oracle are hardly known for their aggressive agility.
ITWeb: Will 2010 bring opportunity for business?
Jeremy Waterman: Certainly during the period of 2010 I am worried that the World Cup will be a disruptive influence. However, the event has driven investment and a lot of infrastructure that must be of huge benefit. I don't think there is a great boom time around the corner though, but what's sure is that the World Cup has helped us through the bad times. Hopefully, better times are around the corner, but 2010 has just eased the pain of the downturn.
ITWeb: What has the effect of the recession been like?
Jeremy Waterman: There's no doubt that in the ERP market in particular, it has been tough. We see it much more at the bottom end in the mid-market, where business hasn't had the confidence to go out and spend. It's like having an earthquake in America and waiting for six months to see if you'll be wiped out. The recession has wiped out a few people and has been such a dire warning that the market has been nervous. However, the survivors are gaining confidence. Softline Accpac has been a good survivor in that we grew our turnover, which was pretty unusual. It certainly has been as tough as I have seen it.
ITWeb: What do you read?
Jeremy Waterman: I'm not a big reader of business books, although I've read Branson's “Screw it, let's do it”. The book was very entertaining in terms of Branson's disregard for rules and traditional business. His appetite for risk is inspiring. I mean, when you're already a millionaire, why start a new airline? Then I read business magazines regularly, like the FM and Economist.
ITWeb: What does innovation mean to you?
Jeremy Waterman: The reality is that in any industry your business becomes good at doing certain things. This means thinking creatively within the box, to misuse a hackneyed phrase. Thinking out the box is easy. Within an organisation you hone yourself to do certain things well, and then innovation becomes more about extending the market or tweaking your product. That's what you are there to do. You're not there to start airlines like Branson. It's about being creative within boundaries. There's no quicker way to waste money than to chase new products and markets that you are not expert in.
ITWeb: How do you think?
Jeremy Waterman: I probably think a bit like an engineer, which means I think in a logical and linear fashion. The IT industry fast becomes a 24/7 business, so I think about it the whole time, whether I'm in bed, in the shower or in front of the TV. There is a pervasiveness about an industry like ours that is so fast and aggressive.
ITWeb: How do you relax?
Jeremy Waterman: I find that work and relaxation have simply become part of one another. When I sit and watch TV I think about business. I don't have a problem with this. Provided you enjoy the business it is not that stressful. Then I play golf to relax, and have found with golf that I've managed to reach a consistent level of mediocrity.
ITWeb: Is strategic thinking key to good business leadership?
Jeremy Waterman: If you are running a company, what you're paid to do is to make strategic decisions. No one else is going to make those calls, of course it is important.
ITWeb: How can one cultivate good thought?
Jeremy Waterman: No idea.
ITWeb: Which business leaders have inspired you, how and why?
Jeremy Waterman: Obviously Bill Gates because he was a techie, was tough and shrewd. You might not like him, but he was a phenomenon. He combined good technology with an impressive business brain. He never had the best technology, but he made the most out of it. Then I admire the toughies like Larry Ellison. How do you build a company quite that big? I admire all my competition. Then locally, SAB, Standard Bank and until recently, Toyota - which has shown us all that you can't chill out for a minute.
ITWeb: What big trends are evident in your market?
Jeremy Waterman: It is all about the cloud, the Web, and desktop being information portals where information is automatically being delivered to you. We're moving beyond Google into an environment where information is found and delivered to you. It is about finding relevance in the information or relevant information.
ITWeb: Are customers changing?
Jeremy Waterman: We've just had a road show where we spoke to 450 customers in four cities. Often when we talk about technology the accounting audience goes quite. For the first time this year, when we talked about information being delivered via the Web in the user environment, the penny was dropping. There's an apparent appreciation of what's coming down the line.
ITWeb: What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Jeremy Waterman: We've been celebrating our 25th anniversary by refocusing on our slogan, which is “The future of better business”. It's gratifying to know that 25 years on we are still offering the future. I would like to have a legacy that spoke to the company's ability to move with the times and embrace change. I don't want to be viewed as someone who hankered for the past. In this business, you have to change in order to survive.
ITWeb: What are your values?
Jeremy Waterman: From a business perspective it is all about openness and accessibility. I've always had a thing about ensuring people are able to talk to me as easily as possible. Then when you have 150 business partners, like we do, trust is a given. You have to be completely transparent because there are so many opportunities not to be. Over a long period of time, I don't believe I've faulted too often.
ITWeb: What is important to you?
Jeremy Waterman: My family. Our business. Our staff. The real stuff. We've just had our annual conference and it was great to be a central part of an ecosystem. We must have over 1 000 people that are in the broader Accpac industry in Africa, and many more internationally. It is very gratifying to be central to a global ecosystem like this.
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