David Zidel went into business consulting after completing his MBA at the Wits Business School in 1993. He qualified with distinctions in Quantitative Methods, Management Accounting, Business Law and Production & Operations Management. In 1996 he was approached by the business school to assist in presenting the 'Numeracy for Managers' module of their certificate program in management development.

It was here that he realised that the business calculation skills in companies in South Africa are very weak. David maintains that many employees have an irrational 'fear of numbers'. Besides lecturing for the Wits Business School, he is lecturing directly to companies on the basics of business calculations. His objective in creating this book is to illustrate how easy most of these calculations are, and that with minimal skills one can perform essential business calculations. His main aim is to rid people of their fear of numbers. He wants to show that people can change their approach to numbers and business calculations from foe to friend.


David has lectured to delegates from many companies including:

• Basil Read
• Caltex
• Department of Labour
• Discovery Health
• Engen
• First National Bank
• Investec Bank
• SA National Parks
• Shell
• SOS Villages
• Sun City
• Swiss Reinsurance
• The Courier and Freight Group
• The National Parks Board
• Total Oil