Old mutual head office sandton

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OLD MUTUAL LIMITED: LEADING CULTURE CHANGE

Michelle Govender wrote this case under the supervision of Professor Caren Scheepers solely to provide material for class discussion.

The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.

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Copyright © 2020, Ivey Business School Foundation Version: 2020-03-30

Karabo Morule, managing director of Old Mutual Limited (Old Mutual) Personal Finance, gazed out from Old Mutual’s1 iconic new headquarters at the skyline of Sandton, South Africa, the morning of June 26,

2018. Morule was considering the dilemma of how to retain the heritage of a culture based on shared values

while modernizing and strengthening it to express a new customer-led approach with a focal point of Africa. The company’s new 12-storey building, representative of Old Mutual’s strong position in Africa, was a

striking addition to the Sandton skyline. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa had officially opened

the building the day before. The date of June 26 represented the day Old Mutual celebrated the head office’s return home to South Africa.

As Morule listened to the celebratory sound of vuvuzelas2 below, she reflected on how the change in structure

at Old Mutual had compelled a change in culture in order for the organization to remain sustainable and competitive. Morule believed that the organization’s values defined the culture of the business: The core

values of respect, integrity, and accountability had been an integral part of Old Mutual’s long history.

Following the announcement of the company’s strategy to have a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, Morule knew that the business she ran had to change on a fundamental level in order to achieve

sustainable growth⎯and a change in values and culture would be crucial to this. To develop the type of work

culture she wanted, Morule knew she had to establish additional core values and keep them relevant.

Morule considered how she, as a leader on a path of transformation, had responded to market conditions and played her part in creating an environment conducive to change for employees on their cultural journey of

Anchoring in Africa,3 which was a shift from the founding culture of the organization (see Exhibit 1). The

previous culture at Old Mutual had been, at best, merely a theme mentioned on the organization’s website, or 1 Old Mutual Limited was a financial services provider that offered financial solutions to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, corporations, and institutions across several market segments and geographies in South Africa and the rest of Africa; “Who We Are,” Old Mutual, accessed March 4, 2020, www.oldmutual.com/about/who-we-are. 2 A simple plastic noisemaker in the form of a straight trumpet, usually between two and three feet long, that produced a single note and was used primarily at sporting events; Merriam-Webster online, s.v. “vuvuzela,” accessed October 31, 2019, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vuvuzela. 3 “Anchoring in Africa” was the term used within Old Mutual and by the media to describe Old Mutual plc’s creation of a new South African holding company, Old Mutual Limited, with a primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on June 26, 2018.

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perhaps an imaginative photograph or statement on the wall of the company’s reception area. Culture was

only occasionally, if at all, estimated or characterized through employee behaviour. Currently, the

organization used practices to precisely gauge, deliberately adjust, and proactively improve culture.

Morule was preparing to address key stakeholders at a Provincial Management Board (PMB) meeting,4 where

she would generate support for the ongoing effort that would be required for cultural change on the path ahead

and speak about the importance of the active participation of employee representatives on this path. These representatives would be part of every phase of the cultural change so that they could both contribute to and take

ownership of creating a road map for developing an ideal, robust culture. The purpose of the meeting was to

establish objectives, set goals, and define roles in the culture change management process. Rosie Wilson, chairperson of Gauteng PMB, later commented on Morule’s contribution to the meeting: “Communication was

clear to all staff. It was open from top to bottom. In other words, that [Morule’s approach] opened

communication, everybody participated, and everybody felt that ‘I am part of this.’ And it was not management

taking this and dragging us behind them, we were part of it.”5 Wilson was referring to the strategy Morule had adopted for providing clarity around the organizational change and in giving individual employees a context for

how their work fit into the big picture. The key principle in Morule’s strategy was including many voices instead

of using a top-down mandate, where leadership forced change on employees.

KARABO MORULE’S BACKGROUND

Morule had grown up in Diepkloof,6 Soweto, with a story many Black South Africans could tell. Her parents

were both professionals who believed in the value of a good education, and because they had the resources,

they had sent their daughter to a private school. Growing up in Diepkloof and going to school in the northern

suburbs of Johannesburg meant that Morule had to straddle two worlds. She believed that helped her in navigating the corporate world, as she had learned how to balance her culture and who she was with the needs

of a business. Culture impacted organizations in areas such as the pace of business, communication, and risk-

taking. The people she had spent time with, including school peers, colleagues, family, and friends, had all helped Morule gain insight into how she interacted and connected with people, as well as how she expected

others to behave in certain environments. She had learned that a good company culture was built on not only

shared values but also shared trust. As a workplace leader, she understood that she played a powerful role in creating and guiding company culture.

