“Too few black and women directors – Busa”, was one of the major stories carried by Cape Times (South Africa) on March 3, 2010. According to this story, Black Africans only made up 4% of Chief Executives of all 295 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) between April and July 2009. As regards CFO positions, Black Africans accounted for only 2% of the 219 in existence in the JSE-listed entities over the same period. For all intents and purposes, particularly taking into consideration Employment Equity/Affirmative Action (EE/AA) efforts over the last few years, these are appalling statistics. I call it “the challenged trickle-up effect”. It is easy to conclude that this represents the failure, or ineffectiveness, of EE/AA to explain the above situation.
However, from the often dramatic and highly publicised fallout between CEOs, and aspiring CEOs, and their employers such as at SABC, SAA, Transnet, Eskom, Telkom, SAPO and Armsco, to name a few, it would appear as though even if opportunities were created to increase the incidence of Black CEOs, chances that they would succeed appear limited. And before one argues that experiences in Parastatals cannot be generalised to all Corporates in South Africa, there have been similar incidences in the private sector, though not as dramatically publicised nor publicly scrutinised. It seems there are two phenomena at work here – on the one hand embarrassingly very few Black Africans have made it to CEO positions in businesses in South Africa, but on top of that, there are many incidences of spectacular, and often public, failures of those few that have dared assume such positions.
But it is not all doom and gloom for Black Executives both in the public and private sectors since there are examples of phenomenal success. CSIR has been successfully led over the past few years; Telkom was also once very successfully led. In the private sector, there are success stories at Standard Bank as well as at FNB, again only to mention a few examples. Therefore, the issue that needs to be addressed is not one of the scarce few and far in between success stories, but one of trying to ensure that success, and indeed efficacy of leadership was pervasive, as opposed to being the exception, for the Black Executive. How does this get achieved?
The starting point would be try to understand the reasons for the failure of Black Executives in Corporate South Africa. Could it simply be that those Black Africans who aspire and/or are pushed to senior and executive positions are not ready to assume such roles? If indeed it was a question of not being ready, what kind of ‘readiness’ are we talking about? It is most certainly the case that those that have had the chance of the bite at the executive cherry hold the requisite academic credentials. It is also certain that they have had exposure to executive management courses of one sort or the other, and most definitely have had executive coaches and mentors. So what other dimensions of ‘readiness’ could be needed?
It would appear that there is more to being an Executive at the highest level of operating in an organisation than initially meets the eye. Indeed, having the right qualifications, and even delivering on the performance contract and business plan may not be enough to ensure success. Of course it does not follow that not delivering is an option, nor not having the right qualifications. But the point is that there is more to it than that. It seems there is a political savvy and astuteness required to operate at this level that no CA, MBA, MPL or AMP qualification will teach an Executive. And it seems no amount of executive coaching could impart it either.
But it could also be a simple case of having a requisite level of maturity and humility. The lack of this is particularly demonstrated in cases of break down in relationships between Black Executives and superiors, such as chairmen of boards, boards and executive committees. That an Executive could think that he or she can lead an organisation going against the chairperson of a board, or indeed the board itself, cannot be but the height of misguided arrogance.
It could also further be that not cultivating the right level, and amount, of loyalty counts for a lot in terms of the failures we are talking about. Particularly in cases where some managers may have harboured ambitions for the top job for many years only in the end to have some young upstart from outside imposed upon them. Not cultivating the loyalty of such people, if they remain in the organisation, could be a recipe for disaster.
However, it is important to also not assume that all the failures are due to the leaders themselves. There are environmental factors, both internal and external to the organisations that need to be taken into account as well. In terms of the external environment, there appear to be many antagonistic watchers, pundits and detractors of the young executive that will comment on anything and everything, from the level of remuneration and other perks the Black Executive may be getting, to commenting on the nature of dress, cars owned and/or driven, down to where the same goes for socialising, inter alia. Indeed, the level of ‘public scrutiny’ may get one to feel hounded and victimised. It is feasible that the level of maturity and humility exhibited may also have something to do with the level of scrutiny one gets.
