Mind your business E-Book

Theo Vorster

• Herausgeber: Jonathan Ball
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Mind your Business is a compilation of the success stories of prominent South African businesspeople, from entrepreneurs to chief executives of multinational business giants. This book is the outgrowth of South African channel kykNet's popular TV series Sakegesprek met Theo Vorster. After many inquiries from viewers, Theo decided to summarise his 38 interviews from the show in book form and to share these informative and inspiring conversations with readers. Each chapter tells the story of a business leader's personal journey to success, including the setbacks and obstacles that had to be overcome. Theo explains key principles and offers some of his own observations about his interaction with the business people. This book is intended for anyone who is interested in the success stories of business leaders and would like to apply some of the key principles in their own enterprises or careers.

Leseprobe

The success stories of prominent South African businesspeople, from entrepreneurs to chief executives of multinational business giants.

This book is the offshoot of kykNET’s popular TV series Sakegesprek met Theo Vorster. After many inquiries from viewers, Theo decided to summarise the 38 interviews in book form and to share these informative and inspiring conversations with readers. Each chapter tells the story of a business leader’s personal journey to success, including the setbacks and obstacles that had to be overcome. Theo explains key principles and offers some of his own observations about his interactions with these businesspeople. This book is intended for anyone who is interested in the success stories of business leaders and would like to apply some of the key principles in their own enterprises or careers.

Koos Bekker • Laurie Dippenaar • Dr Edwin Hertzog • Ina Paarman • Beyers Truter • Santie Botha • Herman Mashaba • Dr Christo Wiese • Jannie Mouton • Louis von Zeuner • Whitey Basson • Louis Fourie • Elmien Scholtz, and many other trailblazers.

Theo Vorster is a co-founder and chief executive of Galileo Capital. He is a regular market commentator on RSG’s Geldsake programme and a weekly guest on kykNET’s breakfast programme Dagbreek. Theo, Anneke and their daughter Mia live in Johannesburg.

To my parents, Theo and Marie Vorster, my wife, Anneke, and my daughter, Mia.

Theo Vorster

MIND

YOUR

BUSINESS

Advice from South Africa’s top business leaders

JONATHAN BALL PUBLISHERS

Johannesburg & Cape Town

FOREWORD

The need for leadership is one of the most pressing challenges facing our society today. What defines good leadership? Is there a blueprint? Are international leadership formulas applicable to us here in Africa and, more specifically, in South Africa?

Internationally, there is a plethora of books on leadership and the road to success, from Don Miguel Ruiz’sThe Four Agreementsto John Maxwell’sDeveloping the Leader Within Youand Stephen Covey’sThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Locally, however, the topic has not yet been thrashed out properly, especially when it comes to spotlighting our own successful business leaders and their unique achievements.

We are privileged to have some of the most successful business leaders in our own country. They operate in the here and now, and demonstrate to us how they have managed to achieve success in a country with so many distinctive challenges. These resourceful individuals are worthy of emulation, and their success stories are directly applicable to everyone who wants to build a future in South Africa.

Theo Vorster and theSakegesprekprogramme have brought this important content to kykNET. The conversations with our homegrown business leaders have opened up new worlds that we can identify with and relate to. I believe that many readers and viewers will be able to apply these recipes in their own endeavours, and that this will lead them to even greater heights and more job opportunities. Business leadership is of greater significance than political leadership. The one puts bread on the table while the other gets stuck in bureaucracy and endless arguments. I am proud of the outstanding entrepreneurs and business leaders that our country has produced. It is a privilege to document their stories, so that as many new businesspeople as possible can learn from their conclusions and experiences.

Karen Meiring

Director of Afrikaans channels at DStv

INTRODUCTION

The best teacher has always been personal stories, in which people share their real-life experiences and relate what they did right in order to achieve success and overcome setbacks. The idea behind the television programmeSakegesprek met Theo Vorsterwas to interview successful South African businesspeople about their personal career stories.

It was important that the business leaders should cover a wide spectrum – from entrepreneurs to professional business managers, from multi-billion-rand companies to smaller niche firms, from businesses in a growth phase to mature conglomerates that dominate their markets. The guests had to include established business leaders reflecting on long careers as well as up-and-coming younger people who are making a name for themselves – from the veterans you read about in academic studies to the successful whizz kid who may have been at school with you.

