Mike Stopforth

I first met Jon Foster-Pedley while working together on a Management Development Programme (MDP) for the South African Breweries last year - he provided the content and I the social media platform for the initiative.

I’ll never forget it - we both arrived early for a meeting with the logistical team. He is a striking bloke - always immaculately dressed and with a perpetual energy that is unavoidably contagious. We greeted each other quietly, he sat on one side of the room with his MacBook Pro and I on the other side of the room with my ThinkPad (I have since converted). Within 15 seconds he’d opened iTunes and fired up a classic 60’s rock tune at 100% volume while downloading a stream of emails. I smiled and called out the name of the track, Mustang Sally, and we got chatting. We’ve enjoyed working with each other ever since - Jon invited me to speak on a number of executive programmes at the GSB which in turn opened opportunities to connect with the 2.0-ish people I’d met over the Web based in Cape Town. One of them was Dave Duarte. The result was Cerebra. Funny how things happen.

Jon has some impressive credentials - ‘the founding director of the GSB’s Executive MBA programme, he was part of the team that integrated systems thinking and workplace learning into the GSB curriculum. The Executive MBA has been widely hailed as one of the most innovative MBAs available in South Africa and one of only a handful of programmes of its kind internationally. Foster-Pedley was responsible for taking the concept of the Executive MBA into the executive short course market.’ That from the GSB site.

Earlier this year we saw the opportunity to partner with the GSB on an executive programme around social media and business, and even then I had no idea just how topical and appropriate the course would be.

We are proud to announce that according the the GSB we’ve broken the record for registrations on a new course - with over 30 people officially booked and a longer list of unconfirmed possibles. We have room for more but are thrilled at this initial response - proof that there is indeed a significant market and that social media is possibly maturing into mainstream consideration and adoption here in SA. Exciting news!

My thanks goes out to Jon Foster-Pedley and Elaine at the GSB for their support and buy-in, but most especially to Dave who has put many hours into making this a crackerjack offering for SA business. Now all we have to do is deliver on the expectation!

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