From an internal environment perspective, every organisation has a prevailing and established culture that has existed over many decades. Not appreciating such culture and ‘going against the grain’ could also be a recipe for disaster. But in some instances, it is also just the case of one being given the top position without the authority, and thus being hamstrung in trying to execute their mandate and responsibility.
Indeed, from the foregoing, there are a number of challenges that the Black Africa Executive faces as he/she trickles up. But given the South Africa that we live in and the imperative to redress the imbalances of the past, actually of the present, how does the plight of the Black African Executive get addressed effectively? Or maybe we need not be concerned because it could simply be that, just like the first phase of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) (e.g. NAIL, etc) petered out, so we are seeing the first crop of Senior Black Executives falling off the corporate tree. And just like alternative models have been sought to shore up BEE/BBBEE, alternative approaches will be found to ensure that Black Executives succeed in Corporate South Africa.
But simple things like bringing in an aspiring Black Executive to shadow a seasoned incumbent for a long while before being let loose on the organisation could also be done (calls for a lot of patience and humility on part of the person doing the shadowing). Furthermore, establishing an equivalent of Young Presidents Organisation that is exclusively for the Black Executive, which is used not only for supporting each other, but also for those that have been successful to liberally pass on their recipes for success to their colleagues could go a long way to addressing some of the challenges.
I agree with much of what you say. Just a further comment or two. In the course of writing my book “Rethinking BEE”, and in private conversation with a few executive level black managers, I have been given the impression that one of the reasons black executives are finding it difficult to breakthrough into the executive suite is that they have no opportunity to create the necessary platform of support from which to effectively compete for, and then retain, the highest position in a business/organisation. Parachuted in, by contrast, they are likely to find an executive committee full of people who are competing, and have had the time to build their networks of support. Moreover, who have no real interest in seeing the black executive succeed.
By and large, in international organisations a candidate is observed for years in the pipeline to see precisely how they identify and pull the levers of power in a system. When an executive is plucked from somewhere else and is placed in an executive position, more than being potentially unaware of the corporate culture etc, they are in the dark about where power resides and how to manipulate it. Moreover, international practice has it that If an executive is brought in from the outside, the chances are they will bring a team of people in with them to offer the required support. Our black executives simply have not built those sorts of support mechanisms, and if in particular circumstances nuilding them is possible, many black executives make the mistake of assuming that their backs are covered by empowerment or they make the mistake of overconfidence – thinking they can make it on their own.
Business has deep seated and entrenched ways of doing things, paying your dues is part of that. It is highly unlikely this will change, employment equity or no employment equity.
The roots for this sort of behaviour lie in the fact that SA Inc as it is currently constituted, is largely in the hands of white business people who consequently hold economic power while black politicians largely hold political power. Over the years the political powers that be have been manouevred into a position that makes it extremely difficult to hold sway over economic power. Today, these two forces hold each other in check with one side working hard to maintain the staus quo, and the other trying to break the deadlock. Business has worked out how to defuse the empowerment timebomb and that is by a collective parking at Level 4, each with an identical scorecard, and a uniform approach to the question: why no black executives, the answer being, there is a skills shortage. Whether there is or isn’t, the result is the desired objective – inertia.
Until black executives understand they have to approach business as politics, and create teams around them within organisations, teams that are aligned in purpose and eschew personal gain in favour of breaching the beachhead, they will continue to deliver a spotty performance, all the while providing grist to the white-man-against-empowerment-mill, namely, “see, things should stay the way they are!”
Thanks for your comment. I have to confess I did no research per se, other than personal experience, to write that article. Therefore it is very encouraging to note that research has confirmed some of the suppositions I had made. The issue of organisation cultures, having a support system (what I call building deep loyalty), the existence of competition for the top position, etc, etc. Maybe it is all just common sense, yet in the enacting of EE/AA, we could be turning a blind eye to these issues. I guess we do this only at the expense of those that end up banging their heads against the wall, and coming off worse for wear. But any ideas for solutions? Given that the imperative to redress imbalances still exists!
Solution? First, there is no silver bullet. Second, be realistic about the pace of change. Third, understand that business works in a certain way and use it – you’ll expend much less energy than trying to change the way business works.