What might Neuro-Diversity, Cars & Insurance have in common? Potentially nothing, unless you start to connect the dots.

The African population is growing faster than the continent's ability to create jobs.  It's estimated that 27 million young people will be entering the workforce between now (2025) and 2030.  According to the African Development Bank Strategy Report... "between 2030 and 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to account for 90% of the growth in the world's working age population.  

Many years ago, I proffered an idea that we create unprofitable jobs, mooting that we will be far better off, economically, if we have people getting up and going to work, even if that work meant a loss-making job.  Participation in the economy, getting up, travelling to work, buying food, clothes, airtime, and having a sense of purpose would generate more economic value than the potential loss attached to the job itself. It would mean we need to rethink the purpose of a business, value beyond profit. At the time, people laughed at me. Economists especially thought I was nuts. Today, not so much, especially considering how economies like China have been subsidizing employment to create employment. Think about that. 

It then occurred to me that in the future, meaningful work, not necessarily a job, is likely to come from the non-profit sector. With the super-rich becoming richer, and wealth in general doesn't spin an economy, but rather conserves wealth (little family piggy banks) then eventually they will run out of things to buy or indulge in. What do you do with your extra billions? Give them away, as we are seeing in a few instances. But give it to whom, and how do you distribute it? Naturally, through your very own, or another foundation, a not-for-profit entity. These purpose-driven organisations may be responsible for creating meaningful work, rather than traditional employment.  They will be active in community building, education, and care-driven contributions. I was foreseeing a return to family values, like the small town I grew up in, where everyone knew your name. The word family has its origins in shared purpose and a shared roof. Going back a few hundred years, family was community; it wasn't DNA. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi references this in his lesser-known book, Living Well, which is one of my favourites.

Let’s get back to the here and now with a few facts to get your creative juices going. 

• According to the World Economic Forum the industry that MOST requires creativity is the insurance industry.  It’s top of their list in their 2025 Future of Jobs report. 

• The same report also cites, 9th on the list of fastest growing jobs is Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers.  Brilliant.  This potentially has something to do with that last-mile delivery as a result of us taking the shop to the customer. 

• Did you know that there has been a 20% increase in the sale of new cars in the last 12 months?  Twenty-per-cent.  I have checked this 5 times with my sources and online.  Believe it or not, it’s 20.1% in passenger cars, and 6.9% in light commercial vehicles.  Who is buying those cars?  Who?  And what are they using the car for? 

Have you started to connect the dots yet? Here’s some more fuel for your fire. 

• According to a recent study conducted by The Collective X there are 317,412 jobs in South Africa’s ICT system.  Of that, there are 118,546 vacancies (37%), and of those vacancies, there are 41,491 junior-level opportunities. 

• Only 24% of entrants into universities and colleges in South Africa come out the other end of the sausage machine. Only-twenty-four-percent.  That means 76% of kids don’t make it.  We need to ask why. If it were 100% we would have 70,000 graduates hit our talent pool every year.  BUT…

• When companies in the ICT sector are asked why they have SO many vacancies, their response is “they are not work-ready!"

• The average income in South Africa is R5,100 (The Collective X - Research Report).  The average salary of a Junior Position in ICT, after approximately 2 years of employment, is R25,000.  That’s almost 5 times the average income.  Wild! 

I don't know about you, but my dots are going nuts now! 

• One more fascinating stat.  Did you know that one in five people is considered neurodiverse?  That means 20% of the world’s population is estimated to be somewhere on a spectrum, and some more extreme than others.  That means if you have ten friends around a dinner table, two of them are considered weird.  I’m willing to throw my hat in the ring on being one of the two.  I discovered this while attending an event on Neurodiversity at Work, hosted by the fabulous Dr Sarah Babb at GIBS Business School (Gordon Institute of Business Science) .

Time to Think Differently

Let’s apply some creative thinking here (NEWS FLASH - creativity is ranked 4th on the list of top skills for the next 5 years, and - PROMO OPPORTUNITY - you are more than welcome to call me to find out how we can help you build your creativity muscle). And now, back to the show.  In my previous newsletter, I mentioned how reframing involves changing the question that you ask.  If you focus on unemployment, you may get solutions that result in a reduction of unemployment.  Journalists can then report that unemployment is down by x percent.  Change the question to employment, and you’re more likely to find or surface ideas that focus on job creation.  This means you enter a different game, as a member of the Botswana Government discovered when they flew down to see me in Cape Town to address this very issue. 

So, to jobs, employment, and possibilities.  Here's a few ideas. 

Cars | Insurance | SME Jobs

First Question: Who is buying the new cars?  I have really thought about this.  In conversation with Nick Binedell (who also found the stat hard to believe), I hypothesized that it is probably the Upper Informal Market.  This is a whole new marketing category that I have just made up, because I can't think of another way to define it. This is the line of people who are potentially starting small businesses, or becoming a light vehicle driver, or an Uber driver, or the last-mile delivery guy, upgrading from a bike to a small car.  It then occurred to me that there may be a groundswell of informal SME’s keeping our economy ticking over, that don't actually feed into our national reports because they are largely unbanked or underbanked. 

