Three giants of enterprise, choice and freedom

Parliament reconvened yesterday after a two week break, for the third term of the year which lasts until September 22nd. My day did not start well, with the 7 am British Airways flight being offloaded due to a radio malfunction. Our replacement Kulula plane took off at 10:30 so I lost half the morning, which was irritating. But things looked up, after I'd dumped my bags in my office and joined Jamie Turkington, Helen Zille's Chief of Staff in the party leader's office, for a light lunch at Doppio in St George's Mall. We had got to know each other during the election campaign when he was seconded to run communications for Mmusi Maimane in his bid to topple the ANC in Gauteng. Though that turned out to be a bridge too far we learned a lot and like me he is now in a new job and enjoying the challenge.

Now after a long day I am reflecting on the lives and legacies of three remarkable men whom I have been fortunate to come into contact with, directly and indirectly, in the past week: Ray Kroc, Raymond Ackerman and Mario Oriani-Ambrosini. Three more different men you could not imagine but their life stories are inspiring and are worth telling, in brief, here on my blog.

Ray Kroc founded the McDonald's chain of hamburger restaurants that changed the world of out-of-home dining and redefined the meaning of fast food. In 1954 he met Dick and Mac McDonald who ran a small but efficient hamburger joint in San Bernardino, California. He was so impressed he founded the McDonald's Corporation in 1955 and opened his first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines Illinois, just north of Chicago. By 1958 he had sold his 100 millionth hamburger.

I spent a fair bit of time in Chicago from 2002 to 2003 with my American friend and colleague Jim Morgan, and one day he took me to this iconic place for a tour. It had all the original designs and furnishings from the 1950s and it was like walking back in time, but the golden arches and signature red, yellow and white corporate colours have barely changed.

On Friday I and two colleagues from the Gauteng Legislature, Janet Semple and Ashor Sarupen, were taken on an Open Door visit to some of McDonald's South Africa's operations by its MD Greg Solomon and some of his senior executives. It was evident Ray Kroc's legacy lives on in full measure in what has become one of the country's most successful fast food chains.

The visit came about after I was approached by a Cape Town businessman in July who wanted to open a McDonald's franchise in Khayelitsha but was turned down because he could not raise the required R2 million unencumbered cash deposit. After investigating his claims that McDonald's discriminated against him because he was black I became convinced this was not the case, and Greg offered to show me first hand what the company was doing to develop black-owned franchisees as well as implement enlightened employment policies that bore none of the hallmarks of racial discrimination.

The story of the South African company is every bit as inspiring as the original McDonald's. It began in 1994 with a phone call from an executive based in the Persian Gulf to Peter Moyanga. He was a young black employee of a restaurant chain in Johannesburg and was employed as the Real Estate Manager and was a participant in the sourcing of the first piece of real estate for McDonald’s SA. He is now one of its largest franchisees and a wealthy independent property developer. It so happened that Greg was employed as the Construction Manager and was responsible for building the very first McDonald's and many more. He now oversees a company with over 200 restaurants, around half of which are franchises, the others company-owned. In the process he has helped make small fortunes for many fortunate but hard-working entrepreneurs, many of whom joined as employees before starting their own franchise.

The owner of the restaurant in Voslorus where we had lunch, Portia Nondo, tells another story. Working in corporate banking for many years she saw a gap and now has four restaurants, preferring the life of an entrepreneur to the strictured existence of banking. I am soon to meet another multiple franchisee, Gcina Manyaka who owns five restaurants in Soweto where I have my constituency.

The point of all this is that McDonald's South Africa epitomises economic empowerment, irrespective of colour. One might question its decision to bring Cyril Ramaphosa in as its Developmental Licensee, and that is a story for another day, but what is indisputable is that the company, which employs 15 000 people, not only gives aspiring entrepreneurs a proven model for business success, it also provides entry-level jobs for young people eager to get experience of the world of work. This is a crucial need in South Africa. The opportunity to work in a structured environment is invaluable, and McDonald's (in all its operations worldwide) is a kindergarten for first time job seekers.

People who have had work experience will find it easier to move up the jobs ladder, and before long have the confidence and skills to start their own company.

Raymond Ackerman is just such a man. On Monday I met him, and his son Jonathan, at the Free Market Foundation in Johannesburg where he was honoured as an FMF luminary, following a distinguished line including Richard Maponya, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and founder of NAFCOC Sam Motsuenyane.

