Ebbe Dommisse

"Ebbe Dommisse in an interview for the latter’s book Fortunes: The rise and rise of Afrikaner tycoons.6"

"‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way – the will itself becomes the way.’"

"‘My friend, you can teach a man many things, but you can’t teach him morality.’"

"Rupert asked him to investigate the possibility of finding a master brewer in war-shattered Germany who was looking for a future abroad. Steyn set about his inquiries methodically. In 1947 he approached a number of contacts in Germany, asking them if they could put him in touch with: a Munich brewery willing to open a branch in South Africa controlled by South African shareholders; a Munich master brewer willing to emigrate to South Africa with his family and undertake the technical management of a brewery; and a master owner-brewer of a small Munich brewery who would come with his family and all the necessary machinery, to start a new factory from scratch. Despite interest from German brewers, nothing came of these tentative moves as there were problems on the South African side with the realisation of plans to establish a brewery. Steyn was requested to keep the German connection alive for some time, although with the warning that, as a brewery would have to be built up in South Africa from scratch, it would take at least two years before beer could be produced. Meanwhile Rupert concentrated on the tobacco industry."

"•Hard work. ‘We believe that success is achieved by those who produce that extra bit, and that 24 hours in a day are actually not enough.’ •The concept that ‘He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist’. ‘Without this firm belief it would have been impossible to make a breakthrough in a strongly competitive market.’ •New approach. ‘While we realise that the tobacco industry has a rich tradition, we also know that half of today’s industrial products had been totally unknown 25 years ago. We therefore concentrated purposefully on producing innovative and improved products in the world of tobacco through research.’ •A balanced perspective, ‘based on the understanding that the current fiscal policy in most countries makes if difficult, if not impossible, for the young entrepreneur to make a meaningful contribution to the general welfare.’"

"‘As colleagues of Dr Rupert, young and old, we were also standing on the shoulders of a giant, and that was the reason why we could perhaps see further than those who had not been exposed to his exceptional leadership . . . He had the ability to broaden people’s horizons, not only in respect of the things in which he involved one, but also because of the knowledge and experience he shared so readily. Working for him was not a job, it was an experience.’"

"‘I have often thanked Providence for things I didn’t get when I wanted them.’"

"‘It is very simple and I try to teach it to my children: when you walk on the beach at Hermanus and you see the sand that stretches for miles, you realise that the human being is nothing more than a grain of sand . . . But always remember, the other person is also nothing more than a grain of sand. Then you can never be conceited. You are humble, but you will never lack confidence. This is to me the basic concept that has sustained our small group of people who started and those who are sitting here today, to the point where we are one of the biggest groups in the world at present. You yourself are nothing, but the other people are no more than you.’"

"The caption of a drawing in the group’s offices depicting the race between the hare and the tortoise read: ‘It’s the last ten paces that count’."

"The women’s company’s first products were Braganza Tea, Tendertee Tips and Senator Coffee, later followed by Frisco instant coffee. According to René Morkel, the names mainly came from Rupert. He proposed Braganza for the tea, recalling the Portuguese princess Catharina da Braganza who had married Charles II of England in 1662 and popularised tea at the royal court and in the West. The label on the packet depicted her presenting the king with a chest of tea. This was a typical Rupert touch: a product had to have a ‘personality and an address’, and be linked to a story sales people could tell."

"His maxim was a golden rule: ‘Advertising can never be simple, sincere and repetitive enough.’"

"it’s not the time to worry once you’ve made your decision. You must do your worrying beforehand. Once you’ve taken your decision, you must just push on!’"

"Commenting on this closest of close shaves, Rupert observed philosophically, ‘If you knew beforehand what’s in store for you, you’d never start anything.’"

"‘You shouldn’t always be grateful for what you get. Often you have to be grateful for what you didn’t get.’"

"As at other times in his career when the stakes were high, he thought big, and reacted with incredible speed."

"‘If any professor or socialist were to tell you that all profit is of the devil, you must remember that without profit there can be no savings, without savings no investment, and without investment no jobs.’ Making a profit is not disgraceful, he maintained − ‘in fact, it is a disgrace not to make one’."

"‘Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again’"

"Redistribution of possessions is a one-off gesture, creating illusions of prosperity – redistribution of opportunities, on the other hand, creates lasting prosperity’."

"wealth entailed responsibility. Wealth could lead either to progress or to decadence; if it led to the acceptance of responsibility and ‘doing good to others’, it was a ‘divine asset’."

"definition of business as ‘honourably serving the public at a profit’."

"‘the best way to do business in the long term is to discharge our responsibilities to the community out of gratitude in order to create a climate within which profitable business can still be done in the future’."

"‘What you possess, possesses you.’"

"‘I’ve learnt that you need to have self-confidence; you have to take calculated risks, take balanced decisions. Your brain always works like a pair of scales: for and against, for and against.’"

"He liked to say that he does not give assignments to a committee because a committee does not lie awake at night thinking about a problem, but an individual does.’"

"‘A brilliant idea only comes to life when it is carried by the driving force of a man who believes in it so passionately that he accepts all risks and surmounts all obstacles. Courage is to be aware of everything that stands in the way and yet still carry on unceasingly.’"

"the old Boers used to say: One doesn’t hunt termites with Mausers!’"

"‘If you can buy a person, that person is not worth buying,’"