Focus: Lifting as we rise

PATHWAYS TO RELEVANCE

The CA2025 competency framework describes the modern chartered accountant as an agent for value creation who integrates a range of technical and non-technical competencies to provide a future-orientated service. This focus on the horizon includes digital acumen and, most importantly, broadens the professional’s commitment to behaving ethically. The CA of the Future integrates their awareness of their own values as well as their business and professional ethics. They use their agency, as the CAs of the future profiled in this feature have, to respond to a range of social needs – the need to be educated, to use your agency to have an impact on society, and the need to be financially included and financially secure while doing so.

These founders demonstrate that the profession’s turn towards a more meaningful engagement with social challenges has meant that the accountancy toolkit can be applied for the benefit of the most socially viable customer, the member of society who needs it most. They demonstrate a hopeful step towards what business leader Bonang Mohale describes as the call to Lift as You Rise:

 

NICHOLAS RIEMER
GOOD DESIGNER’S ‘SHIP’

Solution: The Invigilator

Making and showing

‘We experienced failure quite early into the journey,’ Riemer said when he described the September 2020 launch of The Invigilator app, which is a tool to ‘protect assessment integrity’, according to the app website. ‘It still brings back some shivers,’ Riemer continued, describing the context of beginning The Invigilator’s life. ‘We’d just completed the code, it hadn’t been tested at volume, but we had to move,’ Riemer said. ‘Then you start seeing comments saying “I can’t sign in,”’ he recalled of launching the app. It is the outcome of a quick and responsive building process, during the COVID-19 social distancing period, with his brother Matthew Riemer and their partners in virtual proctoring, University of Johannesburg School of Accountancy lecturers Dewald and Jurie Wessels.

Relationships and trust

Riemer details the relationship between his team and its early university customers as being one of trust, borne out of the app development team being honest about the challenges it faced, iterating through solutions with the customer, and sticking to its commitments to address them. The theme of relationships and trust underpins his journey to the CA(SA) designation, as his father is ‘a proud CA(SA)’, he said, who spent Sunday evenings working through the younger Riemer’s high school accounting tests and exams. Riemer later spent a year completing academic articles with university lecturer Dewald Joubert, who sparked the idea for The Invigilator. ‘Surely, there’s something we can do on a mobile phone. Think about it. Chat to your brother,’ he recalled. He described the solution as being designed to respond to the particular challenges of being under-resourced in the university context, which has been brought to public consciousness through the protest event known as #FeesMustFall.

Responding to high data costs and limited access to high-tech devices

‘What started as a basic mobile phone solution has evolved to include anti-plagiarism technology,’ Riemer described, as well as ‘in venue physical verification and script submission functionalities’, he continued. The application now includes a personal computer solution – The Invigilator PC – ‘which incorporates video monitoring and screen detection again without the need for constant internet connection,’ he explained.

The Invigilator’s journey has seen growth statistics over the period 2020 to 2024 that would make any founder proud – from four institutions and roughly 60 000 students to over 55 institutions and 750 000 users in South Africa alone, Riemer enthused.

The Invigilator includes a range of features such as video hosting and texting for ongoing communication between educators and their students. This is something that Riemer thinks enables a constant connection to the learning process and allows learners to move into more critical thinking skills. He described a scenario where short questions – such as multiple-choice questionnaires – can be administered through the app, allowing the longer-form examination format to test for a deeper understanding of the subject matter following more meaningful engagement with one’s educator. These features, in addition to its main product offering, are designed for the challenging South African context of unreliable electricity supply, low access to funds for expensive devices, and high data costs. It is also designed to reduce university fixed costs related to exam invigilation. The focus on cost reduction extends to a ‘reverse-billing’ solution that allows users to receive their edtech content with the cost being covered by the university. ‘Now it’s about how do we get this further and wider so that the public can also get the benefit of this,’ he said about the potential partnerships that can be created ‘to get everyone on the same footing’.

 

SCHALK BURGER
IMAGINEERING FOR IMPACT

Solution: Xhuma

‘It is that connection point – it connects people with tools that change their lives,’ Schalk Burger said about his venture, Xhuma, which means ‘connect’ in the Nguni languages (isiZulu and isiXhosa). Its core vision is simply stated as ‘pioneering innovative tech to improve society’, he shared about the essence that lies at the heart of a company. It incorporates three separate businesses that employ artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems at the heart of the company’s broader aim.

