/ 12 April 2013

Change is a conscious decision

Change Is A Conscious Decision

This means Old Mutual's suppliers get to count each R100 of money spent with the insurer as R125 when calculating their own BEE spending points. Yet the company has continued to beef up its transformation efforts.

The company has improved its overall score to 92.01 from 87.37 last year, moving up to fourth place in the overall rankings from ninth position last year. It sits in second place in its sector.

"This is something we are able to achieve only by learning from our journey and taking our people with us," says Mohale Ralebitso, director of marketing, communication and corporate affairs at Old Mutual.

The insurer is constantly looking for opportunities to improve, he says. Its 2005 BEE deal, worth R7.2-billion, involved three separate, inter-dependent transactions, one for each of the group's South African businesses (Old Mutual South Africa, Nedcor and Mutual & Federal).

At the time, the deal exceeded the prescribed minimum standards of the sector's financial charter and was already aimed at reaching a broad base of beneficiaries. As a result, 13.5% of Old Mutual South Africa was transferred to black South Africans, including BEE heavy-weights Wiphold and Brimstone.

Beneficiaries also included bursary provider Old Mutual Education Trust and the Black Distributors' Trust, which provides finance to black entrepreneurs who are registered financial services providers.

This component of the deal was included to respond to the specific national priorities of skills development and small business development.

The majority of shares, worth R1.7-billion, was given to current and future black employees as motivation for excellent performance.

Ralebitso says leaders, employees, customers, partners and all other stakeholders had to follow the same route to transformation, with the same vision and objective in mind.

"It is this shared vision that allows there to be a genuine partnership in which all partners invest something."

Transformation cannot be achieved haphazardly, because the implementation processes need to be consciously coordinated and monitored from a central point.

Old Mutual's diversity is a source of its strength because it broadens the group's insight into communities in which it operates, fostering understanding, trust and a collaborative culture, Ralebitso says.

"In addition, diversity is a powerful catalyst for idea generation and innovation. Embracing transformation is a vital factor in corporate citizenship.

"The group aims to fulfil this imperative by redressing past inequalities and embedding broad-based empowerment into the organisational DNA, which secures long-term stability and growth for both the company and its shareholders."

To this end, transformation has been included as a deliverable on performance scorecards for managers throughout the organisation.