It’s not every day that a product launch results in visiting exotic locations and witnessing majestic beasts but that is exactly what happened when fintech group AstuteWheel exported its flagship professional financial planning software to South Africa last month.
The group’s roadshow was not your run-of-the-mill business trip for the AstuteWheel team who were lucky enough to visit a not-for-profit animal sanctuary, which trains cheetahs that have previously been kept as domestic pets.
The animals are trained to hunt food before being released into the wild. AstuteWheel director Michael Topper explained that the majestic big cats could be kept as pets for the first two years of their lives, which was a common practice in South Africa and the Arab Emirates among wealthy families.
However once the cheetahs hit the age of two, their basic animal instincts became too risky and they were often killed and their skin made into products such as handbags. The South African sanctuary is trying to mitigate the carnage associated with the practice and the AstuteWheel team enjoyed every minute of their visit, during which they also saw a number of other African animals including elephants and lynxes.
AstuteWheel is also seemingly the only financial services group to hold its annual general meeting in Kruger National Park – at least to our knowledge at the financial observer.
