BACKSTORY: Graeme Wild of Sappi Southern Africa

Graeme Wild, CEO of Sappi Southern Africa

What’s your one top tip for doing a deal?

Be as transparent as you can be, and be honest in your dealings. Thereafter it is about understanding the drivers of the other party and using that understanding to do a deal where both parties feel they have gained something they wanted.

What was your first job?

It was as a forester on a Sappi tree farm near Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal. It was a tense time in that area in the mid-1990s, but I learnt an enormous amount in a short time about responsibility, managing people, the importance of understanding, and appreciating the value of different cultural perspectives and how vital it is that business becomes part of the community, particularly in rural areas.

How much was your first pay cheque, and how did you spend it?

It was R4,000 and, if I recall correctly, half went to food (for myself and my Dalmatian, Max) and half to buying a new car I didn’t really need!

What is the one thing you wish somebody had told you when you were starting out?

I’ve experienced and achieved more than I could have imagined as a 22-year-old. I was fortunate enough to never have a shortage of great friends, family, managers and mentors who would tell me I was capable of bigger things and who encouraged me to take the proverbial next step. I often tell youngsters starting their careers that the best thing they can do is to volunteer for tasks, speak up when they have ideas and become known within their organisation.

If you could fix only one thing in South Africa, what would it be?

Education. I’ve been overwhelmed by the talent, skills, enthusiasm and energy of the young graduates we hire in many of our technical career paths, but the odds of getting to that point for the vast majority of children in our nation are vanishingly small.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people don’t know?

I consider myself an introvert who, for most of my young life, preferred science-fiction and fantasy books to people. I still prefer standing next to the wall to being in the middle of the room, but I’ve learnt how to manage the contradiction over the years.

What’s the worst investment mistake you’ve made?

Not investing. At times I’ve sat on cash, trying to decide what to invest in. Next thing you know, months or years have passed and you’ve earned interest that barely beats inflation, if at all, and almost anything on the stock market would have done better.

What’s the best investment you’ve ever made? And how much of it was due to luck?

I’d like to brag about commodity share investments that I’d made great returns on when the cycle hit, but more realistically it was choosing forestry to study and then spending my entire career, bar two years, at Sappi. Luck certainly played a role. I’d grown bored by the time I reached F in the A to Z of Careers book my parents gave me, and that’s how BSc forestry happened.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently, and why did you like it?

My son gave me The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett for Christmas. While the book itself is interesting, it introduced me to the YouTube videos of the same name. Most of these are excellent, with interesting topics and guests.

What’s the hardest life lesson you’ve learnt?

I like a good plan, to have a measure of certainty about how things are likely to unfold and turn out. But life does not play by those rules — certainly not in business, with other parties who have their own ideas. Sometimes these unexpected outcomes or detours teach you the most, so becoming more adaptable to change has been a well-earned lesson.

What phrase or bit of jargon irks you most?

“I am humbled by …” — in my experience the person saying that is most often not being humble at all. It feels like something you are expected to say, but no-one really means it.

What is something you would go back and tell your younger self that would impress them?

I’ve had the opportunity to travel to fascinating places for work and pleasure, meet great people and learn so much about how history and the environment have changed us, and yet we still have so much in common.

If you were President Cyril Ramaphosa, what would you change, or do, tomorrow?

Apart from the urgent need for intervention in education, a personal bugbear has to be the anarchy on our roads, along with the state of most of those same roads. Visible policing of moving violations and adherence to rules would not only make our roads safer but hopefully have a knock-on effect on our general rule-abiding in all facets of our lives.