CFO Magazine, Issue 1, 23 May 2022

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 1 • 2022 CFO.CO.ZA

CFOs empowering the workforce of South Africa

Megan Pydigadu EOH CFO A winning team Mike Davis Nedbank CFO Policy, power and pandemics Adrian Maizey Starbucks SA CFO Tennis to coffee

ESG: Old concept, new urgency CFOs celebrate the good, the bad and the bizarre of crises

ASSET LIGHT VS ASSET HEAVY

CFOs unpack their strategies

The AGSA’s Bongi Ngoma

CFO of the Year 2021 A public sector first

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CONTENTS

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 1 • 2022 CFO.CO.ZA

CFOs empowering the workforce of South Africa ESG: Old concept,

page 22

Megan Pydigadu EOH CFO A winning team

page 26

Mike Davis Nedbank CFO Policy, power and pandemics

page 34

Adrian Maizey Starbucks SA CFO Tennis to coffee

new urgency

page 30

CFOs celebrate the good, the bad and the bizarre of crises

page 60

40 ASSET LIGHT VS

ASSET HEAVY CFOs unpack their strategies

page 16

page 52

page 42

The AGSA’s Bongi Ngoma

CFO of the Year 2021 A public sector first

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 © 2022 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

COMMUNITY MANAGER

PHOTOGRAPHY

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

Brian Chivere bchivere@cfo.co.za +27 60 505 7727

Lizelle Furter, Patrick Furter

CONTENT DIRECTOR

SALES MANAGER

Jane Steinacker, Kate Thompson Davy, Puseletso Mompei, Ronda Naidu

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

Karen Martin kmartin@cfo.co.za +27829208259

PRINTING

MANAGING EDITOR

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Caylynne Fourie cfourie@cfo.co.za +27 68 583 9270

Elizabeth Ferraris PROOFREADING Toni Muir

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

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

Community 8

Finding excellence in new places

12

Celebrating financial excellence: The 2021 CFO Awards

60

CFOs celebrate the good, the bad and the bizarre of crises

64

The spicier side of Jowayne van Wyk’s life

70

The Birds of Douglasdale Dairy

74

Letter from the Community Manager

Leadership

22

16

Bongi Ngoma named CFO of the Year – A public sector first

22

Megan Pydigadu’s winning team: It’s about authenticity and trust

48

Clarissa Appana: Shooting for the skies

52

CFOs empowering the workforce of South Africa

56

The TOP 5 challenges facing CFOs

Sustainability 26

Mike Davis talks policy, power and pandemics

30

ESG – Old concept, new urgency

Strategy 34

Adrian Maizey: From the tennis court to the coffee industry

38

9 questions for Risto Ketola on resetting Momentum Metropolitan

42

Special feature: Asset light vs. asset heavy

64

26

48 CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

5

FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR

New year, new optimism, new challenges

I

am sure everyone in South Africa was crossing all their fingers and toes on New Year's Eve, praying for 2022 to be better than the last two years.

Four months into the new year, we’ve started seeing some positive developments with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic state in the country. However, while 2022 started off on a promising note, recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has brought new challenges.

In November 2021, then CFO of the Auditor-General of South Africa, Sibongiseni Ngoma (now National Head of Treasury), became the first public sector CFO to be awarded the CFO of the Year title [see page 16], setting a new precedent for the sector.

In February, the Minister of Finance presented the 2022 Budget Review, and following many conversations with leading CFOs in our community, it painted a much better picture for the country as the economy is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels of GDP this year.

And in March, President Ramaphosa announced that South Africans no longer have to wear masks outside as the vaccination rate reaches over 33 million people.

At the same time, the world has turned its focus to doing good business, and finance leaders have taken it upon themselves to drive the ESG agenda within their organisations [page 30], which includes new initiatives to improve the unemployment rate in South Africa [page 52]. A recent conversation with Bradley Wentzel revealed just how important the “E” in ESG is, as the CFO encouraged employees to stop and admire the bird life of the Douglasdale Dairy [page 70].

Throughout this edition, and over the last two years, one thing became clear: the journey to excellence includes people, and EOH CFO Megan Pydigadu revealed that the new people-first approach to doing business created high-performance teams [page 22].

The biggest takeaway for me from these conversations with the CFO South Africa community has been that, despite the chaos and heartache of the last two years, maybe they were necessary for businesses to realign

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

with what should be important to them: the planet, people and ethical business.

The realignment of business couldn’t have come at a better time, as the world starts to feel the knock-on effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Not only has it had a massive humanitarian impact, but organisations across the world have to struggle with supply chain disruptions and price inflations brought on by sanctions against Russia.

Ongoing conversations with the CFOs in our community have revealed that these new challenges are similar to those they faced during the Covid-19 lockdowns internationally, but that the last two years have prepared them for the uncertain operating environments.

These finance leaders also echo statements featured in this edition that ESG now means global accountability and responsibility, a consideration that many South African businesses are facing right now.

The CFO South Africa team’s thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the conflict, and we continue to hope that the year will ultimately deliver peace and prosperity for all.

We haven’t touched on the Russia-Ukraine conflict in this edition due to its fast-changing nature, but you can visit CFO.co.za for real-time feedback from our community.

Caylynne Fourie Managing Editor cfourie@cfo.co.za +27 68 583 9270

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PEOPLE MOVES

FINDING EXCELLENCE IN NEW PLACES Finance professionals are ready to take on new challenges and add value this year as they move into new roles and to new organisations. effect from 20 May 2022. She takes over from Mark Kathan, who was appointed as the head of AECI Mining. “I am excited to join the AECI leadership team and look forward to being part of driving the group’s strategic growth agenda,” Aarti said.

The JSE has subsequently appointed its head of commercial finance, Carmini Kander, as its acting CFO.

Bongi Ngoma

In June, Auditor-General South Africa’s Bongi Ngoma was promoted to the national head of audit after serving as CFO for nine years. “I am looking forward to adding value in a number of areas.

Operationally, to integrate technology in improving our ways of work and resultant outputs. Externally, I am looking forward to sharing deep insights that would add value to our stakeholders," Bongi said. Read more about Bongi’s journey as CFO and new appointment on page 16.

Jason Quinn has returned to the role of Absa’s group FD following the appointment of Arrie Rautenbach as the bank’s new CEO. Punki Modise, who has been serving as interim FD since April 2021, has been appointed as the interim CEO of Absa’s Retail and Business Banking division.

AECI has appointed Aarti Takoordeen as its new CFO with

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Liberty Holdings FD Yuresh Maharaj has taken over from David Munro as the group’s CEO. "I am humbled and privileged that the Liberty and Standard Bank Group afforded me the opportunity to lead an organisation with such a deep heritage and rich purpose," Yuresh said.

Capitec co-founder, CFO and FD André du Plessis will be retiring on 30 June 2022 after 22 years with the group. Capitec’s group services financial head Grant Hardy has been identified as the designated CFO and FD to succeed André.

AngloGold Ashanti CFO Christine Ramon has announced that she intends to retire at the end of June, after more than seven years with the company. “I am thankful and proud of my work and achievements at AngloGold Ashanti, and of the exceptional team I’ve worked alongside during that time,” Christine says. “This has been a difficult decision for me but given that I tragically lost my husband to Covid-19 last year, I now need to devote more time in the near term to my two children.”

ArcelorMittal South Africa has appointed Suretha van Wyk as its interim CFO until a new CFO is appointed. Suretha’s appointment follows the resignation of CFO Desmond Maharaj.

Angela Pillay has tendered her resignation as the FD of Sasfin to pursue other endeavours. Angela joined Sasfin as FD in 2018.

Global consulting company Kearney has appointed iOCO group CFO Jo-Ann Pöhl as their new senior advisor. “I am excited to be joining Kearney,” Jo says. “I resonate with their purpose, culture and focus on what is essentially right in the work that they do and who they partner with.” Jo served as the group CFO of iOCO from April 2020 until March 2022.

The Eskom Pension and Provident Fund has appointed Thandie Mashego as its new CFO. Thandie will be taking over from Shafeeq

Mark Kathan

Brushing up on her French Air Liquide has appointed its CFO, Taki Nkhumeleni, as the Large Industries & Industrial Merchant (LIM) program director for the Europe Industries Hub, and she will be relocating from Johannesburg to Paris to take on this new role. “The most exciting part is that all the experience I’ve had in different roles throughout my career is literally coming together into this one project. It’s good to see that there is never any experience wasted.”

Taki says that she needs to brush up on her French really quickly, and started classes a few months ago. “When you get into a different culture, you have to embrace it, and one way to do that is learning to speak the autochthonous language. It is a great way to truly integrate and get connected to the local culture and build relationships.” l

tive director. Justin takes over from Owen Cressey.

Dumisani Dlamini has been promoted to the role of SANParks acting CEO after serving as CFO for four years. “It was unexpected, as I was enjoying my CFO role,” Dumisani says. “But I am humbled by the board’s decision to trust me with the role of leading such an important institution in our country.”

Euan McNeil

Abrahams, who was promoted to the role of chief executive and principal officer last year.

Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) CFO Euan McNeil will be taking over the reins from Andrew Stark as the group’s new MD for South Africa. “I am thrilled to continue to build on the legacy Andrew has created for FCTG and look forward to an exciting new era of growth and innovation in both business and leisure travel.”

Ascendis Health CFO, Cheryl-Jane Kujenga, has assumed the joint role of CFO and interim CEO. Her appointment follows the resignation of acting CEO Andrew Marshall.

Virgin Active has promoted the MD of its South Africa branch, Mark Field, to the position of group CFO. He will take up this new position once his replacement as MD has been announced.

AVI Group has appointed Justin O’Meara as its new CFO and execu-

Sabvest Capital has appointed Kyle de Matteis as its new CFO. He takes over from retiring CFO Ray Pleaner after serving as deputy CFO since October 2020.

JSE-listed Sirius Real Estate has appointed its group FD Diarmuid Kelly as its new CFO. He takes over from Alistair Marks, who has taken up the newly created role of chief investment officer.

Net1 UEPS Technologies has appointed Naeem Kola as its new group CFO, taking over from Alex Smith, who has been appointed as the group chief accounting officer. “I am very excited to join Net1 during a transformational period for the business,” Naeem said.

Bytes Technology Group has appointed Andrew Holden as its CFO following the retirement of Keith Richardson. The responsibilities that Andrew held in his previous position as COO will be absorbed into his CFO role. “I am excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for the group.

I am also looking forward to working closely with Neil [Murphy, Bytes CEO] to maximise the growth potential of Bytes.”

Taki Nkhumeleni

Doug Lafferty has resigned as the CFO of Vivo Energy to take up the position of CFO at Aston Martin Lagonda Group. “I’m proud of how the recovery has continued, and the strong performance of the company during my tenure,” Doug said.

“I firmly believe that the strategy is right to provide long-term benefits to our customers and our broader stakeholders; and in the significant long-term potential of Vivo Energy.”

Tatenda Maponga has been appointed as Arden Capital’s interim CFO, allowing Peter Saungweme to focus on the CEO role solely.

Pembury Lifestyle Group has appointed Cordelia Sachiti as its new FD following the resignation of Thabo Tshepuwane after only four months in the role.

Balwin Properties has appointed Jonathan Bigham as its new CFO. He takes over from Jonathan Weltman, who resigned as CFO for “health reasons”.

Dumisani Dlamini

CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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PEOPLE MOVES Nadia Statham has been appointed as the FD of blasting and explosives company BME, a member of Omnia Group. “Despite the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an exciting time to be serving the mining sector,” Nadia says. “Minerals remain vital to global growth, and I am looking forward to helping strengthen BME’s financial capability to drive our contribution and performance.”

Grinaker-LTA has appointed Esethu Mancotywa as its new CFO. WG Wearne has appointed Albertus Badenhorst as its interim FD. His appointment follows the resignation of Norman Janse van Rensburg at the beginning of February.

Megan Segers was appointed as the CFO of Starlite Aviation Group.

“My goals for the immediate future are to ensure that management and staff are well versed in the use of the latest reporting software to make ‘on the go’ decisions,” she says. “Aviation is a fast-paced environment that requires tailored dashboards to ensure all decisions enhance and align to our strategic goals.”

SA Corporate Real Estate has appointed Sam Moodley as its new CFO. Sam takes over from Antoinette Basson, who resigned in December 2021 to pursue a career opportunity in the Western Cape.

Irene Koeppel has been appointed as the new CFO of SuperDrive. Irene,

who has signed a four-year contract, will arrive in South Africa from The Netherlands at the end of October and take up the role in November.

Hannes van Eeden has taken up the position of CFO at Luxe Jewellery and Watch Division. The move saw Hannes resign as the Luxe Holdings CFO, a role he held since January 2019.

TerraCom Resources’s Australia CFO, Celeste van Tonder, will now focus on the company’s South African operations in the role of CFO. The mining company has also appointed Megan Etcell as its interim CFO for its Australia operations, replacing Celeste.

Dries Ferreira resigned as the FD of Newpark REIT as of January 2022 in order to pursue other interests.

Acsion has appointed Chris Jansen van Rensburg as its new executive FD and CFO following the resignation of Sandarie le Roux.

Ellies Holdings CFO Chris Booyens reached his compulsory retirement age according to the Ellies policy, and retired from his role in January.

New Frontier Properties has appointed Leon Thompson as its new FD following the immediate resignation of Richard Bolleurs due to ill health.

Corrie Verburg has been appointed as the CFO of BlueSky. “Financial nimbleness in the age of digitalisation is a must, and it’s an objective that we need to strive for daily,” Corrie says. “In my role as CFO, digital financial transformation is a passion point and needs to be embedded throughout BlueSky.” Prudential Portfolio Managers has appointed its CFO Chris Sickle as its new CEO. “It is with great pride and excitement that I accept the appointment,” Chris says. His appointment follows CEO Bernard Fick’s decision to take a break from formal employment.

Esethu Mancotywa

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MAS Group has appointed Raluca Buzuleac as its new deputy CFO. She

Chrisanthi Michaelides

will be taking over from CFO Irina Girgore, who was appointed as deputy CEO in August 2021.

Life Healthcare has appointed experienced CFO Cindy Hess to the board of directors as an independent non-executive director. Cindy has served as the CFO at Media24, Pioneer Food Group and Sea Harvest Group.

Royal Bafokeng Platinum has appointed its head of finance Rotshidzwa Manenzhe as its new acting CFO. She takes over from Hanré Rossouw, who has joined Sasol as its new CFO-designate.

Old Mutual Life Assurance appointed experienced CFO Funke Ighodaro as chairperson of its audit committee in November 2021. Funke is the former CFO of Tiger Brands and Primedia.

Thuli Manyoha has resigned as the FD of Old Mutual Insure to pursue other opportunities. She held the role since January 2018.

