CFO Magazine, Issue 1, 2020

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 1 • 2020 CFO.CO.ZA

MAKE THE MOST OF MENTORING 7 CFOs explain how Turnaround specialists Megan Pyadigadu and Zaf Mahomed

Ashley Wood Sorbet CFO Get the scoop Emilie Bigot Bureau Veritas FD Paint by numbers

Celebrating excellence Meet the 2020 CFO Awards nominees Leading Bidvest Mpumpi Madisa takes the helm in 2021

Rian du Toit Hans Merensky Holdings CFO Relocating the role

Tough new job, brand new baby

Implats CFO Meroonisha Kerber has got this

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CONTENTS

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Associate partners:

CFO South Africa is the organisation for finance executives in South Africa. Our goal is to connect finance professionals online and off in order to share knowledge, exchange interests and open up business opportunities.

CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd 1 Wedgewood Link, Bryanston, Johannesburg, 2191, South Africa. | +27 11 083 7515 | CFO.co.za © 2019 CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

DESIGN

PRINTING

Joël Roerig jroerig@cfo.co.za +27 76 371 2858

Elizabeth Ferraris

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Toni Muir

Novus Print Peter Wilding peter.wilding@paarlmedia.co.za +27 11 201 3400

Georgina Guedes gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789

PHOTOGRAPHY

COMMUNITY & SALES MANAGER John Deane jdeane@cfo.co.za +27 82 570 9482

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PROOFREADING

Andrew Morgan, Lizelle Furter, Patrick Furter, Ter Hollmann OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Caylynne Fourie, Puseletso Mompei, Ray Mahlaka, Victoria Williams

Community 8 12 82

Finance professionals moving up and away this quarter Highlights from the 2019 Finance Indaba From the CFO community manager

Change 16 22 24 26

New job, new baby – Meroonisha Kerber’s got this You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: it’s all about disruption CFO of the Future Summit discusses how business are using technology to keep up Get the scoop on Sorbet – Meet the CFO of the growing beauty brand

Leadership 30 34 38 46

Preparing the next generation to fill your shoes Mpumi Madisa reveals what it takes to lead Bidvest Introducing this year’s CFO Awards nominees CFO Awards interviews

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Turnaround 48 54

Megan Pydigadu: More than just a job Zaf Mahomed: The turnaround guy

Future 58 62 68

Ushering businesses into the ‘Age of With’ Special feature: Prepare for the future – it’s already here CFOs chart a course for their future at a dinner with Graeme Codrington

Purpose 70 74 78

Rian du Toit: UK calling CFO Cares: Luyanda Gidini giving a boost to young black CAs Emily Bigot: Paint by numbers

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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The magical motivational power of goals

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wo years ago, a friend asked me how many books I read a year. He and his girlfriend were on a race to be first to 50, and having a reading goal had changed how they consumed their literature. They’d given up television and social media and often simply sat together on the sofa, reading.

“I probably already read about 50 books a year,” I responded, perhaps a bit smugly. “I am not sure I need to read more.”

“People think they read more than they do,” my friend told me. “They forget about busy weeks, or particularly difficult books, or that they go on holiday, and estimate higher than what they really read.”

Well, nothing’s more motivating than being doubted, so in 2019, I set myself a reading goal. I reckoned I’d aim for the 50 books my friend had worked towards, and started keeping track in my interview notebook.

They I decided to move the whole tracking production onto Goodreads, because they give you a cool visual summary at the end of the year (visual summaries are very compelling – if ever you have a chance to come to one of our events at which Nicola Tyler concludes with a visual summary of the content, I urge you to do so).

But by the time I’d taken to Goodreads, I realised I was averaging around seven books a month, which set me on track to complete 84 books by the end of the year.

It turns out that while my friend was wrong about my reading rate, he was right about the motivating power of a goal. I was sacrificing series watching, social media checking and internet browsing, and I was probably neglecting my husband a bit as well.

I set my Goodreads goal to 80, and carried on. By November – a big reading month – if I kept up my rate, I could have probably reached 100, but the December holidays smashed into my reading time (I have young children so I read less, not more, on holiday), and I concluded the year with a respectable 89 books consumed. (“Best book of the year?” you ask… The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett. Educated by Tara Westover was also excellent.)

So, what did I learn? I learnt that goals motivate. And I realised that public accountability also plays a part in

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keeping people focused and committed. This starts to feel a lot like working in the finance world, doesn’t it?

What I also learnt, however, was that I didn’t actually need to read that much. I like watching the odd series, and spending time on social media, and my husband is a nice guy, who probably also deserves a bit more of my attention. So, once again, the opportunity to bring balance back into life presents itself. For 2020, I have set myself a far more modest goal of 60 books, and have committed to a daily haiku project to focus my mind.

You can read about CFOs setting goals and being publicly accountable in this issue of CFO Magazine, with Zaf Mahomed and Megan Pyadigadu sharing their stories with us on pages 48 and 54. Those who excel at staying the course and meeting their targets make excellent CFO Awards contenders, and you can meet this year’s nominees on page 38. And you can find out about balancing work and creativity with Bureau Veritas FD Emilie Bigot’s story on page 78.

The true star of dedication and balance in this issue, however, is Meroonisha Kerber, who started a new job at Implats just before finding out that her IVF attempt had been successful. She tells us all about how she faced up to both challenges in her story on page 16.

If you have any stories to share about the power of personal goal-setting, I’d love to hear from you on the email address at the bottom of this note.

Yours, in productivity and balance, Georgina Guedes Editor-in-chief gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789

PEOPLE MOVES

FINANCE PROFESSIONALS MOVING UP & AWAY THIS QUARTER The mining, insurance and public sectors have been appointing new finance leadership while some companies are losing their CFOs to the international market.

Peter Oswald with effect from 31 March 2020. Andrew, a 2016 CFO Awards nominee, has more than 16 years of experience with Mondi Group in various strategy, business development and finance roles.

Sugentharen Perumal

Nashua welcomed Salome Barker as its CFO as of November 2019.

She has been with the company since March 2012 when she was appointed as divisional FD of Nashua ECN. She has served in various finance roles throughout the company’s divisions since then.

Sugentharen “Sugen” Perumal has been appointed as MTN South Africa’s acting CFO. He takes over from Sandile Tsele, who moved on to support MTN Group CFO Ralph Mupita as of 1 November 2019.

Robert Katz has again taken on the role of CFO at Peregrine Holdings, along with his current role as group CEO, as of 1 November 2019. He takes over from Claire Coward, who was the group CFO since 1 June 2018 and resigned as of 31 October 2019. Rob was appointed as Peregrine Holdings CEO in November 2017 after holding the CFO position at the company for seven years.

Mondi Group CFO Andrew King will be stepping into the role of interim group CEO after the resignation of

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CFO Awards nominee Joe Ndala has been appointed as Aurecon’s new CFO. Joe previously served in the role of AECOM MD since 2018.

Before that, he served as the company’s CFO of Africa since 2014.

Talib Sadik is acting as Adcorp Holdings’ interim CFO as of 18 November 2019. He took over from Cheryl-Jane Kujenga, who was appointed as interim CEO after the resignation of Innocent Dutiro as CEO, to allow her to focus on her new role.

Carmen le Grange has taken on the role of group CFO of Denel from 9 September 2019. Her appointment comes after previous CFO Odwa Mhlwana was fired in November 2018. She took over from former ArcelorMittal SA CEO Wim de Klerk, who was serving as acting CFO.

Robert Katz

Andrew King

Tanyaradzwa “Tanya” Chikanza has been appointed as Bushveld Minerals’ new FD as of 1 October 2019. She joins the company after nine years at Lonmin, where she served as executive VP of strategy, investor relations and communications.

After five years without a CFO, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) appointed Japhtalina Lesibana Fosu from 2 September 2019. Lesibana is a qualified CA(SA) with an MBA from IMD Business School in Switzerland.

She received a Clean Audit Award from the Auditor-General for her work at the Limpopo Road Accident Fund for clean unqualified opinions for two consecutive years between 2012 and 2014.

Karel Kramer has been heading up the budget and treasury department of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as acting CFO since 7 October 2019. Karel took over from director of budget and financial accounting Jackson Ngcelwane, who was serving as acting CFO.

Osman Mia takes responsibility for AstraZeneca’s MEA finance CFO Awards 2018 nominee Osman Mia has been appointed as CFO of MEA at AstraZeneca. About the role, Osman said: “It’s been my dream role in my short to medium term with the company. This was the next stepping stone that I wanted to unlock my international experience.”

The appointment comes after Osman relocated to London in 2015 to take up the CFO-in-waiting role for the MEA region.

Osman is set to work in the role for

three years, within which his strategy is to set up processes to “ensure the company develops and delivers on what we call an ‘African ambition’,” and to streamline the supply chain into the export markets of Middle East and Africa. Osman also plans to set the foundation for strong double-digit growth in the short to medium term.

“Watch this space!” Osman said as he shared his hopes to guide the companies through the headwinds of expanding into new markets. l

Robert Nicolella has been appointed as Hosken Consolidated Investments FD as of 1 August 2019. He has subsequently resigned from the audit and risk committee of Tsogo Sun Hotels. Robert took over from Kevin Govender.

Robert joined Hosken Consolidated Investments in 2011 to develop its properties portfolio.

James Lenton took on the role of CFO of Hammerson on 1 October 2019. He has also joined the board as an executive director as of 16 September 2019. He succeeds Timon Drakesmith. James joined Hammerson from AIG, where he served as the CFO and board member of its European Group since 2014.

Andrey Maruta has been appointed as Kore Potash CFO as of 23

Osman Mia

a role he has held since 1 August 2019. Rakesh has extensive experience in financial services, in both the private and public sectors.

Talib Sadik

September 2019. He took over from John Crews. Andrey has over 16 years’ experience in the mining industry, including as CFO at Petropavlovsk.

Jean-Pierre van Staden is the new CFO of Botswana-based Minergy. He has been in the role since 2 January.

Jean-Pierre replaced Morné du Plessis, who stepped into the role of Minergy CEO as of 1 August 2019.

Life Healthcare Group appointed its group CFO Pieter van der Westhuizen as acting group CEO following the resignation of Dr Shey Viranna as CEO. Pieter will remain in his role as group CFO while serving as acting CEO. He has been with Life Healthcare for 20 years, the last five of which he served in his role as CFO. Paycode has appointed Grant Haarhoff as its new CFO as of 23 October 2019. Grant joins Paycode from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), where he held several high-profile roles, including acting group CEO, over six years.

Air Namibia has appointed Werner Schuckmann as its new CFO as of 8 October 2019. Prior to joining Air Namibia, Werner held various CFO and financial director roles spanning the fishing, aviation and construction industries.

Joe Ndala

Grindrod Bank has confirmed the appointment of Rakesh Garach as its CFO and executive director,

James Lenton

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PEOPLE MOVES Demographica has appointed Bianca Raghuber as its new FD. Bianca has been in the role since 1 July 2019, through her appointment was only officially announced on 2 December.

Pieter van der Westhuizen

Willem Marais resigned as the FD of Pembury Lifestyle Group on 10 January. Willem, who has a B.Com Honours degree in accounting from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, joined Pembury as group financial manager in January 2019.

Jan Hnizdo, the CFO and managing director of Teraco, has taken over as CEO after the resignation of Lex van Wyk, one of the founders of the organisation.

Tsogo Sun Gaming has announced the resignation of CFO and executive director Rob Huddy as of 31 July 2020. Rob has been the CFO of Tsogo Sun Gaming since its unbundling in June 2019. He previously served as the CFO of Tsogo Sun Holdings Group since 30 September 2011 and its executive director since 31 October 2011.

Bridget Radebe

African Rainbow Capital CFO and 2019 CFO Awards nominee Bridget Radebe has resigned as of 29 November. She had been a non-executive director of African Rainbow Capital Investments since 10 August 2017. l

CFOs take on new nations The finance executive space is not untouched by the recent emigration fever hitting South Africa and a number of high-profile CFOs are heading for distant shores.

Comair FD Kirsten King’s resignation will come into effect on 28 February 2020. She will be emigrating to the United Kingdom.

Kirsten was first introduced to Comair as the revenue accountant and was appointed FD in 2014.

City Lodge Hotels CFO Alastair Dooley has resigned as of

Kirsten King

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31 January 2020. He will be emigrating to Australia. Alastair took over from Andrew Widegger, who was appointed as CEO, in June 2018 after serving as the group’s divisional director of finance since 2009.

2017 CFO of the Year winner Till Streichert resigned as the CFO of Vodacom to pursue an opportunity outside of the company. He will be leaving in June 2020. “After 12 years at Vodafone and six years with Vodacom, it is a decision that wasn’t taken lightly. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in South Africa and dealing with a number of challenging situations across the various Vodacom operations in Africa,” he said.

Till took the reins as CFO of Vodacom Group in August 2015, after serving as the executive director of finance for Vodacom SA from February 2014. He had been the CFO of Vodafone Romania and held a number of senior positions in that country.

Another returning expat, Afrox’s Matthias Vogt, has resigned as group FD as of 31 March 2020.

He will be returning to Europe to pursue other opportunities within The Linde Group.

Matthias has been the group FD and an executive director of Afrox since 1 August 2017, and was nominated for a CFO Award for his work in the role. He has been with Afrox’s parent company, the Linde Group, for nine years in various senior positions in corporate finance.

Matthias Vogt

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COMMUNITY

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE

2019 FINANCE INDABA

On 16 and 17 October 2019, CFO South Africa hosted its annual Finance Indaba at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. Over the two days, more than 5,000 finance professionals made their way through 40 partner stands and seven breakaway rooms, and attended more than 69 sessions. These were some of the highlights.

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icking off the first day of the Finance Indaba, The Beancounter founder Marnus Broodryk delivered a keynote address in which he talked about how many of the rules in business serve as barriers to success. “We need to asses whether those rules are guides or gates, and we need to ask questions and challenge things," he said.

In the public sector

Breaking the rules

The political situation also has an effect on tourism.

SANParks CFO Dumisani Dlamini said that tourists look at many factors when choosing a holiday destination, whether it is the distance of the destination from their own country, the crime, and in South Africa, land grabs.

“There were 7 million tourists that arrived in South Africa last year, and this figure has declined to 6.6 million this year.”

MTN CFO Ralph Mupita shared his unconventional journey to becoming a CFO. Ralph has run his career by his own rules and, unlike his counterparts, doesn’t have a CA qualification. Instead, he is a civil engineer by training. “I think coming from an engineering background has helped me a lot in the finance profession.

Engineering teaches you about pattern recognition, observing trends, using and trusting data to make decisions. These skills help when it comes to problem-solving in finance,” he said.

Public sector CFOs not only have to manage numbers but also deal with corruption. On a panel, the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations CFO Innocent Gumbochuma said that the biggest challenges for his organisation are bogus colleges and the misrepresentation of educational qualifications.

Technology to your advantage Adapt IT’s Michael Mncube challenged finance professionals to not be intimidated by rapid technology

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changes but to embrace them because their productivity can be enhanced, especially when it comes to onerous processes such as corporate income tax returns. Caseware Africa’s Nienke Kruger echoed Mncube’s session, saying that, as part of integrating your financial ecosystem you need to improve the software you use for reporting.

In a panel discussion, Discovery Health CFO Brett Tromp and Flight Centre general manager, technology Bonnie Smith shared insight into how their companies have improved customer service by embracing technology. Bonnie said Flight Centre has come a long way from the traditional world of travel booking to using technology to engage with customers throughout their trips. Brett echoed this, saying: "We use technology to interact with our customers seamlessly, so technology is part of doing business for us.”

Allowing for failure Cell C CFO Zaf Mahomed and Bowmans CFO Jo-Ann Pohl emphasised not trying to plan your life too well, and letting things happen instead, as the lessons learnt along the way give you direction in the end – both personally and professionally.

