Your customers need to feel valued and recognised: How to give them the best experience
By Leigh Whiting On customer service and customer experience I believe the two are perfectly interwoven and separate at the same time. Customer Experience encompasses the entire journey, from initial discovery through to after the service is delivered. Every interaction is included and there’s a strong focus on how customers perceive those interactions, and how they feel about the sum of all the interactions. Customer service is just one aspect that contributes to the overall experience. It can be defined as the act of assisting and advocating for your customers before, during, and after the purchase of a product or service. The goal is to make sure that this is done while going above and beyond in solving customer problems and providing buyers with the best option possible. How you can improve customer service Consistently high levels of customer service are essential to making sure that customers become advocates for your business, so this should be a major focus for companies. As a starting point, customer needs must be understood, which means that having comprehensive data on each customer is crucial to being able to determine their key drivers and motivators. Secondly, feedback is crucial, and companies should actively seek and promote customer feedback. I think that in addition, any customer service delivery needs to be underpinned with a set of standards that helps keep an experience consistent. How you can know your customers are having a good experience “Delivering a great customer experience” has become a top strategic objective, a survey by Bloomberg Businessweek found. If a focus is placed on understanding your customers, and there is clear vision for CX in place, I believe that companies are setting themselves up for success, if they don’t lose sight of the entire journey. I think having a method in place for continuous feedback and by implementing metrics is a fair measure of improved customer experience. Reduced support requests are a better indicator of improved experience than Net Promoter Scores for me, personally, just because I believe that people will always seek help to resolve issues, but may not always reach out to share feedback. How to retain customers Companies that build the best customer experiences, by truly understanding customer needs and requirements and being able to respond to these in a rapid way, can see the benefits of that work reflected in the retention rate. There has never been as many options available to consumers as there is now in the subscription economy, so really listening is so important. According to SuperOffice, companies spend six to seven times more on acquisition than retention. The experience you create for your customers—both good and bad—may be the single largest determinant of your retention rate. Customer experience represents a summation of how customers feel about your brand, their interactions with your company at each point in the customer journey. By understanding the overall customer experience, teams can identify what changes should be made to improve that experience in the customer journey, and consequently the retention rate. 57% of respondents in the Zendesk 2020 Customer Experience Trends Report, said that customer service influences their loyalty to a brand. The importance of sustainable consumption Sustainable consumers are often confused with consumers that care about the environment and being eco-friendly. Beyond that though, sustainable consumers hold brands accountable across multiple practices, like respecting human rights and ethical workplace practices. Sustainable consumers matter as they support brands who are open about their values, and this encourages brands to operate sustainably. Putting the customer first “Customer first” is a method for companies to make sure that the customer is at the heart of every decision a company makes, more than products or internal business structures. It can be achieved by proactively seeking ways to deliver a positive experience, and consistently designing and delivering with the customer in mind. This may be an unpopular opinion, especially for someone who advocates client-centricity, but I don’t think the customer always comes first. I think that customers need to be held to account for their actions, interactions, and consumer behaviour. If any of these conflict with a company’s values, a company may want to question whether aligning themselves with that consumer is in their long-term best interest. I’m not saying that a customer first lens of always listening and responding to needs should be discarded, as I strongly believe that this level of customer care makes people feel valued, which results in loyalty to a company. It also means that a journey is designed with the customer in mind, meaning that their overall experience is positive. When we focus on understanding our customers, we can focus on delivering experiences that make them feel valued and recognised, which reduces churn, increases revenue and ultimately leads to higher profits. Single Customer View My foremost experience is that the lack of this single view of the customer and their journey is a major impediment to being able to ensure a positive customer experience. I think that an aggregated view across legacy systems is the best way for companies to overcome this challenge in the short term. That being said, as an experienced design professional AND customer myself, I think that when leveraged correctly, there are massive benefits for the company and the customer. As an example, a customer receiving a relevant offer with a discount voucher – at the right time means they feel understood and rewarded. Simultaneously the company increases sales, loyalty, and advocacy. It should always be mutually beneficial.