Vedanta Zinc International CFO Pushpender Singla has been appointed as a member of the Minerals Council South Africa board. “I am pleased and honoured to join the board of the Minerals Council South Africa,” Pushpender said. “I look forward to contributing to the success of the organisation and contributing to further transformation, development and growth of the South African mining industry.”

Calgro M3 has appointed Sayuri Naicker as its new FD. Her appointment follows Waldi Joubert relinquishing the role of FD to serve as managing director of the company’s Memorial Parks business.

Following the appointment of Sugendhree Reddy as Access Bank South Africa’s new CEO, Chrisanthi Michaelides has stepped back into her role as CFO of the bank

after serving as acting CEO since September 2021.

Emerald Risk Transfer, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Santam, has announced the promotion of its CFO, Carla Jordan, to CEO with effect from March. Stepping into the CFO role will be Nonte Nzimakwe, who has been with Emerald since 2016.

Umgeni Water has appointed

Thamsanqa Mkhwanazi as its new CFO and debt officer. He takes over from Kajal Singh, who has been serving as acting CFO since November 2020.

African Bank has appointed its group CFO Gustav Raubenheimer as the new group executive of data science.

The move will see Gustav step down from his role as CFO, which he has held for the past 10 years. l

Sheldon Friedericksen

Accelerated development Sheldon Friedericksen has been with Fedgroup for seven years, starting as a group financial manager in 2014 and becoming CFO in 2016 – all before the age of 37. “I have been on this journey, operating within the financial services industry and bringing our entrepreneurial energy to challenge the status quo, while focused on achieving the tremendous results required by the group,” he explains.

Reflecting on his journey over the past seven years, and looking forward to his continued development, Sheldon has decided that a new opportunity will create an environment that would enable him to accelerate his development. “I love to be challenged, love to learn, and love to work with

collaborative teams trying to make a difference through entrepreneurial thinking,” he says.

Starting January 2022, Sheldon joined Transaction Capital Group in the SA Taxi subsidiary as a finance executive in the insurance segment.

He says that one of the highlights of his time at Fedgroup has been the tremendous growth that the group has experienced. “This growth is not just in asset under management, revenue, etc, but in the growth in the capacity and capabilities of the employees, brand awareness and digitisation of engagement channels.” l

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COMMUNITY

CELEBRATING FINANCIAL EXCELLENCE

THE 2021 CFO AWARDS South Africa’s leading finance executives were celebrated for successfully navigating a return to something like normal this year at the Polo Room at the Inanda Club.

I

n their best dresses and tuxes, South Africa’s leading finance professionals were greeted by the sounds of the saxophone filling the summer air at the Polo Room, Indanda, on 17 November 2021. With cocktails in hand, guests at the eighth annual CFO Awards enjoyed steak taco and prawn panko canapes with a view of the green expanse of polo fields under the night sky before the start of the ceremony, also known as the “Oscars of the finance profession”.

CFOs were then guided into the magnificent ballroom, decked out in black and white accented with daylilies, succulents and candles. The three-course menu was curated by leading Johannesburg caterers Word of Mouth.

World-renowned comedian Loyiso Madinga returned to the CFO Awards as the master of ceremonies, keeping the guests entertained with jokes about finance, lockdown weight gain and heels, all of which was met with resounding laughter.

Highlighting the importance of the awards and congratulating the 24 nominees of the evening, CFO South Africa community manager Brian Chivere said that the event was a salute to the notable achievements of the finance industry. “Tonight is not just a celebration of our exceptional nominees, but of South Africa’s finance professionals as a whole, who have had to navigate a return to somewhat normal over the last year,” he said. “You continue to demonstrate that our professionals can stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are driving and supporting business around the world.”

He acknowledged the panel of judges for their invaluable time and effort in giving the CFO Awards the prestige it deserves, as well as the many companies

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who made the CFO Awards possible. Principal sponsor Deloitte headlined the awards for the fifth year in a row.

Award sponsors include Accenture, Coupa, Dimension Data, OneStream, Standard Bank and Workday.

Deloitte Africa board chair and newly elected CEO Ruwayda Redfearn delivered the opening address, underlining the firm’s continued support of the Awards as a sign of its commitment to South Africa’s finance community.

“New business managers are looking beyond profit,” she said. “Instead, they are looking toward their social and environmental responsibilities. Responsible leadership must also be responsive leadership. We are a collective with enormous influence and this requires more than focusing on CSI projects, but speaks to what our collective purpose is and makes an impact that matters.”

The big winner of the night was Bongi Ngoma, national head of audit (CFO at the time) of the Auditor-General of South Africa, who was awarded the highest honour of CFO of the Year 2021, a first such accolade for a CFO in the public sector. She also walked away with the Public Sector CFO of the Year Award, and the Transformation & Empowerment Award.

“I am speechless,” Bongi repeated three times. “Thank you to CFO South Africa, my team, and to all the CFOs out there. I dedicate this Award to all the CFOs who excelled in what they did this year, especially in the public sector, which isn’t easy to operate in.”

Sheldon Friedericksen, Fedgroup CFO at the time, was another overall winner, receiving the Young CFO of the Year Award. “You know what they say, it takes a village,” he said, acknowledging the support of his team and colleagues. Bothwell Mazarura, Kumba Iron Ore CFO, was awarded the Strategy Execution Award. “I would like

SS2208 - CFOSA_CFO Magazine Advert (CFO Awards 210*275mm).pdf

• • • • • • • • • •

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3:19 PM

CFO of the Year Award: Bongi Ngoma, National Head of Audit (previously CFO) – Auditor-General South Africa Young CFO of the Year Award: Sheldon Fredericksen, CFO – Fedgroup Public Sector CFO of the Year Award: Bongi Ngoma Finance & Technology Award: Mark Kathan, CFO – AECI Transformation & Empowerment Award: Bongi Ngoma Strategy Execution Award: Bothwell Mazarura, CFO – Kumba Iron Ore High-Performance Team Award: Megan Pydigadu, Group FD – EOH Finance Transformation Award: Glen Pearce, CFO – Sappi Compliance & Governance Award: Alet Coetzee, CFO – Northam Platinum Limited Moving Into Africa Award: Lucas Verwey, Group FD, Distel C

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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to share this achievement with all of the CFOs here this evening, who have had to execute strategies like never before over the last two years,” he said.

The High-Performance Team Award went to EOH group finance director Megan Pydigadu. “This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my team, quite literally. They are truly the stars of this Award,” she said.

Alet Coetzee, Northam Platinum CFO, won the Compliance & Governance Award, but was unable to attend the event. Instead, her right- and lefthand women, Nabeelah Cassim and Janri Rieckert, received the Award on her behalf.

Glen Pearce, Sappi CFO, was awarded the Finance Transformation Award, and Lucas Verwey, Distell

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group FD, won the Moving into Africa Award.

“I am so proud to be able to say we successfully navigated Covid-19. We persevered. But I would also like to share this award with, and acknowledge, all of those we lost over the last year,” Lucas said.

Mark Kathan, AECI CFO at the time, received the Finance & Technology Award, saying: “Technology is important for any business or organisation to be successful, not just for the finance teams. A lot of CFOs tried to achieve their best this year, which is what we are celebrating today.”

Following a decadent dessert, the guests all gathered on the patio for their last rounds of drinks, congratulating the nominees and the winners on their achievements of the evening. l

THE 'OSCARS' OF FINANCE

16 NOVEMBER 2022

The Polo Room, Inanda Club, Sandton CFOAwards.co.za

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Bongi Ngoma named

CFO OF THE YEAR

2021

A public sector first Having been inspired by the first black female CA Nonkululeko Gobodo as a child, Sibongiseni Ngoma strived for excellence. She was recognised for achieving it when she became the first public sector CFO to win the CFO of the Year 2021 Award for her work at the Auditor-General of South Africa. By Caylynne Fourie

CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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LEADERSHIP

G

rowing up, Sibongiseni Ngoma came from a humble home and had to study through an Ubuntu Education Fund. And, while she was very grateful for the opportunity to go to school, she explains that the way they taught English lacked inspiration. “You become deprived of a language that is very important in the environments you will one day work in.”

Because of this, Bongi invested in reading in order to improve her command of the English language. “My mom would bring me novels and magazines and I would teach myself through reading.”

It was during her extra reading time that she came across the story of Nonkululeko Gobodo, the first black female CA, in one of the magazines. Bongi couldn’t have imagined that she would one day be reaching similar heights. “I wanted to be among this group of black women who were trailblazers in the field of accounting, to analyse the numbers and help tell a story.

Nonkululeko’s story became my mainstay; and it served me in my darkest and most difficult days.”

Fast-forward to 17 November 2021, when Bongi was awarded the CFO of the Year 2021 Award at CFO South Africa’s annual CFO Awards ceremony, for her role as the CFO of the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).

That night, she became the first public sector CFO to win the title. She also walked away with two other coveted awards; the Public Sector CFO of the Year and the Transformation & Empowerment Award.

“I am deeply honoured to be recognised as the first public sector CFO to receive this award,” Bongi says.

“Such recognition of excellence in the public sector is significant as our organisation focuses on driving accountability across the span of our responsibilities, to ensure that the lived experiences of South African citizens improve and that those charged with the public purse exercise good governance. If this ambition can come to pass – it would be a double dose of fulfilment for me.”

“To the people, for the people, and to serve the country and nation so that it can prosper.”

The fact that excellence can be recognised in the public sector is a cherry on top, she says, adding that it restores dignity to all the people who have chosen to be of service to the country. “It also affirms that good governance in the public sector is achievable, and demonstrates that an environment characterised by preventative controls and good risk management can exist. It is possible to provide excellent service to stake-

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holders, uphold the highest ethical standards and respect for public funds and the greater good.”

Bongi adds that while it is gratifying to be the “first”, it is also concerning that this may point to the slow progress of transformation in the public sector. “Perhaps it is a challenge to each and every one of us to improve our sector and minimise not only the barriers to entry, but demystify the successes of the role itself.

“I therefore invite other CFOs in the public sector to continue to aim for excellence in service of the people in building our nation, and to fuel a cohort characterised by ethical conduct and self-leadership.”

She adds that while she has received this award as Bongi Ngoma, this is equally an acknowledgment of team AGSA and the commitment each member of the organisation has to upholding the principles of good governance and accountability. “Furthermore, this award is an affirmation for every woman and for each black person that transformation of this traditionally male, white dominated space is possible. It is within reach and it is for each of us to stay the course with courage, determination and unwavering commitment.”

A calling for the public sector Bongi has been in the public sector for 20 years.

She joined the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) after completing her articles at EY, and stayed with the company for 13 years. “What attracted me to the IDC then, was its mandate, which was centered around the creation of industries, financial support to startups, incubating funding through venture capital, and financial injection to those who want to contribute to employment in the country,” she says.

Bongi was recruited by the Auditor-General to join the institution as the CFO in 2012. “I was motivated by the vision of the organisation and its unrelenting pursuit of strengthening democracy, accounting for how public funds are used and helping in holding accounting officers and executives to account.” This, she explains, is one of the highest callings in her life.

Over the years, she has had various opportunities to join the private sector, but Bongi has stayed true to her purpose, which is “to the people, for the people, and to serve the country and the nation so that it can prosper”.

She explains that the work that is done in the public sector should translate into sustainable value and impact for ordinary people. “I’m a compassionate leader who doesn’t just see the suffering, but wants to act on it. And that’s why the public sector resonates with me.

If we can contribute to getting governance mechanisms correct, we can change the lives of people incrementally and sustainably.

“I wanted to be among the group of black women who were trailblazers in the field of accounting.”

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“For instance, if we can influence the way in which the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) disburses funds, or the way in which Home Affairs processes their transactions following our audit reports, people will see an impact on their lives.”

“Over the years, we have had to unfortunately accept that it is not going to be an easy task to turn things around, to get public officials to internalise the principles of good governance and accountability, but we are already seeing some positive signs.”

However, in order to have an impact on people’s lives, Bongi first has to navigate the challenging environment that comes with the public sector.

Bongi says that, on the back of a challenging environment, the enormous pressure in the economy and the constraints of resources, CFOs in the public sector are required to be resourceful. “The public sector is in a crisis; but this itself is also an opportunity. Once you make the choice to join the public sector, you can’t help but be both current and futuristic, because you are here to serve the day-to-day lives of citizens while protecting the future of generations to come.”

“The environment we operate in, is unique, and has a lot of constraints and requires a different level of adrenaline,” she says. “You are always on your toes as you have to navigate the ever-changing economic environment.”

She explains that one of the biggest challenges (which can also be seen as an opportunity) is to be part of the cohort of public officials who are committed to professionalising the public sector while upholding the principles of public service. She adds that standardising governance and service delivery mechanisms across the breadth of the public service requires consistency, commitment, determination, perseverance and resilience, and where there is lack of adherence to the requisite standards of performance, consequences must be enforced.

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Reaching new heights While she was heading up the internal audit department at the IDC, Bongi’s department was awarded for providing the highest quality of service to the corporation and its stakeholders. The award was a recognition of the successful implementation of a game-changing solution that led to the establishment of a unit to track

LEADERSHIP

funds as soon as they were disbursed, in order to safeguard the organisation’s investments.

In 2016, Bongi received an award from the late AuditorGeneral Kimi Makwetu, recognising her as the best corporate executive at the AGSA. “It was mainly for demonstrating excellence in creating and articulating a compelling vision, establishing a clear direction, guiding the teams in the implementation of this value proposition and therefore safeguarding the financial viability of the organisation,” she says.

When Covid-19 hit South African shores in March 2020, Bongi was appointed by new Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke (then deputy Auditor-General) as the Covid19 Compliance Officer of the AGSA. In this capacity, she led the executive decision-making body on Covid19 matters affecting the institution, called the Crisis Nerve Centre (CNC). “There is a saying that ‘the true test of a leader is how well they function in a crisis’,” Bongi laughs, adding that, for her, this was certainly a test, “although the pandemic is by no means something of the past".

Resilience as a craft When Bongi joined the AGSA in 2012, she reported directly to Kimi Makwetu, who was the deputy AuditorGeneral at the time. “He taught me soft skills, like how to be bold and courageous, how to stand my ground and how to push back,” she says. “He was a master in the game of resilience.”

Over the years, Bongi has had to learn her own lessons as well. “When I joined the AGSA, I was tasked with bringing new tactics into the organisation to ensure its sustainability. And I had all these big ideas to do just that, but at first, and inherently so, the leadership didn't easily buy into new things.”

She explains that she had to learn how to engage and collaborate with stakeholders effectively before she could deploy any new idea, and spent countless hours in extensive consultations so that the stakeholders could buy into these ideas. “I learnt then that you have to fight outside the ring. When you have ideas, socialise them with others and get inputs before you bring it to the table. By the time you are done with consultation, the idea will be enhanced.”