The programme concept was premised on the inspiring value of role models. In our contemporary world, we are quick to turn celebrities into role models – usually completely outside their field of expertise. But it is nonsensical and unfair to expect individuals who excel at hitting sixes or kicking a rugby ball to be role models in other spheres, or to serve as examples to people when it comes to their businesses or careers.

Most of us will spend the major part of our lives in a working or business environment. If you want to be successful in your career or your own business, rather listen to someone who has excelled in that particular environment than to the guy who has made his mark on the sports field.

In January 2010 I presented the concept to Karen Meiring and Marida Swanepoel at kykNET’s offices in Randburg. The channel agreed at once to broadcast the programme, and Marida was appointed as supervisory producer.

Dirk Mostert proved to be an excellent choice as producer; besides his experience, he was sufficiently senior to be able to communicate well with the business leaders (in other words, to dictate to our guests where and how they had to sit, speak and look). Dirk and his colleague Rudi Ahlstrom are always prepared to make changes at short notice to their schedules, the programmes and the content. The project would not have worked in the hands of someone who would have wanted to change the concept or make me do something with which I might disagree.

Once I had received the go-ahead, however, the burning question was whether I could persuade the right people to be guests on a brand-new and untested television programme, and how they would react when I contacted them. On a Friday afternoon I invited my first prospective guests. I sent emails to five prominent business leaders, kept my fingers crossed, and immediately started agonising – what would I do if no one had responded by Monday afternoon? At what stage would I devise a plan B (or C or D), and what exactly would these plans look like? From a practical perspective, we had to shoot our first interview in the next two to three weeks to keep to the agreed time schedules.

I was astounded when I checked my email later that afternoon; all five people had replied, and all the responses were positive! By the way, over the three series almost everyone who was invited agreed to participate in the programme.

My first guest was Laurie Dippenaar, co-founder and current non-executive chairman of the FirstRand Group. As Laurie first wanted to talk to me about the programme and get an idea of what I wanted to achieve with it, he invited me for lunch on the day before we were to shoot the formal interview.

Laurie had also asked me beforehand to send him a broad outline of the topics I intended to cover, which I did. When we sat down to our lunch, I was anxious to hear his verdict on my emails and on the notes that he had brought along.

We spent probably around five minutes discussing the programme before chatting for the next two hours about rugby, South African politics, the global economy and other issues. He spoke to me as if I were a long-standing confidant. This conversation was a precursor of my first interview, and I understand now why Laurie is considered someone of irreproachable stature in the business world.

A useful tip that emerged from this lunch was that I should inform the business leaders beforehand about the questions I intended to ask in order to give them time to reflect properly on the core elements of their answers. As Laurie put it, he didn’t relish the idea of driving home after the interview and realising when he was halfway there what the most appropriate answer would have been. I try to apply this principle always, and have found that guests tend to be relaxed and well prepared if they believe that you have done your homework properly.

The first third of theSakegesprekprogramme consists of a discussion of the week’s most important business news. Journalists from Sake24 – initially Ryk van Niekerk in the first series and subsequently Riana de Lange in the second and third series – have added in-depth knowledge and quality to this segment. I remain impressed by the expertise and thorough preparation of these senior journalists.

The first series was exceptionally successful.Sakegesprekwas consistently among kykNET’s top 20 weekly programmes, which was also the case with the two follow-up series. Of even greater value to me was the fact that it was among the few programmes on this list that was broadcast after 21:00, and also one of the very few that was not primarily regarded as light entertainment.

In the first series we conducted a very good interview with Louis von Zeuner, who was still Absa’s deputy chief executive at the time. Louis was the first, as well as the only, person I approached about sponsorship of the two follow-up series. He informed us straightaway that Absa would like to be involved. I really have to thank Louis, and later also Willie Lategan and Izak Smit, for their support of the programme. It made me realise once again that businesses and business decisions ultimately depend on the individuals who have to steer the ship.

Each of the 38 chapters of this book consists of a summarised version of a particular interview, through which I attempt to highlight each business leader’s unique recipe for success and to draw lessons from his or her experience. This is by no means an exhaustive or representative list of star performers. I could easily do ten more series. South Africa has no shortage of business achievers with inspiring personal success stories – I hope to talk to more of them in the next series.