How to grow your turnover to over a billion rand
By Denise Persson, CMO at Snowflake How can your company scale and break through the competition to get to US$100-million (R1.8-billion) in revenue? This has been the biggest challenge at every startup I’ve marketed for and taken public over the past 25 years, including Snowflake. It’s no small feat. Back when Snowflake was founded in 2012, an extremely small percentage of companies made it. According to a 2013 study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, only about 0.02 to 0.05 percent of companies founded in the United States reached US$100-million in revenues in a reasonable timeframe. There’s also no magic formula, and what’s most important is how well you execute. But there are a few strategies or pillars that I believe marketing teams should follow as they scale. These pillars were the cornerstones of our marketing success at Snowflake during our journey to US$100-million. Create strong positioning Positioning is actually more than a pillar of marketing—it’s the entire foundation. And just as with a house, if the foundation isn’t strong, the walls will crack. With strong positioning, you can avoid cracks in your marketing, and your program investments will be more effective. Author Al Reis describes positioning as the battle for your prospects’ minds. Winning the battle is about how well you differentiate yourself in their minds. The first thing you need to do is define the category you wish to own. In 2016 at Snowflake, the category we were determined to own was “The Data Warehouse Built for the Cloud.” Our positioning has evolved since then, and today, Snowflake delivers the Data Cloud. But for our journey to $100-million, that was our positioning. We ran extensive focus groups with real prospects to make sure that our positioning worked with people who didn’t know Snowflake. Most often, companies do a few interviews with current prospects or customers, but that isn’t really enough. The category that you’re creating needs to be relevant to companies you will sell to at the next stage of growth. You also get a lot of data and insight back from prospects, and this data-driven process makes it easier to get buy-in internally, which is vital to create consistency in your positioning. Your employees, partners, and customers all need to describe you the same way. So for more than three years, our Data Warehouse Built for the Cloud positioning was everywhere, and if anyone described us differently, we asked them to change it. You can’t win the battle for your prospects’ minds if you are changing who you are every six months. The more consistent you are, the more impactful your marketing will be. Be the most customer-centric When you look at what the most admired brands in the world have in common, you’ll see that they all own their categories, they’re extremely consistent with their brand experience, and they have incredible customer loyalty. Within Snowflake’s marketing team, our number-one priority from the beginning has been to put the customer first. That means that we think from the outside-in, all the time. What do customers need from us? We did a few things to make sure we always kept our focus on customers. Our marketing team ran almost daily meetings with our sales engineers who were out in the field with our customers. That helped us learn which questions and concerns we needed to address. To scale our content development in those early days, we got almost every employee involved with writing content and creating videos that were laser-focused on what our customers wanted to learn. This helped us create trust and credibility, which startups often lack. Whenever possible, we put actual customers at the forefront of our marketing programs. We have thousands of brand ambassadors among our customers today, and they are our most effective marketing. To get customers involved in our marketing efforts, we worked on building direct relationships with them and made sure there was value for them to participate. We also started customer advisory board meetings, where we gave our customers fake dollar bills and asked them to invest them in different parts of our roadmap. This helped us prioritise the things that mattered most to them. Finally, I recommend companies start an annual customer engagement survey as early as possible. This also helps you establish your Net Promoter Score (NPS) score. Every year, we measure every single component of our customers’ experience with Snowflake, and the survey provides us with invaluable insights. Build for scale Many startups get to US$20-million and experience a slowdown in growth. This often happens because they rely on manual work, and because they don’t build their marketing technology stack and processes to scale. In 2017, the big topic at every all-hands meeting at Snowflake was around automating more work so we could get rid of the “hamsters.” The hamsters were all of the resources doing work that should be automated. In the beginning, they were very important in doing things such as setting up accounts for our customers. But it wasn’t really until we had a fully automated provisioning system that our free-trial sign-ups took off. We also built our marketing technology stack to scale with our growth from the beginning. If you don’t, you’ll have to slow down and start replacing parts, hindering your momentum. In addition, we scaled every component of our demand process. For example, we introduced live product demos to cut down on one-to-one meetings. We instituted a weekly Office Hours session where prospects can talk live to a reference customer and get all their questions answered. This eliminates the one-to-one reference call request and helps us respect our customers’ time. For startups looking to scale to US$100-million quickly, get rid of the hamsters as soon as you can, make sure your technology can grow with you, and find ways to improve every component of your buyers’ journey that is time-consuming. Be bold To break through in today’s competitive market and compete with large, well-known brands, you have to get noticed. The
