Watching the events of the last few days has been heart-breaking. To see the streets, malls and playgrounds of my youth burning has been horrible.
I spent 30 years in KZN — my family still lives there and my heart stretches bare on those streets.
I’m sure there is some anxiety and uncertainty amongst many of you.
I hope this piece is helpful.
WHAT DO WE KNOW TO BE TRUE?
Jeff Bezos has a great question he asks of Amazon: what do we for sure know will be true in 10 years time?
Amazon then builds its businesses around those answers. Once you know the ‘grooves of consciousness’ that will persist into the future you can build something valuable in service of these ground truths.
So what do we know to be true?
1/ Data, AI and cloud will continue to grow exponentially. These 3 mega-trends will integrate and infuse themselves more and more into the fabric of our lives.
2/ Large, societal problems (climate, inequality, poverty, education … the list is long) need to be (quickly) solved — likely with the new emerging technologies in 1/ — for us to thrive as a species
3/ There will be a significant global shortage of data, AI and cloud skills to deliver into these opportunities
4/ These scarce skills will be able to work from anywhere in the world.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US?
EXPLORE is a business built for the future.
We find, source and deploy the scarce skills our future needs.
We also commit teams to solving the thorny problems that demand our society’s attention.
These are big missions that are not going away for a long time.
We’re hiring like crazy to deliver on our ambitions.
Every month 5–10 EXPLORERS join the rocketship. We’ve just ‘hired’ 50 Interns. We’ve just placed another 30 in various teams across the business.
We had 10 EXPLORERS on our payroll 18 months ago. Now that number sits at over 200.
80% of our Revenue is International and growing quickly.
99% of our opportunity is offshore.
We’ve got offices across SA, Mauritius* and the UK with many opportunities for adventure.
We have a ‘You’re an Adult’ policy which allows you freedom to deliver in ways that honour your life.
You work at a fast-growing company, doing important work, surrounded by great people, with exciting opportunities to grow, travel and make a difference.
LIFT-OFF
I’ve just come back from some time off.
Beer. Books. Perspective.
One of the books I read: Lift Off. You should read it. Amazing stuff.
Ambition. Adventure. Risk.
Challenges. Obstacles. Impossibilities.
Resilience.
The last few days have been tough.
I return with great optimism and gumption though.
Fundamentally nothing changes for us as a business. The opportunities and prospects continue to get bigger.
SD
EXPLORE ‘21
*Borders open today so we will start the process for those keen for some fun, sun and pina coloda’s … after hours of course
