CFO Magazine, Issue 2, 2020

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 2 • 2020 CFO.CO.ZA

Simon Adams, Nando's CFO

Riaan Davel, DRDGold CFO

Avashnee Ramdial, Stanlib CFO

Cedric Miller, Altron CFO

CFO COMMUNITY IN LOCKDOWN

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CONTENTS

Executive partners:

Associate partners:

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

CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd 1 Wedgewood Link, Bryanston, Johannesburg, 2191, South Africa. | +27 11 083 7515 | CFO.co.za © 2020 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

LAYOUT & DESIGN

PRINTING

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

Elizabeth Ferraris

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Toni Muir

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

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

PHOTOGRAPHY

COMMUNITY & SALES MANAGER John Deane jdeane@cfo.co.za +27 81 487 1156

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

PROOFREADING

Lizelle Furter, Patrick Furter, Ter Hollmann OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Andre Fourie, Caylynne Fourie, Herman Singh, Narissa Subramoney, Puseletso Mompei, Ray Mahlaka, Victoria Williams

Community 6 8 12 14 72 74 78 82

From the editor-in-chief Promotions, appointments and industry swaps this quarter CFO SA community connects, shares, supports online The next CFO of the Year should be able to evolve and adapt Finance meets HR Summit: Execs in bed together Bravo! A world well travelled – Rina van der Merwe Auvasha Moodley: Making the right moves From the managing director

Finance Transformation 18 24

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Cedric Miller: The Age of Altron Time to reimagine finance

Development 28 32 38 44

Avashnee Ramdial: Getting candid about culture Jaguar Land Rover – it’s not just a job, it’s an experience Reinventing teams and their leaders for the future Four CFOs talk diversity

Accounting 46 50 54

JSE’s new listing requirements: Bridging the trust divide A simpler way to achieve optimal spend management Ignatius Sehoole: Rebuilding trust isn’t down to auditors alone

Purpose 58 62 66 70

DRDGold’s eco-champion CFO: Riaan Davel CFO Cares: Making the case for giving back Nando’s Simon Adams says: “Make South Africa a better place!”

In a world gone mad, SA needs to focus on positive VUCA

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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

It helps to share when everything is strange

O

n the Friday before the president requested all South Africans to do what they could to practice social isolation, CFO South Africa MD Joël Roerig and I chatted on the phone about what we should do. We agreed that, while remote working would in all likelihood become necessary at some point, we weren’t there yet. And then we went home and enjoyed our weekends.

By Sunday afternoon, I’d done a whole lot more reading and interacting with people about Covid-19. I told Joël we needed to talk. When we got on the call, it turned out that we’d both come to the same conclusion: that the responsible thing to do would be to let all of our staff work from home indefinitely.

When Joël announced this at our team meeting on Monday, we all agreed that we’d still come in once a week, all protocols observed, to keep the team vibe going. By the time we’d all hooked up for our first Zoom team meeting on Wednesday, we’d already realised that coming into the office, even for one day a week, wasn’t the right approach either.

Businesses are having to respond quickly to rapidly changing work environments, exploring new ways of working and thinking deeply about how this will impact their people and their financials. It’s a tough time to be a business leader – it can be lonely at the metaphorical top, never mind the physical isolation.

A week into my social isolation, I shared a paragraph from the book I was reading at the time, which describes a woman walking into a waiting room full of people at a morgue. I commented that I was struggling to read about normal life, because I kept feeling anxious about the character touching door handles, being around crowds and not washing her hands.

Various friends chimed in with observations about how they were freaking out watching the hugging (and lack of hand washing) in Masterchef and other shows that they’ve been watching. Eventually, one friend

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commented, “Thank you for all these comments. I thought I was going mad, jumping every time people touched on Netflix.”

This is a perfect example of how the sharing of experiences can help to normalise the abnormal situation in which we all find ourselves. It highlights the importance of community interaction as a sanity check, sounding board, and source of relief. This is why CFO South Africa is finding new ways to bring the communities we serve together – because no one understands what you are going through like another CFO. You can find out more about how we’re keeping our communities in touch in Joël’s message on page 82. My editor’s pic is the one I used for one of our daily team check-ins on WhatsApp, which is how we’re keeping in touch and alleviating the isolation.

This edition of CFO Magazine was already close to being finished by the time Covid-19 became a serious reality for South Africa. Some of our articles are reminders of the way things were, while others, where appropriate, were updated with more recent commentary from the relevant CFO. Either way, the stories we’re sharing with you provide relevant insights from the finance leaders who will be weathering South African business through the Covid-19 storm.

Stay safe! And stay in touch.

Georgina Guedes Editor-in-chief gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789

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PEOPLE MOVES

PROMOTIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND INDUSTRY SWAPS THIS QUARTER CFOs and FDs are moving up and trying new things in this quarter’s big moves.

and executive for business development, risk, Africa, HR and IT. In 2017, Elton was nominated for the CFO Awards for his work at Clover Industries.

Trevor Giles

Pamela Padayachee has been appointed as the new acting CFO of Tiger Brands following the promotion of Noel Doyle to CEO. Noel took over from retiring CEO Lawrence MacDougall. Pamela’s appointment came into effect on 1 February. Pamela is a qualified CA(SA) and was the portfolio finance director for Groceries and Consumer Brands at Tiger Brands before the new appointment. She joined the company in 2016 as FD for the Culinary Fruit and Vegetable business.

Oceana Group has appointed Trevor Giles as its interim CFO following the resignation of Elton Bosch. Trevor is a qualified CA(SA) and has served in various senior finance positions in the group for over 19 years. Prior to Elton’s appointment as CFO in June 2019, Trevor also served as interim CFO. Elton stepped down from the CFO role on 31 January. Prior to joining the group, he was the CFO of Vukile Property Fund. He has also held various executive positions at Clover Industries, including CFO

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Harmony Gold has appointed Boipelo Lekubo as its new FD as of 3 March. She has taken over from Frank Abbott, whose resignation came into effect on 2 March. Frank remains on the board as an executive director and has taken on the responsibility of business development. Prior to the appointment, Boipelo served as Harmony’s CFO. Her previous roles include CFO of Atlatsa Resources Corporation and financial manager of Northam Platinum. She has also served as an independent non-executive director of Trans Hex Group and currently serves as an independent non-executive director on the boards of African Rainbow Capital and UBI General Partner.

Brian Harvey has been appointed as CFO of Resource Generation (Resgen) with effect from 1 June.

Having initially qualified and

Boipelo Lekubo

Elton Bosch

worked as a mechanical engineer, Harvey undertook a conversion course to obtain a B.Com Honours degree and qualified as a CA(SA) in 2004. He now has over 15 years’ experience in senior finance roles, especially in the resources sector. Prior to his new role, he worked at Weir Minerals Africa and the Middle East, Royal Bafokeng Holdings and Anglo American.

Omnia has appointed Stephan Serfontein as its group FD as of 1 March. Stephan previously served as the FD at Omnia Agriculture International. He has been with the group since January 2012 and was appointed as interim FD on August 2019 after Wayne Koonin resigned from 31 March 2019. Stephan is a qualified CA(SA) and has 17 years of international finance experience in the manufacturing, chemicals, mining and agriculture industries.

He has served on several boards, both locally and internationally.

Willie Bezuidenhout has been appointed as the CFO of Buffalo Coal starting 9 March. He took the job after interim CFO and corpo-

Shaping the future at Honeywell On 8 March, experienced finance executive Mike Warwick announced his appointment at Honeywell as the CFO for Africa.

About his appointment, he said: “I am excited and delighted to announce that today I start my new role with Honeywell as CFO for Africa. The future is what we make it, and I am really looking forward to being a #FutureShaper!”

Mike joins Honeywell from Otis Elevator Company where he resigned as CFO of Africa in February.

“Whilst I am looking forward to starting my new adventure, I will miss all the people with whom I worked at Otis over the past five years,” he said. “I would

rate secretary Graham du Preez resigned to pursue other endeavours.

Willie is a qualified (CA)SA and has previously held senior finance positions at Uranium One and the Public Investment Corporation. Graham joined the group as interim CFO in 2016 and was appointed as a strategic corporate executive in 2018. In 2019 he was reappointed as interim CFO after the promotion of then-CFO Emma Oosthuizen to interim CEO. Before he joined Buffalo, Graham was the executive VP of Uranium One. He has also worked for Investec, PwC and CSTIM Consulting.

Kim McFarland

like to thank you for making the journey as enjoyable as it has been. May you grow from strength to strength.”

Mike started his career as a trainee accountant at Deloitte in 1992 before becoming an audit senior. In 1997 he moved to Prestige Clothing, a subsidiary of Seardel, where he served as a financial accountant. He has served as a regional finance manager for Stalcor, Bromor Foods and ABI Bottling respectively.

From 2003 to 2006 Mike served as the divisional finance executive of South Rand at Spar Group before joining Super Group as the finance director of retail supply chain. He has also served as a finance director for Bidvest

Altea Spagnuolo is the new group FD and executive director of ELB Group as of 31 January. She was appointed after former group FD Michael Easter resigned. Altea is a qualified CA(SA) and served as group accountant before she was appointed to her current role. Before joining the group, she served at KPMG as a senior manager and supervisor.

Tertius Johannes de Kock has been appointed as Ecsponent’s new CFO and executive director as of 31 March. Prior to this, he was the head of the audit division, head of the risk and technical department and a member of the firm’s risk committee and operations committee. He is a qualified CA(SA) with extensive experience in financial services across both the public and private sector.

Ninety One (Investec Asset Management recently relaunched as a separate business) has appointed Kim McFarland as its CFO as of 16 March. She joined Investec Asset Management in 1993 as its CFO and COO to manage the financial and operational growth

Mike Warwick

TMS Industrial Services, DHL Supply Chain and Tsebo Outsourcing Group respectively. l

of the business. In October 2018, she was appointed as an executive director of Investec. Prior to joining Investec Asset Management, Kim served as financial and operations manager at two South African life insurance companies. She has also been a non-executive director of the Investment Association (UK) since 2015.

Khensani Mukhari has been appointed as the CFO of the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa (Land Bank), from 3 February. She is a qualified CA(SA) with more than 20 years’ experi-

Khensani Mukhari

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PEOPLE MOVES

Siphamandla Mthethwa

ence in various sectors, including retail, agriculture, insurance, information technology and several banking institutions.

Airports Company South Africa has appointed Siphamandla Mthethwa as CFO with effect from 1 May. Siphamandla has more than 16 years’ experience in leadership positions, including as credit head, finance executive and group CFO. Prior to the appointment, he was the CFO of Sentech.

On 28 February, Wisdom Mushohwe took up the role of acting CFO

of Accentuate. His appointment follows the resignation of group financial manager Desigan Moodley, who acted as CFO after former CFO Maarten Coetzee’s contract was terminated in December 2019. Wisdom, a qualified CA(SA) and CPA(USA), joined the Accentuate Group in 2018 as FD of its subsidiary, Floorworx Africa.

Before that, he served as the CFO of King Hintsa FET College. He briefly served as an associate director at Lunika and as a senior manager at Rakoma and Associates. He has also served as an accountant at the East London Industrial Development Zone.

Morris Zach has resigned as CFO of South Ocean Holdings as of 28 February. He has been with the group since August 2018. Before this, he served as the chief accounting officer for Iveco South Africa.

He has also served as a financial manager for Cobra Iscam Grohe Dawn Watertech Holdings, SQM Vitas Southern Africa, and Miele.

After completing his articles in 1998, he joined the finance department of EDS South Africa.

Construction group Grinaker-LTA has appointed Colin Hoad as its CFO. Colin joined Grinaker from

Morris Zack

Stefanutti Stocks, where he was business unit FD. Before that, he was FD at Parsons Brinkerhoff.

Colin has also served as an FD for EDS and Stocks Leisure Developments.

Phumelela Gaming and Leisure has appointed Andrew Ralph Langham as interim CFO from 1 April until 31 December 2020. His appointment follows COO and group FD Andreas Heide’s resignation that came into effect on 17 March. Andrew is a qualified CA(SA) with more than 30 years’ experience in finance and tax. l

From heading finance to operations at Redefine Redefine Properties’ Leon Kok will transition from his current role as FD to COO. The transition will come into effect when current COO David Rice retires from the company on 31 August 2020.

Leon will continue in his current role until 1 September. He will also be stepping down from the board of directors.

Leon said that he is looking forward to working with the team and supporting and shaping the next

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stage of the company’s growth in his new role.

He added that: “The biggest issue right now is the downshift in global markets from geopolitical issues and the impending elections in the US. The prospects of any rebound are being dampened by the unfortunate outbreak of the Coronavirus and should cast a long shadow over the local economy.

We have a job to do and that is to execute against our value creation strategy.”

Leon Kok

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CFO SOUTH AFRICA COMMUNITY CONNECTS, SHARES, SUPPORTS ONLINE On 25 March CFO South Africa hosted the first of many online meetings with nine of South Africa’s finance executives in what can be considered safe and necessary gatherings during a time of social isolation.

I

n the time of Covid-19 social isolation, when South African business is facing unprecedented challenges, CFO South Africa has started hosting online CFO Community Conversations in an effort to bring executive communities together to share experiences and learn from others in the same position.

“Never has community been more important than in this time of social distancing, fear and uncertainty,” says CFO South Africa MD Joël Roerig.

On Wednesday 25 March, CFO South Africa hosted the first of these events, at which nine finance executives

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came together for a conversation about what they are doing and how they are coping professionally and personally with the threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The CFOs all agreed that cashflow is king when it comes to financial resilience and that companies that have done sufficient work in this area over time would be able to weather the challenges of Covid-19.

“From a financial perspective, we aren’t traumatised about the cash,” said UCT FD Ashley Francis. “That sounds like a privilege, but it’s been a lot of hard work over many, many years. What was important to me as

COMMUNITY

“I enjoyed hearing other CFOs’ views and fresh thinking around how they’re tackling this issue.” the FD of UCT is to never give a cash problem to the executive, so they can make decisions and set policies without worrying where the case is coming from.”

Instead, the challenge lies in planning for after the social isolation, which is uncertain, and attempting to manage and support the workforces affected by it.

“The last two weeks have been pretty intense,” said Hatch Arica FD Craig Sumption. “We’ve been making plans ahead of definitive positions, and considering ways to look after people’s mental health and wellbeing, making regular calls just to touch base with everyone in our teams.”

In the healthcare sector, companies are dealing with the very real fact that they will be at the forefront of supporting government in the management of the outbreak.

“The healthcare sector is at the forefront of fighting the pandemic, so we’re mobilising all the resources in our group, looking beyond the business to our responsibility as a true corporate citizen towards the nation,” said Clinix Health Group CFO Elisa Mkhize. “So we’ve been spending a lot of time in exco meetings to ramp up our efforts to also support and collaborate with government where we can, in addition to the precautionary measures we’ve already implemented from a business continuity point of view.”

families and go to be with them, and then found out that they have no mom, no dad, no brothers and no sisters. And that’s what’s most important for UCT – the wellbeing of our students and staff. So we feel that we’ve managed to prioritise that.”

The CFOs all agreed that resilience is the crucial element that will support leadership and the broader workforce as South African business is headed into uncharted territory. There was great awareness of the fact that lockdown and the resulting business fallout would have a strong emotional impact on all South Africans and that people needed to focus on wellness during this time.

One element that everyone agreed upon was that checking in with communities is important.

“Thank you for inviting me to join the conversation. It was really insightful and I enjoyed hearing other CFOs’ views and fresh thinking around how they’re tackling this issue we’re faced with as a nation,” Elisa said.

Craig echoed this sentiment in his feedback: “I enjoyed the session. The interaction is good to do, even more so in these difficult times.” l

She also admitted to the fact that the epidemic has shaken her on a professional and personal level.

Some of Unilever’s products are on the essential products list, meaning there is a lot of work to be done to ensure their supply, especially in the face of a global disruption to supply chains. Despite this, Unilever’s VP of finance Africa, Mikateko Tshetshe is thinking deeply about the correct emotional response to the situation.

She said: “I am consciously trying to be as real and human as I can be. Sometimes as leaders and parents, we want to come across as though everything’s under control. So I am trying to allow the emotions to run through my mind and body, and then step back and consciously decide how I want to move forward. I am staying connected with friends and family and creating moments of relaxation that I need now to cope, stay inspired and motivated.”

Ashley revealed that even doing the right thing can have difficult consequences that have to be confronted.

