Trishna Misra is the chief financial officer of Southern African Shipyards, a leading shipbuilding company in Durban. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she has empowered other women to rise to leadership roles traditionally held by men. Under her leadership, the number of women employed at SAS has grown from 18 to over 100. SAS was recently awarded a R1.4 billion contract from Transnet, the largest in the company's history. Misra oversees the finances and day-to-day operations to ensure the successful completion of this contract. Though the work is challenging, Misra enjoys getting involved in all aspects of the business and believes South Africa's maritime industry has a bright future.

1. 4 VENTURES PROFILE 5SUNDAY TRIBUNE JUNE 5 2016 SUNDAY TRIBUNE JUNE 5 2016
T
HE sun rises over the
Indian Ocean, casting a
warm glow on the city
skyline.
It is not yet 7am but Trishna
Misra, the chief financial officer
of Southern African Shipyards,
a leading commercial naval,
shipbuilding and repair company
in Durban’s Rotterdam Road, is
already on the warehouse floor.
At just 36, Misra, a mother
of three children all under 10
years old, has shown her grit,
empowering and inspiring her
female counterparts to rise above
the “male expectation” of women,
especially in areas that have long
been considered too complex or
beyond a woman’s ability.
“Being a chief financial officer
is no longer just about debits,
credits and strictly accounting,”
she said.
“You have to know every
aspect of your business from legal
to commercial and day-to-day
operations”.
Southern African Shipyards
(SAS) recently launched the third
of nine tugboats as part of a
R1.4 billion contract, the largest
Transnet tender to be awarded to
any single company; so Misra, as
one can imagine, has her work cut
out for her.
Watching as workers powered
ahead with the building of the
tugs, Misra said: “I don’t mind
getting my hands dirty.”
While honesty, transparency
and unwavering self-confidence are
essential traits needed to head the
financial arm of any business, to
be a woman in what is a largely a
male-dominated maritime industry
needs that, and a whole lot of
pizzazz.
South Africa’s maritime
industry has become more
exciting, dynamic and demanding
as the state-driven Operation
Phakisa is intended to unlock
the economic potential of South
Africa’s oceans, which could
contribute up to R170bn to gross
domestic product by 2033 compared
with R54bn in 2010.
“When I began working here
about three years ago, there were
only 18 women employed at SAS.
Now there are more than 100 – a
clear indication of the company’s
commitment to addressing the
gender disparity.
“With a concerted emphasis
on empowering women, we are
bringing women into critical areas
like financial management, project
management, health and safety and
maritime law.
“We are also training women
artisans in the technical skills
of boiler-making and welding,”
she said
Misra believes there is endless
potential for women in the
maritime field.
“I strongly encourage young
women to seriously consider a
career in the maritime industry.
Doors that have long remained
shut are wide open. Now it’s really
only up to you.”
One of her colleagues describes
Misra as “a natural born hard
worker.
“Trishna never compromises
excellence, she demands excellence
from herself and will accept no
less from the rest of us. But there
is a softer, at times even maternal
side to her.
“Let’s just say that you
definitely want Trishna on your
team, if you plan on winning.”
Setting companies on a
healthy financial course is a skill
that Misra learnt over years of
hard work and dedication. As
a youngster, she had a burning
desire to work in the intricate
world of finance.
After matriculating from
Durban’s Dr AD Lazarus
Secondary School, she enrolled at
the University of Natal.
She studied for her BCom and
completed her honours in 2000.
Then she went on to become
a chartered accountant and
completed the board exam at her
first attempt in 2003.
Her career has seen her work
for some of the leading companies
in South Africa, the UK and the
Netherlands.
Three years ago, after returning
to Durban, she started working for
SAS as the company’s financial
manager. Within 18 months, she
was promoted to the position she
now holds.
“At SAS, the systems were
antiquated. The challenge was
to introduce and update new
information technology, as well as
bring about a culture shift to the
modern era,” she said.
When Misra joined, the
company was also significantly
smaller; it has since grown in leaps
and bounds with the award of the
Transnet contract.
Misra’s portfolio not only
deals with finances but corporate
social investment, enterprise
development and supplier
development.
“I am intrinsically involved in
every aspect of the company, from
finance to project management and
the day-to-day operations.”
Misra said SAS had a great
future and would do especially well
over the next five to 10 years – and
she was fighting fit and up to the
challenge of getting there.
“To be involved in such
magnificent projects is a real
privilege. The sheer
magnitude can
be overwhelming
when one thinks
about it, but with
our phenomenal
colleagues we
can, and will,
achieve the
highest accolades
this country has
to offer in the
maritime industry
– of this I have no
doubt,” she said.
Demonstrating an
ability to quickly switch roles from
chief financial officer to that of a
nurturer and caretaker, Misra also
chairs the SAS corporate social
involvement committee.
