Editing copy for my dad’s website. People would always ask what my dad does for a living, and i can never give a clear answer, purely because i don’t know, or rather, i’m too stupid to explain it.
Here’s a short profile of my dad and his experiences, i know I’m biased, but you’ve got to admit, it’s pretty impressive – i have a long way to go before measuring dicks with this chap.
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In his 32 years as a business consultant, Jan de Coning has opted for “radical and dramatic change” in all the work he’s undertaken. Not surprisingly he’s been taken hostage in a mineshaft for 11 hours, brokered peace between feuding political movements and helped turn “loss makers” into “best of breed” companies.
He cut his teeth with the former South African Defence Force when he was contracted to facilitate the formation of the South African Medical Core as a fourth arm of the Defence Force. South Africa was the second country in the world, after Belgium, to adopt this system. From there he moved to Anglo-American to assist in the rationalisation of Amcoal from 28 collieries throughout RSA into 13 internationally competitive operations.
Having developed a taste for high conflict work where fast change was required, Jan turned to transformation of a different sort. He became involved in the implementation of the United Nations Resolution 435 prior to Namibian independence where his job was to resolve conflict in the Eastern Caprivi Strip between the Mafwe and Basubia tribes, SWAPO and the administration of the time. At the same time, Jan was training Sasol group members in influencing and negotiation skills.
This “political” experience honed his sense of timing, of knowing the right moment to roll-out change. After independence, Jan saw the need to help companies reposition themselves for the new Namibia. He worked with organisations such as the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (then SWABC), AGRA, the agricultural co-operative, the Academy of Namibia (a tertiary education institution), the Municipality of Windhoek’s integration after independence, and the First National Development Corporation of Namibia.
Back in South Africa in 1986, Jan was employed as an organisational development specialist for Finansbank and his projects included the privatisation of Iscor. When Nedcor bought out Finansbank it “laid the table” for Jan to become more involved in the repositioning of commercial companies, such as Reumech, which switched from making armoured personnel carriers to trailers and tractors amongst other things.
Jan feels his seven years in merchant banking gave him the opportunity to become more integrated in his approach. In 1992 he joined Barry Venter and formed Organisation Development International (ODI) and took it from a two-man company to 12 senior consultants. When the focus changed towards a greater concentration on right-sizing approaches, Jan opted out and formed IBFN (International Business Facilitation Network). His introduction to the aerospace industry came in the mid nineties, and he helped Kentron (now DAS) with their strategy. One of biggest success stories of that time was when he and Mike Crause took Kentron UAV’s from a department on the verge of closing to a vibrant business with an order-book of over R500 million. The other was with AMS where he assisted in the management buy-out and assisted with the marketing strategy to ensure a very favourable exit strategy for the then management through the take-over of AMS (Aerospace Monitoring Systems) by SAAB Grintech.
Jan has also been involved in AngloGold Ashanti South Africa, and the turnaround of the Mponeng mine. His relationship with Anglo’s Gold mining operations started in 1995 and is still going strong with AngloGold Ashanti to this day.
He assisted Anglo Platinum initially with the establishment of the Modikwa Platinum mine and then with the implementation of their “Fit-For-Future” strategy and is still involved in assisting individual mines with strategy and roll-out processes.
He had a strong association and love for the mining industry as his clients also included Alexkor, Xstrata, Lonmin, and others.
Some of his projects in the tertiary education industry included the strategic repositioning of Technikon SA as well as the preparation of Vista University for absorption into the new tertiary education landscape of South Africa.
The Klein Karoo Agricultural Co-op’s repositioning into a commercial group structure was the highlight of his work in the Agricultural industry.
Jan assisted in developing globalisation strategies for Italtile and Ceramic Industries as well as the turn-around of Betta Sanitary Ware and the strategy and potential optimisation of the new state of the art Pegasus tile factory