CN&CO & away we go!

As someone who believes strongly in individuality within a grounding community, it is probably no surprise that I was moved to formalise my working relationships into a company at the start of August 2015. 10404444_10153084670212694_5333982790902016956_n

CN&CO is made up of an amazing bunch of individuals, all with strong values, a passion for doing good, and diverse in our backgrounds and lives. Various communities ground us as we share our desire to DO, to make a difference and to have fun while doing so. We try and keep perspective and have our eyes firmly fixed on the end goal – a life lived consciously, with meaning. We remember that health, family and friends are vital components of a life well lived. We take what we do damn seriously, but we laugh – a lot – at ourselves and the world around us. When we forget to do this, please remind us!

CN&CO is about people. We use our marketing and human resource backgrounds, largely within the financial services industry and business to business companies, to help drive success. We think that strategies and plans and convoluted ideas confuse things. We like to keep it simple and focus on the unique mix of people within a company. We believe that when you are clear about your goals, when you empower, inspire and trust people, they perform brilliantly.

Winning, we learnt long ago from a friend, is a drug. And the more you have of it, the more you want. We strive to work with, influence, guide and challenge our chosen partners to win in the long term. And winning (success) for us is not always coming first, and is certainly not about coming out ahead at the expense of others. Winning is the ability to be clear about what you want to achieve, what you stand for and then, with a team of like-minded individuals, to achieve those goals.

CN&CO is made up of nine people. We plan to stay small. We have no desire to build an empire. We have a desire to work with people and companies we like and whose beliefs we share. We won’t always get it right, but we will sure as hell always give it our best shot.

In essence, and it has taken me a long time to say this out loud owing to previous views on consultants, CN&CO is a group of people and brand consultants. One differentiator is that we are based with and at our partners. We see their businesses as ours. We are part of the team. We believe that you can’t work within a people environment and do it from afar.

As we are at the start of this journey, we welcome input. We are working on getting the balance right – on being with and at our partners and yet bringing our experience and the advantages of being exposed more broadly. CN&CO is not about any one individual. The team has complementary skills and we know when to involve each other and when to call on skills in our vast network. Our MD, Gianluca Tucci, is the main point of contact for clients. Our board, under the non-executive leadership of a phenomenal South African thought-leader, facilitator, strategist and managing partner of Reos Partners Colleen Magner, will work with us as we flex and grow. Our deputy chairman Lee Astfalck, with his vast insurance and legal background (and ability to manage certain members of the team whom he has known since school days!) brings a welcome dose of pragmatism and support.

We are excited, at this time of immense upheaval and challenge in the world, to have embarked on this journey of helping companies and the people within them be the best they can. We are able to do so because of many lessons learnt and experiences shared with a lot of you receiving this communication – and for that we thank you.

With best wishes and a reminder not to fuc up. And when you do, as we ALL do, to say sorry, fix it and to move on. Always keep moving forward …

Carel Nolte

Chief Señor

Carel is an investor in people and businesses, believing that 1+1 = (at least) 22. Working with a few basic concepts – best encapsulated in his believe that unless we are dead, anything is possible – Carel aims to build long-term sustainable value with like-minded individuals and companies, while having (a lot of!) fun.