Willing & Abel: Lessons From A Decade in Crisis

How do you build a business when the economy is shot? How do you transform your company meaningfully, truly empower your people and create a stronger organisation that can change the world? How do you make the tough decisions in life, in business and in leadership, decisions that will benefit everyone in the long run?

Mike Abel, one of the founding partners of multi-award-winning advertising agency M&C Saatchi Abel, answers these questions and more. Launched in 2010, M&C Saatchi Abel started out as an industry underdog in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In South Africa it was also the start of the Zuma presidency, a period of profound economic and business challenges. A decade later, and despite the odds stacked against them, the company’s story is one of incredible success.

From Nando’s to Netflix, Takealot to TikTok, Standard Bank to The Street Store, M&C Saatchi Abel has built a reputation for bringing searing clarity and innovative solutions to the strategic challenges of a diverse range of businesses. In Willing & Abel, Mike reveals the secret sauce behind the company’s success by sharing lessons hard-learned at the coalface of business, leadership and creativity over the last 30 years.

Ethics and empowerment, trust and value, gut instincts and tough decisions - this is what it takes to build a business that is future-fit come rain, shine, pandemics or government corruption. An optimist to his core, Mike shows us that - no matter the problems we face as a country, as a species and as a planet - we have everything we need to make it right.