Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa November 2019 | Page 13

MICHAEL FRANZE
D
ay Zero, droughts and load-shedding may spell
‘doom and gloom’ to many South Africans, but
for a select few it is an opportunity for innovation.
As Managing director of Citiq Prepaid, Michael Franze
sees every setback as a lesson and an opportunity for
transformation through creative solutions.
His open and enthusiastic nature reflects his philosophy
on life and in business: “My philosophy is that we are all
essentially the same. We want to get ahead in life, we
want to be treated with respect and we want to be part of
something bigger – essentially make a change in our world.”
Franze’s eagerness to effect change in the world was
sparked by his first job. He started his career at Siemens
Telecommunications during a pivotal time in South Africa.
The regime in South Africa was overthrown and the internet
and mobile telecommunications rapidly changed the world.
This transformation echoes what Franze strives to achieve.
After graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering
from Wits in the early 1990s, Franze worked for Siemens
during an important time in mobile telecommunications.
Working for Siemens marked the start of Franze’s career
in innovation. After spending a decade at the telecoms
company, he completed his MBA with GIBS.
Understanding the next great demand, Franze
took a huge risk and resigned from his job to work
on a binary options financial markets start-up called
PredictionsMarkets.co.za. Unfortunately, the start-up failed,
primarily due to the Financial Markets meltdown in 2008. But
Franze learnt some of his most important lessons during this time.
“My first business was the financial market start-up. A key
lesson I learnt was that you need career-equity to make a
contribution in a business. Youngsters starting out on their
own typically lack the experience of confidence of having
done the work somewhere else.”
“Another lesson is that failure is a realistic, normal
outcome of any venture and should be planned for. Don’t
let your first failed business or investment be your last. You
will learn so much in failure that the success of your next
ventures will be so much more likely.”
“This lesson is particularly important in property, where
almost all investments are highly geared. People think
property is a safe investment, but when things go wrong
the gearing means the final outcome can be catastrophic.”
Learning from failure, Franze continued to strive for
transformation within the business sector. His next venture
saw him working for Citiq Prepaid in 2009. This was during a
revolutionary stage in the business, as well as a tumultuous
time throughout the property sector in South Africa.
“Failure is a realistic, normal outcome
of any venture and should be planned
for. Don’t let your first failed business
or investment be your last”
“I became involved through our parent company at
the time Citiq Property/Jika. Citiq Students was a leading
residential property company at the time and was
MICHAEL FRANZE
Position: Managing Director
Company: Citiq Prepaid
Years company has operated:
2009-present
Age: 46
Marital Status/Family: Married
Education: BSC Eng Elec / MBA
Who do you consider to be your
most important mentors: Paul
Lapham when he was a CEO at Citiq
Property was inspirational; also the
leadership in Siemens & Siemens
Telecommunications
What are you reading at the
moment? Biography on Stalin
What is your life motto? Get on with
it, it’s never as bad as you imagine
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
11