Adam Craker

Thinker, leader & entrepreneur. Consultant, CEO & board member. Director of @Jozi_My_Jozi and former CEO of @iqbusiness.

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Joburg’s boomtown at the bottom of the pyramid — a guided walk @Jozi_My_Jozi https://t.co/VoBBDn5Jx6

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Former champion uses sports to change lives in Joburg CBD @Jozi_My_Jozi https://t.co/f89ugDKP1s

[Mteto Nyati @mteton]

South Africans are deeply frustrated and with good reason about illegal immigration and the pressure it places on already scarce opportunities.

But the real crisis is not the immigrants themselves. The root cause is our failure, over the past fifteen years, to deliver inclusive economic growth that creates enough jobs, dignity and hope for our own people.

This failure has been driven by three systemic issues we can no longer ignore:

• A collapse in the rule of law that has enabled corruption, criminality, land invasions, illegal migration, and the brazen theft of electricity and water.
• Bureaucracy and red tape that continue to strangle enterprise, deter investment and kill job creation.
• Incompetent and, in too many cases, corrupt leadership in key positions across government, state-owned enterprises and parts of the private sector.

As leaders, we must have the courage to look in the mirror and ask a difficult but necessary question: How have we allowed these conditions to take root and persist?

This question is not about blame. It is about responsibility and that is precisely why it is empowering. It places the power to change things back where it belongs: with us. We are not helpless. We are not victims of forces beyond our control. By focusing on what lies within our sphere of influence our decisions, our standards, our willingness to confront uncomfortable truths and act decisively, we can begin to reverse the damage we have helped create.

The time for self-criticism and honest reflection is now. The time for excuses has long passed. South Africa’s future will be determined by leaders who are prepared to own their part in the mess and do the hard, disciplined work required to fix it.

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

76hrs in Soweto: You’re invited to a four-day @Jozi_My_Jozi celebration! https://t.co/oWKwXUO958

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

@JoburgWater valve leaking badly for the last few days at corner of Sauer Street and Main Street.

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

@JoburgWater this manhole cover is wedged in a dangerous position and needs urgent replacement. It is at the corner of Westcliff Drive and Kildare Avenue in Parkview/Westcliff.

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

@Jozi_My_Jozi x @NetstarSA x @AltronGroup x @mesorgza = Digital Learning + Economic Impact for our youth https://t.co/CuQLMYWZj6

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

https://t.co/MVEQ7dXOIr

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

https://t.co/ezdhI6FNfi

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

“Main Street Sundays” Turned Jozi CBD into Something Beautiful @Jozi_My_Jozi https://t.co/cfwepcNDqf

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Main Street Sundays comes to Marshalltown and puts people before cars @Jozi_My_Jozi https://t.co/BoYfMzRshp

[Michael Jordaan @MichaelJordaan]

Being stone cold last on this list, one would think SA has massive oil sources, but no sun or coal to use for electricity

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Joburg property and reasons for hope ... https://t.co/lF6wzPyqrH @StephenGrootes @Jozi_My_Jozi

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

See this Instagram post by @jozi_my_jozi https://t.co/vJ4q486oLq

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

The people reviving the Johannesburg CBD from within https://t.co/0ca57TRWe2 @Jozi_My_Jozi

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Looking forward to seeing what you don’t do next @abelmike and what I can learn as I follow .

[Mike Abel @abelmike]

I’ve Discovered, A Month Into My Eight Week Sabbatical, That The Best New Year’s Resolution Is Maybe, Simply Not To Have One

Not because we should lack intention, ambition, or care, but more because life isn’t a series of neat chapters with clean beginnings and endings. It’s a continuum. Uneven, unpredictable, occasionally chaotic. And honestly, who wants a smooth line anyway? A smooth line on a heartbeat monitor is a flat line…

Life, if it’s working properly, has spikes and dips. Passions. Pauses. Pleasant surprises the Universe’s pitcher throws when you’re not looking.

A month into stepping back after over three and a half decades of near-constant motion, what has surprised me most is not some great insight or revelation. It’s how content I’ve been to slow down. To do very little. To be present without needing to justify it as productive.

I expected boredom. I found calm.

Not the calm of indifference, but the calm of proportion and perhaps, moderation. The kind that comes when you put a little space between what’s happening in the world and what’s happening inside you.

For someone wired to run at fires rather than away from them, that distinction has mattered.

What I’ve also come to appreciate is that space and time don’t automatically create reflection. Often, they’re consumed by sheer recovery alone. Downtime becomes collapse rather than reconsideration.

Paradoxically, we sometimes need space and time in order to create space and time - long enough for the nervous system to settle, and for thinking to move beyond a series of reactions into a wiser perspective.

There’s a familiar metaphor about a large white page with a small black dot in the middle. When people are asked what they see, many say “the black dot,” not the big open page.

Social media trains us relentlessly to fixate on the dot. The danger isn’t that it doesn’t exist. It’s letting it dominate our landscape.

This past month has reminded me that it’s possible to see clearly without having to stand too close. To remain engaged without being engulfed. To care deeply without living in a permanent state of emotional readiness and mobilisation.

As the year rolls into next, the only promise I feel confident making to myself is a modest one: to try to worry less about what I cannot change, without pretending it doesn’t matter. To continue observing and thinking, but to put more space between the world’s crises and my emotional response to them.

Whether this moment deepens or passes, I don’t yet know. I’m not in a hurry to define it, or find out.

For once, urgency feels, thankfully, unnecessary. And that is in no way shaped by the state and the world, but more, for now, a personal choice and decision.

(Image: my holiday sea view, but as if painted by the artist, William Turner 1775 -1851)

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Watch – Joburg: How is it possible for a city to pay so much… and deliver so little? https://t.co/NBtxmya0Xq

[iqbusiness @iqbusiness]

If you think AI tools alone will improve efficiencies and grow your bottom line, you’re wrong. Real growth happens when you understand how teams, leaders and ops use it best. More from @Biased77 (head of AI advisory and talent) on @TechCentral: https://t.co/9pEjTWSrRa

[iqbusiness @iqbusiness]

This year we…
✅ Achieved Level 1 B-BBEE certification
✅ Won a YES Award for youth empowerment
✅ Recognised as a Top Consulting Firm
✅ Awarded Top Employer for a second year
✅ Certified B-Corporation
#YourGoTo #Leadership #DigitalIntegration #iqbusiness

[Adam Craker @crakeras]

Thank you @EconomicsMajozi … that is greatly appreciated… I would love to get together in the new year.

[Phumlani M. Majozi @PhumlaniMMajozi]

@crakeras @iqbusiness Wonderful. You were my CEO when I worked at IQ Business years ago — a good CEO.

Best wishes. If you want input on your next initiative, let me know.