CFO Magazine, Issue 3 2021

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 3 • 2021 CFO.CO.ZA

Blockchain All hype or a game-changer?

Nopasika Lila Barloworld Group FD Conspiring for success Ryan McDougall KPMG SA CFO Creating opportunities Abigail Mukhuba Sanlam FD A whole new world

2021 CFO Awards nominees exhibit grit and resilience A brave new world Women resetting boundaries

ESSENTIAL LESSONS

Learn how CFOs navigated lockdown

Fikile Mhlontlo, SAA interim CFO

The man for the job

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CONTENTS

THE MAGAZINE FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE PROFESSIONALS 3 • 2021 CFO.CO.ZA

Blockchain All hype or a game-changer?

page 50

2021 CFO Awards nominees exhibit grit and resilience

Nopasika Lila Barloworld Group FD Conspiring for success

page 24

Ryan McDougall KPMG SA CFO Creating opportunities

page 30

Abigail Mukhuba Sanlam FD A whole new world

A brave new world Women resetting boundaries

40

ESSENTIAL LESSONS

Learn how CFOs navigated lockdown

page 18

page 42 page 14 page 70

page 54

Fikile Mhlontlo, SAA interim CFO

The man for the job

CFO South Africa is the organisation for finance executives in South Africa. Our goal is to connect finance professionals online and off in order to share knowledge, exchange interests and open up business opportunities.

CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd 1 Wedgewood Link, Bryanston, Johannesburg, 2191, South Africa. | +27 11 083 7515 | CFO.co.za © 2021 CFO Enterprises (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

MANAGING DIRECTOR

COMMUNITY MANAGER

PHOTOGRAPHY

Joël Roerig jroerig@cfo.co.za +27 76 371 2858

Brian Chivere bchivere@cfo.co.za +27 60 505 7727

Lizelle Furter, Patrick Furter, Ter Hollmann

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SALES MANAGER

Georgina Guedes gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789

Karen Martin kmartin@cfo.co.za +27 82 920 8259

MANAGING EDITOR

LAYOUT & DESIGN

Caylynne Fourie cfourie@cfo.co.za +27 68 583 9270

Elizabeth Ferraris PROOFREADING Toni Muir

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Ang Lloyd, Kate Thompson Davy, Puseletso Mompei, Ronda Naidu, Tamara Oberholster, Thando Phato PRINTING Novus Print Peter Wilding peter.wilding@paarlmedia.co.za +27 11 201 3400

Community 8

Movers: New opportunities for CFOs

12

CFOs gather around a luxury dinner table

14

2021 CFO Awards nominees exhibit resilience

62

Craig Miller charting a course at sea and in business

66

CFO Cares: Rachael Madziwanyika mentors youth for workplace readiness

70

Women’s Month: Resetting boundaries in the brave new workplace

74

Letter from the Community Manager

24

Purpose 18

Fikile Mhlontlo: The man for the job

24

Ryan McDougall chasing opportunities in South Africa

Change management 30

Abigail Mukhuba – taking on a whole new world

34

Lucas Ndala leaving a legacy

Future 38

Mapping the future of audit

42

Blockchain: All hype or a game-changer?

Strategy 50

Nopasika Lila: Conspiring for success

54

CFOs’ essential lessons from lockdown

30

50

34 CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Doing good, doing well and getting better!

I

n our cover story in this edition (page 18), SAA CFO Fikile Mhlonto explains how he felt he would only return to the public sector if he believed he could make a difference. The role he is now playing in the turnaround of the state airline is something of a calling.

His story got me thinking about how many of the CFOs in this community are driven by the desire not just to do well, but to do good. And over the last year and a half, the idea that what we do in business cannot be separate from how we treat our people, society and our planet, has become more deeply embedded than ever before.

So this edition is a celebration of CFOs doing good.

There’s Fikile, of course. But he’s not alone. We also bring you Ryan McDougall’s story of reinventing the finance department at KPMG SA as the Big Four firm sought to restore trust in its business (page 24). And BCX CFO Lucas Ndala also told us how he’s actively working on his personal legacy of helping children from low-income backgrounds to achieve their full potential (page 34).

Every issue, we also carry a “CFO Cares” story – about a finance leader who does community or environmental work in their personal capacity. This time around, we hear from Rachael Madziwanyika, the CFO of Buhler Southern Africa, about how she mentors youth for workplace readiness (page 66).

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Another thing that people and businesses have become better at navigating in the last 18 months is uncertainty. We at CFO South Africa have certainly become experts at adjusting our calendar of community events and interactions to the rather odd “normal” in which we find ourselves. That’s certainly true of the Finance Indaba, which will be reimagined this year as the Finance Indaba Conversations – a fully interactive series of online sessions with leading CFOs and other key industry players in the second week of October.

We’ll be telling you more about that in the Special Edition of CFO Magazine we’ll be bringing out after the event.

We will also be bringing you the postponed CFO Awards in November – the event will be responsive to the social distancing regulations at the time, but however it happens, we will have a new CFO of the Year before the year is out. You can find out what our esteemed panel of judges had to say about the nominees on page 14.

So, there’s still lots to look forward to in 2021! And hopefully 2022 will see a return to something like normality.

Wishing you good health and good business!

Georgina Guedes Editor-in-chief gguedes@cfo.co.za +27 83 651 2789

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PEOPLE MOVES

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR CFOS The world has started returning to somewhat normal and CFOs are on the move again, embracing new opportunities.

Tanzania. Refilwe joined Vodacom in 2018 as managing executive: CBU finance business partner.

Dis-Chem CFO Rui Morais has been approved as successor to current CEO Ivan Saltzman. Rui has been the CFO of Dis-Chem Pharmacies since August 2012. Prior to becoming CFO, he served as group financial executive for 18 months.

Sitho Mdlalose

Vodacom South Africa has appointed Refilwe Nkabinde as its new FD. She will be taking over from Sitho Mdlalose on 1 November, who continues on his Vodacom leadership journey as MD of Vodacom

Christine Ramon has returned to her role as CFO of AngloGold Ashanti following the appointment of a new CEO, Alberto Calderon.

Christine has been serving as interim CEO since the resignation of former CEO Kelvin Dushnisky in July 2020.

Sasol has appointed Royal Bafokeng Platinum CFO Hanré Rossouw as its new CFO-designate to succeed Paul Victor, who will be stepping down as CFO in June 2022. Hanré will join Sasol on 4 April 2022.

Christine Ramon

Superbalist.com.

Jurgen Hanekom will be taking over from Tessa as the Superbalist.com CFO, and Mr D Food CFO Octavius Vermooten has been promoted to the position of Takealot.com CFO.

Deon Fredericks has been appointed as the new group FD of Famous Brands with effect from 1 December. This follows the resignation of Kelebogile Ntlha, who has been the group FD since July 2016.

Deon has previously served as the CFO of Telkom and interim CFO of South African Airways.

Rui Morais

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Takealot Group has appointed CFO Tessa Ackermann as its new group CFO. Tessa has been with the Takealot Group since 2014, most recently serving as the CFO of

Hanré Rossouw

Yota Baron driving the new Ford South Africa as CFO Ford South Africa has appointed Yota Baron as its first woman CFO in the company’s 97-year history. Originally from South Africa, Yota takes over as the CFO of the local operations from Joseph Verga, who will be repatriating back to the United States.

“I am humbled by my appointment to serve as Ford South Africa’s CFO, having the opportunity to pay forward my learnings and experience while working abroad,” says Yota. “It’s an honour and a privilege, and I look forward to contributing to Ford South Africa’s future

success, serving in the communities we work in and being back under the African sun.”

Yota returns to South Africa from Dubai, where she played an instrumental role in setting up the regional Ford Dubai finance team for Middle East and Africa, and was responsible for financial control of the marketing sales and services division for two and a half years, before taking over the role of profit manager in March 2018, and finally being appointed CFO for Ford Direct Markets in September 2020. l

Yota Baron

Calgro M3’s group financial manager Sayuri Naicker will replace Waldi as the FD with effect from 1 March 2022. She has nine years’ experience in external audit and was involved in the Calgro M3 audit for the past two years.

Deon Fredericks

Rayhaan Samsodien will take over from Octavius as the CFO of Mr D Food.

Tiaan Schoombie has extended his service contract as the CFO of Rhodes Food Group until 2026 in order to ensure continuity in the company’s executive leadership. Tiaan has been the CFO of the group for the past 18 years after joining the group in 2000.

Novus Holdings has appointed company secretary Keshree Alwar as its

eThekwini Municipality has appointed Sandile Mnguni as its new CFO. He will be taking over from Krish Kumar, who has retired after 40 years as the municipality’s CFO. Sandile most recently served as the municipality’s head of expenditure.

Calgro M3’s Waldi Joubert, who has been serving as the FD since June 2015, will assume the role of managing director of the Calgro M3’s Memorial Parks business from 28 February 2022.

Michael Kransdorff

new CFO as of 1 September. Keshree has been serving as the group’s CFO-designate following the resignation of CFO Harry Todd.

Gregory Lunga has been appointed as the new CFO of Tsogo Sun Gaming following the resignation of Annelize Hoyer. Gregory has been part of the Tsogo Sun Gaming Group since 2001 and most recently served as the FD of the group’s casino division.

Krish Kumar

Alex Smith has returned to his role as the CFO of Net1 UEPS Technologies following the appointment of Chris Meyer as the company’s new group CEO. Alex

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PEOPLE MOVES

at KPMG. NVest Financial Holdings has appointed Dion Ramoo as its new FD. Dion stepped aside as an independent non-executive director of the company, a role he held since 27 January 2021, to take up the new role. Dion took over from Charl Herselman, who remains in the finance team as head of group finance.

Gerhard Malan

has been serving as the company's interim CEO since August 2020, when Herman Kotzé resigned.

Marcel Naude has resigned as the FD of Chrometco with effect from 23 September. He previously worked

Michael Kransdorff has been appointed as the new CFO of ProfitShare Partners. He joins ProfitShare from Standard Bank South Africa, where he served as a senior manager in a specialist unit.

Sybrin has appointed Gerhard Malan as its new CFO. For the past three years Gerhard has served as the CFO of UK-based IT services

Michelle Chetty

company Viadex. Prior to that, he served as the FD of Rectron South Africa for 10 years.

Affinity Group has appointed Michelle Chetty as its new group CFO. Michelle joins Affinity Group

Nicholas Bofilatos taking Altron 2.0 forward as its new CFO Throughout his career, Nicholas has looked for the roles where he could add value to the organisations he worked for.

When Cedric Miller, the previous CFO, approached Nicholas to join Altron as a finance consultant in October 2019, this was exactly the goal they both had in mind for him as he was tasked with supporting and stabilising the finance function within one of Altron’s subsidiaries.

Within four months of being introduced to the Altron group and completing several initiatives in aiding the turnaround of the Altron subsidiary, Cedric offered Nicholas the role of executive of finance change management.

Now, with Altron having reached its financial goal of doubling EBITDA in five years through the One Altron strategy, Nicholas has been appointed as the company’s group CFO to help it drive the next step in its growth phase: Altron 2.0, following Cedric’s resignation.

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“One of the personal goals that I had set for myself was to become a CFO of a listed company before the age of 40,” Nicholas explains. “Achieving that was very special to me.”

Nicholas says that, in his new role, there are a few key metrics that he believes Altron needs to maintain and improve on, which are aligned to its new Altron 2.0 strategy. “As we progress to become a very specialised ICT player within the industry, we believe the organisation should be a capital light business.”

The organisation has also set out a target of tripling its operating income by 2025. “So we’ve got very key targets to meet, and the exciting part is that there’s a lot that needs to happen in order to get there,” Nicholas says. “To be part of that story and achieve our objective of returning shareholder value will be fulfilling.” l

Nicholas Bofilatos

2020 and 2011 during her time at KPMG. She most recently served as the senior manager of finance Credit Guarantee Insurance Corporation of Africa.

CBRE Excellerate has appointed Siveshen Puckaree as the new FD of its Sub-Saharan Africa Facilities Management division. Siveshen joins CBRE Excellerate from Denel, where he most recently served as the group’s finance manager.

Nadia Statham

from Saint ICT Consultants, where she served as CFO. Nadia Statham has been appointed as the FD of blasting and explosives company BME, a member of Omnia Group. “Despite the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an exciting time to be serving the mining sector,” Nadia says. “Minerals remain vital to global growth, and I am looking forward to helping strengthen BME’s financial capability to drive our contribution and performance.”

Heleen Botha has been appointed as the new CFO of Safire Insurance Company. Heleen was involved in the company’s financial audits in

Heleen Botha

York Timber Holdings has appointed its CFO, Gerald Stoltz, to act in a dual and secondary role as the interim CEO of the company.

His appointment follows the passing of CEO Pieter van Zyl on 19 July.

Anabel Vieira has been appointed as the new executive FD of Octodec following the resignation of Anthony Stein, who will be emigrating with his family to Australia.

“I am very excited to be given the opportunity to work alongside an established and experienced executive management team, and at the same time contribute my own skills to the management of what is an incredibly large and diversified portfolio of assets,” says Anabel.

Optimi Group has appointed Rajan Padayachy as its new CFO. Rajan, who previously served as the CFO of Easigas, says, “It’s refreshing to have the opportunity to work in an organisation that understands the value of resilient and well-structured support functions, and I’m hoping to play a leading role in driving a culture of learning and development within the group.”

Bauba Resources FD Jonathan Knowlden has assumed the role of acting CEO pending the conclusion of the investigation into allegations made against Nick van der Hoven, who has been suspended.

Anabel Vieira

Umuthi Healthcare Solutions has hired Phillip van Huyssteen as its new CFO, replacing Pieter Grimes, who is leaving “to pursue other business opportunities”.

Nepi Rockcastle FD Mirela Covașă will be stepping down in order to pursue “other entrepreneurial activities”. Mirela has been with the company for 10 years and became FD in February 2015.

Amanda Farris has been appointed as the interim CFO of Kore Potash following the resignation of Jean Michel Bour for personal reasons.

