When Raymond Ackerman was fired from his job in 1966, he persuaded
a group of friends to loan him the money to buy three small Pick 'n
Pay stores, which at the time employed a total of 175 people. On his
retirement, 44 years later, he had changed the face of southern
African retailing, growing his company to encompass 792 stores in
eight countries, employing more than 60 000 people, and generating
an annual turnover of around R60 billion. In A Sprat to Catch a
Mackerel: Key principles to build your business, Raymond Ackerman
shares the basic tenets behind his business philosophy Â- timeless
principles that have guided him through some of South Africa's most
turbulent times. Whatever your business background or interest, the
practical, accessible advice in this book will help you define and
build your vision, and help you reach success and self-actualised
growth Â- not by chasing profit, but by giving expression to a
driving passion. Rated by the Financial Times as among the World's
Top 100 Most Respected Businessmen, Raymond Ackerman is also the
first South African ever to receive the International Woodrow Wilson
Award for Corporate Citizenship. In 2009, his company was voted the
World's Best Retailer by the National Retail Federation (NRF).
Raymond Ackerman is also the author of the best-selling memoir
Hearing Grasshoppers Jump, and The Four Legs of the Table, in which
he recounts how he built Pick 'n Pay into one of the most respected
brands in the world today.