What to look for when recruiting
By Juanita Vorster Business leaders across the globe worry about attracting and retaining top talent, especially as remote and hybrid workforces are becoming the norm. In their responses to surveys they often list it as a main inhibitor of profitable growth into the future! Despite this, most business leaders and managers prioritise other tasks over recruitment and talent selection rather than seeing it as a vital part of their jobs. In addition, many business leaders and managers do not have the skills required to ensure that the right people are found and placed in the right jobs. Statistically, using traditional recruitment methods has a 60% failure rate, resulting in an enormous waste of time and money. Getting recruiting right is therefore something that can’t be left to an HR department or line manager alone; business leaders have to get personally involved. Getting the right people for the right jobs as a four-stage process with each step being of equal importance: Specify Before advertising a vacancy, business leaders must be crystal clear about the job specification as well as the attitudes and behaviours of the person needed for the job. This, in turn, needs to align with the purpose, vision and values of the company. The best talent has a choice these days and will simply not work for an organisation whose values they don’t share; another reason why leadership needs to be actively involved in recruitment. These specifications should be written down and be clear enough for anyone to understand. This will help to prevent two common recruitment mistakes: deciding what the job specifications are based on the available talent or hiring based on chemistry rather than true fit. The popular saying “hire for attitude, train for skill” is very noble in its intent, but business owners and leaders adhering strictly to this sentiment might run the risk of not achieving the optimal mix of behavioural competencies needed for peak performance. Find Owners and leaders of smaller organisations often fall into the trap of thinking that they won’t be able to attract top talent, so they approach the vacancy listing process with a timid attitude. Top talent isn’t always the most expensive people or the most qualified. Instead, they are the people who are the absolute best fit for a specific role in a specific organisation. It is therefore of utmost importance that a vacancy listing is not just a list of required skills and experience; to attract the appropriate talent, the vacancy listing must reflect the true culture and values of the business and what it’s like to be part of the team. To access the top talent pool, business leaders must involve those who are experts in selling the benefits of the company in creating the vacancy listing. Marketing people are often a better choice for this task than an HR department or even recruitment agencies. That is the best for a business to attract top talent – that might be currently employed – rather than limit itself to a talent pool of despondent job seekers. During the interview process of shortlisted candidates, top talent will most likely ask questions to help them determine whether the values of the business align with their own values. If they can’t get a clear idea of what the values are or how the business practically lives those values, or they feel that their values do not align with those of the business, they’ll go look for employment somewhere else. Assess It is astonishing that many companies around the world still rely on an impressive CV with one or two interviews as the only activities to recruit talent. Even references can’t be guaranteed as a mark of quality as they can be influenced by litigation around labour disputes. True top talent will be able to prove that they are the best during an assessment that must form part of the recruitment process. The difficulty of the assessment will of course differ depending on the job level recruited for, and businesses must never abuse the assessment process to gain free insights or labour. Assessments may appear to be time-consuming and costly, but the cost of getting recruitment wrong has been estimated as about four or even five times the employee’s annual salary! It’s therefore much less expensive to use assessments than to recruit and train an employee who was never right for the job or whose aspirations conflicted with those of the business. Negotiate The final stage in the recruitment process should be a discussion and negotiation between the selected candidate and their potential direct manager on the exact details of the role and remuneration package. People can truly make or break a business – irrespective of its size or shape. With economic pressure rising and an increase in leadership burnout, no business leader can afford to stand back and allow mediocre talent to come on board. Juanita Vorster is a successful entrepreneur with a knack for turning complex business concepts into simplified, practical advice.