Zaf said CFOs need to create safety nets that allow for failure, mitigate its cost, and solve problems quickly.

“Young people entering the finance space aren’t taught to fail: too much pressure is put on them to not fail instead of preparing them for it.”

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In a different panel discussion titled ‘Advice from my younger self’, Hatch Africa CFO Craig Sumption, Peninsula Beverages FD Andrew McMaster and Discovery Vitality CFO Sanele Mbatha agreed that not every decision CFOs make is going to be right.

Craig told the room: “We were not all born leaders and being in a leadership position doesn’t mean you have all the answers.”

Andrew agreed, saying that you should acknowledge when you don’t know something and take the initiative to find out and come back with something.

A better world In a panel titled ‘Our duty to make the world a better place’, Kumba Iron Ore CFO Bothwell Mazarura, Hatch Africa FD Craig Sumption, Discovery Health CFO Brett Tromp and Walter Leonhardt, Coca-Cola FD, shared the ways in which they are working towards a better future.

For Bothwell, a better world is where the mining industry makes a positive impact. For Craig, a better world means working towards better corporate governance and growing the economy. Brett agreed, saying that the only way to change people’s lives for the better is if we are integrated into communities. Walter believes there’s too much inequality. He said: “We need to ensure that people start more at an equal than an unequal footing and help them become successful.” l

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Reach thousands of finance professionals with your brand at

THE BIGGEST FINANCE CONFERENCE AND EXPO IN AFRICA

14-15 OCTOBER Sandton Convention Centre

Finance leads the way REGISTER NOW For more information or to book your stand contact: John Deane: jdeane@cfo.co.za | 082 570 9482 Tamara Bell: tbell@cfo.co.za | 060 997 0802 CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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NEW SHE’S GOT THIS job baby

Photos: Patrick Furter

Meroonisha Kerber took the role of CFO of Implats the day before a massive restructuring was announced, and a week before she found out she was pregnant.

She chatted to Georgina Guedes about her year of major changes.

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CHANGE

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hen Meroonisha Kerber makes a new beginning, she doesn’t do things by halves. In a meeting with members of the nomination committee and the CEO of Implats to discuss her appointment as CFO, they briefed her on the challenging nature of the role due to the difficult financial circumstances in which the company found itself in a persistently low platinum group metals (PGMs) price environment, and which would require some very tough management decisions.

“I joined Implats on 1 August, and we announced a restructuring around the company’s Impala Rustenburg operation on the second. We had some liquidity issues – the balance sheet was under a bit of pressure because of years of depressed platinum group metals prices.”

This restructuring would potentially affect the lives of many people employed by the mining company – a fact that Meroonisha was very aware of. Her second day on the job – the day the restructuring was announced – was her hardest day professionally.

“Announcing a restructuring that could potentially impact the livelihoods of 13,000 people is a sobering way to come into a company. When I joined, I had some idea of potentially how many people would be affected, and I came in to be a part of that. I was aware too of how difficult it was for the management team to get to this point.”

But taking on the CFO role wasn’t the only significant change that Meroonisha was making in her life at the time. When she entered into discussions with the Implats leadership, she was also waiting to find out if her latest round of IVF had resulted in a pregnancy.

While not legally obliged to do so, she felt ethically compelled to share the possibility with the company she intended joining.

“It was a difficult time joining a company faced with significant challenges, and then, on a personal note, not knowing if I was pregnant or not. When I told Nico Muller, the CEO, of this possibility I was very nervous. I thought he would have a change of heart, but he just said, ‘This is life.’ I knew then he was going to be supportive through the process, which was hugely comforting.”

It turned out that Meroonish was pregnant, which meant she took maternity leave at a difficult time for the company. But with the support of the CEO and her extremely hands-on team, she was able to navigate her new professional and family roles.

“All challenges create opportunity. I’ve learnt a lot with all the changes and haven’t at any stage regretted my decision – but my life certainly would have been simpler if I had stayed where I was.”

“It was a difficult time joining a company faced with significant challenges, and then, on a personal note, not knowing if I was pregnant or not” She did work while on maternity leave. “We were inducing the early conversion of our US convertible bonds into equity, and were also in the process of acquiring a Canadian palladium asset. My colleague, Kirthanya Pillay, executive of corporate development, who ran these processes, was very supportive during that period and tried to accommodate my availability. From Nico all the way down to my finance team – they’ve really been there for me.”

The benefits of experience Although Meroonisha joined Implats from AngloGold Ashanti, she had previously spent 11 years at Anglo American Platinum, so the peaks and troughs of the platinum cycle were not new to her.

“Being in the industry for such a long time, you accumulate knowledge around the technical aspects of the business. To be able to get the final metal out in platinum group metals is much more difficult than in gold. So, understanding the complexities does make it easier to come in as a CFO – which then, of course, comes with its own unique challenges.”

Shortly after the restructuring was announced, PGM prices rebounded, providing more optionality to Meroonisha and her team.

“The reality is that in South Africa, which has deep conventional mines with large infrastructure and overheads, and high labour complements, when the cycle turns, these operations come under significant margin pressure.”

The asset that they acquired in Canada has “really healthy margins”. “This acquisition gives us the opportunity to continue to operate profitably through the cycle. However, almost half of Implats’s production comes from Impala Rustenburg, which has a high costs base and puts us, as a Group, under pressure.

“However, restructuring is never an easy decision for a mining company to make, because a large part of our cost is labour. When I arrived, the company was reducing costs through the supply chain. The business had to address operations making losses in an oversupplied market. Once supply chain costs are reduced, the next thing to look at is labour. These are CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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the hardest costs to reduce because of the socioeconomic impact on all our stakeholders.”

redeployment of labour resources and mitigating job losses. But then PGM prices turned.

The decision was therefore made to reduce the Impala Rustenburg footprint by reducing the number of shafts in operation in a phased manner to ensure profitability – this at an operation which is currently ramping up two new big shafts. Implats’s biggest challenge was to get the timing right so the shafts scheduled to go into care and maintenance coincided with the ramp up of the new shafts, enabling the

“We made progress in addressing the profitability of this mine, but we’re now in a higher price environment, which gives us more optionality. It doesn’t mean the problem goes away, and we’re still trying to see what the best options are for Impala Rustenburg in the longer term.”

“ I wanted to know that once I had qualified, I could get a job easily and be able to take care of my family.”

She says that while a different industry might be easier to work in, she’s never had a dull moment in the mining space. “There’s always a different challenge, and it’s a very complex environment with numerous stakeholders and the volatility of commodity cycles.

But I think it’s the challenging part that I enjoy.”

Her biggest challenge, she says, is her responsibility for the balance sheet. “I have to make sure that we are liquid, and that our balance sheet is strong enough to withstand volatility in prices, exchange rates and pricing disruption. It focuses the mind when 40,000 employees are dependent on the decisions we make. We have to make sure that the company is robust enough from a financial perspective. It’s quite a sobering responsibility and something I take very seriously.”

She says that she’s also found new corporate actions – such as the US convertible bond transaction and being part of the acquisition of the Canadian asset – extremely interesting and exciting.

“And in between all of this, I try to spend as much time with my son as possible,” she says.

The importance of family Meroonisha comes from what she describes as a humble background. Her parents couldn’t afford to send her or her three siblings to university. “Being the practical person that I am, I looked at what career I could get a bursary for, which would guarantee me a role after I completed my studies. I wanted to know that once I had qualified, I could get a job easily and be able to take care of my family. I looked at engineering, but finance was my final choice. It helped that I enjoyed accounting at school.”

Her family, she says, is very tight knit, and she and her siblings were all there for each other through university, helping with tuition fees and general support.

“I realise how important it is to have a support structure to rely on. My mom is awesome.”

Meroonisha’s youngest sister introduced her to the man who became her husband – they both worked for SAP, she in South Africa and he in Germany.

Meroonisha says that she had been extremely career focused for most of her adult life, so finding a life

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“In hindsight, if I could go back and change things, I would probably have stayed truer to myself.” partner when she was in her forties was something of a surprise. And then realising that they wanted a baby and managing to fall pregnant has been extremely positive, but also an unexpected turn.

Meroonisha says that her husband is extremely supportive and has negotiated a reduced work week with flexible work arrangements for himself so that he can spend mornings with their son. Her mother looks after their son in the afternoons.

of finance, especially in the face of the complexity of the current regulatory environment, understanding the industry you are in, and then having a strong focus on corporate governance and a strong and reliable finance team.

“Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and you need a strong moral compass. It’s not always easy to make the right decision, but if you have integrity, then it’s easier.”

When asked where she sees herself in five years’ time, Meroonisha was candid about the fact that her focus right now is on the present.

“I haven’t thought that far. I hadn’t thought in a million years that I would become a mum. And then I’ve been trying to get back into work and find that balance. Five years from now seems a very long way from this. I’m just trying to take it day by day.” l

“I don’t have to worry about whether he’s looked after while I am working. And that allows me to work the hours that I do. Without this kind of support, I don’t think I would have been able to do it. We wanted him so much, but we also have to make certain time sacrifices.”

She says that some evenings she’ll go home earlier so that she can spend time on Skype calls later in the evening. “People are much more accepting of the demands of family life than they were in the past, and that, and modern technology, has made it possible to be more flexible.”

Hindsight and foresight In a year in which Meroonisha has settled down into the role of CFO of a significant listed business, become a parent, returned to work and effectively balanced the demands of these challenging roles, it’s a good time for her to reflect on the steps that got her here.

“When I started out in the mining industry, things weren’t always easy for women. In hindsight, if I could go back and change things, I would probably have stayed truer to myself. I became quite tough to deal with the environment I was in, and that’s not necessarily the person that I am. I realised later on in my career that if you’re not being true to yourself, it creates a certain tension. As a woman, you’re often told not to be emotional at work. But in hindsight, the thing that set me apart was the fact that I was a woman – I didn’t have to be less emotional. I would go back and tell myself to embrace more of who I really am.”

Meroonisha believes that the winning formula for being a great CFO is having a sound understanding

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Neville Williams, Remgro CFO

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again:

IT’S ALL ABOUT DISRUPTION

In the last quarter of 2019, CFO South Africa hosted two dinners at The Stack in Cape Town – one with inspiration from Capitec CFO André du Plessis and the other with disruption guru Ian Russel.

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n 29 October, CFOs gathered for a dinner supported by alternative stock exchange A2X, with Capitec CFO André du Plessis as the special guest, to talk about the opportunities and challenges that disruption provides to CFOs and their companies, and what excites them most about disruption.

Pick n Pay CFO Lerena Olivier zoomed in on the “energy” that disruption brings to the wider economy “even at companies that are not the first to disrupt”.

Curro Holdings FD Bernardt van der Linde spoke about the ways disruption can “create something better for society”, while Coronation Fund Managers CFO Mary22

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Anne Musekiwa focused on the ever-improving customer experience.

André challenged the notion of Capitec being a disruptor and interrogated the difference between disruption and innovation. “We weren’t outsiders doing things in a totally different way, like Netflix for example. We were a bunch of bankers, who focused on simplicity and transparency.”

He spoke about disruption in the banking world and stated that digital banks – like Tyme Bank – are not disruptors in his eyes. “All the big banks in the world think about digital all the time and use machine learning and AI.”

Ian Russell, disruption guru

Otsile Matheba, A2X CFO

The 29 October CFO Dinner at The Stack in Cape Town was attended by: • Kevin Brady, A2X CEO • Otsile Matheba, A2X CFO • André du Plessis, Capitec CFO • Lerena Olivier, Pick n Pay CFO • Wikus Olivier, Sanlam CFO • Bernardt van der Linde, Curro Holdings FD • Mary-Anne Musekiwa, Coronation Fund Managers CFO • Hennie Nel, Santam CFO • Neville Williams, Remgro CFO • Rob Nicolella, Hosken Consolidated Investments CFO

Narriman Taliep, V&A Waterfront CFO

The CFOs also spoke about rolling out new business models – like digital education and online retail – while carrying on with the core business of, for example, schooling and physical retail.

The disruption guru On 19 November, CFO South Africa, supported by Oracle, hosted a dinner with disruption guru Ian Russel, who provoked CFOs to think about disruptive behaviours within their organisations.

All the CFOs agreed that they needed certain skill sets to weather the storm and to stay relevant. The skills they highlighted were adaptability, agility and being forward-thinking. Essentially, they said, CFOs must anticipate change before it happens – disrupt or be disrupted.

Ian asked the CFOs what they are doing to remain relevant as AI and robotics are being incorporated into finance teams. Homechoice’s Jason Wright and Afrimat’s

The 19 November CFO Dinner was attended by: • Pieter de Wit, Afrimat CFO • Jason Wright, Homechoice CFO • Morne van Tonder, Pragma Holdings FD • Graham Meyer, Tellumat FD • Ashley Francis, UCT Executive FD • Narriman Taliep, V&A Waterfront CFO • Justin Crowhurst, Woolworths CFO

Pieter de Wit pointed out that CAs and their analytical thinking skills add enormous value to business. They help to review and analyse decisions based on their experience within the business that technology and automation simply don’t provide. The CFOs agreed that using data and insights in meaningful ways is how they will continue to add value.

A common theme raised was that skills transfer is critical between the older generations with institutional and business knowledge and the younger generation who are tech savvy, creative and adaptable. Organisations that can adopt this knowledge-sharing mindset will catapult their business ahead of their competitors.

George Ferreira, senior sales director – applications, at Oracle said: “People are concerned about the rate and pace at which the world is now evolving, the reality is that this pace is only going to increase, and we need to build a mindset and skillset in order to be able to adapt to the imminent changes.” l CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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Photos: Patrick Furter

Fulu Ravele, Renergen CFO, Senele Mbatha, Discovery Vitality CFO, and Mhanqwa Khumalo, Pfizer SSA FD

CFO of the Future Summit How businesses are using technology to keep up

CFO South Africa hosted special guests Graeme Codrington, Jan Hofmeyr, Mikateko Tshetshe and Ian Russell at the Equinox Innovation Centre in Sandton. The speakers shared how technology is changing the way we live and the way we do business.

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n 5 November 2019, CFO South Africa – in partnership with Oracle – hosted the CFO of the Future Summit at Absa’s Equinox Innovation Centre in Sandton. Close to 100 of South Africa’s top CFOs gathered to learn, network and share their experiences and concerns around digital transformation.

tems they would consider to be ridiculous. Doctor visits, parking garages and office blocks were put forward as concepts we’d move on from in the not-too-distant future by the audience. Graeme then challenged the audience to think about what this would mean for their own roles in the future of business.

After CFO South Africa MD Joël Roerig kicked off the evening, CFO South Africa community manager John Deane opened the floor to TomorrowToday Global CEO and futurist Graeme Codrington.

The costs of developing vs the cloud

Graeme pointed out that the 2020s are a few short weeks away, saying that everything we’ve done in the past two or three decades has been building blocks.

“What will happen in the next 10 years is that those systems will develop a life of their own,” he said.

Graeme then asked the CFOs to imagine themselves in 2050 and look back on the 2020s and consider the sys-

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The audience was then split into two groups to hear from two CFOs who have undergone a finance transformation in their organisation. OUTsurance CFO Jan Hofmeyr explained how the insurance company is now embarking on a cloud journey. “Wearing a CFO hat, I have to look at the cost of developing systems when they are available in the cloud.”

About the journey, he says that it’s daunting, but then you find your rhythm. “We don’t bet the farm on new technology, but run the systems concurrently for a few

Precious Hawadi, NTP Radio Isotopes group executive for finance, and Elisa Mkhize, Clinix Health Group CFO

Marinella Vigouroux, Howdon Africa CFO

Jan Hofmeyr, OUTsurance CFO

Hlengiwe Khumalo, Necsa CFO

months to make sure that the new one is delivering, and to remain cloud agnostic as far as you can,” he said.

