Page 35 - KZN Leaders Portfolio E-BOOK 2107

Chief Executive Officer at the Southern African Shipyards The result is that Southern African Shipyards has been
involved in a number firsts, these include:
RASHEEN MAHARAJ’s studies include a B.Com, Winning the largest shipbuilding contract ever awarded in
a Management Advancement Diploma, a Post South Africa to build nine Tugs for Transnet.
Graduate Diploma in Business Management and an
PMBA from the University of Natal. Undertaking the first successful refit on a modern frigate
on the African continent. This was on the SA Navy Frigate
Maharaj began his career in financial services, where SAS Amatola.
he was involved in the insurance industry, international Signing an agreement with China State Shipbuilding
currency and derivatives trading, asset management and Corporation (CSSC), the largest shipbuilding and ship
corporate finance. repaircompany in the world, to become their exclusive
His early influencer was investor and financial journalist, partner in South Africa. CSSC is a 100% Central Chinese
Richard Cluver, whose articles and books he read Government owned company, which is willing to invest
religiously from the age of 11 years. In his teenage years Billions of Rands in the South African Marine Engineering
and young adult life his uncle, Vishnu Sharma, a property Economy in partnership with SAS to make Operation
mogul, taught him a lot about entrepreneurship and Phakisa Ocean Economy a reality.
business moral ethics. Being the preferred bidder for building a hydrographic
survey vessel, with the contract signing expected before
“When I was in business school, I met the Father of
Black Economic Empowerment, Dr Don Mkhwanazi, the end of August 2017. This is a complex science and
who then shaped my life from a business, political and research survey vessel, which will be another African first.
personal point of view – I was literally his apprentice until Maharaj says that he is a great fan of long term financial
his passing last year in July. It was through Ndonga that I sustainability versus short term profit maximisation. This
got a seat at the table of Corporate South Africa and learnt outlook has been influenced by great investors like Warren
to apply knowledge, networking and entrepreneurship Buffet and Allan Gray. Creating long term predictable,
skills to address the issues of inequality, poverty and consistence and solid growth is far more respected in
unemployment.” Maharaj co-authored the KZN Provincial the business environment than profits and performance
BEE strategy in 2004. that swing between the extremes. “What this means for
shipbuilding and the ship repair is that we need to secure
“I also learnt to be a principled business leader. The
Prasheen you meet today will be the same Prasheen you will long term order books for shipbuilding and enter into long
term maintenance contracts with our ship repair clients.
meet next month. I have a moral code or a set of guiding This requires that the shipbuilding/ship repair industry
principles by which I make leadership decisions, which leads become more customer centric and project performance
to consistency in decision making. Consistency leads to less orientated. This is a fundamental shift from the current
volatility and hence more trust with stakeholders.”
mind-set of the industry that is currently inward looking.”
“Shipbuilding and Ship repair are by its nature social
“I think the shipbuilding and ship repair industry is
enterprises. It’s very labour intensive and supports a large ready for consolidation from both a national level and
supply and sub-contractor chain that is made up primarily international level. This industry is about scale, efficiencies
of SMMEs. As a conscious capitalist and a socialist at heart, and economies of scale. “Bigger is better” definitely applies
this is the main appeal of the Marine Engineering Industry to our industry,” says Maharaj.
to me. The ability to run a business and make a profit whilst
contributing to the greater good of society is a common In the near future Maharaj will be looking to merge with
theme in all my business and personal endeavours.” a local player in the industry to create a giant on the African
Continent. The new merged South African entity will
Maharaj says that he has always maintained that there are
two ways to be successful in business: look for global partnership and/or merger and acquisition
opportunities in other emerging markets/developing
“You can invent something totally new, or you can put countries, with the ultimate aim of listing on the local and/
the pieces of the puzzle together”. He says that he falls or international stock exchange. The end result would be a
into the latter category. “I read extensively – not just books Global Marine Engineering emerging market player across
but newspapers, magazines, and journals. I also network multiple emerging markets, spread across the globe – a
a lot and have forged lifelong friendships and relationships world first.
with key stakeholders, within the public and private Maharaj personal life is definitely part of his puzzle. “I’m
sector. I absorb millions of pieces of information that seem married to my best friend and gossip buddy Marcina. She
random, but I have the ability to bring this all together to is a graduate in politics, media and communications and
form a picture.”
an entrepreneur in her own right. We are blessed with two
Key to putting the pieces of the puzzle together is co- beautiful children. Our daughter Milahn is 12 years old and
operation and collaboration between private sector industry is a budding movie start having completed her first movie
players, government and workers. It’s through this approach earlier this year and she starts shooting her second movie
that the private sector and government stakeholders managed within the next four weeks. Our son Mekhai is eight years
to get Operation Phakisa Ocean Economy off the ground. old and fanatical about Chelsea Football Club.”

33