Deciding on SA's top business person of the decade was no easy task. The judges, several of whom could have been candidates in their own right , spent a couple of hours coming to their decision over lunch at Johannesburg steakhouse The Grillhouse.
Despite the light lunch, the debate was heated at times, with strong disagreement on who should get the honour. Eventually it was settled by a secret vote.
Even then, there was no clear winner. Remgro and Richemont chairman Johann Rupert and AngloGold CEO Bobby Godsell received an equal number of votes for the top position.
The panel did agree, however, that former Sanlam chairman Marinus Daling, who died two years ago after a battle with cancer, had made an exceptional contribution to SA business. Others who had made a difference, in no particular order, were: Sam Motsuenyane, for his contribution as an entrepreneur and efforts to give black business a voice through Nafcoc; Bidvest executive chairman Brian Joffe; and Vodacom Group CE Alan Knott-Craig.
The judges were businessman Peter Vundla, who sits on the boards of HerdBuoys McCann-Erickson, New Seasons Investment and African Merchant Bank, among others; former Chamber of Mines president, recent UCT Graduate School of Business director and company director Nick Segal; Roy Andersen, who made it to the top in the army, headed the JSE and Liberty, and now chairs Virgin Active and Murray & Roberts; Edward Nathan & Friedland chairman and Katz Commission head Michael Katz; and former accountant and now Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana. They decided early on that the award would celebrate great achievements. Consequently they did not consider anyone who might have affected SA's business environment negatively.
They also felt that SA's numerous black business leaders had not yet had sufficient opportunity to be judged on a long-term basis.
Similarly, the panel decided not to consider people like Maria Ramos (former director-general of the finance department and now CEO of Transnet) and businessman Cyril Ramaphosa (who during the period under review was also a politician and chairman of the Black Economic Empowerment Commission). Their influence over the past decade had mostly been at a "political" level, enabling business rather than participating in business themselves.
With SA going through profound change, the role of business was infinitely wider than just increasing the bottom line, the panel felt. The winner had to be a multidimensional leader who not only created wealth for shareholders but also showed responsibility to all stakeholders and, in so doing, helped transform the economy and society through job creation, black economic empowerment and other initiatives.
In making their selection, the panel constantly checked whether the contenders had succeeded because of their exceptional leadership skills or merely because they had been boosted by a big corporation or a booming industry.
They quickly came up with a short list. But dissension among panel members highlighted the element of subjectivity. Frank opinions were aired about contenders' achievements, leadership style and personality.
Ultimately, it was agreed that all on the short list had made exceptional contributions to SA business over the past 10 years. And there was consensus that the all-male, mostly white affair would not continue much longer. The next decade's winners would be more representative of society, with a good number of black and female leaders making the top business list. This would echo the FM's Power Elite list late last year, in which nine of the top 20 most powerful people in SA were black and one was a woman.
AngloGold CEO Bobby Godsell
Godsell was selected both for his success in changing AngloGold from an inefficient, moribund division into the world's second-largest gold mining group and for his profound, behind-the-scenes contribution to SA's transformation.
His strong points are his vision, intellectual capacity and moral honesty. The merger with Ghanaian gold group Ashanti and his relationship with Ashanti's Sam Jonah were described as "a deal made in Nepad heaven". He was lauded for his pioneering vision in exploring the potential for SA as a gold jewellery manufacturing centre. He is also recognised for persuading the world's central banks to limit their gold sales at a time when the gold price was plummeting.
Godsell, a former Anglo industrial relations expert, also played an important role in the constitutional negotiations in Kempton Park in the early 1990s. He engaged business with government and labour in what would later become the National Economic Development & Labour Council (Nedlac). At Nedlac he was instrumental in persuading big white business that it needed to get involved in developing appropriate legislation for SA's transitional period. Important examples were his role in getting white business to accept both the unpopular Labour Relations Act and, later, the mining charter. His relationship with Ramaphosa was crucial in all this and he is trusted by SA's top black leadership.
This is partially why he was asked to go to Zimbabwe as an election monitor. And this did not deter him from expressing his concerns about those elections when he returned to SA.
Godsell broke the mould of gold mining as a brutal and exploitative industry by changing AngloGold's acrimonious relationship with labour and starting a progressive health-care programme. Not many other CEOs have led thousands of toyi-toyiing miners in a protest march. Godsell is also renowned for causing a stir at a stuffy US gold forum in 2002 by wearing a National Union of Mineworkers strike T-shirt.
Godsell's sale of marginal shafts to Patrice Motsepe laid the foundations for African Rainbow Minerals and the business empire that Motsepe subsequently constructed.
Remgro, Richemont and Venfin chairman Johann Rupert
Johann Rupert's empire was founded in the 1940s by his father Anton, the doyen of Afrikaner business. Since taking over almost 15 years ago, the younger Rupert has expanded and diversified the original tobacco business into luxury goods (through Swiss-based Richemont) and a host of other investments. These include the 28% stake in the world's second-biggest tobacco company, British American Tobacco (BAT), and interests in Absa, FirstRand, Medi-Clinic, Dorbyl, Nampak, Gencor and Afrox Healthcare.
An early proponent of empowerment deals, subsidiary Venfin backed black groups to invest in Vodacom and e.tv. More recently, Rupert has backed Tokyo Sexwale in a number of his business deals, including the acquisition of diamond miner Trans Hex.
Rupert was based offshore for some years. His influence extends to the highest levels of business and government, both in SA and abroad, and his network often operates on the golf course (he owns the exclusive Leopard Creek golf estate in Mpumalanga). The Rupert family also owns Franschhoek wine farms L'Ormarins and La Motte Estate.
Rupert is renowned for having nurtured loyalty among his top management and for creating spectacular shareholder wealth and thousands of jobs. Today the Ruperts and the Oppenheimers rank as the two wealthiest families in SA.
Through his relationships with government, Rupert has contributed to SA's transformation. He is involved in a host of upliftment and corporate social responsibility programmes, is a strong proponent of conservation, and sits on numerous company, sports and international advisory boards, including the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Though some see him as abrasive, hard-driving and motivated by self-interest, no-one can question Rupert's business achievements.
Marinus Daling: Former Sanlam chairman
The panel agreed that Marinus Daling, who died of cancer at the age of 55, needed more time to truly turn the financial services giant around. Yet his contribution to the group and SA's transformation was exceptional.
"This guy was a great. He was much like John F Kennedy, about whom people would remark: Heck, if he had been around longer, just think what he would have achieved,' " said one of the panellists.
Renowned for his foresight, ambition and ability to spot opportunities in the new SA, Daling succeeded in changing Sanlam from a tool of Afrikaner nationalism to a forerunner for black economic empowerment. His deal with Dikgang Moseneke resulted in the creation of Nail out of Metropolitan Life, forming a model for empowerment even before it became popular. Daling was also responsible for Sanlam's demutualisation but did not have the time to unscramble all the problems at Sankorp, the conglomerate built out of policyholder funds by his predecessor during the apartheid years.
Though born in the Netherlands, Daling identified with Afrikaans culture. He was an ardent believer in SA's future and understood the role business could play in a country in transition. He was respected for his role at the Lusaka discussions between business and the ANC and later for his role in bringing business into the Kempton Park constitutional talks.
Daling was tireless in promoting the SA Foundation and Business SA, and was active in bodies set up by former president Nelson Mandela and later President Thabo Mbeki to give muscle to the new SA. The country was robbed of a great talent by his death.
