Durban - As a young Durban-born woman curtseys before Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, she receives a great honour for her entrepreneurial skill in business.
Had she stayed in South Africa, what would have been her chances of reaching such great heights, one wonders?
Free of the constraints of race and gender, racial equity quotas, and restrictive job opportunities, Meera Singh Santoro soars above all expectation to reach that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I am privileged to have on my desk a 3D Santoro swing card. What is this, one might ask?
And this would not be an unusual question.
Few South Africans know the story behind this amazing multimillion-pound venture that was started in 1995 by a local South African-born woman of Indian origin, Meera Singh Santoro, and her Italian-born husband, Lucio Santoro.
Driven by their desire to innovate and break new ground, Lucio and Meera embarked on the creation of a revolutionary, interactive, moving 3D greeting card collection, which has since brought joy to over 15 million recipients and won numerous design accolades, including “Card of the Year”, “Most Creative Use of Paper” and an “Art Director” award.
Meera’s young parents, Roy and Sheila Singh, left South Africa in the late ’60s in search of a better life for their three young children.
Roy was a photographer, and together with his wife Sheila (the daughter of an eminent medical doctor, Dr Misthry, who lived in Durban), opened a little studio in central London.
Little Meera recalls hard times when her father couldn’t buy her a doll house, which she longed for. Instead he bought her dolls’ furniture.
Perhaps this accounts for her fascination with children’s toys that grew into a multimillion-sterling enterprise. But her choice of career wasn’t considered to be mainstream.
Meera recalls: “One thing I always think about is how the old Indian parent mentality was focused on success as being a career in law, medicine or education.
By comparison my interests seemed frivolous and non-serious. Also, my lovely dad, whom I adored, had quite a chauvinistic attitude. Academia only seemed the path for the son.
“The daughters had to learn to cook and find good husbands! When I began to make career inroads, very much encouraged by my new, southern Italian husband (culturally chauvinistic), my father would ask my husband what I was doing?
“He thought my fledgling new business would keep me busy and out of trouble.”
So great was this achievement that Santoro Licensing, a division of the London-based design house Santoro, has been awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade 2018.
It is the UK’s most prestigious and highest accolade for international business success. These awards are made by HM The Queen on the advice of the prime minister.
“I have to practise to curtsey graciously before Her Majesty,” says an excited Meera with the right amount of self-deprecating irreverence.
She is a bubbly, unassuming woman, who bounces into a room and enlivens the atmosphere with her personality. Quick-witted, histrionic and possessing a delightful sense of humour, she is equally matched in beauty and savvy. One would hardly say that she is the drive behind a huge international business endeavour that has caught the attention of even the queen.
She recalls: “When we were small, my dad used to take us for drives to London’s West End. He’d drive us up to Buckingham Palace and say, ‘I wonder if the queen is in? Oh no she isn’t, the flag is not up.
We could have had tea with her’ I used to believe him! So can you imagine recently, when we were able to actually drive into the palace, through the gates, into the private courtyard, how my mind went back to being that 6-year-old skinny, little, not completely toothless Indian girl, who dreamt about the magic behind those gates?
“And there I was. Driving through them, with crowds of tourists with their faces pressed up against the gates, in awe, as I used to be.
I’m only sorry my dad never lived to see that day. But I tell you what -when I came down the steps of Buckingham Palace, right by our car at my feet was a single white feather. I like to believe he was there”
Had she remained in South Africa she would never have attained such heights.
Historically Indians as an ethnic group were faced with a barrage of laws restricting their opportunity to trade freely in the country of their birth and subsequent naturalisation after a history of indenture.
Under apartheid they were restricted to conduct trade in designated Indian areas, while the prime trading sites were reserved for white merchants.
They often had to buy businesses in the name of white nominees.
On account of the lack of opportunities to live and work as bona fide citizens, many Indians left South Africa for other shores, in the UK and Canada.
Meera’s parents were among those who left South Africa to give their children a life free from racial discrimination.
In this respect Meera has soared to great heights in the world of trade and business.
Meera recalls her beginnings: “In 1983 we opened a little studio off Carnaby Street in London. With our joint fascination for design, innovation and the challenge of breaking new boundaries we found ourselves starting a journey that would take us from that tiny studio to more than 60 countries around the globe, winning 50 international design awards and accolades along the way. Soon after the launch of our debut collection, 20th Century Fox came to visit and granted Santoro the licence to create a print collection featuring Hollywood icons.”
Before long, Santoro had outgrown its little studio and needed space to expand its horizons. With its highly successful stationery and gift collections, fast developing reputation for innovative, multi-award-winning creations, Santoro was again receiving some very important visitors.
Impressed with their delectable creations, representatives of Her Majesty’s Jewel House at the Tower of London asked the pair to design and produce an exclusive collection of stationery, which would be sold in the exclusive Jewel House boutique inside the world-famous landmark - The Tower of London - to commemorate its reopening.
So how did it all begin? When Lucio and Meera came across a few sketches of some child-like drawings, they saw the potential. What were a few sketches became bright, bold funky and groovy creations. Having transformed the sketches into artworks people fell in love with, what was to be named Bang on the Door was launched. Having achieved the highest accolade in the brand and licensing industry, they embarked on yet another new avenue. They signed a publishing agreement with Simon & Schuster in the US to design three pop-up books. The books centred on Santoro’s interactive revolutionary paper engineering and vivid artistic scenes - Journey to the Moon (2007) was released first, then Predators (2008) and Wild Oceans (2010). All three books were hailed as major feats in paper engineering.
In 2011 the couple turned their skills to architecture and interior design and gave birth to Santoro Deluxe Design, creating a number of luxury properties, both nationally and internationally. Their design skills were recognised when these properties were awarded the Bloomberg & Google International Property Award for Best Residential Property Interior.
Subsequently, Lucio and Meera Santoro were invited to join the ranks of many other world-renowned interior designers at the prestigious Society of British Interior Design.
So what is the secret of their unique success? The couple have created a magical world. What makes this magic work is the need for people to have beautiful things around them.
Social behaviourists note that we are living through a revolution in the science of design. Researchers are now digging deeper than ever before to understand every aspect of a design concept. Very simply, art makes us happy. Research into human beings’ innate attraction to beautiful objects has identified a biological link.
When we see something attractive (artwork, scenery, another person), a part of our brain that controls hand movement is triggered. Our brains tell us to reach for things we see as beautiful. We are biologically compelled to seek beauty. But, once again, why? Extensive studies are slowly getting closer to the answer.
There are a number of theories that propose why humans are attracted to attractiveness. In people, beauty can be seen to symbolise health; consider it a survival of the fittest concept. Humans instinctively want to reproduce with others who are ‘healthy’ (read ‘beautiful’), so their children will be healthy.
But our attraction to beauty goes beyond other people. We are also attracted to beautiful places, artwork, even music. And this is linked to the science of design.
The Santoros have understood this human need perfectly. Meera’s message to girls in South Africa is that you can do what you want to do if you’re determined enough.
“Sometimes the tried and tested paths may be okay, but perhaps a little predictable, a little boring. Be fuelled and empowered by your passions. The question was never ‘why?’ but ‘why not’. There are so many people you meet in life who can talk you out of your passions.
“Encourage you to be ‘sensible’. I hate ‘sensible’. It’s boring! There are opportunities around every corner, a person with an entrepreneurial spirit will find them. Then act on them. The secret of my success is having an incredibly business-smart partner who didn’t ridicule my vision, but shared it.”
* Dr Devi Rajab is a psychologist and author
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