While at the University of Johannesburg, Burger noted that the processes behind securing funding for tertiary studies could be made more effective. It was a key concern for his peers and led to the founding of his first business, which has evolved to incorporate talent management in its offering. He notes that ‘now, it’s a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool that employs AI to help you find people that you otherwise would not have considered.’ He elaborates that employability sometimes comes down to first impressions, and the app helps to ensure that talent is not arbitrarily overlooked for certain opportunities. There’s also a tool to help people understand what careers they’d prefer to pursue, as he’s noted that ‘people can’t tell you why’ but seem to be aware of what jobs they want to pursue to earn their desired income.

The second pillar focuses on assisting with subject choices to help pre-tertiary level students start to understand how to get on the right journey, while the third pillar is a transactional banking business that seeks to address the issue of financial literacy and financial inclusion. ‘We realised internally that there’s a very big need to change the culture of money on this continent – for people, their friends, their families, and their entire network,’ he said. He noted that the company is responding to the need for an accessible tool that allows people to ‘bank their worth’ and gives insight into the behavioural elements of the technology. They potentially allow users to understand how they make financial decisions. ‘The key thing is to empower people with information about themselves so they can make more informed decisions,’ he said.

The CA(SA) of the future

‘One of the things that I knew from the very start is that I wanted to become an entrepreneur,’ said Schalk, adding added that he comes from a lineage of entrepreneurs. To achieve his goal, he explained that this meant he’d need to become technically proficient in financial planning, tax, and the legalities of running a business. This led to the pursuit of his double major Bachelor of Accountancy / LLB studies at Stellenbosch University.

Imagineering for empowerment

Burger didn’t always have dreams of carrying a briefcase. ‘There’s a special kind of engineer at Disney – their job is to come up with innovative ways of creating experiences for people. They do the engineering behind it but it’s also quite a creative job,’ he shared about what his childhood self would’ve liked to become. His favourite toys were Lego and Meccano, which allowed their user to build things.

Burger’s early experiences of technology as a young millennial were in noticing the clear distinction between life ‘pre-tech’ and life after it significantly shaped our world. He’s got real street cred as an early adopter of tech culture, having been an early viewer of the YouTube phenomenon Marques Brownlee, whose MKBHD brand and channel are synonymous with being at the cutting edge of technology. The intersection of technology and communications gives insight into the venture he started, which is about connecting people through technology.

 

CHRISTIAAN VAN DEN BERG
BUILD THE PEOPLE

Solution: JOBJACK

The founder of JOBJACK notes that the service is a solution to a problem that occurs in many emerging markets, not only in South Africa. He locates the core of the problem in the cost of job-seeking, which he identifies as the costs of printing (a CV), using data to send it out, and transport costs, which amount to R932 a month. This is the core issue that can lead to a discouraged entry-level job-seeker who will either not try or not try often enough. The app streamlines the job-seeking process through a web application where they create an online profile – an online CV – that is data-free for Vodacom, Telkom and MTN users, he described. For employers, the service potentially cuts down significant costs of recruitment and onboarding that come with seeking out talent to fill entry-level positions. Van den Berg proposed that JOBJACK ‘also adds massive value in finding the right role fit’.

‘Create hope, create a chance for a change’

‘What we focus on at our core is to get people into opportunities and to see their lives change,’ said Van den Berg when he described that the focus of JOBJACK is to put as many opportunities in front of their customers as possible. To date, that number stands at over 20 000 opportunities overall and averages out to over a thousand a month according to recent company statistics he shared. The impact is more deeply felt by the 3−4 dependants that each user impacts by supporting them through the job they’ve acquired.

Another indicator that the company is looking to develop is to measure the sustainable impact that the user of their service has on their place of employment: ‘Are they staying in the company, are they performing, are they adding value – are they building a career?’ The company is looking to increasingly customise its performance indicators, which include an in-house psychometric testing team and solution that can provide insight into whether a candidate will thrive in a role. The aim is to ultimately identify what additional training is required to get a candidate to be work-ready. As Van den Berg notes, ‘We’re getting 400 000+ matriculants into the job market every year, and unfortunately, only a small percentage of them are actually work-ready.’ The solution would be to ‘take hands with a training provider’ and to assist the candidate to return to the job market, he said.

