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Nicholas “Nicky” F. Oppenheimer was born on 8th June 1945 in South
Africa. He is a 71 year old South African businessman and philanthropist of
German-Jewish origin. He is the former Chairman of De Beers diamond miningcompany, a Diamond Trading Company. He was listed under top 200 billionaires in
the world in 2016 and he stood at rank 3nd among Africa’s Billionaires in 2018.
His interests involve reading crime novels, relaxing with his dogs and playing
cricket.
Early life and Career:
He went to Harrow School and Christ Church, Oxford.
He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He started working as his
Father’s assistant and gradually in 1974; he became the Director of Anglo
American and De Beers. He joined the Anglo American Corporation in 1968 as the
Personal Assistant to the Chairman (his father) and worked in the Gold and
Diamond Divisions. He faced certain challenges by other markets which made him
expand his business into retailing.
He was the heir of De Beers’s diamond miningcompany. During an auction in the year 2016, the rare Oppenheimer Blue diamond,
was sold for $57.5 million which set a record for the most expensive diamond
sold at an auction. The Oppenheimer family maintained a dominating place in the
world’s diamond trade for a really long time. In 2012, Nicholas Oppenheimer
sold his 40% stake in DeBeers to mining corporate ‘Anglo American’ for $5.1
billion. He is also a non-executive director of Anglo American Corporation.
Harry Frederick Oppenheimer is the father of
Nicholas F. Oppenheimer. He was a prominent businessman in South Africa and one
of the world’s richest men. In the year 2004, he was voted 60th in the SABC3’s
Great South Africans. He was the chairman of Anglo American Corporation for 25
years and chairman of De Beers for 27 years until he retired and passed on the
position to his heir, Nicky. He also spent some time as the Member of
Parliament for Kimberley (1948 to 1957) and became the opposition spokesman on
economics, finance and constitutional affairs. He died in the year 2000.
Net worth:
His net worth is $7
Billion+ according to Forbes, as of January, 2018. He is the third richest
person in Africa, according to Forbes. Forbes ranked him at 174th spot in the
list of world billionaires in 2017 and 3rd in Africa the same year.
Lessons
to learn from NICKY OPPENHEIMER
1. Believe in Africa
Oppenheimer has controversially
stated in the past that Africa is suffering from “donation fatigue”, and that
there are ways for the continent to go it alone without help from western governments
and NGOs.
“Because I am an African I
reserve the right to say that Africa does not exist simply to make people in
the UK, or anywhere else in the developed world, feel good about themselves,”
he said back in 2005. This is something he reiterated after announcing the sale
of his stake in De Beer’s.
“I’m a great believer that, if
you know how to operate in Africa, there are unbelievable opportunities.”
2. Forget emotion
In choosing to sell his family’s
stake in De Beer’s, Oppenheimer has proven the importance of thinking with the
head rather than the heart in matters of business.
“Obviously very emotional for all
of us in the family when we debated whether this was the right thing to do or
not,” he said upon announcing the news. “You know, it’s a 100 years of history
– 1902 when my grandfather came out here first to join the diamond business in
Kimberley. So indeed very emotional. But at the end of the day we in the family
decided this was indeed the right thing to do, and it was a unanimous decision.
And in a sense you’ve got to move on and now’s the time to look to the future
and think what exciting things we can do in Africa in the future.”
3. Be down to earth
Businessmen all over the world
will tell you that the trick to success is not getting ideas above your station
or losing touch with your customer base. Oppenheimer, comments about aid aside,
appears to be the master of discretion and being down-to-earth.
Unlike many of the business
elite, he dislikes opera or theatre – “I’m a philistine” – and he is quick to
quash suggestions that he collects antique books. “No, that was my father,” he
says.
4. Know the art of recovery
After struggling through the
recession as demand for luxury goods sagged, De Beers appears to have righted
the ship. Revenues surged 53 per cent to nearly $5.9 billion in 2010 from a dip
in 2009. Such impressive performance has led some analysts to assert that the
offer from Anglo American undervalues De Beers, though Oppenheimer denies this.
“Anglo American is the natural home for our stake,” he says.
5. Re-invest
Even at 65, the future is
something that is very clearly on Oppenheimer’s mind and he is planning on
reinvesting the money made from the sale to Anglo-American once the deal is
completed later this year.
“We’re going to be obviously
looking at investments,” he says. “That’s a compensation for the sadness and
the emotional feeling we have about De Beer’s. We will be looking for
opportunities and we are very Africa-orientated and we are going to be looking,
obviously, around the world, but there will be a very clear African bias to
what we hope to do in the future.”
These five pointers might as well
be some of the greatest advice contained in an article on this blog for African
Entrepreneurs. Our major aim here at Investodia is to get you motivated and to
give you the technical know-how on how to go about success in your
entrepreneurship endeavours. Reading these points alone won't help, you will
have to recite them every day and make sure you are practicing them to the best
of your abilities. We wish you nothing but success in years to come.
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