“We have had to deal with the emotional issues, of students not having families. We’ve told them to call their

Attendees: •

Ashley Francis, UCT CFO

•

Craig Sumption, Hatch Africa FD

•

Elisa Mkhize, Clinix Health Group CFO

•

Jo-Ann Pohl, Bowmans group CFO

•

Mikateko Tshetshe, Unilever VP of finance Africa

• Nico Esterhuizen, Joint Aid Management International CFO •

Shaveera John, Malander CFO

•

Thobeka Ntshiza, Avis Fleet CFO

• Trevor Mvundura, THINK: Tuberculosis & HIV Investigative Network CFO

CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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COMMUNITY

&

THE CFO OF THE YEAR SHOULD EXHIBIT

ADAPTABILITY AGILITY

The 2020 CFO Awards gala dinner has been scheduled for 25 November, but the judging process is already well underway. These CFO Awards judges discuss the qualities they will be looking out for in the next CFO of the Year.

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ow rescheduled because CFO South Africa is committed to playing its part in combatting the Covid-19 outbreak, the CFO Awards will take place on 25 November at the Polo Lounge in Inanda. More than 350 top CFOs, VIPs and business partners will attend the annual CFO Awards to enjoy exceptional networking opportunities, dazzling entertainment and a delectable dinner.

Known as the “Oscars of South Africa’s finance profession” and the highlight of the country’s finance calendar, the CFO Awards recognise CFOs from companies, corporations, industries and organisations across South Africa and awards them for outstanding performance and leadership.

After intensive, two-hour-long interviews that dived into the leading finance executives’ way of work, the judging panel has meticulously examined each interview to determine who will join the list of CFO of the Year winners:

– – – – – –

Simon Ridley, then Standard Bank FD (2014) Deon Viljoen, then Alexander Forbes CFO (2015) Reeza Isaacs, Woolworths CFO (2016) Till Streichert, Vodacom CFO (2017) Christine Ramon, AngloGold Ashanti CFO (2018) Ralph Mupita, MTN CFO (2019)

One of the characteristics the CFO Awards judges will be looking for in the next CFO of the Year is the CFO’s ability to evolve and adapt. Although the CFO Awards interview process began before the global Covid-19 outbreak, this ability was already a necessity for business leadership, thanks to the uncertain and volatile political and economic times our nation was already facing, and will become even more so.

This is what some of the judges had to say: Former CFO of Remgro and winner of the CFO Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, Leon Crouse is looking for a versatile individual who can adapt to change in the operating environment and is comfortable with the adoption

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of the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

“The individual must have achieved something exceptional in the past two to three years in their company, which made a marked difference to the company or industry,” he added.

Leon is also interested in the candidate’s philosophy about the role of the modern CFO in the corporate environment and wants to know how the candidate manages and treats his subordinates, superiors and the board.

Another characteristic that came up was the CFO’s ability to effectively manage the current economic climate.

Deloitte Africa audit partner Kevin Black said he is looking for the CFO that is effectively managing the economic, social and business volatility currently at play in the world, while still charting the course in executing on their business’s key strategic roadmap. “It seems as if everything these days is both important and urgent, and the CFO that can both fight today’s fires and see through the smoke to the road ahead for the business of tomorrow, will come out on top,” he said.

Claudelle von Eck, founder of Brave Inflexions and former CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa, said she is looking for “a CFO who stands head and shoulders above the rest”. This individual: 1. Has evolved from being perceived as a traditional bean counter to value creator.

2. Understands the spirit behind governance principles and plays an active role in the application of those principles in their organisation.

3. Understands that the organisation is a corporate citizen and the responsibilities that come with that.

4. Understands the South African context and is proactively ensuring that the organisation makes a positive contribution to bringing about equality and transformation.

5. Has exceptional leadership skills and a high EQ. Builds high-performance teams.

6. Is ensuring that the finance team embraces the new technologies and is future-ready.

7. Has the ability to connect the dots and has a good feel for how the organisation is and will be affected by both internal and external factors. Makes a positive contribution to the organisation, safely navigating through the challenges.

8. Understands ethics and walks the talk. Displays ethical courage.

SNG Grant Thornton CEO Victor Sekese is looking for a CFO that loves their job, is an inspirational leader who nurtures the talent of their team, and a leader that is dependable.

Webber Wentzel senior partner Christo Els said that he is looking for a person with integrity, who has a clear understanding of the strategy of the business, who helps

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Claudelle von Eck, founder of Brave Inflexions, former CEO of the Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa, and CFO Awards judge

develop, drive and implement that strategy, has a good working relationship with the CEO, and has evidence that they are resilient in difficult times. “It is a lot to ask for, but we have some great CFOs in this country,” he said.

The 2020 CFO of the Year winner will be decided by the following judges: • Aarti Takoordeen, JSE CFO and Young CFO of the Year 2014 winner • Ben Marx, chairman at the Department of Accountancy at the University of Johannesburg • Brett Tromp, CFO Discovery Health, Young CFO of the Year 2015 and High-Performance Team Award 2015 winner • Christine Ramon, CFO AngloGold Ashanti and CFO of the Year 2018 winner • Christo Els, senior partner Webber Wentzel • Claudelle von Eck, founder of Brave Inflexions and former CEO The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa • Herman Bosman, CEO RMB Holdings and RMI Holdings •

Kevin Black, audit partner Deloitte Africa

• Leon Crouse, former CFO Remgro and Vodacom, and CFO Lifetime Achievement Award 2016 winner • Luvuyo Masinda, head of global client coverage Standard Bank CIB • Mary Vilakazi, group COO FirstRand • Ramasela Ganda, executive head of business services Barloworld Equipment and Public Sector CFO of the Year 2017 winner • Simon Ridley, non-executive director Standard Bank, former group FD, and CFO of the Year 2014 winner •

Victor Sekese, CEO SNG Grant Thornton l

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A

THE

GE OF

LTRON

Cedric Miller took on the role of group CFO of Altron in May last year after a long and fruitful career with Standard Bank. He’s relishing getting to grips with the finances of an ICT empire, while playing an active role in delivering on CEO Mteto Nyati’s vision for the transformation of the company. By Caylynne Fourie

A

fter 16 years at Standard Bank, Cedric Miller was the unexpected candidate who took up the role of CFO of Altron, where he is part of the executive team charged with implementing CEO Mteto Nyati’s turnaround vision. Cedric’s career – and indeed his life – has been characterised by these unexpected leaps forward.

Cedric grew up in the Northern Cape on his father’s farm, and when he visualised his future, cities were not the backdrop. “I never thought that I would work in any kind of city,” he says.

“The biggest city I knew post-school was Port

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Elizabeth. Anything bigger than that was completely outside of my reference.”

As a child, Cedric believed that his future career would involve working with his hands – he anticipated being an engineer or electrician. But his plans took their first unexpected turn when he overheard his mother talking about one of her old school friends, who was from a neighbouring farm. He had become a chartered accountant and lived in Johannesburg in a house with underfloor heating.

“In those days we didn’t have electric geysers on the farm, so we had to make a fire outside if we

Photos: Patrick Furter

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FINANCE TRANSFORMATION

“Empathy is also not coming naturally anymore for our digitally native children. It has to be taught and demonstrated.”

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wanted hot water,” Cedric says. “But here was someone who lived with underfloor heating.”

The image was so appealing that it shaped his career decisions. “I had no idea what they were, what they did or how to become one, but from that day onwards nothing else existed for me other than becoming a CA.” All of his preparation and subject choices at university were hyper-specific so that he could write his board qualifying examination. Two months after he turned 22, in 1991, he qualified.

In 1993, Cedric completed his articles at Wolmarans Kruger Chartered Accountants and was promoted to senior audit manager. In 1997 he was invited to become a partner at the company. Then, from 2000 to 2003, he served as a senior financial consultant at Finmap Financial Services.

In 2003, Cedric joined Standard Bank as a senior manager tax accountant. He moved up the ranks in the company to become CFO of Personal and Business Banking. In 2019, he was approached by one of the key shareholders of Altron in response to a referral.

“Leaving Standard Bank was a very difficult decision to make,” he said. “I was very happy there and had been entrusted with significant responsibility. I also had a very capable team.”

Having said that, the growth potential of the ICT sector, and in particular Altron, interested Cedric. It was the quality of the people that he had met during his exploratory discussions, from the board members and Mteto, right through to the exco members, that eventually swung his decision.

“I had been with Standard Bank for 16 years,” Cedric says. “A lot of my thinking about finance and the transition from being a finance person that used to do management information reporting to someone who looks at finance completely differently in a business context developed at Standard Bank.”

Although Altron is a very different environment from Standard Bank, Cedric says the things you focus on to be able to move from a traditional finance function to a much more value-adding function aren’t very different. “It’s a universal thought process and attitude that one can deploy in any industry within the finance function.”

Cedric thoroughly enjoys his new job as the technology solutions company’s CFO. “It is always great to have a good balance,” he says. “It’s about having the ability to deploy and implement what you have learnt and also to continue learning new things.” The role provides exactly that for him. “From an industry perspective, there are a lot of new learnings, but it also affords me the opportunity to guide and lead a team, and to be instrumental in them reaching a level of maturity.”

“From an industry perspective, there are a lot of new learnings, but it also affords me the opportunity to guide and lead a team.”

Transforming Altron Cedric is on a journey to build a ‘One Finance for One Altron’, and is bringing the well-ventilated One Altron strategy into the finance space. This involves spending time with the various finance functions across the group and sharing his experiences while allowing them to ask questions irrespective of seniority. “It is important for me that they get to know me as a person and not this shadowy figure from head office,” he said. He is transparent about where they are facing pressure within the group and how people can assist within their sphere of influence.

“I am very passionate about what finance can be like in the medium-term and how we should organise ourselves to leverage the available technologies, capabilities and skills we have, irrespective of where these skills reside within the group. Often these skills reside outside the finance function,” he adds. Where appropriate, he shares feedback from group exco meetings, operational review meetings, analyst and shareholder communities, as well as from his personal network in the world of finance. “I find the better informed the team is about the issues of the day, the more forthcoming they are with solutions.”

Cedric explains that his finance exco is not an exclusive club. People from IT and operations have standing invitations to the meetings and they are often instrumental in finding solutions to problems or working out how to improve existing processes. He is also deliberate in stressing the importance of making sure the success of Altron as a group is first priority. “Internal competition is always healthy, but not if it comes at the expense of the group. It is of no use if an operation wins the battle, but the group loses the war – so to speak.”

The responsibilities of his new role are quite broad, but he says that success in most things comes down to good communication, whether it’s with his own staff, the organisation at large, the investor community, the CEO, the executive committee or the board.

“I find that I have a lot of conversations between the operational areas of the business,” Cedric says. “I think that, traditionally, finance was too far removed from the operations and the customers of the business, whereas today I see the proximity between them becoming closer.”

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FINANCE TRANSFORMATION Cedric is also a member of the executive committee and board, where he has to take operational information and decide what is relevant to customers, growth areas, and how the company is tracking against the group stated objectives. Mteto’s vision is that Altron doubles EBITDA in five years and Cedric has to ensure that the CEO has the relevant information from a strategy perspective. “I have to do whatever I need to do in order for Mteto to be successful in the execution of his strategy.”

Cedric says there’s also a very strong human element to the CFO role. “You have to think of how you can grow the people within the finance function so that they become more relevant and more attuned to the business’s needs.”

Supporting Altron’s long-term strategic goals is Mteto’s cultural and organisational transformation project, in which Cedric also plays a significant role.

“Mteto has very high standards for his executive committee, he expects us to not only live and breathe the stated Altron values on a daily basis but also to hold our own teams accountable to those standards,” he says.

“Given that we are a finance function, there are higher expectations of fiduciary duties towards the organisation at large. While unethical behaviour is not condoned in any part of the organisation, the finance function is held to an even higher standard.”

Cedric explains that his children are growing up in an era of information overload with so many fake news and social platforms. “Often the latest fashion trends get more publicity than, for example, climate change.

Unfortunately, bad news sells, like Covid-19, massive retrenchments in South Africa, political war mongering, violence, and more.”

In response to this, his discussions with his children revolve around teaching them to form their own opinions and not have some bot decide for them. He discusses what future they can expect, saying that self-employment and entrepreneurship is something to be encouraged and not feared.

From an investor relations perspective, he has to be the conduit of information from Altron to the investor community and stakeholders.

“Technology is great and should be embraced, but not at the expense of building and maintaining proper relationships,” he says. “Empathy is also not coming naturally anymore for our digitally native children. It has to be taught and demonstrated.”

He believes it’s also important to remain relevant to the people around him, like his family and society at large. “To remain relevant to those people in an era of information overflow you need to think ‘how do you continue to add value in those settings’.”

“It is of no use if an operation wins the battle, but the group loses the war.”

Staying relevant to people around him When asked what he wants to achieve within the next five years, Cedric says that he would like to add value and to remain relevant to the environment around him. “Five years from now, the traditional functions as we have them now are not going to exist in their current form,” he says. “Where I see the world moving towards is that you have all the right people around the table to solve a common problem.”

Many of Cedric’s meetings are with his finance people, but he always has someone from IT or operations in the room too. They also access people with data management skills to help them build dashboards.

“That’s what I mean by remaining relevant – having the ability to source those skills and having the people with the right skill sets, attitudes and problem-solving capabilities around the table.”

He adds that, in five years’ time, he would like to look back and say Altron has landed all of the big concepts that finance at large is currently struggling with, like rolling forecasts and leveraging predictive analytics.

“It’s a long process, but we have to start getting runs on the board.”

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Cedric mentors and sponsors five young finance people. “I’ve had the privilege of having three very strong sponsors throughout my career and I reflect almost daily on some of my habits. When I interact with my staff, I can often hear my sponsors’ voices as part of the conversation.”

His mentorship ranges from giving feedback and helping his mentees see opportunities that they otherwise might have missed. He also spends a lot of time with his broader team imparting learnings that he’s experienced along the way. But it doesn’t stop there. “In my experience, the moment people trust you, they come to you with all sorts of things, whether it is dealing with difficult colleagues or buying their first house,” Cedric says. “I was talking to someone from my broader team who didn’t report to me and we got chatting about kids. She told me about how she was battling with postnatal depression. It was a sensitive topic, but it was an amazing experience to know that people trust me enough to share.”

He adds that, once there’s a strong trust relationship, people tap into your experience on various things, from family life to financial health issues.

Cedric stays calm in such a stressful environment with a sense of humour. “If you don’t have the ability to laugh at yourself from time to time, your working environment can become a very daunting place.”

When he’s at home, he completely immerses himself into his four children’s worlds, which creates space for a lot of laughter. His children, ranging from ages eight to 20, keep him on his toes, whether he has to help them to deal with relationship and university problems or decide what they should wear to costume day at school.

He also focuses less on his own problems and more on the people around him. When someone in his friendship circle is going through a hard time, he makes himself fully available to them and puts himself in their shoes. “That often makes your own problems seem very small,” he says. l

In his free time Spending time with his family and friends is very important for Cedric. “As work pressure builds up, you have less time for friends and family, so you have to make time for it,” he says. Staying true to his upbringing, Cedric likes to take them to places that are “completely off the beaten track”, where there’s no cell phone reception and he doesn’t have to wear shoes for a week. They also travel through Africa and South America extensively.

Cedric has an unusual collection of pets. “We have a big fat lazy cat called Lola. We have a bearded dragon who the whole family loves except my wife, which is ironic because cause she brought him home. He’s a very fun part of the family. Then, because I have small kids I have the ever-present hamster as well. So to keep the cat away from the hamster is always fun.”

Cedric is a “more than keen, amateur photographer”, despite being colourblind. He has done extensive photography during his travels through Africa and South America. “This can be irritating for my travelling companions because you tend to stop every half an hour to take a picture of something interesting next to the road,” he says. “It’s like having a birder in the Kruger.”

He likes mountain biking and has done a couple of races. Two years ago he took part in the Trans Baviaans cycle race, which is a 230km single-stage race of which almost half the distance is in the dark. It runs from Willowmore in the heart of the Eastern Cape Karoo through the world heritage site and remote Baviaanskloof and finishes in Jeffreys Bay. He also has an interest in vintage cars. “I have an old Bentley that I take out for a drive maybe once or twice a month. I have just completed the full restoration of a 1972 Mercedez that drowned, with the help of three other friends. It was an amazing achievement to take a car that was completely rusted and standing in water for the better part of 20 years and get it running again.”