Morule began her career at the Johannesburg branch of the global investment bank J.P. Morgan and had spent

over three years at J.P. Morgan’s London office working on the Insurance Securitized Products team. Morule’s work in London helped her gain a global perspective by expanding her diverse knowledge base as she

encountered new and insightful approaches to business problems through her interaction with multinational

and cross-cultural teams. Recognizing and understanding that culture affected international business, Morule realized that while many African businesses shared underlying similarities, when contrasted with Western

businesses, a wide cultural difference was evident.7 Morule knew that Africa was rich in cultural diversity,

and the context of African culture and values influenced how business was done on the continent. A typical example of the cultural gap between Western and African businesses was the approach to written

4 Provincial Management Boards (known as PMBs) played a key role in the provinces by forming strategic relationships with provincial stakeholders in the public and private sectors, civil society, labour groups, communities, and professional associations. The PMBs represented the microcosm of the broader business to customers and were made up of leaders from across the Old Mutual business. 5 Rosie Wilson, in an interview with the author, September 19, 2019, in Sandton, South Africa. 6 Diepkloof was a large township in Soweto, South Africa, established through apartheid legislation for Black occupation to accommodate the removal of Black people from Alexandra. 7 Navin Ravindran, “The Role of Culture in Doing Business in Africa,” AfricaBusiness.com, June 23, 2016, accessed October

30, 2019, http://africabusiness.com/2016/06/23/the-role-of-culture-in-doing-business-in-africa/.

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correspondence, which in Western culture was characterized by a minimal greeting with an accentuation on

rules and deadlines. This was not acceptable in African business; instead, African culture emphasized polite

greetings and enquiries about the individual’s well-being and family before attending to the business at hand.

In Africa, a common ground for business relationships was trust.

Morule joined Old Mutual in 2010, and she held several management positions before being appointed as

managing director of Old Mutual Personal Finance in January 2016, at age 33. Personal Finance was one of the group’s largest business segments, with a staff complement of 5,000 people servicing the needs of

almost 2 million customers.

Morule was only the second Black female actuary to achieve an actuarial qualification in South Africa, which

she did at the age of 24. She was also the first Black woman to lead the Old Mutual Personal Finance division

and the first Black female actuary to serve on Old Mutual’s executive committee. Building on this, in 2018,

Morule became one of only two South Africans to be invited by the World Economic Forum to its community of Young Global Leaders. Further recognition came from the Association of South African Black Actuarial

Professionals when she was given the Inkanyezi Award for her valuable contributions to the actuarial

profession during 2018. Morule was an accomplished leader in not just her role in the corporate environment but also as a Black female pushing boundaries.

Khanyi Chaba, head of Responsible Business, described Morule as “one of those leaders that I see as focused on delivering . . . but also, she comes across as believing in people that she works with, so she’s a driver, she

delivers, and in terms of the specific subject matter on responsible business, she’s one of those key leaders

who really are driving responsible business.”8

MANAGED SEPARATION

Old Mutual was established in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1845, and it quickly became a trusted and

recognized brand across the country. After many years, the business decided to expand internationally,

resulting in demutualization9 and a listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1999. The reasons for

demutualizing included the benefits that policyholders would receive from free shares, for Old Mutual to expand into a broader and more international financial services company, for Old Mutual to be able to more

easily raise money for expansion, and to enable a more flexible business structure.

In March 2016, the group’s leadership decided that the best way forward was to separate its business into

independent, stand-alone companies. A “managed separation” or breakup strategy decision was announced that

month based on a full strategic review of the business. The Old Mutual Group consisted of four parts: a US asset manager, a British wealth manager, an African business, and Nedbank (of which Old Mutual Group owned 54

per cent). The insurer was splitting its four financial services businesses—Old Mutual Emerging Markets

(OMEM), Nedbank, Old Mutual Wealth, and Old Mutual Asset Management—into autonomous entities.

The decision to split was a result of the limited synergies between the four businesses; additionally, their

geographical distribution meant that the different and changing regulatory landscapes in Europe and Africa

added cost, complexity, and constraints to the business as a whole. In other words, Old Mutual’s structure was preventing the efficient funding of future growth plans in Africa. Accordingly, it embarked on a breakup strategy.

8 Khanyi Chaba, in an interview with the author, September 26, 2019, in Sandton, South Africa. 9 Demutualization was the change from an organization owned by policyholders to a listed company owned by shareholders.

See “Demutualization,” Investopedia, accessed March 27, 2020, www.investopedia.com/terms/d/demutualization.asp.

