john

People always hate from the outside. This CA chat is an example. You guys think you know better than seasoned business professionals who sit on boards who appoint these people . You’re on X they’re in boardrooms but y’all know better

A Chemical Engineering degree has become an Investec career now... Why don't you guys want to put on your coats after graduation and do chemical stuff? Budweiser is a horrible tasting beer, please make improvements on that and chill on hogging finance roles

There’s a narrative in South Africa that CA(SA) CEOs kill companies. At face value, I believed it too. I’ve seen businesses lose energy, stop investing, and drift into cost-cutting cycles. Then I looked deeper. When growth disappears, leadership shifts from expansion to protection. Boards stop asking “how do we grow?” and start asking “how do we survive?” That’s when they bring in a Chartered Accountant (CA). Not because CAs kill companies, but because they are trained to control risk, preserve capital, and manage downside. So what looks like the CEO “destroying” the business is often the business already in decline. The CA didn’t cause the stagnation. The stagnation selected the CA. You see this clearly in the media space. Traditional broadcasters and publishers lost growth as audiences fragmented and advertising shifted. Instead of building new models fast enough, many moved into protection mode. Budgets get cut. Teams shrink. Content risk reduces. Innovation slows. From the outside, it looks like leadership failure. From the inside, it’s survival strategy. The real problem is what happens next. If a company stays in defensive mode too long, it loses its ability to create value. Cost-cutting becomes the strategy instead of a tool. That’s when the soul disappears. So the question isn’t: “Are CA CEOs bad?” It’s: “Is this company being run to survive, or to grow?” Because those are two very different playbooks.

A Chemical Engineering degree has become an Investec career now... Why don't you guys want to put on your coats after graduation and do chemical stuff? Budweiser is a horrible tasting beer, please make improvements on that and chill on hogging finance roles