In the concluding chapter I briefly highlight some of the core points that have struck me over the course of the three series. The stories contain certain elements that are unique to each individual, but there are also common elements that cropped up repeatedly. From these common elements I have drawn ‘seven golden rules for success’ that, to my mind, encapsulate the most significant lessons from these 38 business leaders’ stories.

CHAPTER 1

Laurie Dippenaar

CO-FOUNDER AND NON-EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF THE FIRSTRAND GROUP |Interview broadcast on 5 July 2011

After qualifying as a chartered accountant and working at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for three years, Laurie co-founded Rand Consolidated Investments in 1977 with Paul Harris and GT Ferreira. Over time, this trio has built one of South Africa’s most successful financial services groups, through strategic takeovers (eg Rand Merchant Bank, Momentum, Southern Life and First National Bank) and by starting and growing new businesses such as OUTsurance and Discovery. Today the FirstRand Group has a market value exceeding R160 billion, 45 000 employees, and more than R1 trillion in assets under management.

What stands out during an interview with Laurie is the ease with which he deals with the questions and topics, and how relaxed he appears in front of the cameras. Another striking feature is his reasoned approach to any topic: first contextualising his answer, then highlighting the key points, and ending with a logical conclusion – as if it couldn’t have happened any other way.

When one looks at the success he has achieved, it is easy to forget how and where it all started. I wanted to get an idea of what it was like in the beginning, before there was money in the bank. Laurie makes no bones about the modest start of FirstRand’s predecessor, Rand Consolidated Investments (RCI), in 1977. Paul Harris, GT Ferreira and Laurie kicked off their business with R10 000 – about R70 000 in ‘today’s money’, he says. ‘We had a few good product ideas that worked, and for nine months none of us drew a salary because there simply wasn’t enough money. People often ask me whether we had any idea at the time of where we would be today. Absolutely not; we were just trying to survive, limiting costs wherever we could.’

According to Laurie, they were ‘too small and too poor even to afford a photocopier’. Their offices happened to be situated above a copy shop; whenever something had to be copied, ‘you had to take the lift to the ground floor, go into the shop, get your copy made, and traipse up again. After a few months, GT told me that this wouldn’t do – we had to buy our own photocopier.’ When Laurie explained that he was in charge of their finances and that there was no money for such a luxury, GT offered to buy a photocopier out of his own pocket – they just had to pay him the same amount per copy that the shop charged. Laurie relates that he did the sums and realised GT would pay off his machine within three months. ‘So I said, no, let’s rather buy our own machine.’

When one looks back on the development of the group, several milestone achievements stand out. With the benefit of hindsight, these steps appear logical, yet each one was a decision taken within the context of the particular time. The first milestone was their acquisition of a banking licence in 1984. When I ask why this was so significant, Laurie explains: ‘At that stage, after our start in 1977, we had become fairly big, but we didn’t really fall under any particular law.’ They felt that this affected the credibility of the organisation, and that they ‘had to subject ourselves to some or other form of specific legislation – stock exchange legislation, life insurance, banking or whatever. It was then that we decided the best legislation and vehicle we could use was that of a bank.’ And, as he puts it, ‘then we had a piece of luck’.

At about the same time that RCI started in 1977, Johann Rupert had bought a ‘bankrupt bank’, namely, Rand Merchant Bank, from Rand Bank. ‘In 1983 his father summoned him and asked him to return to Remgro. He then looked for people who could take over the bank from him, people he trusted and who would in his view handle the staff correctly.’ As both Paul and GT had been at university with Johann, his choice fell on their group. ‘That was a stroke of luck,’ says Laurie, ‘because we had tried before to acquire a banking licence and failed, and now this opportunity dropped into our lap.’

The second big milestone I wanted to explore was the takeover of Momentum in 1992, and what this step contributed to the group. Again I received a very logical answer: ‘As you know, income from merchant banking can be very erratic and we were looking for something that would give us a more steady income source, so-called annuity income.’ Laurie says they identified the insurance industry as the right type of investment to give them such income, and once more ‘a piece of luck’ came their way. When the then shareholders of Momentum decided to sell the company, ‘they came to see us to help them find a buyer. We told them, wait, we are putting up our hand, we’ll buy the company, and of course it was a wonderful investment.’

