Banker S.A. September 2012 | Page 63

LIFESTYLE Steve Jobs had this term: ‘The reality distortion field’. Essentially saying that reality is what you make it. Push hard enough and reality changes. I found that quite fascinating. critical areas that banks lend into, mining, engineering and so forth; some material from CNBC, and the daily Banking Genesis email I subscribe to from Genesis Analytics. between meetings, I’ll find a gym. I enjoy movies (Cinema Nouveau) and we do a lot of hiking. Most recently we went to Clarens – we did a lot of good walking there. DO YOU FOLLOW ANYONE’S BLOGS OR TWEETS? I’m not a blogger, fortunately, so I don’t keep in touch with bloggers. I keep in touch with whatever economists are writing in the papers, and with what business and other leaders are saying on the broader socio-economic and political issues facing our country. I go through the newspapers and read what captures my attention rather than home in on particular people. YOU’RE KNOWN AS A TECHNOPHILE. WHAT TECH TOOLS DO YOU USE? My iPad, with a keyboard – the iPhone didn’t agree with me. I seldom use a laptop. HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND TRAVELLING? Too much. Our banking structure is the second most stable in the world and we rank second in access to financial services. We have recognition above our weight, so we get quite involved in international structures. All that entails travelling. We also manage the SADC Banking Association, so I do a lot of travelling on the continent as well. YOUR SPORT / LEISURE ACTIVITIES? My gym bag is in the car, and if I’m in Pretoria with an hour or two ANY RECENT BUSINESS BOOKS YOU’D RECOMMEND TO COLLEAGUES? On business and leadership issues, I really enjoyed a biography on Steve Jobs. He was quite an arrogant character, but despite that I was quite taken by the way he was able to get people who worked with him to actually go beyond the boundaries they thought they had. Even though people found him to be arrogant and obstreperous in many ways, they allowed him to push their boundaries. I