CAs at play

Accountancy SA,  May 2003  by Singh, Sian

Tags: Computer Associates International Inc.

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We've heard that all work and no play made Jack dull and, as a friend once quipped, consequently led to a life long career in auditing. What really does turn the pages of the average CA, and is the average CA bound to a career on an abacus row?

One CA with a fervour for thrills that can only be matched by a Cape wind is Lynn Geater, Manager: Forensics, KPMG, Cape Town. Her maxim is to try to get all her work done during the week in order to free up her weekends and really live. Living in this context entails throwing herself out of a plane. Although not competitive, Geater is a skydiving jumpmaster - she teaches others how to throw themselves out of planes correctly (there is a right and a wrong way). She is also treasurer of her club at Citrusdal in the Western Cape, where she spends most weekends. Un-phased by the testosterone bias in the sport, Geater has accumulated 350 jumps, and a fiance, in her seven and a half years of experience, and encourages more women to participate.

For a break from skydiving, Geater also enjoys tumbling down a snowy hill on a board. "Every year we try to set aside a couple of weeks for a snowboarding holiday. We go with a group of friends to France but next year we will try a different country, perhaps Italy. It's fantastic fun, and worth all the bruises and aches. I have also done a bridge-swing and one BASE jump, but my parents don't know about that."

In their spare time Geater and her fiance have snorkelled in Australia and Zanzibar, scuba dived in Thailand and will be catching up on more scuba diving in Mozambique in March. Geater is at ease on top of water as she is underneath it, having done some sailing, water-skiing, and river rafting down the Doring River (twice) and the Orange River.

For a quiet night in, Lynn can be found doing ceramic painting, glass painting, fabric painting, knitting, sewing and, oh yes, some reading too.

WORK AS PLAY

One of a different industry's Big 5 worldwide is instrumental in providing mood-altering fixes, aiding consumers to reach a high. These fixes are designed to suit a diversity of tastes, from the most finely tuned to bubble-gum lovers, and can be purchased over the counter in a variety of forms. The MD, who happens to be a CA, has ensured his company's product takes hold of the minds and bodies of millions of people on a daily basis, but most of them are oblivious to his influence. The product is music, the company, EMI Music SA, and the MD in question, Irving Schlosberg.

Schlosberg's original career plan was to gain experience in commerce for two years before returning to practice, but he was hooked by the music industry, and progressed from Financial Manager to MD of RPM Records, in 1984.

Schlosberg's raw passion and almost telepathic ability to predict what people want to hear helped put the ailing RPM back on track, despite the company losing several international labels because of the politics in this country. The turnaround earned Schlosberg a reputation as being persistent and gutsy, and in 1995 he was headhunted and offered the post of MD at EMI - the biggest record label in SA.

Schlosberg strives to involve himself in as many facets of the business as possible. From convincing the SABC to put Stevie Wonder back on the air after he dedicated his 1984 Oscar to Nelson Mandela, to conceptualising the compilation Now that's what I call music - which is still going strong at RPM - to promoting established international artists as diverse as Lenny Kravitz, Sara Brightman, UB40, George Michael, Janet Jackson and Placido Domingo and, of course, recording and promoting local artists, such as Brenda Fassie, Amore Vitone, Leon Schuster and Popstars' 101. A major challenge is getting local artists such as Watershed and Mandoza to break onto the international scene.

Having a product worth more than gold or platinum isn't all there is to it though. With CD writers and sites such as Napstar, which allowed free music downloads off the Internet, Schlosberg has begun a long-term battle to protect the product, and his artists' creative capital. EMI has developed a copy control system, which encodes a signal onto a CD preventing users from being able to play the CD in a PC. Schlosberg maintains his artists are not commodities though. He may have an eye for fruitful talent - constantly balancing out costs with potential sales at the back of his mind - but he also offers the artists a surrogate family, committing himself to continuously support them through their ups and downs, and shielding them from the darker side of stardom.

DOWNSCALE

On a small, though nail bitingly competitive scale, Chris Roos is a member and treasurer of the Goldreef Scale Modellers Society - the local branch of the International Plastic Modellers Society based in the UK.

Chris's speciality is motor vehicles, having won several national titles for his models. Besides building models within the society, Chris has amassed an extensive personal collection of automotives too - thirty-five years worth of collecting, "from the days that you got two US$ for one Rand!"