Themba Baloyi is an entrepreneur and investor who hits the ground running - every day, rain or shine. On this cool morning in Johannesburg, fresh from pounding the roads for 10 kilometres for the 2,663rd day in a row, Baloyi sits down with African Business for a chat. His fanatical commitment to running - he will soon push up to 16 km a day in preparation for the Pietermaritzburg to Durban Comrades Marathon - mirrors the determination that brought him success.
His idea, which he had to push for years like a boulder uphill, was the creation of South Africa-based Discovery Insure - a sister company to health insurance giant Discovery Health.
Discovery Insure offers car and house insurance. It came up with packages which rewarded good driving, provided roadside maintenance and charged no excess for an accident caused by a third party. Call centres were established to sell policies to the public, many of whom were first-time insurance buyers.
Creating the business from inside insurance giant Discovery Limited took seven rejections and 15 years of hard slog as gruelling as a marathon. Now established with 1.9m members as of February this year, it is targeting expansion into the competitive, yet lucrative, UK insurance market.
Baloyi's chanceDiscovery's diversification began with a meeting in 2003 between Baloyi and Discovery founder and chief executive Adrian Gore, who he'd been working for since 2001. "I was really moved by his beautiful speech about the future of the country and the opportunities that lay ahead. I thought he was very authentic... I said to him it was a great speech, and it made me all the keener to pursue my vision. Of course I was nave! Here I was talking to the group CEO hardly three years into the business, and I am telling him I want to pursue my vision," recalls Baloyi with a smile.