In the late 1990s they acquired Southern Life and First National Bank from Anglo American. This third milestone changed the nature of the group yet again, and again it sounds like a logical next step. According to Laurie, in 1996, ‘after the advent of the new South Africa’, the group had already identified the entry of foreign banks into the country as a threat to Rand Merchant Bank. Because they knew that competition from foreign banks was inevitable and that these banks would mostly go after their big corporate clients, they decided they needed a retail bank strategy. As a first step, they bought 20% of the old Natal Building Society (NBS), ‘but when we wanted to acquire 50%, they refused. They didn’t like these Johannesburg guys; they were a Durban company. So they fled into the hands of Christo Wiese’s Boland Bank. Of course this didn’t work out very well, as the cultural differences were too great. Interestingly, years later we acquired the Natal Building Society’s mortgages book. So the tables were turned.’

After the failed attempt to acquire control of the Natal Building Society, Laurie and his colleagues decided in 1998 to buy Southern Life, ‘which was struggling a bit’, on the insurance side. Anglo was prepared to sell Southern Life to them, provided that they bought First National Bank as well. ‘Luckily, we didn’t have to think for too long about this,’ says Laurie, ‘because we had already identified the retail gap and the strategy. But he admits that the size of the transaction ‘frightened us a bit’. At the time it was a big transaction even in global terms, ‘and we would suddenly go from 6 000 to 30 000 people. But it was, in any case, all part of this overall strategy to diversify our income.’

In retrospect, these three milestones all seem obvious. What I find noteworthy is that each transaction was consistent with a strategy. The characteristic feature is that they first decided on a strategy and then kept a lookout for transactions that would fit into it – not the other way round. Laurie exaggerates when he refers to the instances of ‘luck’; choosing a strategy and then concluding a transaction that dovetails with it has more to do with the strategy than with luck.

The golden thread that runs throughout the group, and through Laurie’s business philosophy, is innovation and the promotion of innovative ideas. When I asked Laurie why FirstRand have managed to achieve things that many others only talk about, his answer made it clear that innovation does not just occur spontaneously within a business. In Laurie’s view, it needs to be ‘part of the DNA of a company’s inherent culture. For this to happen, the right signals and messages have to come from the top.’ To illustrate his point, he refers to some of their ‘interventions’ at Momentum after the takeover in order to change the existing hierarchical company culture, ‘which smacked of the civil service’, to something more relaxed within which innovation could flourish. They built a graffiti wall on which staff members could put any message they wanted to voice, adapted the dress code (‘ties and things like that’ were done away with), and introduced a first-come-first-served policy to replace formal, hierarchy-based parking spaces.

First National Bank, explains Laurie, has ‘formal interventions aimed at encouraging and rewarding innovation’. There is, for example, an annual bank-wide competition in which employees submit ideas for innovations; after a comprehensive judging process, the person or team that has come up with the best idea can win anything from R1 million to R3 million. ‘To summarise: it’s a combination of the climate that is created from the top and formal interventions. Both are very important.’ He believes that in a business like theirs, where innovation is encouraged, people have ‘the right to question and to challenge top management’s ideas, policies and strategies, and to conduct a robust debate within the company, but it takes a mature leader that allows himself or herself to be challenged by a more junior person about a strategy.’ The point in this regard, he adds, is that ‘the debate should be conducted in terms of business-case reasoning. In other words, with no prejudice or preconceptions involved. Only the business principles should apply in that debate.’

A conversation with Laurie Dippenaar leaves you with the realisation that you have talked to a business giant. It is only later, when watching the recording, that you discover he was actually the person in control of the interview from the first to the last word; he knows exactly what message he wants to convey and he puts you, as interviewer, at ease throughout this process. As Laurie says, it’s a mature leader that allows people to question him or her – he will obviously allow this and enjoy the debate as well, that’s for sure – but don’t be fooled into thinking that just showing up is enough; you have to know your stuff!

