Johannesburg - South Africa’s largest financial daily on Monday launched a business show on CliffCentral.com, a new multi-platform broadcaster that debuted earlier this month.
‘Candid Business’ is anchored by Ellis Mnyandu, Business Report editor and the show’s executive producer.
To start things off, the show will be broadcast live on Mondays from 1-2 pm.
The show presents Business Report with an opportunity to make its first ever foray into digital broadcasting.
BR’s partnership with CliffCentral.com, which is a venture started by ex-5fm presenter Gareth Cliff, also involves a show on leadership matters, hosted by BR leadership page contributor Adriaan Groenewald.
It also features Ellis Mnyandu as a co-host.
The leadership show, called “The Leadership Platform” is also broadcast on Monday’s from 12pm to 1 pm.
“By putting the business show and the leadership show back-to-back, we want to give the listeners unrivalled access to top business minds and top leaders in a seamless way,” said Mnyandu after the launch.
“The essence is that we want to revolutionarise leadership development, leadership conversations and confront leadership challenges in our society that prevent us from achieving our full potential,” said Groenewald.
On Monday, former Eskom chief executive Jacob Maroga was the guest on the leadership show.
He reflected upon his tenure as Eskom boss of this complex organisation, tasked with keeping the lights on.
Meanwhile, ‘Candid Business’ focused on the outlook for President Jacob Zuma’s second administration, with expert views from Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine.
Jammine highlighted the need for South Africa’s education and training to improve in order to reduce unemployment.
He was also of the view that it was a good idea for Pravin Gordhan to be reappointed as Finance Minster.
On the other hand, Jammine also called for the number of cabinet ministers to be reduced.
A final point that Jammine made was that it was vital for South Africa to have good leadership in order to realise its potential.
Mnyandu and Arnie Hicks -- co-host and associate producer of Candid Business -- then interviewed Reputation Institute’s country manager Trevor Ndlazi regarding their recent survey on the reputations of South African corporations. Woolworths came out tops.
Mnyandu also asked him to reflect on South Africa’s reputation, and Ndlazi said that South Africans have a very poor view of their own country.
South Africa has had a series of incidents that have knocked the local psyche like the Marikana tragedy, where almost 50 people died in August 2012 as a result of conflict between police and striking mine workers, he said.
On the positive front, Ndlazi said that the Oscar Pistorius murder trial had enhanced SA's reputation as it showed that the country had a working judiciary.
The Reputation Institute recently found that Woolworths had the highest reputation among local companies.
It led the field on all reputation dimensions: leadership, citizenship, governance, workplace, innovation, products or services, and performance.
Mnyandu queried Woolworths’ ranking given certain incidents including the battle with Frankie’s.
“We gave Woolworths the benefit of the doubt when it came to the Frankie's incident,” Ndlazi said, adding that this was the testament to what a good reputation can do for a company.
In 2012, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Woolworths’ vintage cold drink range was an imitation of Frankie’s soft drink range and as a result Woolworths agreed to removed the range.
When asked about why Vodacom’s reputation had declined, Ndlazi said the cellular gaint’s standing could have dropped because of its handling of the mobile termination rates saga.
However, he reiterated that the annual survey was not about finding winners or losers.