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FINANCE TRANSFORMATION

TIME TO REIMAGINE

FINANCE Robots are assisting humans to build cars, deliver packages and assemble computers. Blockchain is tracking diamond supply chains and monitoring construction equipment. Smart machines are showing up in hospitals, shipping containers, pharmacies, and more. For finance to meet the challenges of a digital world, CFOs need to transform their talent and use different tools and techniques. By Victoria Williams

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lobal market intelligence firm the International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that between 2018 and 2021, companies will spend nearly $6 trillion on digital transformation. As digitalisation becomes a business imperative, CFOs will increasingly find themselves in the thick of these efforts. Their work may involve overhauling the finance function, reshaping the business model or providing the financial muscle to assist other business units embracing digitisation.

Philip Hechter, the finance and enterprise performance leader at Deloitte Consulting Africa, believes that CFOs are well-positioned to lead digital transformation initiatives because of their vantage point in the business.

While these are technology projects, they tend not to be led by IT. To be truly transformational, the technological change must be material and impactful, and typically will take at least one year, and often up to three to five years to execute.

“Finance is best-placed to direct these projects because they understand which levers to pull to improve the return on equity. They are able to evaluate an investment in technology alongside the organisation’s other capital priorities. They don’t just like tech for tech’s

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sake, they have a broader, commercial view of the business,” Philip says.

He predicts that digital transformation will move finance further away from working in insolation to collaborating with other divisions throughout the organisation. “The CFO role has expanded far beyond an accounting and treasury function. Today, they understand the business intimately. They contribute to many non-typical finance areas, for example, by using data to demand a higher return on every rand spent on marketing.”

Conversations taking us forward For Philip, local commitment to digital transformation has lagged other markets, but interest is catching up. “Initially adoption started out slow. For example, the uptake of cloud was delayed by concerns about security and regulation. These fears have mostly dissipated. Now everyone looks into cloud to gain greater flexibility and scalability while reducing upfront investment.”

Local interest is centred on two areas. Firstly, process robotics to increase operational efficiencies and reduce risk. Secondly, advanced analytics to deliver deeper

Philip Hechter

In both areas, advancements including the adoption of the agile methodology (build, test and iterate as you go) and lower upfront investments due to cloud are de-risking tech engagements.

While digital transformation comes with a high price tag, Philip is adamant that the cost of not embracing technology is higher. “Brave leadership will need to drive the change. Waiting it out will mean loss of competitive advantage in the medium to long term.”

For Philip, the starting point for CFOs is to develop a vision and strategic objectives for finance. To do this effectively, he recommends that clients understand the aspirations of finance, the strategic context, the current performance and capabilities, and the stakeholder expectation. “It is valuable to imagine the ‘art of the possible’ and then begin to piece the components together. It is about thinking big, starting small and learning fast.”

It is also important to ensure that transformation is supported with strong change management. “Never forget the people during this journey. Most people have

a bias to all things familiar to them, moving into digital finance may not be welcomed by all.”

The liberation of finance In 2011, Deloitte developed the concept of the ‘four faces of the CFO’ to illustrate the multi-faceted and challenging role of the modern CFO. The two traditional roles are the steward, preserving the organisation’s assets by minimising risk and getting the books right, and the operator running a tight, effective finance function.

While the two traditional roles are the ‘ticket to the game’, today it is also critical that CFOs embrace the role of the strategist, to shape overall strategy, and the catalyst, to entrench a financial approach to boost performance throughout the organisation.

This shift is made possible thanks to technology – senior finance people will no longer be paid to simply crunch the numbers. “Technology is at a point where machines can automate and monitor processes and highlight patterns of efficiency on their own. This allows the finance function to refocus its energy on revenue and value creation,” adds Philip.

Digital transformation efforts inevitably change the

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insights by processing more data and overlaying rigorous pattern recognition technologies.

FINANCE TRANSFORMATION

“Machines help keep humans honest, and humans evaluate and translate the machine’s conclusions into decisions and actions.” nature of work in the company. Some work may be automated or eliminated. Other work may require high levels of skill. These changes may require training and adaptation by the workforce.

Deloitte’s biannual CFO Sentiment survey released this March shows that CFOs are concerned about the lack of workforce skills, including analytics capabilities, slowing down the digital transformation of the finance space. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said the greatest skills shortage they faced was in people with advanced analytics capabilities, followed by financial planning and analysis, and then compliance.

Predictive capabilities Deloitte’s clients in the US and Europe are investing heavily in financial planning and analytics – the forward-looking aspects of finance. Many of these companies have made large strides with predictive analytics, cognitive and artificial intelligence applications in this space.

The forecasting process has evolved to allow leading companies to see ahead, while laggers are still combing over the past. “Historically it was really difficult to do, but advances in algorithmic forecasting have made this more accessible. The real lift comes when it’s combined with human intelligence. Machines help keep humans honest, and humans evaluate and translate the machine’s conclusions into decisions and actions.”

Philip encourages South African CFOs to not let the finance function get left behind in the digital transformation journey. “We see finance struggle to articulate the value case for its own transformation. It is generally perceived that more value can often be achieved from modernising client-facing platforms, leaving the core (middle and back office systems) in legacy mode.

It is critical to remember that finance is a catalyst for the business: if it doesn’t keep pace with the rest, the organisation’s overall performance will suffer.”

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The man behind the machines The world creates a staggering 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day – a figure that will accelerate into the future. To understand what our digital future may hold, Philip reads avidly on the topic. He recommends the books Nonzero by Robert Wright, The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction by Tim Urban and In Our Own Image by George Zarkadakis.

Philip has a Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Strategic Management and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science and has spent the past 16-plus years focused on finance technology implementations.

He has been with Deloitte for close to two years and enjoys the inclusive and collaborative nature of the firm. He has come to appreciate the enshrined set of ‘have to have’ principles that identify the behaviours encouraged across the firm. On the flip side, the ‘cannot afford to have’ principles flag the behaviours that are not conducive to the company’s values. “Having a common set of recorded principles ensures that we drive the correct behaviour and are united behind a common purpose of making an impact," he says.

Philip is a devoted husband and father to a one-yearold daughter. While juggling work and parenting is tough, he squeezes in the time to cycle or train for ultra-endurance sport and has completed various triathlons, including the full Ironman.

While training for the Ironman, he came across a slogan that stuck with him: “Strength does not come from what you can do… It comes from the things you once thought you couldn’t do”. For Philip, this statement is true for both physical training and the future of work.

He says: "Finance teams need to understand that the world will continue to move even faster. We need to prepare ourselves to meet the demands of a business we haven’t even seen yet.” l

It’s crunch time The CFO guide to cloud As a CFO, you know in your gut that cloud investments will be part of the future, whether they’re driven by the need for innovation, the need for cost reduction, or both. CFOs need to be aware of all these opportunities.

The key to effectiveness with cloud is to have a workable plan and keep moving. With a taste of what’s possible, and with Finance at the table, you can be sure that new initiatives can be extended across the enterprise when the time is right.

For more information contact, contact Philip Hechter, Finance and Enterprise Performance Leader – Africa Tel: +27 (0)11 517 4646 | Email: phechter@deloitte.co.za © 2019. For information, contact Deloitte Africa.

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Photos: Supplied

“We looked at where we could add value. We don’t want to be just producing numbers – that should be only 40 percent of our day job.”

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Getting candid about culture Avashnee Ramdial has learnt that finance departments don’t deliver well if their culture isn’t cohesive and collaborative. She explained how she got this right as the CFO of Stanlib and how she is keen to share the learnings from the hardships she has faced with other women in finance. By Georgina Guedes

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vashnee Ramdial is candid about the fact that taking on her role as CFO of Stanlib hasn’t been easy. In fact, it’s been one of the most challenging roles of her career. “I had to reinvent the Stanlib finance team – I had to address everything from the experience levels in the team to the way it was structured, to building a financial reporting capability that provided financial insight to business,” she says.

She joined Stanlib in October 2018, and the new finance operating model was implemented on 1 April 2019.

“At the same time, Stanlib was on a turnaround path, so I have had to be the kind of business partner the

company needs from a finance perspective, delivering on the finance and strategic requirements to get us where we need to be. And I had to do this with a whole new team, and a whole new way of work,” she says.

With all of these changes and demands, the one thing that was important to her was to bed down the right culture in her new team, she says. In her previous role, the learning and development team brought in a highly skilled organisational development specialist to help her team to optimise performance and to become more cohesive, including developing business partner relationships with stakeholders.

“When I joined Absa, there hadn’t been a CFO in that

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DEVELOPMENT division for nine months – the same as here – and the team didn’t work together. The business wasn’t getting the right finance support. That’s where the organisation development specialist helped me, so I brought her in to help at Stanlib as well.”

The consultant worked with the team on collaboration, communication and how to become a high-performing business unit. “We looked at where we could add value. We don’t want to be just producing numbers – that should be only 40 percent of our day job.”

She says her team now provides answers to questions that the business raises quite quickly, and that it’s been “really great” to hear the appreciation of the stakeholders. “At Stanlib, the culture is definitely one where good work is recognised and appreciated.”

Further engagement at Stanlib The same process took two years at her previous employer, and in her final year there, the team worked cohesively and ran smoothly. This achieved, Avashnee felt that it was time to move on. “I like a challenge, so in that last year, when there was very little I needed to get involved with because the team was able to run with stuff, I started to feel that I needed a change.”

On the other hand, she says at Stanlib, there is so much going on from a strategy perspective that it will keep her engaged for some time. “All the things we are trying to do, I don’t think I could reach quickly, even if my team were up and running. After I’ve stabilised them, there are other things I want to get involved in.”

One such activity is the improvement of investment performance and the re-establishing of Stanlib’s market share. “We had four CEOs in a short period of time, and now Derrick [Msibi, Stanlib CEO] has been here for three years, so there’s a stable leadership team. Our recent results and the improved invest-

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She explains that the South African market is very sceptical in terms of where to invest. “There are lower margins on fixed-income lower-risk products, and higher margins on higher-risk products.

Investors are going into fixed-income money market products because they are more stable, so it’s hard to build flows into those higher risk products.”

“I learnt that life will present challenges, and you can get through them and still succeed and be happy.”

She knew that the efforts that had been made to achieve this were bearing fruit when certain “difficult” business professionals started to recognise the value of the reporting that they were receiving from the finance team. “In the past the business did not trust the numbers produced by finance and kept their own records of their financial numbers,” she recalls. “We were able to build their trust to the point where they no longer need to keep their own numbers.”

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ment performance are evidence that our hard work is starting to pay off.”

In addition, the South African economy is impacting on market performance, which she says also presents challenges and constraints for the investment community. Taken together, these challenges make Stanlib’s 2019 results even more impressive. The asset management business increased its headline earnings by 30 percent, after attracting seven percent more assets under management, and gaining R1.7 billion in net fee income – five percent higher than in 2018.

It certainly hasn’t been plain sailing, however, and one of Avashnee’s toughest days professionally occurred at an audit committee meeting, where the external auditors revealed an issue that hadn’t been communicated to the management team. “The way I was trained, one of the key things you do before an external meeting is that you make sure you are aligned with the management of the business before you go to the audit committee. You understand what the issue is and make sure you are all on the same page.”

It turned out that the issue the auditors raised was factually incorrect, and even though she was vindicated, Avashnee self-examined to assess what she could have done differently. “From that point on, I've always ensured that I ask if there’s anything that they feel they need to disclose.”

The great accountancy unknown Avashnee chose a career in finance because she simply loved accounting. Her father and a number of other family members are medical professionals so there was an expectation that she should do medicine but she was drawn to accounting, even though she didn’t know what chartered accountants actually do.

“It was going into a great unknown. While I studied, there were parts I liked and didn’t like. Then I joined Deloitte and loved articles. I wanted to be an audit

“[Accountancy] was going into a great unknown. While I studied, there were parts I liked and didn’t like.”

manager, and then wanted to be an audit partner.

I stayed for more than 10 years and learnt a lot.”

She started out at Deloitte in Durban, but was then seconded to Johannesburg. “That was one of the biggest decisions of my life – moving from what I knew if I stayed at home, to something completely different, living on my own with no family. It required me to prove myself in so many different ways.”

She says that Durban was a small office and the mindset in the Johannesburg team was completely different culturally and professionally. She then went for a partner assessment, after which it’s a waiting game to take on the role. During that time, she realised that she wanted a change. She wasn’t sure if it was to move on to another firm and become a partner, and wasn’t even sure she wanted to stay in audit. So she let Deloitte know that she was looking for an opportunity but would stay on until she found something she wanted to do.

“It was a weird time – the first time in my life that I had no idea what I was going to do,” she recalls.

She’d started casting her net in November, and by the end of January, she had an offer from Standard Bank.

She thought it was too early in her search to accept anything but the bank was persistent, and eventually she took on the role and spent seven years with them.

“Standard Bank exposed me to so many different areas of banking both within and outside South Africa. I’d had no financial services experience when I joined Standard Bank and now, 12 years later, I’ve only worked in financial services, moving on to Absa, and now Stanlib.”

Broadening horizons Avashnee is the single mother of two children, Arianna (six years) and Nikhil (nine). She says that she spends most of her downtime with them, and what she likes to do best with them is travel. “They’ve been travelling from when they were little. I really want them to have a wider view of life and to appreciate different cultures and people. I also teach them about what I do and have taken them to work to meet my team and the people I work with.”

She recently took her children on a cruise through India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which she says they loved. They’ve also been to Singapore, Bali, Mumbai and Dubai.

“My parents live in Durban. They’ve always been my pillars of support throughout my career but especially in the past six years. My ex-husband left when my daughter was three months old and I was a new executive at Standard Bank. Through that, I learnt that life will present challenges, and you can get through them and still succeed and be happy.”

She feels so passionate about helping people to overcome the challenges that life presents, that she actively mentors young women, especially new mothers who are balancing work and family. “I think that so many women don’t get to senior positions because they drop out due to the pressures of the world. So I try to teach them the lessons I’ve learnt – find the strength to be able to fight against those things, to always persevere and to never give up, even when everyone around you is doubting you.” l

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Photos: Patrick Furter

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JAGUAR LAND ROVER

I T’S NOT JUST A JOB, IT’S AN EXPERIENCE The finance team at Jaguar Land Rover South Africa are encouraged to become business partners, influencing the organisation as a whole and seizing the opportunities presented for personal development.

But there is one more characteristic that typifies the motor company’s finance team – and that’s an abiding passion for the two premier brands. By Georgina Guedes

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“We’ve got two fantastic brands with beautiful heritage behind them. You can’t help but get infected by those brands, what they mean, and how far they’ve come.”

Liaan Kretzschmar

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arly on in his career, Liaan Kretzschmar, Jaguar Land Rover South Africa CFO, was told by his CFO at the time that the success of finance is measured by how worn out the soles of the shoes of the team are. It’s a lesson that Liaan has taken to heart.

differentiate itself is by adding value. As the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings with it the efficiencies and capabilities of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, Liaan believes that finance teams will still be the best people to take the data that is generated and transform it into value.

“You can choose to sit in the sidelines and be a number cruncher, or you can get involved, influence and support. Be a business partner rather than just a service provider. My view is that finance needs to make sure we’re seen, be involved, be intrinsically entrenched in the business.”

And nowhere is that more necessary than in the current economic climate, when the average car-buying cycle is up to 40 months, from 29 to 32 months. “Most people finance for five years. People are now going to the end of their contracts. So we’re competing with other premium brands for a slice of a smaller pie.

Competition is heavier than before and we’re all feeling it. The cost of acquisition of business has gone up over time, and we believe we’re even competing with their offshore allowances. For all these reasons, we firmly believe that our experiential strategy is the best way to convert sales.”

To achieve this, he and his team work in a structured and empowered manner. Liaan says that his managers know what the expectations are and what they are entitled to decide and do.

“We have this concept called Levels of Work, introduced through rigorous coaching in a leadership and development journey in the business. This defines clearly what every level in the business is responsible for and accountable for, and the empowerment exists because of that. I don’t need to see every decision at every level. I try to enforce that quite strongly – managers must feel that they are empowered and supported to make those decisions.”

One of the ways that an empowered finance team can

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The Jaguar Land Rover Experience The Jaguar Land Rover Experience Centre in Lonehill is part of the business’s experiential strategy. For any employee wanting to be at the heart of things, there’s no better place to do it than at the centre in Lonehill.

Nestled among the rolling green lawns of the residential suburb, is the modern glass and steel building where

DEVELOPMENT members of the public can come to truly experience everything that Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles have to offer.