The B2B Formula: The 5 key pillars to growth engineering
By Andrew Honey, Founding Partner and Group CEO of ThinkSales Global B2B market-leading companies are led by CEOs who understand the factors that impact revenue growth and profitability and then design a strategy to address these factors. Factors impacting revenue growth and profitability in the B2B landscape: Revenue growth engineering: How market leading B2B companies do it Ultimately, for B2B companies to excel, they must enable the Sales organisation within the business to deploy a customer-centric, differentiated customer engagement process. The 5-pillars of a market-leading B2B sales organisation The foundation of a successful B2B organisation is what we call a ‘revenue growth approach’ that simultaneously focuses on sales growth and margin protection. There are five key pillars that must be developed and then matured in every organisation to achieve this goal, finally reaching a level of optimisation that ensures a strong, sustainable and above-all competitive B2B business. The five key pillars of a high-performance sales organisation: 1. Competitive strategy Many companies do not have a documented, customer-centric sales organisation strategy that differentiates the organisation for a competitive advantage. Instead, many companies simply have a set of actions they will take to make a budget, not founded on market opportunity, but rather an increase on the previous year’s sales. Furthermore, strategy too often fails to be translated into an execution. As a result, sales managers are not equipped with a clear road map of where to focus or what exactly their sales reps should do differently. The solution: Executives should conduct a 360-degree GAP analysis of their sales organisation and then design an ideal future-state strategy. The potential for a competitive advantage for a company is for the sales organisation to perform a set of activities differently to their competitors. This is simultaneously differentiating and difficult to commoditise. 2. Customer engagement If the process and systems for prospecting and customer engagement is either not defined or randomly followed by sales reps, the business has no control over how customers are perceiving a B2B organisation. This can result in sales teams who are unable to articulate value to customers or guide them through a quality decision-making process. The solution: B2B organisations must develop an agile approach to mapping, refining and testing processes in response to changing business environments and customer needs. 3. Sales talent An ill-defined approach to hiring and developing sales talent means that leadership teams do not develop star performers who are able to articulate value and differentiate the business. This often leads to missed opportunities and missed targets, because the sales team is unable to engage on value and with the correct level of stakeholders on a B2B level. The solution: Building a strong sales force starts with hiring. Companies that rely on scientific assessment tools over gut instinct to identify competitive sales DNA will win in the end – as this will result in a high percentage of sales reps who can meet their revenue targets. 4. Sales management In many organisations, top sales reps are promoted into sales management positions in the hope that a star performer will somehow rub off on sales reps who report to them. The reality is that this is seldom the case, particularly if the sales rep in question relied on their charisma and relationship-building skills to close deals. The solution: Strong sales management abilities rely on a systematic, metrics-driven approach including coaching to drive sales rep activities and outcomes. They also need good change management capabilities as B2B customers are constantly evolving and changing, and so how an organisation sells to them must be both agile and adaptable. 5. Sales enablement Since 70% of B2B buyers are doing their own online research before they even reach out to a brand, presenting compelling collateral that effectively positions your solution is an important foundational principle. How a customer engages with your brand is therefore the product of sales collateral that supports the entire buying funnel. The solution: A buyer-centric view is essential when developing engaging collateral. Industry-aligned and needs-driven content captures a buyer’s attention, while evidence-based case study content that demonstrates a strong return-on-investment is important to help position your brand as a leader, overcome scepticism and justify buying decisions.
