It’s déjà-vu all over again!  Alterity, the company I founded 25 years ago, has just entered into an agreement with EasyBiz, the Johannesburg based distributor of QuickBooks® for Sub-Saharan Africa, to distribute our flagship wholesale distribution software offering, ACCTivate!.

In the summer of 1975, I was asked to go to South Africa and introduce an earlier wholesale distribution software product that we had developed with the encouragement of Singer Business Machines.  It was named Stars and we had successfully marketed it in the US, Europe and Australia in 4 languages (arguably 5 if you’ve heard the Aussies speak … 6 if you count Texans).

I agreed to the visit knowing absolutely nothing about the geography, history, business climate or culture of the country.  I don’t think I’d ever even heard the term “Apartheid.”

So, I kissed my wife and our 4 month old baby goodbye and flew off to Africa for a month.  I stopped in Nairobi to for an overnight visit with my wife’s college roommate and her husband, then off to Johannesburg.

I expected a jungle and grass huts with a few British colonial homes and buildings scattered around.  Imagine my surprise when we approached the airport … row after row of large homes separated by tennis courts and swimming pools.

I primarily worked with British ex-pats and held classes for a couple of weeks in a resort which bordered Kruger Park.  It was there that I began a long friendship with Tom Woodhill who was the local managing director and one of the best salesman I’ve ever known … in spite of the fact that he was British.  After three weeks he convinced me to go back to Texas, gather my wife and daughter and bring them to Johannesburg for a full year.

During that year I got to know South Africa as well as a Texan could.  I came to understand that Apartheid, even with its common roots in prejudice and greed, was very different than slavery in the American south.  That the embargo forced on the country by the industrialized nations had the unintended result of creating a strong, entrepreneurial business climate.  I witnessed unthinkable mistreatment of the majority “Non-European” population. 

But I also saw the beginnings of change:  the promotion of a Bantu driver to become a company bookkeeper, the first showing of the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” to a mixed audience and the start of the activism that finally lead to the dismantling of the legislated class system that was at the heart of Apartheid.

In a few weeks I am scheduled to visit Johannesburg again to assist with the introduction of ACCTivate!  I am looking forward to seeing the new South Africa and once again working with the kind of entrepreneurs I met there … who knows, I may even run into some old friends.

~ Ron Souder is the Founder, President and CEO of Alterity, the makers of ACCTivate!  Under his leadership, Alterity has experienced significant growth and developed numerous software products for small and medium-sized businesses around the globe. With over 30 years experience in developing software products, Ron leads the Alterity team with both vision and a deep understanding of the practical needs of growing businesses. 

* “It’s déjà-vu all over again!”  Yogi Berra 

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