There’s a skid pan to test braking under different conditions – including high speeds and wet road surfaces – and the Kingsley Holgate Expedition Trail with jagged bends and seemingly impossible slopes for 4X4 vehicles to conquer. The centre aims to engage the whole family, with a restaurant with drop-away views of the driving experience areas, a play area, and even a mini Defender track for children.

Jaguar Land Rover team members can work at the centre – at the heartbeat of the business – and events are also frequently held there. “We are a premium brand and the facility was meant to mirror our retailers. There’s also been a R1 billion investment over the past five years upgrading the facilities at our franchisees to become lovely premium spaces and we wanted to mirror that here. Last year we had in excess of 25,000 people here through various activities or events.”

The centre recently held the reveal of the new Land Rover Defender in South Africa, but also has live streaming capabilities to connect visitors to international motoring events like the Frankfurt Motor

Show, which they livestreamed to the press. They also host external events, such as a chamber event for the British Chamber of Commerce.

Petrol in his blood Liaan himself is clearly passionate about the Jaguar Land Rover business, and the car he drives (a vintage Land Rover Defender), but he says he wasn’t a “petrolhead” growing up. “I always had a passing interest in cars. I watched Fomula 1 but was never a nutter for it. I was more into the rugby side of things. I went to university in Potchefstroom and played rugby there, while completing my B.Com and Honours.”

After completing his articles at KPMG, he and his wife, who had just completed her articles at PwC, wanted to see the world, so Liaan arranged a secondment to KPMG’s Gatwick office in the UK. There, one of the audit clients was Maclaren, and Liaan recalled that, playing Top Trumps as a child, if you got the Maclaren F1 card, nothing could beat it, so he expressed an interest in joining that audit team.

In his second year on audit, he got wind of a vacancy at Maclaren for a group reporting manager, so he put forward his CV, and was accepted for the role. “I loved

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XX The Jaguar Land Rover Finance team Jacqueline Stoman has been the finance and tax manager at Jaguar Land Rover for the past six months. “It’s been a big learning school for me. I don’t have prior experience at a motor company, so there are a lot of new concepts.”

Her previous experience includes being a partner for seven years at an audit firm, after which she spent some time with a software development company, before accepting the position at Jaguar Land Rover.

“I think it’s amazing here. When I started, I thought it would be daunting to be at a really big international company, but it’s a really tight group – like a family. If I am struggling with a new concept, I can walk down the hall and ask someone and they won’t blink twice. They’ll give me the whole lowdown on everything. In places where I’ve previously worked, that certainly wasn’t the case.”

She says that she’s been offered opportunities for personal growth and development as well. “The company has a programme in which every manager of the company has access to a professional coach. She is helping me to be a better manger and to motivate my team.”

She says the greatest learning for her has been that she can’t stand over her team with a whip. “If there’s a problem, we discuss whether there are better ways of doing things.”

She speaks enthusiastically about her company car – a Jaguar F-PACE SUV, which she’s loved, but is about to upgrade to a Range Rover Evoque.

As the mother of two children aged six and 12, she runs a tight ship. “My husband is an airline pilot, so I don’t have the backup of a partner who’s there all the time. I calendarise all activities. Structure is critical for me. Fortunately, I work in a flexible environment. I can work from home if I need to. Liaan is great with that – I can go and watch a hockey game if I need to.”

She also makes the time to get to gym three or four times a week, and she teaches Sunday school, where she loves letting her hair down and playing with the children. “It gives me balance,” she says.

Sashen Moodley is the finance, planning and analysis manager at Jaguar Land Rover. He has a strong history in the motor industry, having come across from BMW, where he had been for seven years. He completed his articles at PKF in Durban.

“I have a definite love of cars – you know boys with their toys. I probably drove my first car sitting in my uncle’s lap at the age of five years. My whole family loves cars. I used to go with my uncle to the races and drivers clubs over the weekends. I’m an avid Fomula 1 fan. I can say I’ve watched every single race since 1993.”

He’s been fortunate to be able to shape a career in an industry he’s so passionate about, and now drives a Range Rover Velar. “As the FP&A manager at Jaguar Land Rover, I can use everything I’ve learnt so far in my career to get more operationally involved in the business, while still having a strong backing in numbers. I love having the opportunity to influence and drive the business.”

Like Jacqueline, he appreciates that there’s a significant focus on leadership and team development within the company. “There’s an investment into staff members, grooming and developing them to drive the business forward.”

He says he strives to maintain a work-life balance, but as he’s relatively new in his position and it’s been financial year end, it has been a busy period for him.

Over the weekends, he enjoys playing sport and spending time with his family and friends. “I try to get a bit of balance.”

He says that Liaan has conveyed to him that it’s each team member’s responsibility to know their tasks and deliverables, and to meet those. As long as the work is getting completed in the timeframe and at the quality required, the team can work from home. “He’s very flexible in terms of family commitments during the day, or if people need to leave early,” he says. “He’s an inspirational leader to work for. That’s one of the reasons I joined the company – there’s a young and inspirational leader who sees the finance department as partners to the organisation. I think we all have a lot to learn from him.”

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Sashen Moodley

my time with Maclaren. It was fascinating to work at such a diverse company. Racing was the crown jewel, and at the time they were launching a supercar business, which is now Maclaren Automotive. There were also an IT company and a catering company in the stable, believe it or not.”

Liaan’s son was born while he was working in the UK, and soon, he and his wife realised that they were spending a lot of time and money on coming back to South Africa for family events. They had always intended to return after having seen the world and gained international experience, so they decided that the time was right.

Back in South Africa, Liaan joined Volvo on the commercial side, working with trucks, buses and big yellow construction equipment. Just before he joined the company, Volvo had purchased UD Trucks and after the merger took place, Liaan was promoted to regional manager for group business servces for both UD and Volvo. This involved the usual finance functions of tax and accounting, but also HR services.

“I’d been with Volvo just short of two years when this opportunity came knocking and I threw my name in the hat. I wasn’t expecting anything as I was just 30 at the time, but through some

DEVELOPMENT combination of luck and maybe stupidity on my side, and some blessing, I was selected to be the financial director for Jaguar Land Rover South Africa.”

With a career that has been contained almost exclusively in the motoring industry, Liaan confesses that he’s probably a petrolhead now. “You can’t help but become one. At some point you just get the injection in your veins. And show me someone who doesn’t enjoy going fast. A while ago we hosted a special vehicle operations day at Kyalami. I got to take an F-Type SVR around the track, and I got giddy like a kid.

The instructors told me it was time to stop, but I just wanted to go again and again.”

He says that his experience in the industry gives him a real appreciation of the brand for which he works.

“We’ve got two fantastic brands with beautiful heritage behind them. You can’t help but get infected by those brands, what they mean, and how far they’ve come.

One day, I hope to be lucky enough to have a whole

collection of cars, but a number of dominoes first need to fall in my favour.”

Since returning to South Africa, Liaan has had two more children, the youngest of whom is six months old.

“I love my family. It’s been interesting and has its own challenges to have one in grade four and one that’s six months old, but I feel blessed. I am really rich in that sense.”

His oldest is already a car fanatic. “I bring him to the centre to drive. We were watching a show on TV about Caroll Shelby, who designed the first Mustang, and one of his mechanics was called Bernie Kretzschmar. And my son saw this on the screen and paused it and said, ‘see, it’s in our blood!’”

Liaan’s son isn’t wrong. It’s clear that cars are in his family’s blood and nowhere is this better expressed than in his father’s passion for Jaguar Land Rover and the influence that finance can offer as a business partner. l

Experience it for yourself Visit the Jaguar Land Rover Brand Experience Centre at: 1 Capricorn Drive, Lonehill, Sandton Call: 010 023 0462

“When I started, I thought it would be daunting to be at a really big international company, but it’s a really tight group – like a family.”

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REINVENTING TEAMS & LEADERS FOR

THE FUTURE

CFOs often need to oversee the upskilling of their teams. But junior employees aren’t the only staff who need to grow and learn – the demand for development exists all the way to the very top, with leaders needing to embrace learning opportunities as much as anyone else on their teams. By Narissa Subramoney

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t’s a business truism that change is the only constant. So, in this day and age, being able to reinvent yourself can be the one skill that will support the future-proofing of your business and ensure that the company adapts itself to the ever-changing economic climate.

Indeed, there can be nothing more devastating for a company that has grown itself and its brand as well as survived the worst financial climates, only to fail at the hands of poor leadership.

There is no doubt, the need for internal structural changes for most companies is both real and necessary.

Company staff contingents range substantially between people who have been there for most of their careers, are fiercely loyal and woven into the very framework of the company, and new recruits. As technology evolves, company executives find themselves looking outside the business to help them cross the digital divide. A big challenge facing CFOs is the delicate balancing act:

The decision to bring in fresh blood with required skills, versus internal promotions into positions of leadership.

While the company benefits from having the new skills through this vital and speedy resolve to adapt, it can also create a situation where some people are being promoted or recruited into leadership positions without previous experience or understanding of the history of the company.

This is a balancing act which Hannes Boonzaaier, CFO at the AfroCentric Group, has had to deal with recently.

“In order to be able to expand into new territories and grow digitally, we’ve had to bring new people with those skills into the senior management structures, rather than promote from inside.”

Long-term employees might feel as though they’d been passed over for opportunities to progress in this case, but Hannes says people should never be in the same position or role for more than five years anyway.

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“We use a rotational system so employees can gain new skill sets and experience in other areas to act as a buffer when hiring fresh blood in newly created leadership roles.”

For the company to gain all the benefits that new leadership roles can provide, learning and development professionals must help new managers understand their role and responsibility when it comes to managing and leading people. It’s vital that they provide the necessary tools and support to their new leaders to ensure that they don’t flounder under the responsibility.

Acting CFO of government-backed broadband networking organisation, the Trading Company, Luyanda Gidini prefers a democratic approach when dealing with staff. He said that the company expects input from all team members, making every individual a part of the decision-making process. Tech disruption in accounting has been commonplace since the entrance of Excel, and technological advances are flipping traditional accounting roles on its their heads.

Luyanda’s team is at the forefront of these disruptions, and is working closely with its staff to upskill for the future. As unemployment in South Africa reaches nearly 30 percent, government entities are approaching retrenchments with caution, and job losses due to advancing technology are heavily regulated. “If I see someone needs to upgrade their skill set to handle new job functions, the company will enrol them in the correct programmes so they can be empowered and proficiently skilled to meet digital demands in their roles. This approach also empowers them,” says Luyanda.

If companies are now rerouting a significant portion of the business resources on training and reskilling, then retaining skilled employees should be high on that company’s agenda. Younger employees don’t have the same ethos of growing with the company as their predecessors. In fact, many young people enter companies with no intentions of a long-term commitment. However, millennials are not shy about their desires for more than just a paycheque, with particular emphasis on a healthy work environment.

This means that while younger blood will check out for more meaningful roles, they may also be more likely to choose mental well-being over a pay cheque.

Hannes Boonzaaier

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One of the biggest tell-tale signs of toxic work culture is reflected in a company’s high turnover. While everyone is entitled to seek out better opportunities, it is also a commonly accepted truism that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers. The care, nurturing and support from leaders can easily be identified as one of the most strategic aspects of an ever-shifting work environment. Specific and measurable qualities

of a good leader should be identified and clearly defined, and expectations should be reasonably managed because leadership is all about people.

Some of the tell-tale signs of a toxic work environment include:

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LOW MORALE This is not just

related to Monday blues and occasional blues but more likely a permanent dark cloud hanging over the office. It’s easy to misdiagnose this phenomenon as happening on a personal level. Some companies are stressing the importance of employees taking up healing practices like yoga and meditation to enhance personal well-being, in the hope that those benefits will filter into the workplace. But no amount of yoga or meditation will solve the problems that result from a toxic work environment.

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FEAR OF TALKING TO THE BOSS There is a difference between

respect and downright fear of talking, whether it’s speaking up at a meeting or avoiding walking down the corridor for fear of bumping into the boss. “The boss sets the tone for the workplace culture and their management and interaction style can either lead to a toxic work culture or one where employees are happy,” says the 6Q Blog.

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POLICIES BEFORE PEOPLE

Policies are put in place to safeguard people and employers, but sometimes those same policies can be abused by managers who have the power to weaponise them at will. At the 2019 Finance Indaba held in Sandton, a panel discussion on the deterioration of ethics in the profession encouraged every accountant to report unethical behaviour, from junior staff members to company executives.

But some audience members said they were reluctant to blow the whistle because they feared being victimised. Some pointed out that reporting unethical behaviour could even result in them being pushed into resigning because leadership has the power to manipulate interpretation of the policies.

Company executives must be mindful and interrogate their managers’ possible personal vendettas and uses of these policies against the workforce.

This can lead to a stressful and anxious atmosphere and employees will be afraid to take risks.

Julia Kerr Henkel

Lumminos MD and professional coaching

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consultant Julia Kerr Henkel said companies with toxic environments are also characterised by a chronic lack of courage. “It’s not just about staff mustering the courage to speak out, it’s about leaders having the courage to have tough conversations and to do the right thing over what is fun, fast or easy. Leaders of today need to develop the skillset of courage to lean into the discomfort of hard, awkward conversations.

As human beings it’s natural to shy away from this, but this goes to the heart of courage, wrestling with the uncertainty and risk and still taking action,” says Julia. After years of teaching corporate leadership to harness the power of vulnerability – the emotion we all experience during times of uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure – by building courage and stripping away workplace amour to get to the heart of difficult situations she says, “My own management approach is about connection and challenge. Connecting on a personal level with people and also encouraging others to be open, honest and to challenge me, our decisions and those ways of working.”

4

CLIQUES THAT HAVE UNFAIR CAREER ADVANTAGES It is nat-

ural for people to gravitate towards people with whom they have more in common. But cliques and groups that look like they are being favoured by management and appear to be presented with more opportunities to grow their careers than others, will alienate other staff members.

Pfizer SA CFO Mhanqwa Khumalo said the group has zero tolerance for corrosive behaviour. “It goes against our company values, which is the courage to speak, excellence, equity and joy, so I won’t hesitate to remove a manager if he or she is continuously causing strife among staff and an overall unhappy environment.”

5 Luyanda Gidini

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LACK OF COMMUNICATION FROM DIRECTORS If staff are not

understanding directives clearly enough it’s a sign of poor communication and will ultimately affect the product. Mhanqwa maintains a good leader must be well informed and can adapt themselves accordingly to guide staff when challenges arise. “If a staff member comes to me for guidance or an answer to a problem, I ask questions rather than just step in as a manager and make decisions. By asking questions, I can help guide the staff member to a positive outcome rather than just taking over. This approach empowers them because they navigated themselves out of a challenge with guidance,” he says.l

Leaders applying lessons to themselves The burden of survival in this cut-throat new age of doing business falls on the shoulders of senior company executives. In a world where everyone thinks they can do your job better than you, these are some parting words of wisdom from CFOs: Luyanda: I live by the words of Alvin Toffler: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” He says don’t be afraid of change, because change is not inherently negative.

“As accountants we’ve had to learn, relearn and unlearn more so than any other industry due to technological disruptions, so we can only grow with the changes, not fight them.”

Hannes: “I stick to traditional fail safes.”: • Cash is king. Stick to conservative cash projections, understand profit and cost and its impact.

• Don’t bet the whole farm.

• Grow incrementally • Showing maturity in understanding board decision, younger CFOs tend to be impatient.

Julia: “Be brave enough to build trust, because trust is the glue of all relationships. And build courage, courage is contagious, people, people, and people. At the heart of it all, it’s about people and conversation. Technology cannot replace people, technology needs people working well together for it to work.”

Mhanqwa: “Use structures in place to speak out.

Reporting unethical behaviour ought to be through oversight bodies that cannot reveal your identity, and CFOs must protect the people that display courage to report illicit activity.

“On a personal level, I have to plan and take action for it to happen. In simplistic terms, I develop myself by reading, listening, observing and acting.”

Mhanqwa Khumalo

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DEVELOPMENT

CFOs SHARE THEIR APPROACH TO FOSTERING DIVERSITY Four CFOs, who were nominees and award winners at the 2019 CFO Awards, share their insights into changing their company’s BEE score and culture.

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ransformation and empowerment has become more than just a box to be ticked for South African companies and organisations. These ideals have become a passion for leadership and an integral part of organisational culture.

Research has also shown that with a transformed company culture comes manifold advantages, like increased profitability and creativity, stronger governance and better problem-solving abilities. A Boston Consulting Group study, for example, has found that global companies with diverse management teams have 19 percent higher revenues thanks to their teams’ innovation.

