Business with Purpose: Meet Dr Melvi Todd, the Cape Chamber’s new Manager of Member Value

“The Cape Chamber had been on my radar for a long time, but the move to join, first as a member and now as an employee, was sparked directly by the value I could see the Chamber bringing to the Western Cape economy,” – Dr Melvi Todd.

You’re no stranger to the Cape Chamber. Could you tell us a bit about your company and what you do?

I joined the Cape Chamber in 2025, after attending the Western Cape Economy Innovation Awards and being inspired by the organisation’s purpose. Before that, I’d spent just over seven years as an independent consultant. My business, Melvi Todd Consulting, is an innovation strategy practice. When people ask what that means in practice, I tell them I help businesses whose innovation has stagnated to imagine different futures, and then work out how to get there. At the same time, I was involved at Stellenbosch Business School and University in various facilitation and lecturing roles. I started my career in innovation and research and development at various fast-moving consumer goods companies – both local and international. I was born curious, with a drive to always find ways to learn, improve and grow value.

Your academic qualifications include a PhD from Stellenbosch University. What was the focus of your doctoral research, and what inspired your interest in that field?

I do hold a PhD from Stellenbosch University. The certificate says Food Science, but the research itself was interdisciplinary, drawing on policy and consumer behaviour as much as science. The focus was on value creation, specifically how food legislation and labelling could better support health outcomes for more of South Africa’s people. I find this area compelling because I believe health is a person’s greatest asset; when it isn’t in order, performance in every other part of life is compromised. It feels particularly urgent when I think about early childhood development, where malnutrition levels in South Africa are far higher than they should be, especially given how the rest of the continent tends to view us as more developed by comparison. Getting the right stakeholders around the table to see the bigger ecosystem is essential, and that PhD was really my first proper venture into thinking about how large, interconnected systems work.

Are you Cape Town born and bred? If not, where did you grow up, and what brought you to the Cape?

Yes, born and bred. I’m a Bellville girl through and through, and rather amusingly I still live not far from where I was raised.

I understand you have a scuba diving qualification, do you have any other hobbies or pastimes you are particularly passionate about?

I do have a dive master qualification, though I’m not practising as one any more. These days, when I get the chance to be in the water, I just be present and enjoy it. Beyond that, I love playing board games with my family; I’m a keen gardener, and I’m an avid reader. As a family, we also create our own beach cleanups whenever we are near our beautiful ocean.

Your research included work on a unique antioxidant found in Rooibos tea. Did this research intersect with the commercial sector, and did it spark your interest in economic development, given that Rooibos is such a major South African business success story?

My research into rooibos followed straight on from my undergraduate degree in Food Science. My Master’s focused on the antioxidant capacity of rooibos tea, and what drew me to it was that rooibos is indigenous to South Africa, grown in a uniquely small region found nowhere else on earth, and it’s a crop the country is rightly known for and one that contributes meaningfully to our agricultural exports. That interest, combined with completing my MBA in 2017, deepened my curiosity about economics, and particularly about how businesses compete and grow within the wider macroeconomic environment. I should also credit my husband here; he’s an academic whose research focuses on coopetition, essentially how competitors can collaborate, not through collusion, but in ways that grow the size of the pie for everyone. Between the two of us, that idea of collaborating to create shared economic value has become something of a shared interest. If I had to name one thread running through all of it, it’s simply that I’m proudly South African. I’m optimistic about this country’s potential, and I’d like to play my part in helping it grow from strength to strength.

You’ve mentioned attending last year’s Innovation Awards and feeling inspired by the champions and their stories. Did that experience ignite your interest in the Cape Chamber’s drive to accelerate regional economic growth?

Absolutely. The Cape Chamber had been on my radar for a long time, but the move to join, first as a member and now as an employee, was sparked directly by the value I could see the Chamber bringing to the Western Cape economy. I was also struck by some of the pioneering projects under way, work I think could serve as case studies and be replicated appropriately, in context, in other parts of the country where stakeholders are willing.

You’ll be working closely with members to enhance member value. How would you define the Cape Chamber’s core value proposition?

I’d actually just quote our own constitution here, because it says it best: the Chamber’s value proposition is about delivering meaningful business opportunities for members through extensive local and global networks and strategic interventions, and about facilitating cooperation that improves the competitiveness of our firms in markets, which in turn drives faster, sustainable economic growth.

What do you think the Chamber currently does well, and where do you see the greatest opportunity for us to improve?

What strikes me is that the Chamber is a small, highly motivated team punching well above its weight; a non-profit acting like a startup. What it does well is prove that when you connect the right people, real magic happens. The greatest opportunity, and some of this now sits with me, is making sure more people know about the Chamber and what it offers, so that more businesses join. Ultimately, creating economic opportunity for more people depends on connecting the right stakeholders, so actively bringing more people into the fold is what lets us do more. It’s also, in a sense, a never-ending task, because businesses keep forming and changing, and needs keep shifting, which is part of what makes it exciting: you’re always asking what constitutes value right now. The business environment survey the Chamber recently completed has given us some excellent insights, and the team and I will be using those to engage both existing and new members.

If you had a magic wand and could remedy just one impediment to economic growth with a flick of your wrist, what would it be?

That’s a hard one to narrow down, but if I could fix just one thing, it would be trust, and the collaboration that only follows once trust is there. So much of what South Africa needs, and so much of what the Chamber exists to do, comes down to businesses, government and communities being willing to sit around the same table and work together rather than guard their own slice of a shrinking pie. When trust is low, everything gets more expensive: deals take longer, partnerships stall, and good ideas never leave the room where they were born. If I had a wand, I’d use it to make collaboration the instinctive first move rather than the hard-won exception.

One last thought

I’d also use this platform to make a direct call-out. I was chatting to a colleague recently about how many captains of industry give generously of their time within our Chapters, sharing their experience and opening doors for others. If you’re a business leader and not yet a Chamber member, I’d encourage you to join us, whatever the size of your business, and bring that same generosity to the table. We’re facing some real challenges as a region, and an economy that isn’t thriving is a risk to all of us, so the more of us pulling in the same direction, the better our odds.