After Kimi passed away in 2020, Tsakani was appointed as the new Auditor-General and Bongi learned a whole new range of things – including an unrelenting focus on excellence. “Tsakani strives for excellence and is a transformative leader. She pushes us to be the best versions of ourselves,” Bongi explains. “She has been instrumental in my development since she took over as deputy Auditor-General in 2014. She is skilled at nurturing while still assigning tough responsibilities. Under

“Once you make the choice to join the public sector, you are futuristic.” her leadership I’ve become a fast learner with exposure to assignments that have enlarged my territory and increased my expertise.”

Taking on a new opportunity Having made her mark as the CFO of AGSA, Bongi was appointed as the national head of audit in June 2021.

She explains that she will miss the people in the finance portfolio in particular, as well as the unique challenge of managing and navigating finances in a complex public sector space. “It’s not always easy to be the CFO. The environment is uncertain, complex and forever changing. As the CFO, you must always be agile and on your toes. I will miss this adrenaline rush.”

She adds that she walks away with lifelong lessons, and is excited about this new venture. “I am looking forward to adding value in a number of areas. Operationally, to integrate technology in improving our ways of work and resultant outputs. Externally, I am looking forward to sharing deep insights that add value to our stakeholders.”

The new role entails greater strategic depth, including direction setting for the organisation. It encompasses the leadership and steering of the audit portfolio and its executives while ensuring that the objectives of the organisation are realised.

Bongi explains that she is looking forward to playing her part in crafting and delivering messages that connect with the citizens and stakeholders. “Most importantly, I am eager to ensure that the lives of our citizens and their lived experiences improve as a result of the work we do. We can be a South Africa that lives up to its promises as premised in the constitution.”

No vision, no future Bongi hopes to inspire disadvantaged youngsters with her story, just as Nonkululeko’s story did for her. “In the corporate world there is a saying: ‘no vision, no future’.

And what is a dream if not a vision?” she says, encouraging youngsters to dream big. “There are no limits to dreams. Your circumstances and environment can never stop you from dreaming. And then work towards achieving that dream. There are going to be challenges along the way, but you must marshal your thoughts and be resilient.” l

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LEADERSHIP

A WINNING TEAM IT’S ABOUT AUTHENTICITY AND TRUST Together with her team, EOH CFO Megan Pydigadu, who won the High-Performance Team Award at the 2021 CFO Awards, provide exclusive insight into the makings of a group of people who pull together for a common goal. By Ronda Naidu

“

This is the award I would have liked to win the most because it goes to the team. An award can be about one person, but this one is about the team – and I have an amazing team.” These are the words of Megan Pydigadu, CFO at EOH, who took home the High-Performance Team Award at the 2021 CFO Awards.

The winner of the award demonstrates capabilities to build a high-performing financial team that is both efficient and customer focused. It recognises a CFO with a clear vision, who invests in talent development to align future needs with the available skills set, is an inspiring coach for co-workers and gives attention to personal and professional development of their employees.

lems that need to be solved and put teams together to resolve the issue.

She provides two examples of this, one being at the end of last year during a finance strategy day where all the different parts of finance had to put together a cohesive strategy for finance.

“They all worked together to put together a cohesive plan to execute on that to deliver to the priorities we have in finance,” she says.

Another good example of how high-performance is part of the fabric of the team was around year-end financials.

“This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my team, quite literally. They are truly the stars of this award,” she said.

Megan says, “We have over 150 legal entities and historically have had intercompany loans flowing between all entities – it's a bit of a spiderweb. We have been on a mission to clean up and simplify. The team came together from business, treasury, tax and group reporting to work out how best to clean up loans so we get to a place where there are only loans from treasury to businesses – historically it has not been a structured way of lending in the group.”

Megan, who has been at EOH for three years, joined the organisation during a challenging time when it faced questions about ethical practices at senior management level and faced corruption charges.

“The team managed themselves to solve the issue at hand by declaring dividends, ceding and assigning loans to clean up the structure so that for year-end the audit process was smooth around the loan process,”she adds.

“I had to build the team from scratch and had to ask people to come into an environment that was full of question marks and uncertainty. It is not about I, it's about the team and the effort they put into turning things around,” she says.

Earn your place

During the awards ceremony, Megan gave full credit to her finance team, showing that she embodies both the spirit and intent of the award.

For Megan, the key to a high performance team is how they collaborate together and cross silos to solve issues. The team are all self starters, so often see prob-

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Megan is clear that a high-performance team means people have meaning and that there is no place for politics. In such an environment, it must be made clear that everyone has earned their place at the table and don’t need to prove what they can offer.

This was starkly different to the environment Megan

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LEADERSHIP

had inherited when she joined EOH. “I could see a very ‘command and control’ type of environment. People were good at taking instructions and didn’t want to make decisions. They were not accountable or empowered to make decisions. So, it was really about changing the culture. The focus was not on politics and processes, but about changing hearts and how people feel,” she says.

She adds, “What they bring to the table is accepted, so people are not jockeying or politicking. They pull together, are authentic about who they are, feel empowered and it’s also about trust. Taking the politics out has been important to me.”

Such an approach has not been plain sailing, with Megan acknowledging that it was a learning experience for her.

“A big lesson for me was that you really need people who have your back and who you can trust. Sometimes the people who are in a team pay lip service and you cannot effect change like that. There were some people in the team who I thought were supportive of the

change but it was only when they left and you bring in people aligned with your vision that you realise the difference. It’s a balance in how you change a team. It’s a bit like Jenga blocks, to make sure everything is balancing,” she says.

Megan notes that it is important for leaders to employ people “who are stronger than you in your role”.

“It is important to challenge yourself like that and then you also have a strong team you can rely on. Then it’s about how they empower themselves and their teams,” she says.

Within this context, Megan further advises knowing and understanding when you can push people and when to step in and help.

“It is one of the most critical and hardest things to get right, particularly when working in change and under a huge amount of pressure. It’s critical to have empathy.

My favourite quote is: ‘if there’s anything in the world you can be: be kind’. We need to remind ourselves of that, that we are all human and it’s about the human connection,” she says.l

“A big lesson for me was that you really need people who have your back and who you can trust.”

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Pictured, from left to right, Ashna Maharaj, Louise Pinto, Marialet Greeff, Ashona Kooblall, Zihle Nonganga, Megan Pydigadu, Aasha Patel, Rebecca Pole, Lwando Sangcozi, Brian Graumann, Jo-Anne Pöhl.

Meet the team Winning the High-Performance Team Award would not be possible without team members. Here are some of the members of Megan’s team at EOH, who provided CFO SA with their unique insight of being part of such a dynamic group.

Jo-Anne Pöhl, former group CFO of iOCO, which is part of the EOH group of companies, explains her experience of the high-performance team culture at the organisation.

“Our team members have chosen to be at EOH and this choice helps unlock discretionary effort. We have found purpose in what we do. Recognising what we each bring to the table and when and how we operate at our best has been key to helping fill the gaps and building trust. Being deliberate about celebrating each other, sharing success stories and lessons learned too has helped us learn and grow together. In essence we ‘fail forward’,” she says.

like they are adding value to the organisation and can see the results of their hard work and effort,” she adds.

Ashona Kooblall, finance director at EOH, notes that the ability to succeed as a leader is underpinned by desire and commitment.

She says that a finance leader is expected to be the one who supports, creates focused clarity and champions the team and CEO to achieve the strategy.

“We have been a powerhouse team and the diversity within the team is impressive. The high-performance culture and how we serve our stakeholders is encouraged by a unique group of leaders who encourage innovation, good values and thereby achieving our business and people goals,” she adds.

Jo notes that finding purpose in the work – individually and organisationally – is exceptionally powerful and a non-negotiable for a high-performing team.

Trust, a solid work ethic, participation, a limited need for oversight, empowering team members and encouraging open communication and innovation are some of the factors that Ashona lists as the criteria to develop a high-performing team.

“The more we have been able to align work and purpose, the more fulfilled and effective we have become,” she says.

Rebecca Pole, finance director at Nextec Corp, which is part of the EOH group, explains the high-performance team culture during a time of Covid-19.

Other aspects include building real and trusted relationships with the team and being aware of strengths and development areas as a collective so that “together we are better”.

“The support of the team is what has got us through – their compassion, grit and willingness to step in and step up has been phenomenal. As a team, we have faced each challenge as an opportunity to solve differently whether it be in the design of our new target operating model, the establishment of finance shared services across the organisation to better support our internal stakeholders, or in how we serve our clients in an ever-changing environment.

We solve not as individuals but together,” she says.

Jo recently moved to Kearney, where she serves as a senior advisor.

Aasha Patel, Group treasurer at EOH, explains some of the tangible and intangible ways of developing and maintaining a high-performing team.

These include finding the right balance of effective, transparent and honest communication; having clear and effective communication, which builds trust; setting clear goals and priorities; motivating people and resolving conflict.

A number of these factors are among Aasha’s leadership qualities, too.

“While empathy has always been an important leadership quality, during the last 20 months with remote working, emotional stress and the impact of lockdowns on people’s lives, it has most certainly elevated this trait for me,” she says.

According to Aasha, a leader is as strong as their team. “I therefore try to delegate and empower my team to take responsibility, whilst ensuring that they have sufficient guidance along the way. Driving a culture of improvement, innovation and challenge drives a high-performing team if they constantly feel

Rebecca further highlights the need to check-in with the team regularly.

“We run at a pace that is faster than the broader organisation can handle. We have generally become more adaptable to change in the last two years thanks to the disruption caused by Covid-19, change fatigue is a real challenge facing all teams and finance is no exception,” she says.

She adds, “Building trust and buy in has been critical to bringing the organisation with us as we lead from the front. Whenever we have a proposed solve, we employ a check and challenge process which encourages all involved in the change to have a voice so that concerns are heard and addressed. Where necessary, we amend the course of action so that ultimately we solve as a collective.”

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SUSTAINABILITY

POLICY, POWER & PANDEMICS Mike Davis took over as CFO of Nedbank in October 2020, and having navigated the worst of the risks presented by Covid-19, is now focused on the bank’s green and sustainable future. By Georgina Guedes

M

ike Davis has had an interesting career trajectory – often navigating corporate mergers, but then finding his place and holding a significant role in the new entity.

His journey of change and success got him to where he is today – in the role of CFO of Nedbank.

[Morathi]. Shortly thereafter she decided to pursue new opportunities. After 10 years at Nedbank, she felt she needed a change – and the opportunity to apply for a new role came up. Again, I was fortunate to be successful in securing the role of CFO. I don’t take this lightly, underestimate it or take it for granted.”

From articles at Deloitte’s Durban office, Mike moved to one of his biggest clients, NBS, in the risk space. He describes his time there as offering great experience, before the company went on to merge with Boland to become NBS Boland. This then merged with BOE Investment and Private Bank to become BOE Bank, which was then bought by Nedbank in 2002.

Mike acknowledges that he’s been fortunate to learn a lot and successfully navigate a number of big business changes in his career. “I have enjoyed the path that I’ve taken. I know it’s quite unusual with multiple mergers and acquisitions. I’ve always been close to the migration or the transition as we’ve reshaped the business after each of these mergers, which does create opportunity but also challenges. Things change all the time, and I have certainly been lucky to do well through most of these changes, and I’ve learnt a heck of a lot.”

This necessitated a move up to Johannesburg, but at the time, Mike’s wife Kerry was five months pregnant with their first child. He asked her what she thought they should do. “We’ve got to go,” she responded. So they relocated to Johannesburg, where they have stayed for the last 19 years.

“I moved straight into 135 Rivonia Road, and with the acquisition, we were now merging Nedbank, Nedbank Investment Bank, Cape of Good Hope and all of the BOE Bank Brands and Businesses.”

With the move to Joburg, Mike says as expected that there were multiple resources competing for the same role within Nedbank. “There was more than one Mike Davis competing for the asset and liability management role within the merger, but to cut a long story short, I was successful in securing the role. That then extended to incorporate capital management, which was then the start of an entity within the business called balance sheet management, which really sits between group finance, group treasury and group risk.”

After a while, Mike ended up as head of balance sheet management, and moved onto group exco in 2015.

“Subsequent to that, my role in balance sheet management shifted from reporting to the chief operating officer to the CFO, where I then reported to Raisibe 26

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Covid-19 There has also been a lot to learn as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in South Africa. As the country went into lockdown level 5 in March and April of 2020, Nedbank quickly enabled 77 percent of their campus staff to work from home. And then they faced the risk challenges that the pandemic brought.

“The crisis played through a number of bank risk types – increased volatility, translated quite quickly into higher levels of market risk and operational risk, then into potential industry-wide liquidity risk followed by solvency considerations. Some of our clients felt the need to draw down on unutilised credit facilities in the short term, placing this cash back on deposit with the bank, which then had a consequential impact on our liquidity profile. As corporates or clients default, or the likelihood of default increases, this then migrates into increased credit risk and higher levels of impairments, which adversely impacts on bank solvency. In my position I was front and centre in dealing with all these risks as they emerged.”

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SUSTAINABILITY

In September, Mike moved into the acting CFO role, and when Raisibe left on 1 October, he was officially appointed as CFO. “I don’t know if that was a good or a bad time to be appointed. The markets and banking activities were extremely volatile and unusual. We were looking at how best to support our staff and keep them safe, and how to service our clients. We were trying to predict how Covid-19 might play out. So there was a lot of pressure in the timing of accepting my new role, but I was extremely pleased to get the job.”

He says that the timing of the pandemic was fortunate for banks, in that the digital progress made by the South African banking system allowing clients to engage digitally was widespread.

“Certainly, in terms of pivoting from the perspective of how best to service our clients, we were fortunate as an industry because of the significant digital progress we have made over the past five to six years. We had a fundamental shift in strategy at Nedbank. We had to focus on being resilient in the context of an environment where we weren’t sure how things were going to play out. We focused on ensuring balance sheet resilience through strong levels of capital and liquidity and ensuring that we were well provided for potential losses with strong levels of provisioning and coverage. This is so important as the strength of the balance sheet speaks to the resilience of the franchise and the ability to generate long-term sustainable growth versus short-term profitability.”

Getting on track While Nedbank has its own contingency and sustainability plans, Mike makes some very important observations about the necessary improvements for the country and economy at large. One is that there needs to be accelerated structural reform, such as has been seen in the self-generation of electricity space.

“Any company can now generate or source their own electricity up to 100MW without having to be licensed – that’s significant for corporate South Africa. It enables our corporate clients to build their own energy security in terms of production for whatever they do. It’s an example of a really positive development in the structural reform space.”

Mike adds that another positive step has been the framework that has been developed around wheeling – which means purchasing renewable energy from resources not directly plumbed into your own business. “So you can secure power from a windfarm 500km away, as long as it plugs into the Eskom grid. Under the wheeling agreement, renewable energy is delivered into the grid from the windfarm supported by your corporate offtake of such power.”

