Message from the Publisher

South Africa’s Leading Managers is now in its seventh year and we hope you find the latest edition as
informative and enlightening as its prestigious predecessors.

As always, we have sought out inspirational business leaders from South Africa’s various industries, covering both the public and the private sector. By engaging with these individuals, we are able to present a true reflection of the country’s operating climate in all its guises – good and bad.

Moreover, we are able to glimpse some of the challenges our business leaders face on a daily basis, and learn how they use their talent, knowledge and acumen to overcome them.

This year’s edition is all the more interesting because it showcases these attributes which have been
put to use in a year that was filled with an unprecedented number of highlights, yet which was just shaking off the burden of last year’s economic downturn. It was, after all, business unusual as the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ ushered in a spirit of excitement, enthusiasm and optimism that South Africans have not experienced for a long time.

That said, while signs of an economic turnaround are unmistakable, the year leading up to this point has presented some turbulent moments. The global economic recession has left its mark on businesses worldwide and the face of many industries will remain irrevocably changed.

South African businesses have weathered the storm and are cautiously optimistic about the future. These are businesses boasting leadership teams that were forward planning in their approach, and displayed an impressive degree of foresight in making use of strategies that would see them through the tough times, while sufficiently robust to allow the organisation to grow and prosper.

And while South Africa may not have been as hard hit as some of our European counterparts, we too have seen our casualties. Indeed, many have warned that we may not be out of the woods as yet. That said, there are clear signs of green shoots and the business leaders we have profiled are primed to make the most of them.

As any great leader will acknowledge, the success of an organisation is dependent entirely on the commitment and dedication of its employees. In South Africa, as in many other developing countries, the skills shortage is an ongoing battle, and assembling this all-important workforce is not always as easy as it sounds.

It’s a challenge that spreads industry-wide and attracting specialised talent is often a problem. To this end, it is the task of the management team to develop its employees from within the company.

Essentially, it’s about identifying the direction in which the business needs to head and highlighting the skills needed to get it there. From here, it takes a leadership team with the vision to create those skills by training and developing its existing workforce to ensure the company houses all the talent it needs for successful growth.

Then, of course, there is the question of retaining this workforce. It goes without saying that highly skilled people must be remunerated fairly and incentivised to stay in their positions. However, as one of the featured leaders points out, staff retention comprises far more than salary.

Through the leadership profiles within this book, we are given an overview of how some of South Africa’s leading organisations have managed not only to attract, but also to retain the specialised skills needed to carry the organisation forward. In doing so they have overcome the challenges brought to the fore by the skills shortage.
While financial reward is a given, these companies have developed cutting-edge recruitment processes that speak to not only to skills, but also to cultural fit. Training programmes and opportunities for staff to reach their optimal potential – both on a professional and personal basis – give a multidimensional aspect to the work environment.

As so many of our leadership teams have shown, there are myriad innovative processes that give an
organisation the ability to balance the challenges of the skills shortage and its needs for growth, in the process creating the skills it needs to survive and thrive.

We take this opportunity to congratulate the leaders and leadership teams profiled in this book. In an environment made memorable by its challenges, they have set the example and shown that with strong leadership, anything is indeed possible.