I promised somebody that I would not reference a book in this blog. It’s difficult, because referencing books makes me feel clever. So this month we’re going to look at the financials of the company, and more specifically, the balance sheet of Noag’s Market.
The balance sheet lies.
Not on purpose. Every rand is where it should be: the stock, the buildings, the trucks, the money owed to us and the money we owe. But what keeps the lights on is not on the balance sheet.
I want to look at the most valuable asset we own. It carries no Rand value and it is impossible to monetise, but without it we could close our doors on a Wednesday and never open again. It takes years and years to build and cultivate. It can’t be ordered from a supplier or fast-tracked with a budget. And without the right direction from the very start of that building process, the same asset can turn into a liability that drags the whole company down with it.
From the early years, the idea was always to find the right people to fit the culture that Jaco and his parents wanted to cultivate at Noag’s. You’ve probably heard that culture eats strategy for breakfast. I’m told it’s usually credited to Peter Drucker, and I’m counting that as a quote, not a book. I would change it a little though: employees eat culture for breakfast.
Culture is not the poster in the passage or the values in the induction pack. It’s what happens at ten past four on a Thursday when nobody senior is around. It’s how our people interact with clients when nobody else sees them.
What three decades look like in people.
It’s these people who build the culture in a company like ours. People who start here straight from school, meet their partner, get married, have kids and build a whole life while working at Noag’s Market. They are not only colleagues and employees. They become family.
And they carry things no system can. A new employee can learn our product codes in a few weeks. What takes years is knowing which customer needs the quote in writing, which one wants to be walked to the aisle, and which one is having a hard year and needs a little extra patience. None of that is captured anywhere. It lives in people, and it leaves when they leave.
Because I still can’t remember what was for breakfast, naming people will only cause a mild storm over everybody I forget to mention. But our family has grown over the years: five de Langes (we were waiting for one more, and because this blog is late, the little de Lange has arrived, healthy and ready to take on the world), a Kleynhans, a few Jouberts, the Meyer kids, Dinah has added two, so many Manngwes, the van der Lindes added another one in July, Bekker is plus one, Chayle has a beautiful girl, Elton is also working hard on growing the family, and the Nels have a few. If your name isn’t here, it was not on purpose. Blame the old age.
Not every entry on this ledger is a birth.
To keep things in balance, we have also lost many of our core people. Individuals who left a positive mark on Noag’s Market that will never come off. Early on we lost Oom Andries. Oom John and his son Ferdie have passed. Sean, Hendrik Williams and Shakes, Sameul, JD, Stefane, Willie, Oom Stan, and many more amazing people.
None of them are on any report. All of them are still in how we do things.
This is the balance sheet of life, and as we have been blessed to be around for more than 30 years, our balance sheet has swollen with the footsteps of every person that has worked and lived at Noag’s.
Assets and liabilities, it all balances out.
Not on purpose. Every rand is where it should be: the stock, the buildings, the trucks, the money owed to us and the money we owe. But what keeps the lights on is not on the balance sheet.
I want to look at the most valuable asset we own. It carries no Rand value and it is impossible to monetise, but without it we could close our doors on a Wednesday and never open again. It takes years and years to build and cultivate. It can’t be ordered from a supplier or fast-tracked with a budget. And without the right direction from the very start of that building process, the same asset can turn into a liability that drags the whole company down with it.
From the early years, the idea was always to find the right people to fit the culture that Jaco and his parents wanted to cultivate at Noag’s. You’ve probably heard that culture eats strategy for breakfast. I’m told it’s usually credited to Peter Drucker, and I’m counting that as a quote, not a book. I would change it a little though: employees eat culture for breakfast.
Culture is not the poster in the passage or the values in the induction pack. It’s what happens at ten past four on a Thursday when nobody senior is around. It’s how our people interact with clients when nobody else sees them.
The line I can’t put a number to.
The balance sheet is bright. So many great young people are joining us, kids who want to make a difference and build a life with us, some of them fresh out of matric, exactly as many of us once were.
To everyone who works here now, and everyone who has walked these floors before: thank you. You are the one line I can’t put a number to, and the only one that really matters. We will keep building it the way we always have, on looking after the person in front of you, one customer and one story at a time.
Now I have to start on the next blog, which is due in two weeks. I’m hoping they let me discuss a book. Otherwise I might just get Claude to write it for me.