“We give back, not because we
have to, but because it is within
our means to improve the lives of
others. People in our community
need support in all spheres of their
lives and this is something SAS
subscribes to with its initiatives.
“In the end, that is what
makes it all worthwhile. “ – Staff
Reporter
SouthernAfrican Shipyards chief financial officerTrishna Misra says she is not afraid to get her hands dirty.
Ahoy there.
This woman is
making waves
Trishna Misra’s ship
has come in as
chief financial officer
juggling big figures in
the shipping industry
“The sheer
magnitude can
be overwhelming,
but with our
phenomenal
colleagues we can,
and will, achieve
the highest
accolades in the
maritime industry
Trishna Misra
When R16m is at stake,how to make the perfect pitch
ALAN COOPER
HOW would you pitch your
business to potential backers
if $1 million (R15.8m) was up
for grabs?
That’s the challenge facing
entrepreneur Jaco Gerrits,
winner of the South African leg
of the Chivas Regal The Venture
start-ups competition.
A self-described serial
entrepreneur, Gerrits now has the
daunting task of pitching his idea
– Crash Detech, a smartphone
app that detects if you’re in a car
crash and automatically alerts
emergency services to your plight
– to judges and to the public.
He’ll be up against equally
motivated individuals from 26
other countries who have earned
the right to pitch their socially
conscious business solutions to a
panel in New York that includes
actress and businesswoman Eva
Longoria, economist Sonal Shah,
social entrepreneur Joe Huff
and Pernod chairman and chief
Alexandre Ricard.
Much of his success will hinge
on the few minutes he gets to
make the perfect pitch.
Shelley Reeves, the South
African marketing manager for
whisky at Chivas Regal, said
this could be a nerve-racking
experience, but it’s a crucial skill
to master.
“Generally described as
an ‘elevator pitch’, the short
business pitch rests on the
presenter’s ability to interest a
panel in the business, gain their
understanding and support, and
then turn that into investment.
“This is what makes it one of
the most important skills to be
mastered by any entrepreneur.”
Fortunately, the contestants
won’t be going in unprepared.
The ability to deliver a strong
pitch was a focus of one of
the Oxford University-based
workshops at The Venture’s
Accelerator Week, in which all
finalists, and Gerrits, took part.
To be in with a chance for a
share of the $1m, finalists will
have to keep several things in
mind. These include:
• Understanding that the best
business pitches are short and to
the point. The more a presenter
talks, the higher the chances are
that he or she will frustrate or
“lose” the experts on the panel.
The quicker the audience can
grasp a concept and its worth, the
better the chances of success are.
• Telling the panel exactly (and
briefly) what your company does,
what its markets are and
the benefits your product or
service offers.
• Concentrating on delivering
facts and emphasising (if the
company is already in existence),
what its successes have been and
what the future holds. Painting
too positive a picture can lead to
resistance by the panel. It’s best
when talking about the future to
present a best case, average case
and worst case scenario, so the
audience gets a full picture.
• Keeping away from technical
talk and business acronyms – it
will just confuse matters.
• Pitch a single product and
its potential, rather than selling
a panel on a company that has
many products, especially if some
or none are fully developed.
• Letting those assessing
your business know that you
have a strong team on board. A
diversified, skilled management
team will always be favoured over
a single “I do everything myself”
person. But the owner/founder
should let them know his/her
strengths and value.
• Letting them know that the
owner/founder has personally
invested in making the business
a success. Investors like to know
that the people asking them
for funding are invested in the
business themselves and are
committed to it.
• Briefly describing who
the competition is and what
differentiates the enterprise’s
offering. Putting this in a matrix
slide showing strengths and
weaknesses accomplishes this
quickly and effectively.
“Finally, samples of a
product or live service makes a
pitch come alive. If it can’t be
demonstrated live in the time
allocated, show them what they
can expect,” Reeves said.
Gerrits’s Crash Detech app
detects car accidents and then
immediately summons medical
help for motorists in distress – a
socially based product that is
ideal for a country in which road
accident injuries and fatalities
are a part of everyday life.
The app runs silently in
the background on Apple and
Android smartphones and uses
the device’s built-in sensors to
detect impacts and send out alerts
to emergency services. It
is also smart enough to avoid
false alarms like when you drop
your phone.
Crash Detech is available as a
free download, but users of the
paid version get extra benefits
such as the ability to add your
medical aid details, access to
criminal law services, access to
claims from the Road Accident
Fund and more. Monthly
subscriptions start at R49.
If Gerrits wins the contest,
he plans to plough funds into
further research and development
and add more features including
gamification.
A total of $250 000 of the $1m
prize pool is based on votes alone,
so if you would like to support
Gerrits and his lifesaving service,
you may vote once a week until
June 13.
