Where and how AI pays off in your business, so you grow faster
You know AI matters. What you lack is a plan for where it pays off, and who owns it.
Hosting partner
Henley Business School Africa, Johannesburg
Trusted by leading enterprises
Your staff already use AI. Is that a plan, or a way to avoid deciding?
Your people use AI every day, on work that goes to clients.
So what changed in your numbers? Same revenue. Same headcount. Same margin.
Nobody has said what is allowed, what can go into a tool, or who is in charge.
A hundred possible uses. No clear way to tell which ones make money.
One day, with your AI portfolio owner, replaces the experiment with a plan someone owns.
“The enterprise moves at the speed of its slowest unanswered question & decision.”
Francois van der Merwe, Founder & CEO, Otinga.io
What the same plan did for one business
A professional services business of 15 to 50 people built the same seven deliverables privately with Francois. Within 90 days:
- 10+
- AI use cases live, from proposals and tenders to client documents, research and admin
- 3x
- the share of staff actively using AI
- In place
- an AI policy and governance, with results measured
“...moved teams from ideas to execution quickly, while still maintaining a high bar for impact.”
An anonymised, real client result. One client's result, not a guarantee of your own outcome.
What you'll get at the in-person workshop
Your AI Opportunity Map, ready when you arrive
Built from your own staff's answers, not a generic slide deck. You could already name a few places AI might help, but there are a hundred possible uses and no clear way to tell which ones make you money.
- AI Opportunity Map: every place AI could pay off in your business, ranked by what it's worth and how hard it is.
Your AI plan, finished in one day
Finished in the room, for your business, not another to-do list. You and your AI portfolio owner spend one working day in Johannesburg turning your map into decisions, seated with businesses like yours. You leave holding finished work, not notes, ready to take straight to your partners or exco.
- Top 3 High-Impact Business Cases: the moves most likely to pay off in the next 90 days.
- Draft AI Policy: what tools are allowed, what information can go in, and where a person must check the output.
Someone in charge, so it lasts past the day
A named owner and a regular review, so it lasts past the day. Your staff are already using AI, and nobody has said what's allowed or who owns it. The workshop puts someone in charge: a named owner and a regular review rhythm that keep it moving after you leave.
- AI Strategy Operating System: who's in charge of AI in your business, and how it gets reviewed.
- Operational AI Playbook: the short, regular meetings that make sure something happens after the day.
- Approved Tool Vetting Framework: a simple way to decide which new AI tools deserve a look.
- AI Innovation Lifecycle: how an idea becomes standard practice, and when to stop funding something that isn't working.
What comes with it
Practical support either side of the day, so the plan actually moves.
- Kick-off session and staff announcement kit, so the survey never reads as a redundancy signal.
- Safe Tools Shortlist: vetted AI tools for South African businesses, with POPIA and data-handling notes.
- Templates for telling clients, partners and your board how you're using AI.
- Business Model AI Review Skills Pack, so you keep finding the AI use cases that actually matter.
- AI Results Tracker, so you can show the plan is actually paying off.
The day
The work starts before you arrive, and it carries on after you leave.
Before the day
Each of your staff spends about 15 minutes on a short survey, introduced by a kick-off session so nobody reads it as job cuts.
On the day
One working day in Johannesburg with your AI portfolio owner, run by Francois: decisions, not code.
After the day
You leave with all seven outputs, ready for your partners or exco. At day 90 the cohort meets to review what has gone live.
Why two people
The director decides where budget and priority go. The AI portfolio owner does the follow-through. One day with both of them in the room is what makes the plan last.
Fit
The day is built for a particular kind of business. Here is where it lands, and where it does not.
A good fit
You own or run a business of roughly 15 to 150 people, often professional services: an agency, an accounting or audit practice, or a legal practice.
You decide where the budget goes, or you decide it with one or two others.
You can bring one senior person, your AI portfolio owner (a COO, CFO, partner or exco member), to own the plan with you.
Your staff already use AI, and you want to see it, set the rules and point it where it pays.
Not a fit
You're a sole practitioner, or a small team with no second senior person.
Your business already has an internal AI or data team.
You want someone to build AI systems for you on the day. The workshop gives you the plan and the control, and building is a separate conversation.
You want a motivational talk.
Not sure which side you're on? That's what the call is for. Francois will tell you straight.
The Leave-With-It Guarantee
Complete your staff survey, attend the full day with your AI portfolio owner, and you leave with your AI Opportunity Map, your Top 3 High-Impact Business Cases and your Draft AI Policy finished.
If you don't, Francois will finish all three with the two of you in a private 90-minute session, free.
The conditions
- Your staff survey is completed before the day.
- Both of you attend the full day.
- It covers finishing those three outputs: your AI Opportunity Map, your Top 3 High-Impact Business Cases and your Draft AI Policy.
- There is no cash alternative.
Your host
Francois van der Merwe
Founder and CEO, Otinga
Francois runs every workshop himself, and he has delivered these same seven deliverables privately to businesses like yours.
He started Otinga in 2023 after years of seeing serious AI work get a standing ovation in the room and disappear within the week, because nobody could say what it was worth, who owned it or whose budget it came out of. Most AI programmes fail on arithmetic, not ambition, which is why this day ends with a plan someone owns.
Before Otinga
- Built automation platforms across the Middle East, Africa and globally.
- Led innovation and technology teams, and helped set up an innovation lab inside a global ICT business.
- Built predictive AI models for the Tour de France.
- Runs innovation events at scale, including a virtual one across more than 25 countries and 40 cities.
- Works with South African and pan-African financial services, insurance and professional services businesses.
Questions
Who is it for, and who is it not for?
It's built for owners and directors who decide where the budget goes, typically in professional services businesses such as agencies, accounting and audit practices and legal practices of roughly 15 to 150 people, and who can bring one senior person to own the plan with them. It's not for you if you're a sole practitioner or a very small team with no second senior person, if your company already has an internal AI or data team, or if you want someone to build AI systems for you on the day. The workshop gives you the plan and the control; building is a separate conversation.
Do I need to be technical?
No. If you can write an email, you can use everything covered on the day. Send the two people who know how the work really gets done, whether your team is already experimenting with AI or hasn't started. The day builds on wherever your business already is.
What's the investment?
Francois covers the investment on the call, once you both know the workshop fits your business. It includes two seats, for you and your AI portfolio owner, and you'll have everything in writing before you commit. We'd rather spend 30 minutes making sure the day is right for you than ask you to decide from a web page.
What if we don't leave with a finished plan?
You're covered by the Leave-With-It Guarantee. Complete your staff survey and attend the full day with your AI portfolio owner. If you leave without your AI Opportunity Map, your Top 3 High-Impact Business Cases and your Draft AI Policy finished, Francois will finish them with the two of you in a private 90-minute session, free. It covers finishing those three outputs, with no cash alternative.
Where is it held?
It runs in person in Johannesburg, hosted at Henley Business School Africa. Each workshop is capped at 15 businesses, with two seats per business, because every business's map is built from its own staff survey and that takes real work. Francois shares the next available date on the call.
What happens on the call?
It's 30 minutes with Francois. He'll ask about your business, where AI is already showing up and who would own it, and answer anything you want to know about the day. Then he'll tell you honestly whether the workshop is the right next step. If it isn't, he'll say so. If it is, he'll walk you through the investment and how to reserve your two seats.
Leave with your AI plan finished, not another to-do list
Start with a 30-minute call with Francois. By the end of it, you'll know whether the workshop is right for your business.