Miles Kubheka

KEYNOTE SPEAKER, AUTHOR, CELEBRITY CHEF, ENTREPRENEUR, COOK SHOW TV HOST AND PHILANTHROPIST

Miles Kubheka, the entrepreneur, refreshing keynote speaker, and author, is the poster child for the audacity of hope. Having once been employed by a leading multinational, he went out on a limb and ingeniously created a restaurant with the same name and branding as a fictional restaurant portrayed in a famous ‘beeg beeg dreamer’ TV ad campaign. In doing so, he catapulted into media stardom and soon translated his innovative thinking into entrepreneurial success.

When occupying centre stage at a business symposium and delivering a keynote, Miles has a clear message of hope for multinationals and small businesses alike. If you hire the right people with an entrepreneurial mindset, you can build new business models within your company, rather than have disgruntled employees leave and start a business in competition to your own.

Miles is also a firm believer that entrepreneurial mind-sets can be fostered within an organisation. He encourages organisations to build a culture that supports employees to become intrapreneurs: people who behaves like an entrepreneur whilst being employed.

While Miles’s compelling rags-to-riches story speaks to any audience – his message is universal – it serves as a platform from which to address some of the pressing issues in business today, such as competition, retaining good staff, changing company culture and investing in the future.

Both an analytic and creative thinker, who holds a Master’s degree in Business and a post-graduate Business Diploma from a leading business school, Miles believes companies who want to generate wealth, rather than to preserve it, need to offer new products and services.

He shares his vision with businesses that are ready to ‘think out of the box’ when it comes to leadership, teamwork, branding, and reputation management. In Miles’ own words: “It is okay to build a new business on the back of a legacy business – but will it look like lipstick on a bulldog or a new puppy?”

His accomplishments include starting a chain of pharmacies and co-owning an IT software solutions company. His never-say-die message about going back out there every day, even when times are tough (he almost experienced bankruptcy), is something all South Africans in the business world can relate to. Driven by tenacity, optimism, and self-belief, Miles is uniquely capable of inspiring audiences to dream big but execute with practicality.

Accomplishments

• He holds a Master’s Degree in Business from Wits University and a post-graduate Business Diploma from GIBS Business School.

• Chef

• Host of At The Table TV show, SABC 3 20:30.

• Writes for Entrepreneur magazine.

• Author of From A Big Big Dreamer to Living the Dream – Vuyo’s.

• Became one of four independent Microsoft vendors in which Microsoft invested R100m.

• Founder of Vuyo’s franchise.