YAD Business Breakfast

Grant Israel, Anthon Gillis, Arthur Gillis, Darryl Sher and Martin Dibowitz.</

The YAD Business Breakfast on 5 December was the last of a series of these events for 2011, and what better way to end off the year than with a brand new venue? YAD is truly indebted to the African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel for affording us the opportunity to utilise their newly built kosher venue, the Conference Room.

The guest speaker was none other than the CEO of the Protea Hotel Group, Arthur Gillis. Having co-written a bestselling book on service excellence, entitled Juiced! How to Succeed through Spectacular Customer Service, Arthur brought into focus how customers add value to a business. “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care!” he said.

In Arthur’s words, we have a fundamental choice in life — we can either be ‘Juiced’ or ‘Juiceless’. He emphasised that we should make the most of our opportunities and choose to keep on learning, growing and developing. Arthur is adamant that age is not a barrier to growth and change.

He commended YAD on being a great community forum, and expressed how everybody needs to embrace diversity to ensure that we benefit our community, city and country. Rudyard Kipling said it so well: “For the strength of the pack is the wolf; and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”

As Vince Lombardi, the famous Coach of the Green Bay Packers, said to enthuse his team: “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, then you will be fired with enthusiasm!” Well, Arthur certainly had the Monday morning audience fired with enthusiasm for the challenges that lie ahead.