BOOK REVIEW - THERE’S A TSOTSI IN THE BOARDROOM BY MUZI KUZWAYO

By Nick Kaoma

Muzi Kuzwayo released his first book five years ago to much fanfare. Titled Marketing through mud and dust, it became an instant hit and now serves as an invaluable marketing guide to many advertising agencies and related business organisations.

His style of writing – direct and humorous – was a refreshing addition to the tedious business rhetoric that is often found in business books aplenty. His latest book starts off where he ended. Dubiously but interestingly titled There’s a Tsotsi in the Boardroom, it provides a useful blueprint for those who aim to succeed in the “hostile” and unforgiving world of big business.

By clarifying the relationship between consumers, brands and the creators of those brands, he creates a useful terrain for marketers to plough in.

Kuzwayo provides helpful analogies of local entrepreneurs who cleverly seized various opportunities provided by the market. One such businessman sought a R800 loan and flipped that into a business that now turns over R1.5 Billion annually by merely doing what he loves and following the needs of the market.

In the second chapter, the author offers an analogy of purse-snatchers who hang around the same spots that usually provide the best returns to illustrate the importance of businesses (or brands) sticking to what they know best.

Overall, the book offers useful guidelines for brand managers and businesspeople, which are easy to understand and should be equally easy to implement.