PRINCIPLES FOR INVESTMENT DECISIONS

Compound growth– investments are about time and the principle of compound interest. ‘Those who understand compound interest, earn it; those who don’t understand compound interest, pay it.’Investments are about the long term– ‘I’m amazed by the short-term view people take of investments; generally they don’t talk of investments, but of a tip – a share that doubles. That’s extremely rare.’Stick to brands you can trust– ‘When people are looking for a new car, they keep to well-known brands; when it comes to investment, however, they tend to trust just any brand.’Responsibility– ‘I don’t believe in this notion of collective responsibility. It’s very popular in politics … rather give me a situation where two people who feel responsible sign a cheque, than one where ten people sign the cheque and after the second or third signature the guy only signs because the person before him has done so.’Doers vs talkers– ‘Discovery started in 1992 with capital of R10 million and today its value on the stock exchange is R23 billion, but the secret is, of course, to appoint doers, not talkers. It’s not my style to peer over someone’s shoulder and to ask constantly, “What are you doing? Why aren’t you finished?” So, my view is, simply: give people the chance to realise their ideas and then leave them to get on with it, but choose the right people. You should be a doer, not a talker.’

CHAPTER 2

Russell Loubser

FORMER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE JSE |Interview broadcast on 12 July 2011

After his studies at the University of Pretoria and a successful career as executive director of financial markets at Rand Merchant Bank, Russell joined the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 1997 as chief executive. Over the next 15 years, he transformed and modernised the JSE to such an extent that the World Economic Forum ranked it as the world’s best-regulated and best-run securities exchange in 2010. At the end of 2011, Russell stepped down as chief executive of JSE Limited, the company that runs the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa, and he currently serves on various boards. He is still one of South Africa’s most respected business leaders and does not hesitate to express his views on economic and business issues.

Iwas involved in the financial markets when Russell was appointed chief executive of the JSE in 1997. People who were not part of that environment don’t really have an idea of the fierce and hostile criticism he had to endure. The old Johannesburg Stock Exchange was a closed club with vested interests. Suddenly an outsider arrived with plans for a radical overhaul of this exclusive club.

How did he, as a change agent, experience the resistance? Russell admits that, while some of the initial criticism was often valid, it was in many instances unjustified. ‘They had simply become used to the fact that the JSE was bad and didn’t operate effectively,’ he says. Those first three or four years were hard, ‘probably the most difficult time in my entire life’. Fortunately he had a very good background in financial markets, and no one could really give him a satisfactory explanation of what was wrong with that which he and his team aimed to do. ‘In fact,’ he remarks, ‘I knew that what I wanted to do was the right thing. Maybe it was stupidity, or maybe just stubbornness, but I knew what I wanted to accomplish. I knew where I wanted to end up.’

To understand Russell’s achievement and the total transformation he brought about, one should compare the JSE of 1997 and the JSE at the end of 2011. In 1997, the JSE had no capital reserves; in 2011, it had more than R1 billion in reserve and could guarantee all transactions. In 1997, less than half of all transactions were settled effectively; in 2011, the effective settlement rate was 99.99%. The cherry on the top came in 2010 when the World Economic Forum rated the JSE as the best-regulated and best-run securities exchange in the world.

In the 1990s, the JSE was opened to corporate membership so that financial institutions could become members and acquire stakes in broking firms; an electronic settlement system was introduced to replace the previous manual settlement of scrip; electronic trading replaced the traditional trading floor; and the instruments were expanded to include various derivative instruments and products. Under Russell’s leadership, this club without reserves and with a poor settlement history was converted into a fully electronic exchange with capital reserves, acquiring the reputation of being one of the best-regulated securities exchanges in the world to boot. JSE Limited, the company that runs the JSE, is itself listed on the JSE and is regarded as a blue-chip share.

I wanted to find out from Russell how one gets it right, to steer an exchange at the southern tip of Africa towards world-class excellence. He responded modestly: ‘I had a very good team around me, and that team that you assemble is extremely important. And you need to know that you can make mistakes, and I did make mistakes.’ An advantage he had, in his view, was the experience he had already acquired when it came to financial markets. Russell refers to ‘those 10 000 hours’ Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his bookOutliers, ‘which you have to put in if you want to become a good surgeon, a good computer specialist, or whatever’. He reckons that he owes his success to the fact that he had the right people on his team, and that his agenda couldn’t be questioned – ‘all you want to do is to make things world-class, not Africa-class, because that’s not good enough’.

