FMFOX

US economy ENTREPRENEUR

in numbers Formula for successful CEOs

US$13,84 trillion — or
$45 800/capita — is the GDP for
2007, up 2,2% year-on-year.
$2,415 trillion is the total
revenue for 2007 and $2,770 tril-
lion is expenditure (estimated).
$357bn is the budget deficit
for 2008, up from $162bn in 2007
and forecast at $207bn in 2009.
5,5% is the unemployment rate
— up from 4,6% in 2007.
153,1m is the size of the labour
force (including the unemployed),
in a total population of 303,8m.
4,2% is the inflation rate (CPI),
up from 2,9% last year.
2% is the US Fed’s key interest
rate after a string of seven cuts
Siyabonga Mapoko’s love of biographies, particularly success stories
about business leaders, inspired him to quit science and equity trading
and start writing. The 28-year-old entrepreneur has since documented
the lives of 12 of SA’s top chief executives in Conversations with the JSE
AltX Entrepreneurs, a book that tells the stories of 12 CEOs. “There’s a
lot of wisdom in biographies. Unfortunately there aren’t many SA
biographies,” says the former equity trader at Investec Asset
Management. “People read books about Richard Branson and think he
achieved those things because he was in London. I wanted to show people
that they, too, can do that.” It was not always Mapoko’s intention to go
into business. He holds an honours degree in chemistry and after
graduating in 2002, worked at GlaxoSmithKline in England. In 2005 he
joined Investec to explore his interest in financial services. “It was a case
of wanting to experience something different. I finished varsity and felt
I’d done my bit for science,” he says. Mapoko is also the founder of
iCaptive, a Cape Town-based digital signage company. Sanlam sponsored
the printing of Mapoko’s book, but he paid other production costs himself.
He is negotiating distribution through Exclusive Books. Mapoko hopes his
book “will inspire other entrepreneurs and help them believe in
themselves and in SA”. Matebello Motloung

Hetty Zantman
from 5,25% in August 2007.

3,1% is the decline in house

prices between the first quarter of
2008 and the first quarter of 2007
— the biggest fall in 17 years.

$1,965 trillion is the value

of imports and $1,149 trillion
exports for 2007 (estimated).

$10 787 is the poverty thres-

hold, or $21 027 for a family of
four. About 12% of the population
was below this line in 2004.

$12,3 trillion is the external

debt, $9 trillion the public debt.

4,062 trillion kWh of elec-

tricity was produced and 3,816 tril-
lion kWh consumed in 2005.

233m cellphones and 172m tele-

phones were in use in 2006.
Amarnath Singh
Sources: US treasury, commerce and labour
departments; CIA World Factbook

30 FINANCIAL MAIL J U LY 11, 2008