Social media lead generation ideas for your business
By Rucien Petersen, Managing Director, Spottmedia There are many challenges businesses could face when it comes to building a brand on social media. A few challenges include lack of creativity, online reputation management and the ability to become noticed and stand out. However, there is one challenge and theme that is becoming a daily issue for many businesses and that is the creation of content on a consistent level. Content is the life blood for a business on social media. If you do not have content your socials become inactive and dormant. There are three main aspects brands should consider when it comes to positioning themselves on social media. These aspects include education, information or entertainment. The creation of content should be based on these three aspects and should align to the business goals and objectives. Below I discuss a few ideas we focus on when creating content for a business on social media. Here are 7 social media lead generation ideas to try next: Run a competition If you start out generating followers and engagement is not that easy. A great way to draw attention, generate followers and engagement is to run a competition. Partner with brands that align to your company’s values. When it comes to running a competition the trick in making it a success is the prize on offer. Make sure the prize is of a higher value, what we found with competitions is that the higher the value, the higher the interest and traction. Product/service feature and benefits If you are stuck with creating unique content the simple and easiest content to focus on is your product and service offering. However, we found that most brands are going this route on social media. One way to differentiate yourself from your competitors is to focus on the benefits customers will derive from your product/service. So instead of simple images of the product, share more about the experience and value potential customers will gain from it. Blog Blogging contributes to your brand being found online and is an effective tactic used to educate potential customers. Besides writing about the value your product/service can offer, you can also write about solution offerings. The words “How to” have been the most searched keywords on Google. Blog using ‘How to’. If you are a baker, you can write regular blogs on How to bake the perfect chocolate cake? How to bake a simple carrot cake? How to start a bakery? Use this content on your website as it will help your business with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) then share this content on your social media pages. Tips Another form of content can be to provide weekly tips. Once you understand who your target audience is. Try to see how you can add value to them by providing tips and ways to overcome the challenges you have experienced. These tips can be in the form of short video clips or carousel images. CSI (Corporate Social Initiative) There are many needs within our communities. As a startup or small business you might not always have the funds to sponsor a NGO. The easiest way to get involved in your community is to offer what you have (service, product or knowledge). This will only cost you time and you can use the sponsorship as content for your social media pages. Customer reviews Credibility and trust is a major issue when it comes to consumers buying into your business and service offering. Asking your clients for reviews and posting it on social media gives you more content to play around with and to use. Posting your customers feedback instills confidence and trust amongst potential customers when conducting research online on your brand. User Generated Content Humans connect with humans and user generated content is an effective way to establish a human connection. User Generated Content can either be in the form of your clients or an influencer campaign. You can post about your clients’ experience in your store or shop. Alternatively run an influencer campaign where you run a trade exchange offering an influencer product/service in exchange for posts over their social media platforms.
Tailoring your workspace to retain and attract talent
By Andile Mgudlwa, Managing Director of Facilities Management Division at Empact Group There is very little doubt that dealing with the global pandemic resulted in a significant shift in how we perceive our workplaces. Whilst society as a whole seems to have gone back to how things were before March 2020, the workforce and the businesses they are employed by seem to be divided on how best to move forward. Employers are on a drive to get people back to the office for better corporate culture and face-to-face collaboration. Workers on the other hand seem to be torn between the flexibility that comes with working remotely (and the resultant savings on transport costs) and missing the in-person interaction they have with their colleagues when they are at the office. Hybrid working arrangements seem to be the solution that more employers are adopting to address these different needs. Most companies have put policies and incentives in place to entice people to spend some time at the office with the option of working from home on selected days. Some of these initiatives are starting to produce the desired result, however a large part of the working population has found it difficult to abandon the comfort of their home offices. For a significant shift to happen there needs to be a re-think in how the office is currently perceived. Insisting on keeping the office set up the way it has always been, is not an option anymore. In order to attract and retain key talent, employers need to come up with innovative ways to address the needs of the increasingly young workforce. More and more companies are now looking towards facility managers to support them develop workspaces that will provide the required balance and keep people engaged. This has resulted in a shift in the traditional role of a facilities manager, a shift referred to as “basement-to-boardroom”. Facilities management is now seen as one of the levers that employers can utilise to drive this strategy and deliver the required results. Facilities managers who used to focus only on maintenance and the provision of services are now spending more time thinking about enhancing the experience of people working and visiting their facilities. Companies now look to facilities managers to understand the needs of their employees as well as clients and tailor the workplace environment to meet their combined needs. In order to remain competitive in the current talent war, a company’s employee value proposition needs to stand out above the competition. Facilities managers together with their clients need to constantly keep asking themselves what the future of working in an office building looks like. Facilities managers have a number of tools available in their toolbox to support an organisation in meeting its strategic goals. Some these tools include: Deciding which is the best tool to reach the strategic goal will depend on the company’s specific requirements at the time and these requirements will evolve as the company’s strategy evolves. Facility managers and facilities management providers therefore need to keep their fingers on the pulse to ensure that the experience is in line with the company’s requirements. The real-time data that comes from the CAFM (Computer Aided Facilities Management) and IWMS (Integrated Workplace Management System) technologies will ensure that decisions made are informed and data driven. That way the facility managers will always support the organisation by enhancing the workplace experience to meet the ever-changing requirements of the workforce.
