David White

David White is the founder and chief executive within the DRG Group, which comprises DRG Outsourcing, DRG Siyaya, and BusinessFit SA.

David shared that his formal qualifications are in marketing and business administration. He says, as a young person he was diagnosed as having an extreme form of dyslexia. He could not read, write or spell, and was advised by a child psychologist at the time that his dyslexia was so extensive that he would likely be unable to complete school. The psychologist told David’s parents and teachers that they should recognise David’s neurological challenge and should prepare themselves for him not getting past Standard 8 (Grade 10).

David’s dyslexia kept him from advancing a year at school, but he says, he learned two important traits from his dyslexic journey. The first being listening skills as he could not read the work himself, and the second, an appreciation of his natural abilities in imagination, communication and reasoning. David till today is a weak reader. However, he has surprised himself and others by becoming a regular business, leadership, governance, and sustainability author in local and international publications. David says it is his passion for the subjects that he writes about that allows the flow of inspiration in his writing.

The best advice David received for his life’s journey was from his parents, who said that “as long as he was doing his best, it was good enough for them, and that doing his best in all likelihood will be good enough for our Creator too.” David said this helped him to focus more on the journey of his life, rather than on the outcome of his work. David says, “I undoubtably had less personal, peer, and family pressure to excel in achieving career milestones and goals than many other people had… as just finishing school was a celebrated achievement.”

Dyslexia never held David back, and although his marks at school were not good, he found that it was easy for him to apply his mind and focus on topics and subjects that he liked learning about.

Business administration and people development became his big passion, and as they say… the rest is history.

David’s first job was at Shell, where he worked in their retail division for eight years. In this time, he learned about business administration and organisational leadership, much of which he still applies within his businesses today. His role was to help Shell Service Station dealers maintain Shell franchise standards, as well as grow and develop their businesses. He commented, “The Shell Service Station dealers were exposed to a well thought out quality assurance process, some of which we have used in the creation of the BusinessFit SA quality assurance framework and development methodology for SMEs.”

SINGLE-MINDED APPROACH
David feels his greatest accomplishment in business is his single-minded approach in keeping the business dream alive. “My vision for DRG and BusinessFit SA goes back to 1996, when there was great demand in the economy for professional HR and business support partners, to help guide entrepreneurs and business leaders through tough economic and sustainability challenges.” Both DRG and BusinessFit SA continue to thrive in the market today.

David’s businesses, DRG Outsourcing and BusinessFit SA provide services to companies across the globe. In a recent trip to the UK, David (and his colleague Andrew Kruger) were invited by Northumbria University to lecture business students on the BusinessFit SME development methodology. Further the Northumbria University offered to create an application for BusinessFit’s Blueprint model, and the Commonwealth Secretariat Assistant Secretary General asked that the application be made available to SMEs across all 56 Commonwealth countries.

The greatest business challenge says David, was in the beginning, when his business grew very quickly. Two years after starting, DRG joined a group of companies listing on the JSE. David was not ready for such a leadership challenge, and 24 months after listing, the companies unbundled. “DRG was on target to meet its anticipated financial goals, and so the delisting was not financially motivated, but rather a value perception challenge created by the dot com era. David says that this experience taught him his most valuable lessons about life, business and himself.

DRG and BusinessFit SA have “highly engaged work forces, where staff understand how the business works, and take self-inspired actions to meet customer expectations and business imperatives,” says David. The DRG / BusinessFit SA culture and values encourage staff to work in teams, make decisions, and to ensure the timeous outcomes of engagements and interventions.

AN EFFECTIVE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM
David is inspired by people who are honest, caring, and capable in their work. DRG and BusinessFit SA products and services are largely compliance and structure based, requiring attention to detail – and a mindset from staff of really wanting to help our clients meet their reporting and administrative responsibilities. “The DRG and BusinessFit SA staff work closely together to meet client requirements and expectations, and it is inspiring to watch high quality outcomes being achieved day by day by each company’s staff and teams.”

He said, “DRG’s vision going forward is to continue growing its national and international client bases through providing ongoing professional and reliable HR services. BusinessFit SA’s vision is to support the development of an effective business ecosystems within KZN and SA.

The motto David lives by, is an adaption from the scriptures. It states, ‘Tomorrow is taken care of by our kindness, care, and purpose invested today’. “In a world where nothing is certain… we at least have these words of wisdom and comfort which tell us that tomorrow will be fine for us, as long as we invest such traits in our work and people interactions today,” he said.