Raymond Ackerman

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Raymond David Ackerman (born March 10, 1931 in Cape Town ) is a South African businessman. He is the founder and long-time managing director of one of the most successful supermarket chains in the country, Pick'n Pay , with 40,000 employees and an annual turnover of 29 billion Rand . Forbes listed him in 2015 in the list of the richest South Africans at number 39. He is considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs in South Africa and in 2004 was included in the list of the 100 most important South Africans.

Life and work

Raymond's father Gustave (1894-1966) had been the owner of a retail chain since 1916, which traded under his family name, but in 1945 was bought by the competitor Greaterman . Raymond completed his schooling in his hometown at Diocesan College (Bishops) . After high school and a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Cape Town , Raymond joined the company in 1951 on the advice of his father. The name Greaterman aimed from the beginning to become bigger than the Ackermans. At this time, a “generation of new managers” was forming within the company. Shortly thereafter, Greaterman strategists were discussing a new Checkers retail chain , with Raymond Ackerman as managing director. Immediately after the death of his father, to whom the Greaterman leadership were loyal, he was fired from his position at Checkers, although he had been very successful with it. This termination has been described as one of the biggest business mistakes in South Africa. A year later he tried his luck with his own necklace. At that time, he and his wife, Wendy, already had the children Suzanne, Kathryn, Jonathan and Gareth. In February 1967 he bought the four- store Pick n Pay grocery store from Jack Goldin for R620,000 . For Raymond, taking over this company was compensation for the loss of his father's business. The subsequent success confirmed his idea.

He himself acknowledges five people as particularly inspiring for him. In addition to his long-time mentor and father, this is first and foremost his university professor William Harold Hutt (1899–1988), a Keynesian who vehemently advocated this economic model during the apartheid period . The expression “ consumer sovereignty ” goes back to him, which means that consumers determine the supply of goods and services. Accordingly, Raymond strove all his life to act with the consumer in mind. In particular, low consumer prices were important to him. For this he mainly imported goods that did not belong to any private label. However, he lost his biggest argument with the South African authorities over the price of gasoline.

He describes Bernardo Trujillo (1919–1971) as very creative and particularly creative when it comes to designing marketing seminars. He calls him "Marketing Pope". Participants included decision makers from leading retailers such as the North American National Cash Registers and McAllen , the French Auchan and Carrefour , Marks & Spencer and Sainsburys in the UK and Coles Supermarkets in Australia. Raymond Ackerman describes South Africa as a marketing diaspora in the 1950s and early 1960s, particularly non-existent in the food retail sector. A revelation for him was The Progressive Grocer , published in the United States since the early 1930s . Also from Trujillo is the master lesson of the “four-legged table”, later adopted by Ackerman, with the “legs” of administration, sales, advertising, social responsibility and employees who set up a company safely.

Ackerman describes the Swiss retailer Gottlieb Duttweiler as particularly phenomenal, provocative and controversial. What is particularly impressive for him is his commitment to philanthropically sharing his Migros company with employees, customers and society as a whole ; a basic principle that continues to shape this retail company. Ackerman describes the success for customers that Migros achieved by reducing the prices of basic foodstuffs as particularly consistent. He was later able to implement these goals in his company.

The Theresienstadt and Auschwitz survivor, the Austrian Viktor Frankl , showed Ackerman, who was active in the earlier apartheid era, how a regime of oppression affects the society affected by it. In 1976, at a time when white power politics in South Africa came to a head, he noted in his diary:

"I am not as gloomy about the prospects as most people are, and I feel quietly confident that we are going to ride the storm."

- The four legs of the table. P. 39

The responsibility for his fellow human beings demanded by Frankl manifested itself with Ackerman in the belief of the "fourth table leg", in a striving for the good and fair treatment of his fellow human beings based on the experience of the Holocaust and apartheid.

In 1999, Raymond Ackerman stepped down from the management of Pick'n Pay in favor of Sean Summers.

Honors

literature

  • Denise Prichard: The four legs of the table. David Philip Publishers, 10th edition 2016, ISBN 978-1-4856-0158-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Who’s Who of Southern Africa: Raymond Ackerman . on whoswho.co.za (English; archive version)
  2. ^ South African History Online: Raymond Ackerman . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  3. ^ Forbes / Profile / Raymond Ackerman & family , Forbes Media LCC, 2017
  4. ^ Great South Africans . Wikidata
  5. ^ A b The South African: Raymond Ackerman to speak at the South African Chamber of Commerce in London . www.thesouthafrican.com (English)
  6. ^ David S. Fick: Entrepreneurship in Africa: A Study of Successes . Greenwood 2002, ISBN 978-1-5672-0536-7 , page 132
  7. ↑ See also: Christian Kleinschmidt: The productive view: Perception of American and Japanese management and production methods by German entrepreneurs 1950–1985 . Walter de Gruyter 2002, ISBN 978-3050079899 , pages 245-246
  8. ^ Denise Prichard: The four legs of the table. David Philip Publishers, 10th edition 2016, ISBN 978-1-4856-0158-6
  9. ^ The Presidency: The Presidency: Award of the Order of the Baobab . Government Notice 325 of 2014 in Government Gazette , online at www.sabinetlaw.co.za (English)
personal data
SURNAME Ackerman, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ackerman, Raymond David (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African businessman
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town