During the course of 2005 Ann and I were touring Namibia towards the end of a twelve-month sabbatical that we had taken following my retirement from Fidelity Cash Management Services.
One warm and sunny day found us sitting on the Lüderitz quayside watching seagulls circle and swoop over a heavily laden fishing trawler as it made its way into the calm waters of the docks. My cell phone rang, and I heard my very good friend Theo de Oliveira greet me warmly as he had done on so many occasions in the past.
Theo was a director of the then QD Group and he was quite intent and persuasive that we should pack up our touring lark and come home so that I could join QD’s board of Directors.
It wasn’t long after joining them before I migrated from a consultant to managing sales. It was during this time that we were introduced to an early version of a smart safe – an intelligent cash depositing device into which a retailer could feed his bank notes via a banknote validator which would count the deposit and transmit the value counted to a central webserver. The cash would drop into a sealable, tamper evident bag mounted inside a virtually impenetrable safe, ready for collection by a Cash in Transit operator.
South Africa was no stranger to armed robbery and cash theft and we recognised the potential of developing a service to the retail market in which we could use this technology to offer an automated next day value deposit service on the back of full risk transfer. A service that could potentially revolutionise the historically tedious, costly, and dangerous handling of cash in retail shops across the land.
This was the start of Cash Connect and once decided on, the QD team asked me to lead the project.
The ensuing years were really tough as we battled on against all odds to build the business, continuously hampered by a lack of sufficient capitalisation, a wary market and a lack of experience as we confronted the many challenges the model presented.
But we persevered, went through two changes of ownerships, and slowly but steadily grew, customer by customer, until late 2013 when the company was sold to a business consortium led by Steven Heilbron and Ivan Epstein.
This acquisition signalled a significant turning point in the fortunes of Cash Connect. The gentleman’s agreement entered into between Steven and I entailed my staying on for three years to help guide the ship with him.
The massive success of the venture came second only to the friendship and comradeship I have enjoyed with Steven over the years and which resulted in me finally retiring from an executive role much, much, later, in 2019.
The Connect team pulled out all the stops for a fantastic farewell in December of 2019. It was an emotional and humbling experience and it took every ounce of strength to hold it together when I finally delivered my speech which summarises this amazing journey.
“Good Afternoon Ivan and Steven, my amazing wife Ann, co-directors, shareholders, colleagues and friends.
It is indeed a pleasure to speak to you all, on the occasion of my formal retirement from Cash Connect. I welcome you all to this special occasion.
This is not my first retirement speech but this time around, with a bit of luck, it will probably be my last!
A few months ago, Steven challenged each of us to be game changers and to commit to three goals that would signal a fundamental change in our lives. This was a challenge not to take lightly so I gave it a lot of thought and decided on “go to gym, eat less bread and retire!”
I have spent 14 years with many of you in our company. It is delightful to acknowledge that all of you, in some form or other, have made it possible for Cash Connect to have risen from those early and often tough years to the leading service provider in our sector in South Africa.
Today the company is well established and profitable and promises continued exponential growth and rapid expansion over the next three to five years, and each of you are contributing to this success.
During the tenure spent with you, I got opportunities to learn several things that have helped both in my professional as well as personal life. I met and made many friends who supported me throughout. My skills as a manager and leader were panel beated into shape by individuals from both the exceptionally challenging to the wonderfully pragmatic and sane sides of human endeavour.
We have rigidly stuck to maintaining exacting principles of honest and ethical dealings and building a unique and effective team that get things done. Thus, my success is nothing more than the success of the company which in turn is directly due to the support of you all.
It gives me immense pleasure to acknowledge that our company is a leading disruptor in the payments space. As is so often the case, it has taken a while for all of the sceptics to fall by the wayside and let go.
Of all of the milestones we encountered on our journey, it was the arrival of Ivan Epstein and Steven Heilbron in 2013 that stands out as having made the biggest impact on all of us in this room, and certainly on Ann and me.
Gentlemen, it is has been an honour and a privilege to have played a small part in your lives and to have received so much kindness and support over the years. Thank you.
I really wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge my dearest friend and partner, Ann. She has stuck with me throughout and even got involved in the back office, pro bono, when we couldn’t afford to hire the additional resource.
Thank you for keeping me honest and focussed on the important stuff!
I understand that there is an expectation that on occasions of this kind, old folks like me should share some profound advice to those who follow.
Over the years I have subscribed to a couple of key tenets which I happily share with you – At an early stage in my life I was taught that “he who dares wins”! Believe it and understand it and secondly, Winston Churchill taught us to “never, ever give up”.
If anything, I identify heart and soul with what our very own Nelson Mandela once said “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death”.
To Sumay and Steven, in particular, thank you so much for organising such an amazing send off. It is wonderful, heart-warming and fantastic.
I express my special thanks to all of you and wish that you continue to be successful and happy in your lives. Hopefully much of what we have learnt about life from our participation in the Cash Connect family, we have been able to take home and share to the benefit of our families.
There is a lot of learning ahead of you; so be focused and persistent. Give everything your best shot and never give up and you will be successful in your future endeavours.
You will always be in our thoughts and prayers even though we may be far apart.
Thank you very much.”