Marcus Coetzee

Recently, I have noticed that there seems to be a shortage of hope in the world.

Despite the incredible progress that we have made as a species, everything seems to be a mess. There are problems everywhere we look.

Yet despite these problems, we need hope to give meaning and direction to our suffering.

This article will reflect on the nature of hope and the three ingredients that constitute it. It will also consider what leaders can do to cultivate genuine hope (and not false hope) among their followers.

In this article about impact investment, I will share what I have learned from working with two investment funds in Africa. I have written this article about my personal experiences to help counterbalance the academic material on this subject. It is aimed at readers who are interested in impact investment but don’t have any firsthand experience.

This article began as a private reflection in my journal one Saturday morning in October 2020, as I sat outside at a local coffee shop. It has since grown significantly.

The year is coming to an end. It has been a crazy year as I am sure we’ll all agree. Few of us would have expected a pandemic to rampage across the globe. Covid-19 has accelerated many good and bad trends. It has left millions of people more vulnerable than before. It has also revealed some opportunities for governments, businesses and non-profit organizations to improve their reach and positive impact.

This article contains my end-of-year reflection for 2020. I believe in the value of ‘after action reviews’ and in sharing them openly so others can learn.

This has been a good year for me overall. While my income has decreased, as one would expect in the midst of a pandemic, I managed to make several changes that placed me in a stronger position than I was at the beginning of the year. I’m looking forward to 2021.

Here is an article I wrote for the publication, “CSI: The Human Face of Business” which was included in the Financial Mail during October 2020. 

It explores how Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives have had to radically rethink their approach when confronted with the impact of Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown on their beneficiaries. The strategies that they had fine-tuned over the years needed to rapidly pivot and innovate.

This article explores several lessons that CSI managers have needed to learn, and which will hopefully remain.

I suggest that CSI managers must assess the stark reality of the social, economic and environmental problems that are confronting South Africans, and simultaneously cultivate hope that they can make a lasting difference.

I have been increasingly working with impact investment funds around Africa, and with organizations that are trying to become ‘investment ready’.

As part of this work, I have assessed the applications of over a hundred organizations and conducted due diligence on several.

I have noticed how many organizations make the same pattern of mistakes in their applications. These tend to downgrade their ratings, even when their proposed business venture might be good.

This inspired me to write this article and share 10 recommendations for how to prepare a winning application.

I hope that this will help organizations to submit better applications to impact investment funds in future.

Now that the lockdown in South Africa has started to lift, I’m noticing how many people are struggling with FOGO – an acronym for ‘Fear of Going Out’. 

They have established a safe bubble during lockdown, and are anxious about venturing out and confronting the turbulent world that awaits them. This tendency seems to be the antithesis of FOMO, which we all know as the ‘Fear of Missing Out’.

This article explores the characteristics of FOGO in organizations, and what you, as a leader, can do about it.

I encourage leaders to realize that their organizations must venture out before it’s too late. The cost of inaction may be irreversible. This unusual moment will come to an end, sooner rather than later, and we will all have to enter the uncertain world outside.

It is becoming much clearer what the next 12 months will look like for our organizations. For some organizations, it looks quite bleak; for others there may be a measure of hope.

I’m writing this article in early August 2020 in South Africa. The coronavirus pandemic appears to be over the hump of the first wave over here, and hopefully in decline. People have learned how to navigate through the dangers and restrictions that confront them each day. It looks like the initial panic is slowly subsiding. 

Leaders are able to distill evidence and trends to infer what their organizations will look like over the next year. For many leaders, this outlook is legitimately distressing. Their organizations, their beneficiaries and customers, their strategic context, may look very different from how they did in the past. 

I advise leaders to consider the Stockdale Paradox, in which I’ve found solace in recent months. This paradox suggests that leaders must confront and accept the brutal truth of what they see.

I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership recently – about what good leadership is and what type of leaders the world needs right now. There seems to be turmoil everywhere, but also opportunity.

I’m very mindful of how leaders behave and the outcomes they achieve in their teams, organizations and communities. I’m fortunate to have worked with some very skilled (and poor) leaders, and witnessed a variety of leadership styles.

I’ve noticed that good leaders are able to achieve four key outcomes among their team members, subordinates and followers. I unpack these in this article, as well as the three biggest mistakes that I tend to make as a leader.

We are heading towards some difficult times with many challenges on the horizon. While none of us know how this will ultimately turn out, we can be sure that many of us need to become better leaders. Focusing on these four outcomes will help us to remain on course.

A month ago I wrote an article on the four methods for developing project budgets which I’ve seen non-profit organizations use in South Africa. I believe its best to be adaptable and have all these methods in your project budgeting ‘toolkit’.

This 1-page Strategy Brief summaries these four methods. There is a link to the full article at the bottom of this Brief.

Over the past month, I’ve been helping organizations to adapt to the Coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown. I’ve helped them to reassess and refine their strategies and how they work. I’ve also helped organizations to downsize. This has been a painful process for everyone involved.

On the positive side, I’ve seen organizations use this opportunity to implement changes that have been overdue for some time. And some organizations that provide ‘essential services’ have even scaled their services to meet their growing demand.

But I’ve heard more sad stories than I’ve heard success stories.

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon during this time. It has seemed easier than usual to identify the constraints influencing our organizations and to make the required strategic decisions. In contrast, it has felt emotionally harder to make and implement these decisions. I’ve seen how leaders have suffered, and how they need time to grieve, reflect and heal.

This is the phenomenon that I’ll explore in this article.