A young analyst from RMB once had a big decision to make that would impact the rest of his life. In order to grow he had to jump from debt to equity. All the signs were pointing towards having to resign from RMB. Instead of leaving RMB, he found an ingenious way to stay on.

Thys de Beer joined the RMB Class Of Programme in 2015, and in doing so unlocked a door to new opportunities at Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (RMIH) where he gained first-hand experience from the CEO and prior Class Of, Herman Bosman.

By his own admission, the decision to leave IBD after five years was quite a gamble. He could either enroll for a costly MBA abroad or reinvent himself. Thys opted for the latter although that was far easier said than done. That was until he had discussions with Martin Oberholster from the RMB Class Of Programme about the possibility to use the Programme as an enabler to gain exposure to the equity investing world.

The perfect enabler

It was the Programme's unstructured nature and the chance to learn in a business that is still developing an identity, while leaning on heavyweight investment experience that clinched the deal.

Thys was not in the least phased by the new 'sink-or-swim' environment he was entering. “The Programme empowers staff to the point of discomfort, forcing thinking that can materially change what is accepted as the norm today,” he said.

“I had the opportunity to reinvent myself and learn from the best in the industry.”

The timing for Thys's career move could not be better. He says the world and banking have changed significantly from when he started his career as an article clerk. “Being able to move into a fluid arrangement to gain exposure to what is happening is very exciting.”.

Sound investment

As much as the face of Corporate and Investment Banking has changed over the past couple of years, so should the focus of the RMB Class Of Programme, said Thys. While the bank is still looking for out-of-the-box, entrepreneurial and somewhat maverick thinkers, the focus has shifted to 'frontier businesses' rather than trying to fit in with an efficient corporate where RMB is already exceedingly strong.

Thys believes that now, more than ever before, Corporate and Investment Banks need to be innovative and employ radical thinkers.

“The South African landscape is unique in so many ways which allows RMB to remain a market leader in its established product sets. The reality however is that the world has become a smaller place – technology now enables us to become global players – all people, especially young people, should think of themselves as citizens of the world.”

Reading RMIH's mission statement: “a specialist financial services investment entity that partners passionate, smart and industry-changing people by making substantive investments that bring influence and allow for the transfer of expertise” one cannot help but think that the risk Thys took seems to be one worth taking – echoing what Chris Grosser said: “Opportunities don't happen. You create them.".