Under Mark Lamberti’s leadership, mass retailer, Massmart’s turnover had exceeded R20 billion in turnover for the first time in its history in 2004. It had a watershed year in terms of numbers as no mass merchant in the history of South Africa had achieved the return on sales that Massmart had in that year. Lamberti had been at the helm of Massmart since he founded the company in 1990.

Maanda Manyatshe, CEO of the South African Post Office, put the phone back in its cradle. He had just been speaking to a few of his prospective colleagues at MTN South Africa, the cellular network company he would soon be joining. MTN SA was the second largest cellular operator in the country. He would be tasked with growing the South African operation. It was only one of a number of offers he had received, and it was not the most attractive package he had been offered.

In 1998/1999, the Legal Aid Board faced closure because of a contingent liability of more than R600 million for legal services delivered by private practitioners to the organisation’s clients. Since then, through three phases of transformation, under two board chairmen and three chief executive officers, the Legal Aid Board has turned itself around. It has received unqualified audit reports from the office of the Auditor General since 2002 and it has extended its services to represent the accused in approximately 400 000 matters per year.

In Lechabile, a small black empowerment IT company, a two-fold strategic issue had to be resolved: how the numerous growth opportunities that presented themselves should be managed; and how options for achieving growth should be evaluated. Concomitant with this, the number of employees was increasing. Management felt that a formal performance management system was needed that would be in keeping with their culture of empowerment.

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It was September of 2005. Brian and Mike Coppin had founded Fruit and Veg City 11 years ago and knew that over the past 11 years they had done an excellent job of translating the mission of the organisation into action. They had sustained success and growth by delivering quality fresh produce at the right price to their identified markets, and they had done so by ensuring continuous innovation and exceptional service. However, they could see that there had been a change in the industry. Market needs had evolved and there were a variety of opportunities under consideration.

By 2004, Laurie Dippenaar had been at the helm of FirstRand, one of the largest financial services groups in South Africa, for six years. He was chairman of two of the companies within the FirstRand group the Momentum Group Limited and Discovery, both of which operated in the life and health insurance market.

By April 2009, Hollard Insurance had been in Arcadia, its new building, for a little over three years. A key motive behind the move had been to draw all Hollard employees together, so as to sustain and reinforce a common culture and facilitate communication across business units. Now, Hollard’s CEO, Nic Kohler, had a few things to consider: had the new building had an impact on Hollard’s culture, and on balance; had this been positive; and should he now move the company’s call centres to a smaller town, where competition for talent would be less intense?

Foschini Group’s (FOS) Shani Naidoo was in excellent spirits when she walked out of a two-day group strategy meeting in October 2009. As managing director for group human resources (HR) since 2005, it was evident that the changes that she and her team had implemented had successfully made HR a critical part of Foschini’s overall business strategy. In pursuit of their vision to get rid of the company’s silo mentality, the HR team had introduced a totally new, centralised HR model. Despite the shake-up, Naidoo believed there was still a great deal more that needed to change.

Enos Banda, the CEO of Eskom Enterprises, a subsidiary of state-owned electricity utility Eskom Holdings, considered the offer he had just received from financial services firm, First Africa, asking whether he would consider taking becoming CEO of the firm.

First Africa was one of the leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisors in South Africa. With its strong commitment to developing Africa, and black Africans in particular, the firm’s philosophies dovetailed strongly with Banda’s personal mission.

“We cannot just sit by and do nothing!” said Sebastian Olofsson to his uncle, Dan Olofsson, a Swedish IT billionaire and owner of a private game reserve in Hluhluwe (northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). It was February 2003, they were both at the reserve and Sebastian had just returned from a guided tour of the vicinity that had exposed him to the dire poverty in the area and the human suffering there caused by HIV/AIDS.