Get your people on board Unilever VP finance for Africa Mikateko Tshetshe explained how Unilever brought in EY to assess and trigger thoughts about automation. This 12-week programme reviewed the company’s end-to-end processes, using global, Unilever and industry best practices to identify which processes could be automated and eliminated. Mikateko said that the key call out from this process is to make sure that you are doing this holistically, including your staff in the process.

She explained that her finance team identified tax reconciliations as an area that could be automated.

Introducing robotic process automation in this department whittled a two-week process down to one day.

“We are all digital immigrants,” Ian said. “We have come into this technological world that we live in today relevantly late in life and have had to work out how to use it. We do our best.”

On the other hand, he said that the children of today instinctively know how to use new technologies. “These kids are digital natives.”

Ian highlighted some things that we can do to stay relevant: –

Embrace reality and make it your friend.

– Work out what is your why. Why do you go to work and why does your function do what it does? And what is the why of your organisation?

We are all digital immigrants

– Create an ability within your business to fail early, fail fast and fail forward. Encourage people to do things differently in a safe environment that always rewards glorious failure than actually looks after minor conservative success because we were slightly less bad than last year.

The audience then came back together to hear the closing words from BCX ex-CEO and author of ‘The Other End of the Telescope’ Ian Russell.

– Embrace diversity. You need diversity in all parts of the organisation in terms of industry background, ways of working and how you get stuff done. l

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Photos: Ter Hollmann

“A market such as South Africa demands ingenuity, creativity and leaving behind preconceived notions.”

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Get the scoop on Sorbet Meet the CFO of the growing beauty brand

The potent combination of a keen business mind, flair for innovation and a tactile relationship with the company’s lotions, potions and experiential offerings give Ashley Wood her edge as CFO of the Sorbet Group.

By Puseletso Mompei

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I t’s not so much about being a woman as it is having a relationship with the products and services of the business,” explains Sorbet Group CFO Ashley Wood. Since 2004, Sorbet has earned a cult following with its fresh and often unexpected approach to personal wellness.

Ashley says, “Having an intimate understanding of the brand as a consumer, as well as having access to the data and numbers, allows me to make decisions that are good for the business, but also resonate with me as a someone who is an end user.” For instance, the drybar is an offering she relates to, “A blow dry in a fun, vibrant environment which is the perfect pick-me up when you’re busy and don’t have enough time for a full on hair treatment, but still want to look great.”

The Group’s brisk growth and expansion rollout has been accelerating steadily for the last half decade.

Ashley has been a key player in navigating the company’s journey in a time when brands can grow exponentially in months and equally, can keel over any day.

Born and bred in Johannesburg, Ashley grew up in a close-knit family, with a father who was a chartered accountant and older sister who studied accounting.

With her natural knack for numbers bolstered by her family’s background, she pursued a career in finance and has never looked back.

Leaving her comfort zone and discovering new abilities along the journey has been a constant thread in

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CHANGE Ashley’s life. She points to her first major growth spurt when she left home for boarding school. “Before then, I was quite a shy child. But moving away to school helped me develop my own voice and be able to assert myself," she says.

“I value strong relationships and invest in building meaningful connections.”

Ashley says it was a big shift to find herself in a co-ed environment, navigating life side-by-side with boys, following on a girlsonly experience. One of her pivotal ‘out of the shell’ experiences was when she joined a community programme visiting elderly people. She says the cross-generational conversations forced her to engage on an adult level, but also absorb stories and exchanges that gave her perspectives that motivated her to live her best life. And when she went to UCT to study Business Science, this growth was further compounded, bolstering her confidence.

On-the-job growth A once-in-a-lifetime secondment to the British Virgin Islands with Deloitte, which is one of the British Virgin Islands’ largest professional services firms, was pivotal for her. In the last year of her articles, Ashley was charged with planning and executing the audit, managing audit teams, reporting to senior management, and assisting junior team members communication with the client in a vastly different market from South Africa. Finding herself thriving on the other side of the world further cemented her self-confidence, especially since the initial feedback was that she wasn’t good at the work. But she set her mind to more agile, strategic thinking, acting as a shareholder or business owner and not an auditor, which pushed her to develop a more rounded view of the business. This initial challenge was a crucial stepping stone to pursuing ever bigger opportunities, the benefits of which she reaps at her job daily.

Serving up Sorbet Innovation is at the centre of what Sorbet does and excelling as the CFO of a dynamic company like that requires passion and drive, both of which Ashley has in spades. Now in her third year at Sorbet, she leads a team in one of the most recognisable, fastest-growing brands in beauty and self-care. A case study in homegrown success, the Sorbet Group has gone from just four branches in 2005 to over 200 stores in 2020.

“A market such as South Africa demands ingenuity, creativity and leaving behind preconceived notions.

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We have a diversity of customers which defies textbook norms and attempting to ‘cut and paste’ from other markets simply won’t work," Ashley explains. “To excel in this business, you need to respond to rapidly changing demographics, tastes and influences. For instance, the stores initially offered only Dermalogica products, which have a high price tag, and while excellent, they were out of the reach of many consumers. Thus, the Sorbet line of skincare was launched in collaboration with Clicks, catering to a wider base of beauty lovers who wanted excellent products at a more accessible price point. My role requires resourcefulness, an appetite for continuous learning, agility and readiness to take calculated risks.”

When she came on board, Long4Life was acquiring the Sorbet Group and Ashley was tasked with the formidable responsibilities of looking at projections, keeping an eye on the balance sheet, and the group’s profitability, as well as that of franchisees.

As the brand’s footprint has expanded, and new products and services have been added to its offerings, they have had to roll with evolving consumer tastes.

The portfolio, which now comprises Sorbet Salons, Sorbet Man, Sorbet Dry Bar and Candi & Co has developed at a pace which has kept Ashley on her toes. “As we have grown, I have paid close attention to smartly introducing retail products which tick all the boxes in terms of taste, price point, quality and brand affinity, such as the bath and body line of shower gels and body butters, spritzers, foam baths, creams and scrubs. As our brand has become entrenched and we have become the market leader and enjoy visibility, there is now the threat of being copied. We strive to stay one step ahead, so that we are always fresh and distinguishable to the customer.”

As the brand has expanded to launch a makeup line and go toe-to-toe with established global brands, as well as enter the tenuous ethnic hair market with Candi & Co, so the balancing act of such endeavours has been nail biting. One example of this was the signing of a deal with Foschini to establish a store within a store, which was a foray into unchartered territory.

For Ashley, the non-traditional, experimental, entrepreneurial culture at Sorbet aligns very much with her own sensibilities. “While I am very analytical, I love being able to communicate with people who aren’t financial and share the story that numbers can tell.

I value strong relationships and invest in building meaningful connections," she says.

“Strong human connections give you the insight to make better technical decisions.”

She believes that opportunities to have a fuller life and richer experiences come through people and that, “while technology and other tools create new prospects, strong human connections give you the insight to make better technical decisions and be a stronger business leader".

Leadership and growth Describing herself, Ashley says, “My leadership style is a collaborative one, taking responsibility and respect for those you work with. I have an open-door policy and even though I have an office, I like sitting with the team and feeling part of the collective. I believe in giving others the space and opportunity to grow.”

me wrapped around their fingers. I also enjoy keeping active and participating in park runs and going to gym.

My wide network of friends also keeps me connected and balanced away from work. Travel is also a bug that has definitely caught hold of me. I have travelled to 39 countries and the list is growing, with many items still on my bucket list, including the Serengeti and the Maldives." l

ASHLEY’S TOUGHEST DAY While there have been many triumphs in her career, these have been tempered by difficult times. Ashley’s toughest day came about as the result of making the inevitable foray into digital while she was with Flight Centre, before Sorbet. “As

Looking ahead, Ashley sees herself going from strength to strength, though she has learnt that infusing fun and light-heartedness into her life is important. “If I was to give my younger self some advice, it would be to have more fun. Yes, achieving your goals requires some focus and hard work, but you can still get ahead while enjoying the journey.”

a forward-thinking company, digital was a key part of how

When she’s not at work, spending time with her family – with which she is very close – is a priority. "I am an aunt to two nieces and four nephews who have

From then, the team put proactive controls in place to protect

we connected with customers and had ongoing engagement with them. Unfortunately, the cyber world exposed us to an online scam where someone charged flights to a credit card fraudulently. When I became aware of this scam, I gathered all the information, immediately assessed the situation, and went to the CEO with options of how we should address it.” consumers.

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PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION TO FILL YOUR SHOES

The role of mentoring is becoming increasingly important in an everchanging work environment. Seven CFOs share the role mentoring plays in their working week. By Caylynne Fourie

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oday’s working world is all about being future-ready. A big part of serving on a company’s C-suite is the mentorship you provide to people who will one day fill your shoes.

We asked the 2019 CFO Awards Nominees to describe the role mentoring and coaching plays in their working week. This is what some of them had to say:

Andre du Plessis, Capitec CFO, winner of the Compliance & Governance Award and the Finance & Technology Award "I mentor a lot of people and I often get the compliment that they learn a lot from me. I think the most important thing is to take people and guide them through the process of what they need to do.

“If someone needs exposure to credit, I will invite them to read through our credit documents and invite them to a meeting to see what we do, and make notes. Afterwards I will ask, why did I insist on x or y?

“I am very straightforward. It makes some people uncomfortable. But if I see something that someone is doing wrong, I will talk to them about it. I believe that if I know something or think something, it’s no use in my head. I will share it with you, and you can do whatever you want with it. I use that a lot in my mentoring style."

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Arno Daehnke, Standard Bank Group FD, winner of the Moving Into Africa Award “As we deal with the increasing pace of change to embrace the fourth industrial revolution, the role of coaching and mentoring is becoming increasingly important. Our teams and employees work in a fluid and constantly changing work environment and need to respond in an agile manner to these changing demands. Coaching and mentoring assists in navigating this dynamic environment. We make use of external as well as internal coaches. Within the finance team, we recently launched a coaching training course, which helps our staff become successful coaches and mentors. The take-up rate of the coaching training course has exceeded our expectations, and is clear evidence that our finance teams recognise the importance of coaching and would like to develop this important skill.”

Dion Mhlaba, RH Bophelo CFO “In our environment, we have complex regulations and the duration of closing a deal is long. We have to comply with competition and health regulations. In this environment of dealmaking, the workload and volume for staff members is a lot.

Without appearing like I am micro-managing, sometimes I would check if members of my team are coping. Very few people are looking at whether junior staff are coping and whether they need support. With new and different transactions, I prefer to discuss the deal and what we should all look out for. That is where mentoring is important, it builds confidence and encourages dialogues.”

Hennie Nel, Santam CFO "I love it; that’s the one thing that really gives me energy. In my previous life, I was in an auditing firm and I just love seeing young people coming in, going through and then leaving as great professionals. It’s the same at Santam. I do one-to-ones to look at what we can do differently and to find out what they think.”

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Jason Quinn, Absa group FD "Twenty folks come and have a cup of tea with me every month, and we chat about life and how careers and relationships are built. We see a correlation with the success rate of how these colleagues get promoted and contribute to the firm. It’s amazing to see. I take the mentorship aspect quite seriously.”

Nakedi Ramaphakela, Masimong Group CFO (for her time at Royal Bafokeng Holdings) “I like to mentor other people. We had a few trainees coming on the CA programme. There was a lot of coaching and mentoring – not only on work but also general life skills. Teaching people how to engage in a meeting is important, as some of these individuals come straight from varsity. I like to have conversations with my team around what they love to do and what their ambitions are.”

Sizwe Nkosi, Phembani Group CFO "We set KPIs for the year. We use those to determine bonuses and increases. It's more about what the company wants to achieve. For example, the CAGR of 12.5 percent is known by my team. Each person plays a part in this big picture and it becomes described in their job description.

“I also believe in training staff and sending them to career development programmes. I haven't been good at getting my team into professional associations such as CFO South Africa and the Institute of Directors (IOD), to make sure that they are ready for the next level. That is something that I am planning to do this year, making sure that my financial manager, who has an MBA, attends courses from IOD.” l

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“Last year, Lindsay and the board said that they were ready to make the announcement. For six years, I’d been doing the job as best I could, and now it was time.”

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MPUMI MADISA REVEALS WHAT IT TAKES TO LEAD BIDVEST On 4 March last year, Bidvest announced that Mpumi Madisa would be the group’s next CEO – starting in the financial year 2021. Georgina Guedes chatted to the CEO designate about how she worked her way to being one of only two women who head up JSE Top-40 companies.

Mpumi’s appointment has attracted the attention of the head of the nation along with many other industry analysts and well-wishers. When she officially assumes her duties in 2021, she will be the first woman to lead Bidvest, and one of two black women who are the CEOs of JSE Top 40 companies. “I feel the significant responsibility and accountability,” she says.

“I have been on the board and accountable for the financial performance of the group for six years as a part of the team, but now the big change is the huge expectation.”

12 years at Bidvest Mpumi’s journey with Bidvest started in 2003, when she joined the subsidiary Prestige’s client relations team. She spent six years progressing from Prestige to

a divisional level.

Three years later and she was already appointed to exco. “I have had a very quick progression in terms of seniority, but I still felt like I had lots more that I wanted to learn. At Prestige, I had progressed to one level below the board in three years, so I felt that being CEO of this business was in reach. But at the same time, I felt that I needed to go out and learn more. I didn’t want to get there too quickly.”

Mpumi tried to articulate this to a friend, struggling to put her finger on what exactly she felt was the missing piece of her career puzzle. The friend proved insightful. “She said I should go into government. It’s an enormous entity with pockets of excellence if I went out to find them. So I took the next six months looking for a job in government.”

She started out as a chief director of transformation at the Gauteng Provincial Government, setting up a portfolio that didn’t yet exist. “It was really fantastic and very different. I got to understand the difficulty government faces when interfacing with business, so I came to see some of the tensions and why they talk past each other. It was interesting to be the person in the room who could see both worlds and understand why, in some instances, they clash.”

While the exposure to the public sector was import-

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Photos: Supplied

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hen a call to congratulate her on being appointed as CEO designate of Bidvest came from the president, Mpumi Madisa was driving, and had no idea who was on the phone. “He said that he was calling to say congratulations, and I said thank you. But it was only when he mentioned that he’d been out of the group for more than 10 years – he used to be the chairman – that I realised. And then I had to say, ‘yes, Mr President,’ while pretending I’d known it was him all along and trying not to crash my car.”

LEADERSHIP ant for Mpumi’s personal growth, she decided that she needed to move on in 2008, because she felt that as the elections approached, the working environment became increasingly political. “I’d got what I wanted,” she says.

know well. They said that Lindsay would teach me the operational side of the business, and Brian would teach me corporate relations. Strategic relationships are an important part of such a big brand’s business, and we needed to walk that road together.”

Then, by utter coincidence, at a petrol station, she met a Prestige board member and started chatting.

“He asked me, ‘Have you got what you wanted to learn out there?’ And I mentioned that I was in fact looking already and had had a couple of interviews. He said I should come back and chat about where the business was, as they would like me back if I was ready.”

While this was an unexpected and daunting proposal for Mpumi, she resolved to keep a clear head. “I decided to take the conversation and put it in a drawer and just do my job, learn as much as I could about the business, push myself as hard as I could, and do anything and everything to grow and add value.”

Clearly she was, because in 2008 she returned to Prestige as corporate affairs director in charge of four departments. She was shortly promoted to sales director, where her impressive turnaround of underperforming sales led her to expand her scope of work to the Bidvest Group level as executive director responsible for group business development. Mpumi was later appointed to the board of directors of Bidvest and her role expanded into other portfolios including Africa expansion, client relations, involvement in M&A and the acquisitive growth strategy of the group.