Amanda has been working with Kore Potash since May 2021. l

Rajan Padayachy

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CFOs GATHER AROUND THE DINNER TABLE

On 25 May, several of South Africa’s top CFOs shared notes and anecdotes over a delectable dinner at the Saxon Hotel.

T

he excitement was palpable among the top CFOs that gathered for dinner at the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg on 25 May, the first such engagement in over 18 months. With all Covid-19 protocols strictly adhered to, there was an incredible energy in the room, and CFOs spent the evening sharing notes and anecdotes, sampling the exquisite food and toasting the pivotal role finance leaders have played during the pandemic-induced economic crisis.

There were lots of laughs and some serious undertones to the dinner discussion, with common threads like empathy, decisiveness, time management and mental wellness all high on the agenda. Stories were shared candidly during the dinner, which was made possible by longtime CFO South Africa partner and supporter Standard Bank. l

Attendees

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• Adriana Weilbach, CFO Telesure Investment Holdings

• Mark Kathan, Head of AECI Mining

• Bothwell Mazarura, CFO Kumba Iron Ore

• Megan Pydigadu, CFO EOH

• Brian Chivere, Community Manager CFO South Africa

• Nopasika Lila, Group FD Barloworld

• Clive Potter, Head: Client Coverage, Wholesale Clients SA, Standard Bank CIB

• Raisibe Morathi, Group CFO Vodacom

• Craig Sumption, CFO Hatch Africa

• Zaf Mahomed, CFO Cell C

• Joël Roerig, MD CFO South Africa

• Zaid Moola, Head: Wholesale Clients SA, Standard Bank

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• Simon Adams, CFO Nando’s South Africa

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XX

The 2020 CFO Awards winners

2021 CFO AWARDS NOMINEES EXHIBIT GRIT & RESILIENCE With the 2021 CFO Awards just around the corner, the judges have already cast their votes for this year’s CFO of the Year and shared some of the exceptional qualities they saw during the judging process.

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Brett Tromp

C

FO South Africa is excited to be hosting the country’s leading finance professionals at the 2021 CFO Awards, which will be taking place at a glittering event at the Polo Lounge in Inanda on 17 November (the event will comply with all Covid-19 restrictions at the time).

Known as the “Oscars of South Africa’s finance profession” and the highlight of the country’s finance calendar, the CFO Awards recognises CFOs from organisations across South Africa and awards them for outstanding performance and leadership.

After intensive, two-hour-long virtual interviews that dived into the leading finance executives’ way of work, the judging panel has meticulously examined each interview to determine who will be the next CFO of the Year.

CFO South Africa asked the judges what some of the qualities were that stood out for them this year, and the nominees’ ability to navigate a crisis and innovate came to the fore.

“I think it’s fair to say that I am always impressed with

Claudelle von Eck

Pat Semenya

the quality of the CFOs we have in our country,” says Webber Wentzel senior partner Christo Els. “What often stands out for me is the excitement and genuine commitment the best CFOs have for their businesses.”

He explains that a great CFO never sees their role in the narrow financial space, but gets involved in all the strategic initiatives that drive the business forward.

New to the judging panel, Institute of Risk Management South Africa CEO and former ACCA South Africa head Pat Semenya says a good CFO is not just a ‘numbers person’, but that they have a deep understanding of business and current affairs that impact on business today, “coupled with a strong will to ensure that they are always doing the right thing by upholding the ethical and professional standards”.

Brave Inflexions founder and former Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa CEO Claudelle von Eck agrees that the CFO should not just be a numbers person, but that they should be “ensuring true transformation where everyone feels included, valued and that their voice is heard”.

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XX COMMUNITY Navigating challenging environments After what has been a very challenging year with South Africa experiencing its third wave of Covid-19, as well as the civil unrest in July, the CFO Awards judges were all impressed with the resilience the CFOs had shown while navigating these difficult environments.

“During the last year, navigating through the challenges presented by Covid-19 were firmly at the forefront of the CFO’s responsibilities,” Christo says. “I was impressed how they responded to the challenges, showing the usual South African grit and resilience, and the manner in which they assisted in steering their businesses through the crisis, not only ensuring they survive, but for some, also thrive.”

In looking for the next CFO of the year, Deloitte Africa audit partner Kevin Black explains that he was looking for CFOs who played a pivotal role in both the design and execution of strategy and how they were able to support their businesses in being agile during these difficult times. “I was impressed by the many CFOs who managed to respond quickly to the difficult environment in 2020 and 2021. They managed to adapt strategy and look for opportunities in the crisis in order to recover quickly,” he says.

Pat adds that “in the unpredictable times we live in, perspective on risk is one of the traits that really shone through this year”.

Discovery Health CFO, Young CFO of the Year 2015 Award and High-Performance Team Award 2015 winner Brett Tromp said that he was impressed by the optimism that CFOs have for the future and the coming together of businesses and communities to beat the pandemic while preserving jobs.

Christo agrees, saying that the contributions CFOs made

beyond their businesses, in the broader communities they operate and serve customers in, also stood out for him.

Adopting technology In a world where Covid-19 has rapidly sped up the adoption of technology, Kevin was also impressed with CFOs who could demonstrate how they were using technology to drive competitive advantage as well as efficiencies while remaining connected to the people in their teams.

Pat also believes that technology is central to how the world moves. “It was interesting to learn from our nominees about how they optimised the use of technology, and the impact it had on their leadership and people skills.”

Former Vodacom and Remgro CFO, and CFO Lifetime Achievement Award 2016 winner Leon Crouse says that most of the nominees were at the forefront of “implementing new software technology for data exploitation to better understand important drivers of the company”, which helps them to strategise during difficult times like we have had.

Claudelle adds that the CFOs had shown a “level of maturity of how data analytics is used and the insights presented to the business”.

Lastly, Department of Accountancy at the University of Johannesburg chairman Ben Marx adds that the CFOs have all shown “innovation in a changing world to survive and prosper”.

Pat explains that “this innovation and willingness to try new things and take calculated risks to grow and improve an organisation's financial position” was what made all the nominees exceptional. l

The 2021 CFO of the Year winner will be decided by the following judges: • Aarti Takoordeen, JSE CFO and Young CFO of the Year Award 2014 winner • Ben Marx, chairman at the Department of Accountancy at the University of Johannesburg • Brett Tromp, CFO Discovery Health, Young CFO of the Year 2015 and High-Performance Team Award 2015 winner • Christine Ramon, CFO AngloGold Ashanti and CFO of the Year 2018 winner

CEO The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa • Herman Bosman, CEO RMB Holdings and RMI Holdings • Kevin Black, audit partner Deloitte Africa • Leon Crouse, former CFO Remgro and Vodacom, and CFO Lifetime Achievement Award 2016 winner • Pat Semenya, former ACCA South Africa head

• Christo Els, senior partner Webber Wentzel

• Ramasela Ganda, executive head of business services Barloworld Equipment and Public Sector CFO of the Year 2017 winner

• Claudelle von Eck, founder of Brave Inflexions and former

• Victor Sekese, CEO SNG Grant Thornton

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THE 'OSCARS' OF SA FINANCE

SAVE THE DATE | 17 NOVEMBER 2021* The Polo Room, Inanda Club, Sandton CFOAwards.co.za *Covid-19 Regulations Allowing CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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PURPOSE

THE MAN FOR THE JOB When Fikile Mhlontlo left Denel, he swore he would never return to the public sector unless it was to serve a greater purpose. He clearly found what he was looking for, working with a team of capable executives to bring SAA out of business rescue into operation. By Caylynne Fourie

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PURPOSE

F

ikile Mhlontlo was born in a rural village within the small district of Bizana in Transkei, Eastern Cape, and grew up under trying circumstances.

As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child”, and Fikile was a product of that. “The community would come together to support any child who showed potential – the true Ubuntu at work,” he explains.

With the nurturing and support from his village, Fikile went to a local school, Lugwijini, to get his education, alternating his attendance days so he could attend to his chores at home when he wasn’t learning. He explains that on the days when he wasn’t at school, he would plant or hoe the fields in the morning and shepherd the family and neighbouring livestock in the afternoon. On days when he did go to school, the boy next door would attend to the livestock. “The arrangement, which was fairly common at the time, was a way of affording each other the privilege of attending school,” Fikile says.

He adds that different members of the community supported him in many ways, including financially.

This arrangement continued until he was in primary school, when his parents found a new arrangement to enable him to focus on his education. They had turned their home into a shebeen and after school he would help sell various types of liquor, Fikile laughingly states, adding that this might be why he doesn’t drink as an adult. “I understand the liquor too much.”

In 1985, when he was in standard seven, the principal of his school, Mr Budoda Magawana, addressed his class, advising them to consider doing accounting after passing secondary school. Mr Magawana told them about Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, who had qualified many years earlier as the first black CA, ran an accounting practice in Umtata, was a lecturer at a university, as well as a business advisor. “Professor Wiseman had proven that it was possible to break through to something greater,” Fikile says, explaining that Mr Magawana’s address was what had inspired him to become a CA. “Professor Wiseman had shown that accounting, which I had no full appreciation for at the time, can take you to where you want to go, regardless of your background – it knew no boundaries.”

This marked the beginning of Fikile’s journey into accounting.

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Growing into a leader After passing his matric, Fikile went to study at the University of Transkei (now part of Walter Sisulu University) on a part-time basis. Similarly to how he had grown up, when he wasn’t working towards becoming a CA, he was working to earn extra money and to help his family. “I was even a shoe repairman at one time,” he laughs.

He obtained his BCompt and BCompt Honours and was recruited by EY to start serving his articles. “Joining an accounting firm as a trainee was a lot of hard work,” Fikile says, but adds that coming from a rural upbringing, he was no stranger to it. “I had fun,” he reminisces.

After working his way up to the position of audit partner and serving with EY for close to 13 years, Fikile made the decision to look for a role outside the practice, where he would continue to add value. Instead of joining well-established organisations, where the strategies and systems had been tried and tested, he decided to pursue a position in the public sector, where he believed his role would have a bigger impact. He was on a journey to grow and make a name for himself.

With this conviction Fikile joined Denel in 2008 as a financial director and group CFO, where he played an instrumental role in taking the defence technology conglomerate from a loss-making public enterprise to a successful, profit-making one.

“I grew in the role, travelled across the globe, dealt with various business issues, contributed in terms of setting strategic direction, in broad leadership and taking the company forward,” he says. He also attended various leadership courses over the years as part of career development, including an Executive Development Programme with Henley Business School.

Leaving the public sector Fikile stepped away from the role after he successfully navigated Denel onto a more certain course. “I said to myself, after seven years in the sector, I had no wish to return to the public space, unless the institution I came back to was of national importance and had a greater impact on society at large,” he says. “The return wouldn’t be about me, if it were to happen at all.”

Fikile went on to serve as an executive director and

“It takes a village to raise a child.”

PURPOSE

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“I had no wish to return to the public space, unless the institution I came back to was of national importance.” interim group CFO of Concor Construction. Returning to the private sector, he realised that the business issues both sectors faced were the same and that the solutions were also similar. “The advantage of the private sector is quick decision-making, because delays could cost you money,” he says.

He explains that construction is largely about infrastructure development and is a pillar of the economy.

“It’s a very complex industry involving infrastructure construction over a long time, a need to predict related construction processes upfront, attribute costs and attach a mark-up, sound revenue recognition, as well as long business development cycles in a stagnant economy.” He adds that accurate cost estimation, attracting relevant skills and managing the communities surrounding the projects are vitally important and key success factors for these projects.

Fikile was involved from a leadership and financial perspective in the iconic Msikaba Bridge project just outside Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, the Conradie Park Development in the Western Cape, power projects and various medium-size projects.

He explains that one of his key highlights during this time was working with local communities that wanted to leverage these major projects and better their lives. “I love the sector and wish it well in its attempts to rejuvenate itself in a challenging economic environment.”

After almost three years in the role, Fikile stepped down when his contract ended and placed his focus on his role as a non-executive board member and chair of the audit and risk committee at Lovelife South Africa.

Returning to the public sector with a purpose Fikile has recently been appointed as an executive director and interim CFO of the public airline South African Airways (SAA). “The opportunity to work with the interim board at SAA in transitioning the airline from business rescue to operations following deep restructuring was tempting enough for me to get involved,” he says.

Again, Fikile received support from all his friends, family and acquaintances, congratulating him on the appointment. “Some of them were quite surprised that I have taken on the role due to the historic challenges the company has faced and the high turnover of executives,” he says.

Fikile, however, remains undeterred. “There have been many changes in the airline and in the stakeholder environment that supports the airline. I choose not to judge the airline on its past and rather focus on what contribution I can make in taking it forward.”

Since joining the struggling airline in April 2021, he has been responsible for providing leadership from a finance perspective and supporting the CEO, group executives and interim board as the company goes from business rescue to being operational again. This includes engaging financial institutions, regulators, drawing up budgets and supporting the development of the restart plans for the new SAA. On top of having to reposition the company after the many challenges it has faced throughout the years, Fikile has also found himself having to navigate the challenges of operating an airline during Covid-19. “The outbreak of Covid-19 worldwide and its impact on the state of the economy has continued to present a tough trading environment for airlines,” he says.

The national lockdown that commenced on 26 March 2020 saw all flights to and from South Africa grounded.

Since then, there have been various Covid-19 risk alert levels with continued negative impact on the financial performance and cash flow of airlines. “SAA has not operated scheduled flights since the national lockdown and used the time to address various business issues, like funding, restructuring and more.”

Despite the complexities that come with returning the state airline to operations, Fikile seems not to be a man who shies away from challenges. “I have learnt in my roles that you need to understand the problem statement, in order to figure out a correct solution, gather tools and address the issue. Genuineness, consistency and humility go a long way in handling most issues,” he says.

Fikile is looking forward to SAA resuming flight operations and the iconic brand attracting passengers again.

“The market has missed SAA as per various feedbacks from passengers and we are now about to take off,” he says.

