Solly Krok — Business man extraordinaire, Philanthropist, Walking to raise 108 million Rand
With Solly Krok — Business man extraordinaire, Philanthropist, Walking to raise 108 million Rand
In short
Solly Krok marks his 91st birthday by walking a distance based on his age and launching Keep the Wolf From the Door, an appeal for 108 million rand split between immediate food relief and teaching people to grow their own. Along the way he recounts surviving the Depression, the Holocaust years and apartheid, and how two twins built a cosmetics brand from a small chemist shop. The one takeaway: Small, achievable stages beat one large target, in walking and in business alike.
What does "keep the wolf from the door" mean and why did he choose it as the name?
The phrase means keeping hunger away, with the wolf standing in for hunger. Krok says he wrote to his daughter in London about the poverty he saw coming and said something had to be done to keep the wolf away from the door, and she told him that was the name for the programme.
What has he lived through in 91 years?
Born in 1929, the year of the crash, he was ten when war was declared in 1939, saw the state of Israel established in 1948, and now the coronavirus shutting down the world. His father's sister, her husband and two children stayed in Lithuania and were massacred; a grandfather he never met died in the 1919 Spanish flu.
Why is a 91-year-old walking at all, and how far?
Adrian Gore challenged him to walk according to his age, 400 metres times 91, working out at around 36 kilometres. Krok had never walked, run or been to a gym in his life, only some biokinetics work recently. He walks laps of 170 metres in Winston Lane in Hurlingham, and aims to finish by 4 June.
What business lesson did he take from learning to walk the distance?
Start small and take baby steps. He nearly gave up halfway through the first lap, then found that fixing on the next gate rather than the whole distance kept him going, and he built up to four kilometres. He says even great businessmen should only bite off what they can chew.
How did he and his twin brother get into business?
Their father, who ran a trading store in Regents Park, drilled into them that it was better to be your own boss on half the money. Told at Forest High School they wanted a factory bottling cosmetics and medicines, they later bought Devon Pharmacy from the chemist Henry Moss, funded by a savings book they called "twins twice as good".
How did a small chemist shop compete with the dominant cosmetic brands?
By piggybacking rather than attacking. Instead of knocking Karoo cream or Ponds, they told customers to cleanse their face with Super Rose lotion whichever cream they used, then handed out thousands of samples near the Alexandra bus rank. The breakthrough came when Louis Shill's father in Witbank ordered a hundred thousand; they reached about 95 per cent of the market.
How did his business run up against apartheid law?
A television advertisement for an American cosmetics range put a white Miss South Africa and a Miss Africa South on screen together, and the resulting trouble with government and police forced them to withdraw it. He also employed people and gave them licences to operate trading stores around the country, and says he was the main creator of the Apartheid Museum.
Why the odd target of 108 million rand?
Because 18 is chai in Hebrew, meaning life, and Krok wanted the life angle in the number. In dollar terms it is about six million. He is clear the sum need not come in one week and could take a year or two, and expects roughly 80 per cent from corporates and wealthy donors.
What will the money actually be spent on?
Around 65 to 70 per cent on properly structured and monitored immediate food campaigns, with the balance teaching people to plant and become self-sustaining. The mission statement draws on Maimonides on teaching a man to fish. Recipients are sometimes asked for a token payment of about 10 per cent of the food's value to avoid creating dependency.
In their words
The poor were poor before the covert, they're going to remain poor after the covert. We have to do something for the long term.
I've never walked in my life, I've never run in my life, I've never been to a gym in my life.
To give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man how to fish you feed him for his lifetime.
People ask me, what are you going to do? I see in life you're going to do three things, execute, execute, execute.
Don't be afraid of opposition. If you fail get up from the floor, if you're a boxer get up and come from the count.
Key takeaways
- Small, achievable stages beat one large target, in walking and in business alike.
- Piggybacking on an established brand's success, rather than attacking it, can win share for a newcomer.
- Free samples were the fastest route to market share in commodity lotions and creams.
- Relief money should be split between feeding people now and teaching them to feed themselves, with even a ten per cent conversion to self-sufficiency counted as success.
- Ideas are worthless without execution; Krok's three words for business are execute, execute, execute.
- A large charitable target does not have to be met overnight, and Krok would be grateful to reach it inside a year.
Show notes
On this episode I chat with the legendary Solly Krok as he celebrates his 91st birthday. At 91 he has taken note of the plight of the poor in South Africa and the potentially deadly impact of Covid-19 on the poorest of the poor and has made it his mission to raise 108 million Rand with his latest initiative Keep The Wolf From The Door. Click below to find out how you can help this incredible initiative.
Frequently asked questions
What happened to the Super Rose complexion lotion in the end?
Years later, under pressure from the regime over the FDA-approved formula, they were forced to close the product down, after it had been a great seller and dominated the market.
Who was invited to join the final walk?
Adrian Gore was coming and Patrice Motsepe had been asked, though Krok said the final list was not settled because of lockdown and the whole campaign had only been conceived three or four weeks earlier.
Where can people donate?
Through the website keepthewolffromthedoor.org and an accompanying Facebook page, which carry the deposit details. Krok also asks listeners to support African Tikkun, one of the partner organisations.
Had he raised money for charity before?
Yes. He and his brother ran a mock wedding show nineteen times, inviting top businessmen to act as participants, and a raffle-style scheme called Million X with mock share prices, which stopped only when the lottery became legal.
What did a rabbi tell him about raising children?
Asked what he should teach his children, the rabbi gave him three words: example, example, example. Krok says he hopes to be an example of mindset and positivity to listeners.
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