The next chief exec Then, in 2013, Mpumi was called in for a conversation with current CEO Lindsay Ralphs, as well as the Bidvest founder and ex-CEO, Brian Joffe. “They told me they thought I could be the next chief executive, and that they wanted me to spend time getting to know the entire group. I nearly fell off my chair! I had been in one division, but there were six others I needed to

Push herself she did, and Mpumi ended up sitting on 22 boards within the Bidvest group, getting involved in business development, client relations, mergers and acquisitions. “And then last year, Lindsay and the board said that they were ready to make the announcement. For six years, I’d been doing the job as best I could, and now it was time.”

Mpumi says the response has been far better than she ever expected. “From the day the announcement was made, a lot of our shareholders, clients and suppliers have been coming to me with positive feedback.

One said that they would have been very surprised if someone other than me had been appointed." And of course, she received her call from the president.

Bidvest insights Mpumi says that Bidvest’s evolution in the 12 years she’s been with the company has been wonderful to watch. “I’ve worked for Brian and for Lindsay, who had two very different leadership styles. Brian was the

Getting to know Mpumi Madisa: Maths, marriage and fitness Mpumi grew up in Sebokeng in the Vaal and went to the Santa Maria convent school for her primary education. When she was 16, her parents moved to the South of Johannesburg, and she finished her schooling at Mondeor High.

She holds three degrees – a B.Sc mathematics and economics, an Honours degree in economics, and a Masters in finance and investments. “I have an absolute love for numbers,” she says. “I get excited when I see a spreadsheet. My mother is a teacher, and from a young age, I helped her with calculating the test results. She would leave a pile of test papers in the kitchen, and she would say, ‘I’ve marked all of those. I need you to go through and double check them. And then double check that my percentages are correct.’ So I would count all the ticks and sit with a calculator, and although I hated it, it gave me a real knack for numbers and that’s how I ended up doing a B.Sc in mathematics.”

Mpumi is married to a petrochemical energy operational director, with two children. She and her husband are currently building a new home because they are “suckers for punishment”.

She believes that it’s important to be physically active so that your body can live up to the demands of life. “If you want your body to carry you, you must be fit. I need to do a 60-minute run every day. I’m clear that I have to do this. If I don’t, I can feel my body pulling back – a sluggishness or fatigue. It’s not a grudge thing for me. I feel the need to oxygenate my body.”

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founder, and he had an amazing brain. Conceptually, he was continuously thinking 20 years ahead to what the company should be, quite instinctively. He taught me the gut feel stuff. Lindsay is more of a business operator and strategist. He’s taught me about how to run a business, getting deeply involved when you need to and pulling back when you need to. I’ve watched them manage the transition from a founder-led business to the next phase, with the fundamentals remaining in place.”

She points out that the business has done exceptionally well over the past 30 years. “There’s been compound growth every year for 29 years. The only year when there wasn’t was with the global economic crisis in 2008.”

The company, she says, is in a slightly different space today. The food business, which operated in 39 countries, was unbundled and listed as Bidcorp in 2016. The remaining businesses are 95 percent South African, and Mpumi says that they remain bullish about the country.

“We’re spending a billion setting up an LPG facility in Richards Bay. But 50 percent of our capital allocation is outside of South Africa, growing our footprint in specific niches – we have no intention of duplicating Bidvest in its current state outside of South Africa.

To recreate what we have here is almost impossible, so our international aspirations are quite niche. Our first acquisition post unbundling was a facilities management business in Ireland. So we’re looking for bolt-on acquisitions like that in the UK. Hygiene services is another niche industry we would want to expand internationally.”

As well as being actively involved in driving all aspects of the business, Mpumi is also excited about a project that Bidvest is will be launching in the North West Province. “It’s basically a reskill and rebase project, bringing people in for artisanal training. It’s addressing the big issue of unemployment, which is why we chose the North West, where the mines have been scaling down and a huge number of people aren’t working.

Our own staff take people through the programme, giving them skills so that they can become plumbers, electricians, toolsmen or carpenters.”

Mpumi’s leadership style Mpumi believes in leading by example and earning respect. “I think that people will follow you when they believe in you, when you know how to deliver, when you intrinsically understand what you are doing and will make the right decisions. Because Bidvest has 120,000 people, one of the things that’s top of mind for me is the influence of my leadership, and how I can touch all 120,000 people in the Bidvest family.”

She says that this presents a challenge as the group has a decentralised operating model, so her people

don’t all come to one office. “But I want to influence everyone with our vision, so that they can understand the strategy and how to achieve it and what their role is in our story. Whether you are a cleaner or a chief executive, I want you to understand your role in the bigger group and have a love for the brand in the way that I do.” l

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INTRODUCING THIS YEAR’S

CFO AWARDS

NOMINEES On 14 May the 2020 winners of the prestigious CFO Awards will be announced at the annual “Oscars of the finance profession”. The winners will be selected from South Africa’s leading finance professionals. Here are the nominees for this year’s top accolade in the finance profession.

Angela Pillay: FD, Sasfin

Ashley Francis: Executive FD, UCT

Angela started her career at Arthur Anderson, but wanted to get into financial services so she moved to FNB, where she started in home loans and worked her way through various roles, including CFO for the Commercial Bank for four years, and balance sheet management. She then moved to Absa, where she became CFO of the Corporate Bank and gained international exposure through Barclays. She moved to Liberty as the CFO of Libfin for a short time before being approached for her current role as group FD of Sasfin. She is a CA(SA) and has a master’s degree in financial services with over 15 years of financial experience.

Ashley joined the University of Cape Town (UCT) in September 2013 in the interim capacity of finance executive. In 2015 he was selected as the finance director designate and assumed the official executive finance director position on 1 January 2016, making him the first black FD of UCT since its establishment in 1918. He also serves as a member of the finance, risk, joint venture, remuneration, and intellectual property advisory committees, and is responsible for managing the university’s risk, procurement and commercial development portfolios. In 2011 he founded Ashley Francis Consulting. Prior to this, he was the owner and MD at Biotech Fuels, a chief financial executive at the V&A Waterfront, financial manager at Irvin & Johnson, and management accountant of fish processing at Sea Harvest Corporation. He is a qualified CA(SA) with a CTA and a bachelor's in accounting science degree from the University of South Africa.

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Bernardt van der Linde: FD, Curro Holdings

Bryan Groome: FD, Verimark

Bernardt is the FD and an executive director of Curro Holdings.

He is a qualified CA(SA) and a CFA charterholder. He completed his articles and remained as manager in the financial services division of PwC until 2005. After that, Bernardt joined Finweek as writer and head of companies and markets. Bernardt joined the PSG Group during 2007 where he has been part of the executive team at Paladin. He has been a non-executive director on the boards of various PSG Groups and Paladin investment companies. Bernardt joined the Curro Board during 2009 as a non-executive director and became CFO during 2011.

Bryan Groome was appointed financial director and executive director of Verimark in March 2016, making him the youngest director (CFO) of a listed company. He completed his articles at Deloitte in Durban. He worked in San Jose, USA, on contract with Deloitte as an audit senior. He then worked as the group financial manager for Car City Holdings, the holding company of Car Service City, Automate and Motorlube. He has a post-graduate diploma in accounting from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is also a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Cheryl-Jane Kujenga: CFO, Adcorp Holdings

Dion Mhlaba: CFO, RH Bophelo

Cheryl-Jane Kujenga, known as CJ, has been the CFO and executive director of Adcorp Holdings since 1 July 2017. Cheryl-Jane served as acting COO of Adcorp Holdings from 1 August 2017 until 2 November 2017. She has 20 years' commercial experience, including nine years as a partner at EY. At EY, she worked in an advisory capacity to various industries including technology, telecommunications, manufacturing, infrastructure, retail, healthcare and financial services, and also served on the Accounting Standards Board (South Africa) for six years. She has an MBA from the University of Cape Town and a B.Compt Honours from UNISA.

Dion Mhlaba holds a B.Com Accounting Degree and Honours from UJ. He completed his auditing articles with KPMG in 2010, where he qualified as a CA and RA. While with KPMG, Dion worked with Nedbank, IDC and DBSA. From 2011 to 2013, he held advisory roles with Afripalm Resources, a company with mining and financial services interests and Sakhumnotho Holdings with exposure to a variety of projects, including mining, financial services and engineering. In 2013, he worked in financial support at Thebe Investments in a role which entailed streamlining of reports, analysing of financial data, budgeting, performance and board reports. In 2017, he was appointed as the CFO for RH Bophelo. Dion also holds a full-time senior lecturing post with UJ.

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LEADERSHIP

Dorette Neethling: CFO, Adcock Ingram Holdings Dorette has been the CFO and executive director of Adcock Ingram Holdings since 23 February 2016. She joined the company in August 2007 as the group financial executive. From 11 November 2015 Dorette served as acting CFO until her permanent appointment. Prior to this, she served as financial director at Quintiles South Africa and as financial manager in FMCG environment in Namibia. She also serves as a member of the Financial Reporting Investigation Panel of the JSE. Dorette is a qualified CA(SA) with a master's degree in commerce (taxation).

Euan Mcneil: CFO, Flight Centre Travel Group Euan McNeil has been the chief financial officer of the Flight Centre Travel Group since September 2018. Before joining Flight Centre in 2013, he spent more than five years at PwC, first as an articled clerk based in Sunninghill, and later as an assistant manager and manager of PwC’s Sunninghill CIPS Assurance Division. During this time he also spent six months working in assurance for their San Jose office in California, USA. He graduated Cum Laude from the University of Johannesburg and holds a B.Com degree with Honours in Accounting.

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Elisa Mkhize: CFO, Clinix Health Group Elisa completed her articles with PwC in 2005. She became an audit supervisor for PwC in 2006 and was seconded to the company’s London offices in 2007. Later in 2007 she was appointed as a divisional accountant for Wilson Bayly Holmes Ovcon before joining Foskor as a finance manager in 2009. Between 2013 and 2016, Elisa served as a senior consultant for various companies and initiatives, including the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development and the South African Forestry Company. She also served as a financial advisor for the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme. Prior to joining the Clinix Health Group in 2016 as CFO, Elisa served as the acting CFO of Daybreak.

She has a B.Com Honours degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Innocent Gumbochuma: CFO, Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) Innocent is a qualified CA(SA) with experience in various finance and accounting roles at middle and senior levels. He joined the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations in 2013 as the director of finance and procurement and was promoted to CFO in 2018. Prior to this, he served as the senior manager of finance and supply chain at Umalusi for four years.

He has also served in various accountant and analyst roles with NMB Technologies, Silvercote Investments, Reserve Bank and Civil Aviation Authority respectively. Innocent has an MBA, advanced diploma in business and accounting, B.Com degree with Honours in Accounting and a project management certificate.

Jason Quinn: Group FD, Absa

Keith Gibson: Group CFO, Netcare

Jason Quinn was appointed financial director of Absa in September 2016. He joined the board and executive committee in September 2016. He is the chairman of the models committee and a member of the group risk and capital management, credit concentration risk, information technology and separation oversight committees. Before joining the Group, he was a partner at EY. Jason joined the Group in 2008 as the financial controller and was appointed as the head of finance in 2014 after holding several senior finance positions. Jason is a director of Absa Financial Services, and Woolworths Financial Services and is an employer-appointed trustee of the Absa Pension Fund. He holds a B.Com Honours degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and is a CA(SA).

Keith Gibson joined Netcare in July 2006 as financial manager of the company’s international operations. He was appointed as acting CFO on 1 August 2011, and as executive director and group CFO on 10 November 2011. Prior to joining Netcare, he held senior financial positions with PPC Cement and Barloworld. Keith also chairs the finance and investment committee and working capital committee. He holds a Bachelor of Accountancy and a Bachelor of Commerce. Keith is also a qualified CA(SA).

Louraine Rossouw: CFO, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development

Mark Godfrey: CFO, Spar Group

Louraine is a qualified chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience at executive management level aligning strategy, finance, ICT and other resources. She joined the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in 2013 and served as its COO from 2015 to 2016. She has previously served as the CFO and COO of Christel House SA and the Free State Department of Education respectively. She has also served as a director of the School for Entrepreneurship and Business Development at the Central University of Technology in the Free State, as well as the head of its accounting department.

Louraine's career started off as an auditing manager at PwC. She has a B.Compt honours degree in auditing and accounting from the University of the Free State.

Mark Godfrey is a qualified CA(SA) with a B.Com and CTA from the Nelson Mandela University. He served his articles with EY and was then seconded to the Department of Finance to serve his military service. At the conclusion of that period, he was offered a permanent appointment and served a further three years handling tax investigations. Mark was approached by the Spar Group, which was looking for a financial manager for the newly opened distribution centre in Port Elizabeth.

Mark spent more than eight years with that division before he accepted a transfer to the North Rand distribution centre situated in Midrand as financial director. In October 2010, he was appointed as group financial director.

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LEADERSHIP

Narriman Taliep: Finance executive, V&A Waterfront Narriman is the finance executive at the V&A Waterfront. She also serves on the group board of directors, property committee and remuneration committee. Her corporate career spans 20 years and includes experience in real estate, financial services, information technology, human resources, internal audit, tax structuring and driving BEE, corporate responsibility and good corporate governance. Before joining the Waterfront, Narriman worked at EY, ultimately as an audit supervisor, exposed to organisations including NSFAS, LA Company and other medium-sized commercial businesses. She is a chartered accountant and registered auditor, a member of the South African Property Association and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Nishlan Samujh: Group FD, Investec Nishlan is an accomplished finance professional who has been a loyal servant of the Investec group since joining them in 2000.

A CA(SA), Nishlan made his way to the CFO role by working up through the ranks, serving initially as the group’s head of international finance before assuming the mantle of group CFO and becoming an executive director in 2016.

Norman Basthdaw: CFO, Sun International

Rhett Finch: CFO, King Price

Norman Basthdaw was appointed CFO of Sun International in March 2017. Prior to his appointment as CFO of Sun International, he was the group executive of mergers and acquisitions at Sun International. He is a qualified CA(SA) by profession and holds a B.Compt (Hons), and a CTA, as well as an M.Com and a Higher Diploma in Company Law. He worked in senior finance positions at, among others, Absa, Gensec Bank, a subsidiary of Sanlam, Genbel Securities and Allied Electronics Corporation. Norman has also been instrumental in Sun International’s expansion into Latin America.

Rhett is a qualified CA(SA) with a postgraduate diploma in accounting from the University of Cape Town and a B.Com degree in commerce from the University of Stellenbosch. He started his career as an articled clerk at Deloitte in 2009 and served at Deloitte New York from 2011 to 2012. He joined King Price Insurance in 2012 as a general manager of finance and was promoted to CFO in 2014.

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Riaan Koppeschaar: FCFO, Exxaro Resources Riaan joined Exxaro in 2006 as the general manager of corporate finance and treasury. He was appointed as director of finance on 1 July 2016 and is also a director of several Exxaro subsidiary companies and joint ventures, as well as a trustee and investment committee member of the Exxaro Pension and Provident Funds. Before joining Exxaro, Riaan served as the manager of corporate funding at Iscor from 1997 to 2001. He was appointed as the general manager of corporate finance and treasury at Kumba Resources in 2001. Riaan served his articles at PwC from 1993 to 1996. He has completed advanced and associate programmes in treasury management, and has an advanced diploma in taxation and advanced management programme (Insead), as well as a certificate in theory of accounting. Riaan is also a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Risto Ketola: Group FD, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Risto has been serving as the group finance director of Momentum Metropolitan Holdings since 8 January 2018. He joined the group in August 2016 to head up investor relations and business performance management. In 2017, Risto was appointed as the company’s CFO. Before joining Momentum Metropolitan Holdings, Risto served as an executive and head of financial sector research at Standard Bank. He has also served as an insurance analyst and director at the Deutsche Bank, a derivative specialist at Cadiz Asset Management, and a product development manager at Norwich Life respectively. Moreover, Risto is a CFA charterholder and a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries. He graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B.Sc in economics and statistics.

