With many years of experience as an entrepreneur and businessman, Alan Reeves, chief operating officer (COO) of Legendary Retail Brands (LRB), which was the shareholder and administrator of the Mica, DIY Depot and House of Paint and Décor voluntary buying group (VBG) brands, was continuously thinking about the next step for the group. Member profitability was good, despite a tough economic environment, but Reeves was aware that this could change easily.

It was June 2006 and Shaun Matisonn, CEO of PruHealth plc – a 50/50 joint venture formed in late 2004 between Discovery Holdings in South Africa and Prudential plc in the United Kingdom (UK) – was about to relocate his office from Johannesburg to London. As he contemplated his move, Matisonn wondered how he was going to make the joint venture work. While PruHealth was showing early signs of success, Matisonn knew that joint ventures were notoriously difficult to manage, especially across two different continents.

In September 2016, Wits Business School MBA student, Rishka Reddy was reviewing the information she had gathered for a proposal she was considering putting to Andreas Joehle, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Paul Hartmann Group, a leading international supplier of medical, hygiene and healthcare products. The proposal, which she hoped would result in an internship opportunity at Hartmann, presented Reddy’s strategy on how Hartmann could best expand into sub-Saharan Africa.

Old Mutual was established in 1845 in the Cape of Good Hope as a mutual society. By 1999, Old Mutual provided a broad range of financial services to its policy-holders and other clients: life insurance, asset management, banking, and general insurance, with total assets of 32 billion pounds (R311 billion). On 12 June 1999, Old Mutual listed on the London and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. Although the global economic situation had recovered from the Asian crisis, Old Mutual’s management were perturbed.

On 17 February 2017, Thomas Quinn, the managing director of online florist, Flowers4U.co.za[1], received an irate email from one of his clients. The client was still not satisfied with a solution he had proposed the day before to make up for unmet expectations regarding flowers delivered on Valentines’ Day. Quinn wondered how best to respond.

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FirstRand Limited in South Africa gave its full support to Stephan Claassen, Dr Theunie Lategan, Rohit Wahi, Mahendran Moodley and the team in India to proceed with the Africa-India corridor corporate investment bank, with the understanding that they should do what they could to develop other markets at a later date. With the go-ahead, the team finalised and sent their banking licence application to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Categories: Strategy,

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Rob Brozin, chairman of Nando’s International, based in South Africa, was reconsidering the company’s international expansion programme in general, and the decision to enter Singapore and Malaysia in particular. The aims of listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in April 1997 were to insulate their South African operations from the risks of international expansion, and to raise the necessary capital for expansion. The main uncertainty for Brozin was the extent to which Nando’s success in South Africa was transferable abroad.

No. Pages: 30 

In February 2008, eight months after FirstRand Limited sent Stephan Claassen to India to gather insights for a market-entry strategy into that country – the initial preference being to set up as a retail bank – Claassen presented a strategy to the board that focused on setting up as a corporate investment bank in the Africa-India corridor. He knew he had done well in convincing FirstRand’s board of the strategy, but now wondered about other opportunities that would present themselves, and how the team in India would incorporate them into what would become FirstRand Bank India.

In July 2009, businessman and entrepreneur, Martyn Mills of MCM Wines, reconsidered his marketing strategy. He had been exporting his own wine to China since 2003 and had recently signed an agreement with the prestigious South African wine estate, Groot Constantia, to export its wine to that country as well. However, conducting business in China was complex and expensive and, earlier that year, he had partnered with a new importer in China to help combat certain of the challenges.

Rob Angel, CEO of Engen, was concerned about the future of his company. By early 1998, the fall-out of the Asian crisis had affected world markets, including the JSE. A low stock price and global industry conglomeration increased the possibility of a hostile take-over, and the end of much of what Angel had accomplished. In June 1998, Petronas formally offered to buy out all the shareholders of Engen Petroleum Ltd. Angel needed to have a clear recommendation ready for the Engen board meeting planned to discuss the Petronas offer.