Creating your own solution to a problem

When asked what his entry-level job taught him about entrepreneurship, he highlighted that the standard three-year training contract he completed along the CA(SA) journey exposed him to the value of teamwork. This was experienced through some core experiences of the audit environment; having to complete timesheets to ensure efficiency, as well as the relational elements of coaching and having access to senior leadership. He also pointed to having a sense of the bigger picture as a trainee, which comes from being part of planning meetings. This taught him the importance of creating an environment of psychological safety that allows his own team members to take initiative. For the CA of the future, Van den Berg would like to see more support for CAs who want to use what they’ve learned along their qualification journey and apply it to creating their own solution to a problem.

Being a steward of your gifts

As the founder of an application that connects people to entry-level jobs, Van den Berg also reflected on the country’s history which has meant generations of people who have not grown up with parents who could model meaningful access to employment and entrepreneurship. ‘It’s up to us now to see the potential that there is and to share the gifts that we’ve been given. That’s what makes life special,’ he said.

 

MARNUS VAN HEERDEN
Design Thinking

Solution: Pineapple
Being ‘nerdy’ about storytelling, and trust

‘What we thought is let’s just be real with our customers and show them a bit of our own personality, in terms of the culture of the people who work here and messages that we find entertaining and funny,’ Marnus van Heerden explained about the thinking behind the insurance provider’s marketing campaigns. The team sought to create a sense of ‘resonance and trust’ between the company and its customers, he said.

Van Heerden talks of the design thinking approach to creating the short-term insurance solution, which took into account the pain points of the identified Pineapple target market. They mainly relate to trust and access. He explained that the team used other digital delivery services like Uber and Mr Delivery as examples of what this generation’s customer is used to receiving – quick and high-quality engagement with the service provider – and the use of technology to reduce cost burdens. Van Heerden added that customers receive the benefits of this through ‘incredibly low car insurance premiums whilst receiving a premium service offering’. These digital opportunities are supported by high-quality customer service delivered by the Pineapple team, which is ‘akin to what one would expect of a private bank’, he added. This combination allows the company to penetrate the existing market for car insurance and make inroads into what Van Heerden identified as the two-thirds of cars on the road that aren’t yet insured. The service offering is not limited to motor vehicle insurance as a visit to the company website shows that a customer can also enjoy peace of mind over their camera, iPhone, iMac, and bicycle. The site’s language also hints at who the target market is, as it invites the user to ‘cherry-pick your insurance’ and to ‘checkout & chill’ through the ability to complete a quotation in 60 seconds.

Trust and value creation

The company’s use of design thinking is embedded in its operations, which include concurrent work-streams, and new innovations, that ensure consistent engagement with Pineapple’s customers, Van Heerden said. He shared the team’s experience of encountering design thinking in a live training scenario at a zoo, where the team observed how toddlers engage with animal exhibits. It demonstrated how customers can be invited to use more than one of their senses to engage with a product offering. This example of rich engagement between the customer and the company provided early insight into the team’s approach to understanding value creation.

Van Heerden’s consideration of what value creation means included a sense of the world outside of the company as well as inside of it, as he noted that one of the company’s aims is to make a positive impact on how people create financial security through insuring their assets. This allows them opportunities to, in turn, support others. Internally, he noted that the company seeks to develop its people beyond the confines of the standard performance review process. Value creation, from Van Heerden’s perspective, extends to speaking with young people about the responsibility they have ‘to take this country forward’. He notes that – for his generation – the conversation about the role of the individual within the broader national context has been centred on the fact that they have rights. But he thinks that there is an opportunity – and a pressing need – to evolve. Van Heerden shared that the team ‘really encourage people to take on the maximum responsibility that they can – willingly and without resentment – not just at Pineapple but also within their families and within their communities.’

This approach to connecting skilled labour with broad purpose is something that SAICA drives through its ‘Difference Makers’ initiative. It seems to resonate with the young insure-tech founder who enthused that ‘if you can be different, be different’.