M&C Saatchi Abel launches free publication for youth

Last month M&C Saatchi Abel launched a free publication to help develop young South African's entrepreneurial skills.
Source: Supplied.
Source: Supplied.

Called Intuition the first edition spearheaded by editor-in-chief Mike Abel featured articles written by industry leaders such as Kholisa Thomas, Banele Njadayi and Neo Mashigo.

Knowledge gap

Intuition is believed to be the first of its kind effort aimed at inspiring South Africans to take practical steps to better themselves.

According to the agency, young talent is facing a growing globally competitive knowledge gap that is leaving many people without the skills to effectively step into their roles as future business leaders and entrepreneurs. These are not traditional skills that can be found in a textbook, but rather life lessons - advice, insights, pearls of hard-earned entrepreneurial wisdoms – to form the crucial cornerstone that shapes critical thinking and approaches to future business success. The country is renowned for its ‘can do’ attitude, what is often missing is the ‘howto’.

This was the driving force behind M&C Saatchi Abel’s decision to create Intuition, a publication made up entirely of relatable human experiences, inspiration, wisdom sharing, and enduring values and thoughts put together from drawing on the experience and learnings of some of South Africa’s leading business successes.

Collaboration

The publication – the first of what is hoped to be many editions - was brought to life by a team of industry and business co-collaborators with curated content aimed at enabling a future generation of critical thinkers. Filled with real-life lessons and learnings gained from each contributor’s own unique success journeys, it inspires a narrative that the future is not scripted, but rather a destination that can be chosen.

“So many in our country have access to sporadic wisdom sharing, leaving a deficit in generational wisdom skills that can’t be addressed through traditional skills development”, says Abel, executive chairman at M&C Saatchi Group South Africa, “By striving for a shared economy that includes life stories and learnings from successful entrepreneurs, creatives or experts in various fields for those who may be starting out, or considering their future possibilities, we can give our future business leaders a mixture between a study guide, a life skills ‘cheat sheet’ and a masterclass all condensed into one.”

Intuition is a key aspect of M&C Saatchi Abel’s force-for-good initiatives – such as the Street Store, the world’s first rent-free, premises-free, free pop-up clothing store for the homeless that has to date clothed over 500,000 homeless people around the world.

Prosper and excel

“The advice and insights to be found in the pages of Intuition speak directly to the sentiment of empowering tomorrow’s entrepreneurs,” adds managing editor, Tudor Caradoc-Davies. “The contributions come from sectors as diverse as fashion, finance, the creative world, and non-profit sectors. Every personality and business that contributed did so because they saw the potential for South Africa’s next generation to prosper and excel, and they wanted to play a part in that”.

“We all have such vastly different life experience, and in turn perspective, on what success and the journey to achieving it means. The value created by access to the real-life advice, mentorship, opinions and insights from big companies like Nando’s or Standard Bank, or groundbreaking entrepreneurs who are at varying degrees in their own developments such as Charles Naya and Chiamo, offer priceless learning opportunities for the next generation of change-makers and entrepreneurs.

A rising tide raises all ships. When we start sharing much more generously and take other people on the journey with us in terms of what we know and what we think, not in terms of what we have or what we have achieved, the long-tail impact is truly limitless and profound,” concludes Abel.

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