Spring heralds exciting changes at CN&CO

1 September heralds the start of spring – a time in nature when new things pop up all over the place. Baby animals are born, snow melts, crickets start cricking, and we humans pack away our winter woollies. “Sun’s out, guns out,” as the popular expression goes.

Here at CN&CO, 1 September 2019 marks the beginning of a new and exciting journey for our business – the birth of CN&CO 2.0. After more than four years of doing it the way we’ve been doing it, we’re shaking things up and starting to do things differently – in a good way, of course, and definitely with our guns out.

“We’re still aiming to shoot the lights out in all that we do,” says CN&CO chief señor, Carel Nolte. “CN&CO 2.0 allows us to focus 2200% on our client relationships while still maintaining the lifestyle approach we have always had towards our business.

“We are extremely grateful that we’ve managed to succeed in a less-than-ideal economy, thanks to our lean business model, flexible approach to everything we do, and the support of all our stakeholders. Our new structure will allow us to amplify all that’s good about our business.

“Big thanks to our founding clients who are still with us today, including Lombard, Innosys, Evalex and EasyEquities. Relationships such as these are testament to the fact that we’re doing it right! We’d also like to acknowledge some of brands we started working with more recently – including the African Insurance Exchange, the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation and Summercon – and our big-brand partners such as Club Med, as well as everyone we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Under CN&CO 2.0, each team member is fully responsible for his or her clients in a consulting-based associate model.

“Using the strong brand name of CN&CO and their own unique talents, each individual will build a consulting arm within CN&CO to serve their clients and suit their lifestyles. This means our clients will be seeing even more of us, with an additional dose of focus.”

Board changes

The new iteration of CN&CO will also see some changes at director level.

“Our founding chair, Colleen Magner, and deputy chair, Lee Astfalck, have stepped down after many years of superb service,” says Carel. “We seriously could not have asked for a better pair of leaders to guide us as we shaped our fledgling business into the success that it is today.

“Our heartfelt thanks go out to Colleen and Lee for sharing their time and wisdom with us between juggling their hectic full time jobs and family lives. We have learnt and grown a great deal under their leadership and I know our relationships will continue well into the future.”

With Colleen and Lee’s departure, we’re delighted to welcome a few new faces to the CN&CO board. Lethabo-Thabo Royds and Kurt Solomon have been appointed as executive directors, while Carly Barnes has been appointed as a non-executive director and deputy chair of the board. Our new chairman is Rob Christian. The new board looks like this:

• Rob Christian (chair)
• Carly Barnes (deputy chair)
• Josie Dougall
• Lethabo-Thabo Royds
• Kurt Solomon
• Gianluca Tucci

“While work remains to be done on our race diversity, I am happy that we are 50% women at board level,” says Carel.

Nimble and nomadic

CN&CO 2.0 also sees us bidding farewell to our office space at Illovo Junction.

“We have had an extremely happy four years in Illovo, thanks to the energy brought into the space by our team and our clients and partners,” says Carel. “However, over the years – as the fourth industrial revolution takes hold – we find ourselves using the space less and less.

“Thanks to the flexibility of our lifestyle business, we spend more time with our partners, or working from home or in public spaces. And so we have decided to ‘go nomad’ and work wherever we find ourselves.

“This is definitely a viable option in our tech-connected world and we look forward to the benefits it will bring to all our stakeholders.”

Join us for a farewell drink to our Illovo HQ on Friday, 23 August 2019 from 4 to 6pm to share some memories – and some wine! – and toast the road ahead. RSVP to colin@cnandco.com by 21 August, please.

And don’t forget to check out our blog, which contains hugely diverse content that adds value to our brand and our partners’, proving that 1+1 can equal way more than 2!