BACKSTORY: Shenin Singh, managing executive at Absa Everyday Banking

What’s your one top tip for doing a deal?

One of the biggest lessons I learnt during my negotiation class at Wharton was that negotiation is never about you, it’s always about the other person. To influence the outcome, you need to identify the picture in their head. Equally important, it’s not always about what the negotiation is, but who negotiates. Your ego may be bruised but sometimes someone else may have more pull.

What was your first job?

Business analyst in management consulting.

How much was your first pay cheque, and how did you spend it?

I think about R30,000. After necessities I saved most of it for my MBA.

What is the one thing you wish somebody had told you when you were starting out?

Feedback is a gift — take it as a genuine effort from a colleague, client or leader to improve you. Really working hard at addressing a few development areas has far more impact in the long run than trying to spread yourself too thin.

If you could fix only one thing in SA, what would it be?

I work in financial services with the intention of driving full financial inclusion. If I could change one thing it would be to enhance education to help South Africans become more economically mobile.

What’s the most interesting thing about you that people don’t know?

My secret superpower is a “Follies”  style of rewriting songs for (and sometimes with) my team — recently we did our financial results to the tune of We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel.

What’s the worst investment mistake you’ve made?

I did my honours in finance in 2008 and did research on a number of companies for projects, but I never followed my own predictions (after months of work on their fundamentals). One of these is up to five times its share price and I always regret getting a first-class pass for my recommendation but never making the investment.

What’s the best investment you’ve ever made?

Helping support my nail technician and her family during Covid.

What’s the best book you’ve read recently and why did you like it?

Nonfiction: Originals by Adam Grant — the inspiration to try new things was a deep source of renewal for me during a period of change. Fiction: Confessions of a Shopaholic by by Sophie Kinsella — I love the humour and irony of a financial journalist with spending habits at odds with her advice.

What is the hardest life lesson you’ve learnt so far?

Intelligence and hard work are only rungs on the ladder to success.

What is something you would go back and tell your younger self that would impress them?

If you manage to pull off the right amount of gravitas, and master the ability to run in high heels, you can wear jeans to work.

If you were President Cyril Ramaphosa, what would you change, or do, tomorrow? 

There is much we can focus on, but I think improving education in vulnerable communities is paramount in solving economic mobility for the next generation of South Africans.