It is through an arrangement like this that Mike says

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they are planning to make Nedbank’s head office at 135 Rivonia Road, which currently constitutes 20 percent of the operations’ energy use, approximately 80 percent green in due course. “We just don’t have the roof space to do it at the campus, but wheeling allows us to secure green energy to the site, and then ultimately to all of our campus sites as well.”

Another issue that Mike says needs to be addressed is policy certainty. The concerns and uncertainty around, for example, land expropriation without compensation make it hard to get investment from foreign markets. “If government can deliver policy certainty, then we have an opportunity to get higher levels of fixed investment, which talks to long-term sustainable growth. This then talks to lower levels of unemployment.”

The third issue that needs to be addressed in South Africa, according to Mike, is that the market needs to be convinced of the rule of law. “In the wake of the recent looting and unrest during July, this rests squarely with government to reassure all of us that our citizens, investors and visitors are safe and that their assets are secure.”

The green bank Nedbank has a strong focus in the energy space, with a view that it wants to lead the market. In line with this commitment Nedbank put two resolutions to shareholders last year that received 100 percent support.

“The first one was related to our commitment to adopting and disclosing an integrated energy policy, which we’ve now done, and what is very important to us is to get the balance right in transitioning away from fossil fuel to green energy, while supporting our existing clients and the national grid – because if the national grid fails, there will be no energy in the short to medium term. It has to be a just transition – we cannot migrate from one to the other immediately.”

To this end, they have mapped out a very clear timeline for the migration away from the financing of thermal coal with higher levels of financing into renewable resources, that distinguishes between the various timelines, between exploration and production, upstream and downstream, and the provision of funding for new coal mines versus provisions for existing timelines. “This is all mapped out in a very clear timeline and in line with a just transition.

“The second relates to reporting on our approach to measuring, disclosing and assessing our financial exposure to climate-related risks on which we continue to make progress through our integrated reporting.”

Nedbank’s exco decided to navigate this transition under the sustainable development goals (SDG) banner, which is well recognised globally and well articulated. Mike is

“In my position I was front and centre in dealing with all these risks as they emerged.”

responsible for driving momentum for SDG 7 – the provision of affordable and clean energy. “By way of example, we are looking at maintaining our dominant position in the financing of renewable energy projects, increasing funding for embedded energy projects, giving high levels of funding to hybrid and electric vehicles, and encouraging clients to take out refinance to retrofit solar panels onto their roofs and buy solar powered geysers. That’s my objective around SDG 7 – to look at climate change and to look at the immediate consequence of what’s happening on the planet.”

He adds: “We don’t just say we’re the green bank, we really stand behind it. It’s something we can demonstrate credentials in and we believe we have an important role to play towards moving South Africa towards renewable energy alternatives.”

Family life A focus on sustainability underpins Mike’s views as the CFO of Nedbank, but he feels equally strongly about them as a citizen of the world and a father. His first child, a

daughter named Kennedy, is 18. His sons Weston and Dean are 16 and 13. Although Joburg wasn’t planned to be any of the children’s birthplace, Mike says the city has been good to his family. “It has a really lovely vibe and a great energy when it comes to business. It’s cosmopolitan and has a lot going for it.”

He says that in many ways, lockdown was about “getting on with it”. His children were old enough to focus on their schoolwork, and Mike was very caught up in his new responsibilities, but it was still very important to him to play his part – at work and at home. “It is important for me to play my part at Nedbank, for our people and our clients, but also for my family. I think we are hopefully through the worst of it now.”

Mike and Kerry are avid mountain bikers, often competing in events together, and both enjoy pretty much any outdoor sport. Mike and his three children also play polo, often participating in tournaments together, which allow them to spend their whole weekends together. Kerry also rides and is a great supporter of her family’s polo endeavours.l

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ESG

OLD CONCEPT, NEW URGENCY During the Finance Meets HR Summit, South Africa’s leading finance and HR professionals revealed that it is their responsibility as key decision-makers and leaders to drive the ESG agenda within their organisations.

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n 15 October, thousands of finance professionals streamed into the gamified conference and expo for the first-ever virtual Finance Indaba Network. The Finance Indaba, which is normally held at the Sandton Convention Centre once a year, was reinvented as an online event to adhere to lockdown regulations.

Insights principal and interim CEO Andrey Bogdanov, who delivered the keynote address.

Finance and HR leaders from across the province gathered in their numbers at PwC in Waterfall on 3 March, delighted to have the opportunity to once again interact in person after two years of social isolation. During the Finance Meets HR Summit, the executives discussed the changing emphasis in corporate South Africa around the importance of addressing the environmental, social and governance impact their businesses have.

The attendees broke away into two separate groups to participate in an exciting new concept – a boardroom simulation. They were presented with a case study of Company X, and were tasked with fixing the environmental wrong it had committed. While the simulation was hypothetical, it yielded extremely relevant realworld insights.

“ESG has always been around us, but with different letters and names, including corporate social responsibility and corporate social investment,” explained Risk

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He took the attendees through a brief history of the ESG transformations we’ve seen over the last decade, starting in 2010, when ISO released a set of voluntary standards to help companies implement, to 2022, where we are starting to see ESG initiatives in action.

Successes and challenges After a short networking break, the CFOs and CHROs again broke into two groups for panel discussions,

SUSTAINABILITY

WALKING THE TALK ON ESG During the Finance Meets HR Summit, finance and HR executives broke away into two groups and were presented with a case study of Company X – which had committed an environmental wrong. In the wake of this environmental and reputational crisis, a research report was commissioned into the company culture, and it emerged that it was an extremely toxic place to work – especially for women. Despite these negative findings, the company’s finances remained strong.

The hypothetical scenario gave the executives the opportunity to deliver insights on an important topic, and resulted in a blueprint for the successful adoption of and delivery on ESG policies. It allowed the audience to get in touch with their common beliefs around ESG, and their collective priorities in business.

Masibulele Dem, CFO at Hulisani, who acted as Company X’s CFO for one of the simulations, stressed that a company’s performance is based on its employees and communities, and an organisation that fails to take care of these is shooting itself in the foot.

Mark Gounder, CFO at Hulamin, who acted as Company X’s CFO in the other simulation, said something similar, remarking that the most important capital in any organisation is its people.

“Businesses need to invest in human capital as well as their balance sheet in order to be sustainable. Finance and HR need to come together and set clear guidelines and goals to balance their investments – together.”

One of the attendees who was acting as a board member during the simulation proposed a solution to addressing the impact of Company X on its people. “We need to become aware of who the affected people are, and approach them to offer assistance.

We need to tell them that the matter will be attended to and that action like this will not be tolerated.”

Defining purpose An executive in one simulation raised the point that any organisation should start with a purpose – and be very clear on what that purpose is. “ESG is such a topical strategy for any organisation, but you can only get there if you are clear on your purpose – and not just your internal stakeholders, but your whole value chain.”

Another attendee stated that every company has to focus on three things: its purpose and mission, its strategy, and its culture: “In order to align these three, we need to address all of them together instead of focusing on one at a time.”

Lead from the top Vinolia Singh, CPO at Adcorp Group, and CHRO for the purpose of the simulation, pointed out that no single person in a company

is the owner or driver of culture, and that values are driven from the top, and through every line manager in the organisation.

The designated CHRO for the second simulation, Accenture CHRO Lebogang Chaka, whistled the same tune, saying that, “to understand where a toxic culture in any organisation is coming from, you have to look at its leaders and what their strategy is.

And in order to change that toxic culture, you need to implement a 360-degree leadership turnaround and embed an entirely new culture.”

Some of the attendees agreed that before they could address the problem, the board needed to ask themselves whether they were walking the talk in implementing the ESG framework. “Is the problem the framework or the implementation process and rollout of it?”

In the case of the scenario under debate, Brett Warrington, MD of Paragon Impact, then observed that while the company under question had seemingly good ESG policies in place, these were not being held up by action on the ground.

“Companies tend to see ESG as a cost centre. They tick the box.

This can give a misunderstanding of how well the company is performing. They had great policies, but on the ground it was quite different. Clearly, it’s not coming from the top down. So it’s important to put something in place that measures what’s happening on the ground.”

He added that while Company X’s financials were strong in the wake of the crisis, this would probably not remain the case for much longer, as legal action and sanctions would probably arise as a result of the company’s problematic activities.

ESG expert Aimée Girdwood explained that while ESG has a material impact for your business, your business has a material impact on the environment and communities in which it operates. She also concluded that, when the right frameworks are in place, it is up to the leadership of the organisation to make sure that they are being implemented correctly throughout all the levels of business.

Both boards found that ESG goals need to be tied into the company purpose, and that these should then be stated in KPIs that incentivise co-operation. Should these goals not be met, especially in the case of a company in crisis, there should be a consequence management framework in place. The boards agreed that this should be measured – not just at the end of a financial year but as an ongoing exercise, so that the company’s course could be corrected in good time.

It was vital, both boards concluded, to share the findings and decisions with all staff, so that they could believe that change was coming.

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FINANCE INDABA SPECIAL SECTION

where their peers shared some of their own ESG journeys in their organisations.

Microsoft HR director Sameera Mohamed explained that the right place for ESG is in any company’s vision and mission statement, and that it is up to those players in the boardroom to ensure that everyone else in the company’s value chain understands what this purpose is.

While Microsoft is planning to not only reduce its carbon footprint, it also has plans to reverse the impact it has had. Sameera explained that Microsoft plans to enable other organisations on the continent to do the same as well, and that this requires investment into ESG infrastructure and knowledge across Africa.

DRDGold CFO Riaan Davel highlighted that purpose is a critical part of an authentic ESG strategy, and stated his business’s intention: “We remain committed to sustainable development with a focus on the goal of reversing the environmental legacy of early mining, limiting and reducing our impact on natural resources and improving the quality of life and communities affected in close proximity to historical mine dumps.”

Palesa Ntoagae, human resources director at the JSE, revisited the idea that doing the right thing comes from the top, saying that working with a CEO who is people centric makes her job so much easier. She also high-

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lighted that she believes the issues of gender-based violence and youth unemployment are specifically worth targeting for the stock exchange. “That’s the stance we’ve taken as an employer citizen.”

CFO Ted Willcox unpacked PepsiCo Sub-Sahara Africa’s ESG framework, which is based around the organisation having a positive impact in all three spheres of ESG. This framework includes: a “positive agriculture” strategy, where the company sources new materials in a way that is regenerative for the Earth and builds farming communities; a “water positive” strategy, which sees it put more water back into the natural tables than it uses; and a “positive choice” strategy, which encapsulates its social responsibility to make sure all of its products are healthy and safe for its consumers.

A fundamental part of DNA The final segment of the evening included an expert evaluation by PwC’s Jayne Mammatt, who agreed with the discussions, debates and conversations that took place during the night. She said that it’s refreshing to see that people have started to recognise the financial impact ESG has on organisations. “We’ve always made it a soft issue with no balance sheet implications, when really it's fundamental for any organisation’s success and needs to be part of its DNA.”l

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TENNIS COURTS TO COFFEE SHOPS A career in finance was Adrian Maizey’s backup plan. Now, however, he finds himself spearheading the turnaround of the Starbucks South Africa brand as its CFO and CEO. Adrian tells Caylynne Fourie how he rescued 13 stores and turned them into 55 successful outlets.

W

hen Adrian Maizey was playing tennis and cricket at Pretoria Boys High, he dreamed about spending the rest of his life pursuing a career in sports.

At the age of 17, Adrian went to the United States embassy in Pretoria where the lady at the front desk, who also happened to be a childhood neighbour of his dad’s, gave him a list of American universities. “This was before the time of the internet when such lists were obtained in person,” he laughs.

Three of the universities phoned him back and Adrian ended up choosing a scholarship to play tennis at the University of Nebraska. In 1993, at the age of 18, he took his first ever international flight with only R3,000 and one suitcase. “I came to the US and didn’t know anybody,” he says. “The first thing I did was go to the local store and buy a radio, because I didn’t have one growing up.”

Adrian won the Tukkies (University of Pretoria) tennis championships in 1992, shortly after accepting the scholarship.

When Adrian started his education at the University of Nebraska, it was mandatory that he take accounting. “I got an A plus while most of the others in the class found it challenging,” he says. Because he was good at it and found it interesting, Adrian decided to pursue an accounting degree. By that point, he had realised that a legitimate professional tennis career was not on the cards.

Adrian got his first job at PwC and shortly after, joined Deloitte in Houston, Texas, where he qualified

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as a US chartered accountant. In 2001, he was accepted to Harvard Business School where he earned his MBA. This, Adrian explains, was a lifechanging moment.

He entered the corporate world again with new ambition and worked his way up the ladder.

After spending a total of 10 years at Deloitte, his Harvard credentials helped open dors for him in the investment world. He worked for four different investment firms over the next 19 years, which led to a personal investment in Taste Holdings.

When Taste Holdings ran into financial difficulties in 2019, in an effort to save that investment with less than a month to spare, Adrian scrambled. Through his network in the US, Adrian raised money that ultimately led to his holding company, Rand Capital, acquiring the rights to Starbucks in South Africa through its Rand Capital Coffee subsidiary.

The capital from the acquisition provided Taste Holdings with a necessary funding lifeline.

Getting to work Having inherited a mere 13 stores after five years under its previous owners, Adrian took it upon himself to turn the Starbucks South Africa brand around. Through the holding company, he appointed himself as the CEO, CFO and his own executive assistant, and set out plans to restructure the business model using economies of scale to deliver the international Starbucks experience to more South Africans.

“The business today is five times what it was 24 months ago.”

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STRATEGY Adrian says that, for the scale of the Starbucks business internationally, South Africa is still in its infancy.

“We’re not a large corporate entity that’s mature and established. In order to get this business to actually work, we’ve had to instill an owner-operator start-up mentality.”

He explains that it was an eleventh-hour rescue effort.

"We inherited these very big, expensive stores split throughout the country. This had massive implications from a back-office perspective because I needed a management team based in Durban and Gauteng where the stores were located and was faced with the challenge of opening stores in Cape Town, during the height of the pandemic, on account of leases signed by the prior owners for which we were on the hook.”

costs built into the structure that were inappropriate for the stage of the fledgling business. His first course of action was to reduce the corporate overhead and move to smaller store formats in lower rental areas outside of malls. “We wanted to move into the neighbourhoods to facilitate building a habitual type of offering, with less dependence on novelty, which is inherent in well-known brands when they first arrive in new markets”.

Adrian then partnered with Shoprite Checkers to increase Starbucks SA’s reach. “The new Starbucks kiosks in the FreshX supermarkets is a good partnership for us. It helps extend the Starbucks offering into regions and neighbourhoods and gives us access to Shoprite’s incredible leadership and innovation. In turn, Shoprite achieves access to Starbucks’ market leading brand, offering, coffee expertise, and a key market demographic of Starbucks, namely the influential and discerning young consumer,” he says.

