A Focused Horse Wins – Congratulations Synthesis!
I heard a story about a man who bought himself a very expensive thoroughbred horse. In the version that I was told, the owner wanted to use it for breeding purposes. The motivation aside, it was clear that the cost was more than he should have spent on any one item, and so he became […]
Stop Talking About Work Culture
The conversation would follow the same pattern. “Howard,” my wife would say, “I heard about an amazing marriage enrichment program. Can I register for us?” What she really was asking is if I would be prepared to commit 3 hours for the next 12 Wednesday evenings to the hell of listening to couples complain about […]
Amsterdam gives Money20/20 the green light
By Howard Feldman, Synthesis Head of Marketing & People Business travel in the age of COVID is not for the faint of heart. Whereas prior to the pandemic, most companies would give little thought prior to popping over to the Netherlands for a conference, the decision to do so today is anything but simple. In […]
Three Lessons For School Leavers
By: Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People at Synthesis It’s that time of year when, just like that, a group of children have grown up, will be leaving school and are expected to be ready to enter the world as adults. Dr Seuss said it well (as he always does), “I’m telling you this […]
Black Friday – High Risk: High Reward
By Howard Feldman, Synthesis Head of Marketing & People. Black Friday is what happens when the dangerous mixture of anxiety and excitement are blended in a retail test tube. Although we might think that we know what is going to happen, the result is almost never as predictable as we would like it to be; […]
How a South African Tech company handled COVID
By Howard Feldman – Head of Synthesis Marketing and People It didn’t begin with a strategy. Rather, it began with a simple understanding that if the virus were to make its way to South Africa, that it would be better if we were prepared. Whatever that meant. What was clear to me was that if […]
Born in Adversity
By Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People Stories inspire us. They teach us, they entertain us, and they comfort us. From the beginning of time children have sat on their parents’ laps and listened to tales of wonder. It is in stories where we first encounter the evil in the world, where we learn […]
It is a challenge to debunk the nonsense
By Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People Sometime back in early March, when we were young, I had the idea to ask my friend Dr Anton Meyberg to record a podcast with me. He is a pulmonologist physician, and I could already see that he was displaying an uncomfortable obsession with this COVID thing […]
Taking the Pulse of Employees
by Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing and People, Synthesis. Every Monday morning, I receive an email that asks me how I am feeling. Because it’s Monday and because it’s the morning, I am grateful that I am offered options in the form of emojis, so that all I need to do is click on the […]
Be still
Whereas I am not a Corona Virus expert, I have been a hypochondriac for some years. I am also am a radio talk show host, author and a social commentator, which perhaps qualifies me in some way to speak of social impact of this illness, There have been some pivotal moments in my lifetime: The […]