IDEA: Did you know that every car owner has to be given the RTC?  What’s that?  It’s the Right to Choose.  It means you can select where you get your car serviced; it doesn’t have to be with the vehicle's branded service department.  Ergo, if the car units are going up, then so will service, spares, and maintenance.  How about a new franchise business targeting the edges of townships, or high-density areas, where most of those new cars are going?  Welcome to the Smart Service Centers for Smart Car Owners. Where you can get your car serviced, work from our service center, and enjoy a cappuccino while you wait.  An idea for an entrepreneur who is a tyre kicker like me? Click here to get in on the action!

Second Question: What do new cars need?  Insurance.  The industry that needs creativity the most.  Apparently, the approval rate of credit applications is going down across SA, but the number of applications is going up.  Many applications come from SME’s who can’t meet the banks' requirements for credit.  I worked in retail banking when credit scoring was still manual.  I learned then, and advise people now, to never put the words self-employed on your application form.  It’s like telling the credit machine to spit you out.  Banks only know how to monitor creditworthiness by looking at bank statements.  They like consistency - smooth lines, not curvy ones.  It’s called behaviour monitoring.  If you didn’t have a bank statement, what could you use?  Your insurance data.  Why not?  Remember that no-claims bonus question.  Chances are, if you’re good with your insurance premium, you’ll be good for your car payment too. 

Idea: Meet CAMI - Car Asset Maintenance & Insurance - your partner in all things vehicle.  For one payment per month, we will help you finance, insure, and maintain your vehicle, which we see as your asset, not your liability.  As an SME, we will treat you like a private client, and for companies that can demonstrate at least 3 full-time employees, we will give you FREE business branding on each vehicle.  If you’re in the last-mile business, and you buy with us, after 12 months of good behaviour, we will add you to our trusted KYD (Know Your Driver) database, certifying you as a reliable, trustworthy, and high-integrity service provider.  Our database is accessed by some of South Africa’s top last-mile corporations.  Join the CAMI community today. Apply here! 

Neurodiversity | Creativity | THINKING Jobs

What can neurodiverse people do better than most? Think creatively.  Yes, I’m willing to put myself on a few spectrums to make a point here.  Ain’t that the thing?  Even SAP in South Africa has an Autism at Work program.  When the HR Director Genevieve Koolen was asked recently, “What did you put in place to attract that talent?” she replied, "Nothing, they already got through the door.  Instead, we have put things in place to accommodate their needs by introducing quiet rooms, dimmer lighting, and individual office pods." She added that many neurodiverse people find it extremely difficult to function in an open-plan office environment. 

IDEA: Welcome to The Spectrum, your digital creative problem-solving agency.  Hosting you in our unique high-tech, low-touch working environment, we welcome your team (corporate, government, parastatal) to join us on a creative journey.  You will interact with savants, sages, and those with special needs, all of whom have a uniquely different view on life and business. Our expert and trained counsellors and facilitators ensure that your time with us is optimized to deliver truly out-of-the-box thinking and ideas that will help shape your future. Click here to find out more!  

Young Minds | Experience | ICT Jobs

What do college and university graduates need to get a job? Experience.  The reason that companies would rather outsource (yes, 20,000 jobs a year in SA are outsourced to India and other countries because our local talent needs too much attention and training. In short, they are not job-ready, despite having a slew of certificates. It’s the catch-22 for all young people - can’t get a job if you don’t have experience, can’t get experience if you don’t have a job. 

IDEA: Welcome to HBD - nope, it’s not Mark Shuttleworth’s Here Be Dragons investment fund, HBD stands for Hire, Build, Deploy. It’s not new to me, it’s an idea I’ve bandied about for yonks, and I just discovered that it is a very active model in the UK. One of the skills required in the ICT sector is web development.  Yes, we all know that AI can build you a world-class website in a nanosecond, but web developer skills are still in high demand.  Once that thing is built, it needs updating, maintaining, tweaking, et alles.  HBD is a Web Developer mecca.  We hire all people, on or off the spectrum, who have a passion for web design, web development, and the World Wide Web.  Our fast-paced environment designs, builds, and maintains websites for all types of businesses, from SME's to listed entities. Employees are guaranteed a minimum 6-month contract, and then our clients are encouraged to poach our staff. They get to try before they buy, and you get the experience of a lifetime, oh, and some work experience to boot as well. Keen as a bean? Click here to apply now. 

I’m on a roll, but all good things must come to an end, especially this newsletter. As with my previous newsletters, the point here is that when we change the question that we ask, we change the answer that we get.  Remember that ideas are the beginning of thinking, not the end.  But without the idea, there’s no place to start.  If you tried to click on any of the "Click Here's" above, you would have discovered that they go nowhere. That's because they are ideas, and still need to be formulated and actioned. That will be the topic of next week’s newsletter, where I will share my results model, which is all about moving from an idea to an action. 

That's all from me, folks!

Happy Thinking,  Nicola