Raymond Ackerman related how he had learned retailing from his father who founded the Ackerman's department store chain in 1919. He spent Friday afternoons in the stores doing every job imaginable so he soon knew the business backwards. At the University of Cape Town he studied Commerce under the legendary Professor William Hutt, who taught him the aim of business is not to maximise profit but to give back to the community.

When his father sold the business to Greaterman's the young Ackerman joined in a junior position but soon was running the Checkers chain, where his unconventional instincts for cutting prices got him into trouble with his bosses, who fired him. Soon afterwards he bought a three-store business called PicknPay in Cape Town and the rest is history. What was his secret?

It was putting the customer first, and the philosophy that doing good is good business. PicknPay with Raymond Ackerman at the helm developed this brand image single-mindedly and it has endured. Cutting prices, whether by beating down suppliers or introducing no-name-brands, has always been its way of winning and keeping customers. Ackerman hates price-fixing and monopolies and wistfully pointed to his failure to break the stranglehold of the oil companies. With the connivance of government these companies fix fuel prices so punishing consumers, make themselves fat profits and rake in huge tax receipts for SARS.

PicknPay has taken a few knocks in recent years and the arrival of Walmart, which bought a majority stake in Massmart two years ago, has forced it - and competitors such as Shoprite - to further streamline their operations to remain competitive.

I put it to Jonathan Ackerman during questions that one consequence has been freezing out small suppliers who cannot comply with the volume, price and logistical demands of nation-wide supply chains. While he conceded this is true it has not prevented new stores sourcing goods such as fresh veg from local suppliers operating in communities where they wish to have a positive impact.

Like McDonald's, PicknPay has followed the franchise route and now around half its stores are owner-operated. Ackerman is proud not just of what this has done for his company but of how it has helped create over 600 thriving entrepreneurial businesses all over the country.

Mario Ambrosini at the Cape Town Press Club, photo by Trevor Samson

The venue for this meeting, the Free Market Foundation, is the link to our third remarkable individual Mario Oriani-Ambrosini who died aged 53 on Saturday. To my knowledge he was not a member of the FMF but he was a libertarian at heart and passionately advocated the power of individual freedom to change things for the better.

Mario Oriani grew up in Rome in a family of constitutional lawyers. His father helped draft the Warsaw Convention and after he died aged 39 Mario's great uncle Gaspare Ambrosini, who oversaw the Italian constitutional court, nurtured him in the legal disciplines.

He came to South Africa at the behest of Mangosuthu Buthelezi and spent the years 1992 - 1996 as the IFP's advisor on constitutional affairs. He was the chief IFP negotiator at the Codsea talks leading to the interim constitution of 1993 and the final version adopted in 1996. The IFP won the province of KwaZulu Natal in the 1994 election and Ambrosini helped write its constitution, safeguarding a measure of federalism within what is essentially the unitary South African state.

Elected an IFP MP in 2009 he devoted his talents to safeguarding the interests and rights of individuals. His determined opposition to the Protection of State Information Bill, including initiating one of South Africa's first successful filibusters in Parliament, led to some significant concessions from the ANC. After being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in April 2013 he fought for the legalisation of marijuana in the treatment of terminal diseases.

Yesterday's business in Parliament was dominated by some very moving tributes to Ambrosini from Buthelezi who opened, followed by the DA's Wilmot James and most of the other parties whose speakers related their own personal experiences of Ambrosini the man, the humanist, the legislator. When he took the oath at the opening of Parliament in June he arrived in a wheel chair and even with his helpers maintained a dignified presence which brought a hush to the House. His family announced on Tuesday that he took his own life, sparing them more pain from seeing his life ebb away. Up in the gallery they sat, wife Carin and 7 year old son Luke, quietly listening to the tributes.

Three men, three lives, millions touched by them. Each driven by a belief in the power of the individual to improve the lives of others, and with a deep distrust of overmighty powers aiming to curtail personal freedoms. None of them religious zealouts, they excersised their convictions in the realms of business, law and politics, preferring markets, choice and opportunity to the tyranny of dictat.

What can we learn from their example? I am reading two books that espouse two visions for the future, which Kroc, Ackerman and Ambrosini would probably read voraciously (and when I next meet Raymond Ackerman will enjoy discussing with him) - The Fourth Revolution, and Tax, Lies and Red Tape. They might not agree with everything written therein but would readily admit to the need for changes in the relationship between government and citizens, aiming to limit the power of the former and promoting the rights - and responsibilities - of the latter.