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The old business model implied that the Old Mutual head office was central to the group of companies and

that the companies were all linked. On the other hand, in the new business model, only two of the entities

were linked, namely, OMEM and Nedbank. The first stage of the breakup strategy was selling off a majority

holding in Old Mutual Asset Management in the United States for US$446 million. Old Mutual would continue to own only 5 per cent of this business. The next stage was a separation from its business in the

United Kingdom, which provided financial planning, financial advice, and investment advice services. The

new business was named Quilter after one of its subsidiaries and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

OMEM consisted primarily of all of Old Mutual’s African businesses, including life insurance, asset management, and banking. Five billion shares in Old Mutual were listed on the JSE and the London bourse

on June 26, 2018, as well as in Malawi, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. Old Mutual was created as the group’s local

holding company, and it would incorporate OMEM. It would be headquartered in Johannesburg and focus on

emerging markets in Africa. This meant that the group’s emerging market activities now resided in Africa. Old Mutual had ownership of 54 per cent in Nedbank, but most of its shares would be transferred to Old

Mutual shareholders in the six months following the listing. Old Mutual would retain only 19.9 per cent of

the bank. The listing of Old Mutual on the JSE meant that its senior leadership would be led by local executives from Africa. Additionally, Old Mutual’s African homecoming signalled its commitment to and confidence in

the South African financial markets and helped raise investor confidence in the economy. The OMEM name

was changed to Old Mutual Limited after the unbundling.

CULTURAL CROSSROADS

Old Mutual had reached a cultural crossroads. The core founding values of respect, integrity, and accountability were solid and positive; however, the organization had developed and advanced past these core

values. Additional touchstones were needed to shape, advance, and strengthen the culture. As a forward-

looking organization, Old Mutual had to constantly adapt by shifting priorities and influences; as a result, the core values had to be expanded to include diversity and inclusion, agile innovation that made a difference,

and championing of the customer. The organization’s leaders decided that strengthening customer-centred

values at the heart of the business was the key to the change they wanted to embrace, and it quickly became clear that refining Old Mutual’s values and culture would play a critical role in this transformation.

Once the organization decided to add to and change its core values, it was important to reinforce these with

organization-wide rituals. The journey of transformation for Morule’s leadership team began in March 2016 with the announcement of the “managed separation” change in strategy. When Morule joined Old Mutual in

2010, she had found it necessary to learn how to manage the people side of the business. When she was

appointed as managing director of Personal Finance in 2016, Morule was able to draw on her learnings from both engaging her team and learning from them. She realized that working as a team was a key factor in

recovering from challenges.

LEADING THE CHANGE IN PERSONAL FINANCE

Morule’s strategy began with the inclusion of her executive committee (see Exhibit 2) in Personal Finance, a quality team representative of the diversity Morule wanted to see in the business. The team had started with

three people of colour and seven White members, and it now included seven people of colour and three White

members. The team also increased in gender diversity, with four women and six men. This team would begin

building, sustaining, and supporting the creation of a shared language for change. Morule’s team had a technical understanding of the need for change and were seen as leaders in the business who would exhibit

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the change in their behaviour. The entire approach to this change had to be one of controlled urgency to

achieve an outwardly-focused purpose to enact meaningful change. There was no backup or contingency plan.

Morule was encouraged by seeing her leadership team embrace as a priority the need to shift the culture and

their employees to the next step in the unbundling process.

In leading the change in the Personal Finance segment of the business, Morule had to ensure that key

stakeholders and other influential individuals in the business knew what was required of them and why. Morule first engaged her team in individual conversations to exchange ideas and develop shared

understandings through an honest exchange of information. This exchange of information would help her

leadership team see how their roles, and the changes being made to them, fit within the larger strategy being executed. This one-on-one conversation included knowing where they were, knowing where they wanted to

go as an organization, and building the road map to get there. From the start, Morule recognized the

importance of communicating how the desired changes were essential for aligning the organization with

growth in the new business environment.

Morule then set up a weekly meeting where the leadership team discussed ways to implement and drive the

new behaviours needed for the change to succeed. Morule ensured that this weekly meeting maintained a fun and supportive atmosphere where her team felt safe to suggest and try new things.

Morule was an executive sponsor of the Gauteng PMB. This committee consisted of representatives of the different business units in the province. The function of this committee was to break down the divisions of

silos and gain a commitment and influence from the front-line managers, and representatives from the

different branches who had direct contact with clients. Morule used this committee to share information with

the lower levels of employees in the organization. In order to leverage change, Morule’s method was to turn these PMB front-line managers into cultural leaders by sharing with them detailed information about the

culture change journey. Therefore, every session with the PMB had an agenda point detailing the way forward.