Hennie Nel, Santam CFO Hennie believes it’s important to be involved in ensuring that the company’s transformation and empowerment are measured in a way that impacts people. “We have added the achievement of transformation targets as one of the factors impacting the size of the bonus pool,” he said.

On a more personal level, Hennie believes driving this transformation and empowerment is around engagement, meeting with his direct reports every week or second week, one to one, to understand their views and provide clear guidance. It is also about interacting with the greater finance team to understand their challenges. “Within my team, I drive the appointment of the right people hard, especially at the senior level.

We’ve built up a great pool of talent, and we have to make sure we constantly empower them to grow.”

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André du Plessis, Capitec CFO For Capitec’s BEE transactions, André, who won the Compliance & Governance and Finance & Transformation Awards in 2019, is the go-to person as far as the bank’s black shareholders are concerned. Together with the head of risk and the company secretary, André drives improving the company’s BEE score.

He also engages with students frequently and mentors young black people within Capitec and elsewhere.

In his personal capacity, André co-founded Community Keepers, an NGO, 10 years ago, which now works in 23 schools.

“We employ 50 graduates: social workers, clinical psychologists and educational psychologists to deal with trauma as a result of issues like substance abuse, rape, neglect, etc.,” he said. “Last year alone, black children received 16,500 individual therapy sessions through this initiative.”

Glenn Fullerton, Nampak CFO Glenn likes building teams and allocating defined responsibilities to people he knows can deliver. “Nampak’s former CEO, Andre de Ruyter, requested me to take over the responsibility of addressing B-BBEE in the company,” he said.

They established a B-BBEE office, headed up by Earl Chetty, Nampak procurement sustainability and supplier development manager, and guided by Mary-Anne Bottyan, Nampak group financial manager, with the specific goal of significantly improving Nampak’s B-BBEE rating. Regular B-BBEE steering committee meetings were held with tasks allocated to key executives.

“I was able to lead a team of executives from both the Nampak head office and the operations that successfully improved Nampak’s B-BBEE rating,” Glenn said. The company went from Level 6 to Level 2 in under a year, narrowly missing the achievement of a Level 1 rating by 0.6 of a point. “This was an extremely rewarding project with significant benefits delivered to Nampak.”

Umar Banda, City of Tshwane CFO Umar chairs the bid adjudication committee meetings that make a recommendation on which contract bidders should be appointed. As every bid comes in for adjudication before it’s awarded, Umar ensures it responds to the company’s targets from a BEE point of view. He is also the head of supply chain and from a policy point of view, needs to make sure that the company’s policy is B-BBEE friendly.

All staff appointments that are made must comply with the company’s EE targets, from the shortlist to interviews to appointments, before he signs them off. “It’s a balancing act, when we do shortlist, to make sure that we’ve got the correct list of candidates to respond to what we need as a team, and in closing the EE gaps,” Umar said. l CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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JSE’S NEW LISTING REQUIREMENTS

BRIDGING THE TRUST DIVIDE

Several corporate scandals and instances of poor governance have tarnished South Africa’s reputation as an investment destination. Listed CFOs need to pay careful attention to the JSE’s new listing requirements, which require enhanced accountability and transparency. By Victoria Williams

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n November 2019, the JSE announced amendments to its listings requirements. These changes, which affect both primary and secondary listings, are a response to the corporate blow-outs that characterised local financial markets in 2017 and 2018, which underlined the need for the JSE to review its responsibilities as a regulator.

"Our role as the regulator is to ensure that we continue to build trust and confidence in our market. We protect investors by ensuring continuous enhancement in the level of disclosures so that they can make informed decisions," says Andre Visser, General Manager of Issuer Regulation at the JSE. The amendments were approved by parliament in November and became effective from 2 December 2019. The JSE has, however, provided a guidance letter to support implementation and allows for a transition period allowing companies more time to comply with the required disclosures.

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Increased CEO and CFO accountability Listed companies need to appreciate the gravity of these amendments and develop new processes to meet the new governance requirements, disclosures and statements.

One of the amendments require the CEO and financial director to sign responsibility statements affirming the accuracy and completeness of the annual financial statements and the adequacy and efficacy of internal financial controls.

The responsibility statement includes the wording ‘no facts have been omitted or untrue statements made that would make the annual financial statements false or misleading’. In a large, complex organisation this statement is difficult to verify, given that the C-suite cannot be involved in every action that management takes.

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Richard Walker

For Milton Segal, senior executive for corporate reporting at SAICA, the challenge with this statement lies with the rigidity of wording used and how to caveat or qualify some of the absolute statements without causing undue concern. “Words like ‘no’ are definitive.

Our guidance document will place these words in context and assist financial directors in interpreting and applying these practically.”

For Mark Hoffman, partner: Assurance Services at Deloitte, the propensity to err in a financial report is greater today due to an increasingly volatile, complex and disruptive world. CFOs are challenged by increasingly complex accounting rules and integrated business models and structures.

“We want to drive behaviour to ensure that internal financial control systems are effective, not behaviour that creates unnecessary paperwork.”

JSE did not want this ‘one size fits all approach’ for the South African market, acknowledging that what works for a top-40 company may be excessive for a mediumsized entity.

“Regulation must be measured, balancing cost versus benefit. We want issuers to give governance careful consideration, to ensure that their processes and system fit their unique circumstances, business risks, complexities and size. We want to drive behaviour to ensure that internal financial control systems are effective, not behaviour that creates unnecessary paperwork,” comments Visser.

“This requirement seems quite straightforward.

However, to make this bold statement, you must ensure that you have due process to ensure that the right controls are in place together with appropriate monitoring mechanisms. If things go wrong, and insufficient due process was followed, the culpability of the CEO and CFO also increases.”

Rather than another regulatory burden, Hoffman see this as a chance to take a health check of the organisation relative to the risks that it faces. This is especially relevant in an age where a viable business model can become redundant within 12 months through disruption. “It is an opportunity to step back and assess the adequacy of controls and safeguards relative to the risks of what could go wrong, given our increasingly complex environment,” says Hoffman.

More thinking, less ticking

Driving better risk management

The JSE has not prescribed a control framework, unlike the US Securities Exchange Commission’s Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) requirements. SOX requirements come with a prescribed and robust control framework with extensive assurance and reporting requirements. The

Hoffman recommends that companies first conduct a comprehensive risk assessment – and outline the worst-case scenarios of what could go wrong. In the absence of a prescribed framework, he recommends the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO)

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“With every new requirement or rule, there is always some form of unintended consequence.”

internal controls framework developed specifically for listed companies. COSO was founded in the US in 1985, as an independent private-sector initiative that studied the causal factors that can lead to fraudulent financial reporting.

While firms like Deloitte can assist with gap analysis and benchmarking, Hoffman is adamant that “money can’t buy good controls”. He notes that a failure in governance is really the culmination of a number of actions or inactions over a period of time that create an enabling environment for the failure to realise. Corporate criminals thrive in a chaotic, uncontrolled environment.

Cost and team Richard Walker, national head of risk advisory Services at BDO, believes that the new requirements provide a platform for listed companies to build trust and confidence with their stakeholders. He says: “It allows for transparency as the CEO and CFO explain the action taken on the prevention of fraud and the state of the system of internal controls operating over the financial reporting process.”

Most listed entities already have some sort of combined assurance model in place. This is due to the requirement of King IV principle 15 on combined assurance. l

Mark Hoffman

Hoffman’s advice for listed CFOs implementing the JSE’s amendments to the listings requirements: 1. Executive ownership is key. These amendments need the ‘boss stamp’ to be taken seriously throughout the organisation. They should ideally be led by an executive and not delegated to internal audit or completely outsourced.

2. Adopt a recognised framework. The absence of a framework creates uncertainty about ‘what good looks like’. This is where reverting to a tried, tested and internationally recognised framework like COSO is invaluable.

3. Be systematic. This cannot be fixed by introducing a handful of new controls. It requires a systematic approach that includes a risk assessment, followed by the design and implementation of controls and then appropriate assurance, monitoring and reporting.

4. Cannot be retrofitted. The financial controls need to be established at an entity and process level. This cannot be fixed in the “last mile” process of producing financial reports.

5. Document your processes. A lack of documentation of processes and controls leads to inconsistent application and difficulty monitoring and creating accountability. It is important to spend some time thinking through and recording your processes and controls.

6. Check your feedback loops. Organisations may have the controls in place, but monitoring, assurance and reporting systems are often lacking. You need to ensure that you have robust reporting systems to monitor and manage deficiencies and remediation.

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ACCOUNTING

2020 VISION ON SPEND MANAGEMENT OPTIMISATION SAP Concur’s cloud-based platform automates much of the previously laborious reporting requirements incumbent on finance departments’ spend management efforts.

By Andre Fourie

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nder strain from a near-stagnant economy, South African businesses are under pressure to maintain high levels of business productivity while optimising spend across all areas of the business. Due to the increasingly global manner in which most business operate, business travel is a growing cost item, putting strain on internal resources who often have to apply time-consuming manual processes to managing travel and expense claims.

Angelique Montalto, regional sales director at SAP Concur, says the horror of finance teams wading through mountains of paper receipts to update unwieldy spreadsheets is no longer a reality for many businesses.

“The cloud-based platform automates much of the previously laborious reporting requirements incumbent on finance departments’ spend management efforts. With greater visibility over spending before, after and during a trip, and an extensive ecosystem of global partners introducing a constant stream of innovations to the platform, SAP Concur unlocks greater productivity and cost-savings over manual processes.”

Growing cost, complexity of business travel According to Statista, global business travel spend reached $1.33 trillion in 2017, a figure that’s expected to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2022 (although this projection was made prior to the Covid-19 pandemic).

“With the growing complexity of doing business and the increase in business travel, companies are seeking solutions that can ease and automate paper-based processes to free up valuable internal resources for more high-value work while gaining full visibility over all expenses,” explains Angelique. “This has made tools such as SAP Concur invaluable to businesses wishing to unlock greater productivity and optimise their spend management.”

Angelique Montalto

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SAP Concur is a cloud-based travel and expense management platform for global businesses that eases and

“Global business travel spend reached $1.33 trillion in 2017, a figure that’s expected to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2022.” automates many of the travel and expense management activities that put strain on companies’ internal resources. The platform was developed to ease the process of compliance and optimise spend management for businesses around the world.

SAP Concur enjoys the support of a healthy ecosystem of implementation partners that drive interest and adoption of the platform among local and global businesses. Montalto points to Supply Chain Partner, an experienced SAP Intelligent Spend Management partner that recently started implementing SAP Concur to its local and global customer base.

“Partners are critical within the SAP Concur ecosystem.

Aside from driving interest in the market leading solution and managing the implementation process, they provide an invaluable perspective into the reality of spend management optimisation for local, pan-African and global businesses.”

Tools needed to automate, simplify spend management Schalk Burger, director at Supply Chain Partner, says managing travel processes within large organisations is difficult, increasing the need for tools that ease and simplify overall spend management.

Angus Kotze

The company partnered with SAP Concur in 2019 and already has a track record of successful projects.

Schalk points to the rise of the Experience Economy as one factor driving uptake in solutions such as SAP Concur. “It’s no longer just about the customer experience: companies also need to take care of the employee experience to ensure they can continue to attract and retain top talent. This means empowering employees with easy and intuitive self-service solutions that are accessible wherever they go and cut down on manual processes. Travel and expense claim management is an obvious target, as it’s traditionally a very time-consuming and hands-on function within the business. In fact, one survey found that 57 percent of work travelers pre-

“We found that SAP Concur fills a clear gap within the market for managing expense claims in a simple and seamless way. While many spend management solutions are costly and have a lengthy implementation period, SAP Concur is different in that it offers quick time-to-value and a constant stream of benefits as the solution is implemented,” he says.

Building company policy into solution

Supply Chain Partner is a specialist implementor of supply chain solutions for global companies and was founded in South Africa in 2013. The company is one of the most experienced implementation partners for the SAP Intelligent Spend Group, with a client list that includes several blue-chip companies in the mining, energy, automotive and financial services industries.

Angelique adds that managing expense claims is one part of the challenge, but that enforcing company policy is equally important and often very difficult to do in a way that meets the expectations of both the company and the employee. In one survey, more than half of travellers admitted to not always following company policy when travelling.

fer to book through a single app or tool.”

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ACCOUNTING

“One of SAP Concur’s most powerful features is that companies can build their travel and expense claim policies directly into the solution,” says Angelique.

“Corporate and regulatory compliance is managed at the point of impact as opposed to retrospectively.

This streamlines the claim process and frees up internal audit resources to focus on more high-value work instead of manually approving or rejecting each claim.”

Schalk agrees. “One of our recent customers had relied entirely on manual processes. When an employee needed to travel for business, they would search online for a suitable flight, share that with the person responsible for making the booking, and they would then have to manually book the flight or incur the cost of working through a travel management company to make the booking. It was an exhaustive back-and-forth that has been completely eliminated since they implemented SAP Concur, with the employee able to search for and book the necessary travel arrangements, all aligned with company policy.”

Great partners unlock benefits, reduce complexity Despite the ease of implementing SAP Concur and its quick time-to-value, Schalk points out that change management plays an important role in ensuring successful implementations. “For many customers, SAP Concur may be one of the first cloud-based solutions they implement. In business environments where on-premise solutions are the norm, we find strong change management capabilities invaluable in laying the foundation for moving to a more cloud-based environment.”

One of Supply Chain Partner’s clients, global automotive manufacturer Scania, attests to this. “The thought process behind Scania South Africa’s decision to transition to SAP Concur was to improve process productivity, ensure governance and compliance and to further gain control over all expenses incurred by the business,” says Angus Kotze, CFO at Scania. “The seamless flow of data received introduces improved levels of transparency into business expenses. The SAP Concur way of working accelerates this flow of data and advances the expense management process holistically.”

“SAP Concur fills a clear gap within the market for managing expense claims in a simple and seamless way.”

He adds that it has been a pleasure working with the team from Supply Chain Partner, as their accessibility and knowledge of the SAP Concur product has allowed for higher levels of engagement and efficiency during the project implementation phase. “They have made each stage of the data gathering, analysis and testing of the project easy to digest and their consistent support has allowed for quick problem-solving and turnaround times. The team from Supply Chain Partner has been fantastic to work with and we highly recommend their approach.” l

For more information, visit: www.supplychainpartner.com www.scania.com Or scan the QR code:

Schalk Burger

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“We need to take the public interest responsibility very seriously, and we ingrain that in our people from the very first moment that they join the firm.”

Rebuilding trust in the audit profession isn’t down to the auditors alone Ignatius Sehoole was appointed as CEO of KPMG South Africa in June last year, and given the challenging task of rebuilding and restoring trust to the public and the SA business community and the audit profession more broadly too. He is tackling the challenge head on, and while there are very specific steps he’s taking within KPMG’s walls, he believes that public trust in the audit profession must be rebuilt by every individual involved in the financial reporting space. By Georgina Guedes

“ Photos: Ter Hollmann

In the financial reporting system, the process includes auditors and non-auditors alike – both auditors and non-auditors are involved in putting together financial statements. If you isolate the auditors, you are only looking at the end part of the financial reporting chain,” says Ignatius Sehoole, KPMG South Africa CEO. “I think it would be better to work in an environment where every participant in the chain puts the same effort into putting public interest first – towards having unparalleled integrity and towards having ethics that are unassailable.”

The risk of focusing on the integrity of the audit profession in isolation is that, according to Ignatius, “something might fall through the cracks”.

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He acknowledges the extensive efforts being made by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) in working towards the common goal or restoring faith in the accounting and audit profession.

“Not only should both sides step up to meet public expectation, what is important about this is that individual accountants and individual auditors need to step up and do the right thing. Regulation comes at the end. You need the individuals involved in every step of the financial reporting process to take public interest and integrity very seriously, to take the highest level of ethics very seriously,” says Ignatius.

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ACCOUNTING

“Not only does it make human sense, it actually also makes commercial sense to always do the right thing, even when nobody’s looking.”

For auditors, this means following standards and delivering the highest quality of engagement. It also means injecting a healthy level of professional skepticism towards whatever is presented to you. “Does it make sense in the totality of what you know about the organisation, the industry, the region, the country, and whatever other aspects might be applicable? It’s not just about making sure that it meets all the standards and ticks all the boxes – that it’s done the mechanical stuff of meeting what the requirements are – you have to sit back and ask, ‘Does this make sense in relation to all the other information?’”

