Rod Burn, organisational performance director of PPC, looked back over the past four years with some satisfaction. Since 2000, when PPC had instigated an organisational transformation initiative known as the Kambuku Process, shareholder returns had improved, as had market capitalisation. The management culture had changed completely and there was a new level of energy in the organisation, with people at all levels taking pride in their work. But Burn did not want to take it for granted that this success would continue. It had taken hard work to get the Kambuku process to this point.

In February 2000, the Kambuku team of Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) got together in the Kambuku “war room” to plan the way forward for the project. Rod Burn, PPC’s director of organisational performance, had appointed them to work on finding a way to get more out of PPC’s people so that the company could reach the taxing cash flow targets that chief operating officer (COO) John Blackbeard had set. PPC’s performance over the preceding five years had been dismal and the company was feeling the heat of competition from two major international competitors.

PPC today is a professionally run company with motivated and dedicated people. This is reflected in the total shareholders’ returns achieved over the past few years and the increase in the market capitalisation of the company.” This was how John Gomersall, chief executive officer of Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), concluded his review in PPC’s Annual Report 2003.

External changes in the banking environment, coupled with an increasing number of consumer complaints, prompted the need for new systems within the Office of the Banking Adjudicator. Neville Melville, who was appointed as the Banking Adjudicator in May 2000, had implemented fairly far-reaching changes to the office in order to comply with its new rules of procedure and to increase its capacity. Two years later, Melville wondered whether he had done enough to create an organisation that was as good as the best internationally.

In July 2016, MTN’s newly appointed CEO, Rob Shuter, was considering how it was possible that the company had been fined US$5.2 billion (R78 billion) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in October 2015. He also wondered what could be done to prevent a debacle of this magnitude from reoccurring. It appeared that leaders were not paying attention to the issues and, most importantly, had neglected and had failed to adhere to vital regulations. The transgression was clear.

It was September 2008 and Ravi Teja, associate vice president and head of enterprise transformation at the global consulting company, Nihilent, was waiting to meet with his team to review their progress on The Banking Association South Africa project. His team included Prabith Kalathil, Shane Perrier, Pooja Bal, Gaurav Joshi and Saurabh Bali.

In July 2002 banking group, Nedcor had purchased another banking group, BOE and decided to use this purchase as an opportunity, not only to integrate BOE into Nedcor, but also two other banks that had operated within the group. In typical fashion, the treasuries had raced ahead of the rest ob the group, but appeared to have achieved the impossible: a complex integration in record time, with no fall-out for the bank. The rest of the group’s integration process was still under way and would probably only be finished at the end of 2004.

Massbuild is the building products division of Massmart, a South African-based warehouse retail organisation that Walmart acquired in 2012. The details in this case span a period from 2009 (prior to the acquisition by Walmart) to 2015.

No of Pages:  6

Massbuild is the building products division of Massmart, a South African-based warehouse retail organisation that Walmart acquired in 2012. The details in this case span a period from 2009 (prior to the acquisition by Walmart) to 2015.

No of Pages:  6

In February 2015, Llewellyn Walters, CEO of Massbuild, the building products division of Massmart, a warehouse retail organisation, was perplexed by the results of the 2014 employee engagement survey. The survey showed that employee engagement had continued to decline for a third year. Walters reflected on his decision in 2009 to work on the adage “culture will eat strategy for breakfast” and initiate a culture change process as a means of ensuring that Massbuild achieved its strategic objectives.