And with SAA set to take to the skies in September, Fikile appears to be achieving what he has set out to do when joining the airline. He is clearly the man for the job l

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PURPOSE

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RYAN MCDOUGALL’S RETURN TO SA After working abroad for many years, Ryan McDougall returned to South Africa in 2019 to pursue better learning opportunities for his two daughters, only to be presented with his own opportunity to help rebuild KPMG South Africa as its new CFO. By Caylynne Fourie

R

yan McDougall firmly believes that education is a good foundation for any career. It is this belief that brought him back to South Africa after five years in Namibia, where he served as the CFO of JSE-listed Trustco. His two daughters, aged seven and nine, were both in the early years of formal schooling, and Ryan decided to move back to South Africa to take advantage of the solid education systems in the country.

“It was sad to leave Namibia, but I’m happy to be back in South Africa,” says Ryan, who was nominated for the 2016 CFO Awards. “I think we’ve got access to a variety of top-notch schools, with a better balance of extracurricular activities.” With the small population in Namibia, he explains that it was difficult for the schools there to offer this balance.

Returning to South Africa also presented a lot of opportunities to Ryan. “South Africa has always been the anchor of industry into the rest of Africa so there are a number of opportunities in the country for anyone who is willing to grasp them.”

That is exactly what Ryan did.

A KPMG blue blood After moving around between a few opportunities in South Africa, yet to find what he really wanted to do and what he really loved, Ryan was approached to take on the role as CFO of KPMG South Africa in early 2019.

At the time, KPMG South Africa was facing enormous challenges to its reputation on work linked to state capture and VBS Bank.

“A lot of people were quite reticent about my decision to

take on the new role because KPMG South Africa was in the news for all the wrong reasons,” Ryan says.

Even so, Ryan considers himself a bit of a “blue blood”, having done his articles at KPMG after receiving a bursary from the firm, which put him through most of his university studies. “When I had the opportunity to come back to KPMG, I felt that it was a good chance to make an impact and do something meaningful,” he says.

“I had the opportunity to work in a finance department that required leadership and had to be rebuilt from the ground up.”

Ryan had finally found the challenge he had been looking for in South Africa.

Rebuilding KPMG South Africa KPMG South Africa has worked on earning back the trust of the markets by building on its values and cementing those values into the organisation. The firm brought in a number of international partners to provide guidance and steer the organisation in the right direction. In doing so, the firm was adamant about getting the right talent with the required skills into the necessary roles and functions. Ryan’s appointment was one of these moves.

“Coming in, I was told I had a blank sheet and an opportunity to reinvent the finance department – how we go about managing our finance and budgets – as well as our fiscal responsibilities,” Ryan says. “That was a fantastic opportunity for me.”

Taking on this opportunity, he first had to understand what already existed in the finance function at the time and then build on that by putting people in the right places and putting the right structures in place.

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“South Africa has always been the anchor of industry into the rest of Africa so there are a number of opportunities in the country for anyone who is willing to grasp them.”

After the foundation had been solidified, he then went about improving the finance function by bringing in digital experience, using a more agile approach to reporting financial data and building up employees to ensure that they understand their jobs are not just pushing paper around, but adding value.

“It’s really a three-phased approach of understanding, building and then starting to adopt change,” Ryan explains. “In doing so, the team has come together quite nicely. It’s been a great experience to see people feel that they are part of driving the change.”

Ryan had a 100-day plan to rebuild the finance department, with a three-tiered approach: analyse, design and then implement. He explains that this

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involved restructuring roles and duties for staff, appointing new team leaders and managers, and ensuring each employee had a role fit for their purpose and skill set. It also meant implementing various policies and procedures to manage procurement, expense spend and internal billions. “Overall the changes led the organisation closer to understanding the value of accurate and timely financial data that could be used to plot a determinable path to success,” he adds.

Ryan says that working closely with some of the senior partners in getting the firm in the right shape and also building on a trust narrative has been hugely successful. KPMG South Africa has already won back some of its key audits, including Absa, and are taking

PURPOSE

“When I had the opportunity to come back to KPMG South Africa, I felt that it was a good chance to make an impact and do something meaningful.” on new audits, for example FirstRand and Woolworths.

“I think we’ve laid a solid foundation and the market has noticed us again and is starting to understand that the firm’s trust narrative is something they can believe in, that ethics and governance is high on our agenda.”

He adds that you can demonstrably see the changes being evidenced at senior forums and in the insights that the executive leadership are able to give into what’s happened; not just in finance, but in rearfacing as well as forward-looking information. “As a CFO, that’s your goal in the organisation. To make sure people understand where they’ve been and where they’re going and give them the right tools to develop insights. It’s been extremely rewarding.”

Moving towards a digital future Just as KPMG South Africa was making headway in rebuilding its reputation, Covid-19 struck and brought with it an entirely new challenge. “The pandemic was a surprise to everyone,” Ryan says. “I don’t think anyone really expected it to be as mammoth an impact as it has been.”

As the world was forced into adapting a more digital approach, KPMG South Africa had to move their audit function, which relied a lot on in-person interactions, to a virtual one. “It was definitely difficult at the beginning,” Ryan says. “A lot of people were so used to going into an office, setting themselves up in a boardroom and going through the data and information. The move to a virtual approach was a huge mind shift.”

He adds that, while moving to digital didn’t have the expected negative impact on the auditing function of the business, it did have a huge impact on the finance department. “We had invoices that had to be physically signed and documents and journals that were physically printed, and suddenly all of that was taken away, the carpet was pretty rapidly ripped from underneath us.”

KPMG South Africa then started investing in a system for the finance function and it has gone almost entirely digital when it comes to procurement, travel planning and data analytics.

“We are busy implementing robotic process

automations in the firm. This will take some of the pressures away from the finance team by eliminating mundane tasks,” Ryan says. “We’re motivating everyone into the digital age to ensure that we automate, digitise and evolve.”

Cultivating a thirst for continuous learning Ryan says while we are in the fourth industrial revolution and so much of the CFO role has become digital, it’s important for aspiring finance professionals to ensure that they don’t get bogged down believing that digital is the be all and end all of the role. “The CFO role has changed pretty drastically, but it’s not just about the numbers and digital transformation, it’s also a very people-centric role,” he explains. “It’s important to pay attention to how people feel at work – if they have a good work-life balance, are feeling valued and feel like their careers are being built up.”

Ryan tries to make the team have fun at work, ranging from regular interactions, people telling a joke every week during meetings, dress up days, or trying to take a collection and help out with charities. “We try to focus on cultivating that thirst for continuous learning and never dismiss the value of an individual’s pursuit of development.”

Baking his way through lockdown Working from home and lockdown has been quite tricky for Ryan’s family, who loves to travel together.

“We used to do a lot of camping trips and travelling across the country, which we haven’t been able to do,” he says.

To relax, Ryan often breaks away for a round of golf, mountain bike ride and tries to go to the gym as often as possible. To keep themselves busy during lockdowns, his daughters have decided to take up baking at home, and while Ryan sees himself as more of a braai person, the girls have roped him into their baking escapades.

“I’ve done a lot of baking, most of which involves copious amounts of sugars and sprinkles, so I’m sure I’ve put on quite a lot of weight.” l

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PARTNER

PERFORMING IN A PANDEMIC

BONITAS ANNOUNCES HEALTHY ANNUAL RESULTS 2020 was marred by an unprecedented fiscal crisis globally because of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, most medical aid schemes ended the year buoyantly. We spoke to Luke Woodhouse, CFO of Bonitas Medical Fund, about the medical scheme’s annual results.

With what surplus was Bonitas able to end 2020 during these turbulent times?

We had a record low claims ratio of 83 percent in 2020, which meant we ended the financial year with a R1.7 billion surplus. This resulted in a solvency ratio of 32.7 percent – an increase of 7.8 percent on last year.

Bonitas reported significantly bolstered reserves of R6.1 billion. Considering the pandemic and poor economic climate, do these reserves seem out of kilter?

There are a number of reasons for these high reserves: 1. The reduction of elective surgery, specialist visits and other consultations with medical practitioners during the pandemic. Our net claims decreased by 4.7 percent to R14.3 billion.

2. With social distancing and mask-wearing, we saw a drop in other non-Covid illnesses/conditions and trauma claims.

3. Our long-term asset allocation investment strategy helped capitalise on investment opportunities.

4. The effective implementation of our strategic pillars, proactive risk management and prudent board decisions.

Is the significant increase in solvency levels to 32 percent sustainable?

These high solvency levels are likely to reduce over the short-term as claiming behaviour returns to normal levels. We haven’t lost sight of our medium-term objective to sustain solvency levels above the statutory minimum of 25 percent and to make meaningful, strategic decisions about current reserves in the interests of our members.

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How was the Bonitas investment ship guided in such uncertain waters to achieve an investment income of R316.6 million that exceeded CPI? The Investment Committee was particularly active given the volatility in equity markets and the market crash that occurred in March 2020. The active management and continued strategic asset allocation approach contributed to a turnaround in investment returns, growing the investment portfolio (excluding cash and cash equivalents) from R5.01 billion in December 2019 to R7.14 billion in December 2020 – delivering an overall return of 4.16 percent. We are one of the few schemes with returns above CPI.

We note the Fund uses strategic purchasing and hospital negotiations to reduce hospital costs. Has this proved effective?

Following the findings by the Health Market Inquiry that collective negotiations would not contravene the Competition Act, we participated in collective negotiation processes on hospital tariffs in 2020. The common tariff negotiations resulted in a 3.1 percent saving in 2021 terms and could exceed R200 million in 2021.

Strategic purchasing yielded hospital negotiation savings of R346 million (2019: R370.4 million). This is lower than the previous year, in absolute terms, due to lower outflows because of Covid-19.

What percentage of the budget and contributions were Covid-19 costs?

Covid-19 costs represented 5.5 percent of risk contribution income and 6.5 percent of original budgeted net claims expenditure – a R974 million-rand value.

“We had to be agile in our approach to ensure our members received the healthcare benefits they desperately needed, within a safe environment.”

What has the Fund budgeted for Covid-19 costs this year and what is the vaccine allocation?

inflation generally approximates CPI+3.5 percent – however our net claims decreased by 4.7 percent to R14.3 billion (2019: increased by 8.9 percent to R15.0 billion).

We revised our budget after Q1 following the second wave of Covid. This makes provision for a total of R1.206 billion for Covid-19 costs, of which R210 million is provided for vaccines.

The net claims ratio for the year, excluding Covid-19 costs, was 76.3 percent compared to 92.3 percent in 2019.

What other measures were taken to save costs in 2020?

Our total managed healthcare cost savings initiatives realised savings of R221 million. The most significant of these was achieved through the Scriptpharm chronic medicine capitation model. In addition to this we also achieved R51.7 million gross recoveries from fraud, waste and abuse (2019: R41.2 million).

What observations do you have about 2020 and what lessons can be learnt?

We had to be agile in our approach to ensure our members received the healthcare benefits they desperately needed, within a safe environment, which is why we introduced virtual care. 2020 also saw an accelerated digital transformation in line with our aim to be at the forefront of digital innovation moving forward. We lifted hospital network restrictions, introduced contribution relief measures, increased our focus on home-care and arranged delivery of chronic medication.

Did claims expenditure change?

While some categories such as in-hospital admissions experienced a major decline, with a high number of elective surgeries cancelled, there was a marked increase in medicine claims and costs. Healthcare

Was it possible to retain current members and grow membership when the pandemic saw job losses, businesses closing and a general poor economic climate?

We had to be innovative and find ways in which to reduce costs for our members and assist where possible, in line with CMS regulations. This had a negligible impact on performance but aided the retention of members during the worst of the pandemic. Contrary to what was anticipated, Covid-19 also resulted in a marked increase in queries about joining a medical scheme as people realised the critical need for quality healthcare. Despite the challenges experienced in 2020, Bonitas acquired 37,814 new members.

And the road ahead?

No one can predict the future or how the remainder of 2021 will pan out. All we can do is remain nimble and do everything in our power to assist our members. We are looking forward to new and innovative ways of empowering members to manage their health. Regardless of what happens we will continue to be the medical scheme that ‘Makes plans for South Africans.’l For more information visit www.bonitas.co.za.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

TAKING ON A

WHOLE NEW WORLD

In 2020 Abigail Mukhuba started a new job, in a new industry, and had to deal with the unprecedented new challenge that was Covid-19. And just when she started settling into her new world of work, her home life changed when Abigail gave birth to her first child this year. By Caylynne Fourie

A

fter 15 years working in the automotive and mining industries, Abigail Mukhuba joined Sanlam as its FD in October 2020. “It’s totally new territory for me – the industry and the company,” she says. “I am having to refresh some of my knowledge and at times learn from scratch again, and it’s stimulating.”

She adds that part of the reason she joined the company was its ability to deliver return on group equity value consistently.

“It’s challenging having to eat humble pie occasionally and admit when I do not know something and need help from

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a team member,” Abigail says. “But the teams I work with are awesome, they absolutely step up and assist in any way they can, and at times we both end up learning from each other.”

She explains that, while the mining and financial services industries are very different, there are similarities in concepts. “In the back of my mind I apply some of the concepts I learnt from my previous mining environment to the insurance space,” she says, adding that there’s never a dull moment. For example, how capital allocation is crucial in the successful running of a balance sheet in both industries. Because of the long-term nature of the investments made, it is crucial that disciplined capital

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allocation practices are maintained to protect the longevity of the company.

“In mining, companies require a significant amount of capital to sink a shaft for a mine that could only see returns in many years.”

She adds that the funds, usually shareholders’ or debt provider funds, need to be invested for productive purposes that generate returns for the company over a long time.

Similarly, the pooled premiums of the policyholders help create capital for insurance companies. She says that this capital can then be invested in productive purposes that generate returns for the company over a long time.

“Of course, Sanlam is much more than just insurance, it is a diversified financial services group with expertise in financial planning, retirement and employee benefits, investments and wealth management,” Abigail stresses.

