Chris Pietersen
Facilitator, Work Study and Industrial Management Consultant, PCG and Acres of Diamonds
Chris has been a practicing Work Study and Industrial Engineering for more than 30 years. He has held a number of senior positions in the South African business environment as an in-house or contract specialist, working in almost every sector of the economy and business divisions within Corporates.
His basic philosophy lies in two fundamental principles. Going back to practical basics (the devil is in the detail), and working with the people of the business, never compromising on quality and the essential component of transfer of skills and learning. He believes the consultant’s key role should be overpoweringly that of teaching, as the foundation of individual and business growth. Moreover, that dependence of the organisation after an intervention should be for further development, and that no organisation should be held to ransom for experience and knowledge by an external consultant.
After qualifying at the SA Naval College, Gordan’s Bay (with distinction) and the SA Military Academy (1972), he was commissioned as a Naval Officer, which he remained for 9 years serving in various in South African Navy ships and bases, finally Walvis Bay, as Senior Staff Office Personnel.
He joined the largest Uranium mine in the world, Rossing Uranium, in 1981 in their O&M and Work Study department. After conversion training to business methodologies, he was promoted 3 times in 18 month’s and left Rio Tinto after 3 years as the assistant Chief of Work Study, Organisation & Method Management. He also received a government appointment as a Certified Work Study Engineer (accordance with the Mining Act of the then South West Africa), for all operations of Rossing Uranium, responsible for Mining, Plant and Engineering Divisions. During this time, he implemented the first use of Time Lapse video photography in Southern Africa, contributing to a 30% reduction in Mine operational costs, after the 1881 crash in the Uranium market.
Back in South Africa, he exploited his intense need to understand the daily working of organisations. He joined Anglo American Training and Consulting Unit, the well-known Maccauvlei . He spent much time underground in AAC mines, on the shop floors of AMIC, industrial companies' factories, financial services organisations and hospital groups, with operational staff to define, re-define and implement changes to maximise those factors, which add value to the business, eliminating waste-of-time and poor organisational implementation of operational directives.
His base became the Anglo American Central Training Unit, where while consulting he developed an in-house M+3 Industrial Engineering, 21 - 36 month course, honing his skills and love for transferring knowledge and experience.
He left the CTU in 1992 to focus on a sub-division of Work Study and Industrial Engineering, the design of incentive/bonus systems for initially mines only and then for a variety of organisation. This work took him as a contracted consultant through several organisations, as a partner in a joint venture between the then QData Dynamique and Old Mutual Remuneration Consulting, creating an Incentive Consulting Unit with the renowned remuneration practitioner, Paolo Cuicci, presently Head of Compensation and Benefits for Rembrandt International London.
Between 1994 and 2004, Chris filled positions of Principle Consultant (Cape Town) for Work Study, Industrial Engineering and Incentive scheme design in a self-owned company with Dave Edwards (Quid Pro Quo (Pty)Ltd, currently Remuneration and Benefits Director for BHP Billiton. Other contracts involved establishing Alexander Forbes Remuneration Consulting, contracting to Sibson & Company and Deloitte Human Capital Corporation.
During 2004 to 2007, he took time out as an independent consultant to take care of his wife in the final stages of a 12-year battle with cancer.
Since then he has worked on the design of the “deepskills initiative” website, the world first site, volume driven/low cost, industrial management based site, which will bring a limitless amount of production management knowledge and experience to the South African theatre, at a rate affordable to the smallest business. This will be done through the establishment of franchised “learning community groups”.
He is also designing for launch in early 2010, a series of practical technique courses in partnership with PCG Acres of Diamonds, aimed at transferring skills to organisations to transform and manage internal organisational processes for long term sustainability and survival, following the recession.
Programme Expertise:
Chris’s expertise lies in any need for training or execution of productivity measurement, incentive scheme design, value management and analysis, value driver construction, product management, measurement system design, combined performance management and incentive schemes, linked to guaranteed compensation. Statistical analysis, project management and related Work Study and Industrial management.
Focus Industries: Chris has completed successful and durable solutions for the following industries, Mining (Anglo, De Beers and Goldfields, Rio Tinto), Anglo American Central Training Unit, Retail (Woolworth’s, Pick and Pay, OK Bazaars, Country Road Australia), Food(Bokomo Baking and Milling, Rhodes fruit farms, Saldanha Bay Fisheries, I&J, Parmalat), Hospital groups (Mediclinic), Farming(Anglo Pig Division, Extensive work at Rainbow Chickens), Print and Media(Ramsey, Son & Parker, Media 24, Omni Graphics), Stellenbosch University(total Package Implementation), Breweries, Petroleum(Caltex, PetroSA, Engen), Insurrance (Old Mutual, Sanlam), Finance and Business Development (Brimsone Corporation).
