Nomaxabiso Mahlawe, MAP 26, 1996

What Wits Business School did for me was to spark an interest in creativity and invention. The highlight of my studies was Marketing. I had prior always considered myself more of a social developer/civil servant. Suddenly, with all the creative syndicate exercises and case studies of how businesses started I was led to a new world of dreaming. To think that a whole chain of business or even a monopoly business started off as someone’s idea in the head just blew my mind.

Then I realized that I was creative too. I could dream up something and make it manifest in the world. Working with other people in groups, hearing different approaches was as exciting as it was challenging. Each group had to dream up, conceptualize then present a concrete idea to the class. Then the group had to defend its idea. All this triggered my dormant creative spirit. Now I know that I can create Models. New ways of doing things, based on our past experiences, adapting to current situations. No where is this skill and perspective needed more than these times. Post Covid 19, we need new global models to suit the new normal.

We need to learn some lessons from the devastating repercussions. Those lessons need to convert into sustainable models of living for a society that cares as well as thrives. Thanks to the spark created at WBS. My take out from the pandemic is the message about the value of families. So I am creating a model around how to use families as a platform to recreate our economic and social lives in post pandemic world.