MORE THAN JUST BUSINESS

It has been an interesting year – a phenomenal one, really – and a year of reflection.

In previous years, my letter focused on what happened during the year. This time I’ll include the facts but will focus more on how we dealt with things and what we’ve learnt.

There is an image that keeps coming to mind to depict the past twelve months.

Imagine walking on a tightrope strung just a few centimetres above the ground. Not too stressful if you’re feeling fit, and you stay balanced with ease. Now imagine navigating that same rope 1000m in the air.

You’re the same person with the same strength, but on the highwire it’s so much harder to keep balanced. Why? If you didn’t know you were so high you’d be fine; instead, you wobble – all due to the perceived risk.

Doing business can feel as uncertain as walking that highwire. Personally, I’d like to have the same trust high in the air as near the ground. My experience tells me that there is good reason for trust. Still, it doesn’t always come easily to me, and perhaps not to you, either. I’m continuing to work on it!

We give a lot to our team, customers, and suppliers. Unfortunately, this came back to bite us this financial year. We saw the biggest extent of bad debt in the history of our business as three of our customers stalled on paying their bills before their businesses eventually folded, resulting in a significant financial loss to us.

Our trust was misused, yet we are not disillusioned by it. We realised our mistake and implemented safeguards to avoid a repeat, without compromising who we are and what we do for our customers. I’m grateful that this has not stolen my peace, nor that of our team, even while it was a clear warning.

You’re the same person, with the same strength, but on the highwire it’s so much harder to stay balanced. Why? It’s all down to perceived risk.

The upside

Yet so much has happened that is positive this year. We have a high-performing team that is happy (to the best of my knowledge!), working in a Slow Productivity culture and producing exceptional results without very much stress.

A conservative approach to business and paying painstaking attention to detail are serving us well.

To our great delight, our Pro-treat digital treatment books will soon be available to customers as part of the Protreat automated treatment plant, which is already available.

Automation is important for the future of our industry, as it helps to alleviate the burden of people’s physical labour wherever possible and ensures safety and a quality, compliant product.

At the same time, this year brought substantial challenges. The price of copper soared in the first few months as the value of the Rand sank. The challenges of shipping increased: on top of the ongoing delays at South Africa’s ports and bad weather that prevented vessels from sailing, ships were redirected to go around the Cape to avoid terrorist attacks in the Red Sea, which brought further delays and expense.

We also continued to wrestle with legislative changes, which brought the need to apply for derogations for some of our products. So far, we’re pleased with the progress and are confident of a successful outcome.

Don’t poke the bear

And so, while there are some people who want to poke the proverbial bear to experience a little excitement, we at Dolphin Bay are not among them. To be honest, we long for quiet days – but we know that we thrive under challenges!

For me, faith is the golden threat that runs through everything; it is integral to all that we do and cannot be separated out from business. It gives meaning to everything; it is through this lens that I reflect upon the past year.

There continues to be a lot of grace on our business.

While there are some people who want to poke the proverbial bear to experience a little excitement, we at Dolphin Bay are not among them. To be honest, we ong for boring days!

Lazy or trusting?

What is the difference between trusting that things will work out, and laziness?

There’s no laziness for us: we are continually reflecting and accepting the brutal reality about whether we made mistakes and whether there is more we can do. Where we have made mistakes, we admit it and put things right to the best of our ability.

I often ask myself whether there is more we can do. When there is, we do it. It’s an ongoing conversation. But if we cannot do more, we have to accept our powerlessness and trust that things will work out.

This year, the spirit of the serenity prayer has often come to my mind, and perhaps to yours too: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I know that there are always going to be challenges, given the unpredictability of business – and all of life. I’ve found it is the way we deal with them that makes all the difference. These are the times of keeping our balance on that highwire, hanging onto trust.

Civilisations in the dust

This year we have been successful in avoiding apocalyptic dread and in stressing less, even though some circumstances seemed to want it.

I’ve become more aware of the grandeur of previous civilisations, whose ruins we may visit and marvel at. Their extraordinary infrastructure was probably built by driving their people extremely hard. To what end? Today they are mere stones and dust.

With this in mind, I continue thinking of where real value lies. This has led me to interesting places this year in a search to find truth and to get closer to the meaning of life and my purpose. This is a weighty subject, which cannot easily be explained. But certain aspects translate directly into the culture of our business and how we conduct ourselves.

I’ve become more aware of the responsibility not to impede people’s happiness and to create the conditions for it, rather than to strive to build up a kingdom of facades. Our business relationships are not merely transactional. That would be very boring and would not endure. Instead, we prioritise adding value at multiple levels.

I realise that to some people this might sound strange. But at no point have we lost the focus on doing well as a business. Rather, we have seen our business thrive with these values, and I believe they will make it prosper even more in the coming years.

And so, I am excited by what 2025 will bring as we continue to build on the intangibles that make life, and business, meaningful.

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Dolphin Bay Brief

Dolphin Bay is a chemical company specialising in the manufacture of wood preservatives. We are a major market player within the African continent, where our products and services are supplied to reputable companies supplying treated timber to the agricultural, building, electrical and communications industries.

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