In practice at KPMG At KPMG, Ignatius says that his goal is to inculcate this outlook in every individual. “We are in a fortunate position as the audit profession in that we are granted the responsibility by law to perform audits. We need to take the public interest responsibility very seriously, and we ingrain that in our people from the very first moment that they join the firm. Their first and foremost duty is to the public interest, not to me, not to our clients or to the firm.”

KPMG has the stated vision of wanting to be “the most trusted and trustworthy professional services firm”.

This cannot be achieved, says Ignatius, if the culture isn’t right, and if the individuals that make up the teams don’t have the right mindset and the right attitude. “No matter what the circumstances, no matter what the pressures, what makes you up as a person will carry you through whatever difficulties you face.”

KPMG has quality management systems in place to ensure that its audit teams deliver appropriate quality assignments, and risk management systems to check that its staff are all operating above board. These systems include the performance of continuous integrity checks not only on the employees, but their spouses and dependent children as well.

“We also have quality monitoring processes that are not limited to audit engagements, but evaluate the quality of all services that teams are delivering so that we can take action on what we find. If we do find any-

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thing, we engage in a process of root cause analysis to see if we need to design and enhance our existing controls, and we learn from the process, and take corrective action. As a firm, we need to make sure that every engagement we are involved in delivers the highest quality.”

He says that KPMG South Africa is also subject to the KPMG Global monitoring processes, and subject to periodic reviews by IRBA, the audit regulator. “As we get reports from them, they are telling us how far they’ve seen us move in the right direction.”

Getting the culture right While checks and balances certainly have a role to play, Ignatius believes that building a culture of accountability and ethics within the firm is a crucial part of moving KPMG forward. To this end, they have appointed a chief ethics officer, who runs workshops within the firm.“Everyone has to attend,” says Ignatius.

“I’ve attended!”

He adds that acting on any information received, whether it’s anonymously via the local or international hotline, or from any other source, is crucial to rebuilding trust and to ensuring an ethical culture. “If something is reported and you find it has substance, you need to be seen very quickly to have taken action.”

He says that people should hold each other accountable, too. “I want people to say to me, ‘Ignatius, how does what you say stack up to what you are doing?’

People should hold each other accountable. It’s not only my responsibility to make sure people are acting ethically. Everyone has that responsibility.”

He feels strongly that being a part of KPMG is a lifestyle, and that employees have to be ethical and accountable wherever they go – not just during working hours.

“There’s only one you, and that’s the you that is a part of KPMG. We’re a family, and these are the rules of the family, and if you can’t live by the rules, then you can’t be part of the family. It’s as simple as that.”

He believes that the more this is promoted as the ethos of the firm, the more people who don’t consider them-

selves part of that kind of family will leave. And that as this culture becomes increasingly widely entrenched and communicated externally, they will continue to attract the right people to a firm they can identify with.

This approach to culture, Ignatius says, is not only about doing the right thing ethically. It makes clear business sense as well. A study in 2018 by Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that firms with a better ESG [environment, social and governance] record than their peers produced higher three-year returns and were more likely to become high-quality stocks and were less likely to have large price declines or go bankrupt.

“Not only does it make human sense, it actually also makes commercial sense to always do the right thing, even when nobody’s looking,” says Ignatius. “And that’s the culture we are building here. We are not doing it for anybody else. We are doing it because that’s who we are, that’s how we identify ourselves, and that’s how we want to deliver on our vision.”

A long-term view Ignatius acknowledges that a culture shift is not something that happens overnight. “It’s not a quick fix. We have a continuous journey to get to the right place.

But anecdotal evidence is showing me that people feel that they can communicate when things are bothering them. This is a big step forward, because it gives us the opportunity to see what’s wrong and deal with it.”

He says that ultimately, the public will pronounce, adding: “They are the best measure. It’s not what you tell yourself; it’s when the public says you are serving their interest. That is the voice you need to listen to. And if you go by that, we are still in the continuous phase of rebuilding that trust. But I am confident that as insurmountable as it might have looked two years ago, we are going to get there, because we are determined and we know we are doing the right thing. It’s not for the sake of anyone or anything else. It’s the ethos we live through, our value system, how we look at life, how we react, and I believe that this will get us to the right culture to ensure we get the public trust back.” l

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DRD GOLD CFO ECO-CHAMPION Riaan Davel is pouring his work ethic and hard-gained accounting and compliance knowledge into DRDGold’s efforts to rehabilitate areas damaged by many years of mining. By Puseletso Mompei

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iaan Davel is a Joburger at heart. Born and bred in the East Rand community of Kempton Park, which was characterised by industrious, hardworking men and women, he knows the power of hard work and weaves it into everything he does.

Riaan joined DRDGold, a JSE-listed company that re-mines gold by re-processing the mini-mountains of sand and slime that contain historic remnants, in January 2015. The move to DRDGold followed 17 years in the professional services industry, where the majority of his experience was garnered in the mining industry, providing assurance and advisory services, including support and training on International

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Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to clients and teams across the African continent.

Now, Riaan is pouring his deep knowledge into DRDGold’s efforts to rehabilitate areas damaged by the history of mining. “We are doing our best to do this while trying to minimise the impact of mining operations and addressing things such as dust and water pollution on the environment. We reclaim and treat mine dumps and in the process free up valuable land for reuse.”

The company’s approach to environmental management is part of their broader commitment to sustainable development. One example is that they use recycled acid mine drainage and sewerage water

“I enjoy the opportunity to integrate environmental management into the company’s business and planning.”

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in their operations, which is both cheaper than using potable water, and reduces their use of natural resources and impact on the environment.

This integrated approach is also seen in the the company's support of the communities surrounding its operations. The removal of the dumps permanently rids the communities of dust, and those dumps that aren’t removed are vegetated with indigenous species of grass and shrubs, which also reduces the dust that lifts off them to virtually nothing. This process of revegetating the dumps also provides work for people from the communities.

DRDGold has adopted a strategy of concurrent rehabilitation, which means that they begin rehabilitation before a mining or deposition site is closed. This reduces the company’s long-term environmental obligations, and makes it possible for the company to complete rehabilitation very soon after the reserves from each site come to an end.

As CFO, Riaan is playing an important role in directing DRDGold’s strategic growth so that environmental impact is delivered in tandem with value for the company, shareholders and society as a whole.

The stereotype of the eco advocate is often portrayed as loudly presenting petitions and carrying placards, but for Riaan it looks like adopting and applying the best practicable environmental options to address any issues, as well as monitoring, evaluating and reporting the success of the mitigation measures applied. He leverages his experience as an IFRS technical partner, and representation of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, on the International Accounting Standards Board’s project on Extractive Activities.

The skills that prepared him With a career rich in mining experience, having worked with clients in the sector while at KPMG for seven years as an audit partner, performing audits of listed companies in the mining industry, including SEC registrants, Riaan has a broad understanding of how mines operate and a knack for identifying where the opportunities to impact positively exist.

“I enjoy the opportunity to integrate environmental management into the company’s business and planning in order to minimise the influence of its activities on the environment, as well as abide by relevant environmental legislation,” he says.

As a chartered accountant, Riaan’s analytical skills allow him to drive strategy that leverages technology and innovation to

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PURPOSE

protect the environment. Additionally, delivering administrative and contract management efficiencies, and ensuring optimal use of water resources are also areas of focus where the experience gathered from serving on committees that compiled or updated the South African codes for reporting and valuation of mineral reserves and resources is a huge advantage.

When it comes to convincing others of the importance of safeguarding the environment, Riaan says he tries to lead by example. He says: “I am a participative leader who invests in relationships with those around me. I strive to create a collaborative environment where everyone can play a meaningful role in the team. I bring this out in people by pointing out the benefits of a suggested route. I have realised that in order to be more effective, the team must feel like they are also architects of the solution.”

This approach is a natural offshoot to his personality, which he describes as easy to work with and approachable. He explains: “However, I have very high standards for myself and hold the people I work with to the same ideals.”

This type of work isn’t about overnight success or rushing to the finish line, it requires commitment. Riaan explains that growing up with parents who worked hard and had a strict work ethic, modelled the importance of staying the course. “My dad was a diligent man who not only held down a full-time position as an accountant but after a full day at work, would be busy in the evenings with his second job, doing accounts and taxes for small businesses. I learnt the value of perseverance from him, as well as the ethos of problem-solving. Essentially that when you are faced with a challenge, you must make a plan.”

Beyond the environment Riaan is passionate about the company’s poverty alleviation efforts, where the contribution has been in the form of programmes to help families learn how to grow their own vegetables. “We teach our beneficiaries to use whatever they have available, even a patch of land as large as a door is a viable enough space to grow food for your family,” Riaan says. Other programmes include a youth education initiative in the form of extra mathematics, accounting and science classes for matriculants from Tsakane and other high schools, near the company’s Ergo plant, where they support local teachers and have a programme for financial literacy to help learners navigate

the world of work and business if they venture in that direction.

“Both these skills adopt the principle of teaching people how to fish, rather than just giving them a handout.

Impact has been seen in entrepreneurs who have grown from these initiatives, now supporting themselves and their families. Youth education is real empowerment, fosters self-growth and knowledge, and puts people as victors in their lives, not as victims. It also engenders an empowered mindset.”

Paying it forward is important to Riaan because he has seen the impact of positive influences in his own life, firstly through his father, who he rates as his most pivotal relationship. “His guidance gave me grounding as a young man, and I think my choice to pursue a career in finance was partly due to my own knack for numbers, but also to the influence of my father, who was an accountant.

Interestingly, my brother and sister are also professionals in the field.”

Apart from his father, Riaan says he has also “learnt from, been taught by and at times challenged by different colleagues who forced me to think differently or grow in a new area. My now current CEO Niël Pretorius is also someone I hold in high regard. I share his mission for the environment and admire how he has galvanised the organisation behind the vision.” l

DRDGold on lockdown As the nationwide lockdown was announced in March, DRDGold CEO Niël Pretorius stated the following: “We will do what is required to secure our assets, prevent any harm to the environment and ensure that we can start operations up again as seamlessly as we possibly can, once the lockdown is lifted.

“We are now working toward a completely different set of goals than that which we set out to achieve at the beginning of the year. Our priorities now are staying healthy, keeping our families and loved ones safe and preserving our business.”

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Photos: Patrick Furter

“We look at how students can develop and implement a company strategy.”

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CFO CARES

Making the case for giving back Deon Fredericks, the interim CFO of South African Airways, might be in the throes of rescuing the struggling state-owned airline from collapse but he still makes time to give back to society. He supports the CFO Case Study Competition, which is run by CharterQuest Institute South Africa and aims to groom students for the finance profession. By Ray Mahlaka

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ately, it is hard to pin down Deon Fredericks, the interim CFO of South African Airways (SAA), as he doesn’t have the luxury of time in his daily corporate life.

“Unfortunately, I am a workaholic.

I usually get to work after 6am and leave at around 7pm to continue working again from home,” says Deon.

There is a valid reason for him putting in more than the 45 hours that most people work in a week. Deon and his team at SAA are racing against time to save the stateowned airline from collapsing as it is in throes of business rescue.

its financial position. As Covid-19 rapidly spreads in South Africa, on the African continent and globally, SAA has been forced to suspend all regional and international flights until 31 May 2020 to ensure the safety of its passengers and staff.

SAA’s woes might have presented the perfect excuse for Deon to renege on his commitments outside the airline – but he does not.

Although his job is becoming even more demanding, Deon says it doesn’t mean that other aspects of his life should be neglected.

One of the other aspects he referring to is giving back to society through his involvement in the CFO Case Study Competition. He is the chief judge in this annual competition that grooms third- and fourth-year university students (local and international) for the finance profession.

Tough decisions are being made at SAA: employees will have to be retrenched and the airline’s operating model will have to be drastically overhauled to align with the significantly changed operating environment and to take account of the effects of Covid-19.

About the competition

Restructuring SAA has been made difficult by the pandemic, which has impacted the airline’s ticket sales, as demand for travel has declined significantly, worsening

The competition is run by CharterQuest Institute South Africa, an organisation that offers wide-ranging finance courses and certification programmes.

Deon’s involvement in the competition dates back to 2016 when former CFO South Africa MD Graham Fehrsen introduced him to Valentine Nti, the founding CEO of CharterQuest, during a roundtable dinner attended by finance professionals.

After the introduction to Valentine, Deon agreed to work with CharterQuest to launch the inaugural CFO Case Study Competition in 2016. The competition challenges university students to prove they can solve a set of five problems that beset real-world businesses relating to integrated financial, operational, strategic and ethical issues.

Over 60 days, university students, who enter the competition as teams, are given case studies about financial and operational issues faced by mock companies (although the case studies are based on reallife company issues). They are required to submit a board report on how the company’s issues can be solved. The teams are also required to submit video clips talking about, among things, why they entered the competition and how it could assist their future careers.

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Throughout this process, the number of competing teams will be whittled down to six that will progress to the semi-final. They will be required to deliver presentations to a panel of judges (comprising highly esteemed finance professionals) on how to solve challenges faced by the companies. The winning team will earn themselves the CharterQuest Future CFOs & Business Leaders’ Award and R100,000 in prize money.

Deon says the objective of the competition is to prepare the next generation of CFOs and business leaders – equipping them with “beyond number counting skills”, such as being entrepreneurial, analytical, critical, creative and having emotional intelligence.

“When companies hire finance graduates, they tend to focus only on the academic performance of students. I believe this is not sufficient anymore. Many good entrepreneurs didn’t necessarily perform well at school,” says Deon.

“The competition gives students exposure to practical cases experienced in the profession. It does not necessarily focus only on finance; we look at how students can develop and implement a company strategy. It also provides a platform for students to gain self-confidence, as they have to stand in front of four or five judges with an audience and present their solution to the case studies.”

He stresses that the confidence-building aspect of the competition is important.

“I often tell students that winning the competition is not important.

It is about what you have learnt through the process. Students are not taught in university about how to be confident. There is nothing that breeds success like confidence in the workplace,” he says.

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Building the CFO of tomorrow Asked why he continues to support the competition for the fifth consecutive year as chief judge in 2020 despite his demanding work schedule, Deon says it’s about a personal mission to improve the skill set of future finance professionals, which will benefit the entire industry and the country.

“I want us to move away from creating accountants to creating businesspeople. If you look at the role of the CFO, it is constantly changing. Previously, we said CFOs were bean counters. Ultimately, they are becoming strategic partners in an organisation. They need to understand the operating environment, the history of a company and where the industry is headed to ensure that the company can compete effectively in the future,” he says.

“I want to equip students with the ability to look beyond accounting and to be actively involved in running and managing the business.”

Deon grew up in Kuilsriver and attended high school in the disadvantaged community of Elsies Rivier in Cape Town, where there weren't a lot of mentoring and career-grooming opportunities. “When I was in standard eight at school, one of my teachers told me that university is so tough. Students who didn’t perform well academically were told they wouldn’t survive university.

This was the wrong message.”

Deon defied the views held by the teacher as he completed a university accounting sciences degree.

There was another challenge ahead when he completed his articles at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC): the dearth of mentorship opportunities to match his potential to an area of interest in the finance profession.

“The week before I started at Coopers & Lybrand, I phoned one of the partners and asked what he expected from me. He said: ‘I don’t expect anything from you because you know nothing’. This made me realise that what you have studied at university and what happens in a workplace setting are not the same.”

Deon doesn’t want the next generation of finance professionals to go through a similar lack of mentorship experience.

Beyond the CFO Case Study Competition, Deon also visits the institute on weekends to speak to finance students about his career journey and how to approach their own growth. He also offers these motivational speaking engagements to students and teachers at his former high school in Elsies River, which is now beset by gangsterism.

Deon has challenged and implored his finance industry colleagues to offer their time and skills to the CFO Case Study Competition. “Even though CFOs are going through intense periods in their line of work, such as preparations for financial results, they must be committed to giving back to society,” he says. “Unfortunately, we see people join various initiatives and halfway through, they leave. Ultimately, it is about CFOs being consistent, not only in their everyday work but other initiatives that they work with. I look forward to making a meaningful contribution to the finance profession for the benefit of our future leaders.” l

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

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

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“I often tell students that winning the competition is not important.

It is about what you have learnt through the process.”

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“We’ve earned the right as a brand to be able to voice what South Africans are really thinking as long as we are authentic.”

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SIMON SAYS:

“MAKE SOUTH AFRICA A BETTER PLACE!” As the CFO of Nando’s South Africa, Simon Adams stands behind the company’s strategy to make South Africa a better place, whether it’s through their chicken, their community projects or their investment into South Africa’s local designers and artists. By Caylynne Fourie

Nando’s supports communities “There are a lot of things we weave into our brand DNA,” Simon says. “CSI is one of these. Nando’s is passionate about South African creativity – so much so that it’s not just CSI to us but it’s the way we do business.”

