The thriving metropolis of Hermanus attracted no less than 58 companies in the 2013 Business League Bowls Championship. Not one of the finglobal.com team previously picked up a bowl orrolled a jack. No what you see is what you get! To our horror, we found there was more to simply rolling a ball. But what a ball!

Who would’ve thought a young bunch like ours would get hooked on old man’s marbles and end up number five in the competition. While we were exhaustively gob smacked you wanted to see the other 53 faces.

The take out from this experience relates a great deal to what we do on a day-to-day basis in dealing with South Africans the world over. What’s the connection?

The shortest route from the mat to the jack is not a straight line – much like transferring clients’ retirement funds from Pretoria to Perth. It takes practice, patience, communication, perseverance and thinking how to strategically place the ball to the clients’ best advantage.

It was a humbling learning curve: the value in teamwork, communication, sign language to deliver success and celebration. Not unlike navigating processes and procedures when dealing with people, at best, two continents and time zones apart to deliver relief and a smile…