Adrian adds that, when you only have 13 stores, it doesn’t make much sense to open stores across provinces because it’s cost-prohibitive to oversee and supply. The company also needed scale to improve purchasing power, which has allowed for localisation of non-proprietary products and equipment. “Scale helps cover the extensive fixed costs that come with managing the brand and offering of the quality of Starbucks. So I ended up having to get scale rapidly.”

Exponential growth trajectory

He further explains that the prior owners had a lot of

Just over two years down the line, having ploughed

Market penetration and reach, he adds, is a key step in building an omnichannel business. “We’re available on Uber Eats and are coming to Mr Delivery soon.”

“We inherited these very big, expensive stores split throughout the country.”

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through macro interruptions including the Covid-19 pandemic, looting, metal worker strikes, as well as rolling electricity and water blackouts, Adrian has opened a total of 42 new Starbucks stores in South Africa, bringing its total of stores to 55.

Adrian explains that the Covid-19 pandemic gave Starbucks South Africa the opportunity to expand, as Covid-19 made much needed market share available. “I don’t think we would have expanded at this rate were it not for Covid-19, as the landscape would not have been as opportunistic as it was,” he says. “The markets imploded, and we went out there looking for new retail space while the rest of the market was retreating and anchoring down in preparation for the storm that was coming. While our growth has been out of necessity, our rate of growth has been out of opportunity. We moved early and fast.”

Adrian explains that this fast growth was crucial and has resulted in a significant infusion of equity capital into the country during the height of these economically challenging times for South Africa. “We had to build enough profitable stores to cover the corporate losses being incurred on the original 13 stores, hence the need for economies of scale, and we had to do so quickly as the pandemic further exposed the flaws in oversized stores attracting large, fixed rentals. When sales retreat, as they have during the pandemic, the inelasticity of those rentals becomes acutely apparent.”

A new market While Covid-19 brought an opportunity for growth for Starbucks South Africa, it also had a significant impact on its sales. “A lot of that has to do with office workers now staying at home. We’ve lost customers who used to come in to get coffee in between meetings,” Adrian says.

However, Starbucks South Africa stores are seeing bigger groups and consequently higher spend per transaction at the same time. “While that might not mean more money is coming, it certainly has changed the experience in our stores,” he explains. “Instead of one person coming in, grabbing coffee and leaving, the groups will sit down and socialise because they probably want to get out of the house.”

He adds that weekdays have been the most impacted, as there is less movement in society – people are staying at home and therefore spending less. Weekends, on the other hand, have not been affected as much. “Now you have to figure out how to serve the new customer behaviour, and you have to consider the longevity of this. Do you change your strategy and offering, or hold steady? All of which have material cost implications in terms of training, product offering, marketing, and how you design your stores.”

Adrian believes that one of the biggest impediments

currently to economic growth in South Africa, outside of the country’s labour laws, is the pandemic-induced “working from home” trend. “We need big corporations to bring their workforce back,” he says. “For an economy to grow, there needs to be spend. When people move around, they buy petrol, lunch, work clothes, coffee, and more. This creates monetary velocity – the grease the economy needs.”

He predicts that, in the long term, the younger generation who are still apprentices, are going to be particularly disadvantaged by the years they have lost by working from home. “They are missing out on the opportunity to be mentored, nurtured and developed.”

Covid-19 has also impacted the supply chain of Starbucks South Africa. Because it is part of the bigger international brand, its proprietary drinks are appropriately imported. However, the silver-lining of the global supply chain disruption has been an acceleration of the localisation of non-proprietary ingredients, materials, and equipment. “This has reduced Starbucks South Africa’s reliance on the unreliable shipping channels and local ports and its susceptibility to the volatile Rand,” Adrian notes. “More importantly, it has led to further investment in local suppliers, leading to more job creation in South Africa, much needed during the pandemic.”

Taking on 2022 The next step in Starbucks South Africa’s journey is to take on the new year. “We are starting to build our pipeline of new stores for later in the year. If we can find the right partners or landlords to do it with, we will open more stores,” Adrian says.

In the meantime, he explains that they are focusing on strengthening the local company’s offering, foundation, training, and services – everything that comes with such fast growth. “The business today is five times what it was 24 months ago. It’s completely different,” he adds. “So I have to retrain the employees, even at executive level, and move the whole team to think on a much bigger scale.”

Sport as an outlet Adrian is still passionate about sports and uses it as an outlet when work and travel gets to be too much. With 22 Ironman triathlons and three Comrades Marathons under his belt, he aims to do the Cape Epic in March with his colleague Craig Palm. “Retail is a 24/7 job, it doesn’t stop. So, I exercise a lot, and that’s what keeps me sane,” he says.

He explains that the one thing he has learned through competing in Ironman is how to suffer. “I’ve always worked hard and that’s how I got to where I was – I learned that from my parents, so credit goes to them.” l

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RISTO KETOLA ANSWERS

QUESTIONS

RESETTING & REINVENTING MOMENTUM METROPOLITAN

In the last six months, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings has launched its new “Reinvent and Grow” strategy, following on from the successes of its “Reset and Grow” strategy, which was concluded mid-2021. Caylynne Fourie asked Momentum Metropolitan FD Risto Ketola some questions around these two strategies.

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“The whole purpose of the Reinvent and Grow strategy was to take forward the successes of the Reset and Grow strategy.”

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1

What can you tell us about the Reset and Grow strategy?

The Reset and Grow strategy was launched internally and to investors in 2018, with a focus on efficiency and getting the basics right. This involved keeping expense growth well below inflation, growing our short-term insurance profits quite substantially, and becoming more prudent on investing capital into new ventures.

2

What were some of the successes that came from the strategy?

One of the commitments we made to investors was to achieve savings of R500 million on our cost base after tax. We ended up saving R900 million after tax. So we basically kept our cost almost flat for three years on a R10 billion cost base against inflationary increases.

The other thing we aimed to achieve was to increase our profits coming out of non-life insurance, including motor insurance and property insurance. And we did that organically through Momentum Insure and the acquisition of Alexander Forbes Insurance. our IT systems down for 30 days.

3

I s there any area of the strategy where you didn’t meet all your goals?

The only area where we maybe didn’t tick all the boxes was that we were hoping to narrow the losses of our new initiatives, including the India health insurance business, the small transactional banking initiative (Multiply Money), and the lending joint venture with African Bank. A lot of those initiatives didn’t come out of the J-curve like we had hoped.

4

hat part of the strategy W were you most proud of?

I would say the most fundamental change for the group was reconnecting with a lot of sales people that we had lost touch with over the years and the fact that we have hundreds of independent financial advisors who started treating us as their preferred product supplier again.

So we’ve become a product provider and employer of choice to some degree in distribution.

From an FD perspective, the fact that we were able to keep costs flat for three years, which isn’t easy when two thirds of your costs are people, was a big

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achievement. That required massive communication and finesse to keep people motivated while we were cutting costs. It's easy to cut costs, but it's difficult to cut costs in a way that people don’t get demoralised.

5

hat can you tell us about W the next growth step, the Reinvent and Grow strategy?

The whole purpose of the Reinvent and Grow strategy was to take forward the successes of the Reset and Grow strategy. It has moved from being an internally focused strategy, to a more externally focused in terms of consumer experience, client experience, and distribution experience. So a lot of the initiatives are more to do with how we interface with third parties and external people.

The five key inputs into the reinvent and grow strategy are: 1.

Continuous growth in our distribution channels

2.

Establish new distribution channels

3.

Accelerate digital

4.

Service leadership

5. Transformation of the business from an employment equity perspective We also have some very clear targets that we want to come out of the strategy. The two most high-profile financial targets we have put out are: that we are targeting normalised headline earnings of R5 billion by 2024, as well as a ROE of 20 percent at the same time. We think there’s substantial scope to improve profitability and return on capital over the coming years.

6

Has the new strategy started bearing fruit yet?

Because it was only launched recently, it is a bit soon to predict the success of the new strategy, but the two most tangible things early in the strategy are the increased activity around digital initiatives and the ongoing growth in our distribution channels. A lot of the digital initiatives we’ve implemented have had a massive impact early in the process, and we are seeing increased support from independent advisors, as well as growing more and more of our own sales people.

7

With the move to digital, do you foresee that the business model will further change because of it?

In a reasonable timeframe of five to 10 years, I think the ways of working will change significantly but I don’t think our business model will change 100 percent. In insurance and financial services in general, people still lack a bit of confidence to always deal fully digitally. So a lot of our digital initiatives are actually around how to empower intermediaries or our service people in order to engage more effectively with people. It’s more around increasing the productivity and efficiency of our people rather than replacing them.

8

What other opportunities has the strategy revealed going forward?

Covid-19 has forced a lot of people who were comfortable in their way of work to dabble in other ways of working. A good example is in our Metropolitan Life sales force. Their main focus is funeral policies

and simple savings products, which has historically been very paper-based. A lot of sales people didn’t see a reason to change. Then, during lockdown, they were forced to use digital tools to onboard and service their clients, and they love it.

As a company, it has taught us that it’s useful to sometimes force people outside of their comfort zones.

While there is quite often resistance to change, it is not always based on good reasons and people are able to handle change surprisingly well and to stay competitive.

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What comes next?

One of the things we have to continuously be vigilant about is to stay realistic and rational around what we do and don’t do. I talk about return on capital a lot, because it is such an important part of these two strategies. When you have big pockets, it’s easy to get distracted and invested in lots of things, and generally that is not a good way to make good returns long term.

With the business performance improving, we have to remain grounded and continue to say no to a lot of things, and to focus on the things we are good at. l

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ASSET LIGHT VS ASSET HEAVY In the past three years, many companies have been forced to review their business structures, including a concerted audit of the assets held within the business. Jane Steinacker spoke to leading finance professionals about their asset strategies, and whether to invest in more assets, or let them go. By Jane Steinacker

P

reviously seen as a remedy for underperforming companies, asset-light strategies are now being used by companies to manoeuvre through the market changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and to create continued

growth.

According to EY’s report, How asset-light strategies and models can boost business growth, “An asset-light strategy or business model involves transferring capabilities, such as people, process and technology, to ‘better owners’ in order to enable companies to transition fixed costs to a variable cost structure, enhance agility, and facilitate a shift of resources that allows a focus on core capabilities”.

It’s often a relationship that best suits both parties, allowing one party to shed unnecessary costs and another to purchase the assets and/or capabilities on offer.

Technology driving change The same report published a poll that held responses from 1,000 C-suite executives. A third (31 percent) said

that their asset-light strategies have been considered because of changes in technology, 25 percent said that meeting the changing demands that customers have is a key consideration and 21 percent are dispersing assets and using the capital to fuel economic growth.

While a typical asset-light strategy may take between 12 to 18 months to complete, the financial rewards exceed happier shareholders, according to the EY report.

“For example, another recent EY LLP study found that companies that transitioned manufacturing ahead of a sale were 17 percentage points more likely to exceed expectations on the valuation of the remaining businesses and were more likely to exceed expectations on the price of the divestment.”

SA companies driving asset-light strategies This strategy is being embraced by businesses in South Africa, who are already realising the benefits. The most notable is mobile companies releasing ownership of cell towers in favour of using the capital to build other capabilities within the business.

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Zaf Mahomed

Cell C’s new asset-light operating model, says CFO Zaf Mohamed, is focused on building its platform business: “Cell C would need more than R5 billion capex annually to build a comparable network. This would also take several years to implement.”

Instead, the operator is deploying an asset-light infrastructure model and plans to invest capex of R1 billion a year, which includes technologies to support the platform model it is implementing as it evolves to being a technology company.

And the financial gains are starting to show. The group reported a R148 million profit before tax for the six months ended June 2021, compared to a R7.6 billion loss for the first half of 2020.

“Our three most valuable assets that are not on our balance sheet and underpin our transformation journey are spectrum, a loyal and profitable customer base, and a resilient brand,” Zaf explains. “Together with our network strategy, consumer-driven digital products and solutions, as well as our focus on a high-performance culture, we have a sound platform from which to compete and assist us to deliver on our strategic intent.”

Shedding non-core assets In November last year, Omnia sold 90 percent of its share in petroleum company Umongo. This is part of

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George de Beer

Omnia’s turnaround strategy to focus its attention on the agricultural and mining sector and to dispose of assets that the business deems as being non-core.

This will not be the only asset that the company is considering. “Management is committed to the continued strategic execution, which includes the sale of assets identified as non-core,” says group FD Stephan Serfontein.

Umongo, which is part of Omnia’s Chemicals Division, supplies lubricant additives, base oils, process oils and chemicals, as well as technical solutions to lubricant blend manufacturers in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The sale of Umongo delivers an attractive cash receipt for Omnia, as we believe that there are limited synergistic benefits with our agriculture, mining and chemicals businesses,” he explains, adding that the deal will further strengthen Omnia’s capital position, returning over R1 billion in cash.

Stephan said the proceeds of the sale will either return cash to shareholders or be invested in strategic growth opportunities for the company.

Grindrod CEO Xolani Mbambo sold 9.6 percent of the company’s Shipping Holdings, the business from which it was born. The shares were sold at $13.50 (about R201) per share, raising gross proceeds of $24.87 million (about R372 million).The proceeds of the sale are going

Herman Bosman

to be allocated to servicing debt and will increase its capital allocation.

“Grindrod’s focus”, says Xolani, “will be on ports, terminal and logistic solutions to service Africa’s imports and exports.”

Grindrod’s asset-light strategy has not stopped there: the company is in the process of selling the Marine Fuels business and its private equity assets.

Is asset light right for your business?

George de Beer, CFO for Imperial Logistics, says there is a balance between shedding assets that are not of benefit to the business and retaining assets that ensure that the business is able to still service its customers.

George refers to this as an ‘asset-right’ model.

“With our asset right model it is about owning the assets we need to make sure we can service our clients, but also making sure that we don’t have idle assets,” he says. “We do commodities, but with an asset-light model because we don’t want to own the assets because of commodity cycles. What we do like is specialised freight, tankers, fuel, solvents, food and chemicals, and then contract logistics, where you’ll do distribution on a fixed variable rate,” says George.

“There are two things in logistics, you need access to capacity, but you also need access to freight going both ways because you can’t afford freight going there and

Raj Nana

coming back again. So having those two things and managing sub-contractors and linking volumes both ways is very important. “That’s why we realised assetright was the way to go, because you need to have assets to execute.”

Companies primed to be future fit Rand Merchant Investments (RMI) CEO and FD Herman Bosman says, “Restructuring marks a significant milestone for the business.”

Focusing on property and casualty insurance, the company will be concentrating on investing in unlisted, futurefit, geographically diverse, short-term insurance assets.