She says that, with the continued market volatility aggravated by the pandemic, capital allocation discipline is yet again a focus area to ensure long-term sustainability of companies, finding the right balance of debt, equity and cash resources. “In the mining industry, capital was a limited resource and multiple projects had to compete and ‘parade’ to get funding,” Abigail says. “I am finding that the same principle applies at Sanlam, with multiple mergers and acquisitions activity currently on the cards, along with balancing these with investment in existing business.”

New job during a pandemic Not only did Abigail have to learn how to work in a new industry and company, she also had to deal with the challenges of joining Sanlam during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Starting a new job during the advent of Covid-19, remotely, took its toll, especially on trying to build relationships,” she explains, acknowledging that it was frustrating at first being unable to engage with her team physically in the same room. “You couldn’t get to know your team members virtually in the way that you would get to know them if you met around the water cooler or coffee machine.”

She says it has been equally challenging to meet external stakeholders. As a result, Abigail says that she has to create other platforms, including digital platforms, to build different types of skills and relations. “In a way, Zoom and Teams meetings provide more access and reach to team members, and new networks are being built.”

She adds that building and nurturing these new

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networks and relationships has been fulfilling, and that she has met many great people in the industry during this time.

Strong relationships Abigail acknowledges that she got to where she is today because of the many people along the way, like her former bosses and colleagues, as well as the people who continue to inspire, motivate, guide, and advise her. Some of the people who stood out are her mothers, who believed in her, saw her potential and gave her the opportunity to be herself, as well as her grandmothers, the matriarchs of the family who moulded her selfconfidence and self-esteem. “To this day, I am forever grateful for them shaping my path. I also keep in close contact with my former colleagues, because they too have become my family.”

Thanks to the people in her life empowering her to become the person she is today, Abigail is also passionate about empowering the people around her. However, she explains that at this stage in her new role, she is more the mentee than the mentor. “I obviously keep the previous mentee relations I had before joining Sanlam, but I have not taken on more as I am dedicating the first 18 to 24 months of the new role to learning and improving my knowledge of Sanlam and the industry at large.”

She adds that it is important for her that, before taking on any coaching or mentoring roles, she fully understands the responsibilities of a mentoring role and that she has the dedicated time required for the relationships to be fruitful. “There is great value in the principle of ‘each one teach one’,” which is something she tries to live by.

New way of working Abigail says that Covid-19 has been the best time for her to realise that no (wo)man is an island, that she is more than just her career and should spend as much time as she can with her loved ones and family. “The hard lockdown at level 5 was tough and made me realise the value of family. The work from home hybrid model has allowed us the flexibility to choose where we spend time.

The two hours that you aren’t spending in traffic every day can be redirected to spending time with your loved ones,” she says.

She adds that Covid-19 has also strengthened the trust relationship between employers and employees, as well as managers and team members. “It has moved us more towards output-based KPIs rather than the traditional ‘bums on seats’ measure of performance,” Abigail says.

“And while this was a challenge at the beginning, when

“Life also happens and not everything goes according to plan, and that on its own becomes the new plan.”

people still wanted to see you logged in to believe you were working, we are now totally focused on outputs.”

Abigail explains that, in order to maintain the positive lessons the pandemic has taught everyone, employees need to have more flexibility to allow for a better worklife balance. “Give trust and people will deliver,” she says. “Yes, you will have the odd one here and there who exploits this, but generally all employees are committed and will deliver.”

However, she warns that women usually go the extra mile and want to show up and over-deliver. “If you don’t manage your time carefully, the same benefit can turn into a nightmare for both your workplace and your family.”

New baby While juggling the challenges of starting a new job during the Covid-19 pandemic, Abigail also has a young baby boy – her first child. She explains that while she thought she had enough practice with her siblings’ children (after all she is considered “the best aunty ever”) to her shock a baby is a full-time demanding role, albeit a fulfilling one.

“It was during this time that I truly valued my mother

and sisters for all the support and care they provided throughout,” she says. “There is something about women and their ability to nurture and receive nurturing that is inspiring.”

She says that she is grateful that the 2020 Covid-19 experience helped a lot of employers to accept that people can work from home fruitfully, adding that the support she receives from work has been truly great.

“Every mother can choose if they want six weeks or six months with their child, and that personal decision should be respected and protected.”

Knowing that she had the best support, both at home and at work, Abigail decided to return to work, remotely, at the end of six weeks of maternity leave. “The new flexibility in the workplace has allowed me the opportunity to continue to do what I enjoy – my work – and to be there for my new love: my child.”

She acknowledges and appreciates the privilege to choose how much time she wanted to be on maternity leave without anyone dictating or judging the duration.

Between changing nappies, middle of the night feeds, work commitments and making sure she makes it for bath-time in the evening, one can only imagine how her 24-hour day is split up at this stage. “I would not have it any other way” Abigail concludes. l

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

LEAVING A LASTING LEGACY

BCX CFO Lucas Ndala believes that change management is a critical skill for today’s CFO and that, during times of change, people have to consider what legacy they are building. By Ronda Naidu

I

t was while growing up in the rural areas in Winterveld, north of Pretoria, that Lucas Ndala set his sights on becoming a chartered accountant. The current CFO of BCX recalls seeing vacancies in the Sunday newspaper for CAs and deciding that would be his chosen career path.

“I never had career guidance at school. When I was in high school, a friend of mine used to sell newspapers. He would sell me the Sunday newspaper at a discount on Monday and I was always impressed with the accountant advertisements in the paper,” he says.

This career aspiration was further bolstered by his accounting teacher. “Initially, I wanted to be an engineer, so I joined the science class, but the accounting teacher moved me to the accounting class. I then had to drop

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business economics in order to attend maths classes as those lessons were taught at the same time. There were only four of us in the maths class who were doing accounting,” he adds.

This was not unusual in a community where most professionals were teachers or police officers. “There were not many black students passing maths. That didn’t stop me, even though I was told it would be difficult. That motivated me to succeed,” he explains.

His can-do attitude stood him in good stead for tertiary education as well, with Lucas completing a BCom in accounting at the University of the Western Cape, followed by an honours in accounting at the University of Cape Town. He received merit awards and recognition at both institutions, including a UCT Dean’s Medal.

“In any environment that I go into, I want to be remembered as a person who has had a positive impact.”

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“You have to take people on that journey, and that includes all stakeholders, including the unions.”

It was during this period that Lucas began to live his passion of mentoring youngsters, working as a tutor throughout his tertiary studies.

Solid foundation Following his time in Cape Town, Lucas moved back to Pretoria to complete his articles at Deloitte. During this time he also wrote board exams for accountants, and passed the first time. Recognition of his dedication and focus continued, with Lucas receiving both a Best Performer award and an award for diversity at Deloitte.

With a solid foundation now in place, Lucas began his career at a boutique structured finance company, Mettle, working on securitisation for mergers and acquisitions.

He subsequently joined banking group Barclays, looking at the multinational’s interests in African countries where it did not have a presence.

During the latter part of 2004, Lucas joined Royal Bafokeng Holdings as an investment manager, starting off with the non-mining investments portfolio. Just five years later, he was promoted to CFO, by which time he was also serving on a number of boards, including RB Plat, Fraser Alexander, Senwes, Metair and Atterbury Investments (now Attacq).

In 2012, Lucas became the acting CEO for Royal Bafokeng Holdings and a year later joined the community investment company’s subsidiary, Mining Oil Gas Services.

During his 12 years at Royal Bafokeng Holdings, Lucas was instrumental in the LPG port facility in Saldanha project, growing the mining assets management from R5 billion to R45 billion at its peak, with minimal debt and raising close to R7 billion in preference share debt. “This was the biggest funding at the time and we successfully executed the transaction. After three years, the share almost tripled,” he says.

Driving efficiencies This is when telecommunications provider Telkom came knocking. “I joined as CFO for Openserve and was in the role for eight months when Telkom underwent a

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restructuring and I was asked to head up operations,” Lucas says.

“The focus of operations at this time was on getting fibreto-home back on track. When I joined there were 80,000 homes with a connection rate of 10 percent and, by the time I left, that had changed to 422,000 homes with a connection rate of over 50 percent. We moved to the top spot in the market, after the Vumatel consolidations, and more than halved the average installation time.”

According to Lucas, the achievements were due to driving clear KPIs through a strategy and targets, which were then tracked weekly and monthly. In addition, the performance of technicians was monitored with interesting analytics and assistance was provided in underperforming areas.

“Coming from a CFO environment helped me showcase the operational side, the value of using metrics to drive business. I was leading a team of engineers and they couldn’t run rings around me,” he says.

During his tenure at Openserve, Lucas managed to drive about R2 billion in cost efficiencies by implementing an automated workforce management tool for technicians.

The success of that initiative, onboarding 5,000 technicians in less than 12 months, was recognised globally, with Lucas presenting the case study at a ClickSoft conference in the US. The four-time Comrades Marathon runner served as the COO for Openserve for four years before moving to the Group CEO’s office to assist with strategic initiatives.

Then Covid-19 happened. “The pandemic has brought its challenges and in late August I was asked to move to BCX as CFO,” he says.

Trusted advisor Lucas highlights that the CFO role is changing. “When I started, finance looked at history and was the number cruncher. Now, the CFO environment is a data repository, with the CFO being a trusted advisor to business, including matters like automation, dashboards and the value of analytics – the numbers never lie,” he says.

“I was told it would be difficult, [but] that motivated me to succeed.”

In addition, Lucas cites change management and relationship building as key skills for today’s CFO. “As a finance person, it is important to build relationships with other chiefs in business. They must know that they can trust you and you become their port of call.

Change management is critical. When people think of digitisation, they think my job is obsolete, they don’t think about enablement. You have to take people on that journey, and that includes all stakeholders, including the unions. A failure of a lot of initiatives is due to fear of change,” he says.

It is during such change processes that Lucas asks people to think differently, by considering the legacy that they are building.

He is very clear about the legacy that he wants to leave. “In any environment that I go into, I want to be remembered as a person who has had a positive impact, who has taken business from one level to the next, so the next person has a better environment to work in. I build deep relationships and drive good corporate governance.

These are the cornerstones of my business legacy,” he says.

Lucas is also actively working on his personal legacy, which focuses on helping kids from poor backgrounds to reach their full potential.

“I give career guidance talks at high schools, especially for rural kids. I can relate to their situation as I grew up in the same surroundings. They don’t have anyone they can talk to and I am someone they can identify with.

After the talk, I challenge the kids to write to me and motivate why I should be their mentor. Then we set up time together and we set the rules on what they expect of me and what I expect of them. I mentor them until after their board exams and often we continue to stay in touch,” he says.

This fits in directly with Lucas’ ethos of learning from older people around you, not being scared to venture out of your comfort zone, and believing in the potential of South Africans. l

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FUTURE

MAPPING THE

FUTURE OF AUDIT

Can the audit profession restore trust? Will new technologies like blockchain cannibalise jobs in the profession? Should the audit product evolve to include sustainability reporting? These are some of the questions Tamara Oberholster asked a range of audit experts.

I

n the wake of several high-profile corporate failures over the past years, from Carillion in the UK to Wirecard in Germany and Steinhoff in South Africa, there’s been a renewed focus on financial reporting systems with calls for audit reform globally.

There have been several developments on this front, including The Auditing Profession Amendment Act (APA), which was signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 23 April 2021 and gazetted on 26 April 2021. In the UK, the report by Sir Donald Brydon CBE, titled ‘The quality and effectiveness of audit: independent review’, lays out various recommendations for reform, which may have application outside of the UK, in countries including South Africa.

Ethics and trust Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of the board at KPMG South Africa, says his primary concern when it comes to the future of audit is to restore trust in the profession. “There needs to be a restoring of pride in the social purpose of audit,” he says. “For us to continue doing the great things that we've done as human beings, we have to work through organisations, collaborating together. And that requires trust. Auditors play an important role in enhancing trust of an organisation. We must just get that back in terms of restoring the pride in the audit profession. And auditing firms should take

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voluntary responsibility for restoring that trust.”

Prof Wiseman believes that instilling an understanding of business’s role in society needs to happen not only within industry, but in education too. He says that over the past few decades, business qualifications have become very focused and narrow, shaped predominantly around teaching techniques for extracting value and maximising shareholder profits. “There is very little about the social sciences or people in the courses,” he says.

“We need to find a way of bringing those into the BCom and MBA courses. Just teaching ethics on their own without linking it to the need for why you’d want people to be ethical (for the sake of sustainability) doesn’t work.

It's when you care about the fears and concerns of others, that you can sustain whatever you do in the longer term.

We must not teach ethics for the sake of ethics, but because ethics are about the greater good.”

“Directors should have an obligation to report on what actions they've taken to ensure that there is no fraud in the company.”

Digitisation and technology “The word that springs to mind when I think of the future of audit is ‘digital’,” says Vodacom SA FD Sitho Mdlalose. “The future of audit for me is really about the future of business in general, and that’s digital.”

“The future of audit for me is really about the future of business in general, and that’s digital.”

Like all areas of business, audit will need to keep pace with rapid digitalisation. With technologies like blockchain and automation on the rise, Sitho highlights the need to establish audit teams that are both tasked with creating value through insights and that can “think digital”.

Shamit Govind, partner at KPMG South Africa and head of the firm’s Emerging Tech Unit, believes that the future of audit will centre around reinvention and disruption, but that it’s important for governance to keep pace. “Creating a new tech is not actually that hard, but embracing the governance within which it has to operate within the organisation is important,” he says. “To ensure that the culture and the governance are set up such that the technology can actually fit in and be used from a mainstream perspective and provide a return on investment – that’s critical.”

Ian Putter

Addressing the expectation gap and evolving the audit product The future of audit should be linked to the fundamental purpose of financial reporting, says Imre Nagy, the acting CEO of the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA). “The purpose of an audit is to gain confidence in financial statements and reports by investors,” he says. But while the purpose remains the same, Imre says the audit product needs to evolve. It needs to develop alongside business as the world changes, and remain fit for purpose.

Mokgadi Malematsa

Imre says that this evolution also needs to address the expectation gap.