Rivasha Maharaj: CFO, Afgri Group Holdings

Ted Willcox: CFO, PepsiCo SSA

After completing her articles of clerkship, Rivasha joined Meadow Feeds in June 2004 as management accountant. She then fulfilled various senior finance positions at Nampak and Tega Industries. During 2016 she was appointed as financial director at DivFood, a division of Nampak. She joined Afgri in May 2017 as CFO looking after grain management, equipment, retail, Unigro and Harvest Time. These companies operate in South Africa and African countries. In February 2018 she was appointed as group CFO at Afgri Group Holdings.

Ted is a finance and strategy executive with almost 20 years of developing and emerging market experience across leading multinational corporations. In his role as CFO for PepsiCo Sub-Sahara Africa, he leads finance and control, strategy and business development, revenue management and IT. Prior to being appointed as CFO, he was the planning and strategy director at PepsiCo. Before joining PepsiCo, Ted served as the director of business development at Kraft Foods. He has also served as a group procurement controller, financial analyst and audit supervisor at Mondi Packaging, Anglo American and KPMG respectively. Ted is a qualified chartered accountant with a B.Com degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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LEADERSHIP

Tsholofelo Molefe: CFO, Telkom Tsholofelo is a qualified chartered accountant. She joined Telkom in July 2016 as deputy group CFO. She then moved to the position of chief risk and compliance. In 2018 she was appointed as group chief financial officer. Before joining Telkom, Tsholofelo was employed as a finance director of Eskom Holdings and an executive director of the company’s main board until June 2015. She joined Eskom in July 2005, after a short career journey with FNB – Personal Banking Segment as CFO in the consumer segment unit. Before joining FNB, Tsholofelo gained extensive experience in the banking industry as an audit manager at Absa Group. She also worked for the Liberty Group as an assistant audit manager and at IBM as an auditor. She served her audit and accounting articles at PwC.

Shabeer Khan: CFO, Department of Trade and Industry Shabeer has been the CFO of the Department of Trade and Industry since 2013, where he achieved the first-ever and subsequent clean audits for the department. For his work at the department, Shabeer has been nominated for the 2014 and 2015 CFO Awards. Prior to joining the Department of Trade and Industry, Shabeer served as the senior manager at the Office of the Auditor-General for nine years. He started his career as an articled clerk at Fazel and Associates in 2002. He has a bachelor of accounting science honours degree from the University of South Africa and a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Witwatersrand.

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Tsundzukani Mhlanga: Executive director of group finance, ItalTile Tsundzukani Mhlanga is a qualified chartered accountant (SA) with an MBA from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. She completed her financial management articles (TOPP) at Edcon Holdings and in 2009 joined Pembani Coal Carolina Propriety, where she held the position of finance and procurement manager. Tsundzukani is currently the executive director of group finance and administration at ItalTile.

Prior to joining ItalTile in 2017 as its FD, she served as an independent consultant, as well as the financial director at Ascension Properties. Before that, Tsundzukani was acting CFO of Alexkor SOC. She served on various board subcommittees and oversaw the finance, procurement and risk management functions of Alexkor, as well as its joint venture operations.

Xolani Mbambo: FD, Grindrod Xolani is a seasoned finance executive having worked in mining and logistics industries for over 15 years. He is a South African qualified CA with integrity and the ability to translate strategic themes into actionable strategic and business plans. He has worked in different geographies and complex finance projects including SAP rollouts, HFM implementations, migration from UK GAAP to IFRS, implementation of shared services, driving cost-saving initiatives and greenfield coal mine implementation.

WORLD CLASS FINANCE IN ACTION Changing the world by leading the change in business.

14 MAY 2020 | THE POLO ROOM BOOK YOUR SEAT OR TABLE TODAY CFOAwards.co.za | John Deane - jdeane@cfo.co.za

Photos: Patrick Furter

Claudelle von Eck, CFO Awards judge and founder of Brave Inflexions

Finance leaders come under intense scrutiny in the 2020 CFO Awards Judging Week No aspect of their working lives goes unexamined for the CFOs who submit themselves to the intensive interviews that decide the CFO of the Year.

T

he last week of January is always a significant one on the CFO South Africa calendar as it’s reserved for interviewing the CFO Awards nominees. This year, the interviews took place at key awards sponsor Deloitte’s offices in Woodmead.

This is the start of the judging process that will culminate in the announcement of CFO of the Year – along with nine other prestigious awards – on 14 May 2020 at the Polo Room in Inanda.

The annual ‘Oscars for South African finance professionals’, which is now entering its seventh year, sees CFOs of listed companies, large corporations, state-owned entities and government institutions are recognised and rewarded for their outstanding performance and leadership.

This year, 26 nominees compete for the coveted title.

The judges agreed that their interviews revealed that the South African finance profession is of an extremely high calibre, made up of individuals who are truly exhibiting world-class competence and are changing the world by leading the change in business.

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Previous CFOs of the Year have included MTN CFO Ralph Mupita (2019), AngloGold Ashanti CFO Christine Ramon (2018), and Vodacom CFO Till Streichart (2017) and many more.

While a CFO’s job is centred around analysis and performance assessment, they don’t often have the opportunity to turn this lens on themselves. Many of the nominees who go through the rigorous interviews express that it’s an incredibly rewarding – although stressful – process that gives them the opportunity to reflect on all they have achieved and contextualise their responses to the challenges they have faced.

Taken together, these responses will be judged, scored and audited to reveal who the 2020 CFO of the Year will be. The commitment shown by the nominees to business excellence is revealed in their willingness to open themselves up to such intensive scrutiny, and to champion the successes that they and their businesses have achieved. l

Dion Mhlaba, CFO Awards nominee and RH Bophelo CFO

Ted Willcocks, CFO Awards nominee and PepsiCo SSA CFO

Shabeer Khan, CFO Awards nominee and CFO of the Department of Trade and Industry

Simon Ridley, CFO Awards judge and previous Standard Bank Group FD and CFO Awards winner, and Kevin Black, CFO Awards judge and Deloitte audit partner

Tsholofelo Molefe, CFO Award nominee and Telkom Group CFO

Professor Ben Marx, CFO Awards judge and Chairman of the Department of Accountancy at the University of Johannesburg CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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More than just a

JOB

Photos: Supplied

Megan Pydigadu had no idea of the challenges she’d have to face as EOH CFO when she joined the company in January 2019, but she’s stayed the course, believing in the value that EOH has to offer and the difference she can make there.

By Georgina Guedes

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C

FO South Africa starts our interview with EOH CFO Megan Pydigadu by asking whether she had any idea what she was in for when she took the job. “No,” she says, and laughs.

Then she elaborates: “Before I took the job at EOH, I had taken time off and had really been reflecting on what I wanted my next challenge and assignment to be. When Stephen van Coller, EOH CEO, first approached me about this opportunity, I was excited by the fact that EOH was in the tech space. I have experience across various industries such as professional services, mining, engineering, industrial and telematics and have always been drawn to the tech space due to the dynamic nature of the sector. This is an industry that allows for innovation and has given me the opportunity to be a disruptive leader, always encouraging my team to challenge the status quo with no fear or limitations.”

She had initial reservations, she said, because of the rumours about EOH and the bad press that the IT services company had been receiving. But she made the decision because she had faith in Stephen and his leadership. “Ultimately, companies are made up of the people who work there, and I trusted Stephen’s judgement and shared his belief that this was a company that still had inherent value and had a significant positive role to play in the South African economy. I thought it was a great opportunity to join him and help rebuild the organisation.”

The challenge that was laid out in front of Stephen and Megan was that in the five years prior to their appointments, EOH had experienced exponential growth in the number of companies they’d acquired, “without much consolidation in terms of synergy between the operations.” So, Megan says, there were opportunities for interesting work there.

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TURNAROUND

She started two weeks before the half-year end, and had to jump in the deep end to make some tough decisions.

“One of the first challenges we encountered was that while the organisation was going through its growth phrase prompted by an aggressive acquisition-driven model, there was a lack of focus on the balance sheet. So, we did a big clean up and there were significant impairments and write-offs that we took off at half-year. When we announced the half-year results in April 2019, even though there were write-offs of R3 billion, the market reaction was extremely positive as investors drew comfort from our transparent communication and were supportive of our turnaround strategy especially with regards to optimising the capital structure.”

statement read: “To date, the ENSafrica investigation has found evidence of a number of governance failing and wrongdoing at EOH, including unsubstantiated payments, tender irregularities and other unethical business practices which are primarily limited to the public sector business centralised in EOH Mthombo and to a limited number of EOH employees.”

“This is an industry that allows for innovation and has given me the opportunity to be a disruptive leader.”

She says that when they released EOH’s full-year results in October 2019, it was viewed as another positive milestone in the company’s improved market sentiment.

Baptism of fire Results are only part of the picture however, and when Megan had only been on the job for a month, the Microsoft situation came to a head. In February, Microsoft issued a notice that it was terminating a contract with EOH Mthombo, an EOH subsidiary and Microsoft Channel partner. It emerged that the termination followed a complaint registered by a whistleblower, alleging corruption in a Department of Defence software deal.

This shake-up, Megan says, made her and Stephen “get real”. “We had to do a deep dive into what had been going on in the organisation.” They appointed law firm ENSafrica to conduct the investigation.

In mid-July 2019, they announced the findings. Their

“Suspicious transactions of R1.2 billion have been identified and are being investigated by ENSafrica.”

“It isn’t nice to find things like that,” Megan says. “It was a big shock. It set us on a faster track in the process of creating transparency within the organisation. We sat with the finance team to say, ‘We’ve found this. If there’s anything that you know, tell us. There’s a window period for you to come clean, otherwise afterwards if it discovered that you have withheld anything, you will be held accountable.’ It wasn’t easy. There was a lot of emotion. There are people who have been here a long time. It’s easy with hindsight to spot inconsistencies, and quite hard to have been part of the process that should have picked them up.”

Megan said that the historical culture of “command and control” is extremely different to the approach that herself and Stephen employ. “We are far more transparent and empowering of people, so it’s 180 degrees in terms of culture. Over time, we have begun rebuilding that trust, and things are changing.”

The organisation has continued to navigate the complexities around these findings, as well as address the reputational fall-out that resulted. Many stakeholders have been surprised that Megan and Stephen have stayed the course.

“When the news started breaking, I got quite a few phone calls from friends and head hunters asking if I really wanted to be at EOH. I feel strongly that I do.

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TURNAROUND

“Following the recent spate of corporate scandals in South Africa, there’s a renewal of what it means to be ethical.”

There are 10,000 people working here, and so we have to find a way through this and build a sustainable business – for the security of their jobs, for their families, and because job creation is key to the stability of South Africa.”

At the same time, she says, EOH is an exciting business, and the reasons she took the job in the first place are still valid. “We are now at a point where we have dealt with the legacy corruption issues. It hasn’t been easy but we are now positioned to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We are one of the few ICT players that offer the full suite of services and products. I am really excited about what the future for EOH can be, in terms of being a disrupter in the economy and bringing innovation to the South African economy. ”

principles. And if we don’t agree, we can have honest discussions about it.”

Being a women in traditionally male-dominated spaces has given Megan a sense of responsibility about developing others. “At EOH, many women have approached me to say they are so happy to see a woman in a leadership position. While I always say that I am not a woman first, I am a professional first, it’s nice to have women looking up to you so that you can engender leadership in other women in the organisation.”

Before Megan joined EOH, she’d taken a sabbatical to try to identify her purpose, the type of organisation she’d best fit into, and what management and leadership style would work best for her.

Megan and Fatima have also started producing a series of talks around Courageous Leadership within the organisation. “We invited people within the organisation, clients and suppliers to an inaugural event, just to start setting a stage to talk about what it is to have Courageous Leadership and to start tapping into some of the issues in society. We’ve got a great public platform at EOH, which gives us the opportunity to try to change South Africa and perhaps create a different outcome.”

“From my time at Mix Telematics, I knew that I enjoyed working in a listed environment. While I was there, they also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and there were high levels of governance requirements, which broadened my understanding and was sorely needed at EOH.”

She says that they also try to grow their young leaders, and selected two individuals from their organisation that went to One Young World in London. This is to illustrate the EOH ethos that leadership can be nurtured at any level in the organisation.

That being the case, when she joined EOH, one of the first things that she and Stephen decided was that since they were serious about governance, they would bring in an exco member to take on that responsibility. Fatima Newman was appointed as chief risk officer in what Megan describes as an important step in the right direction.

“Following the recent spate of corporate scandals in South Africa, there’s a renewal of what it means to be ethical. With everything that’s happened we have had to deal very publicly with the corruption we have found, while other companies have the luxury to deal with it behind closed doors. So we feel that we could share our learnings with others through our transparency.”

Prepared by the past

Megan says that from a values perspective, finding alignment at leadership level is critical for her.

“Stephen, Fatima and I are highly aligned to move forward, and there’s a circle of trust between the three of us, making decisions based on the same values and

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She would also like to participate in finding ways to address unemployment and create sustainable businesses in South Africa. “There is a bigger purpose here than a job for me.” l

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“We’ve had lots of successes in past year – we have a clear roadmap of where to take the business over the next 18 to 24 months.”

ZAF MAHOMED – the TURNAROUND guy

Photos: Supplied & Patrick Furter

The CFO relishes a challenge, and he’s certainly found that at Cell C. This is how he’s approaching it. By Georgina Guedes

Z

af Mahomed relishes a challenge. He has previously held roles at Ellerines, Tongaat Hulett, Johnson & Johnson and McDonald’s. And now, he’s tackling the beleaguered Cell C. Did he know what he was getting into when he took on the role? Absolutely.

“It’s been a fantastic challenge. It’s a very complex environment and from my perspective, a real opportunity. I did my research before I joined to make sure I knew what needs to be done. So nothing was a sur-

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prise. I left a great job at McDonald’s, but part of my DNA is that I love the challenge. I love the opportunity this presents. Turnaround and M&A is what I do.”

He adds that of course, it’s stressful, “but it’s a good kind of stress. It’s good to be outside of your comfort zone.”

Over his 26-year career, Zaf has been in many industries, he says affably that he’s lost count, then tries – sugar, aluminium, textiles, medical devices, hospitality, property, mining equipment, furniture, retail,

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TURNAROUND financial services, food and quick-service restaurants, and now telecommunications.

“I’ve been able to adapt to different industries and understand different business models. Everyone tells you that their business is unique, but that’s not always true. Cell C is complex, though, and that’s why I’ve come here.”

Problem solving at Cell C Zaf says that over the next three to five years, given the state of the economy, businesses are going to face challenging circumstances, and CFOs are going to need problem-solving skills. He has already started to apply these in Cell C. “We’ve had lots of successes in past year – we have a clear roadmap of where to take the business over the next 18 to 24 months. Most importantly, it’s about managing stakeholder expectations. People just want to know what the situation is, and what you are planning to do about it.”

will force people to the table. The industry has to learn how to deal with a low-profitability environment.” The third pillar is a recapitalisation. “At an industry level, there’s a huge challenge. What we’re finding in telcos is that revenue is flat while costs are going up. We’re selling more data for the same revenue. So we have to be sure that we are efficient at a company level. It’s a small market and we don’t have the economies of scale, while the capex requirements are significant. The industry is spending in the order of about R25 billion to R27 billion a year on capex. If you’re spending that amount of money, you’re expecting a return on investment, but in an environment that’s under stress, the customer is looking for a better deal.”

Lastly, there has been a focus on operational efficiencies and redirecting resources to revenue-generating activities. Zaf believes there are significant opportunities for Cell C. “We’ve simplified the business model and we’ve got to cut our cloth accordingly. We’re trying to build a sustainable business that’s here for the long term. It’s not about a quarterly result. We can’t keep investing huge amounts of capital for no return.”

