The Fruits of a Long-Term but Flexible Approach

This week I felt inspired and could draw some career lessons from three media stories involving my former employer, the Coega Development Corporation (CDC). The CDC’s main responsibility is to develop the Coega Industrial Development Zone (CIDZ) in Port Elizabeth as an investment destination, and in the process help create employment through real economic development in one of the South Africa’s poorest provinces. The stories involved a tomato-farming project employing 200 people directly as a result of a tomato-paste manufacturing facility at the CIDZ commissioned in 2011, to which the farming project will supply tomatoes; an agreement by a Coega-based dairy, owned by local communities, employees and farmers’ co-operatives, which became operational in 2011, to set up a joint-venture with a leading food retail and services company to make cheese-products through a new manufacturing facility next to the dairy; and an incentive by the local municipality provided to a national heath and financial services group that has invested and created more than 330 jobs since 2011 in a business process outsourcing park that the CDC developed and commissioned in 2010.

A development such as the CIDZ requires careful planning, project management and a development approach that should take account of a range of possible events and changes in the global economy over many years. Conceived in the late 1990’s, I have the benefit of knowing that in the beginning of the project, investments in the sectors of the economy mentioned above (agro-processing and business services) were not the main focus. Rather, the emphasis then was on using the country’s strength in minerals and metals as a springboard for large industrial investments. Fortunately, the planning for the CIDZ had the flexibility to adapt to changes in the economy as well as the nature of demand for its location services. It also required that the initial planners and drivers have the necessary patience for the results that would only accrue in the long-term, notwithstanding many prophets of doom in the beginning. I doubt if the CDC would have been prepared for the many challenges it has faced over the years without a staff with the requisite skill and knowledge, as well as an active support network. I also doubt if the CDC could have made such progress without taking risks and venturing into the unknown. And as these initiatives come to fruition, it is very easy for us to underestimate the meaning of their foundation.  

More importantly for me, what lessons does this mean for career and personal development? It is clear that one has to always develop the necessary skills and capabilities that are adaptable, especially in a fast-changing technology-driven world. I can also surmise that the ability to think in a long-term way makes one make the kind of personal investment decisions, such as in education and training, as well as career choices that prepare one for opportunities that may arise. In the same way that the CDC remained resolute in its goal to ensure economic development, an individual has to have the courage not to be discouraged by all the negative voices around them in their quest to achieve success. Without taking risks, the rewards are likely to be mediocre at best and nil at worst. Lastly, when opportunities arise, even if they were not in one’s initial thought, an individual has to be able to grab these, having armed themselves with the necessary skills, knowledge and networks that create the foundation for a successful outcome. Some call this luck, and the wise say it happens when opportunity meets preparation.