12 minute read
PASSIONATE ABOUT TRANSFORMATION, COACHING AND TRAVEL
MEET KERSHINI GOVENDER, EXECUTIVE HEAD OF TRANSFORMATION AND STRATEGY AT NEDBANK GROUP
PASSIONATE ABOUT TRANSFORMATION, COACHING AND TRAVEL
Kershini Govender was born and educated in Pietermaritzburg, and after completing a B. Com in business finance, economics and logistics, began her career with Transnet. Kershini then moved to the JSE and after five and a half years joined Nedbank. Sixteen years later she is the Executive Head of Transformation and Strategy where her role has two different components: firstly transformation - creating strategies in order to implement the BEE legislation for the Bank, and in so doing, managing key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally, keeping the business abreast of any latest developments, providing thought leadership, and looking after the audit and verification process; and secondly - facilitating the GMCA cluster strategy and business planning process, as well as leading key strategic projects for the group such as the YES initiative. Kershini also holds a Masters in Science (MSc) in Behavioral Change and Coaching, cum laude.
We spoke to Kershini about coaching,transformation and going beyond the Codes.
What excites you about your role? It's diverse and challenging and straddles two very different functions - compliance and strategy. When dealing with compliance issues you have to be quite autocratic and rigid, while on the strategy side, you need to be quite creative and open to new ideas - there's just never a dull moment.
I also represent the Bank at the Banking Association of South Africa and sit on the Board of the Nedbank Eyethu Community Trust, where we primarily disperse funding in the education space. But what I really find exciting is being a coach – which for me is soul food. In 2012, even before I got my Masters, I completed the International Coach Federation qualification, which is affiliated with the USA and the ICF. So I've been coaching from probably around 2013. And it's just a fantastic thing because it's really fulfilling, because during the coaching, we really get the benefit of seeing how people's potential is unlocked, either from a personal or professional perspective. I think that for me is probably a key highlight in my overall job.
One of the Bank's key principles is transcending compliance beyond the Codes, thereby contributing to a sustainable future for all. Please give us some examples of how this is carried out One of the key principles of Nedbank's approach is that it really transcends the scorecard - we look at transformation as a moral and business imperative, because it's really about being relevant in the communities in which we operate. So we use it as a nation-building lever. In 2009, we achieved level 2 BEE status and retained that for 10 consecutive years. And then, in the last 3 years, we've retained level 1.
Obviously we are doing all of the normal compliance requirements, from the human capital side on employment equity, skills development and socioeconomic development. But some of the examples I want to touch on are where we go beyond the scorecard. If you look at YES, the Youth Employment Services initiative, which we were one of the pioneers of in 2019, we have put more than 3300 youth through work employment opportunities. If you look at our enterprise and supplier development programme, which launched in 2015, we've had really good results with more than 162 new jobs created and more than 496 people actually employed. The hours of mentorship surpassed 630 and new contracts were awarded to the value of R27-million. One supplier’s turnover actually improved from R300 000 to more than R15-million over a five-year period.
And then there is our Black Business Partner legacy project - since 2015, we have continued to work with our business partners, both Wiphold and Brimstone consortia. We have engaged in different types of projects like the the public-private partnership with the Gauteng Department of Economic Development, as well as Pick 'n Pay and the local spaza shop owners. Since the programme started, we have dispensed more than R20-million and created more than 282 jobs.
As Head of Transformation Kershini ensures diversity and inclusion is part of the DNA of the Bank. We asked her what have been some of the highlights of the Bank's transformation journey? “We leverage across the four different capitals: human capital - employment equity and skills development; socioeconomic capital, which is really the SED enterprise and supplier development and procurement; the financial capital, which is really the funding aspect of empowerment - financing, access to financial services, financial inclusion. And then very importantly, the fourth capital is around leadership capital where you have brand, culture, values, stakeholder management, and, response to legislation.
Our philosophy is really to be human centred. And what that really means is that it's founded on putting people first because, like Richard Barrett, beautifully said, “Organisations don't change, people do.” So the key principles of our framework look at leading with empathy, having a bias for actions and experimentation. And then very importantly, being inclusive. And the inclusivity part is what's really linked to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion journey.
We are currently embarking on a new culture transformation journey, in order to be relevant in this new context. We've all seen how the world has shifted, not only with COVID, but the acceleration of digitisation - and as your environment changes, you have to ensure your culture is aligned.
What are the 5 C's driving strategy development? This is how I articulate Nedbank’s transformation strategy. The 5 Cs are:
Clarity of purpose, commitment from leadership, culture change, creative compliance, and then very importantly, communication and connection.
If you look at all of those five components, it's not a linear journey. In terms of the Nedbank journey, if you look at clarity of purpose, historically, we had a vision led values driven strategy. Then as the years moved on, we evolved it and now we also have a purpose statement, which is using our financial expertise to do good. And then within that we identify key strategic levers and KPIs, to make sure that there’s implementation, so there's always a strategic roadmap that the entire organisation is familiar with.