Referencing a report published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Closing the expectation gap in audit, he details three types of gaps. “The ‘knowledge gap’ is the difference between what the public thinks auditors do and what auditors actually do; the ‘performance gap’ is the difference between what auditors do and what they’re supposed to do; and the ‘evolution gap’ is the gap between what auditors are supposed to do and what the public wants them to do,” he says.

Ajen Sita, CEO of EY Africa, says the audit product needs to evolve to address two key areas it hasn’t previously. “The first is the expectation gap around fraud. We are seeing poor economic conditions around the world and with the resulting pressure, there is a rise in corporate fraud. Auditors need to play an expanded role in identifying and reporting on this fraud.”

He also believes that the focus on long-term value reporting and on climate and sustainability will become critical. “One of the many lessons coming out of the last number of years, and the pandemic in particular, is that we've got to pay more attention to the environment, whether it comes to energy security, food security or just the wellbeing of the population as a whole,” he says. “Companies will only attract capital if they are progressive in their environmental response – and will have to report to stakeholders about what they're doing. Naturally, there will be an expectation that auditors will provide assurance around those sustainability and climate reports.” l

Donald Brydon

Imre Nagy

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FUTURE What about fraud?

It’s important to focus on broadening the accountability frameworks within which organisations operate. This is something that Victor Sekese, CEO of SNG Grant Thornton, is passionate about. In fact, he’s recently completed his master’s dissertation on audit regulation.

One of his recommendations is to widen the net of accountability beyond audit firms. Victor points out that management should be the first line of defence against accounting scandals and that mechanisms like the JSE's amended listing requirements and the internal controls responsibility statements now required from CEOs and CFOs are steps in the right direction. Beyond this, he believes the level of accountability needs to be raised at the level of the board of directors.

Sir Donald agrees. “Fraud starts with the directors. My recommendation was that the directors should have an obligation to report on what actions they've taken to ensure, as far as they can, that there is no fraud in the company. And then the auditors will have an obligation to use all reasonable endeavours to satisfy themselves that the steps taken by the directors were appropriate, and appropriately reported upon, and then add to that information around what steps they've taken to satisfy themselves that there is no fraud in the company.”

“Auditors play an important role in enhancing trust of an organisation.”

Ajen Sita

Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu

Victor Sekese

Sitho Mdlalose

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Making more room at the table Small and Medium Practices (SMPs) face numerous barriers to growth in the audit space and if the industry is to encourage diversity and inclusion, reduce the monopoly of the Big Four firms and maximise employment opportunities, steps need to be taken to overcome these barriers.

Mokgadi Malematsa, director at PSTM, a black woman led and owned assurance, tax and advisory firm, says that the Auditor-General has been instrumental in creating a platform for smaller auditing firms to raise these sorts of issues, and offering funding programmes, as well as projects targeting specifically at small firms. “That’s been very helpful in ensuring that the firm is sustainable long enough to start to gain that brand recognition you need to begin to open doors,” she says. Without this type of support, most startups in the audit sector don’t last longer than two or three years.

Mokgadi also underscores the value of partnerships.

Building relationships with bigger firms is a win-win approach. It creates opportunities on the projects front – for example, where a joint audit is required – but also in terms of training and development. “In the past, we’ve partnered with a bigger firm to help train some of our staff. The capital outlay for them is the same, whether they’re training five or 10 people,” she says.

This means the smaller firm is able to access training for employees, and the larger firm is able to boost its training and development numbers, which assists in meeting targets. Taking this a step further, Mokgadi says, small firms could second trainees to bigger firms to help expand their experience, and to provide project-specific support to larger firms.

The world doesn’t stand still – and neither do we. We spoke to experts in every continent to get their insight into what accountants will face in the next 10 years – and what skills they’ll need to help their organisations succeed. Our groundbreaking global research has enabled us to ensure that we’re equipping our students and members with a unique blend of skills to meet the ever-changing needs of business. With a redesigned Professional level, an innovative case study and an updated Professional Skills module, the ACCA Qualification continues to be at the forefront of the profession.

Find out more at future.accaglobal.com For more information about ACCA, please contact: ACCA South Africa 18 Hurlingham Road, Illovo 2196, Johannesburg, PO Box 924, Saxonwold 2132 Tel: 0860 02 10 10 Fax: +27 (0)11 268 6374 Email: infoza@accaglobal.com

XX TECHNOLOGY

BLOCKCHAIN

ALL HYPE OR A GAME-CHANGER? Touted as the most significant innovation since the internet, the blockchain holds much promise and power, but among CFOs this technology is often misunderstood, distrusted, or even viewed as hype. So, is it time to jump in, or wait it out?

By Ang Lloyd

A

ccording to the International Data Corporation, global blockchain spending among organisations is set to reach nearly $6.6 billion this year – already up by more than 50 percent in 2020, with the banking sector making up nearly 30 percent of 2021’s worldwide total. Much like artificial intelligence, the blockchain is fast becoming more of a business priority and less of a disruptive experiment, and it isn’t limited to cryptocurrency, either: digital rights management, smart contracts, physical asset sales, and supply chains all fall under this technology’s gamut.

What is the blockchain, exactly?

“If we don’t get ahead of it, we'll be washed away,” maintains Tramayne Monaghan, CFO and CIO at Tencent Africa. “One day you may be on the back foot because your biggest competitor embraced the blockchain and you didn’t. There’s a massive swell that's building.”

Records contain ‘blocks’ of data with timestamps and an encrypted code called a hash. Each block builds on the next using a new hash that contains information about the previous block – this creates a ‘chain’ of encrypted data. For a block’s information to be altered in any way, a consensus among the network’s members must be reached, which makes any

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Blockchain technology was created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto – an individual (or possibly individuals) whose identity remains a mystery – as the transaction ledger for Bitcoin. Not to be confused with the cryptocurrency, the blockchain is what Bitcoin is built on. Essentially, it is a distributed (shared) ledger on a network that allows its members to record the origin or trade of any digital asset. The ledger is immutable, meaning that an asset’s records, like transactions or tracking, can’t be changed or deleted.

XX

Banking and the blockchain China is the leader of the global blockchain pack, especially in the banking sector. The China Construction Bank has built a blockchain where 75 financial institutions can identify risky borrowers and compete to offer lower rates to more desirable ones. Crucially, the platform cuts out Swift.

Closer to home, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) piloted a blockchain solution called Project Khokha in 2017. In partnership with seven commercial banks, and tokenising the ZAR, the SARB executed 70,000 transactions (and maintained privacy) in less than two hours, speeding up one business day’s transaction processing time by 75 percent. Usually, a single payment requires four transactions to complete, but since all seven banks had permissioned access to the same ledger – that contained all the records for every single transaction – they could pay one another directly. Ian Putter, head of the Blockchain Centre of Excellence at Standard Bank. notes that next-generation blockchains can do up to 100,000 transactions per second, and cost from 100th to 1,000th of a US cent per transaction; they also have built-in reporting and tracking capabilities, along with robust privacy.

Project Khokha II is in progress, and big-name players like Standard Bank are involved. Standard Bank has recently launched the Blockchain Research Institute in partnership with Don and Alex Tapscott (authors of Blockchain Revolution), and they hope to create a blockchain community across Africa to facilitate the growth of this technology.

“Standard Bank is deploying live, scalable blockchains,” says Ian. “One is a payments blockchain that allows global importers to pay suppliers and utilises smart contract capabilities, where it validates and matches data and beneficiaries. More South African corporates are looking to collaborate with us, too, from healthcare to hedge funds. We can speed up payments and democratise banking services if we use distributed ledger technology in the banking sector; there are use cases across the world.”

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Jo-Ann Pöhl

changes incredibly difficult to implement and eliminates fraud.

The blockchain is decentralised, so no single entity or third party has control over transactions or records. It also allows for immediate, transparent, and permissioned peer-to-peer interaction, and new data can only be added after it’s verified by everyone in the network.

Each transaction is only recorded once, and if there is an error then a new transaction must be added to reverse it, and both transactions are then visible to the network.

In simple terms, a distributed ledger is like a shared-access Google sheet or a torrent download (if you remember those heady, pirated, pre-streaming days). “You're dealing with data from a multitude of devices at the same time, so no one person stores it at any one time,” explains Tramayne. "Pieces of information exist on multiple servers in multiple forms that can't be changed or reversed but are distributed – it's everywhere and everyone who has permission to be on the network has a copy.”

From blood diamonds to digital identity Although the most well-known use case of the technology is cryptocurrency, almost anything

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“Almost anything of value can be traded or tracked on the blockchain, such as property, payments, copyrights, or collectables.”

of value can be traded or tracked on the blockchain, such as property, payments, copyrights, currency, collectables, supply chains, or computer code. Every detail about a transaction on the distributed ledger can be seen by the network’s members, and this technology is already being piloted across the continent. Diamond giant De Beers has used a blockchain to track its registered diamonds to determine if they’re conflict free and authentic, the Democratic Republic of Congo is using the technology to monitor cobalt mining for child labour, and local pulp and paper company Sappi is using a blockchain in a partnership with an Indian fabric producer to verify sustainability practices.

“With the blockchain, any asset can be digitised by ‘tokenising’ it,” says Ian Putter, head of the Blockchain Centre of Excellence at Standard Bank. “Accounting entries will still exist, but you’ll use a shared ledger – it will make old processes redundant, mundane tasks will be eliminated, and no single person or centralised entity will be a gatekeeper.”

On the continent, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria are leading the way with blockchain pilots and implementations, and key sectors that are embracing this technology include banking, the supply chain, and healthcare. Governments

“The easiest way to start learning about the blockchain is to be open to it.”

Tramayne Monaghan

have begun piloting it, too. In April this year, Ethiopia signed the largest blockchain deal in history to create a national database of student and teacher IDs using a decentralised digital identity solution, which will manage the digital identities of millions of Ethiopians to track their educational and career progress.

Blockchains could also be key to inclusive trade and business growth in Africa: a blockchain-powered, shared African digital currency would eliminate the long-standing problem of not being able to convert the region’s different fiat currencies. Coupled with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the blockchain could facilitate barrier-free trade between African countries and accelerate pan-African economic growth.

Decentralisation is already here Jo-Ann Pöhl, iOCO group CFO, points out that the internet has allowed us to digitise currency and its exchange, so the shift to decentralisation has already happened – albeit in places where weaknesses provide opportunities. “Mobile wallets in some areas of Africa have replaced or superseded weaker banking sectors,” she says.

Jo highlights that e-wallets and other walled-off value exchange platforms, which are already in

our market, have formalised the concept of decentralised money or value tokens.

“Is anybody certain about what is being exchanged when someone sends someone else airtime? You can call them vouchers, tokens, or coins, but these are digital currencies, and we are already comfortable exchanging them, because we understand the value they hold and we can unlock and use that value.”

What we don’t have yet, adds Jo, is interoperability, because this is what is licensed and controlled.

“Governments, as the underwriters of currencies, will be impacted by this and when we see legislation such as open banking in Europe and similar changes in other markets, we begin to recognise that trying to protect these walls or barriers to entry will not stop this fundamental shift from continuing.”

Thanks to an insatiable appetite for cryptocurrency – at the start of this year, the daily value of crypto-asset trading exceeded R2 billion for the first time in South Africa – a decentralised finance system is now running parallel to the traditional system, as peer-to-peer transactions are gaining ground over banking. And as crypto-assets become increasingly popular, so has talk of regulation become louder: a much-needed step, as currently cryptocurrency investors have no protection. Just look at Africrypt, where two South African brothers skipped the coun-

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Arno Daehnke

try and disappeared into the ether, taking Bitcoin investments worth an estimated R43 billion with them.

“You cannot discount the negative publicity and hype around cryptocurrencies, and there is a view that cryptocurrencies facilitate underworld trade for nefarious purposes,” says Jo. “It does affect perceptions that the blockchain centres on hiding things when the opposite is true. Blockchains are about privacy; they are intended to create immutable records underpinned by proof points. They create places of absolute surety with the fundamental core principle of enabling trust in transactions.”

It’s a question of trust Since the blockchain is still so new, it will take time to build that trust. Jo adds that banks are trusted because they are assured by a central bank or a legislated body that provides oversight and guarantees, but trust also comes with stability and familiarity. The blockchain will improve many financial and transaction processes through guaranteed data integrity, and having an automated record-keeping and governance function that instantly validates transactions, will make the finance function simpler, faster, and transparent.

For the blockchain to gain acceptance beyond Bitcoin, CFOs need to understand what this tech-

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“Many people don't realise how real blockchain is. At some stage, it might be too late; by 2030, we will see a totally different picture.”

nology is and what it’s capable of doing. With a distributed ledger, traditional securities can be digitalised, documents like letters of credit can be tokenised, and smart contracts can be automated.

This means that new financial instruments will be created and processes like reconciliation, regulatory reporting, transactions, supply chain management, and fraud detection will be in near-real-time and from a single source of truth.

“Gaining more trust in the technology comes down to knowledge,” says Tramayne. “CFOs are trained to look backwards; we run an audit for last year’s financials, we report 10 days later to the CEO on the numbers for last month. We need to start looking forward: the distrust is because many of us are not delving deep enough into this technology.”

According to Arno Daehnke, chief finance and value management officer at Standard Bank, as more use cases and proof of concepts become available and regulations are tested, trust will be built. It’s just a matter of how quickly this will happen.

“Imagine how a postmaster would have reacted if, 30 years ago, you told them that there will be email?” asks Arno. “The blockchain securely sends anything of value from one person to another, similar to how emails are sent. We are used to centralised entities or intermediaries ensuring trust and I think that is where the issue lies – we are not used to trust-

FUTURE

ing transactions that haven’t passed through a central entity.”

But how do you, as a CFO, get to grips with the blockchain? “Start with your area of expertise,” advises Tramayne. “If you're a CFO in the manufacturing space then research specific use cases on that, or retail, or distribution. The easiest way to start learning about it is to be open to it, and to be comfortable with the fact that you may not find all the answers immediately because it's still growing.”

see approach and this is becoming risky. Although the technology is new and scalability is an issue, it’s evolving at a rapid pace. Distributed ledger technology could likely become a cornerstone technology across business processes, and early adopters will have an advantage.

