Casidra’s newfound strategy points to a more relevant future

by Experience Matshediso, info@casidra.co.za

TThe Casidra Board of Directors recently appointed Stuart Symington as the new chief executive officer of Casidra. His skills make him ideally suited to the current challenges facing South Africa, where strategic insight, diplomacy, and the ability to execute decisions successfully are highly valued by the company. Finding innovative solutions to tough challenges underpins everything Stuart does. The board and the management team look forward to his leadership at the helm of the company.

At the start of the financial year, Casidra’s board and management held a strategic session with the aim of lifting its game and reflecting on what it can improve to stay relevant. The company’s leadership had to think out of the box to determine how it could keep Casidra’s wheels rolling during a challenging time in its history. It was clear that our current business model would not be sustainable under the new “Covidian” order, and our planning to reinvent ourselves began in earnest. There is nothing like a crisis to bring about much-needed change.

Casidra needs to adapt its approach quickly to its primary mandate of “managing key projects to advance the quality of life of resource-poor people in rural parts of the Western Cape”.

Stuart Symington

management company in the Western Cape. There is a lot we can do to lift our game and we will start concentrating on that immediately.

Casidra will need to champion the implementation of a broader range of projects to stay relevant and financially sound. This will include stimulating economic development and job creation and addressing land reform initiatives.

Casidra’s renewed focus revolves around two priorities. Firstly, the organisation needs to improve its performance as a project

The second priority is to align our efforts more with our mandate, which is to involve ourselves in agricultural and economic development in the rural (non-metro) space in the Western Cape. Since Casidra is a Schedule 3D business-aligned, state-owned enterprise, we need to capitalise on this and inject much more commercial acumen into our business dealings with our principals and beneficiaries.

We will not be able to achieve all of this alone. We strongly believe in building key strategic relationships; most importantly, in collaboration with the Western Cape Department of Agriculture. We also want to extend our efforts in building public–private partnerships to deliver rapid and effective services to beneficiaries.

In summary, Casidra’s three strategic goals are the following:

1 Supporting the Western Cape Government in nurturing agricultural and economic development in the rural environment.

2 Facilitating the implementation of world class projects, focusing strongly on smallholder farmers.

3 Managing Casidra’s resources efficiently and effectively to achieve an unqualified financial audit every year.

Our newfound strategic objectives are:

1. To secure sustainable funding for the future of the business.

2. To provide world class service delivery to all our stakeholders.

3. To implement integrated IT systems to improve organisational performance.

4. To install a winning culture throughout the organisation.

5. To ensure that equity prevails in all its forms inside the organisation.

6. To exercise regular and impactful stakeholder engagements

With the correct goals and objectives envisaged with a new set of eyes, the company looks forward to getting to work and making a difference. AP