Page 53 - KZN Top Business Portfolio - EBOOK 2019

CEO of the South African Shipyards for profit whilst contributing to the greater good
of society is a common theme in my business and
RASHEEN MAHARAJ, CEO of the South personal endeavours.”
African Shipyards, career is driven by the Maharaj reflected, “Going back to our African
African philosophy of “If you want to go fast, roots, it is perhaps opportune that we begin
Pgo alone. If you want to go far, go together”. to explore the concept and possibilities of the
He added that this saying could not be more relevant collaborative economy or sometimes called the
today than in South Africa. sharing economy. We cannot continue to condone
an environment where we have islands of prosperity
“When I was in business school, I met the Father of
Black Economic Empowerment, Dr Don Mkhwanazi, in a sea of poverty, unemployment and inequality.”
Co-operation and collaboration must be driven by
who then shaped my life from a business, political and technology. Therefore, SAS is slowly evolving into
personal perspective. Ndonga left me with the task of a technology organisation, thus creating a space
applying knowledge, networking and entrepreneurship for Black owned SMMEs to participate in the more
skills to address the issues of inequality, poverty and labour intensive parts of the shipbuilding and ship
unemployment. As a result, I sit as a council member repair value chain. Marine engineering in South
of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Africa needs to enter the 4th Industrial Revolution.
a member of the board of directors of EThekwini
Maharaj says that he is a great fan of long-term
Maritime Cluster and a member of the shipbuilding financial sustainability versus short term profit
committee of the Aerospace Marine Defence Industry maximisation. This outlook has been influenced by
Body. Through these platforms our task is to fast track great investors like Warren Buffet and Allan Gray.
the transformation that this country so desperately Creating long term predictable, consistent and
requires.” solid growth is far more respected in the business
Another early influencer was investor and financial environment than profits and performance that
journalist, Richard Cluver, whose articles and books swing between the extremes. “What this means for
he read religiously from the age of 11. In his teenage shipbuilding and the ship repair is that we need to
years and young adult life his uncle, Vishnu Sharma, secure long-term order books for shipbuilding and
a property mogul, taught him about entrepreneurship enter into long term maintenance contracts with our
and business moral ethics. ship repair clients. We also need to look at exporting
our services as a technology organisation to the rest
“I also learnt to be a principled business leader. The of the continent, thus creating a diversified revenue
Prasheen you meet today will be the same Prasheen stream beyond manufacturing.”
you will meet next month. I have a moral code or a This approach requires that the shipbuilding/ship
set of guiding principles by which I make leadership repair industry become more customer centric,
decisions, which leads to consistency in decision project performance orientated, and technology
making – leading to less volatility and thus more trust driven. A fundamental shift from the current mind-
with stakeholders.” set of the industry that is inward looking is required.”
“Shipbuilding and ship repair are by their nature Spending quality family time with my better half
social enterprises. It’s very labour intensive and Marcina and my children Milahn and Mekhai is
supports a large supply chain made up primarily my escape from the realities of the harsh business
of SMMEs. As a conscious capitalist and a socialist environment we operate in. They are not only my
at heart, this is the main appeal of the marine pillars of strength but my moral compass by which I
engineering industry. The ability to run a business execute my day to day business functions.

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