Reviewing the career history of Larry Annetts makes you suspect he’s spent the last two decades drawing the short straw. He’s the man MTN dispatched to Uganda and then to frenetic Lagos to spread the message about its new networks. From Nigeria, he was posted to Iran on a three-week assignment, and unexpectedly stayed for seven years. Now he’s back in South Africa, and you have to wonder if previous missions have left him drained and looking for a cushy number at home.

Absolutely not, he says. He’s arrived with tons of vigour on a quest to revitalise the marketing in South Africa, dissing its current techniques as staid and ineffective. Annetts became the chief marketing officer (CMO) of MTN SA in June and is treating the 20-year-old business like a startup, tabling fresh ideas and rankling anyone who thinks things should be done the way they always have been. Yet most of his team loves it, with one colleague saying Annetts has brought back the buzz.