You can’t turn the noise down here. Power interruptions, water stress, port congestion, cable theft and fibre breaks, FX swings – there’s always something. My job isn’t to predict the noise; it’s to keep the system steady while it’s happening. This is the operating rhythm I run every quarter.

What I control vs. what I influence

Every Monday I review a one-page “Stability Map.” On the control side sit the things we own outright: liquidity for the next 13 weeks, the reliability of our service, the speed of material decisions, and the continuity of energy, water, and connectivity at critical sites. If it’s there, we fix it, staff it, or simplify it, immediately. On the influence side are the variables we can shape: supplier performance and diversification across road, rail, air and inland depots; customer commitments and pricing corridors that absorb rand volatility; bank and insurer terms; and the talent pipelines that keep our bench strong. Each item has a relationship owner and a clear next action. The discipline is simple: don’t confuse control with influence.

The stakeholder map

I keep stakeholders on one page because complexity hides risk. Customers come first: we define service promises, spot renewal moments early, and maintain a proactive update rhythm when reality shifts—whether that’s a port delay or load-shedding. Then the team: we name the roles where downtime hurts most, assign backups, and protect recovery windows during high-load periods. Suppliers and logistics are mapped by dependency with A/B alternatives and a 60-day SLA review cycle. I treat infrastructure partners as a separate lane; landlords, facilities vendors, generator/solar/battery providers, diesel suppliers, and dual-ISP failover – so continuity isn’t left to chance. Financial partners stay warm and pre-aligned on responses to short-term shocks. Finally, we keep skills and community channels open so we can hire fast when demand pops.

Scenario drills

We don’t wait for trouble to learn. Once a quarter we run one drill and fix what it exposes. In South Africa that often means practising a power switchover to generator or solar and confirming who speaks to customers; rehearsing a port or corridor disruption so we can resequence orders and issue an honest “truth and options” message; validating on-site storage and fallback plans when water is interrupted; flipping to LTE/5G if fibre is cut and prioritising business-critical apps first; or applying pre-agreed pricing corridors and hedging guardrails when the rand jumps. One drill, one debrief, and three concrete improvements locked within a week.

Cadence that calms

Rhythm is the antidote to noise. I keep a ten-minute daily huddle for risks, blockers, and the single focus of the day. Weekly we run a stability review that covers cash runway, site uptime across power/water/connectivity, a supplier heatmap, and capacity in critical roles. Monthly we work the influence levers, terms to improve, partners to upgrade, alternatives to test, whether that’s a different route, depot, or carrier. Quarterly we run the drill and publish the before/after changes. The calendar is the operating system; when we protect the rituals, the business stays steady.

The dashboard

• Resilience: weeks of cash; site uptime; generator hours; diesel days-on-hand; water days-on-hand; connectivity failover readiness.
• Reliability: on-time-in-full (OTIF); mean time to recover (MTTR); critical incident trend.
• Velocity: median decision time on material issues; cycle times for core processes.
• Trust: renewal rate; NPS during disruption windows; supplier SLA adherence.

A 90-day South Africa quickstart

• Weeks 1–2: Build the Stability Map, assign owners and targets, and audit each critical site for a 72-hour continuity plan across power, water, and connectivity.
• Weeks 3–4: Run the power drill and close three gaps (e.g., switchover SOP, diesel supply assurance, monitoring/alerts).
• Month 2: Implement supplier A/B options and clean up decision rights so everyone knows who decides what, by when.
• Month 3: Launch the dashboard, run a port/corridor drill, and publish a clear Service Promise so customers know exactly how we communicate and prioritise when utilities or terminals wobble.

What I won’t outsource as CEO

Here’s my nudge as a fellow CEO: make decision speed a daily habit, uncertainty is a tax, so clear it fast. Tell customers the truth early and give them real options. Guard your team’s energy; don’t trade it for a short spike in output – build for sustained performance.

Keep the cadence, tell the truth, keep the map current. Do that consistently, and you’ll stay steady in an unsteady world.