Johannesburg, 18 May 2016
We are all painfully aware of how strained South Africa's economy is and most of us have an idea or two as to why, says Gavin Dunlop, CEO, ACTNET. But it sometimes does us good to remember our place in the global picture if only to be reminded that we're not alone. A tone of austerity lingers across the globe. In such times, rather than sitting back and waiting for salvation, we need to think about doing our part where we can.
Perhaps the world is still experiencing the prolonged ripple effects of the global financial crisis or perhaps it was that event which awoke us to a sober perspective with regards to our finances. Fingers can be pointed but the reality we face is stark and uncompromising. The world need solutions and someone always claims to have them. And so we see reactionary politics and the elevation of extreme personalities, but solutions may be far closer at hand than we think. It may be that simple changes in the way we live and do business is all it takes to keep us in the black.
If there is one name a great many people are getting tired of hearing, it's Donald Trump. Like him or hate him, everyone is talking about him. Even from South Africa, his enormous personality has barged into our lives from every direction. He often seems propelled by the energy created from constantly skirting the very edge of scandal with the bold statements he makes. This managed controversy elevates a carefully constructed image of a man who makes things happen and most importantly, makes money. That's just the kind of man financially frustrated people might pin their hopes on.
At the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Bernie Sanders. Although mild mannered and rational, he is another product of the economic hangover voters in the United States are still feeling. Voters in Europe, Greece and Spain in particular, are still feeling a very similar sort of nausea with the added worry of the migrant influx. There too political groups formerly on the fringes of both the far left and right have gathered larger numbers of followers.
It must be something in human nature that always makes us look for a saviour before trying to save ourselves. Of course the global financial situation is comprised of many powerful external forces that we mere mortals will never be able to influence let alone control and so we need someone in government to truly represent us, someone we can trust to act in our best interests (perhaps that's all a hero needs to be). However, it is imperative that we acknowledge our own responsibility. It may be time to look at changing things ourselves on a level we can influence.
The developed world is inherently wasteful. At some point it became a way of life to replace rather than to recycle, but that is something we've at least started working to address. We also tend to over-indulge. We certainly eat too much and throw away too much food. Even our electronics are so quickly outdated and easily replaced that fully functional hardware routinely ends up on the rubbish heap. We can at least make an effort in our domestic lives to be more frugal, and in the way we do business too.
As we know, the Internet has unlocked the unlimited potential to exchange information around the world at the speed of light, from financial documents to cat videos, but we're still developing new ways of getting it to work for us. There have been recent innovations that are helping businesses to operate in a more efficient manner, especially with regards to filing and processing data. What once required reams of paper and hours of labour can now all be handled electronically with intuitive software. Companies that are on the ball will take advantage of such profit-margin-improving innovation to get a jump on their competitors.
We are in times that demand change but we shouldn't fall into the trap of believing that someone more powerful than us will fix everything and allow us to carry on as before. It would be healthy for us as a society to start thinking more as a collective, to think of ourselves as part of the problem unless we're working to improve the way we do things.
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