Why frontliners are the key to your organisation’s success
By Tom Marsicano, CEO of ‘and Change’ Frontline workers and managers are the backbone of any institution. The people who offer your services to customers reflect your organisation’s internal state of affairs. Therefore, their careers and happiness are core to your success, and their buy-in is the key to effecting positive organisational change. Organisations worldwide must manage extreme change, especially in the face of the so-called ‘polycrisis’ – a term coined by the World Economic Forum describing the ongoing global crises affecting our lives. From economic depressions to global conflicts, many institutions are treading water, hoping to maintain their development while keeping their workers’ happiness intact. This circumstance is especially true in South Africa, where we must deal with compounding factors like inflation, crumbling infrastructure, and brain drains. Frontline workers are usually the first to experience significant organisational changes, from restructuring to implementing new systems or determining new ways of working. The most successful of these front liners can see these changes as an opportunity, not a threat. Yet developing that mindset does require training, supportive management, and reasoning from leaders to ensure the change is fully understood – a vital process in avoiding resistance to the change. These are all critical elements of change management, and the risk of not seriously taking change resistance is evident when you consider that 70% of organisational transformation efforts fail without proper employee buy-in. So, what can those of us across an organisation do to ensure that frontline workers are ready and willing to embrace change? Implement change management principles across the organisation, from executives to frontline managers to workers on the ground – the change value chain. Frontline managers From their relationship dynamics with their teams to their dual role as both recipients and agents of change, team leaders are essential to managing the current seismic shifts organisations are facing. Research from Prosci, and on-the-ground experience tells us that there are multiple vital activities that frontline managers must perform in times of change: Senior executives/sponsors As those giving permission and approving funding for the change, top-level leaders of an organisation also have an essential role in giving frontline managers the support they need: The frontline workers themselves Much of the change management work should be conducted by organisational leaders, and ambitious workers on the frontline can leverage the change to showcase their leadership abilities. In our consulting experience, we’ve seen how successful organisation-wide training can be. One of our clients in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sector was implementing an entirely new distribution process for their products and decided to train their distribution units at the ground level in change management skill sets. The adoption of the new system was rapid, and this not only empowered workers across the business but also dramatically heightened efficiency. We advise our clients always to acknowledge the frontline experience. However, one must go beyond simple verbal recognition and follow through with action to ensure their lives and careers are positively affected by the change – especially in these difficult times. Sources: WEF | Business Tech | Forbes | Prosci
Leadership that lasts – trust, alignment, and the courage to communicate
By Etienne Le Roux, Chief Financial Officer at Metropolitan When I think about leadership, it’s not the big boardroom moments that stand out the most. To me, it’s the quiet, unguarded ones that make all the difference – those moments when you bring people together around a table, cut through the noise, and have a real conversation about where the organisation is headed. And this is the universal truth, leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating a space where the best ideas are revealed while everyone feels part of something bigger than themselves – a team with a shared goal. That’s the ultimate destination, but the journey is far from comfortable and the bumps in the road ahead may seem like mountains. No matter how good a driver you are as a leader, if you are unable to pull your team together, your organisation will never reach its full potential. So, what have I learned about succeeding together? Here are a few lessons I have learned during my years in leadership roles: Projects fail when we lose sight of what we are solving for Let me start with this: if you’re unclear on what problem you’re solving, you’re setting yourself up to fail. I’ve seen it too many times, exciting projects launched because they sounded innovative or used the latest tech, only to unravel because no one stopped to ask, “What are we really trying to solve?” Think about it: the best ideas solve real problems—something your customers need or a way to make your business work better. Start small, test your idea, and keep it simple. If you’re launching a new venture, for instance, it might be best not to build the whole ecosystem from scratch. Can you sell an