“Business is about people. We talk a lot about strategy, but you need people to execute.”

He says that he’s been highlighting the liquidity roadmap that he and the Cell C managerial team have developed for the company. “It allows us to do the things we need to do.

We don’t want a company that’s highly indebted. We want a company that will focus on operational performance. You’ve got to put governance structures in place so that you can run proper operations. And we’re starting to see the positive results from that.”

The liquidity roadmap is the first pillar of the turnaround plan. Second is developing a network strategy so that Cell C can manage its network capacity requirements in a more scalable and cost-efficient manner on its road to recovery.

As the interview was taking place, the news was breaking that Cell C and MTN had concluded an extended roaming agreement and that Telkom had made an offer to acquire the organisation. Zaf says that the mobile operator’s focus remains on its turnaround strategy.

Referring to the extended roaming agreement, he says that one way to look at the current network situation in South Africa is to imagine that between Johannesburg and Durban, there are four highways – MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom. “What we want instead is one highway with multiple lanes. The industry needs to take a long, hard look at it, particularly with 5G coming on stream. How can we invest for a future where there is competition and can still bring down the cost to communicate? At some point, when the shareholders aren’t getting a return, they

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Zaf’s lessons for work and life Zaf is no stranger to difficult working environments, and he says that the most challenging matter he’s dealt with has been retrenchment. “We had to do it in Zimbabwe when I was at Johnson & Johnson, and we had to shut down an operation. Business is about people. We talk a lot about strategy, but you need people to execute. If you’re not empathetic in business, you don’t have a moral compass.”

He says that what he learnt from the process was the importance of honesty. “All people want is honesty.

I’ve seen that whether I’ve been retrenching, talking to a board, or talking to a lender. Yes, they will shoot you for delivering the message, but they get over it.

You build credibility through honesty and transparency. And I’ve used that in this job in stakeholder management. I am using those lessons and building credibility with stakeholders here.”

He says that the most important characteristic of a great CFO, in his opinion, is problem solving. “Nobody wants to hear you tell them what the problem is. It’s easy to do the weather report, but very hard to change the weather.

The expectations of CFOs these days are higher than in the past. You have to be a leader. It’s not just about looking at the numbers. It’s about leading people.”

His leadership style, he says, is servant leadership.

He believes that it’s important to treat people with

respect, empower them, allow them to fail but create a safety net. “Failing is OK. I grew up in a generation where failing was not an option. But today, failure is a stepping stone.”

Zaf is not only a leader in his own organisation. He offers his time to mentor young CAs from previously disadvantaged communities. “I come from a disadvantaged background. I know how hard it is to succeed in that context. So I try to support a lot of people who have grown up like I have – without expecting anything in return.”

One piece of advice he shares is to find a job that makes you uncomfortable. “We’re taught as CAs to be conservative, which brings a sense of comfort. Be uncomfortable. You don’t want to work for the same company for 30 to 40 years. Those days are gone.”

As for his own next step, he says that he imagines that the Cell C turnaround will occupy him at least three years. What’s next? He says, “I’ll still be looking for challenges and turnarounds – it’s what I am good at, and enjoy doing.”

The importance of family He says that his family is crucial to him – especially when he’s dealing with stressful business environments. “When you’re doing a turnaround in particular, it’s highly stressful. You want to be able to go home to a loving family. I look forward to getting in my car and driving home. When I get into my garage and see my family, it’s the best de-stressing I can get.”

He says that he tries to have dinner with his family every day, and that even though he works for a mobile operator, cell phones are banned at dinner. “My kids can have a go at me. A proper go. It’s a free environment and it teaches them they shouldn’t be scared of anything. At home I’m just Dad! It’s so rewarding to see them grow in front of you.”

When we asked Zaf if there was anything else he’d like to share, he said that the CFO South Africa community has done a lot for him. “I’ve really enjoyed being a friend of the community since inception, and have been humbled to interact with other CFOs in the great network that they have facilitated.” l

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FUTURE

USHERING BUSINESSES INTO THE

‘Age of With’

We have entered the ‘Age of With’, where people harness technology to identify unique advantages through analytics and artificial intelligence. Deloitte’s Catherine Stretton believes the time is right for AI implementation.

By Victoria Williams

A

ccording to research firm Gartner, by 2021 artificial intelligence (AI) will create $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity. AI is essentially a computer or software system that uses algorithms to make it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform or simulate human-like behaviour or tasks.

For a number of years, companies have targeted lowvalue opportunities for task-based automation, but increasingly seek to incorporate more advanced analytical and AI technologies.

Catherine Stretton, Partner at Deloitte Analytics, believes the time is right for AI implementation.

Corporate interest has moved beyond conference discussions to tangible business cases. Catherine comments: “In 2016 the market wasn’t ready, but interest has slowly built over the years. Clients are interested in the beautiful problem-solving abilities of AI. We seldom talk about the technical details of the technologies themselves, but rather the solutions they offer.”

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When applied to finance, digital technologies allow CFOs to manage traditional responsibilities like internal controls, compliance, and closing the books faster and with more efficiency. For the finance team, less time is spent on routine tasks and more focus on understanding the levers of revenue growth.

There is an obvious business case for AI in risk management. Here, these technologies are adept at spotting patterns in historical data. AI can be used to detect fraud, uncover money-laundering or pinpoint customers with high credit risk profiles. But combing through data is not where it ends. Technology is also able to learn and identify new methods in hacking or cyber-attacks.

For Catherine, one of the biggest competitive advantages that AI offers is to slash the time needed in forecasting and financial modelling. This is bringing forecasting ever closer to real-time. In the mining industry, for example, it used to take weeks to do a production forecast. Today, technology makes this possible in a few hours.

While the business benefits of AI are abundant, locally the corporate market adoption of AI has lagged.

Catherine points to hesitations from executives, who resist AI due to perceived costs and feared complexity. They may be already grappling with analytics and large-scale data projects. For Catherine, this is the perfect time to layer on AI. In contrast with other technology projects, AI implementation can be less time-consuming and demanding than expected. She comments: “Executives are often surprised at how lightweight an AI project can be.”

In general, some local indications are positive.

Catherine says that our universities are grappling with the issues surfaced by AI and producing strong graduates. There are also a number of exiting newer AI entrants. Cape Town based start-up DataProphet, a leader in AI for manufacturing, was included as one of the World Economic Forum’s 56 emerging tech firms for its 2019 cohort of Technology Pioneers. Brandseye is another example of the ‘Age of With’ by combining AI and human decision-making to monitor online conversations and rank these according to value and risk.

In the banking space, Catherine believes that our legacy banks will be compelled to use AI to compete with the newer entrants. Here, the incumbents have several highly customised systems, computing environments

and processes that limit their ability to manoeuvre.

This is a stark contrast to Tyme Bank, whose core technologies are cloud-hosted. Likewise, Discovery Bank’s capabilities to calculate individualised interest rates based on customer behaviour are made possible through advanced technologies.

Customers will be attracted to digitally astute banking services that offer a more personal experience.

According to Gartner, the real commercial value in AI is how it enhances the customer experience – reducing mistakes and offering personalised service at scale.

An example of a more intelligent customer experience is Deloitte’s work in the UK developing a technology that can ‘listen’ to call centre conversations.

The technology can pinpoint moments where the voice is stressed as well as indicate real enthusiasm.

This allows call centre management to respond to instances where the customer may have felt wrongly pressured to buy or follow-up on hot customer leads.

With power comes responsibility As AI becomes more powerful, many more groups are becoming interested in its responsible use. The ethics of data harvesting are increasingly under the spotlight.

Another potential issue is bias based on race, gender, age or location, and bias based on a specific structure

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Photos: Ter Hollmann

Compelled to compete

FUTURE

“With our major societal challenges, including in the areas of healthcare and education, our positioning could potentially be centred on building AI for good.” of data, which have been long-standing risks in training AI models.

Gartner predicts that 75 percent of large organisations will hire AI behaviour forensic experts, privacy and customer trust specialists to reduce brand and reputation risk by 2023. Organisations such as Facebook, Google, Bank of America and NASA are hiring or have appointed AI behaviour forensic specialists who primarily focus on uncovering undesired bias in AI models before they are deployed.

South Africa, with our high unemployment figures, has specific ethical challenges with regards to AI adoption.

Catherine believes that deciding on the human skills needed in a workplace filled with AI solutions is hard but necessary work. “It may be possible to deploy technology models at scale, but should you? Leaders need to determine their AI strategy, including how to reskill employees and how to communicate this change within their organisations.”

New technologies will not mean that human intelligence is under-valued. In the ‘Age of With’ a world where people work side-by-side with machines could enhance human motivation and satisfaction. The need for human involvement is not going away, and the value of powerful, esoteric capabilities like imagination cannot be underestimated. Also important is the human capability for empathy and complex problem-solving.

What is South Africa’s AI strategy?

In 2017, the Canadian government kicked off a $125 million AI strategy, the world’s first national strategy.

Other countries are following their example, including identifying a unique AI positioning.

“South Africa needs a national AI strategy and positioning. With our major societal challenges, including in the areas of healthcare and education, our positioning could potentially be centred on building AI for good,” says Catherine. Our Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams kicked of the first 4IR

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Commission meeting in May 2019 and has committed to producing a 4IR strategy document by March this year.

AI has incredible potential in healthcare. An international example of AI for good, Deloitte and the Tisch MS Research Center of New York are using data science, AI and machine learning in a research project to find patterns that may relate to the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS). In just two weeks, a Deloitte data scientist and the Deloitte US innovation team were able to identify molecules likely to be correlated to MS. This research, when done by humans, may have taken up to ten years.

Deloitte’s AI capabilities Globally Deloitte has invested heavily in AI – in specialists, capabilities and assets. The firm has a dedicated AI studio in Frankfurt that advises Deloitte offices throughout the world. In South Africa, Deloitte has a 30-member strong AI team.

“We are a globally connected team that is able to share business cases across the network. Our biggest advantage is that our AI team collaborate with Deloitte’s many industry experts. We are close to the burning problems to that our clients in different industries face. We understand the nuances. This means we are better able to identity technology solutions to business problems,” says Catherine.

A CA by training, Catherine has been with Deloitte for 24 years, both in the firm’s UK and South African operations. She has spent the last seven of these in the Deloitte analytics division and also leads the firm’s analytics team in financial services. Much of her work involves helping financial services clients to manage and interrogate their data to enhance business performance. For Catherine, the best part of working at Deloitte is the company’s entrepreneurial nature and how it’s possible to reinvent a career a number of times. l

Time to shift your thinking from versus to with.

Humans and machines, data with insight. See how artificial intelligence can help shift your thinking. The age of data is upon us and using technology alone to analyse it, isn't enough.

Welcome to the Age of With.

www.deloitte.com Š 2020. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

Designed and produced by Creative Solutions at Deloitte, Johannesburg. (000000/ant)

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XX

PREPARE FOR THE

FUTURE HERE IT’S ALREADY

Finance leaders have no choice but to prepare themselves and their workplaces for the digitization revolution. Workplaces are already reaping the benefits of automation and AI, and to remain current, CFOs need to embrace self-education along with any formal training they can lay their hands on.

By Narissa Subramoney

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Elisa Mkhize

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echnology is changing the world as we know it.

Digital advancements in the past decade alone have shown how important it is for today’s leaders to be digitally savvy – not just in the workspace, but also in their private lives. This rings particularly true for leaders and professionals in the finance sector as emerging trends in fintech are disrupting business models.

The finance professionals of today and tomorrow need to have a diverse set of skills to survive in the future.

And unfortunately, educational systems around the world are nowhere near adequately preparing future generations for the new roles that are currently being defined and developed.

Mckinsey’s 2017 report titled ‘Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained’ has painted a daunting picture: At least 400 million to 800 million people around the world could be displaced by automation and will need to find new jobs by 2030.

The report also makes compelling assertions about tech significantly reducing operational costs.

“Higher wages make the business case for automation adoption stronger. However, low-wage countries may be affected as well, if companies adopt automation to boost quality, achieve tighter production control, move production closer to end consumers in high-wage countries, or other benefits beyond reducing labour costs.”

It’s clear that success and survival in a fintechdisrupted world lies in personal development.

A ‘digitizing first’ mindset “Self-education is key and the ones who take initiative to skill-up independently by making use of vast online

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“Your traditional systems like your ERP must be stable, and you have to be able to clearly define your processes & business requirements before deploying RPA.” resources will come out on top,” says FIR Tech Holdings CFO Fanie Botha.

In his personal life, Fanie has adopted a ‘digitizing first mindset’ in order to be future fit in business. He’s not shy to experiment with mobile technology and apply it wherever possible. This includes the use of cost-sharing apps while on holiday or out with friends and family, to using mobile technology to facilitate office Secret Santa projects.

Fanie believes people who are fearful of the coming technological changes in the finance industry must turn their attitudes around. “If you look at the things you seriously dislike about your job today: Navigating through accounting/ERP system screens between value adding activities. Tediously finding the correct codes to use and to prepare financial journals. Repetitive searching for financial information, copying and pasting values into reports and painstakingly trawling through hundreds of transactions to find mismatches which cause balance sheet imbalances… In five years these functions won’t exist and you will be able to be more creative in your career. The next aim in tech is to make work fun again.”

Robotic process automation (RPA) is gaining traction

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Ashley Francis

across many sectors, not just in finance. Reporting roles are now being automated, allowing employees to concentrate on more value adding tasks.

“25 years ago when Excel came into the workplace, most accountants were still capturing information on accounting paper, making the books balance with a total line, so the Excel technology would have been very daunting for those professionals – but fast forward to today, there isn’t a single professional that doesn’t use Excel,” Fanie says.

The Mckinsey report shows automation of manual functions has freed up at least 30 percent of employees’ time, and information is being processed at speeds far exceeding human capability.

“For an organisation with about 40 full-time accounting staff, this equates to savings of 25,000 hours per year or put differently, about R6-million saving,” says Fanie.

Tech advancements show that that nearly 50 percent of current job functions can be automated across most sectors, given the evolving nature of algorithms and AI. There are no holy cows when it comes to digitization. In fact, researchers estimate that 75 million to 375 million workers (3 to 14 percent of the global workforce in the agriculture and manufacturing industries) will need to switch occupational categories by 2030.

“Moreover, all workers will need to adapt, as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable machines. Some of that adaptation will require higher educational attainment, or spending more time on activities that require social and emotional skills, creativity, high-level cognitive capabilities and other skills relatively hard to automate,” the Mckinsey report states.

Fanie notes these kinds of changes also occurred at the end of the Third Industrial Revolution.

“We saw the introduction of mass industrial automation and robotics. The microprocessor revolutionised manufacturing and countries that embraced and adopted this revolutionary technology, were the beneficiaries of sustainable manufacturing industries.”

They still maintain a competitive advantage in the 21st century. Similarly, in this industrial revolution, businesses and countries that embrace and adopt 4IR technologies (including RPA) are going to be the global beneficiaries of agility, efficiency and cost.

Embracing RPA Many South African companies have begun investigating the uses and costs of finance technologies like RPA. Elisa Mkhize, Clinix Health group CFO, says her department has already carried out a few experiments with RPA when it embarked on a journey of process improvement across the business key areas. Elisa says that experiment brought about several learning outcomes, key among which is the stability of the existing working environment.

“Your traditional systems like your ERP must be stable, and you have to be able to clearly define your processes and business requirements before deploying RPA, that’s the one key learning outcome I got from that experiment,” she says.

If the problems and outcomes are not clearly defined, RPA can become very frustrating very quickly.

Clinix Health group is currently implementing phase

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Fanie Botha

“For an organisation with about 40 full-time accounting staff, this equates to savings of 25,000 hours per year.” one of its cloud technology and automation processes.