The capital for this strategic direction will be raised by unbundling its life insurance assets in Discovery, where its current share ownership is 25 percent, and Momentum Metropolitan with a share ownership of 27 percent.

“They will end up with a direct holding in Discovery and Metropolitan in the same proportion as they hold in us,” he said.

Herman adds that direct ownership for RMI’s shareholders will be more efficient, so there will be no friction costs involved in the interim or conduit structure in the meantime, or in the middle of these two things.

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“The leaner operation model allows for capital to be allocated more appropriately, enabling us to further grow our core activities,” said Angela Pillay, FD, Sasfin

Angela Pillay

“If we only did the unbundling, our shareholders would have ended up with a disproportionate shareholding in the two companies,” Herman says.

The company is also planning a R6.5 billion rights issue, which it considers the most equitable and efficient mechanism to optimise its capital structure as a result of the unbundling. The restructuring will also help RMI tackle its R11.8 billion debt and reduce it closer to R6 billion.

Looking to the future, Herman says that on the one hand he is very excited about RMI’s longer-term future as a more focused investment company. “We will have to start off with two unlisted short-term insurers in our portfolio, and OUTsurance and Hastings have also shown not only that they are growing in difficult market times, but they’ve also shown that they have discernible IP that we think can be applied across a wider portfolio, and this is in fact what they’re doing.”

Attacq’s de-gearing has also been in full swing. In the past year the REIT business has sold R2.6 billion worth of assets in the period, including 2 Eglin road in Sunninghill, MAS Real Estate shares and Deloitte’s head office in Waterfall City.

According to CFO Raj Nana, Attacq has reduced its gearing ratio to 43.3 percent in the financial year under review, compared with 45.7 percent in the prior year. As a result, the group isn’t planning to incur further debt

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to undertake further development.

The group resolved to not pay a final dividend for the 2021 financial year in order to optimise its capital structure for development capacity.

Raj explains that the company will consider resuming a dividend in the 2022 financial year, but it intends to first further improve its gearing position.

Cutting the fat A leaner operation has been Sasfin FD Angela Pillay’s strategy.

Angela has on-shored Sasfin’s Hong Kong operations, exiting some of its non-core assets and preference shares. “The leaner operation model allows for capital to be allocated more appropriately, enabling us to further grow our core activities,” said Angela.

The financial benefits that include the leaner operation strategy have born results. Sasfin has reported headline earnings of R141.1 million for the year ended 30 June 2021. According to the company, this improvement was largely driven by an 11.65 percent increase in total income to R1.303 billion and improved credit performance. The group also reported a return on equity improvement to 9.11 percent.

Consumer businesses have not escaped the even-

Stephan Serfontein

Xolani Mbambo

tual probability of approaching an asset-light model.

According to Deloitte’s report, The future of consumer business, businesses need to move from “owning the aisle" to "owning the consumer”.

The report said that, “in recent years, however, the digital revolution has transformed the world and today an individual may be both a consumer and a creator. The average individual willingly shares data about themselves in exchange for convenience, such as shopping through digital channels, and this allows for the creation of valuable insight about the individual’s consumer preferences”.

The reports add that “asset-light and digitally native start-up brands that are using consumer data as the basis for competition and bypassing the traditional advantages of economies” have a competitive advantage over traditional linear businesses.

This has not been taken lightly by the traditional business model and “consumer-product companies have responded with significant investments in digital channels, customer analytics, and similar programmes”.

According to the Boston Consulting Group’s article “When “asset-light is right”, the benefits of this strategy are not best suited to all.

How consumer brands benefit

The report adds that the approach has served some consumer brands well.

“Both integrated and asset-light models – when well chosen – can deliver good results. For example, Zara, a Spanish fashion retailer, benefits richly from its integrated model. It designs and manufactures its lines of fashion apparel in its own facilities and sells them through its global network of company-owned stores.

Nike, on the other hand, also delivers superior results with its athletic apparel at a significantly lower level of vertical integration,” it says.

But it adds that, “light isn’t always right. Despite the benefits that an asset-light model can deliver, sometimes a vertically integrated model is a better choice. When coordination, speed, know-how, or knowledge sharing is essential – or when core strategic assets, such as vineyards in the Champagne region, are scarce – greater integration can be helpful. Integration can also help ensure that the economic interests of all parties are aligned,” it says.

A hybrid approach to asset-light models is also a possibility for companies to consider. By reducing certain assets and co-locating staff to partners, the business reduces expenditure but retains the benefits. The business can also retain sections of its vertical models to retain market share as well as intellectual property in that field. l

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REACHING FOR THE SKIES Clarissa Appana’s ability to channel her sense of adventure within any sphere she occupies has seen her go from a cadet pilot to a CFO, and led to many new opportunities. She tells Puseletso Mompei about her drive to empower other people to reach for the skies.

T

he determined country CFO of Lafarge Clarissa Appana hails from KwaZulu-Natal.

Naturally inquisitive, she excelled academically from a young age and despite being the youngest of four children, her go-getter attitude made her a natural leader of the pack.

Early on, the family suffered a loss which changed their trajectory. With the death of her father when she was just six, life became quite difficult. Her now single mom managed to maintain a home rich with principles and values, but luxuries were hard to come by. Determined to succeed, Clarissa bet on herself and set her sights on accomplishing her dreams.

“From early childhood grounding and circumstances, I always strived to be my best and create a life that was better than where I was coming from. I saw the challenges that came my way as twists to navigate along the journey, not dead ends.”

She recently went through one of her toughest periods when her mother, who had been her pillar, passed away suddenly in 2020. Still healing, she says these and other scars are what make her stronger and more resilient.

Finding her way A natural adventurer, Clarissa says she’s always loved space, been fascinated with nature and had a hunger for seeing the world. Ideally, she would have wanted to be an astronaut, but given the limitations of being in South Africa, settled on trying to become an airplane pilot.

When South African Airways (SAA) released the application forms for cadet pilots in 1996, Clarissa

took the opportunity to sign herself up for the training programme.

Her mother had also encouraged her to study something while she was training, in case her dreams of flying fell through. “I was adamant it would, but I listened to her,” Clarissa says. “B.Com was varied enough not to confine one to a single stream of career, my friends had chosen in that field, and my older sister had done her B.Com, so it made sense to study towards that degree.”

In her second year of studying her and while on her way to volleyball practice, Clarissa came across banners for students to meet with PwC. “I hadn’t applied ahead of time, or had an interview slot, and I was dressed in volleyball gear – a stark contrast to the other students in their suits,” she explains.

“A kind gentleman, James Dixon, the then partner at the PwC offices in Durban, approached me and asked if I would like to apply for post articles to be secured in my honours year of studies. I explained to him that I was going to be a pilot, so I would rather not waste his time.”

James asked Clarissa if she had an hour to do the interview anyway, which she did. “The interview impressed him so much that he offered me a position to do my articles anytime I was ready.”

While trying to complete her degree and going back and forth from Johannesburg for pilot training and testing, Clarissa also had to find a job during the little free time she had left. “I had to start taking out student loans and work after lectures on weekends at Luxury Cosmetics and Perfume Brands to pay for my studies. I also started tutoring in my third year at university.”

“The interview impressed him so much that he offered me a position to do my articles anytime I was ready.”

LEADERSHIP

In October 2001, she did her final exams to complete her degree and left to Johannesburg for five days to perform the final interviews and tests to become a pilot. She failed her pilot test, but received her honours degree, and took PwC up on the opportunity to do her articles.

She was able to work in multiple regions, managing teams across different geographies and disciplines, with a focus on people and teamwork. These opportunities led to her working and travelling to the US, Brazil, Chile, Poland, Germany, Italy, as well as in India, China and Australia.

The first was when she opted to leave home to do her articles in Gauteng, which was a new environment for her. She was keen to meet and experience new people, as she already knew everyone at the KwaZulu-Natal office. “Gauteng was an opportunity to put myself in a bigger setting, culture and to challenge myself in a new setting.”

“The exposure and level of understanding I gained from working in different cultures is an intangible skill that compounds and grows with time,” she says.

“With each experience I learnt more and flourished.”

Building relationships and figuring out how to interact in different settings is a skill that has resulted in her having a strong sense of self, developing deep social skills and cultivating a global network that she can leverage whenever she needs to.

After her time at PwC, where she cut her teeth as a CA, she spent three years with NYSE and JSE-listed Sasol Group, then moved on to the Milan-headquartered Tenova Group, where she spent 10 years in various senior roles, including head of internal audit and global head of compliance.

Despite not becoming a pilot, Clarissa’s sense of adventure and wonder has never left her. Instead, she has found ways to channel it within any sphere she occupies and it has led to great opportunities, she says.

“The exposure and level of understanding I gained from working in different cultures is an intangible skill that compounds and grows with time.”

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Empowering teams

Defining success

A champion of excellence, Clarissa is committed to surrounding herself with the best people. She believes in empowering those around her, and says, “If we are working together, I want you to share your ideas, I want new innovative, transformative ways of thinking.

That makes for stronger outcomes.” She says this attitude speaks to today's generation of leaders, who aren’t afraid to surround themselves with people who have different strengths and skills, and collectively leveraging that produces stronger results.

Clarissa says that for her, success is about seeing the teams she leads thriving. “Within the organisation it’s about being clear on strategy, being a pivotal part of defining the overarching direction and drilling down how this translates in our context.”

She describes her leadership style as charismatictransformative because she is drawn towards advancing innovation, growth and transformation. As a dynamic and driven professional, this style grows out of her personality, but she says it has flourished because of mentors and coaches who saw her innate potential and supported her growth and development over the years.

An agile and responsive leader, she says how she leads adjusts according to the circumstance. “For instance, Covid-19 has forced us to be more flexible. It’s a time for leaders to be empathetic, but also to step up and make decisions with a little more feeling than in the past. You need to be able to shift and respond to what is going on when you are in a fluid, ever-changing environment.”

As a person who deeply values relationships, she says she has made it a point to create authentic, lasting bonds. In fact, one of her proudest accomplishments is being able to maintain relationships that started in her early days. She says she has an extensive network of people she can call on for advice, to connect with and draw from, adding that, “The organisations you work for may change, but true relationships sustain through those transitions.”

While she acknowledges that she has deliberately driven her career, she says the strong support of leaders, coaches, mentors and her personal relationships have helped her grow. “My influences go beyond the confines of the workplace, and I am inspired by leading women trailblazers who have social impact and bring their voice to issues like ethics in business.”

In 2020 she was appointed as an independent nonexecutive director to Sygnia’s board and cites the company’s executive chair Magda Wierzycka as one such figure. Her late mother is also an enduring role model and the early discipline, sense of family and ability to navigate difficult situations with grace are some of the lessons she learned from her.

Outside of work, she says success is being able to honor work and family commitments and making sure that those closest to her are a priority. She admits this is not an easy balance to achieve, and adds that, “It’s probably nothing new to female executives, but as long as you have the support, manage expectations, good boundaries and a company with a healthy culture, I believe it is possible.”

The mother of a two-year-old daughter, Clarissa says having a child when her career is at such great heights has been a big transition, one that was particularly complex when Covid-19 hit. “It was a huge challenge, but my husband and I managed to get through it as a team.” She says like many parents around the world, the ability to work from home is something she grew to appreciate as she saw her daughter grow and change before her eyes, a privilege she would have never had if she had been working out of an office.

Outside of work Clarissa loves nature and is drawn to documentaries, loves space travel and culture. She admits to being a foodie and says she gets so engrossed in culinary delights that when she went to a three-star Michelin restaurant in Lyon run by renowned chef Paul Bocuse, the staff thought she was a food critic because she was so enthusiastic about the experience. “Everywhere I go, I find unique experiences and make sure I maximise every location. I have found that it’s the memories of special moments that stay with you over the years.”

Passionate about photography and art, she says the Japanese art of Kintsugi resonates with her. The artform uses a precious metal, liquid gold or silver to bring together the pieces of a broken pottery item, which fixes and, at the same time, enhances the breaks. “This metaphor of putting together broken pieces of pottery is about embracing your entire life story, your flaws and imperfections. It is not about seeing yourself as fractured, but more unique because you are reconstructed in a new way. It resonates with having the ability to rebuild after facing adversity.”.l

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LEADERSHIP

EMPOWERING SOUTH AFRICA’S WORKFORCE

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he outbreak and continuous impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on global economies and workplaces saw millions across the world lose their jobs. South Africa’s recent economic report, released in December 2021, highlighted this impact. The report showed an unemployment rate of 34.9 percent for the country, branding it as the country with the highest official unemployment rate in the world.

We asked these CFOs what their organisations are doing to create new job opportunities across the country, and the future of employment in South Africa is certainly looking brighter.

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Adriana Weilbach

Prof Carolina Koornhof

Telesure Investment Holdings

University of Pretoria

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic hard lockdown period, we made R320 million available to support our communities and businesses most hard hit by these events. R200 million was spent on providing food to those in need in our communities and R70 million was spent to support small enterprises to help them survive through this period and be able to retain their employees.

We take pride in our locally and globally relevant programmes that produce graduates who are socially conscious, active citizens who address societal issues and who positively impact our communities.

Bothwell Mazarura Kumba Iron Ore

In 2020, our spend was R9.8 billion with HDSA suppliers, and R3.6 billion of that was spent with host community suppliers. This is up from just R500 million spent with host community suppliers five years ago, which was simply not good enough.

Our host communities have benefited so much that we have seen the establishment of the first chamber of commerce within a mining community.

We are on an efficiency drive, which is counter intuitive to more direct employment, so we want to ensure that extra employment is happening in our communities. Our ambition is to create three jobs off-site for every job on-site by 2025, and by 2030 we want to see this increase to five jobs off-site.

Our community members are also shareholders of our business through the Sishen Iron Ore Company community development trust. Last year we paid R468 million in dividends to the community trust which benefits around 400,000 people in our host communities.

There are two government-owned pieces of property in Hatfield that had become dumping sites and a place for drug use and sales. We’ve made a community engagement project there, where some of our students moved over 3,000 tons of rubbish from those two sites. Our engineering students came in and built houses for people who are drug-affected, our health science students came in to wean them off the drugs, our students in natural and agricultural sciences came to plant gardens for food, our humanity students came in and did occupational therapy, and our economic and management sciences students came in to teach them business skills.

Dirk Viljoen

Hollard

Hollard was instrumental as a founding member in funding Harambee before sponsors came onboard.

It focuses on early childhood development, working mothers and black-women-owned small businesses.

A gap they identified is that school leavers are inexperienced when they try to get jobs – they don’t know how to apply for jobs. Since it was started, Harambee has supported 2.3 million school leavers and has linked 575,000 candidates to opportunities.

I am proud to be part of an organisation that is successfully a catalyst for positive and enduring change.