existing product through a new distribution channel? Can you digitalise an existing process? These are two examples of hypothesis testing that you can use to build the full venture. Having clarity on which hypothesis to prove before starting the end-to-end process makes a significant difference. Trying to solve too many problems at once makes it difficult to unpack why something is not working. Instead, focus on proving successes in links of the chain before solving for the entire value chain. The gift of failure Here’s the thing about failure: it’s not a dead end! If I look back, some of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned came from projects that didn’t pan out. But the key is what you do with that failure. If you let it pass without reflection, you’ve wasted it. If you use it to understand what went wrong and share those insights, you’re turning failure into progress. Here’s the magic—when people know they won’t be blamed for failure, they’ll take risks. They’ll speak up. They’ll try something new. That’s when real innovation happens. But this only works if we create an environment where people feel safe. If a team doesn’t feel heard, or worse, if they feel punished for missteps, you lose their creativity—and that’s the most expensive thing to lose. Making the tough calls Leadership often means sitting in the tension between opposing forces. One moment you’re in a meeting about cutting costs, the next someone’s pitching a bold growth initiative that will cost millions. It’s messy, but that’s the job – balancing today’s realities with tomorrow’s potential. Deciding whether to pull the plug on something is one of the hardest calls. And honestly, it’s never black and white. The key is to step back, look at the evidence, and include diverse perspectives in the conversation. Test assumptions, listen to dissenting voices, and remember to ask, “What’s the opportunity cost if we keep this going?” Delaying decisions drains resources – time, energy, and even morale. In business, there will always be more ideas and opportunities than you have time to successfully implement. Often, saying no to things is the more crucial decision as it creates focus for the team, and improves the chances of execution. Multiple small wins create energy and momentum, which often lead to larger wins down the road. A leader’s role is to direct focus on the right things that will move the needle, and this involves making tough calls which includes having to say no. Honest conversations build trust Here’s where it all comes together: communication. If you’re not honest and clear about decisions you make, you lose trust from your employees. People start second-guessing leadership, rumours spread, and suddenly, your team falls out of alignment. The truth is alignment isn’t all about everyone agreeing. It’s about ensuring everyone understands why a decision was made, what it’s based on, and what happens next. That clarity is what keeps people rowing in the same direction and doing it in sync, even if they might not entirely happy about the course. When you get this right, something incredible happens. You create a culture where people don’t just follow – they invest themselves. They challenge, they innovate, and they make your organisation stronger. Leadership is a journey At its core, leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s all about learning. When we win, and even when we fail, there’s an opportunity to learn; so be sure to pause and take in the learnings. By applying these lessons, we create an environment where people are seen, heard, and most importantly, valued. Yes, there will be tough decisions to make, and you’re going to need to demonstrate humility when you get it wrong. Your team needs to know that you are not infallible – and that’s okay. Humility doesn’t diminish a leader’s authority; it enhances it by showing that leadership isn’t about being infallible—it’s about being human. When leaders embrace humility, they empower their teams, build stronger relationships, and inspire a culture where every voice matters. So, if you’re ever wondering what great leadership looks like, remember this: it’s not about you. It’s about the people you serve, the problems you solve, and the culture you build. If
Marthinus Visser: OUTsurance Group CEO – Expanding internationally
By Fiona Wakelin OUTsurance was started in 1998 by three entrepreneurs, Willem Roos, Howard Aron and Rene Otto inside the Rand Merchant Bank Holdings stable. It brought a number of innovations to the somewhat stale short term insurance market at the time. These included the OUTbonus, flat excess structures, roadside assistance and covering vehicles for retail value. These addressed many of the common gripes around insurance at the time. It made use of home-grown talent and built all its systems and underwriting capabilities in house. It was able to reach break even after a mere 22 months and continued a strong organic growth trajectory since then as the brand got stronger and more established. Positive word-of-mouth played a key part in the successful building of the brand. In South Africa the company offers car, home, business and life insurance; in Australia they offer car, home, business and bodily