In April 2010, Siza Mzimela was appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) of the government-owned South African Airways (Pty) Ltd (SAA). She was the seventh CEO to be appointed since 1993. As far back as 2007, the South African government had issued the airline with an ultimatum – ‘get your affairs in order or you are on your own’. Yet the airline was still in a financially disastrous position. Mzimela knew that she had to come up with a workable strategy for SAA, and wondered what the organisation had to do to turn itself around.

No of Pages: 13

In November 1998, Rob Angel experienced a major challenge. As CEO of Engen, he had spent almost a decade working on the transformation of the largest South African oil company into a successful, empowered organisation. Petronas, a Malaysian state-owned oil company, had recently taken over Engen. Engen was considering a merger with Sasol Oil, a South African state-owned oil company. Both Petronas and Sasol, adhered strongly to the old command and control leadership culture.

Pravin Gordhan, Commissioner of the South African Revenue Services (SARS), had managed to improve tax collection substantially over his six years of office, whilst also managing to keep changing the institution internally. He was proud of the leadership role he had played in making such a complex public organisation operate efficiently.

In January 2008, the black-owned Pamodzi Investment Holdings (PIH) was at a crossroads, as its chief executive officer (CEO), Ndaba Ntsele, sat down with his board to discuss how to finance the growth of the business. Ntsele and co-director, Solly Sithole, had founded PIH’s predecessor, Pamodzi Property Developers, and grown it from nothing in 1979 to a multi-million rand concern, using only debt finance and working capital.

It was January 2005, more than one year after Mavuso Msimang had accepted the position as CEO of the State Information and Technology Agency (SITA). In its five years of existence, SITA had experienced tumultuous times and had been accused of poor service delivery, mismanagement and corruption. In 15 months Msimang had laid the groundwork for a turnaround and he believed that SITA was now finally on the road to recovery. Still, there was some way to go before the organisation was functioning optimally. Was he on the right track, he wondered.

No. Pages: 19 

Under Mark Lamberti’s leadership, mass retailer, Massmart’s turnover had exceeded R20 billion in turnover for the first time in its history in 2004. It had a watershed year in terms of numbers as no mass merchant in the history of South Africa had achieved the return on sales that Massmart had in that year. Lamberti had been at the helm of Massmart since he founded the company in 1990.

Maanda Manyatshe, CEO of the South African Post Office, put the phone back in its cradle. He had just been speaking to a few of his prospective colleagues at MTN South Africa, the cellular network company he would soon be joining. MTN SA was the second largest cellular operator in the country. He would be tasked with growing the South African operation. It was only one of a number of offers he had received, and it was not the most attractive package he had been offered.

In 1998/1999, the Legal Aid Board faced closure because of a contingent liability of more than R600 million for legal services delivered by private practitioners to the organisation’s clients. Since then, through three phases of transformation, under two board chairmen and three chief executive officers, the Legal Aid Board has turned itself around. It has received unqualified audit reports from the office of the Auditor General since 2002 and it has extended its services to represent the accused in approximately 400 000 matters per year.

In Lechabile, a small black empowerment IT company, a two-fold strategic issue had to be resolved: how the numerous growth opportunities that presented themselves should be managed; and how options for achieving growth should be evaluated. Concomitant with this, the number of employees was increasing. Management felt that a formal performance management system was needed that would be in keeping with their culture of empowerment.

No.of pages: 19

It was September of 2005. Brian and Mike Coppin had founded Fruit and Veg City 11 years ago and knew that over the past 11 years they had done an excellent job of translating the mission of the organisation into action. They had sustained success and growth by delivering quality fresh produce at the right price to their identified markets, and they had done so by ensuring continuous innovation and exceptional service. However, they could see that there had been a change in the industry. Market needs had evolved and there were a variety of opportunities under consideration.