Yes, team, you’ve read it right. I am greeting you both as Stangen heroes, and as new King Price team members. Life has a funny way of causing some ambiguity and 2020 will be no different. As a team, we will continue running the Stangen brand that we’ve come to love so much and have invested ourselves into. At the same time, we will be launching King Price Life Insurance and integrate with a new family and a new culture.
Exciting times! This marks a change in season for all of us and is the fulfilment of years of re-building a company and trusting for a bigger vision…
I understand that the last couple of months has caused uncertainty for staff. I want to celebrate all of you who have remained focus on the job at hand, whilst engaging with us about your personal situations and how we can try to assist in making the move to Menlyn within the constraints we’re operating with. I was reminded this week of an old saying, “Every crisis presents an opportunity”. Often the key lies in how we frame difficult situations, that determines how quickly we spot and capitalise on the opportunities that change births.
My appeal to all of you is to join us on the journey of building King Price Life Insurance and to go dream about our collective future beyond 2020 over the December break.
For those who want to be part of this season, but can’t due to personal circumstances, we salute you! You’ve made a big contribution to the company and we will continue to honour that. Please take comfort in the fact that everyone has jobs to come back to in January 2020 and we will run Bryanston campaigns until at least March 2020. So do not make any rushed decisions over the festive period. We will work with you in the New Year to see what reasonable alternatives exist beyond that.
We’ve had an excellent year in 2019, securing both the King Price transaction and accelerating on our growth. That deserves lots of champagne and pudding! We can all relax and enjoy the festive period coming up.
Please be safe and make sure you spend quality time with family and friends.
Christmas is a big event in the Botha family. My wife, Maryna, believes in “handmade hospitality” and creates all sorts of wonderful decorations, events and food over this period. My BMI will, therefore continue increasing over the next few weeks…And I look forward to being reminded about how fat I’ve become when I come back in January.
In teaching my kids about the reason for Christmas and some of our faith and values, I had high hopes that they would recognise it’s more than just about gifts for them. They nodded and then my 6-year old remarked, “All I Want for Christmas is my parents’ Wifi password.” Eish… looks like I’ll be fighting the screen-time battle instead.
I wish you all a blessed Christmas and wonderful New Year! May you spend less time on devices than my kids do, and more time chatting, laughing, dancing and dreaming….
Love
Marius