Clarity of purpose is very important as is commitment from leadership – and culture change is fundamental, because, things happen through people. So if you are not looking after the environment, and the culture and the value set that people want, you're not really going to get people actually coming to work, be it physically or mentally, and people have to be present in order to deliver. Creative compliance, this does not mean fronting but looking creatively at compliance e.g. leveraging money spent to build wealth rather than redistribute wealth.. And then lastly, but very importantly, it's about communication and connection, because the strategy has to live, your purpose has to live, otherwise it's just an academic piece of literature. And if you also think about it, you’re connecting through every single stage, because you cannot do creative compliance, or you cannot do cultural change without the connection and communication. So It's not a linear thing. But iterative.
What, in your opinion, are some of the transformation challenges facing South Africa - and how do we turn them to opportunities? People are still struggling with the high cost of BEE; sometimes business models are not geared to supporting BEE, or there are business buy-in issues. In some instances, it's also the culture. But I think more importantly, if you look at the fact that BEE is located within the broader socio-economic and political landscape, that's really where your challenges arise. Because if transformation and growth are positively correlated, and we are in a low growth environment - we were actually in a real recession, not a technical one, then you still have the, the triple challenges of unemployment, inequality, poverty, and now, on top of all of that, you have this pandemic. So all of those realities also impact BEE and transformation.
In my mind what needs to happen from that perspective, is one needs to really look at how you then redirect capital appropriately in order to make the most significant impact in the BEE, or transformation, space.
Another big challenge is the administrative burden of the Codes. There are more than 150 pages, and around 67 lines of formula. While you're trying to straddle that, they are also being amended. Which means everything is grey and open to interpretation. Just keeping pace with that administrative burden, and being verified on an annual basis, is quite a challenge. I think from that perspective, the way to overcome it is to really be involved in industry discussions - it's really our job as the leaders in transformation, to challenge the status quo to change the narrative to push the substance over form debate, to actually say that, you know, BEE needs to actually pivot, the scorecard is quite archaic - it's quite transactional still. And that needs to shift. And then there is appreciating that bringing diversity into the workplace is going to be good for business. Boston Consulting Group found that diversity is a key driver of innovation. And even at that point, they found that diverse teams produce 19% more revenue. And then if you look at McKinsey studies, it'll give you a similar thing from a different perspective - if your team is more diverse, you will find your ROE (return on equity) is higher. So I think it's truly about driving those agendas, where it is substance over legal form, because you're not just putting diverse people into a team, but you ensuring that diversity of thought is translating into your bottom line into your, key metrics.
In your opinion, what have been some of the impacts of COVID on the implementation of BEE in South Africa? BEE is located within the broader socio-economic landscape, so because profits were actually shrinking, throughout the COVID era, and because a lot of the elements on the scorecard like socioeconomic development, enterprise and supplier development are a function of your net profit after tax, your ability to transform in those spaces would have also shrunk proportionately. Then at the same time, whilst that was happening, we have also been deliberately redirecting funds, which was the right thing to do, in favour of COVID relief initiatives.
If you look at the impact on SMEs, because SMMEs feature across the scorecard, a lot of them did not survive the pandemic. And then what's even worse is now all of this has been exacerbated through the recent social unrest. So none of these things bode well for transformation or the ability for the country to actually grow. And then if you just look from an ownership perspective, obviously, because profits were shrinking, companies were not able to pay dividends, share prices were falling. So the net value that could have been created for shareholders would have also declined from that perspective. And then maybe the last one, just to mention, if you look at new ways of working, obviously, things like skills development would have been impacted. Because a lot of it had to do with face to face programmes. Now all of that had to have pivoted to virtual. And then, of course, we need to still keep pace with updates to the Codes themselves, and the legislation itself, in order for companies to get credited for some of the more virtual type training.
How can transformation be a catalyst for higher levels of inclusive growth that our country needs right now? When you’re in a capital constrained and low growth environment, you have to look at how can you appropriately deploy that capital in order to grow the economy. So from my perspective you have to firstly fix the structural issues that we’re facing in the economy. The Eskom situation is completely unsustainable.
You are literally disempowered when you do not have power. And that spans across everything. It’s about transcending the political debates; removing corruption, fixing the structural issues in the economy, focusing on stimulating growth for SMMEs. Redirecting capital to the areas where it is required and focusing on youth employment through capacity building.
If we look at infrastructure development on the scorecard, it needs to be a bit more deliberate in terms of what the country needs, including technological innovations. Dialling up ethical behaviour, ethical leadership, holding each other accountable in order to really propel South Africa forward. Because there’s only so much capital that you have and that’s not the only debate, it’s all the peripheral things that impact your ability to deliver that also need to be fixed. Because those things help build or erode investor confidence.
How do you relax? Spending time with family and close friends. I am passionate about travel and can’t wait to start that part of my life again!
Who are your favourite business authors and are there any books you want to recommend?
Robin Sharma’s “The Leader Who Had No Title”
Two books by Reuel J. Khoza, “Attuned Leadership” and “Let Africa Lead”
“More Time to Think” by Nancy Klein
What exciting plans do you have for the coming year?
Personally: Travel
Professionally: Enhancing my coaching practice and working towards accelerating transformation.