“We are exploring different tools that can aid us especially in the reporting functions. It currently takes about 10 to 15 working days to report, but the company has been encouraging staff to reduce that time to less than five days by using robotic technology.

Clinix finance staff also had their roles revisited in preparation for the first phase.

Elisa speaks of one of her team members originally employed in a traditional reporting role being moved to a value-adding role that talks to business partnering.

“So he is now in project management, which is a now a strategic role in the company, compared to his traditional accounting role. He is now focusing on due diligence, like which projects will yield the highest return.”

She says CFOs today must challenge themselves by taking their teams out of traditional roles and placing them in different roles that will inspire new skills development, such as business and analytics. In the past Elisa’s team spent the bulk their time preparing reports, but since automation, that same team has had to adapt to newer value-based roles.

“What I know for sure is that the skills set of a finance person will be completely different in five years’

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time,” she says. “Accountants are not always the most tech-savvy people. Most senior staff have accounting degrees, but with the way in which the world is advancing and the impact of technology in finance, industry professionals cannot afford to be indifferent to technology.”

She believes these will be the most important skills in the finance industry in five years’ time: 1) Basic accounting 2) Data analytics 3) Understanding business Elisa also loves incorporating the comforts and conveniences of mobile technology in her personal life. She favours Apple Technology and is the proud owner of the latest iPhone, although admits she’s barely scratching the surface in terms making full use of the phone’s capabilities. One of her favourite apps is Audible, Amazon’s audio book application, which she finds Audible particularly useful when commuting between work and home.

“I don’t like radio anymore,” she admits. “Between the negative news and never-ending adverts, I prefer to focus on something more positive and something I can learn from.”

FUTURE

Elisa’s preference for Audible content over commercial radio is a prime example of how digital media content is being consumed based entirely on personal preference. “Technology is allowing people to choose their own content, where previously the whole household gathered around the television at 7pm for the evening news. We didn’t have a choice about what we watched and when we watched it. Now, social media is breaking news faster than television networks and people can choose their content based entirely on their own preferences.”

She says that her other favourite app is Uber. “Uber has made travelling so much easier and it helped many low-skilled and unemployed people enter the job market under a depressed economy.”

we implement the shared services system.”

Ashley says one of the immediate goals is getting people comfortable with tech, “A debtor’s clerk will not be a debtors clerk in three years’ time.”

So what does the next decade look like? It can be argued that finance is entering the golden age of technology While no one can accurately predict the future, there are glaring changes sweeping across the industry that will see vast job displacements in the reporting sector – but it is up to finance professionals to be ready and prepare for a massive overhaul. In its report “Finance 2025, Digital Transformation in Finance, Deloitte predicts that cloud-based ERP, automation, and cognitive innovation will evolve rapidly, radically simplifying processes and freeing up people. Adding blockchain or distributed ledger technology to the mix in the future will only accelerate this trend.

“Companies are looking at people who are making the effort to get digital qualifications, which are plentiful and significantly cheaper online.”

Technology is giving people a way to adapt and change their fortunes, but only for those with a strong personal desire to survive and thrive in the 4IR. The education system is still far behind when it comes to preparing its graduates for a digitally demanding future, and as it stands all learning and upskilling will be undertaken on the professional’s own initiative while they are already in reporting roles.

“Companies are looking at people who are making the effort to get digital qualifications, which are plentiful and significantly cheaper online, if you have a digital skill in demand, you will survive.”

Universities meeting digital demand At a time when universities globally are being criticised for not skilling students for a digitally demanding future, the University of Cape Town began its ambitious Shared Services Project in 2017.

CFO Ashley Francis, echoes Elisa’s deep respect for technological advancements: “The way we work and the way we live, we are aligned with mobile technology.”

Ashley says his department began collaborating with a university in the Netherlands, with the goal of automating all transactions in the university and make it a paper-free zone. The project incorporated Robotics, AI, RPA, as well as redesigning jobs, and an introduction of new skills.

“It was a bit daunting for the team at first, but now we’re full steam ahead,” he says. “80 percent of the budget will go towards training chain management.

Staff are definitely not prepared for the digital era, that’s why we are focusing on reskilling a year before

As roles become automated, we can expect to see financial institutions doubling down on business insights and customer service.

This era will also bring finance into real time, meaning periodic cycles will no longer drive decisions and operations.

Finance companies will be operating in the era of self-service, so it is paramount to get the customer experience of this segment operating seamlessly.

Automation will lead to bigger data sets which can be advantageous, but it’s still going to be difficult and tedious to work with. CFOs will need to have a new or renewed understanding, if not appreciation, when it comes to solving data problems, as the devil is in the detail!

The Deloitte report states: “What are we talking about? Commas, abbreviations, data-entry fields, nomenclature, and hundreds of similar factors. It’s not glamorous, and it’s not glitzy. But it is important.” CFOs must learn to appreciate the heavy lifting required to fulfil their requests.

Lastly, get ready for a changed work environment. As companies migrate to digital platforms, expect teething problems with workflow. Staff will need room to think on their feet and come up with different approaches to the newer emerging roles. This means many of them will start doing things their own way. l

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Graeme Codrington, futurist, Deon Fredericks, SAA CFO, and Ted Willcocks, PepsiCo SSA CFO

CFOs chart a course for their future Eight of South Africa’s top CFOs joined futurist Graeme Codrington to interrogate how they can prepare for their evolving lives and businesses.

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n 10 October 2019, CFO South Africa, with the support of Standard Bank, hosted eight CFOs at the Saxon Library in Johannesburg for a dinner with futurist Graeme Codrington. The theme of the evening focused on how CFOs can be future-ready.

CFO South Africa community manager John Deane opened the floor, asking the CFOs to share how they or their companies are changing the world for the better.

Northam Platinum’s Alet Coetzee shared her company’s plans to create 4,800 mining jobs. African Rainbow Minerals’ Abigail Mukhuba shared her commitment to teaching maths to children in her extended family for four hours every Saturday morning. Telkom’s Tsholofelo Molefe told the group that she takes her children with her to help out at children’s homes. Cell C’s Zaf Mahomed mentors young articled clerks from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.

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Bidvest’s Mark Steyn shared how his company is working in partnership with the Christiaan Barnard Health Memorial Hospital to revolutionise non-invasive heart surgery, which will do away with the need for opening the chest when replacing damaged heart valves.

Dis-Chem's Rui Morais ended the discussion, telling the story of how he and his brother created the Wink Foundation to help people complete their education, in honour of their mother, who passed away.

Graeme steered the conversation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He pointed out that, to understand the changes that the global business landscape is weathering, we need to look back at the first three industrial revolutions.

The First, he explained, was the invention of machinery to replace the jobs of people. The Second, he said was the realisation by Henry Ford that by breaking down the production process into a line of simple,

Alet Coetzee, Northam Platinum CFO

Tsholofelo Molefe, Telkom CFO

Jonas Malebye, Standard Bank head: Investment XXX

Ted Willcocks, PepsiCo SSA CFO

Banking, and Mark Steyn, Bidvest CFO

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repetitive tasks, greater efficiencies could be realised.

The Third was the invention of computers. And, he says, contrary to popular belief, the Fourth is not the invention of robotics and automation technologies – these are actually the natural extension of the Third Industrial Revolution. Rather, it is how the application of these technologies will influence human behaviour and the way in which we will do business – just as Henry Ford changed human processes with the introduction of the production line.

Graeme then challenged the CFOs to reimagine how people and business will be changed in the coming years.

A lot of the answers centred around education and how technology could make it possible for classes to be broadcast instead of taught by one million teachers. Teachers would act as facilitators for students who need help.

The conversation then turned to the impact the Fourth Industrial Revolution would have on the role of the CFO. Guests agreed that their roles would be more of an integrator, bringing together all the different aspects of the business and ensuring coherence between them.

With their bodies and minds fed, CFOs departed the Saxon and charted a course to their own futures. l

The evening's attendees were: •

Abigail Mukhuba, African Rainbow Minerals CFO

•

Alet Coetzee, Northam Platinum CFO

•

Deon Fredericks, SAA CFO

• Georgina Guedes, CFO South Africa editor in chief • Graeme Codrington, TomorrowToday Global futurist • John Deane, CFO South Africa community manager • Jonas Malebye, Standard Bank head: Investment banking •

Mark Steyn, Bidvest CEO

•

Rui Morais, Dis-Chem Pharmacies CFO

•

Ted Wilcox, PepsiCo SSA CFO

•

Tsolofelo Molefe, Telcom SA CFO

•

Zaf Mahomed, Cell C CFO

• Zaid Moola, head: CIB Client Coverage South Africa, Standard Bank

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PURPOSE

UK CALLING

Hans Merensky's Rian du Toit solves the travel problem

As Hans Merensky Holdings expanded globally, CFO Rian du Toit found the necessary travel increasingly taxing, as did his wife and daughters. So, the decision was made to move the family to the United Kingdom, to make things easier for everyone. Rian chatted to Georgina Guedes about the global avocado boom and resettling in Kent.

R

ian du Toit is the CFO of Hans Merensky Holdings, the “renewable bio-resource company” based in Parktown. The company wholly owns its subsidiaries Merensky Timber and Westfalia Fruit, one of the leading suppliers of avocados and other fresh fruit (but mostly avocados) around the world.

While the head office is based in South Africa, Hans Merensky Holdings offshore operations have grown to such an extent that 90 percent of its business now takes place outside of the country. This meant that, in his role as CFO, Rian was having to travel frequently on long-haul flights to international destinations like London and Santiago. The travel situation was, he says, becoming “impossible”.

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“We have operations on four continents – Africa, Europe, South America and North America. To get to LA can take over 36 hours from Johannesburg,” he says.

There were times Rian’s primary-school-age children didn’t see him for two weeks out of every month. It soon became obvious that a relocation to the United Kingdom was necessary. “My family was the key reason for the move; I wanted to have a proper family life with my wife and children. So I needed to be in a place where I could fly anywhere on one of four continents within 12 hours.”

The company has its UK offices in Kent, so it was easy enough to continue running the finances from this location. HMH CEO Claus Lippert remained in Johannesburg but had a second office in Kent.

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PURPOSE While the move was made for the right reasons, Rian says it was challenging for the family initially, but that after a few months they all found their groove.

“Now everyone’s adapted. I’ve learnt throughout my life that when you move between communities, it’s best to integrate very quickly into that local community. So we have lots of English friends – even though the second most commonly spoken language in our Sevenoaks neighbourhood is Afrikaans!”

While Rian still travels for one or two weeks in every month, the significant difference is the travelling time.

“In South Africa, the travelling time has to include weekends. If I needed to be in South America, I had to leave on Saturday morning to be in time for a Monday morning meeting, but from London, I can get on a plane on Sunday night and still make a Monday morning meeting.”

Regardless of the point of origin for travel, he says that this kind of multi-continental work requires a very strong team. “They need to understand all the regulations and be able to deal with the complexities in different environments.”

While too much travel can be a bad thing, Rian says that he genuinely enjoys the opportunities it affords him to interact with different people and different nationalities.

“I enjoy other cultures and am open to cultural differences. You have to be constantly aware of these differences when doing business. While the UK may be similar to South Africa, the USA is quite different and South America even more so. You have to actively sell yourself or you’ll fade into obscurity. In South Africa and Europe, you prove who you are through your results. In America, it’s how well you sell yourself upfront.”

A global demand for avocados The need for all this international travel is premised on Westfalia’s global expansion on the back of the international avo boom. The organisation is 70 years old this year. Its founder Dr Hans Merensky was the geologist who discovered the largest platinum reef in the world right here in South Africa, known as the Merensky Reef.

His other discoveries included South Africa’s deep gold deposits, and diamonds on the West Coast, as well as phosphate in the Phalaborwa region. Towards the end of his life, as he was in semi-retirement, he purchased a farm near Tzaneen and called it Westfalia. His intention was to experiment there with timber sustainability, because the timber going into the South African mines was coming from rainforests. He also experimented with avocado growing, planting the seed for the massive agricultural industry in which HMH subsidiary Westfalia Fruit operates today.

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Shortly before his death, Dr Merensky created the Hans Merensky Trust, which was supposed to run for 25 years, mainly to oversee the production of eucalyptus poles for the mining industry. As the trust approached its end, there were still too many activities taking place in its business interests, so the trustees decided to convert it into a foundation, which is still the largest shareholder of the HMH Group today.

In 1999 – a time when the SA government was privatising its forestry assets – the IDC offered HMH its support, with the organisation benefitting not only from the IDC’s shareholding but also from the new assets it was able to acquire.

“That’s when the company really started growing,” says Rian. “The current CEO joined in 2003. He was put in charge of the Westfalia division. Looking at it strategically at that stage, he saw a gap for us to become our own agents for the sale of avocados directly to supermarkets.”

Westfalia created a company in the Netherlands in 2004 and, three years later, bought a company in France. Then in 2009, a company in the UK was acquired. “With these three operations, we started building our avocado-marketing experience in Europe, so that we are now responsible for the entire value chain, all the way from the research and development to the supermarket shelf.”

Westfalia runs the largest privately-funded avocado research institute in the world. “We sell a variety of IP-protected plant materials all over the world, from rootstocks and nursery trees to many fruit cultivars that grown on these trees.”

The company has developed rootstocks that are resistant to phytophthora, a disease that tends to attack the roots of avocado trees. Other varieties can be grafted onto these rootstocks, making it possible to grow different types of avocados on the disease-resistant base.

“We produce around half a million trees a year in South Africa, and interestingly, we estimate that around 60 percent of the avocado trees in California now grow on our rootstock,” says Rian.

Another innovation presented by the Westfalia Fruit Group is the GEM avocado, a dark-skinned cultivar like Hass which features distinctive golden lenticels on its skin when ripe. GEM avocados grow more on the inside of the tree, behind a shielding wall of leaves, than on the outside like other avo varietals. This provides better yields and product quality as the fruit is more protected from sun and hail damage. What’s more, because GEM avocados can be harvested later in the season, they extend the avocado season in the markets in which they are sold.

“Last year we supplied Woolworths with avocados for 12 months of the year without having to import a single

fruit from Spain, thanks to GEM,” says Rian.

And that’s just in South Africa. Most of the major retailers in the UK and Europe are supplied by Westfalia Fruit operations, including Tesco, Waitrose, Aldi and Carrefour.

“Because we managed to be so successful in Europe, it provided us with the base to invest elsewhere in the world, so we started investing in orchards in South America. We were the first people to commercially export fruit from Colombia into North America and Europe. We also own orchards in Chile, but not yet in Peru, which is the secondlargest avo-growing country in the world – although we do have procurement offices there. At some stage we will invest in orchards there.”

Mexico is another key supply area, and Westfalia owns the second biggest packhouse in that country. Mexico provides almost 85 percent of the avocados consumed in the United States.

“It’s nice to work in a company where these principles are fundamentally a part of “Picaborio. our DNA.” Et et, te quo de venim amendic imendiame ditas corerit et oditist iantis enihilis”

“That’s how we’ve grown,” says Rian. “From one farm in the middle of rural Limpopo to being one of the world’s leading avocado companies.”

Sustainable production HMH has been a pioneer in the field of sustainability. According to Rian, over seven decades ago Dr Hans Merensky was already talking about what most companies today are still trying to achieve. He wanted to work with communities and to treat people fairly. “It’s nice to work in a company where these principles are fundamentally a part of our DNA,” says Rian. “And our largest shareholder, the Hans Merensky Foundation, is actively involved in making sure these values are embedded in all we do.”

The company website states: “As an ardent conservationist, humanitarian and visionary he [Merensky] was passionate about sustainability long before it became fashionable, and to this date the Foundation he made possible has continued to promote and assist in the sustainable development of the natural resources of South Africa and to promote research into sustainable agricultural practices.