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Eddie Fivaz

TWK Agri

We’ve recently opened two filling stations that created 50 jobs in Piet Retief and Ermelo. It was so sad to see how many people applied for those jobs. The stations have coffee shops and the ladies who work there have learnt new skills. It’s about making a real impact and creating real value for a person.

We have the emerging farmer programme, with R50 million dedicated funding. The purpose is to develop, mentor and train people to become commercial farmers.

at the same time receiving on going business development and financial support. In the last financial year, they generated nearly R1 million in profit, and with the ongoing support of Distell have been able to diversify their product range and supply other customers – significantly improving the business’ overall sustainability.

We have also worked with some of our other suppliers to set up new business ventures that are able to generate extra income for their workers, as well as create sustainable jobs during a time when many companies were retrenching and down-sizing their workforces. Additionally, our drivers have been empowered with an owner-driver programme which allows them to own their vehicles and operate their distribution activities as independent business entities. This reduces the burden of having to purchase the vehicle upfront and they have the opportunity to make money by picking up loads from other companies.

Glen Pearce Masilo Makhura

Sappi

Our Saiccor operation in KwaZulu-Natal has set up training centres and provides community members with electrical, manufacturing and business development skills. These are used within the mill’s operating area and beyond.

Project Khulisa is the flagship project in our Forestry division and the one of which I am most proud. The programme has helped create almost 4,000 smallscale timber farmers supplying to Sappi’s operations, and over 100 SME operations to support their activities. Started over 30 years ago, today these farmers earn almost R400 million per year from their timber.

Department of Public Service and Administration

Damian served on the board of directors with Advanced Polymers and Kaymac as FD before joining Trellidor. Before that, he served as a financial training manager at Converg Financial Training. He has also served as a member of the executive committee of the Manufacturing Circle.

Meroonisha Kerber Impala Platinum

Lucas Verwey Distell

We helped establish a consortium of about 36 women in Somerset West in CT and gave them a R2.4 million loan to set up the business, buy equipment and secure facilities. Because they were first-time business owners, we also helped them establish financial systems and trained them in operational, production and logistical systems and processes. They were subsequently awarded a multi-year contract to supply the product for the brand to Distell, whilst 54

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Mining companies adhere to social and labour plans, which detail a company’s commitment over a threeyear period to sharing some of the benefits that flow from its mining operations. These include initiatives for developing employee skills, upgrading local schools and roads, and providing housing, water and sanitation in our host communities.

In addition, Implats’ sustainable and responsible local procurement practices further enhance efforts to contribute to the economic and social development of these communities. Currently, we are also looking at ways to grow and support women-owned, historically disadvantaged or black-women-owned enterprises.

Mikateko Tshetshe Unilever

Our Ola ice cream brand created 2,000 jobs by training mobile vendors to sell ice cream in public spaces, giving them bikes and training them how to be entrepreneurs, as well as keeping them going through lockdown by paying them a living wage until they could get out and sell again.

We also support partnerships with reclaimers organisations that have helped over 60,000 people earn a living wage from collecting recyclable materials, which we then used to make Sunlight dishwash liquid bottles from recycled plastic. We believe this kind of model can create a financially sustainable way to tackle our waste problems in South Africa, so we’re helping them to find ways to scale up and present a business case to the government to get recognition for the hidden contribution their work makes to our society.

Glen Pearce CFO at Sappi

Glen completed his articles at EY and started his career as a group accountant and finance manager for Murray and Roberts. He then joined Sappi as a financial manager in 1997, and later became the financial manager of Sappi Forest Products. He was promoted to FD of Sappi Fine Paper South Africa in 2001 and moved to Brussels in 2004 to become accounting director for Sappi Fine Paper Europe.

Ockert Janse van Rensburg Motus Corporation

We sometimes struggle to find candidates for employment, because of low education standards. So we have accelerated our involvement in education through CSI. We have a self-funded trust through which we fund the development of school libraries and other edu-

cation interventions. We have set up 50 libraries in under-developed communities. This is part of a 10-year plan aiming for 100.

We do an initial assessment before each intervention, and see many kids sitting in Grade 5 and reading at a Grade 1 level. We identify learners with difficulties and help them develop.

Because this is a long-term intervention, we are now seeing the initial learners moving into and out of high schools and even university. We recently had some of our first cohort qualifying with university exemptions or achieving distinctions at university.

Sheldon Friedericksen Fedgroup

We took fallow land within walking distance of townships, developed it into blueberry farms, and are now providing employment to that community. One farm employs 1,200 people in season. There is community co-ownership of the farm too.

We have started a number of other businesses, such as our own solar installation company. Our solar fund has provided almost 300,000 employment hours, with a five-year growth path being projected to create 3.2 million employment hours.

We also created a learnership programme where recipients of the beneficiaries fund – from the missing middle – spend a year working with us, rotating through the group. At the same time they do a diploma course. Seven years on, 15 percent of the workforce comes from that programme. We have plans to grow this further. l

“We took fallow land within walking distance of townships, developed it into blueberry farms, and are now providing employment to that community. One farm employs 1,200 people in season.”

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CFOs GRAPPLE WITH THESE TOP 5 CHALLENGES

Deloitte Africa’s new CFO Programme market lead Kevin Black explores the five key challenges CFOs need to think about in a changing world.

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ined, further digitisation after a period of massive digital disruption, going beyond ESG and sustainability compliance, as well as continuous efficiency and finance transformation,” Kevin says.

FOs’ importance and prominence in business continues to grow, which means they have to think about so much more than they’ve had to before. We spoke to Deloitte’s new CFO Programme market lead Kevin Black to find out what the five top challenges are that finance professionals are currently faced with.

1. Looking for new growth opportunities

“At the moment, we are encouraging finance professionals to think about finding new growth opportunities in a post-pandemic world, talent acquisition in a world where the way of work has been completely reimag-

In 2020, CFOs’ key focus was responding to the Covid-19 crisis, and in 2021 there was a shift towards recovering from the impact of the crisis. Now, CFOs are focusing on thriving and growing their businesses.

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LEADERSHIP

“In the current South African environment, riddled with disruption, insecurities and uncertainty, looking for growth is tougher,” Kevin explains. “While we’re seeing significant growth in developed economies, higher inflation and interest rates in a low growth economy like South Africa poses a challenge to finding growth opportunities.”

Having said that, he still thinks there are significant growth opportunities in South Africa.

2. Acquiring new talent Kevin further states that there’s a war for talent at the moment. “The northern hemisphere is experiencing the great resignation, where more people are resigning because they want to work differently. As a result, the gig economy in that hemisphere has taken off massively and corporates are struggling to bring new talent into their organisations.”

With similar challenges on South Africa’s doorstep, organisations must consider what their business looks like and how they manage people who want to work differently. “New talent entering the market choose the organisations they want to work at based on the organisation’s culture, whether they will be working in the office, or whether they will have flexible hours,” Kevin says.

3. Digitising A lot of businesses are talking about platform IT digitisation. And while Covid-19 has already forced a lot of organisations to rapidly adopt new technologies, now Kevin reveals that the big challenge for businesses is the move to cloud.

“When it comes to working remotely and using the likes of Zoom and Teams, businesses have seen significant cost savings with the move to technology,” he says.

“But as we return somewhat to normal, face-to-face interactions with clients and stakeholders are becoming important again and it will be up to businesses to balance their stakeholder preferences.”

He explains that CFOs have to consider how they move onto a cloud platform in a way that makes their customer experience even better. “They also have to consider what new markets, risk and cost optimisation will look like as they prepare their organisations for hybrid technology solutions.”

4. Prioritising sustainability and ESG In the past, corporate South Africa has spoken a good game around ESG, and particularly sustainability, but

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it’s been small talk compared to the increasing importance of ESG globally at the moment.

Because of this, Kevin says, how CFOs build sustainability and ESG into their businesses is going to be very important going forward.

“In South Africa, for example, the issues around employment, pay gaps, and the impact businesses have on society is fundamentally important. CFOs have to make sure their businesses are helping South Africa with the massive challenges the country is facing.”

He explains that people can’t keep on doing the same things and expect a different result. “So, the private sector has to work alongside the government and the public sector to fix some of the primary issues.

Businesses have to step up and do what’s right because it makes good business sense, not just because it’s the right thing to do.”

5. Driving efficiency and finance transformation Something that isn’t new to any finance professional, but should always remain in the top five things for them to think about, is how they drive efficiency in their organisations while still delivering value as a finance function to the business. “Part of this is managing risk strategically, whether it be cyber risks or operational risks. CFOs have to have their finger on the pulse,” Kevin says.

This topic has sparked many conversations about what the role of the CFO in an organisation should actually look like, and what it should be, with suggestions like changing the title to “chief value officer” being brought up.

According to Kevin, what the role ultimately comes down to is how CFOs marry their growth, ESG, digital, talent acquisition and transformation agendas. “They have to invest in growth while still managing optimisation and efficiency in the business, and at the same time create a culture where people want to work,” he concludes.l

Deloitte’s CFO Programme offers CFOs bold initiatives and insights for one of the toughest jobs in the world by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of leaders and subject matter specialists to help CFOs stay ahead in the face of growing challenges and demands.

To find out more about this programme, contact Sonnika Greyling at sgreyling@deloitte.co.za

Tech Trends 2022 Engineer your tech-forward future Learn how DELOITTE’S 13TH ANNUAL Tech Trends report brings key insights and actionable advice to help business and technology leaders engineer a competitive advantage.

We invite you to explore the seven trends.

Data-sharing made easy

IT, disrupt thyself: Automating at scale

Cloud goes vertical

Cyber AI: Real defense

Blockchain: Ready for business

Tech stack goes physical

EXTERNAL

INTERNAL

Field notes from the future

FUTURE

Access the report here

Contact the team Glen Krynauw CIO Programme Leader Deloitte Africa

Kevin Govender Enterprise Resource Planning Leader Deloitte Africa

Copyright © 2022 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.

Rieta De Villiers Technology Strategy & Transformation Leader Deloitte Africa

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THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE BIZARRE OF CRISES On three evenings in November, several of South Africa’s leading finance professionals gathered around dinner tables across the country to share their learnings of the past two years.

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FOs from an array of industries across South Africa gathered for dinners, sponsored by Standard Bank, where they were treated to exquisite food, conversation and collegial insight into the crises that riddled the last two years and ways to move forward. The dinners took place at some of the country’s leading restaurants, include at The Oyster Box in Durban, the Ruby Room at Tryn in Cape Town, and Delaire Graff Estate in Stellenbosch in November.

The bad As a testament to their leadership and resilience, CFOs at The Oyster Box acknowledged that the crises have left an indelible mark on each of them.

Open and honest conversation highlighted the good, the bad and the funny of the year that was.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and in

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KwaZulu-Natal in particular, unrest and looting disrupting operations across all industries on the East Coast, CFOs had to often dig deep to keep their companies afloat and ensure employee wellbeing.

CFOs at the Ruby Room, however, believed that the buzzwords of resilience and agility don’t tell the whole story of the past 20 months. In fact, courage was the unsung hero of the past two years. And courage in this context was defined by one of the CFOs as, “not meaning you have the answers – it just means that you stay with it and get on with it”.

Another CFO added that under the circumstances, it’s important to “make big, bold, courageous calls – and if they don’t work out, learn and pivot”.

The good Despite the challenges of the past two years, the CFOs highlighted positives that have resulted from the cri-

ses. They taught the financial leaders the importance of thinking differently, adopting new strategies, the importance of work-life balance and an agile culture.

ner table at Delaire Graff Estate. It was estimated that among the CFOs in the room, a number of deals totalling well into billions of rands were being negotiated.

The crisis also revealed that although a business may have good assets, its best asset is its people. The CFOs discussed the importance of taking care of employees and of customers, before shareholders – pointing out that if you get the people aspect of the business right, shareholder value will follow.

And, a recurring theme throughout all three dinners, among the CFOs whose businesses have emerged in good shape after the crises, it was significant that many of them had made pro-people decisions.

But, while the CFOs felt responsible for their teams’ work-life balance during Covid-19, they were sometimes unable to extend the same support to themselves.

They compared notes on how they achieve something like balance in their lives, and collectively committed to doing more of that.

The future Opportunity was the name of the game at the din-

The conclusion of the three dinners came to the same thing: that South Africans are extraordinarily resilient, and that there are incredible opportunities for growth for those businesses ready to seize them.

Despite the often-serious nature of the discussion, the CFOs relaxed in one another’s company, assisted in no small measure by the great food, fantastic wine, and gorgeous setting. After an extended period with few community events, they expressed their deep appreciation for the opportunity to interact, share and learn from one another.”l CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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FINANCE INDABA SPECIAL SECTION

Attendees at The Oyster Box in Durban:

Attendees at the Ruby Room at Tryn in Cape Town:

Attendees at the Delaire Graff Estate in Stellenbosch:

Anusha Ramraj, FD CCI SA

Brian Chivere, community manager CFO South Africa

Anton de Bruyn, CFO, Shoprite

Clive Potter, head: client coverage SA, CIB, Standard Bank

Brian Chivere, community manager, CFO South Africa

Cobus Loubser, CFO Curro Holdings

Casper Troskie, CFO, Old Mutual

Georgina Guedes, editor-in-chief CFO South Africa

Clive Potter, head: client coverage SA, CIB, Standard Bank

Hajra Karrim, CFO Oceana Group

Georgina Guedes, editor in chief, CFO South Africa

Brian Chivere, community manager CFO South Africa Bronwyn Kilpatrick, CFO Toyota SA Clive Potter, head: client coverage SA, CIB, Standard Bank Junaid Jadwat, head: client coverage KZN, CIB, Standard Bank Mark Stirton, CFO Mr Price Mark Gounder, CFO Hulamin Rob Aitken, CFO Tongaat Hulett

Hennie Nel, CFO Santam Laila Razack, CFO Equites Property Fund

Bongiwe Ntuli, CFO, TFG

Lucas Verwey, group FD, Distell Neville Williams, CFO, Remgro

Robert Field, CFO RCL Foods

Mary-Anne Musekiwa, CFO Coronation Fund Managers

Ronda Naidu, associate editor CFO South Afrca

Sean Smuts, CFO Pura Beverages

Maryke van Zyl, executive client coverage manager, CIB, Standard Bank

Sean Capazorio, CFO Aspen Pharmacare Veliswa Rozani, CFO Beyond Mobility

Mthokozisi Dlamini, head: client coverage Cape Town, CIB, Standard Bank

Mthokozisi Dlamini, head: client coverage Cape Town, CIB, Standard Bank

Zaid Moola, head, CIB SA, Standard Bank

Zaid Moola, head, CIB SA, Standard Bank

Pieter de Wit, CFO, Afrimat

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Mark Daly, CFO, Cipla

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COMMUNITY

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THE SPICIER SIDE OF JOWAYNE VAN WYK’S LIFE After 35 years of big achievements, including visiting NASA at 13, playing rugby for the under 19 Springboks team, and becoming one of the JSE’s youngest CFOs, Jowayne van Wyk has brought these experiences together to create Jowa’s Spice & Sauces. By Caylynne Fourie

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EEI CFO Jowayne van Wyk was born in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, which has no more than 5,000 people, most of whom are beneficiaries of SASSA grants. Growing up, Jowayne wanted to study computer science, but due to a lack of infrastructure at the time, had no electricity at home to develop this passion.