Morule found that the PMB team both supported and challenged her executive committee, and, importantly, they motivated each other to carry the change agenda into the different levels of the organization. Morule

continually encouraged the PMB managers by recognizing that everybody’s voice mattered⎯the PMB

managers had to feel that, as leadership, what they said had been heard and mattered.

MOTIVATING CHANGE

Morule recognized that to effectively lead change, she had to understand the landscape of change and to

experience it. She determined that, together with her leadership team, she had to go through the process of learning first-hand about their customers. In the past, the leadership team had found it difficult to relate to

customers because they did not interact with them directly. The leadership team considered their customers

to be either company employees or third-party insurance brokers and financial advisers rather than the end

consumers of their services. Morule and her team decided that they needed to understand the end customer experience as part of the change journey. Morule embarked on a business transformation initiative with one

aim: to put the customer first. She encouraged each of her team members to become customers themselves,

which led to discussions of the customer experience in taking out a money market account, encountering challenges when using an ATM for the first time, or experiencing difficulty getting through to the call

centre. Morule used the feedback from her leadership team to institute changes that she believed only they,

as the leadership team, had control over. For example, Morule asked the contact centre to send her team recordings of phone calls from customers. Then, in preparation for the leadership team discussion, the team

would listen to the calls to understand how they could improve the customer experience. Morule personally

sat with an agent during a live call and witnessed the frustration of an agent having to navigate between

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countless screens to deal with a customer query. This led to her challenging the service teams to use desktop

technology to bring everything together in one place. This integrated a myriad of existing processes and

streamlined business applications. It was her firm belief that by empowering the agent in their work

experience, the agent would mirror this in the customer experience because a great customer experience was anchored in a great employee experience.

LEADING CHANGE

Morule believed that leadership involved connecting employees to purpose and empowering them to do great work, as well as creating a sense of camaraderie. She felt that Personal Finance should hear about any

cultural or organizational changes from her. She committed to approaching the culture change with an

upbeat and optimistic energy so others would feel this as well, and it would alleviate any anxiety about

what lay ahead. Morule was often told in her conversations with various advisers in the business that they believed the leaders who determined and set the strategy were often far removed from the issues of those

further down the organizational hierarchy⎯the ones left to execute and deal with the front-line challenges

that change created. Morule set out to change this by engaging people throughout the organization in an

effort to understand and influence their outlook. For example, she took part in managing director (MD)

road shows across the entire segment of her business. The MD road shows were the start of involving people in creating excitement for the cultural change. The previous MD had only visited large regional centres

when interacting with employees. In contrast, Morule visited outlying rural areas to speak with employees

there about the change that was to come.

During the MD road shows, Morule and her team found opportunities to have individual discussions with

employees regarding how they would be affected by a cultural change. Over time, Morule had learned that leadership was not always about what the leader knew but, rather, about people feeling like they were all

in it together. It was not necessary to have all the answers; it was necessary to craft answers together. In

view of this, the MD road shows also presented the opportunity for people in the organization to discuss

their concerns⎯before any change was ever delivered.

Morule insisted that internal communication be taken seriously, resulting in the creation and management

of a wide range of interactive platforms and internal channels to engage and motivate employees to ensure

they were kept in the loop about the latest company news and business developments. These included an

intranet site dedicated exclusively to updates on the change process, a weekly newsletter, a rebrand, an update of the company magazine, and monthly posts by Morule on a blog titled “Karabo’s blog.”

The Old Mutual leadership team, where Morule was one of 13 executive members reporting to the chief executive officer, conceptualized what they wanted the Old Mutual brand to represent.10 As a team, they

jointly defined a series of unique branding propositions⎯using collaborative input from people throughout

the business⎯that would give Old Mutual standout recognition. The leadership team focused on clarifying

balanced priorities, creating energy, and signalling a commitment to change in performance and behaviour.

10 The 13 executives who reported to Chief Executive Officer Iain Williamson (at the time of the case study) were Karabo Morule, managing director, Personal Finance; Casper Troskie, chief financial officer; Raymond Berelowitz, director, Customer Solutions; Khaya Gobodo, managing director, Wealth and Investments; Prabashini Moodley, managing director, Old Mutual Corporate; Garth Napier, managing director, Old Mutual Insure; Celiwe Ross, director, Human Capital; Clement Chinaka, managing director, Rest of Africa; Vuyo Lee, chief marketing officer; Clarence Nethengwe, managing director, Mass and Foundation Cluster; Richard Treagus, chief risk officer and acting director, Governance, Regulatory, and Corporate Affairs;

“Our Leadership,” Old Mutual, accessed January 15, 2020, www.oldmutual.com/about/leadership/executive.

