For close on twenty years, Mike Vincent has been supporting CEOs in Africa. His work has been to help incoming CEOs in framing their roles, developing their implementation plans, coaching them for greater effectiveness, and helping them to define and deliver their strategies. In this interview we asked Mike to reflect on what he has learnt about South African CEOs.
Why do you work with CEOs?
Research shows that 40% of all executive transitions fail in the first 18 months, and it seemed to me that this was an extraordinarily high failure rate. Being a strategy consultant, I wanted to make sure that the risk of my clients failing was minimized.
In my role as a senior leader at the world’s largest professional services firm I became intimately involved with their Executive Programme and ran their Africa Executive Institute. We initiated a structured leadership programme for CxOs and an important focus was on CEOs. I also subsequently completed a post graduate integrated coaching course to better coach senior executives.
In my new role in Arena Partners, we have developed our own and improved approach to leadership, with a special emphasis on the CEO.
What causes CEO failures?
It is common cause that the CEO is expected to own a company’s strategies and then use the assets of the company to deliver on them. The CEO stands alone as the person ultimately responsible for the successful implementation of the strategy, notwithstanding the fact that other C-suite executives and employees help to execute the strategy.
What makes the CEO’s role tricky is that the modern day CEO has to operate in industries that are being transformed at a pace not seen before, and in order to proactively predict and respond to those changes, CEOs are required to be decisive with quicker-than-ever decision making.
While CEOs bear full responsibility for a company’s success or failure, they are typically unable to control most of what will determine it. For example, the hiring of staff, promotions, compensation – all of these are managed by others in the organisation.
To exacerbate this situation, the CEO’s job is different and more complex than a new CEO has previously experienced. The role is characterised by increased workload and complexity in new responsibility areas with imperfect information and never enough time!
In my experience, nothing prepares the CEO for the new role – not even running a large division within the company. They are faced with unexpected and unfamiliar new roles, altered professional relationships with their former peers and new and more exacting expectations and demands.
What are some of the challenges facing the South African CEO?
Rather than providing a laundry list of challenges, perhaps I can share the top four challenges that keep coming up in CEO discussions. It is fair to say that many of these challenges face all CEOs, irrespective of geographical location, but the nuances are different in South Africa, and present a unique set of challenges for CEOs.
Navigating South African Politics: Given the country’s history, it is important to be familiar with, and sensitive to, the unique demands of the South African environment. Persistent socio-economic inequalities exacerbate talent acquisition and retention challenges, hindering diversity and inclusivity efforts within organisations.
Infrastructure: Infrastructure deficiencies, particularly in energy, water and transportation, have become significant challenges that impede operational efficiency and increase costs.
Skills Shortages: The significant emigration of skilled South Africans has severely reduced the South African corporate’s ability to be globally competitive.
Technology: With the increasing reliance on digital technologies, and the need to digitise processes and digitalise organistions, cyber, and technology adoption have become significant challenges. The technological landscape demands continuous adaptation to remain competitive, requiring substantial investments in digital transformation and cybersecurity.
What advice can you give CEOs?
The new CEO must learn to manage organisational context rather than focus on daily operations. The role requires the CEO to act in indirect ways to create conditions that will help others to make the right choices – setting and communicating strategy, putting sound processes in place, selecting and mentoring key people and setting the tone and defining the organisation’s culture and values through actions and words.
The CEO’s position does not confer the right to lead, nor does it guarantee the organisation’s loyalty. Rather, the CEO must perpetually earn and maintain the moral mandate to lead success ultimately depends on the CEO’s ability to enlist the voluntary commitment rather than the forced obedience of others.
The CEO must not get totally absorbed in the role but must maintain a personal balance and stay grounded to maintain perspective which is required for effective decisions and long-term organisational prosperity and lengthened tenure.
