South Africa’s Top Business Minds Share Lessons at the 2026 MANCOSA Jacaranda FM Business Breakfast
South Africa’s Top Business Minds Share Lessons at the 2026 MANCOSA Jacaranda FM Business Breakfast
From questioning assumptions and knowing when to let go, to building a business with a clear destination and embracing failure as part of the journey, the 2026 MANCOSA Jacaranda FM Business Breakfast brought together some of South Africa’s most accomplished entrepreneurs, executives and leaders for a morning of candid insights, practical lessons and inspiration.
Held at the Vodacom Dome on 17 August under the theme “Legacy Speaks”, the sold-out event brought together business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals for a programme designed to move beyond conventional success stories and explore what it takes to build businesses, careers and legacies that endure.
Now in its fourth year, the MANCOSA Jacaranda FM Business Breakfast has established itself as a platform for meaningful conversations about leadership, entrepreneurship and personal growth, with this year’s speakers offering perspectives shaped by very different journeys.
For entrepreneur Kimberley Taylor, founder of delivery management platform Loop, one of the most important lessons in business is learning to question what everyone else assumes to be true.
Taylor shared how a mathematical problem known as the ‘travelling salesman’ ultimately inspired the idea behind Loop, which today operates across five countries and manages approximately 4.5 million deliveries a month for businesses including Woolworths Dash and Sixty60.
Her advice to entrepreneurs was simple: don't assume that a problem has already been solved simply because nobody appears to be talking about it. “We think someone better has already solved something,” Taylor explained. “But if you ask questions and spend time in your environment, whether that's a warehouse or wherever your problem exists, you realise there is still so much improvement to be made.”
She also encouraged business leaders to remain willing to experiment and, importantly, to let go when something is no longer working. “Try new things,” she urged. “You find a problem, and then you have to allow yourself the time to try new things and allow yourself to let go of a part.”
For entrepreneur and business growth specialist Pavlo Phitidis, successful businesses require leaders to stop getting trapped in the day-to-day and start thinking about where they are ultimately trying to go.
Using the analogy of a ship, Phitidis explained that business owners can spend their time in the “engine room”, focused on the daily and monthly operations that keep a business running, or on the “bridge”, where leaders navigate and determine the direction of the organisation. “Building a business is like sailing a ship,” he said. “You need a destination to plan towards.”
He challenged business owners to consider three destinations: the asset destination - what they want their business to become over the next five to 10 years; the growth destination - what the business needs to achieve over the next three to five years; and ultimately the freedom destination - what life the business should eventually enable them to live and what impact it should allow them to create.
The message was clear: business growth should not be an end in itself, but part of a deliberate journey towards creating something sustainable and meaningful.
Former Springbok and World Cup winner Bryan Habana brought a sporting perspective to the conversation, drawing parallels between elite performance and success in business.
Habana identified five qualities that he believes are non-negotiable: discipline, sacrifice, hard work, resilience and perseverance. "Whether you play rugby, whether you do sports, whether you're an artist, whether you do music, whether you’re in business, those five principles applied correctly in the form of whatever you're doing is critically important for success to be achieved," he said.
Reflecting on his journey from aspiring rugby player to Springbok and World Cup winner, and later into the fintech sector through Paymenow, which he co-founded with his university roommate in 2019, Habana spoke about the importance of focusing on your own role rather than being distracted by those around you.
“When I was in the changing room, I was surrounded by 14 other athletes who were the best in their positions,” he said. “All I could worry about was doing my job to the best of my ability.”
He’s brought that same notion into his professional career. “You have to unlearn to learn,” he adds, reflecting on one of the challenges he encountered throughout his career. “That was very difficult, but all I had to worry about was doing my job to the best of my ability.”
For Habana, success is ultimately about people. “You can never put a price tag on the human element,” he said.
One of the morning's most personal conversations came from businesswoman, media personality and entrepreneur Basetsana Kumalo, who shared how the foundations of her entrepreneurial mindset were formed long before she became Miss South Africa in 1994.
Kumalo recalled watching her mother build small businesses from her kitchen, selling sweets, eggs and sandwiches to generate an income. “What I learned from my mother's kitchen taught me more about business than any Ivy League school could,” she said.
Crowned Miss South Africa at just 20, Kumalo understood from the outset that her reign would last only 12 months. Rather than viewing the crown as the destination, she began thinking about what would come next and what kind of legacy she wanted to build.
That mindset led her from television into production, mining, travel, fintech and property, establishing her as one of South Africa's most recognisable serial entrepreneurs. “I am a serial entrepreneur – that's all I know,” she said. “If your dreams don't scare you, you're not dreaming big enough.”
Kumalo also spoke candidly about failure, challenging entrepreneurs to reconsider the way they view setbacks. “Don't be afraid to fail. I have had remarkable failures in business,” she said. “Don't let failures set you back. Treat them as a lesson.”
Across four very different careers, a common message emerged: success is rarely the result of a single breakthrough. It is built through curiosity, discipline, resilience, calculated risk and the willingness to keep learning.
This year's event once again demonstrated the appetite for meaningful business conversations and the power of bringing diverse voices together to inspire the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.
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