Despite its underwhelming size and economy, however, Sutherland is home to the SALT observatory, which features the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere.

Jowayne’s uncle was an assistant astronomer and allowed his nephew to spend weekends working with him at the observatory, because it was the only time he would have access to computers.

Then, in 1999, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as NASA), sent an invitation to South Africa for two citizens to visit the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama.

Because the observatory was situated there, Thabo Mbeki, who was the president of South Africa at the

time, decided that two people from Sutherland should be the ones to go.

Following extensive interviews with the top scholars of Sutherland, Jowayne was shortlisted for the journey. Because he was only 13 at the time, and the invitation required participants to be older than 15, Jowayne’s principal sent an appeal to President Mbeki with motivations from the entire community to vouch for the young boy. To Jowayne’s surprise, the appeal was approved and he was on his first flight ever, headed for the United States.

“It was an unbelievable experience to go through, with people from all across the world participating in courses and simulations. We even got to hear Neil Armstrong tell us about the moon landing,” Jowayne remembers fondly.

He explains that the experience sparked a dream for him, and he came back to South Africa with a hunger to take on the world. “Coming from a small town, I thought if people could land on the moon, and I could

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“I always had this love for braai and I figured, why don’t I just make my own spice which would tell an incredible story.”

have this experience at such a young age, then I could achieve anything I set my mind to. It encouraged me to dream big and not to limit my thoughts.”

Captaining his dreams Back in South Africa, Jowayne was more adamant than ever to study computer science, but the school in Sutherland didn’t offer such a class. He applied to a nearby school, Worcester Gymnasium, which had the computer facilities he needed. After being accepted, he left home to live in Worcester Gymanasium’s boarding house.

Jowayne was exposed to a lot of good rugby coaches at this new school, which quickly picked up on his potential to become a professional athlete. He was chosen to play for all the provincial teams, and in 1999 he was elected to represent the Northern Province (or the Griekwas at the time) at the under 13 Craven Week, an annual rugby union tournament organised for schoolboys in South Africa.

“In my matric year 2004, I captained the Boland under 18 rugby team at the Craven Week, and ultimately became the first coloured headboy of a model-C school in the same year,” he says proudly.

junior contract from the Western Province (WP) to continue playing rugby. “I was also offered a PwC bursary to further my accounting studies, but I gave it up because I didn’t want to be tied to academics,” he explains.

Life had other plans for him, however, and while playing for the WP under 21 team, he was injured and couldn’t play for the rest of the rugby season. “I made a decision then to stop playing rugby professionally and to instead chase my CA dream.”

Jowayne completed his honours in accounting at the Stellenbosch University and took PwC up on their initial offer. When he completed his training at PwC, he served as a financial accountant for the likes of Pick n Pay, Lewis Group and Clicks, before joining Milan Listed Italian company Guala Closures, where he was responsible for the finance of the South African business unit.

In 2019, he joined JSE-listed company AEEI as an independent non-executive director and the chairman of the audit and risk committee. In 2020, AEEI’s CFO, who reported to the audit and risk committee, resigned.

Jowayne jumped on the opportunity when the CFO role became available. “I wasn’t afraid to take on the challenge, knowing that I had achieved so much already,” he says.

He was appointed CFO of the group in August 2020 and became one of the youngest CFOs on the JSE at the age of 34.

During his high school career, Jowayne developed a knack for numbers and decided to pursue a career in accounting. And in his first year of college, 2005, he was chosen to play for the Springboks under 19 team, and was dubbed “Jowa”.

Enter Jowa’s spices

After winning the under 19 rugby world cup tournament with the Springboks, Jowayne signed a provincial

While he has retired from his professional rugby career, Jowayne still plays a bit of club rugby and participates

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in the Cape Town 10s every year to keep himself busy, but has found a new way to keep his passion for rugby alive – and perhaps even profitable.

After his mother passed away from Covid-19 in December 2020, Jowayne realised how short life is and that there was no time to waste in pursuing his passions. He started a Facebook page where he posted videos of him talking nonsense with friends around the braai. After only three videos, the Facebook page received over 1,800 views.

In April 2021, during one of these shows, Jowayne announced that he would be launching “Jowa’s Spices and Sauces. “I always had this love for braai and I figured why don’t I just make my own spice which would tell an incredible story,” he says.

Jowayne was spurred on by the conviction that he could do anything he set out to do. He brought a manufacturer on board and set out to sell Jowa’s Spices and Sauces out of a food truck at sports events across the Western Cape. He also engaged resellers, called Jowa’s virtual owners, to sell the spices and earn an extra income. And almost a year later, he has sold over 30,000 units.

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“My rugby following makes up the biggest part of Jowa’s consumers,” he says, but adds that he has met a lot of good people through his role as CFO, which has helped him network the spice brand.

Through his rugby career, which has seen Jowayne become the vice chair of 10s rugby team Super Bros, Jowa’s is now the title sponsor of the Boland 10s rugby tournament in Worcester, which launched for the first time in Boland in December 2021.

Jowa’s has since expanded into 10 independent OK stores and Giant Hypermarket in Cape Town, where you can now find its Juicy Steak & Chops, Hot Chicken & Chips, Lekka Salt & Pepper, and Tasty Chicken Fish & Seafood spice, as well as the Jowa’s BBQ Steak & Ribs, and Hot and Spicy sauces. “We are also currently working on new and exciting flavours, which we will launch later this year,” Jowayne says, adding that he hopes to expand their footprint into Pick n Pay and Shoprite stores in the near future.

Jowa’s Coffee has already launched as well, bringing a range of Ethiopian coffee beans and plungers to the table.

COMMUNITY

“We call it the people’s spice, because it is for them.”

Jowa’s. “When it comes to Jowa’s, I find myself applying things I learned during my first years at university, which you don’t use anymore as a CFO,” he explains.

From the Jowa’s family, to the people The Jowa’s range of spices and coffees has also recently been approved to sell on Takealot, and will soon become available to residents across South Africa and will also sell online at the company’s website www.jowas.co.za

Balancing work and Jowa’s As the CFO of a listed company, Jowayne has his hands full daily juggling the demands of stakeholders and regulatory requirements. However, he explains that he always finds time to think about strategies for Jowa’s.

“Jowa’s is not just a business, it’s a passion. So after a long day of being CFO, staying up until 2am is exciting, as I get to see my passion grow.”

In fact, he explains that his finance experience has helped him build the foundations he needs to run

Jowayne explains that Jowa’s is bigger than just the spice and sauces and coffee, and that it represents the South African culture and how he grew up. Because of the support he has received from communities across the province, he plans to give back to them as well. “In the longer-term, I plan to create 1,000 jobs through Jowa’s indirectly by having resellers so that we can change the unemployment narrative for our country and encourage people to join the resellers on Jowa’s website to earn extra income.”

Jowayne also hopes to one day open a Jowa’s restaurant, creating more jobs for the people and giving them a place where they can celebrate and enjoy their culture.

“We call it the people’s spice, because it is for them,” he adds. l

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COMMUNITY

Photos: Patrick Furter

“I honestly thought it was the most beautiful bird I’d ever seen.”

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The Birds of Douglasdale Dairy While in his office one day, Douglasdale Dairy CFO Bradley Wentzel saw a beautiful bird fly past his window, sparking the idea for the ‘Birds of Douglasdale Dairy’ competition, in which workers try and identify the over 40 birds that are located on the property.

By Caylynne Fourie

D

ouglasdale Dairy has been on the same property for 115 years and, having started as a farm, the property is still zoned as agricultural land in the heart of the city of Johannesburg. Because of this, there are many acres of fauna and flora.

“We are very passionate about our heritage and the preservation of our trees. For this reason, we don’t want to put up any new structures that will impact the natural ecosystem of the land,” says CFO Bradley Wentzel.

As a result of this preservation, there are over 40 bird species that call Douglasdale Dairy home.

While in his office, which looks out on the Douglasdale Dairy property, Bradley spotted one of these birds fly-

ing past his window one day. “At the time I thought it was a magnificent big green parrot that flew past, and I honestly thought it was the most beautiful bird I’d ever seen,” he explains.

Not an ornithologist or even an avid bird watcher, Bradley did some investigating and discovered that the bird was actually a green wood hoopoe.

Amazed by the beautiful green bird with white flecks on its wings, he went to the resident ornithologist at the dairy, the HR manager Sara Cooper. Brad was inspired to get the entire organisation to stop and look at the wildlife around them. Together, Bradley, Sara and the group’s marketing manager Amber Heylen, came up with the ‘Birds of Douglasdale Dairy’ competition.

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COMMUNITY

“You often see people walking around looking for new birds to tick off.”

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African Sacred Ibis Cape Glossy Starling Common Myna Go-away-bird (Grey lourie)

Cardinal Woodpecker

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

African Paradise Flycatcher

Complete the booklet of sightings, hand it back to Marketing & stand a chance to win.

Red-chested Cuckoo

Contact CFO Magazine managing editor Caylynne Fourie on cfourie@cfo.co.za with the details.

“I think it’s been great! I, for one, know a lot more about birds than I used to!”l

Tick and date the box of each bird you have seen!

Speckled Mousebird

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

Bradley explains that the competition has proven quite successful in getting the Douglasdale Dairy workers to show interest in the area, culture and history of the land itself. He adds that it also ingrains some of the cultures into the workforce itself: “that we care about the local fauna and flora, and that we don’t cut down trees because they are homes for all our wildlife.

BIRD SPOTTING. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! WHICH BIRDS HAVE YOU SEEN?

Green Wood hoopoe

The competition had been running for two months, but there hasn’t been a ‘bingo’ just yet. Bradley, who also has quite a way to go before he can cash in

“There was some trepidation as to whether there would be any uptake of the competition, but everyone loves it! You often see people walking around looking for new birds to tick off.”

NAME:

Red Throated Wryneck

He adds that the prize is an item of clothing that the winners can then wear around the dairy as a sense of pride and achievement, and to drive the rest of the workforce to do the same, instead of a cash reward. “The staff here have a great sense of pride in their workplace, and this prize is a great addition to appreciate those who truly take an interest in their work environment.”

his brochure, explains that some of the birds are harder to find, like the kingfisher and the harrier hawk.

Southern Red Bishop

“We put together a brochure with the different types of birds that can be found on the Douglasdale Dairy property, and whenever people see a bird, they can tick it off on the brochure,” Bradley explains.

“When someone has ticked off all the birds, they win an incentive prize.”

Red-eyed Dove

Red-winged Starling

Red-faced Mousebird

Rock Dove

Western Cattle Egret

White-crested Helmet-Shrike

Woodland Kingfisher

Yellow-billed Kite

Cape Turtle Dove

Dark-capped Bulbul

Egyptian Goose

Little Egret

Long-crested Eagle Cape Wagtail

Cape Sparrow

Cape Robin Chat

Crowned Lapwing

Crested Barbet

Bokmakierie

Blacksmith Lapwing

Black-collared Barbet

Black Winged Kite

African Grey Hornbill

African Olive Pigeon

African Hoopoe

African Harrier-Hawk

18/02/2020

House Sparrow

Hadada Ibis

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FROM THE COMMUNITY MANAGER

PURSUING EXCELLENCE, TOGETHER

T

here is a huge difference between the kind of work you do when you are only trying to keep the lights on versus when you are striving for relentless excellence. When you are pursuing excellence, it’s less about survival and more about how you build something that can stand the test of time – and, as we’ve discovered over the last two years, massive disruption.

In the last two years, we have all been more focused on surviving than building as we faced a global pandemic, civil unrest and protest, the effects of climate change, and, most recently, a looming WW3.

The trite adage is “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”, and a lot of us have been sprinting for a while. But we have to adapt our tactics for this marathon, because simply surviving won’t get you first place.

Last year, we acknowledged the CFOs who went beyond survival and instead excelled. The Auditor-General of South Africa’s Bongi Ngoma was the first public sector CFO to be named CFO of the Year. In an interview with CFO South Africa [see page 16], she called on the public sector to strive for excellence. And High-Performance Team Award winner EOH’s Megan Pydigadu celebrated her entire finance function [see page 22].

Coming into 2022, I have recognised the same hunger reflecting in our community’s eyes as they look to break from a marathon into a sprint. In fact, I started seeing this transition at our recent Finance Meets HR Summit, where we brought together leading finance and HR professionals to discuss the increasing importance of ESG matters, and how they needed to come together to be part of the change that needs to happen [see page 30].

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Throughout all these interactions, one thing became perfectly clear: the journey to excellence is not one we walk alone. And, in order to bring people with you on the journey, you need to make sure that they feel safe in this new world.

We’ve heard executives talk about this for the last two years, but now more than ever it’s important to look at your people as you embark on the next stretch of this marathon, because they will be the ones handing you the water and electrolytes you need to get to the finish line.

I look forward to seeing all of you don new shoes meant for sprinting this year as we dive into new ways to excel at the CFO Day on 11 May, where we will explore how finance professionals can unleash their superpowers, and at the CFO Summit in Cape Town on 22 June, where we will explore the role finance professionals play in ethics and governance in a “new” world.

Brian Chivere CFO South Africa community manager +27 60 505 7727 bchivere@cfo.co.za

INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE

AND BOOST YOUR SUCCESS

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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

2022 CALENDAR

Your support allows CFO South Africa to keep growing. A membership is also the best professional gift for two of your direct reports. They will be able to attend and benefit from all CFO events, receive all editions of the CFO Magazine and be invited to join monthly online CFO Community Conversations.

11 May 2022 CFO Day

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

IMMEDIATE BENEFITS: » Exclusive invite to CFO SA Community Conversations (Online) » All issues of CFO Magazine delivered to your desk » Support the CFO South Africa community » Exclusive invite to all CFO Summits » Exclusive invite to CFO Awards » Exclusive invite to CFO Day » Bi-weekly newsletter » Finance Network Indaba VIP team invite » Up to 12 CPD points per person

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP INVESTMENT:

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Terms and Conditions CFO South Africa reserves the right to decline memberships.

9 June 2022 Finance Indaba Online 22 June 2022 Cape Town Summit 3 August 2022 Women's Dinner 20 October 2022 Finance Indaba Live 16 November 2022 CFO Awards Community Conversations once a month and weekly Finance Indaba Network webinars (Online).

Contact: Brian Chivere bchivere@cfo.co.za | +27 60 505 7727

CFO.co.za

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