“As the current custodian of these and other assets, HMH works tirelessly to make the founder’s dream a reality, developing innovations ranging from disease-resistant rootstocks and micro-irrigation systems to food-wastage solutions and eco-friendly alternatives to plastic packaging.”

Rian has been with the company for 17 years, having moved there from PwC where he completed his articles and then spent more seven years. One of the reasons behind his long, committed tenure at HMH is his belief in the culture of sustainability at the business.

“It’s not as if we have to try to convince our stakeholders that we need to change because the world is demanding it of us. We are already there.” l

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Photos: Patrick Furter

PURPOSE

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CFO CARES

Changing the face of accountancy and finance in South Africa Luyanda Gidini, the acting CFO of Metropolitan Trading Company, is on a personal mission to give a boost the number of black CAs and financial professionals in South Africa. In doing so, he is actively involved in the education committee of the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa, which hosts career days at disadvantaged schools across the country.

By Ray Mahlaka

B

ecoming a qualified CA and one of the country’s youngest acting CFOs in the public sector at his current age of 34 was something Luyanda Gidini never imagined growing up in Tembisa, a township on the eastern fringes of Johannesburg.

Luyanda says he wasn’t a bright student who passed with flying-colours – the usual hallmark of many aspiring accounting professionals – in high school and university. And he only cam to understand what being a CA actually meant during his third year of studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.

“You would expect that by the first year of university, I’d understand what career I am actually taking on,” says Luyanda. “But I didn’t even know what a being a shareholder or company director was. I’d hear about the stock market, but I didn’t know what it meant. These are things you study in the first and second years of university and should know them.”

Luyanda didn’t know these concepts because although he attended a model C (historically white) school called Midrand High School, which was well resourced, unlike the disadvantaged schools his peers went to in Tembisa, he didn’t grow up privileged.

He never had an upbringing that afforded him mentors, who would help match his interests and potential to a suitable career, or exposure to high-profile executives or a business environment.

And to attend university, which Luyanda considers as a privilege still reserved for those who can afford it in an unequal South Africa, took big sacrifices from his mother, a single parent and teacher.

She had to sell her Midrand family home to fund his B.Com accounting and finance degree as he couldn’t qualify for a bursary or government-subsidised funding because he was considered to be in the “missing middle” bracket. This bracket refers to students that are too poor to afford university themselves but also not poor enough to

qualify for government-subsidised funding.

“My journey to becoming a finance professional has been tough. But I was passionate and determined.

Once I put my mind to something that I am passionate about, I will get it done.”

Today, he has engineered an nineyear-long career in the public sector that has seen him work for the National Treasury, the City of Johannesburg and its subsidiary that owns the city’s fibre infrastructure, Metropolitan Trading Company, where he currently serves as an acting CFO.

Paving the way for the next generation Luyanda is determined to make the path for aspirant black accounting professionals much easier compared with his experiences, through his involvement with the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (Abasa).

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PURPOSE

Away from his demanding fulltime job at Metropolitan Trading Company and family life as a father of two children, Luyanda has been the secretary-general (a de facto CEO position) of Abasa, a nonprofit organisation that promotes the interest of black people in the accounting profession, for the past five years.

Luyanda’s pro-bono involvement in Abasa began in 2012 when he was doing his articles at the National Treasury. He was introduced to the organisation by a friend who persuaded him to use his free time and skills on weekends to do community work.

the past three years in schools that are based in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng. As an experienced finance professional, Luyanda often taps into his professional networks to encourage his industry colleagues to give motivational talks to pupils and Abasa’s career days have so far attracted support from organisations such as Anglo American Platinum, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG, and many others. Luyanda and Abasa has a rapport with Freeman Nomvalo, the CEO of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, who supports a lot of the organisation’s events.

And because Luyanda is passionate about early childhood development and education, he decided to work closely with Abasa’s education committee, which aims to empower high school pupils – mainly in grades 9 through 12 – with information about accountancy and other professions.

Correcting ills of the past

Although Luyanda is Abasa’s secretary-general, he is also involved in the organisation’s outreach initiatives at disadvantaged schools in townships and rural areas across the country.

He says the initiative has a “cradle to grave” approach. “In high school, before students make their subject choices, we inform them about the subjects they need to take to pursue a certain career. For example, if they want to be an accountant, we tell them that they have to take mathematics and not mathematical literacy.” The pupils are supported beyond high school as Abasa has student chapters at universities across the country, which provide students opportunities for networking, mentoring and bonding over common interests.

On weekends, Luyanda helps host career days, in which Abasa invites multinational corporations and industry professionals – not just in accounting and finance but across different sectors – to visit pupils at schools to inform them about mentorship opportunities, career choices, bursary information, and the university application process.

The initiative also focuses on personal matters such as developing leadership qualities and safer sex practices, as some of the communities that Abasa visits are facing a teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS scourge.

With Luyanda’s help, Abasa has successfully hosted career days over

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Luyanda’s mission with the career days initiative is to ensure that pupils are better informed about their interests and career choices, and are connected to study and work opportunities – things he was never afforded.

“Although our main focus is awareness of the accountancy profession, the reality is that many black children don’t know that there is a big universe of professions that exist,” he says.

“In the black community, you are told what you should study from a young age. You are not encouraged

to follow your dreams. You are told to become a doctor because doctors earn a lot of money. Very few black parents would encourage their children to follow the arts or study philosophy if it is their passion.”

Luyanda’s emphasis on the black community is not an accident, it’s deliberate. Some 25 years since the end of white minority rule in South Africa, the faces of poor education standards, poverty and unemployment are still black. Ownership and control patterns of the economy are skewed and still largely in white hands.

Luyanda is particularly vexed by the dearth of black CAs, with Abasa figures showing that out of approximately 40,000 qualified CAs in the country, less than 20 percent are black people. He hopes to make a dent in this number through Absa’s career days, with the aim of making the accountancy profession desirable to follow among pupils.

Asked why uplifting disadvantaged communities is important to him, Luyanda cites words often attributed to Indian social justice activist Mahatma Gandhi: “you must be the change you want to see in the world”.

He says: "I can’t run away from South Africa’s problems. I have to contribute to fixing the problems. I do not have the option to emigrate.

I have two children and by the time they get to my age, they will probably ask me what I have done to change the country to make it better. Or they’ll ask me if I was just focusing on my career and getting another BMW.” l

Do you have a CFO Cares story to share with us?

Contact CFO community manager John Deane on jdeane@cfo.co.za with the details.

“Although our main focus is awareness of the accountancy profession, the reality is that many black children don’t know that there is a big universe of professions that exist.”

Luyanda with the team at the Abasa Annual Convention's Gala Dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton in November 2019

An Abasa career day at a school in Diepsloot

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Photos: Ter Hollmann

“I am also a very creative person and had worked on the strategy, sales and marketing side of business.”

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Paint by numbers,

work like it’s art

Emilie Bigot is the finance director of Bureau Veritas, a French verification company that has had operations in South Africa since 2006. Emilie chatted to Georgina Guedes about the South African working environment, learning about leadership, and how she makes art to show that there’s beauty in everything.

CFO CFO MAGAZINE MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA • CFO.CO.ZA

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PURPOSE

B

ureau Veritas is a French testing, certification and inspection company. It has existed for more than 190 years, and its name literally translates into “Bureau of Truth”. The company engages in various activities around verifying goods and products from one company for another – including testing the quality of oil or coal, testing for listeria, or even simply counting that the correct number of goods have been loaded onto a truck.

The company has its own labs to complete the necessary tests, and employs engineers, chemists and other specialists. It has had operations in South Africa for six years, and here it employs 3,000 people in Africa and has offices and laboratories in Middleburg, Centurion and Cape Town, offering services in South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

After matriculating in France with subjects that included science, physics and biology, Emilie originally wanted to be a doctor but confesses to being afraid of blood, so she opted for a career in business and then in finance. She graduated from Skema, a French business school, with a master’s degree in management finance, then worked in London and France before coming to South Africa on a diplomatic contract with the French embassy.

While on this posting, she was offered her current position with Bureau Veritas, and she jumped at the opportunity as it is a well-known company in France, and gave her the opportunity to stay in South Africa.

“I had been attracted more by project management and commercial activities before. I am also a very creative person and had worked on the strategy, sales and marketing side of business. When I came over as a dip-

lomat, I worked on the Trade Commission, advising French companies that wanted to work in South Africa – my sector was finance and IT – and that’s how I met Bureau Veritas.”

In her current role, she has two focus areas – one of which, of course, is financial controls, ensuring that the correct systems are in place to minimise financial risk.

“In finance, you need to understand beyond the figures. There are technical areas especially where you want to reinforce controls to make sure that there are no human errors. So I focus on controls at every level, improving processes.”

She says that she does not neglect the strategic side of finance, however, and also spends her time on building the company for the long term.

The human element Another key focus area for Emilie, perhaps surprisingly, is human resources. “It’s actually so important. I have to support the people who work for us with technical skills, and I need to give my people a sense of why – why they work for this organisation, why they do their job, what their purpose is. It keeps people loyal and motivated, and it’s key to have a good team.”

She describes her South African team as enthusiastic.

“They are always willing to make a plan. Everything is possible. ‘We’ll fix it. We’ll find a solution. Whatever it is, whatever it takes.”

She says that one of the biggest leaps she’s had to make professionally is to accept that technical competence wasn’t all she needed to get the job done.

A CREATIVE MIND Emilie is highly qualified in business and finance, but she has another passion – art. She paints, draws and does screen printing, and is a frequent exhibitor at a gallery in the Victoria Yards.

“People don’t understand how I can be creative and also a fan of financial controls, figures and maths, but I see both activities as a bit geeky – one in front of a computer, the other in front of a canvas.”

Her art, she says, is influenced by French post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau, French abstract painter Dominique Rousseau and Austrian figurative painter Egon Schiele. She gets her ideas from fantasy and dreams, and makes art to show that there is beauty in everything, and to heal and make herself whole. “Sometimes I see a moment in my head or the real world that captures a cinema aesthetic and then I want to recreate it.”

Her creativity shows in her life choices as well. She believes it is important to be down to earth. She drives a Yaris and lives in Melville. She spends a lot of free time in a studio at the Victoria Yards, even taking care of the gallery when the owner is out of town.

“Even at work, I do basic things sometimes to remind myself what the job was before. I’ll take on work if the team is busy. I like to get my hands dirty. I can be everything – an artist and a finance director, an executive and someone who connects with the rest of the population.”

She’s also tried to get to know South Africa in her time here, having travelled to Cape Town, Durban, the Eastern Cape and the Karoo. “I love it here in South Africa. It’s such a beautiful country. The nature is beautiful and the people are so friendly and have such joie de vivre.”

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“I’ve got good communications skills and I am technically good in finance, and I thought that was enough to be a finance director – but not at all.

When I realised that I needed leadership skills and to be able to focus on people, I realised I still had a journey to go on. Our VP, Sal Govender, has leadership skills – she’s qualified and is working on her doctorate – so I was really inspired by her. I talked to her and tried to imitate some of her processes. I read some books. And I questioned what I was willing to do.

I tried to go beyond my boundaries, to be more open and adapt.”

As a leader, she believes she is democratic, giving everyone the opportunity to speak their mind. She describes herself as “a bit of a millennial” in her outlook, attempting to engage everyone in her team, listening to their points of view and attempting to make them feel that their contribution is valued.

“Also, I am not a big fan of nine-tofive schedules. I want people to be flexible. What I care about is results and delivery. I have people working from home sometimes. And I try to keep people happy by doing little things like sending flowers, because happy people work harder. I need an organisation that works smoothly, and the more effective people are, the better our output becomes.”

Emilie also tries to encourage the women in her team to be “bold and fierce”, because that’s what she would advise her younger self.

“Women lack self-confidence compared to men. I tell them to go for it.

Go get it. Men are doing it. Be more confident because there is no limit to what you want to achieve. A person gave me the role of finance director, they believed in me, and now I need to do the same for somebody else. I need to help those men and ladies in my team to get recognition and promotion. I feel like I need to give something to someone. I want to pay it forward.” l CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

DOOM & GLOOM OR #TWENTYPLENTY?

I

t’s a New Year and the turn of a new decade. For some of us, this is exciting, and for others, incredibly daunting…

We keep hearing about failed SOEs, negative economic growth and a currency that keeps devaluating. 2020 could prove to be one of the most challenging years to date. But, among all of the uncertainty and difficulties we’re going to experience, there’s some good news to hold on to.

The year is jam-packed with opportunities to connect with your optimistic and enthusiastic peers in the CFO Community! When plugging into the community, you’ll be able to form “mastermind groups” with your peers and discuss strategies and solutions to overcome these trying and testing times. You’ll learn from industry leaders about how they are preparing for the future, and what you can do to propel your business forward.

Our year kicks off with the Finance meets HR Summit on 18 February at The Equinox in Sandton, where we will be discussing the powerful collaboration possible between Finance and HR. We’ll hear some incredible success stories about businesses who have got this right and practical tips on what we can do to work closer together. As we learnt from the mighty Bokke last year, we are #StrongerTogether.

On 2 April, we return to Cape Town to interact with the burgeoning coastal CFO community, which grew in leaps and bounds in 2019. We expect more of the same trajectory this year. Our topic for the Summit will be The Future-Ready CFO, and this is an event you don’t want to miss if you’re looking to broaden your horizons and step into the future today.

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Then, on 14 May, CFO South Africa will present the seventh iteration of the CFO Awards. We received an overwhelming number of nominations for the ‘Oscars of finance’. This really is a testament to the fact that, in spite of how challenging times have been, there are still incredible finance leaders and businesses doing extraordinary things!

The Finance Indaba returns for its fifth installment between 14 and 15 October under the theme: Finance Leads The Way. This year will see the introduction of mentor mania, coaches on couches and the tech demo room. Not only are you eligible for 12 CPD points, you also have the most amazing opportunity to enhance your knowledge, network and careers with 5,000 of your finance peers.

Always striving towards bigger and better, CFO Day on 10 November has evolved into a larger format event under the theme CFO 4.0 – fasten your seat belts.

CFO Day 2020 boasts a plenary opening, followed by breakaway keynotes, round tables, TED X style thought leadership talks, panels, debates, great food and extended networking breaks.

As always, we value and appreciate your ongoing support and commitment to the CFO Community, with your involvement we truly can make a meaningful and impactful difference to our beautiful country. Lets commit to making this the year of #TwentyPlenty.

John Deane CFO Community & Sales Manager +27 82 570 9482 jdeane@cfo.co.za

Membership Opportunities

Invest in your people and boost your success and that of your business

Support the CFO community with a membership and grow the brightest stars in your finance team.

Your support does not only allow CFO South Africa to keep growing the community that helps you and yours peers boost your knowledge, network and career. A membership is also the best professional gift for two direct reports, who will be able to attend and benefit from all CFO events in 2020 and receive CFO Magazine 2020 editions on their desk.

Meant for: CFO and up to two handpicked senior direct reports.

Immediate Benefits: Support the CFO South Africa community

All issues of CFO Magazine delivered to your desk

Exclusive invite to all CFO Summits

Bi-weekly newsletter

Exclusive invite to CFO Awards

Finance Indaba VIP team invite

Exclusive invite to CFO Day

Up to 12 CPD Hours pp

Corporate Membership Investment:

R40,000 ex VAT per annum Terms and Conditions CFO South Africa reserves the right to decline memberships.

Calendar of Events: 18 Feb 2020

Finance Meets HR Summit

5 Aug 2020

CFO and CHRO Women's Dinner: Speaking the language of success

2 April 2020

The Future Ready CFO Summit Cape Town

14 - 15 Oct 2020

Finance Indaba 2020

14 May 2020

CFO Awards

10 Nov 2020

CFO Day

Contact: John Deane | jdeane@cfo.co.za | 082 570 9482 | CFO.co.za

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