injury insurance; and in Ireland the offering includes car and home insurance. OUTsurance Group CEO, Marthinus Visser shares key insights into driving outstanding growth: Creating a runway for growth We have identified the three key needs of insurance consumers as a competitive price, good service, and trust that your claim will be paid. By focusing our efforts every day to get better at delivering those three elements, we are becoming more and more competitive allowing for strong organic growth. Through our successful international expansion, we have also created additional runway for growth, over and above the South African market. For example, our Australian business, Youi, now accounts for 63% of our Group revenue and it still has a significant runway for growth given that the Australian car and home insurance market is more than five times the size of the South African market. Our recent entry into Ireland is creating further runway for organic growth. Significant trends in the industry We have observed large scale technological changes enabling omni-channel servicing of clients. These channels now being digital, call center and face-to-face allowing for the level of human intervention to vary according to customer needs. We have also observed a large increase in regulatory complexity increasing the cost of compliance. Furthermore, we observed increased natural peril events putting upward pressure on reinsurance cost and premiums. Lastly, we observed an increase in competition over the last 25 years. Subsidiaries We launched in Australia in 2008 and that business has overtaken our South African business in size. Contrary to many South African businesses that struggle overseas, we have been able to build up a successful business that is now contributing materially to the overall group. It has many things in common with our South African business and we collaborate closely in many areas. We launched in Ireland earlier this year and hope to emulate the success of the Australian business. Importantly it is also a greenfield start-up like our South African and Australian businesses as this allows you to lay the right foundations in terms of people, culture, systems and processes. The only downside is that you have to be patient as it takes a long time to build such a business, but the reward is there if you are successful. Impact of technology Technology has made it easier to offer the omni-channel service. It has also enabled more accurate risk pricing as well as improved productivity in many areas. All this supports better delivery of price, service and trust. Mobile phones and large data processing capabilities really enabled step changes in some areas. Have climate change and the commensurate extreme weather events affected your business model? Yes, it has had a large impact on the claims cost related to these events causing especially home insurance premiums to escalate faster than CPI inflation. It also required bolstering of resources and digital capabilities to cope with the influx of claims that these events can cause. It also caused reinsurance costs to increase materially. Understanding flood risk and underwriting for it has become critical. It is such a topical issue and insurance alone can’t solve it. We need collaboration between governments, banks and insurers to tackle this issue to make sure that infrastructure is built and maintained to minimise the impact of these events but also that new developments do not take place in high-risk areas. How would you describe your role in OUTsurance? My primary role is to set the strategy and oversee its successful implementation. As part of this I need to get buy-in from the management teams and boards that it is the best strategy to follow. A key part of my role is also to assemble the best possible team of senior leaders to execute the strategy. Investor relations is also a key part of my role as you have to be accessible and accountable to investors to make sure they are comfortable with the strategy. What do you enjoy most about what you do? I really enjoy incremental improvement and how it brings success. The good thing about short-term insurance is that the feedback loop is quite short and as you implement plans to support the strategy and improve outcomes you can quickly see whether you are successful or not. What have been your most memorable challenges and milestones? The early days in a start-up always present many challenges and the rate of making improvements is incredibly high. The two successful start-ups of OUTsurance in South Africa and Youi in Australia are true milestones. A key challenge is to preserve that start-up culture even as you get much larger to continue to solve problems quickly and in a pragmatic way. If you do that, the business continues to thrive. Please share with our readers what you are looking forward to in the coming year. We are looking forward to ongoing incremental improvements in our offering of price, service and trust. This should continue to support the organic growth in South Africa and Australia. Our OUTsurance face-to-face agents in South Africa is also a very exciting channel allowing customers with more complex
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