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Cheers to a new year!
Thomas Holtz, Multotec Group CEO, reflects on the 2021 business year.
We started last year with a bit of a spring in our step because we had survived 2020 and the resources boom was still with us. Little did we know that the pandemic was still in full swing and that the deadliest wave was still to come. We have been deeply saddened by the loss of 3 of our colleagues due to the pandemic and many of us have lost loved ones over this time. With indications that another wave is approaching, I would like to caution you all to remain vigilant and consider the vaccination if you have any co-morbidities. This pandemic will probably still affect us through 2022.
As you well know, we are living in VUCA times (volatility, uncertainty, complexity & ambiguity). I think the volatility and complexity aspects are self-explanatory and I would like to focus on ambiguity vs uncertainty. The former means I have all the information but am not sure what to do about it, or that the solution is not that self-evident. The latter means that I haven’t got all the information and I need to make a decision. In business, we say: no decision is worse than the wrong decision. When you make the wrong decision, you receive feedback quickly and then you adapt, so there is an opportunity to learn. This requires us to be both adaptable and resilient.
I came across an alternative version of the VUCA acronym in the form of VUCA 2.0. This stands for Vision, Understanding, Courage and Adaptability. I like this because it turns the acronym into an action rather than just being a passive observation. It also ties in quite nicely with our Multotec Way statement.
We are still a proudly South African producer of mineral processing equipment. Our local manufacturing capability has definitely been one of the reasons why we have such a growing order book. The frustrating part has been the issues to overcome to get the product made and supplied to our customers. Many of these have been out of our control. We are currently working on supplying more continuous power supply to some of our bottlenecks in our factories and we have made a significant investment into procuring some of our power during the day from installed PV panels. Our current installed capacity in Spartan, Pretoria and Apex is about 1,340k Watts.
I’d like to talk a little about resilience. With all the challenges we have faced, both personally and in the work environment ,over the last year, we have had to develop the ability to cope and thrive. This has been a difficult challenge, but one I know most of us are up to, with the proviso that we are there to help each other. The ability for us, as individuals as well as a collective, to take on these challenges means that Multotec will flourish. I do believe that in the years to come we are going to see more uncertainty. At Multotec, we have a great team and we have demonstrated that we have the tenacity to work through and around the obstacles!
Lastly, I would like to remind us that we are just one year away from our 50th anniversary. In 2023 Multotec will turn 50 years old. This is a great milestone to look forward to.