Each one of the more than 1,200 Nando’s restaurants is individually designed: there are no set templates, meaning that South African designers are free to display their talents in collaboration with the Nando’s design team. As Nando’s has a global presence, local designers have also had the opportunity to showcase their work in restaurants around the world. “The design of our restaurants is centred around our investment into the South African creative space,” says Simon.

In 2018, Nando’s launched the “Portal to Africa”, a design-based channel that connects small to medium South African design and art entrepreneurs to Nando’s global operations, with the aim of helping to build and grow the businesses of small-scale South African designers.

Nando’s is also involved in the annual Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival – a youth festival to celebrate creative freedom through strategic activations aimed at nurturing and uplifting South African creativity.

Conceptualised by youth for youth and fittingly hosted at Constitution Hill, it is a creative and vibrant stage for South African design and art, accessible to the diverse youth of the country.

While it is separately run and was co-founded by one of Nando’s founders, the Goodbye Malaria initiative also has very strong ties to the restauranteer’s brand.

“We source our chillies, the African Bird’s Eye Chillies that go into our world-famous PERi-PERi sauce, from PERi-farms in Africa – a continent which is known to have the highest prevalence of Malaria in the world, Mozambique being one of the countries most affected,” Simon says.

The project initially oversaw the provision of mosquito nets to the affected communities, but it was very difficult to accurately determine the impact it had. Now, teams are spraying the homes of communities in the

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Photos: Supplied

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ounded almost 33 years ago, Nando’s is known for its famous “PERi-PERi” chicken, edgy advertising and helping the communities of South Africa. It has grown across the globe into all regions including the US, Canada, UK & Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and India, but it’s remained true to the country where the magic started. “South Africa has been the soul of the company since day one,” says Nando’s CFO Simon Adams.

surrounding areas with mosquito-repellent insecticides, something that has protected the lives of over 1.7 million people. “As a dedicated partner to Goodbye Malaria, Nando’s hosts a number of trips to the PERi-farms in Mozambique, where we are able to share with our own business partners and ‘nandocas’ – a term used to refer to the Nando’s employees – both local and international, the incredible work that is being done by the Goodbye Malaria team.”

The dream is to eliminate malaria by 2030 in Mozambique, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) and South Africa.

Edgy advertising culture When visitors sit down for lunch in the Nando’s head office, they won’t see any people wearing suits and ties. The nandocas’ personalities are creatively expressed through clothes and hairstyles. It makes for a very colourful sight and echoes the edgy culture showcased in their advertising.

Simon believes that their advertising is what helped Nando’s expand so successfully in South Africa but it is the quality of their PERi-PERi chicken that facilitated the global expansion. “We’ve framed our advertising in South Africa around the voice of the people. Over the last 30 years I think we’ve earned the right as a brand to be able to voice what South Africans are really thinking as long as we are authentic in the way we do it and are able to do so in a way that is slick, smart and South African.”

Staying ahead Nando’s South Africa has a hybrid model that consists

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“It’s massively important to have people around you that will keep you sane and grounded.” of both company-owned restaurants and franchise models. It’s Simon’s job to think about how Nando’s allocates capital to its own restaurants and to make sure that the business model Nando’s offers to the market is sustainable for franchisees to get involved in and grow with the brand.

“Building restaurants can be economically challenging for a variety of reasons; however, close to the top of the list is the rental obligations in the context of a digital age. You have to pay for the space you occupy,” Simon says. “This is challenging because, as technology takes hold and the preference for the convenience of deliveries increases, off-premise consumption of your product is occurring so much more, yet you still have the obligation of renting a space for the restaurant that your customer potentially does not need to come visit.”

Simon adds that one of the key challenges he currently faces is to manage the profitability of the explosive growth in deliveries and align it with the core service channels of the business.

South Africans are also finding it more and more difficult to fund their day-to-day living expenses, which has an impact on retail and restaurant brands. One of the things people give up first is going out and spending money on things that are seen as a luxury, like eating at a restaurant. “We play squarely into that space,” Simon says.

Nando’s is a casual dining restaurant brand that has the ability to serve customers in restaurants, through take-away or drive-thru channels, or the fast-growing option of delivery. However, people are choosing to cut back on casual dining because their money isn’t going as far as it was before. Simon believes that the quality of their chicken, supported by stringent quality control measures, along with their “amazing nandoca service” is a countermeasure to this pressure.

“We stay ahead by making sure we don’t compromise on our core offering, the chicken, by ensuring that the value offering we’re giving to our customers is not questionable,” Simon says. “When you walk out of a Nando’s we want you to feel satisfied that you have spent your well-earned money on something as good as our chicken.”

Distancing himself from work Simon has been involved in the restaurant industry for just over three years and describes it as being one of the most stressful environments in which he has operated. When asked how he stays calm when faced with these stresses, Simon says he believes in building meaningful relationships at work.

“I’ve come to learn that it’s massively important to have people around you that will keep you sane and grounded. When you have to make difficult decisions and balance the stresses that are happening to and around you, it helps to be able to bounce it off some pretty cool people with whom you have a bond that’s probably a little stronger than just work colleagues.”

He believes that it’s important to distance yourself from work every now and again. Having worked on

building strong relationships within the company and in his own team, he finds it easier to take time off knowing that the wheels are still able to turn when he’s not there. But he admits that it’s not something he gets right all the time.

“When I can, I try to play a few rounds of golf,” he says.

“That does also help me manage the stress because I am generally on the course with people who I like and respect and enjoy being around, and it’s outdoors – away from the office.”

Simon is married with three young children. When he’s not working, he’s spending time with them, whether it's swimming, riding bikes or ice-skating (badly, he adds). He also likes watching movies with his wife. “We’re still pretty big movie-goers when we can find someone to watch the kids,” he says. “We’ve got a great support structure around us, whether it’s my wife’s family or mine, and while they watch the kids, we get the chance to hang out like we did when we were teenagers.”

Simon’s favourite Nando’s meal is the pulled chicken sandwich, which he says is great because it doesn’t come with garnish. “You see I’m not that fond of greens and I was always a burger and chips guy, but had to ask for it with no garnish, which, for some reason, I always feel bad doing. With the pulled chicken sandwich, I don’t need to pull anything out or ask anyone in the kitchen to do it for me.”

He has, however, got much better at eating his vegetables in the 21 years he’s been with his wife. “She’s moved me away from not eating any to being at least a little bit experimental here and there. But it still is a real struggle for me.” l

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PURPOSE

In a world gone mad, South Africans need to focus on

POSITIVE VUCA

If you think VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Chaos and Ambiguity, you’re looking at it all wrong. There’s another definition that will help you build resilience in challenging times. By Herman Singh

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Volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity’ are the four elements that constitute a very negative VUCA acronym. But a more positive VUCA definition can help you to become more resilient both as an individual and a business leader.

Firstly, let’s acknowledge that our world is a mess. Today the number of variables driving chaos and uncertainty both internally and externally has grown exponentially.

Another world or trade war or global pandemic seem to make Eskom and Junk status trivial. Screeches of ridiculous and impractical extremely left-wing policies are howled out on every media channel and amplified on every form of social media by minority extremists and their bots. Systems and processes are collapsing, and tempers are rising as anxieties spike. Logic makes heads explode when communities burn and destroy infrastructure, while people continue to vote exactly the same delinquent politicians to return to repeat the incompetent performance on service delivery.

Meanwhile, we can’t get hand sanitiser or toilet paper at any shop. Nothing new here for us. Remember candles, canned food and paraffin stoves in 1994? It’s enough to drive many to break mentally, socially, economically and even nationally judging by the emigration statistics.

Ok, that was the bad news. It’s tough and ain’t getting any better soon.

So what is one to do if emigration is not an option?

Develop resilience! The ability to absorb and succeed in the face of adversity. To bend without breaking, like a grass blade bends under snow to bounce back in summer, while the tree branch breaks while attempting to hold that load of snow. The term VUCA was developed in the late 1990s by the US Military to describe the postCold-War turmoil and was broadly trumpeted as a catch

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phrase for decades. It reflected a fast paced, increasingly unstable and rapidly changing world. What was not well broadcast was that this was not the end of the story. No, they also developed a prescription for survival which today is extremely relevant to us all.

There is a tool to help us. It’s a positive VUCA. Instead of Volatility think Vision. Replace Uncertainty with Understanding. Chaos with Clarity. Ambiguity with Agility. A positive VUCA that can help us all not just cope but succeed and win in this world of turmoil. There are simple ways to manifest each of these to resolve the negative VUCA emanating from your environment. When you are done you will have developed your own superpower that these threats will bounce off of like popcorn.

Vision is about having an end game in mind which helps you absorb shocks while focusing on your destination.

It’s a purpose that can be social, financial or even spiritual. The key message is to keep this big picture in mind at all times while we work towards it incrementally.

This helps us anticipate issues and shape conditions.

An example could be a vision to live completely off the grid due to weak service delivery. This could start with installing solar water heating then moving to gas cooking and then installing a battery UPS until you finally install a photovoltaic system to be both fully independent and environmentally friendly. This approach will help you deal with load shedding more easily as it will become a minor inconvenience you suffer on a multiyear journey to eliminate the problem permanently.

Clarity is about creating a clear picture and focus. It speaks to finding coherence as you make sense of the craziness around you in the minutiae of life. This helps you to collaborate better as you work on aligning expectations and checking for understanding from those around you. Clarity helps better understand the root

causes and forces at play in order to craft a simple message to those looking to you for leadership. For example, it’s clear that the radical left are using social media channels to amplify wild messages to create anxiety that will drive minorities out of the country.

It’s just propaganda. Flatulence. Lots of noise with no substance. None of the radical proposals will survive the decades of legal action to follow. Once you realise this, it becomes easy to ignore the messaging and to see through the scare tactics for what they are – noise from increasingly desperate social fraudsters.

Understanding is about stopping to look, listen and learn in order to develop a flexible perspective. This helps you know the consequences of issues and actions and allows you to create security for the people around you. An example might be the current Covid-19 situation. Fear propagates faster than infection and the first thing that this virus attacks is common sense. It’s clear that we don’t really understand transmission methods yet it makes sense to practice social distancing by reducing physical contact and crowds and to just uplift personal hygiene.

But it’s also clear that this virus has a higher impact on those with lower immune responses. It turns out that children and woman have more active immune systems than men and the elderly and we see this in the fatality statistics. Medical staff also make up 10 percent of fatalities. Once you know this you can start to unearth the risk areas and develop logical mitigations like isolating the elderly to avoid contaminating them or to move presentations from classrooms to online, as many schools started doing as soon as President Ramaphosa announced social distancing measures.

Similarly, avoiding taxes to rather spend that money directly on a community programme that you manage would be a great way to reduce funding further government graft and rebuilding your local community at the same time. (Tax avoidance is legal, it is evasion that is against the law.)

Agility is about an ability to act fast. It speaks to being prepared to interpret and address opportunities as they arise. This requires an openness to new ideas, to involve people and to communicate openly while obtaining feedback to help you pivot as needed. Opportunity comes to the prepared mind, not to one steeped in depression.

This could mean that if you see an opportunity to build a second income in a declining economy or to avoid tax in a worsening tax regime, that you act quickly while building a coalition of the willing or securing the help of experts. Agility is about resourcefulness and taking on and managing risk. Remember that profit is the reward for taking risk. Agility is about getting stuff done. Turning vision into reality and dodging bullets in the process. The

ability to see opportunity where others see danger is the mark of the entrepreneur. The virus created an amazing market for masks. And I bet the guy who invented sanitizer is rubbing his hands now!

The combination of vision, understanding, clarity and agility allows one to build resilience to almost any adverse situation. There is no good or bad in life really.

There are only differing agendas. How you calmly and thoughtfully respond to those agendas will determine your future success. Emotional decisions to emigrate out of fear or frustration will only lead to decades of financial misery in a foreign land, whereas calm decisions to diversify income, avoid taxes, push the right social agenda, become a force for good and create an appropriate portfolio of investments, activities, relationships and plans will be far more successful in uplifting your life.

This ability to detach yourself emotionally from the events around you and to logically and creatively craft options around you in like-minded coalitions becomes a powerful counterforce to those of destabilisation. In war, as in life, these attributes will create success, so inculcate them to help you build your coping superpower. You are not helpless if you build resilience and resourcefulness. l Professor Herman Singh is the CEO of Future Advisory, an international firm specialising in digital transformation projects in corporates, and startup acceleration. He is a regular CFO.co.za Expert Insight contributor.

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Photos: Patrick Furter

Ted Wilcox, PepsiCo SSA CFO

Finance & HR need to get into bed together CFO South Africa challenged CFOs and CHROs to think about the things they like and dislike about each other at the Finance meets HR Summit. Attendees walked away with the realisation that finance and HR are #StrongerTogether.

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n 18 February, CFO South Africa hosted the Finance Meets HR Summit, with over 120 high-calibre CFOs and CHROs filling the inspirational spaces of the Equinox Leadership and Innovation Centre in Sandton.

After CFO South Africa MD Joël Roerig welcomed guests, Accenture Strategy managing directors Luis Rodriguez and Markus Gschwari started off the intense debates of the evening by explaining “The Multiplier Effect”, which essentially comes down to People x Future = Value.

“What we are seeing with all the C-suite people is that the boxes are becoming more blurred and collaboration is becoming more important,” Markus said.

Talking to the Multiplier Effect, Luis said: “If you only have one part of the equation, you get pretty close to nothing.” He explained that the People component in

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the equation is not only applicable to HR but extremely important for finance as well. Similarly, you also need a CHRO that is constantly thinking about finance.

Workday country managing director Zuko Mdwaba echoed these thoughts, saying: “We see more and more of this alignment between people and finance.”

The group then split into two panel discussions, led

by Investec CFO Nishlan Samujh and Howden CFO Marinella Vigouroux on the finance side, and Microsoft SA HR director Jasmin Pillay and Swissport SA VP of HR Nonhlanhla Mhlungu for HR. In the finance panel, Nishlan and Marinella discussed some CHRO responses to the questions “What do I like most about CFOs?” and “What do I like least about the CHRO?” to a great deal of laughter and some uncomfortable cringing from the audience. They concluded

Palesa Mabuza, Jaguar Land Rover fleet and business manager, Nishlan Samujh, Investec group FD

and Innocent Gumbochuma, QCTO CFO

Ditiro Chesalokile, human capital manager at Royal Bafokeng Holdings, and Elisa Mkhize, Clinix Health Group

that the collision between CFOs and CHROs came down to the different levels of emotional intelligence of the people in any boardroom.

One of the attendees said they think the CFO profile these days has evolved. “They end up in the position more because of their EQ rather than their IQ. The CFO is much more a business partner today. Some of them don’t even have the financial qualification, just the knowledge.”

“We can always bring the conversation down to personalities, but the reality is that we are going to be different. If you let that be a limiting factor, you are always going to hit a brick wall,” Nishlan added.

Among the attendees, CFOs doubling as CHROs pointed out that they found the clash between the two roles to be somewhat imaginary and when working in

Marinella Vigouroux, Howden Africa CFO

both these roles, they realised that they have to work together.

Summarising the evening, Business Results Group CFO Nichola Tyler said: “Even if you think there are adversarial relationships between finance and HR, if you’re not already bedfellows, I suggest you start sleeping together.”

However, she added that the best relationship to achieve a meaningful business strategy alliance “isn’t a couple’s date, it’s a threesome between the CEO, CFO and CHRO”.

With much to think about, the CFOs and CHROs proceeded to network and mingle well into the evening – putting into motion the evening’s theme: that the two areas of work are #StongerTogether. l

CFO South Africa extends its thanks to all the partners that made the evening possible. This includes principal partner Workday, executive partner SAP Concur, associate partners Jaguar Land Rover, Transparent, Coupa, ClarkHouse Human Capital, Compliance Online, Momentum Consultants and Actuaries, Sanlam and Skillogical, and venue partner Absa.

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Photos: Supplied

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

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Bravo!

A world well travelled

Bravo Group CFO Rina van der Merwe told Caylynne Fourie how she started travelling because of work, then made it her passion, and now feeds it back into her working world.

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ravel started out as a daunting work requirement for Bravo Group’s Rina van der Merwe. But, once as she faced up to the challenges of those early business trips, she realised that there was so much out there to discover, and she went on to shape her life around seeing as much of the world as possible.

