OLD MUTUAL LIMITED: LEADING CULTURE CHANGE

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.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this assignment the student will be able:

1. To develop abilities to gather, analyse, interpret and evaluate information on a management consulting task and project related topic(s).

2. To strengthen conceptual and analytical skills in the study management consulting.

3. To build tangible links between the theory and practice of management consulting.

4. To heighten awareness and understanding of management consulting in action and gain greater self-awareness of oneself as a consultant.

5. To develop and present thoughts, arguments, and informed opinions in a logical and coherent way.

6. To develop creativity and critical management skills. 7. To develop skills in case study navigation and analysis. 8. To demonstrate academic and management research, proposal, report writing

and composition skills with academic and business integrity.

9. To consistently apply the APA system of academic referencing. 10. To demonstrate word processing and IT skills 11. To develop project and time management skills. 12. To develop healthy and functional work habits in progressing confidently and

consistently towards a defined submission deadline date.

 

 

Individual Assignment – Overall Task

Using your chosen Ivey Case Study as your client organisation, immerse yourself in the

role of Management Consultant in providing a consulting service which involves the

following key milestone deliverables/tasks/assignments::

Part 1: Write a comprehensive Proposal for your client (10%)

Part 2: Environmental Scanning and Analysis (20%)

Part 3: Generate Strategies and Recommend A Solution (20%)

.

This 3 Part Assignment is a practice in management consulting via the use of the case

study method and follows the steps outlined in the flow diagram in Appendix A.

 

 

PART 1: Write A Comprehensive Proposal for your Client: – 10% – 2,500 words

Week 3

 

A consulting proposal is a document sent from a consultant to a prospective client

describing a job or assignment they wish to take on and the conditions under which they

will do so. Consulting proposals are usually written only after the consultant and

prospective client have discussed the job at length. However, n this situation, the client

briefing is provided in the form of the Case Study. The end of each case study may

 

 

BUSI 640 (V01) – Individual Assignment Brief 3

contain a question(s) or a reflection about next steps or a dilemma faced by the

protagonist (person at centre of the centre). Use this as your starting point and or convert

into a problem statement of what the client is facing.

 

Business proposals and business plans are not the same. The proposal’s aim is to sell

your consulting service, rather than your business as a commercial entity. Whether the

proposal is solicited (RFP – Request For Proposal) or unsolicited, the steps to create

your proposal are similar.

 

Simple Guide to Writing a Proposal: https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Consulting-

Proposal Also please see the PP Slides on Writing A Proposal and the Sample Proposal

on Moodle/MyUCW.

 

While the format of a proposal may vary widely and a FRF may stipulate specific

headings and information, all proposals should be written in a clear and succinct manner

which explicitly sets expectations of both parties and indicates the parameters of the

consulting service. It should be about 2,500 words in length, and it should address the

following information under designated headings: (these headings are not rigid, so

choose the ones that work best for your specific client)

1. Cover Page. 2. Executive Summary. 3. Introduction 4. Client Problem and Goals. 5. Project purpose and scope 6. Methodology and Process 7. List of Responsibilities 8. Anticipated Outcomes and Benefits 9. Project Deliverables. (not solutions – as you do not have them yet !!) 10. Timelines and Milestones 11. Pricing and Terms and Conditions. 12. Any Other Issues 13. Consultant’s profile. 14. References 15. Appendices