CFOs: Time to jump in or wait and see?

Does your average CFO need a blockchain? It depends on whether the benefits of a decentralised, public record secured by proof-of-work outweigh its costs.

There are encouraging use cases emerging, and the jury says that taking the time to understand how this technology can reimagine financial processes and instruments is critical.

The blockchain swell is getting bigger – Deloitte’s 2020 Global Blockchain survey revealed that 55 percent of responding organisations viewed it as a top strategic priority, an increase from 43 percent in 2018.

However, many companies are still taking a wait-and-

“Many people don't realise how real blockchain is,” concludes Ian. “At some stage, it might be too late – a bit like when Kodak didn’t recognise the potential of digital images. By 2030, we will see a totally different picture.” l

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PARTNER

Umbrella funds CUTTING COSTS TO GROW RETIREMENT SAVINGS

In the wake of an economic crisis that has affected households around South Africa, employers would do well to consider the cost benefits of umbrella funds for their employees.

W

hen a company makes the move from a standalone to an umbrella fund, the board of trustees overseeing its retirement fund is making a decision that will help the households of its employees to be more efficient when saving for retirement – something every employee will welcome in these tough economic times.

No CFO or financial manager would have to delve too deeply into the books to know that widespread household income losses due to Covid-19 lockdowns have put South Africa’s retirement planning under pressure, as workers try to deal with the immediate financial impact of the pandemic.

At the same time, however, CFOs and the pension fund boards of trustees they likely sit on are in a unique position: while tasked with investing people’s retirement money, they can review the long-term suitability of their current retirement provision arrangements to maximise savings right now.

This is according to Malusi Ndlovu, Director of Large Enterprises at Old Mutual Corporate, who says that moving from a standalone to an umbrella retirement fund like the Old Mutual SuperFund can save money for members over a lifetime of investing.

“What employers and their retirement fund boards

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of trustees don’t consider is that the cost of administrating a standalone fund is largely passed on to the people who can least afford it, namely the members,” he says.

With the costs of benefits designed to protect members and their families against sickness or death increasing due to the impact of Covid-19, there is even less money available to put towards retirement savings every month.

Impact where it matters – the bottom line “Well-administered and properly governed umbrella funds are more efficient because of their reduced complexity and economies of scale,” says Malusi. “With a standalone fund, on the other hand, you need an auditor, an actuary, an investment consultant and a host of communication and specialist service providers.”

While an umbrella fund needs the same kinds of services, “the umbrella fund creates an advantage of size, meaning that these costs are spread over a larger pool of contributors,” he says.

In addition to lower costs for members, the umbrella fund removes the administrative burden on companies needing to appoint a board of company trustees

“The cost of administrating a standalone fund is largely passed on to the people who can least afford it – the members.”

to meet the onerous governance, risk and compliance requirements, a board most CFOs will find themselves a part of.

“While these costs are harder to quantify, they are significant. They include the opportunity cost of time, skill, and other resources needed to run a standalone retirement fund.

“These men and women generally don’t work as full-time trustees, and are not experts on retirement regulation, investing or governance, yet they are expected to accept full responsibility for the retirement savings of their colleagues.

“In addition, the raft of continuous changes to retirement fund legislation places a further burden on these workers whose valuable skills and time could be better utilised in running the core business of their employer,” he says.

With any investment, it is vital that as much of the contribution goes to the savings pool as possible, says Malusi. “At the very least, trustees, employers and employees should be conversing on the merits of moving to an umbrella fund, seeing that the outcome has significant implications for members.

“In a very complex arena, it is essential to take a step back and compare the pros and cons of umbrella funds such as the Old Mutual SuperFund with typical standalone funds. This will help management and other stakeholders to make a more informed decision about their financial future,” concludes Malusi.l For more information, visit www.oldmutual.co.za/ thegreatdebate Contact mindspace@oldmutual.com

A win-win situation Umbrella funds clearly offer numerous advantages for business in terms of both cost and freeing up senior staff to focus on their core tasks, but Malusi emphasises the advantages of umbrella funds for the ultimate focus of any pension fund – the member.

Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (SA) Limited is a licensed FSP and Life Insurer.

CORPORATE CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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Conspiring for success

Barloworld group FD Nopasika Lila believes that any crisis, from struggling to choose a career path to facing the Covid-19 pandemic, presents you with an opportunity to evolve, and you should grab this opportunity with full confidence.

By Ronda Naidu

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STRATEGY

“Any economic crisis, this one in particular, forces companies to evolve.”

A

become FDs. The other reality is that FDs spend a lot of time at work. From a business perspective, there is substantial compliance, reporting and accountability, so the level of reliance on the individual is extensive and business support is needed,” she says.

However, her family advised her that she should be cautious not to confuse a hobby for a career. “They were absolutely right,” she says.

“Accounting contributes more to the economic growth of a country and I am more relevant in this space, which I appreciate.”

It is for these reasons that Nopasika believes women need to be given such opportunities with full confidence that they are going to achieve and deliver. “Most of the time, women in the role do experience pressure and therefore need sponsors in organisations to back them 100 percent and to demonstrate that support of having real mentors to walk the journey with them,” she notes.

lthough Barloworld group FD Nopasika Lila wanted to study music, she has no regrets about her impressive career in finance. “I believe that my family tricked me into becoming a chartered accountant,” she says. “My older sister, Nomfundo Lila Qangule, studied to become a CA while I played the piano and dreamed of studying music.”

After completing her articles, Nopasika entered the financial services industry, joining Old Mutual and later the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

After pursuing further qualification in governance and compliance, she established her own women-run governance and compliance consultancy entity, Astute Intellect. However, she missed the corporate environment and subsequently made the decision to move back when she was provided the opportunity to take on the role of CFO at the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund (EPPF).

“I decided to spend more time in finance and better understand the breadth and depth of that professional space,” she says.

With solid experience at the country’s second largest pension fund in terms of membership and asset size, it was easy for Nopasika to migrate to a listed company like Barloworld. “My becoming an FD has evolved over the years,” she says. “I marked the board examinations for CA for a number of years, during which time I realised that more mentors are needed for young upcoming CAs. I have since mentored many individuals who are now qualified CAs and CFOs,” she explains.

Full confidence Discipline and commitment are key attributes for any finance leader, but the demands of the role can have an adverse effect on women, who have to balance family demands and high workloads.

“Some have just not been given the opportunity to

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Another challenge that she sees for all leaders in finance is the manual legacy of finance processes.

With the technology deficit in the discipline now being addressed through digital transformation, FDs can use data in a more meaningful way.

“The virtual world and accessibility to real-time information demands decisive and timely reporting and decision-making. Finance now plays a critical role in strategy deployment and forward planning so the analytical mindset and skills of employees becomes key,” she says.

Holistic view With the new ways of working mid and post-pandemic, FDs are expected to manage and maintain liquidity and strong balance sheets amidst an uncertain environment, understand tax requirements in different jurisdictions, and ensure transparency and value creation.

“Any economic crisis, this one in particular, forces companies to evolve as they navigate uncharted waters, not only with processes and systems, but also to be agile. It has also expanded the responsibilities of FDs from traditional finance. FDs are tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the organisation remains stable and is sustainable well into the future," she says.

“It gives you a sense of the changing demands of the role which has to have a holistic view of business in order to think forward for the company, while being mindful of the internal and exter-

“Enjoy life and be yourself; the world is conspiring for your success.”

nal environments. We also need to rebuild teams and culture and make relationships work remotely. As individuals we therefore need to be our best selves, empathetic and balanced,” she says.

unique way, and understanding this has enabled me to listen with intent and build on the wisdom learnt from others, harness relationships and thus making it easier to accomplish our set goals.”

Inclusive leadership

In terms of personal balance, Nopasika plays the piano to destress. However, the onset of the pandemic has impacted her personal annual calendar of participating in the annual Great Wall of China marathon and Car Experience on Ice in Finland. She says that being out in the open on the golf course is a far better option during Covid-19.

Over the years, Nopasika has attentively observed how South Africa’s boardroom dynamics have changed, which has improved her ability to deal with conflict and crises. “I’ve found it valuable to consider and understand the other person’s point of view, which has helped manage confrontation.”

Over time, she has developed an inclusive management style and she is convinced that this yields the best results. “Business is about people and if you believe in them and they know you trust them, I can guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised by their abilities, enthusiasm and commitment.”

She adds that “everyone is intelligent in their own

She concludes that if she could go back in time and advise her younger self, she would say: “Enjoy life and be yourself; the world is conspiring for your success. Reduce the uncertainty, embrace it. Don’t doubt, receive it, go for it, be open to new experiences – and spend a little more time studying information technology because it’s going to be the future!” l CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

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STRATEGY

CFOs’

ESSENTIAL LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN

Both essential and non-essential services had to quickly adapt to an uncertain operating environment during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through it all, leading CFOs across a range of industries learnt new ways of working, some of which they will continue to practise, writes Ronda Naidu.

“

Covid lockdown” entered the South African vocabulary in early March 2020, with alert level 5, better known as the hard lockdown, coming into effect on 26 March 2020 for a period of 35 days.

Food, medicine, healthcare, energy, fuel, municipal services, internet and banking services were deemed essential and for any other type of business, it was mandatory for employees to stay at home. Businesses both in the essential and non-essential categories had to quickly adapt to government requirements.

Douglasdale Dairy CFO Bradley Wentzel recalls the period well. “We were deemed an essential service very early but the rules were changing on an almost daily basis,” he says.

“We had to make quick, smart calls. In the first month, if there was once an incident of Covid-19, then operations had to shut down for two weeks. Everybody was living in fear of what it was and where it was,” Bradley explains.

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People focus In order to manage this, the company, which services 6,000 customers daily across five provinces, focused on communication. “We made sure we were talking to our guys, positive messages around the same thread. We emphasised the longevity of the company, ways to be safe and how to manage finances through the period.

We tried to give people as many tools as possible to help them work through it, even offering finance courses,” Bradley says.

From a customer perspective, Douglasdale Dairy also made the counterintuitive decision to discount a key mass market product, Amasi, which is often eaten with bread as a meal. “We provide basic food products and people are losing jobs and taking salary decreases. Even though a basic finance metric is to increase EBITDA margin, we took a conscious view on discounting Amasi so people could afford to have a meal,” Bradley adds.

“We kept conversations going all the time, from farmers to big businesses,” he says.

Also taking the people-first approach, when retail stores across the country had to close due to the hard lockdown, TFG decided to keep on paying their staff their basic costs, despite the group not making any money from their stores or online for an indefinite period of time.

TFG FD Bongiwe Ntuli also explains that, as lockdown set in, her finance team had to quickly reevaluate the strategic imperatives that they wanted to achieve and, along with cash management, at the top of that list was to look after their more than 30,000 employees.

Opportunity in crises Nando’s South Africa CFO Simon Adams explains that the popular restaurant was able to leverage learnings from the previous 15 months of Covid-19 to manage during lockdown levels associated with the third wave of infections.

“It’s a bit of a cliché, but there are opportunities that come out of crises. During the first hard lockdown, we

“During the first hard lockdown, we weren’t allowed to trade and were forced to relook at our business model.” weren’t allowed to trade and were forced to relook at our business model. We had put a lot of work into increasing the in-dining space at our restaurants,” he says.

As a result of the inability to trade, Nando’s had to also do something that it had never done before – shut down the grills. “The real estate people were phoning and engaging us in turning off the gas supply. This is a big thing and for the first time in over 30 years, we had to shut down the grills,” Simon says.

TFG had similar commercial challenges, Bongiwe explains. “Although the borders were open again, there were still significant delays in receiving goods due to Covid-19 protocols.”

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Bongiwe Ntuli

Bothwell Mazarura

However, these delays didn’t affect TFG’s business too much as the company has a strategy of purchasing local goods and uplifting local markets. Because of this, it didn’t take long for the retailer to return to normal.

That one thing Simon explains that, for the first time in a long time, every single person in the business was focused on one thing – survival. “We were able to empathise with each other and other functions and not drive agendas. This is something we want to maintain in our business, that collaboration and working together focusing on the one big thing,” he adds.

Wentzel SeanBrad Capazorio

Bryan Groome

The pandemic has certainly left lasting impacts on the dairy industry too, with Douglasdale Dairy data showing a consumer move from bulk, less frequent purchases to more frequent purchases of smaller pack variants. This is largely driven by consumers having less disposable income. Ironically, smaller pack sizes are generally higher-margin products.

Simon sums it up by saying, “All of us are trying to get our heads around how we work in future. We’re learning as we go along, and don’t have the exact answers.”

This uncertainty is ongoing, so finance leaders of the future need to be able to strike a balance between the financial bottom line and being purpose-driven, says Kumba Iron Ore CFO Bothwell Mazarura.

In addition, Nando’s SA is also relooking its business model in terms of whether the right space is in residential areas or outlying areas as data shows that people are relocating to suit their lifestyles and with the flexibility of work from anywhere options.

He notes that there is a shift in the type of jobs people are doing, and the skills required are quickly changing with finance leaders also needing to communicate the bigger picture to be able to influence the direction of the organisation.

“It is a paradigm shift. Before Covid-19 we were building beautiful restaurants at great expense. Now there is a change. Access to disposable income has become a lot less, lifestyles have changed and the economy has created strain. You can’t reject customers because they want to enjoy your product in a different way to what you think is best,” he says.

Bothwell says Covid-19 has caused businesses to ask CFOs and finance teams questions around value creation, risks and opportunities and embrace working in a community. “We don’t live on an island. Covid-19 showed us that we need to collaborate across functions and even competitors. We are still going through an immensely challenging time.” l

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Mireille Levenstein

Nopasika Lila

Simon Adams

Walter Leonhardt

Lessons learnt in the essential and non-essential services sectors All three of Long4Life’s divisions were affected by the restrictions imposed by lockdown, with retail stores, online platforms and beauty salons being closed. While the beverage business was deemed an essential service, alcohol restrictions and restaurants and hospitality venues being closed meant that consumption was significantly reduced in some areas.