To vote, or for more
information on Crash Detech,
visit the competition website,
theventure.com.
Jaco Gerrits
Help an entrepreneur make it
A
MONG all the workshops on how to
write a business plan, apply for a
tender, understand a balance sheet
and so on, the essential truth of an
entrepreneurial journey from the get-go is
the person’s ability to adapt and persevere.
This is dependent on a host of factors:
cash flow, reinvention of the business model,
self-reflection, analysis and composure
– anything that can help you survive. It
demands resilience at a superhuman level.
As a start-up, its further dependent on
whether you have the chutzpah to persuade
your office landlord to hold off on that
eviction notice for just one more month, or
convincing your family that you need lunch
money for just a few more weeks until your
business stabilises.
It’s a triple whammy when you’re a young
black person from a poor community. Most
entrepreneurial development literature is
so removed from an actual understanding
of the authentic life lived in this country of
being young, black and poor that it seems to
assume that every aspiring entrepreneur is
either sitting on a trust fund or a generous
allowance from a kind relative that allows
him or her to constantly dabble in and, fail
at, exploiting opportunity.
Entrepreneurship doesn’t occur in an
ideal world where all you have to contend
with is the market – entrepreneurs from
poor communities have to deal with just
getting through the harshness of daily living
life close to the poverty line.
Sometimes the biggest challenge in
the life of an aspiring South African
entrepreneur looking to break out of a cycle
of poverty is having taxi fare of R30 (the cost
of a return trip to the business district) to
meet a prospective client.
Remember the African proverb, “It
takes a village to raise a child.” I’m saying
that it may well take a country to raise an
entrepreneur.
Musician Pharrell Williams, when
referring to his extraordinary success,
always thanks “the folks that conspired to
get him here”.
Like him, the successful and truly upfront
entrepreneurs will tell you that nobody
really makes it alone. Behind each of their
apparent individually driven success is a
confluence of both people and circumstances
that conspired to get them there.
So I say let’s be that force for good, the
folks that “conspired to get him or her
there” with no expectation in return other
than to help our fledgling South African
entrepreneurs to endure and hopefully –
given time – to be successful.
If you’re a captain of industry or a very
successful entrepreneur or simply someone
who’s doing very well financially, then
conspire to help an aspiring entrepreneur
with a “perseverance allowance” for
18 months (because evolving as an
entrepreneur takes time).
Find someone with that glint in their eye,
a little wild promise of a burning passion
for what they do, one who understands
that as entrepreneurs we should be made
of sterner stuff, one who is prepared to
delay gratification until they truly make
it, who has a great job-creating, innovative
business idea but really needs a break: the
“Cinderellas” of entrepreneurs.
Support them with exactly the amount
of money they need to get through each
month on a personal, not a business level.
Just enough to get by, to eat, to get to the
presentation, to refine their product or
service, to network – even to attend that
workshop on how to complete a tender
application. It could be anything from
R1 000 to R 4 000 a month for a period of
18 months.
We’ll lose a few along the way; some will
take the money and run. I can’t guarantee
their commitment or their loyalty to the
scheme. Some will fail. I expect all of them
to fail at something in the first few months
of their business. But our perseverance
allowance will allow them – time and time
again during those 18 months – to fail
comfortably, to go back to the drawing board,
to reinvent their business model, to get an
authentic education in the process and learn
the fundamental truth about what it takes to
be an entrepreneur.
And some will succeed beyond our
wildest expectations.
The super-rich or super successful aren’t
necessarily possessed of some exceptional
intelligence or inventiveness.
They are there today because they were
able to capture certain jobs and exploit
certain opportunities.
Few of us appreciate that this
achievement owes less to their talent than to
a combination of their ability to persevere
and being born into certain classes. This
then is the only opportunity we’re giving our
aspiring entrepreneurs: to persevere long
enough to succeed.
I’m calling this our perseverance
conspiracy theory and all it takes is
supporting an aspiring entrepreneur for
18 months.
So bring a little benevolence into this
world for that few thousand rand a month
you could well afford because in the words
of Thurgood Marshall, the US civil rights
hero who became the first African-American
Supreme Court justice: “None of us got
where we are solely by pulling ourselves
up by our bootstraps. We got here because
somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy
League crony or a few nuns – bent down and
helped us pick up our boots.”
• Yogan Naidoo is a Nelson Mandela
Scholar with an MBA from the City of
London Business School and is the founder
and chief executive of Business Solutions
Africa, a business strategy consulting firm
which advises businesses on how to achieve
their goals and improve their position in
industry. E-mail: yogan@bsalive.com
Small business will not take off properly in SA unless those who
can help are willing to lend a hand, writes Yogan Naidoo
Yogan Naidoo