South Africa's ICT economy could be heading for trouble if we run out of CEOs to lead companies through their next growth phases. It is already patently clear there is just not enough talent to go around.
At least two large companies in the sector - and several state-owned entities - are hunting for new talent to fill the vacant chair behind the CEO's desk. However, the amount of time it takes government to find the right man, or woman, for the top job shows there is an ever-dwindling pool of people from which to choose.
Acting CEOs abound in state entities, and have done so for years, because government seems to find it inordinately difficult to fill those positions. Unfortunately, having an acting chief does not exactly fill the investment sector with great hope.
The problem with having someone act as CEO, instead of doing the job as a permanent fixture, is that businesses deliver based on leadership, and the strategy that chiefs develop.
Headhunting
MTN is looking for someone to take over at the helm, after CEO Phuthuma Nhleko quit in March. Telkom is also on the hunt, as Reuben September recently stepped down four months earlier than expected.
Nhleko's contract was set to expire in November, but he will stay on until next March, while the group - Africa's largest cellular company - looks for another head honcho. He will also be paid out R33 million as a restraint of trade to stop him from sharing MTN's secrets with the market.
However, while Nhleko is likely to remain of use to the company in a consultative capacity, September has already left the building, and will only consult until November.
Telkom says his early departure - he was only meant to leave in November - was the result of an agreement between the former CEO and the board. Telkom says the move to put Jeffrey Hedberg in as CEO for the meanwhile was necessitated by “uncertainty which prevails during such transition periods”.
Putting in a caretaker CEO, however, will do little to reassure the market that Telkom is on the right track for growth. On the contrary, having someone in the hot seat whose plans can be swept aside once a new CEO is installed will leave lingering uncertainty in the market.
It may even be too late to fix the problem, because grooming and mentoring people does not start a step down from CEO level.
Nicola Mawson, senior journalist, ITWeb
A lack of top calibre CEO candidates with the right knowledge and skills base also seems to be the problem bedevilling government when it comes to finding someone to lead an entity.
The State IT Agency, for example, has just appointed yet another acting CEO after its top executives played musical chairs with the position for three years. This is despite government's repeated promises to fill the position by a certain date, and then continuously shifting the deadline.
Another casualty of the acting CEO syndrome is the Universal Service and Access Agency of SA, which was headless for about 16 months. Round after round of attempts to appoint someone were thwarted by several issues, including a legal challenge by former head James Theledi, a new government Cabinet and lacklustre applications for the top post.
In addition, with the amount of nonsense going on in the Department of Trade and Industry, around a row over a new IT system at the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro), the agency could become another entity that has an acting CEO at its helm for some time.
Cipro's head was suspended after a forensic investigation revealed dodgy dealings in a tender for the overhaul of the agency's IT system. That was three months ago - and Keith Sendwe has yet to find out whether he will be charged, and with what.
Tough ask
Government's inability to fill its top seats with someone who can actually be a CEO - and not act as one - could just be a case of wheels turning far too slowly. However, these lengthy appointments point to a more serious reason: there is just not enough talent at the top.
The state's inability to fill top posts is not surprising. Analysts have been bandying around several names as likely successors to either Nhleko or September - an indication that there is no clear-cut candidate to fill those shoes.
To be blunt, there simply are no outstanding people who are able to fill any of the many vacancies at the helm of ICT companies and organs of state in the sector. This void can only be blamed on the country's lackadaisical attitude towards grooming talent, a phenomenon that will see SA without any top talent at all in the not too distant future.
It may even be too late to fix the problem, because grooming and mentoring people does not start a step down from CEO level - it starts when someone bothers to recognise skills that could be on the shop floor, or sweeping the factory.
Yet, even before those people can find jobs, they need to be educated, and taught basic skills such as reading and writing. Too many people are leaving schools now without any skills that can be developed.
Moreover, what training there is that is being provided by government leaves many companies gnashing their teeth because the skills don't match what the job requires, which means more training.
If SA does not get its act together, and quickly, we will become a leaderless nation, one that does not have captains of industry to drive companies forward to the next level of growth. The country will have useless organs of state in which no one has a good vision of what they should be doing, because there is no one to formulate that vision in the first place.
It's a vicious cycle, one that needs to be broken now before the country becomes a wasteland of unfulfilled promises and dreams.
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