CEO to CEO: The challenges of leading during a pandemic

As a South African CEO navigating these difficult times, I wanted to reach out to other CEOs and share personal insights around this issue in the hope it might resonate and open up dialogue around the challenges we're all currently facing.

A numbers guy

Over the past 22 years that I have worked in insurance and reinsurance, my vision has always been to head up a powerful regional player in African reinsurance.

Today, as CEO of Reinsurance Solutions Intermediary Services (RSIS), I do just that, guiding a tightknit, focused team of highly skilled brokers towards providing solutions to our growing customer base of insurers and reinsurers across Southern Africa.

I am proud to lead one of South Africa's few majority black-owned reinsurance companies, which boasts a Level 2 B-BBEE rating.

With an actuarial background, you could say I'm a numbers guy. But I also consider myself a people person, which is what got me thinking about wisdom sharing among the region's leaders, and this CEO to CEO email series.

The Branson approach to business

I admire Richard Branson, always have. Aside from his leadership style, I'm inspired by the way in which he continually adapts to his changing operating environment.

Over the past year I've asked myself several times, 'What would Branson do if he was in my shoes right now?' Because it really doesn't matter who you are, the nature of your business or how many staff you employ, when the world is hit with a pandemic - the likes of which we have never seen before - every business leader is caught off-guard.

Taking my cue from Branson, I looked for ways to do business differently. It wasn't easy. Unlike established organisations that had existing business systems, internal processes and client bases, we had just launched RSIS.

The hard lockdown of March 2020 meant our brand new offices were locked up, unused; our new team was unable to brainstorm and teambuild in-person; and half our staff remained stranded in Mauritius, unable to travel to Johannesburg to join us.

I was used to networking through events and leaving (hopefully) positive, lasting impressions with clients through personal interactions. Now I was working off a virtually zero base and had to find an innovative approach to introduce our new brand and team to potential clients.

Branson always speaks about working smarter (not harder or longer). As a team, we considered our dilemma and decided to network virtually. We developed solid branding and communications, and used all available online channels to introduce our team and the fresh new offering we were bringing to Southern African reinsurance.

We were clear, honest and consistent in our launch communication; ensured that we remained relevant in challenging times; and stood out as much as possible with our differentiated value proposition.

As CEO, I realised I couldn't change the pandemic situation, but I could change our response to it. Instead of viewing our company launch amid global turmoil as an insurmountable obstacle, we looked for the opportunities this presented to do business differently - and then we maximised them.

I must point out, although we never lost sight of our end-goal (much like Branson, who just this month realised his long-time goal to go to space) we also weren't blind to what was going on around us. It was with an understanding of the bigger picture that we aimed to balance competitive gains with social empathy during our launch campaign.

It's been a year since we opened our (virtual) doors, and although the process has not been without its hiccups, it has left me with a new sense of resilience - something I think we all need as CEOs to lead during these challenging times.