Rina’s professional travel demands started when she was working at BHP Billiton as senior internal auditor in her early twenties. The first time she travelled outside of the borders of Africa, she flew to the Hague, where she had to catch a train and then a taxi to the apartment where she would be living by herself.

Rina recalls being very nervous and unsure whether she would be able to manage on her own. She made the rookie error of packing a very heavy bag that she had to cart around on trains and in taxis, which was the first lesson she learnt in travel: pack less than what you think you will need. “You really only need your passport, phone with internet and a credit card.”

Looking back, however, Rina can’t think of an easier country to travel in than the Netherlands. “But at the time, my fear was real.”

The realisation that she could look after herself, make decisions and figure out how things work with-

out too much of a problem was an experience for which she was very grateful. It was the start of her love for travelling. “It taught me that I am capable of more than I think,” she says.

Asked what advice she would give her younger self, Rina said that when you’re younger, it’s as if the crisis in front of you is the only thing you see.

“Sometimes you look at where you are and you think ‘how did I make this decision?’. If you look back, you often realise that those moments were the ones that got you to a position which enabled you to take the next step. You learnt something. Even if it may not have been a nice lesson at the time, it gave you the capacity for the next step.”

In a previous position, Rina left the organisation because she felt that a senior person was behaving unethically. Even though she reported the person on various occasions, his managers found it difficult to address the situation. Rina loved that job and working at the company and if it hadn’t been for that uncomfortable issue with the senior person, she probably would never have left to find more challenging positions that provided her with more personal growth. “The good news for the organisation was that they found their ethical backbone after I resigned and the said manager was taken to task and subsequently left the organisation,” she adds.

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She says that when you have a tough day or something rough is going on, it’s important to remember that this too will pass. “At the moment it might feel like this insurmountable crisis, but one or two weeks later, when the dust has settled, you can look at it with more perspective,” she adds. “Don’t act immediately, give yourself a little bit of time. Often it’s not as bad as you think.”

December. “We had around four days of no sunlight.

It would turn into something like dusk for about three hours and then go very dark until the moon and stars appeared.”

Further journeys in work and life

On this trip, she did see the Northern Lights but only very faintly. “But it was still amazing. What they don’t tell you about the Northern Lights is that it’s very seasonal and you should actually go around September,” Rina says. “It also goes in cycles, so some years you see it brighter than others.”

Further business travel opportunities presented themselves when Rina moved to Barloworld as senior internal audit manager. She was sent to Scandic countries like Norway and Sweden to perform internal audits on the then newly acquired Scandinavian Avis businesses. The travel bug had bitten and what started as a professional requirement quickly became a way of life for Rina, who was hooked by the opportunities for discovery and growth that travel offered.

“Every place has something unique to offer. That is what I love about travelling; it’s the adventure of discovering something new.”

She tries to apply this ‘discovering the new’ to her role as Bravo Group’s CFO. She sees herself as playing a big part in changing the way things have always been done at the lounge and bedding manufacturer. “Bravo has a heritage of over 120 years in South Africa, with people who have worked here for many years and have tremendous knowledge, but sometimes also have a reluctance to question or change what they have done for many years,” she says. “The way I approach it is to ask why we do it, how we do it and whether there is a better way to do it.”

Rina believes that change shouldn’t happen just for the sake of change. “We should know why we are doing what we are doing and investigate if there is a better way of doing it.” A simple question to management about Bravo Group’s stock-buying practices started an investigation into their stock levels and a review of its buying and ordering practices, which resulted in a significant cash-flow improvement for the business.

Lessons from around the globe Today, Rina travels with her husband, Jaco, whom she married only two years ago when she was 40. With their jet-setting lifestyle, she doesn’t think it’s fair to have any children or pets because of the demands on her time from work and travel. “When I speak to my friends with kids, they can’t see their lives without them, but we fill our lives with other things,” she says.

She says that she felt immense relief when they had actual sunlight again, even though she didn’t realise she was missing it at the time.

Seychelles Rina sailed around Seychelles on a 44-foot catamaran with friends and family for a week. “It is very close to glamping, but you have access to the most spectacular beaches and islands in the world at a fraction of the price.” In fact, they loved it so much that they have done it twice.

Pangkor Iaut, Malaysia When they were on their honeymoon, Rina and Jaco went to Pangkor Iaut island in Malaysia as one of their destinations. “I was a bit worried that we were going to get bored as there is only the hotel on the island. It is very exclusive and we usually enjoy seeing how the locals live and where they hang out, and try to avoid the tourist traps. But it turned out to be very relaxing,” she recalled. “The hardest decision for the day was which beach to go to and what to have for dinner.”

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki was a beautiful country for Rina, but it offered much more than the aesthetics. “Finland is a beautiful country, instead of seeing only the typical older buildings that can be seen in the rest of Europe, you get modernism. For example the Kamppi Chapel, which is also known as the Chapel of Silence as it is meant to be a place of silence or meditation in a very busy city.”

Norway

Other interesting buildings were the Temppeliaukio Church, otherwise known as the Rock Church, carved entirely out of rock, or the Sibelius monument, dedicated to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. At the time of their visit, Helsinki just erected the hotel room designed by a Japanese artist, called the Hotel Manta of Helsinki, which is built around the statute of Manta in Market square. It was an open exhibition space during the day and a hotel room at night.

Rina and her husband have travelled to Norway, where they crossed the Arctic circle in the middle of

Rina considered Helsinki a very enlightening experience. The most interesting part of the trip for her was

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seeing how inclusively their society functions with old people or people with disabilities still living active lives. “I thought it was just wonderful to see how people support and respect more vulnerable people and seem to take care of everyone with needs, without any stigma.”

Rina believes it is a lesson that you should take care of everyone around you; young, old, or very junior in the organisation. “I have often seen that the people who make our tea or do the other less recognised jobs in our companies see more of what we need to improve in our business than we would ordinarily give them credit for.

Having a real conversation with staff at the lower levels can be invaluable.”

Chile Rina also went to Chile with friends and spent part of the holiday hiking through the rural south-central part of the country, which was virtually uninhabited. “It was some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen, but it was very difficult to hike through, as it was very wet and muddy.”

They were hosted by the local community who could only speak Spanish, which they hardly understood. She looks back to that part of the trip with fond memories, even though, at the time, it was physically and emotionally taxing. “It’s a reminder that often when things are tough you may be making some of your best memories and form the best friendships,” she says.

“Now that I am older, I realise how small the world has become and how every business – small or large – truly competes on a global stage. At Bravo we realise that we don’t only compete with our South African competitors, but our design and quality should measure up against the best in the world.” l

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Photos: Patrick Furter & Ter Hollmann

MOVES aking the right

Auvasha Moodley leads on the dancefloor as she does in life; with elegance, determination and an unforgettable effervescence. By Puseletso Mompei

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s the CFO of DPD Laser, Auvasha Moodley not only has a talent for numbers, but also a passion for dance, which has taken her across the world and been a respite when things got tough. Dance has also kept her connected to her roots while expressing who she is.

Auvasha became adept at landing on her feet when she found herself in the first cohort of youngsters to transition into an all-white school in Rosettenville at the break of democracy. “This change in environment and navigating new cultures from a young age was my first experience in learning how to find my way around spaces and people I wasn’t familiar with. It showed me that I could successfully transition between spaces,” she says.

A good student, Auvasha was involved in various sports and other school activities, but what really made her heart sing was traditional Indian dancing.

She maintained the art throughout her childhood,

and in her Matric year she juggled dance exams along with her formal exams. When she excelled in both areas, Auvasha found herself at a crossroads as to which path she would pursue.

For her, dance had always been about more than testing her muscles or keeping pace with music.

Looking back, Auvasha appreciates her parents’ insistence that they understand the family’s Indian heritage, “It added a dimension to my identity that I value,” she says. “It connected me to my roots, and as any dancer will tell you, required lots of discipline. It takes a commitment to practice and hard work to excel in any art form, which is also good mental training.”

Auvasha practices Bharatanatyam, the oldest classical dance tradition of India. “So when I wanted to go deeper, it became clear that I had to go to the source to get truly intimate and excel in the art,” she says. The style is famous for its fixed upper torso, impressive footwork, and sophisticated series of gestures of hands, eyes and face muscles.

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Packing her bags and jetting to India turned out to be an experience of a lifetime. “Even though I am of Indian heritage, I grew up in South African, where being Indian is a different experience. So while some aspects of the culture are familiar, being there was a completely different proposition.”

Finding herself alone in a strange country when she was just 18 years old was unnerving but exhilarating, she says. “This was before the days of Google and Uber, so I had to find my way to my instructor the old-school way: by asking for help from strangers and finding my bearings along the way.”

When she finally made her way to the school in Chennai, Auvasha met other students who shared her passion for dance. These fellow dancers became friends and her support structure. “Even though I came from a closeknit family, the value of relationships then was further ingrained. This ability to form meaningful relationships has carried me through the various dips and valleys of my career.”

After she finished the programme in India, Auvasha started her own dance school in Johannesburg. “I started off with a small class, which soon ballooned to over 100 students in six locations.”

Even though she was busy and doing well in her small business, her father was concerned that she hadn’t completed her formal education and reminded her that it should still be a priority. “This proved to be tricky because I was not only busy with my dancing enterprise, I was two years behind peers who had gone directly to university. I decided to go the distance learning route and work part time to assist my parents with the fees,” Auvasha says.

She decided to pursue a career in finance because her father had been an accountant in between his career as an educator. She was also good in accounting and while she didn’t think it was fun, she developed a passion for it. “I am not drawn to the routine side of the work, but I love using numbers to tell a story and and have been fortunate to access roles which allow me to play with this in my career.”

Auvasha put university on ice and chose to follow her passion into the world of dance. With the urging of her local dance mentor, she started looking for ways to make it to India and was over the moon when she secured a bursary from a South African-Indian organisation.

“My parents supported my goal, and even though my father was a passionate educator who valued education, he was open-minded. We were extremely close and his opinion meant the world to me, so when he gave me the green light, I was ready to soar,” Auvasha says.

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Auvasha landed a job at Absa in foreign accounts, which was serendipitous. “Being in an arm of the business which related to matters beyond our borders, such as CFC Accounts, exchange controls and international markets, expanded my horizons. However, after a while, the work grew monotonous, and there was not much room for growth. I started putting out feelers, and an opening was available at UTI logistics. I started as a vendor’s clerk, and was eventually promoted to team leader when the company was expanding into Africa,” she says.

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As part of the team overseeing the expansion into Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Auvasha was still studying part time. “At only 25 years old I was appointed to country manager in Botswana. It was my first experience of managing teams and as an outsider, the team members saw me as a threat. In addition to that my direct reports were all older than me, with two in their fifties and predominantly male,” she says.

Winning the confidence and trust of the team was a process that was sometimes excruciating but worth it in the end. “Again, building relationships and getting to know people by taking a genuine interest in them, allowed them to get to know me.”

When she moved to Botswana, Auvasha had to close down the school, though dancing remained part of her life. Unfortunately it was then that her father received a devastating cancer diagnosis. “I was on the road a lot; I would drive down to Johannesburg on the weekend to spend time with family and drive back on Monday. It was extremely difficult but luckily I had a reputation for excellence at work, and my manager gave me the flexibility to meet all the demands on my life. That is also when I saw how strong my relationships with my colleagues were because of how much they supported me,” Auvasha says. Sadly, during this time, her father passed away, leaving a huge gap in her life.

However, she says, “I am pleased that I was still able to support my family and I know that he was proud of the path I was on.”

way. “My husband is super supportive – he has always encouraged me to leverage my talents and follow my curiosity. As an entrepreneur, he has an ingrained appreciation for experimentation and isn’t afraid of risk taking,” Auvasha says.

Now in her current position at DPD Laser, Auvasha attributes her success to her exposure to different environments from a young age. “My strong mindedness, ability to get things done, and knack for connecting with people on an authentic level, from the tea lady to CEO, are strengths that come naturally to me, yet are extremely powerful,” she adds.

In the last few years, Auvasha has circled back to dancing. “I never forgot how transformative dance was in my life when I was a little girl so I started small classes from home. It has been a wonderful addition to my life,” she says. Auvasha now teaches a small class on the weekend. “Dance has always been a joy for me and I am excited to share this part of my heritage with the next generation.” l

After her father passed away, Auvasha returned to South Africa and moved up the ranks, over the years taking on positions that included finance director – sub-Saharan Africa & Middle East at UTi (now DSV), finance director – UK & Ireland at DSV, and CFO – East & Southern Africa for Damco Logistics.

“It was challenging, having to navigate issues like hyperinflation in countries like Zimbabwe and varied customs systems, as well as the cultural differences that come to light when doing business in places like Dubai, but all these have grown me as a professional,” she says.

Away from work, Auvasha leans heavily on her husband, who moved with her to Botswana in the early years and has been by her side the rest of the

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COMMUNITY

CFO & CHRO COMMUNITIES ARE STEPPING UP IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 MD Joël Roerig reveals how CFO South Africa is finding new ways to bring executives together during social restriction.

Never has COMMUNITY been more important than in this time of social distancing, fear and uncertainty. The CFO South Africa and CHRO South Africa communities are stepping up in the coming weeks and months to be there in times that connections, support, perspective, consolation and fresh ideas are needed most.

How? 1. Flatten the curve! Among all the unknowns, one thing is clear: social distancing and postponing of events can "flatten the curve" of the impact of the new coronavirus and save lives. Our fantastic team is (hard)working from home and all physical CFO and CHRO events are rescheduled for Q4 and, hopefully, Q3.

2. Connect! As long as the Covid-19 restrictions are in place, we will host online CFOCommunity Conversations every week. We will try out various formats and invite the community to participate and grow together. Some of the rescheduled events will ALSO take place on the initial date: online, with participation from the originally scheduled speakers and panelists and including focused online breakaway sessions.

3. Read and share! CFO Magazine, CFO.co.za, CHRO Magazine and CHRO.co.za are the portals that finance and HR professionals turn to when they want to find out how leaders are dealing with challenges and opportunities. The purpose and promise of these media outlets is to stand firmly at the core of the communities.

4. Celebrate! HR Indaba Africa and Finance Indaba Africa on 14 and 15 October will be a celebration of the resilience of South African business and a pressure cooker of new ideas and energy for both finance and HR. If Covid-19 somehow forces us to move the events a few months along, the desire for learning and networking will only grow. The indabas will be there for all finance and HR professionals!

Of course, these are scary times! Access to all events and online knowledge is completely free for CFOs and HR execs – and you will continue to receive free copies of CFO Magazine and CHRO Magazine. This is only possible through the fantastic support of the following friends of the communities:

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CFO Community partners: Deloitte (principal) SAP Concur (executive) Standard Bank (executive) Workday (executive) ClarkHouse Human Capital (associate) Coupa (associate) Jaguar Land Rover (associate) Transparent (associate)

CHRO Community partners: Momentum Corporate (principal) Workday (principal) ClarkHouse Human Capital (associate) Compliance Online (associate) Sanlam (associate) SAP Concur (associate) Skillogical (associate)

How can YOU help or participate?

• If you have been involved in our communities, please say something nice about them on social media (to convince your peers to join) and let me know if we can sign you up for our online sessions in the coming months. Contact details in the signature below.

• If you are a CFO or HR exec who wants to get involved, please let me know.

• If you want to provide support to and interact with the communities, please let me know.

• If you want to celebrate with thousands of HR and/or finance professionals in October AND showcase your solutions or expertise, please let me know. #Community2020 beats #Covid19 any day!

Wishing good health to you, your family and your business, Joël Roerig CFO South Africa managing director +27 (0)76 371 2856 jroerig@cfo.co.za

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

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

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

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

Immediate Benefits: Support the CFO South Africa community

All issues of CFO Magazine delivered to your desk

Exclusive invite to all CFO Summits

Bi-weekly newsletter

Exclusive invite to CFO Awards

Finance Indaba VIP team invite

Exclusive invite to CFO Day

Up to 12 CPD Hours per person

Exclusive invite to CFO SA Community Conversations (Online) Corporate Membership Investment:

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

Calendar of Events: 5 Aug 2020

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

NEW DATE: To be confirmed for Sept, Oct or Nov

The Future-Ready CFO Summit Cape Town

14 - 15 Oct 2020

Finance Indaba 2020

10 Nov 2020

CFO Day

NEW DATE: 25 Nov 2020

CFO Awards

Contact: John Deane | jdeane@cfo.co.za | +27 81 487 1156 | CFO.co.za

Because you have big ideas.