CFO Mireille Levenstein said, “Management had to be very agile.

Changes were rapidly made in store layouts, costs were analysed even more closely, purchasing budgets were revisited, capex spend was halted, online communication and training expanded, online trading platforms were upscaled and all while keeping the safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers and suppliers top of mind.”

She noted that many lessons were learnt, including the reality that the world would not be as it was. “We recognise that spending habits will change, that consumers may have less disposable income. We need to embrace whatever the behavioural shift may bring with it.”

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa was deemed an essential service during the level 5 lockdown and from that period financial director Walter Leonhardt recalls three key lessons learnt.

“Everything is about relationships and trust, there is a lot more going on in your colleague’s life than you ever imagined and anybody can manage their own IT, if they just want to.”

He points out that the pendulum has swung quite widely since the onset of the pandemic.

“In time, that pendulum will settle somewhere in the middle.

When that happens, I would like to maintain the positives that working from home has brought about. So, I better be clear on what those are, so that I can be sure to focus on maintaining them when the pendulum normalises,” he said.

Barloworld group FD Nopasika Lila noted, “As we go through change, growth is inevitable. As leaders, we are trained and experienced to manage people and situations in tested environments. So, while we have a crisis plan, it may not be tested, ready or appropriate for extraordinary or sudden disruptive situations and emergencies.”

In terms of change from a leadership perspective, Nopasika highlighted four key lessons during uncertain times. These were to demonstrate confidence as a leader by decisively taking charge of the situation and making sound and informed decisions, being alert and aware of the business climate and the world, showing empathy towards the situation and that communication and availability are key. She said the last point means that leaders should focus on showing up, being present, communicating with all stakeholders and continuously providing reassurance that things are being managed.

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FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS’S FINANCIAL HEALTH HOW TO MAXIMISE BUSINESS VALUE THROUGH VISIBILITY AND CONTROL Coupa regional VP of sales Africa David Hamilton explains that, after successfully confronting significant hurdles the past year and a half, now is the time to make lasting changes to optimise organisations’ financial health and better prepare them for future disruptions.

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he past year and a half has been characterised by uncertainty. During this time, many organisations looked to their finance leaders to navigate a tough environment and ensure their survival. With value chain disruptions, shutdowns and teams operating remotely, having visibility of a company’s finances to make decisions has never been more crucial.

Coupa regional vice president of sales Africa David Hamilton says finance leaders have confronted significant hurdles recently and having successfully done so, have garnered a high level of trust from the business.

“Now is the time to make lasting changes to optimise organisations’ financial health and better prepare them to face future disruptions,” he says.

Regaining control over uncertainty and disruption With the lockdowns and social distancing measures of the last year, a lot of companies had to change the way they run. What has become clear is that organisations with more financial maturity are able to prepare for uncertainty while simultaneously responding to chaos.

David notes that at the height of the Covid-19 pan-

demic, “many organisations put in place a lot of short-term interventions. “There was a quick reactive approach, but many companies still need to set themselves up for the long term. Emergency actions are effective in the short term, but they’re not sustainable, and in the long run they hamper financial recovery and growth,” he says. In turbulent times, finance leaders need visibility of their spend in order to proactively maximise their liquidity and investments, manage debt and maintain the financial health of the organisation.

By making some simple but critical changes, finance leaders can optimise their organisations’ financial health in ways that better equip them to navigate any disruptions ahead. Crucially, finance leaders need an end-to-end view of spend across the organisation, as well as top-notch control and governance measures to manage it.

The journey to financial maturity A comprehensive business spend management (BSM) approach can help finance leaders achieve optimal financial performance to give them more security and predictability, even in uncertain times.

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“Emergency actions are effective in the short term, but they’re not sustainable and in the long run they hamper financial recovery and growth.”

David says BSM is about much more than doing any other business process such as making payments or managing suppliers, it’s about harmonising a broad range of spend and liquidity-related processes together so that overall business value is maximised.

Towards full financial agility

When a company is fully optimised, finance teams have a real-time picture of cash flow across the organisation with a few clicks, making it easy to maximise their liquidity and investments and proactively manage spend and debt. The right technology and a BSM approach delivers more data and greater visibility into the big picture so that finance teams can respond quicker and with more clarity to changing market conditions.

To achieve financial maturity, David says the people, process and technology elements need to be in sync.

“Having the right people and organisational structures in place is key. Governance is critical and the process component speaks to the policies in your business; how you manage your processes influences how you spend. Technology is an enabler that allows you to automate processes, automation frees up resources to be able to focus on more strategic activities rather than firefighting on more transactional activities.”

Digital transformation journey David points out that Covid-19 has highlighted shortcomings in particular industries. For instance, in the healthcare sector where procuring PPE, surgical equipment and various other things required accelerated speed and efficiency as well as prudent management.

He says, “If you take the supply chain factor, trying to source items from different locations, get them through ports and customs while managing costs has created a big focus on companies to see if they are effective and efficient in their operations.“ CFOs need to be proactive instead of reactive. By increasingly using data, they can model various scenarios to get a better picture of the future and influence results. “No matter where your organisation is on the financial maturity journey, there are some specific steps you can take to advance. There are a lot of companies still trying to make that transition, and those that haven’t started, need to,” says David.

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As companies face novel challenges that come with today’s environment, finance leaders must reinvent themselves, their strategies, and the value they offer.

Finance leaders are looking for enablement tools such as Coupa to help them achieve their financial maturity aspirations. Coupa gives CFOs more visibility of the spend in an organisation, allowing them to see where cost savings and the potential to gain more control of their spend lies.

David says, “Our goal is to enable finance leaders to increase value and find opportunities to be more agile, make decisions and cope with circumstances in their organisation as they evolve.”l For more information, visit www.coupa.com/ contact-us#contact

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You Were in Front of the Board With All The Answers With a few clicks, you had complete, real-time visibility of your cash flow across your entire organization. What the board heard: faster, better answers and more insightful recommendations.

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Futureproof your financial health by assessing and investing in your financial maturity.

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CHARTING A COURSE AT SEA AND IN BUSINESS

In 2020, Anglo American Platinum CFO Craig Miller had to learn how to weather multiple storms as he navigated the impact of Covid-19 on the business and got his skipper’s licence. He explains how boating has taught him to be much more prepared for changes. By Caylynne Fourie

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riginally born in the UK, Craig Miller moved to South Africa with his parents at a young age.

After completing his bachelor’s in accounting science degree at the University of South Africa, his articles with Deloitte, and qualifying as a CA(SA), Craig joined Deloitte’s London office as part of a Global Development Programme. While there, he was seconded to Anglo American plc and subsequently joined the financial reporting team as a financial manager at the time of its UK listing.

you appreciate some of the wonders of nature, but also the power of the elements,” he says. “Things can change so quickly at sea.”

After a few years in the UK, Craig’s career brought him back to South Africa, joining Anglo American’s Thermal Coal business development team, later becoming the CFO of the business unit for two years. In 2007, he returned to London, where he provided direct support to the group CEO, Cynthia Carroll, as the head of the CEO’s office. In 2010, Craig was appointed as the CFO of Anglo American’s Iron Ore, which saw him moving to Brazil. Five years later, he returned to London again as the group financial controller.

In February 2020, one of Anglo American Platinum’s two converter plants exploded while it was operating, while the backup converter was undergoing planned maintenance and repairs. “We tried to bring the backup one back into production, but realised that we would be putting the safety of our employees and the integrity of our surrounding assets at risk,” Craig says. Instead, they decided to shut down both converters and undertake the three months of repairs. “This meant that we had to take about a million platinum group metal ounces out of the market.” As a result, the company lost $1 billion in profits.

He explains that the boating has taught him to be much more prepared for changes, like the tides or weather. “It’s like anything in life, it teaches you to be more cognisant of your surroundings.”

But the ocean isn’t the only place that Craig has to be prepared for unexpected changes.

“You just have to be prepared to alter your course if the conditions change.”

“My wife, Nina, who I met through a mutual friend in the UK, always says that ‘home is where your toothbrush is’,” Craig says. “So, you adapt and get used to moving around.”

With his roots in South Africa, Craig often came back to the country to spend Christmas with his family and friends. It was during these holidays that Craig and Nina fell in love with Knysna. When he was appointed as the CFO of Anglo American Platinum in April 2019, which saw him move back to South Africa, Craig bought a holiday home in Knysna where he now spends most holidays with Nina and his twin sons.

“It’s been really good to come back and spend time with family and friends,” Craig says. “We didn’t have as much family close by in the UK, so it’s been great for my sons to spend some more time with their grandparents and cousins.”

While they were in the UK, Craig’s family loved going skiing and enjoyed the outdoors. When they bought the home in Knysna, Craig wanted to keep being active in nature with his boys, so he decided to buy a boat.

Weathering the storms Craig obtained his skipper’s licence in October 2020 and now, whenever his family is on holiday in Knysna, they take the boat out on the lagoon and go tubing. “It makes 64

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Two weeks later, on 23 March, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the Covid-19 lockdown. “We went from dealing with the changes we had to make in the business because we couldn’t process material for three months, to dealing with a worldwide health crisis,” Craig explains.

As Covid-19 spread its way through South Africa, Craig found himself sitting at his desk wondering how best to proceed. “I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to deal with the shutdown of all our operations in such a short timeframe, moving everyone home, keeping them safe and being ready to restart when it’s all over,” he says.

However, as he went through the scenario planning with his teams, he relied on the existing crisis management plans in place and, while they weren’t labelled “pandemic”, he could pull them all together and use them as levers to help get the business through the challenges. “Much like in boating, what the weather apps indicate isn’t always what you will encounter,” Craig says.

“You just have to be prepared to alter your course if the conditions change.”

Under the government dispensation and with support from the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the company was able to restart some operations and continue the essential repairs to the converter plants during the initial hard lockdown. “Through some innovative ideas and fantastic collaboration across

“[Boating] teaches you to be more cognisant of your surroundings.” the company, we were also able to implement testing and monitoring for Covid-19 for all our employees and contractors as well as support the local communities as they dealt with the impact of the pandemic,” Craig says.

The company also had to rethink its supply chain routes as its usual shipping routes were closed due to the pandemic.

“I don’t think any of us were ready for the pandemic as it materialised,” he adds. “What it did demonstrate for us, however, was that we needed to ensure that we were resilient from both a personal and company perspective.

We had to ensure that we were able to withstand the challenges that were thrown our way.”

Land ahoy!

Craig, CEO Natascha Viljoen and the other executives used the explosion and the pandemic as an opportunity to think through the changes they wanted to make to the business, the company’s strategy and how to improve the culture of the organisation. “It really forced us to step back and think how the business operates, where our fragilities were, how they could be improved and what opportunities we could pursue,” Craig says.

They re-evaluated where they had to make some of their investments in terms of ensuring the protection and integrity of the company’s assets and processes.

The company also saw very strong PGM prices during the Covid-19 pandemic and ended up recording record financial results, despite all the setbacks. “We generated the best profit that we’ve ever seen in the company’s history,” Craig says.

He explains that this enabled the company to be responsible in dealing with the pandemic. “We were able to continue paying salaries to all employees during lockdown, including vulnerable employees who are still not back at work. We were also able to provide support to the communities around our operations in terms of sanitation, access to water, food parcels and medical and personal protective equipment for the hospitals and clinics.”

He adds that the pandemic highlighted the need for greater community participation and engagement in their operations, and provided opportunities for greater collaboration with partners, including government and unions.

“We operate our assets surrounded by impoverished communities, so we need to recognise, and where possible alleviate, the impact the pandemic has had on the local economies and people’s livelihoods.”

Craig explains that Anglo American Platinum decided to be more responsible about how it executes its strategy. “We need to create an environment of shared value because our assets are going to be there for the long term, and as we develop and grow, we need to ensure that our actions are sustainable, responsible and our stakeholders value the contribution we make to reimagining mining to improving people’s lives.”

Despite successfully navigating the biggest storm he has experienced during 2020, when it comes to boating, Craig isn’t comfortable to go out on the ocean yet and prefers to stay in the lagoon, where he knows the safe passages and sandbanks, and where the weather and tides are more predictable! l

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Photos: Patrick Furter

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“You have to be proactive if you want to plan your future effectively.”

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CFO CARES

Rachael Madziwanyika mentors youth for workplace readiness

ACCA fellow and CFO Rachael Madziwanyika is passionate about mentoring younger colleagues, students, and even school learners – those in need of insight and direction to shape their futures. By Kate Thompson Davy

R

achael Madziwanyika is the CFO of Bühler Southern Africa, a multinational plant and equipment manufacturer with a strong presence in machinery for food and transport.

Being the CFO is a role that – naturally – keeps her busy and engaged, with multiple divisions falling under her supervision. Despite this, she always makes time for mentoring and coaching. “I'm very keen to mentor young black girls and women, and bring them into the industry,” she says.

“Accounting has traditionally been viewed as not the place for a girl child, but that’s obviously a misconception. So, I do a lot of mentoring.

It's one of my passions, actually.”

Educational building blocks From her own experience, Rachael explains, Black African children and especially girls are too often not explicitly taught about money man-

agement. She says that what is also lacking in the African community is clear and meaningful career guidance. Even in her own life, she says, she’d planned to pursue law but didn’t necessarily have the aptitude for it and needed to be redirected by a teacher and her father – into viewing accounting as a career option.

“Generally career guidance in some schools is just asking kids what they want to do, instead of observing what their strengths are or how they will progress to where they want to go,” she says. This isn’t deep enough, she believes.

Additionally, she argues, most of the time when these children are still in school, they don’t know what they want to do. Instead of asking ‘what do you want to be?’, Rachael says, we should be asking the qualitative questions such as ‘do you like working with numbers, with people, alone or in a group?’ – and more than that, she wants to see both teachers and parents really discussing a broad

range of options with young people.

Starting close to home When her own daughter was in school, Rachael says, she found herself mentoring both her and her friends: “You have to be proactive if you want to plan your future effectively and you aren’t always given the opportunity to plan your future in the school setting.”