What is striking about this story is the goal Russell set for the JSE. He was not only intent on knocking the JSE into shape; his vision went beyond that. ‘If you are situated in this part of Africa,’ he says, ‘you almost have to be better than other exchanges. That’s the fact of the matter, since the expectation is that you are going to be bad.’ If you don’t settle each and every transaction perfectly, he explains, ‘the world regards you as risky’ and investors are not going to trade through you. ‘There are many other places where they can get hold of shares. They just won’t come to South Africa.’ According to Russell, they had told themselves from the outset ‘that we want to transform this JSE into a world-class exchange in order to completely change and improve financial markets in a country’. In the United States, Europe and most countries in the East, the markets ‘are today already fairly good or very good, and they can’t be changed any more’. In South Africa, on the other hand, change and improvement were possible. Russell says he considers himself fortunate in having been given the opportunity to change fundamentally a market that was by no means functioning well.

I wanted to know why he had said, in one of his last annual reports, that one should have fun at work, and what he meant by this. His answer centred on the role of his wife, who made it possible for him to enjoy his work; she took the responsibility for the children upon herself and allowed him to fulfil himself at work. He believes the reason why he ‘has remained so enthusiastic about the financial markets, about the JSE, about life’, is that she made it easy for him to be able to work hard and to have fun at work as well as with her and the family.

The compliment came after the interview when Russell’s wife, Alma, contacted me to find out when the interview would be broadcast. In the 15 years Russell had been at the helm of the JSE, he had done a multitude of interviews – this was the only time he had asked Alma to watch one.

What stayed in my memory is that Russell had decided the JSE should be the best exchange in the world, and that nothing less would do. This is what defines Russell: he will never be satisfied with second best.

ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE

‘Get those academic qualifications, because they are a good starting point and something you will always have – which no one can take away from you.’Be prepared to start at the bottom, to put in the hard work (the ‘10 000 hours’) and to acquire the necessary experience.Only expect to succeed if you have earned it, ‘not because someone says you deserve it because you are white or black or female’.

THE ROLE OF MISTAKES IN BUSINESS

Realise that you will make mistakes. ‘You only learn by making mistakes. If you haven’t made any yet, you think you’re the best, and you need to make those mistakes, like golfers. You have to be able to come back afterwards and learn from the experience, because it’s bound to happen again in future.’Errors of judgement – as you become older and get to a more senior level, you shouldn’t be making so many wrong or bad decisions any more.An ‘honest mistake’ can be excused, but there is no excuse for a ‘sly mistake’ where dishonesty is involved.

CHAPTER 3

Brand Pretorius

FORMERLY AT TOYOTA AND MCCARTHY, CURRENTLY DIRECTOR OF COMPANIES |Interview broadcast on 19 July 2011

Brand was fascinated by the motor industry from an early age and made it the subject of his MCom dissertation at the University of the Orange Free State. In 1973 he joined Toyota SA, at that stage a small player, with a mere 7% share of the passenger vehicle market in South Africa. By the time he left the company, Toyota had been established as the country’s market leader in the motor industry. Brand joined McCarthy in 1995, where he played a pivotal role in saving the group from bankruptcy and preserving thousands of jobs. Nowadays, Brand concentrates on mentoring young business leaders and also serves as non-executive director on the boards of several leading South African companies.

Brand’s career at Toyota South Africa started in 1973, when Dr Albert Wessels was chief executive of the company. With the very small market share it had at the time, Toyota wasn’t regarded as a serious player in the local motor market. Moreover, it was an era when anything from Japan was still viewed as cheap and unreliable. Our conversation began with those first few years at Toyota under Wessels.

Brand’s admiration for Wessels was palpable. ‘I remember the privilege I had of working under a visionary leader like Dr Albert Wessels, of being able to learn from him. He inspired me, and, as such, he naturally played a huge role in my career and in my life. I recall the excitement of building the Toyota brand, of the development and implementation of the integrated marketing plan.’ Brand elaborated on the thrilling times as they saw Toyota progress and eventually become a market leader. With that achieved, they began talking about sustainability and ‘shifted the focus more to customer satisfaction’. Looking back on all the work they did there, and ‘of course the inspiration I got from working with a wonderful team’, he sums up the experience as ‘a period where everything kept going right’. (‘Everything keeps going right’ was also the Toyota slogan at the time.)

