15 Years of Shared Value
“Having cut my sustainability teeth at two of the largest global accountancy firms, the latter one cut me loose for spending too much of my personal time working with underprivileged children in one of South Africa’s largest townships: Soweto.“
The project I’d created was called the Soweto Marimba Youth League, or SMYLe, and the strategy was to use access to music as a mechanism for improving Maths and Sciences marks (primarily Maths, but also Physics). The children wanted to learn and perform music, while I wanted them to achieve their full academic potential in a country where 30% had become the minimum requirement to “pass” all Maths and Science courses in high school.
As many may know, learning music requires the same inputs as learning Maths
– repetition, repetition, repetition – and those who perform well in Maths are
much more likely to play at least one musical instrument, especially the piano, which for those who don’t already know this, is the rich man’s marimba.
A marimba is essentially a wooden piano, but with far fewer than the 88 keys one finds on a standard piano, and with keys that are much larger than on a piano, and that require the use of a mallet to strike each slab of wood to create a specific note. As such, any kid who could demonstrate excellence in playing a marimba, or a steel pan (the other primary instrument SMYLe used), should be able to demonstrate similar excellence in Maths (if they have access to the right teachers).
When I first started working with the kids in 2004, I was stunned by their ability to perform more than 100 songs from memory, including classical, church and pop music, yet very few of the kids were achieving Maths marks above 30%, almost exclusively because their teachers were insufficiently trained.
So…
I made participation in our performance bands dependent on their participation in our supplemental Maths classes, taught by a properly trained Maths scholar from Zimbabwe. What I quickly observed was that our average Maths marks grew from less than 35% to over 50% in the span of less than six months of our teacher’s first year.
Maths marks grew from less than 35% to over 50%.
The problem, as my boss saw it, was that as my commitment to the kids of SMYLe
was increasing, I was seemingly struggling with my ability to work an average of over 70 hours per week, including time on Saturdays and Sundays. This conclusion was drawn shortly after I’d suffered a transient ischaemic attack, aTIA, or a mini stroke, resulting from contracting cerebral meningitis while on an assurance site visit in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Her argument was that I needed to spend my Sundays resting and relaxing, rather than working with the kids. Oddly, my boss’s argument was posed less than a year after receiving KPMG South Africa’s first ever award for volunteerism, and the same day I’d received notice that I was about to receive the same award for the second straight year.
In the end, I was forced to decide between my job at KPMG, or my volunteering with the kids.
I chose the kids.
As I was leaving the office on my last day, I was warned that I’d never be able to do the work I loved doing without the support of a large accounting firm, even though my clients were already lining me up to continue my work as an independent consultant.
In late 2008, after nearly three years’ operating as an independent, one of my clients asked me to start a company and develop a brand so that I could provide sustainability assurance…in direct competition with all of the large accounting firms, which I did, in early 2009, but with a twist. I wanted my company, Integrated Reporting & Assurance Services (IRAS) to make a difference. I wanted my company to be known as a company that was transforming the way assurance was being conducted, primarily by walking the talk. I wanted to demonstrate a commitment to carbon neutrality, as well as to community development, and I wanted this commitment to exceed what most would deem possible.
From the outset, one of IRAS’s commitments was that 10% of our annual revenue (not net profit after tax) would be invested into the growth and development of others…and we succeeded, in several ways.
Firstly, we reached our 10% target in our very first year and have achieved this performance every year since…including during the COVID pandemic where our annual revenue decreased to less than 25% of our pre-COVID average.
Secondly, IRAS became the Number 1 provider of sustainability assurance in South Africa – by number of engagements (nowhere near by revenue) in both 2013 and 2014. This occurred, at least in part, because another of our commitments has been to recruit and train new university graduates by having them participate in our annual review of sustainability reporting by ALL of the companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and then presenting the outcomes of our Sustainability DataTransparency Index (SDTI) research back to all of the JSE listed companies (and literally hundreds of other users of our research) for free.
I was proud, am proud, and I’m thankful to our clients for supporting IRAS through what has been an incredible first 15 years, most notably this past financial year (July 1 to 30 June).
“I’m thankful to our clients for supporting IRAS through what has been an incredible first 15 years.”
As I completed our annual financial statements last week, I was stunned to learn that IRAS achieved our greatest annual achievements: Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Spend of 15.04% and Intern & Learnership Spend of 11.80%.
WE MADE IT!
IRAS has proven, yet again, that it is a successful Shared Value Organisation. We began with a commitment to contribute to societal challenges – particularly the socioeconomic development of disadvantaged women, and the career development of young men and women who have deserved an opportunity to obtain that crucial “first job” to launch them into their chosen careers.
We could not have done this without our clients this past year – Adcock Ingram, Isuzu Motors South Africa, Lucara Diamonds, Metair Investment Holdings, Next Source Minerals, Prizma, Trident Energy and Tullow Oil – and so we thank all of them for partnering with IRAS to make sustainability assurance a vehicle for making a much-needed difference in South Africa.
I would also like to thank our principle partners in development: MyWalk Shoes, the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities, and the women of Hlabisa (KZN) who we’ve worked with for the past 18 years.
Lastly, I would also like to thank the interns who have worked with us over the past year, especially John Gilfillan, Meriska Singh, Nelisiwe Dhlamini and Tinotenda Makoni.
