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As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, alhamdulillahi rabbil ‘alameen, wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen, Muhammadur rasulullahi ﷺ wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kathir al kathira.
Muhammad Badu, I am sitting here in Qantu, in Sibsony town, Port Elizabeth. And I remember this; we are sitting now in this beautiful hotel, which is lovely, it is very luxurious, very comfortable, alhamdulillah, beautiful food.
The thing that I remind myself and you is, I remember a time when this… there was literally nothing here. The first time I came here, I stayed in lodges about a kilometer from here in the bush, very beautiful, very luxurious. And at that time, those lodges had no fence. That is because there were no lions. Lions had not yet been introduced into this park.
And the next time I came, there was an electric fence around, because the lions had been introduced into the park.
The first time I came, I remember one night I came out of the lodge and hurriedly went back inside because there was a hippo outside. The hippo had been walking around from the dam, which is the big pool that they live in below the lodges. So none of this was here. Now, over the years, as I have been here many times, may Allah have mercy on my brother Yusuf Jeeva and Shakir for their wonderful hospitality every time I come here, mashallah. We have been here many times. And every time we come here, there is some improvement. There’s some new project that’s happening. We literally saw this hotel being built. We saw the opposite of the hotel: the pools, the tennis courts. All of that, alhamdulillah.
So, and also in the park, when we go, when we drive around, you know, for any tourist, it all looks completely natural. It is natural. I mean, obviously, everything is natural. But, for example, you see dams, you see pools, you see water. This is a very dry area. So all of that… building that dam, digging that well, getting water there, all of this is an enormous amount of work. The road itself; we are not driving across, we’re not driving cross-country, we’re driving on roads. Now, those roads were not born here. Those roads had to be built. So somebody had to survey the road. And then you take a tractor, you cut the road, you take a bulldozer, you do all that. I mean, all of this is the amount of effort, all the animals that are introduced here. You can’t just buy a buck and leave it loose. You know, it goes through quarantine; the amount of effort that goes into it. For example, carnivores, especially moving them from point A to point B is a big issue because you can’t just pick up a lion and take it somewhere. It has to be sedated for which you need doctors who are extremely expensive. And then they bring in the sedative. You have to sedate the animal. If the animal dies, it’s dead, finished. Khalas. You’ve lost a very valuable animal.
So, I mean, all of this, if you look at the amount of effort and the expense, the effort that goes into this, alhamdulillah, because I have some understanding of this, it is enormous. But this effort went in. So this is what I have seen. Now, the issue is, what is the advice I would give in this context? The first and foremost is, the number one thing that spells literally the difference between success and failure is quality. Especially this business in this country, South Africa, is an extremely competitive business. It’s a hugely competitive business. You’ve got people here who are running lodges who are… literally, I mean, they have, their pockets have no bottoms. You know, money is not an issue. They’ve got unbelievable amounts of money. They’re willing to invest that. So, you’re really competing against the best of the best. The private game lodges in South Africa are absolutely unbeatable; best in the world. So there’s a huge competition and the clientele is extremely discerning. This is large because of the positioning it has; it caters to the cream of society. So you’re on the one hand, it looks nice; on the other hand, you’re also looking at people who have experiences to compare. These are not people who’ve never seen a game lodge. The people who have seen many game lodges.
So if when you have repeat customers, hamdulillah, they have a lot of repeat customers, it is a mark of satisfaction to say: “That’s the people who have access to and who can go to other places don’t go; they don’t go there; they come here.” Or they may go there but they still come here, which shows that this place has that intrinsic value. I’ve come here many times, hamdulillah, and every time I come here totally delighted, beautiful atmosphere, beautiful value. So the advice is focus on quality. That’s the only thing which matters. And quality today is not a competitive advantage; quality is not a differentiator; quality is the leveler. Everybody’s focused on quantity. On quality so we need to focus on quality. Number two is then see in terms of customer service: what is the ‘aha’ factor? What is the factor which delights the customer? So quality is not a competitive advantage; quality is not a competitive advantage. Quality in terms of all the infrastructure; every little detail counts. The whole issue of quality is that every single little detail counts. So we need to focus on that and we take it forward.
Second thing is the challenge for all family businesses: what do you do with the third generation onwards? The first generation starts the business. I know Yusuf bhai used to walk around this place when it was absolutely barren, and the pride with which, you know, hamdulillah, I’ve had the fortune of going with him on drives, on walks. The pride with which he speaks of this is unparalleled. And then you have the second generation in this case, Shakir, who also speaks with the same pride because he’s been with his father. I mean, I am talking about one or two visits in years, but Shakir would be doing that on a daily basis. So imagine the kind of pride in the place, the value for his father’s work, for his own work. Now, how do you convey this to the third generation? Because now you have third and fourth generation as they come along—kids who have not seen this place as it was the way I’m describing it. So they saw this place as it is today. Right? So they are seeing all the luxury; they’re seeing all the developed place. They have not seen how this place was when you had to struggle. Like they haven’t since they haven’t seen this place for example in a time of drought when animals are likely to die. Some some animals do die as well, and you are… you are not worried about water in your house; you’re worried about water in the bush. They have not seen all that.
