Wendy Lucas-Bull is one of the most instantly recognisable women in business in SA. Those who didn't recognise her from the corporate world will have seen her on SABC's The Apprentice last year, when she appeared as one of Tokyo Sexwale's assessors. She was Businesswoman of the Year in 1995 and Top Woman in Business in 2004/2005.
She's been around the corporate block many times and until late 2004 was CEO of FirstRand's retail banking cluster, FNB Retail, which included such well-known brands as First National Bank, FirstLink, WesBank, eBucks and OUTsurance. During 2005, she teamed up with SA National Parks chair Cheryl Carolus to form a new venture called Peotona.
Though Lucas-Bull has well respected business skills, one particular event in her career stands out as an example of how to get the job done right, first time. When she took control of FNB Retail in 2000, she saw that the division was fundamentally flawed, and was a possible takeover candidate if it didn't improve its performance.
She instituted a radical restructuring process, eliminating about 25% of the posts. The surgery was performed quickly, taking only 90 days from start to finish. The effect was shattering - by the time of publication of the first set of results under her leadership, FNB Retail's earnings had risen by 105%.
But as traumatic as it had been to retrench so many people, that was the easy part; any fool can look good by continuously cutting costs, while maintaining top-line revenues. "The housekeeping had been done," noted Lucas-Bull. "The task was to grow." The way in which she and her team implemented the changes have been documented in a case study at Wits Business School and forms part of the MBA course. The success was manifested in the following three years of solid growth and strong financial performance of the business.
She knew that the only way in which FNB Retail could achieve sustainable growth was to differentiate itself from its competitors through superior customer service. That could occur only by empowering staff by giving them responsibility for better service and looking out for opportunities.
The result was the Vuka process rolled out in FNB Metro from April 2001 onwards. Vuka's aim was to transform the culture of the organisation and create a workplace community characterised by a shared vision and commonly held values. The workplace culture reflected an appreciation of diversity and empowerment. The culture was founded on the concept of ubuntu and driven by what Lucas-Bull termed the "pillars of African leadership": humanity, collaboration, dignity, trust, respect and courage.
Prior to joining FNB, Lucas-Bull was executive director of Rand Merchant Bank - also in the FirstRand group - for five years and before that she was an international partner of Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) for 14 years. She was made an Accenture partner by the age of 30, becoming one of the youngest partners yet at Andersen and only the fourth woman to achieve international partnership status.
Apart from Lucas-Bull, Peotona's founders include Carolus, Dolly Mokgatle and Thandi Orleyn. In a recent transaction, De Beers Consolidated Mines sold 26% of its equity, worth R3,8bn, to a consortium called Ponahalo, one of whose shareholders is Peotona Capital, with a 16% stake.
Peotona has another arm, which is Lucas-Bull's main focus: Peotona Development is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at generating the opportunity for sustainable enterprises in disadvantaged communities, with a focus on women and the disabled.