Brand was with Toyota for 22 years. But, one December holiday, he decided to compile a formal document, addressed to himself, which he called ‘A Case for Change’. Anyone who spends some time in Brand’s company will be struck by his painstaking thoroughness; everything is analysed rationally, to the finest detail. This was also the approach he took as he contemplated his future, weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of moving to the McCarthy motor retail group. It might sound strange to do a presentation to oneself by way of a formal document, but the way he explained it was in keeping with his trademark logic. ‘Keeping in mind all the joy and success I had been privileged to experience at Toyota, I told myself that, after 22 years, I would like to broaden my horizons, learn something new.’The retail side of the motor industry had always interested him, and, besides, there was ‘a personal side to this whole equation’. He wanted to restore some balance to his life and to devote more time to his family. Hence the opportunity at McCarthy attracted Brand ‘because I believed that I would learn new things, experience a career rebirth of sorts, and at the same time be able to maintain a better work/life balance’.

The upshot was that he joined McCarthy, but what the move brought him was far from the goal of the more balanced life he had set in ‘A Case for Change’ – on the contrary, it flew in the face of his plan. After a stint as chief executive of the motor business, Brand was appointed chief executive of the group and found himself at the helm of a large bankrupt business. I asked him what his approach was in attempting to get the group back on its feet and save about 15 000 jobs. In Brand’s view, accepting responsibility is a fundamental principle of leadership. ‘There were many innocent victims involved in the technical insolvency of McCarthy, because the employees were not to blame for McCarthy’s problems.’ McCarthy was a diversified group with extensive interests in the furniture trade and in clothing, he explains, and the problems had originated on this ‘non-motor side of the business’ as a result of massive write-offs of bad debt. ‘So I felt that I had the responsibility to look after the shareholders’ interests, but primarily I was concerned about the people who would be the innocent victims.’

He recalls how he and his team worked around the clock to develop a turnaround strategy and tried their utmost to retain their excellent and talented employees. ‘Of course, there was only one way this could be done: going to the banks, literally on our knees, and pleading with them to recapitalise the group.’ Brand says he did this ‘with conviction, for my people and because I believed it to be very likely that we could save the group. The motor retail business was a quality business, and that was the case I presented to the banks.’ He was grateful that the banks were prepared to recapitalise McCarthy, thereby saving many thousands of jobs.

With the ship stabilised, McCarthy’s motor business was sold to the industrial group Bidvest and Brand stayed on as chief executive for seven years. I wanted to know what it was like for him to work within a totally different culture and under the Bidvest chief executive Brian Joffe. Brand describes the Bidvest culture as very entrepreneurial and highly results-driven, nimble and fast-moving, with very clear accountability. ‘Growth is part of the religion of Bidvest’, which is encapsulated in what has become a kind of a slogan of theirs: ‘ROFE for Joffe’ (short for ‘return on funds employed’). This ‘tough culture’ was a good training school for him: ‘In certain respects a relentless emphasis on results, but I gained valuable experience from it.’

With Brand now serving on the boards of various companies and organisations and focusing on mentoring young business leaders, how does he view leadership? In his opinion, ‘leadership has nothing to do with authority, position or self-importance. The days of autocratic bosses are past.’ His philosophy is that leaders should have ‘the courage to walk in front, to give direction’. Leaders have to set the best example, because it is through one’s example that one inspires others. ‘They have to earn their influence and the respect and trust of their people. There is no short cut. And leaders also need to have the ability to touch the hearts of their people, which can be achieved only by being willing to serve them. That, in essence, is my leadership approach.’

Nowadays, he has a little more time to himself than when he still occupied executive positions. When I ask him how he spends it, Brand singles out ‘virtually rediscovering my family’ as his first priority. His second is to learn new things and also to serve more; the non-executive directorships he has accepted are all outside the motor industry, and much of his time is devoted to community projects. He is motivated by the urge ‘to try and make a difference in South Africa, because we live in a country where the needs are almost overwhelming and where I believe all of us have a responsibility to help ensure that tomorrow is going to be better than today’.

What emerged clearly during the conversation with Brand is the absolute sincerity and honesty with which he approaches everything, including the interview. Maybe that is why the easier life he envisaged in ‘A Case for Change’ was always destined to take a back seat to his sense of duty and his commitment to making a difference.

ADVICE TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Make sure that you know from early on what your passion is.