I was on the team that launched Men’s Health magazine (www.Menshealthsa.co.za) in this country and felt very proud to read yesterday it had broken through the 100, 000 circulation barrier with the December issue. Aside from the opportunity of working on such a great brand, the real benefit to me was the learning about the publishing industry while attending monthly team meets and yearly bosperaads. A key learning was around subscriptions and the risk in training subscribers, through ever more lavish gifts, to delay their re-subscription to the last.

That advice came back to me when I recently subscribed to Fortune Magazine (www.fortune.com) only to get the free gift of a nifty webcam with it. Well, perhaps that wasn’t the only reason, but it was a powerful incentive as I was already warmly disposed towards the Fortune brand.

Reading the March 21 issue yesterday gave me warm, fuzzy patriotic feelings had a feature on Richemont and a “rarely granted” interview with Johan Rupert.

A few things surprised me: the interview refers to Rupert just returning from a meeting with Mandela when he announced his retirement from public life – which I remember occurred last year. This makes me wonder when Paola Hjelt conducted the interview.

One of Louise Gubb-Corbis’ pictures shows Rupert at his desk. In the picture he is using an old Nokia model phone (guess 2002) sits at a very large computer monitor, a yellow box of Rembrandt Van Rijn cigs with a gold lighter, Canderal sweetener, a very large portrait of Anton Rupert with a golden haired boy (I’m guessing Granddad with grandson), two DSTV decoders and neatly stacked ring-bound books and folders.

From the picture I see the office as a large Cape Dutch-period room and the visible furniture is a classic L-shaped wooden desk with green leather inlay.

I’m fascinated about the environment in which the very rich work. Ever since Michael Douglas played the role of a New York investor in Wall Street, I also wanted a big impressive office.

I constantly battle with my own desk. I work on a large glass Le Corbusier table with a side unit converted from a 50’s radiogram that holds my technology. I suffer not having desk draws as I constantly try to tidy my table. Despite wanting clear surfaces with just the folder of the current job at hand, I can’t seem to win. From right to left my desk is currently piled with Irma Dutsch’s Espirt de Cuisine and Top Billing, GQ and Fortune magazines. A Chopin Etudes CD, my moon-phase calendar, folders of current clients, post that needs to be actioned, three cups and a glass, last night’s and today’s newspapers, a wooden box that hides anything smaller than A4, ear phones, wallet, old notebook, new notebook, Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, an Avis account, My Weigh-Less plan book, various business cards, Nokia headset, cell phone, keys and a pamphlet on 3G. It’s no wonder I’m not as rich as Rupert.