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IMPLEMENTING CULTURE CHANGE: PULSE

A shift in thinking from the way communication had always worked in the past to the way forward would

take time and focus, but a shift had to start. The Old Mutual leadership team had a unique opportunity to

own their vision of change instead of following instructions devised in London. This heralded the beginning of the campaign that embraced “the power of now” and brought to life the prospects and possibilities that

came with acting in the moment. This was turned into a motivational rallying cry for Old Mutual, with “The

Time is Now” leading the company’s campaign to change (see Exhibit 3).

The managed separation resulted in Old Mutual being a stand-alone entity on the African continent. The

leadership team focused on developing a brand to quickly build the entity into a viable business, and Old

Mutual adopted a vibrant new brand identity to express their new customer-led approach with the focal point in Africa. Performing in a new environment created a need to identify a new group of values that better fit the

company’s circumstances. Through the stakeholder engagement process described above, the four existing

values evolved under the leadership team into a set of six radical values designed to guide employees in their interactions with each other. This would drive a fresh new brand and define what great service looked like at

Old Mutual. Using information gathering sessions around employees’ feelings and perceptions about the

change process, senior leaders in the business led the change by demonstrating the six new company values of respect, accountability and trust, diversity and inclusion, innovation, championing the customer, and always

acting with integrity. The sessions were used as a reminder to middle management to lead change and were

an opportunity to reward managers who demonstrated the new values within the business.

Old Mutual’s visual brand drew on the optimism, vibrancy, and carpe diem11 spirit of the continent,

reinforcing the message of “Made in Africa for Africans.” Vuyo Lee, chief marketing officer at Old Mutual,

described this as an opportunity the Old Mutual leadership team could use to establish the organization as a Pan-African leader with a distinct customer value proposition that was generating a pulsating new energy.

The organization retained its iconic anchor logo in primary shades of green; however, several spirited

secondary colours, including bright pink, calypso orange, and sunshine yellow, signified a dramatic break with the past and brought the new brand personality to life. The visuals incorporated many traditional

African patterns to illustrate the richness of African culture.

Morule reflected on her experience of the organization’s culture before the change and recalled that it had

been difficult to move forward and get things done. She visualized the change to be a multicoloured expanding

sphere that spoke to new creativity, invention, hope, and optimism, nourishing the growth of the organization as it moved forward. Vikash Maharaj, head of collaboration, described the transition as “winter going into

spring, coming out from this dark greyness to all these colours coming through, this new bloom coming

through; leaves are turning green, the flowers are blooming, all of these colours are coming through.”12

Embracing the theme of Africanness, Morule expressed her identity as an African woman by dressing in traditional African clothes with vibrant Ankara13 patterns, both during road shows, and in the corporate

boardrooms. She believed the only way to change culture was to demonstrate the new behaviours. The

change would be measured by the extent to which people outside of the organization could see it and how

much people within the organization could feel it⎯this would only be possible if people were reminded of

the new values on a daily basis.

11 Latin for “seize the day”, carpe diem urged one to make the most of the present time. 12 Vikash Maharaj, in an interview with the author, September 23, 2019, in Sandton, South Africa. 13 Ankara was a 100 per cent cotton fabric with colourful tribal-like patterns and motifs popular in West African countries.

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In further embracing the theme of Africanness, the Anchoring in Africa road show had been conceptualized

as a symbolic journey from London to Africa, tracing the path Old Mutual had embarked upon from its

headquarters in London and moving through 13 African countries on its way to Johannesburg. The aim of

the road show was to share the excitement and significance of Old Mutual listing on African soil and to discuss with employees and stakeholders the latest developments in the business. The leadership team had

commissioned a statue depicting the three anchors powerfully connected to the African continent; it was

used as a torch to spread the “Anchored in Africa” message, with the anchors relayed from country to country where Old Mutual would be listed across Africa.

MOVING FORWARD

As Morule made her way from the sixth floor to the lobby of the Old Mutual building, she considered

whether she had found the right balance between speed in integrating the cultural and organizational change and progress in merging minds with the change. Morule had challenged herself to achieve the best outcome.

She had resisted the temptation to focus only on making Personal Finance a “great place to work” or on

financial performance. As the business scaled into Africa, maintaining Old Mutual’s unique culture was essential to the brand’s identity and work life. Morule considered how, beyond great products, great

technology, and great credentials, to grow the strong corporate culture necessary to inspire motivated,

passionate, loyal, and dedicated employees across Africa.