So so for them, it’s you know, it’s it’s a nice holiday; it’s not a holiday. This is a business on which the family depends. It’s a significant part of the family’s income and prestige. It’s a huge presence in the society here in the village. It’s a huge presence in the province. So how do you convey that now? I think one of the very important ways of conveying it is to bring the kids in, put them into the business at the bottom. For example, here there is a very good students program. You’ve got a naturalist training program that happens here which attracts young naturalists and conservationists and so on from all over the world. Right now there is a new batch that came; I think yesterday I saw a whole bunch of them. I talked to them. So maybe one way of doing that would be to put the kids into that kind of program. Right? Let them go through the mill. So when they come here they don’t stay in the owners lodge; they go stay with the students. You know, they’re sleeping on bunk beds or whatever they sleep on, and then they’re going into the bush and they are seeing things from a different perspective. Right? So put them into that. And then also in the business. And I’m talking—I’m talking in the context of this business—but the same thing applies to all businesses. Put them through the hoops as far as the whole business is concerned.
So they will spend for example a couple of months at the reception where they are a receptionist. They are not the grandson or granddaughter of the owner, or the other son or daughter of the owner. They are a receptionist like anybody else. So they will have the same hours, they will eat the same food, they will be treated hamdul everybody’s treated well. So it’s not as if somebody is abusing them. But at the same time no one is standing up and saying “Yes sir,” “No sir.” No, you work like anybody else. Then you go from the reception, you go into the kitchen right, and you go into the restaurant, and so on. You go into housekeeping. And when you are housekeeping, you are changing sheets, you are cleaning the bathroom, you are doing whatever a housekeeping worker does. Now this is something which instills dignity of labor; it instills value for labor. And it also builds credibility for the person with the people who work in this place. And that’s a very important thing later on when they come to managerial positions, when they come to positions where you know one or more of them are given charge of this. And say: “Okay, run the place.” People who work here know that this person is not a kid. He isn’t… this person is not here because he is… this person is here and he worked his way up from the bottom. So they have respect. And that is very important that they must have respect. And that respect doesn’t come because of the name; it comes because they have experience in the work.
So that is how you give them a value for the actual work itself. Otherwise there is a great danger of you know at the third generation, fourth generation, the only interested in holidays and cars and this or that and luxury. Because you know they can afford it. So they get that. And that also see nothing wrong with luxury if you have earned it, you work for it, you want it, you use it. Uh, you at the end of that then you don’t have the luxury doesn’t get to your head. But when the luxury you are getting it just because you are somebody’s son, somebody’s grandson—this is where the problem is.
So I think that is what I would advise. Put them through the hoop, uh, through the loops. Because many times I have seen uh, I’ve heard uh, business founders saying very passionately to me. You would say: “Are you know the… you know the kind of struggle I had and how much I struggled for this.” Um but I’m going to make sure my children or my grandchildren they never have that struggle. So I tell them, I said no, don’t say it like that. Say that: “I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren never develop resilience; they never develop courage; they never develop strength; they never develop sabr and patience.” They say no, no, why are you saying that? I said that’s what you’re saying. I’m not saying it. You are saying it. Because you are saying the hardship that I had, I don’t want them to have. What are you actually saying? That hardship is what built your character. You are who you are because of that hardship. Now you are saying you want to deny them that which means they will never have your character. Right? They will be they will be weak weaklings and they will be parasites if you don’t want that. Don’t say this. Put them through—you did it because you had to do it. Let them do it because as a matter of choice that you are giving them this is part of their training program. They don’t have to do it but they must do it. Without doing that you are literally depriving your children of the most critical asset which is the building of character. Right? Your legacy to the children should be that building of character, not money. Money will come. I mean, the money will come. But what will not come without effort is the building of character. If you have not done that then you have children who don’t have the character that you have. And the reason you are successful is because of that character. And without that character they will not be successful.
So this is something which is uh, the advice I give myself and you. Uh, and thank you very much once again. Beautiful beautiful sighting we had. We saw the actually… I remember I was telling you the lion we saw yesterday. His father I saw here the first time; they were released. That was his father, the big black man, uh, lion. And I believe he passed away because of the… you know, of old age. So now we saw the son as well. But he, his son wouldn’t didn’t want to be seen. He was under the bush. So I thought I’ll get out of the car and go and say shake his hand and say: “You know what, I knew your father. Thank you very much.”