{"id":4831,"date":"2019-06-06T13:14:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T11:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthesis.co.za\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2019-06-06T13:14:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T11:14:02","slug":"five-lessons-i-learnt-from-a-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthesis.co.za\/five-lessons-i-learnt-from-a-client\/","title":{"rendered":"Five lessons I learnt from a client"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Howard Feldman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ask South Africans to list home grown companies and they will most likely rattle off the likes of SAB, Discovery and Sasol. They might speak of Elon Musk of Tesla and Mark Shuttleworth as leading entrepreneurs, as well as people like Christian Barnard, Gary Player and Charlize Theron who have made us proud on the international stage.<\/p>\n

Although the above is a formidable group, we sometimes neglect some of the incredible companies and people who are doing amazing things in the country.<\/p>\n

Over the last year I have had the privilege of working closely one such group: Synthesis Software Technologies. My interaction began when I was asked to run a workshop on the Super-Power of Honesty. In my experience, any company that asks employees to take a pause from the business of generating income, in order to focus on ethics, is already a step ahead. This session was followed by one on The Fear of Change, and from there to the Power of Positivity. Whereas many of my clients ask for follow up sessions, it is rare for me to encounter an environment with a thirst for growth and development of each member of the team, as does Synthesis.<\/p>\n

Some background to the company : Synthesis was founded\u00a0in 1997. Today, there are four\u00a0directors;\u00a0Michael Shapiro, Jake Shepherd, Tom Wells and Steyn Basson, who\u00a0have\u00a0each\u00a0been with the company for over 16 years.<\/p>\n

The word Synthesis described a vision where complex systems could be pulled together in a harmonious way to solve real problems. From early on Synthesis focused on the Financial Services sector and over the years has done work for all six major banking institutions\u00a0in South Africa.\u00a0Synthesis is viewed by its clients as the go to guys for\u00a0software related\u00a0problems that\u00a0others find too difficult to solve.<\/p>\n

Today Synthesis services blue-chip companies in the financial, agricultural, telecoms and retail sectors and\u00a0provides employment to\u00a0over\u00a0100 professionals. It is a preferred Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner in South Africa, and has been recognised for its innovation, implementation and professionalism.<\/p>\n

The wonderful privilege of working in the space that I do, is that I get to learn from clients as much as I am teach them.<\/p>\n

Here are five things that I have learned from Synthesis:<\/p>\n