Rachael’s daughter, now a singer who uses the stage name Mo$hpit Cindy, says having her mom on board as a mentor has helped her feel safe and supported when dealing with challenges, and she really appreciates the “mature and intelligent advice”.

“It has changed my perspective, the way I view things [compared to] the way I used to before. It helped me manage my finances better. I must say that I am grateful to God for having such a wonderful support structure.”

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With the students she mentors, Rachael says, often the subjects that they were doing were not relevant to what they wanted to study or to pursue after they left school. “They seem to think ‘I can study whatever is easiest when I'm in matric and then hope for the best when I leave’ – so I found that there's a gap, a big gap that needed to be filled with active mentoring.”

“With those I mentor, I like to start the process with them around grade nine or so, and we begin with the basics, talking about career paths, about subject choices like, for example, the fact that you need mathematics (rather than mathematical literacy or accounting) as a subject in order to head into the field of accounting.”

Intervening at this stage means one can still make important changes, such as getting extra tutoring in a subject if catching up is the tactical choice.

Many paths to take With the right attitude and willingness from a mentee, Rachael says, you can also redirect them at a later stage.

Going straight into university is not the only way, she is keen to point out.

She is particularly proud of one young man who chose to return to school to get a better mathematics mark after completing matric in order to pursue accounting in the long run, after learning he wouldn’t be accepted into his desired courses. “He came to me and asked me ‘What did I do wrong?’”

“He still took that year out, and went back and did one year purely maths. This was difficult, especially considering all his friends were going to university at the time.

But now he’s pursuing his accounting degree.”

Another of her mentees that Rachael speaks of with pride instead decided to work first: “She will eventually do a degree, but at the moment she's doing a bookkeeping learnership. She's getting life skills, workplace skills, learning to use a computer and to communicate at all levels,” she says.

For Rachael, mentoring includes speaking to people about many matters including work, career, and personal finance. “I try to educate people on managing their finances, managing themselves and also just how to be an employee with integrity,” she explains.

She continues: “I also enjoy helping families, particularly with financial planning. Some just need an understanding of how to be successful with their finances. It is almost like family development, but from a financial perspective.”

This, she says, includes things that experienced professionals – with their corporate exposure as a kind of privilege – may take for granted. Not everyone is equipped with a solid understanding of concepts like compound interest, the destructive power of debt, or how to set up a budget, and for those that do there can be a gap between the theory and the practice.

Rachael describes helping one family who didn’t understand why their money seemed to run out before the month did, despite not living particularly extravagant lives. Under her guidance, they sat down and mapped out three months of spending on Excel, and it really gave them insights into what their real income was, how they were spending and on what they were spending. She says they had never really sat down and had the conversation about their income and expenditure. The couple in question had a lot of revelations and were able to make better plans for themselves and their budget.

“I really enjoy that side of coaching too,” she says, “where life coaching and family and finances meet.”

Where are they now?

As for the young people who have benefited from Rachael’s dedication to having the career heart-to-hearts, planning their training, and sharing her experience and wisdom, several are now finance professionals or well on their way to qualifying. “And a couple of the mentees now work with me at Bühler,” she says proudly.

Skills for life

Twenty-one year old Faith Magubane, finance and HR trainee, is one of them. “I started mentoring her when she was in grade 10. She has now been working post-matric for 18 months in HR and finance,” says Rachael.

“In a learnership role, you have many learnings, for example how to write an email, how to set up meetings, how to interact with others in the workplace, and so on.

Those are skills that often these kids don't have even when they come out of university or a college environment,” Rachael says.

Another is Thelma Kumbula, customer service quotation officer, 28. Thelma says: “Being mentored by Rachael has allowed me to look at life differently. From my relationships and career, I have learnt that every situation and all my experiences play a vital role in adding value and reaching my final goals.” l

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Do you have a CFO Cares story to share with us?

Contact CFO Magazine managing editor Caylynne Fourie on cfourie@cfo.co.za with the details.

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RESETTING BOUNDARIES IN

THE BRAVE NEW WORKPLACE This year’s annual Women’s Event celebrated the leading women in finance and HR and everything they have achieved and learnt over the past year, as well as which of these lessons they would take into the “brave new workplace” of the future.

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n 4 August 2021, a group of over 120 female finance and HR executives gathered for the annual Women’s Event, which took place online for the second time due to Covid-19. The top CFO and CHROs of South Africa biggest companies and organisations had each been asked to also invite one of their mentees to share ideas with their peers and thought leaders during a unique online immersion.

it’s a wonderful time to recognise the heavy lifting that we do.”

The annual Women’s Event celebrated everything the attendees had achieved and learnt over the past year and which of these lessons they would take into the “brave new workplace” of the future.

Along with the usual questions one asks when changing roles, like whether there is an alignment of the firm's values and yours, Aneshree weighed in on understanding team structures to proactively plan virtual connect sessions. She wanted to quickly and effectively get onboard in her new environment and start delivering on strategic projects with her team.

She also clarified flexible work arrangements, which has always been important to her and more so having recently become a new mom at that stage.

Meaningful connections “Happy Women’s Month to the amazing women on the call and to all the women in our communities,” said Webber Wentzel CFO Aneshree Naidoo. “I think

Aneshree, who recently moved from Deloitte to the law firm, during the Covid-19 lockdown, said that she had changed roles and organisations before, “but of course never during a pandemic when you virtually meet, connect with and lead your new teams”.

She explained that “the experience of changing roles during this time was a learning experience”.

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“In relation to my team meetings, I really had to stop to think about how to meaningfully connect...virtually,” she said. And while connecting isn’t a new topic for leaders, she explained that she had to map out her interactions and prepare a lot more so that meetings were meaningful and productive. This included “scheduling virtual calls and not prescriptively discussing the agenda topic, but also taking time to get to know the person on the other end of my screen.”

Aneshree added that “business matters are important and necessary, but getting to know who it is I am talking to, where they come from and how we work together to deliver great results is important too”. Relationships were established mostly over virtual (coffee) meetings these past eight months. There is value in asking a simple but impactful question like "how are you?" at the start of a call...this applies during this pandemic period and beyond!

She said that she would carry these important transition learnings forward. Effectively (re-)connecting with teams in our current virtual workways is dynamic and relatable to many leaders and perhaps more so now in our current spaces as we create new workplaces and newer ways of working.

Setting and re-setting boundaries DPD Laser CFO Auvasha Maharaj explained that finance people are inherently risk averse, but that the pandemic has forced them to really stretch their boundaries. “Our normal approach to risk needed to be changed. Having been in the finance industry for over 20 years, that has been a massive learning curve for me.”

“Very seldom is an event, technology or a product this disruptive on its own,” said iOCO CFO Jo-Ann Pöhl. “Rather the interconnectedness and shift that this triggers helps us make strategic choices as the catalyst that informs our attitude and how we react.”

She explained that Covid-19 has allowed business and leaders to “properly rewire”, and for her this meant trying to find the balance between working from home or living at work.

Jo said she learned that driving to the office in the morning and home used to be where she could recalibrate, to adjust her focus and maintain her perspective. This is particularly relevant when the going gets tough, “If it was a bumpy start in the morning, you could drive to the office

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and reset. Or if it was a rough day at work, you could almost switch off on the drive home.”

However, with lockdown restrictions and working from home, not being able to drive or being deliberate about the transition points in a day blurs those boundaries between her role at work and her role at home. “So I had to think about how I could create those boundaries and reset them regularly,” she said.

Jo added that trying to get that balance right hasn’t always been easy, particularly as we are passionate about our people and the businesses we serve. Her children have been key around reminding her about why and how she recalibrates. “They have taught me that not only must I talk the talk, but I must also walk the talk.”

She said her children often remind her that she encourages her colleagues to spend time with their families, but then she works day and night and as such how she demonstrates her commitment to better balance is almost permission for the team to do the same. “They will pass me notes in the day to check in and hold up flashcards to count down to dinner, or that it’s family time. We remind each other of the commitments we made to each other, understand when things go awry (and there are days I get this very wrong) and agree to reset together.”

Avashnee Ramdial, who has had to juggle being a single mother and executing her role as the CFO of Stanlib, said that even under normal circumstances it’s quite difficult to get that work-life balance, but once Covid-19 hit, resetting the boundaries of home and work was really difficult.

“The wonderful thing we’ve learnt from Covid-19 is how resilient people can be and how you’re able to adapt and work with what you have been given,” she said.

Like Aneshree and Jo, she also had to redefine and set boundaries to help her balance working from home.

“I start work at 9am and finish at 4pm, and I try not to schedule back-to-back meetings to give myself the breathing room, so if there’s a crisis at home, I am able to go and help them.”

She added that it’s important to communicate with the people around you. “We’ve been very lucky at Stanlib where people have been very understanding when your child walks into a meeting. It takes away the anxiety and allows you to be present.”

Avashnee said that the world has changed. “We have the opportunity now for our lives to be totally flexible to work from home when we want to and organisations are rec-

ognising that. Organisations who don’t recognise that aren’t going to be able to retain and attract people.”

PPC finance manager of projects Lauren Fullerton said that the new way of working has given her an opportunity to prove herself at PPC and move from a consultant role into a more permanent role. “It was a risk to move from being a contractor and having the flexibility it afforded me, to becoming a permanent employee,” she explained. “I think one of the reasons I’ve been willing to take that risk is because of the flexibility that working remotely during Covid-19 has shown us is possible.”

She added that risk-taking takes on a new dimension when you can balance more. “But obviously making sure that you try and define boundaries, which I have to admit I am battling with.”

Using your influence for change Ambassador Nozipho January Bardill came into the “spotlight” and delivered a powerful address with the theme, “You can’t change the world, but you can change your sphere of influence”.

“We occupy 52 percent of the demographic space in the country. We have struggled for a more just, equitable and peaceful country for many years before, during and after 1956,” Nozipho said.

She added that women must continue to fight for the access they have to senior positions at work and how equally resources are shared (equal pay to work of equal value), to better care facilities for working moms (maternity and paternity leave) and other demands that will forever be their desire for a happy and fulfilling life.

She concluded, “Happy Women’s month to all of you, we have big problems in our country. We have learnt a lot from the Covid-19 virus as it has touched us deeply in our souls but we still have a lot of work to do. I believe South Africa has a hit rock bottom stage which only can go one way and that is back up.

“We can make a difference and influence our institutional situations, we can take a bit of more time to think about how we can do thought leadership differently and together we need to come out of our silos and work in collaborations, partnerships and find solutions to our social and economic problems.” l

The Women’s Event was made possible by: CaseWare Africa Dimension Data Momentum Corporate Workday

CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

73

FROM THE COMMUNITY MANAGER

COMMUNITY ALWAYS WINS

W

hen the Covid-19 pandemic emerged last year, it changed everything. We had to gear up with masks, sanitise our hands and stand two meters apart at all times.

We also started working virtually, and suddenly had to channel the innovation, flexibility and creativity that we didn’t think we had – but in fact had been there all along.

And as the way of working continues to change rapidly, I wonder why big corporates worldwide only seem to innovate in times of disruption and not a single day earlier?

Working from home has been an option for many years, but only the most forward-thinking companies had embraced it then. Now, with no other option, most organisations have managed to do the same.

even in the virtual world. And CFO South Africa’s upcoming online Finance Indaba Conversations, is testament to this, with over 30 finance leaders already lined up for three days of thought-provoking discussions around the disruptions that are busy shaping the workplace of the future, and hundreds of attendees signed up to interact with them and share their insights.

Imagine the possibilities that come with embracing innovation in times of opportunity as opposed to doing so in times of need.

It’s the kind of thinking exhibited by South Africa’s women leaders, or that will be shared at the Finance Indaba Conversations that will both reflect and shape the evolution of business – an evolution shaped less by focusing on the bottom line and more by how we work together.

However, as organisations flex their newfound muscle in what is now the new normal, we’ve had to face other challenges as well. In July, South Africa was reeling over riots that brought the country to a standstill, all while living and operating under various forms of lockdown as the Covid-19 Delta variant sunk its claws into the country.

We’ve learnt to focus on results, not busywork. We no longer track what people are doing by walking past their desks, but by the outcomes of what they’ve been doing. This has always been the best metric, and for the first time, we aren’t looking to best practices – because there are none. We can’t do what Apple is doing because we are not Apple.

Despite all this, one thing has become more apparent now than it was 18 months ago – community always wins. This was abundantly clear during CFO South Africa and CHRO South Africa’s Women’s Month online immersion event [see page 70], where the leading women in HR and finance came together and shared their insights and thoughts on women leading the way to a new, inclusive future for the country.

Nobody is navigating the new normal in the best way; we are all figuring it out as we go along – as a team, and as an organisation. This is why community always wins – because we are stronger together!

We are so much stronger together than we are apart,

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CFO MAGAZINE • CFO.CO.ZA

Brian Chivere CFO Community Manager bchivere@cfo.co.za +27 60 505 7727

INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE

AND BOOST YOUR SUCCESS

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Become a member NOW! Support the CFO community with a membership and grow the brightest stars in your finance team.

Your support allows CFO South Africa to keep growing. A membership is also the best professional gift for two of your direct reports. They will be able to attend and benefit from all CFO events, receive all editions of CFO Magazine and be invited to join weekly online CFO Community Conversations.

Meant for: CFOs and up to two handpicked senior direct reports.

IMMEDIATE BENEFITS: » Exclusive invite to CFO SA Community Conversations (Online) » All issues of CFO Magazine delivered to your desk » Support the CFO South Africa community » Exclusive invite to all CFO Summits

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» Exclusive invite to CFO Awards » Exclusive invite to CFO Day » Bi-weekly newsletter » Finance Network Indaba VIP team invite » Up to 12 CPD points per person

17 November 2021 CFO Awards Community Conversations twice a month and weekly Finance Indaba Network webinars (Online)

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP INVESTMENT:

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Contact: Brian Chivere bchivere@cfo.co.za | +27 60 505 7727

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