Sanlam’s CFO Abigail Mukhuba has been driven to tears a few times in her career. A few of these were at Exxaro working for Wim De Klerk when he was the Financial Director. She had prepared what she thought was the perfect presentation and he proceeded to make numerous alterations that she did not agree with. When she protested the changes, he kicked her out of his office, declaring that he was not prepared to work with her if she won’t listen to instructions.
‘I had gone in thinking that I have been doing this for years and a new CFO needs to know that this is how we do things. He quickly put me in my place. I was miserable for weeks but later realised that this was an important lesson. He was showing me how he wanted things done and I was either with him or against him. If I was with him, we would go far together but if I was against him, then he would not waste any time on me.’
Abigail mentions another occasion when Wim kick-started her waterworks. Exxaro was investing in Tronox Holdings Plc, an entity listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The team had to work over Christmas to meet a filing deadline and were struggling to balance their figures.
Abigail phoned Wim at 3 a.m. in the morning and told him about their predicament. He burst out laughing. She was taken aback by his reaction. For a moment she thought he hadn’t quite understood her.
‘No Abigail, I understand exactly what you are saying,’ Wim retorted. ‘And it is hilarious. What do you expect me to do? Tell the Americans that we have a balance sheet that does not balance? That just doesn’t happen. Figure it out!’
And with that he hang up.
Needless to say, that left her even more distraught. She ended up crying in the car for an hour and a half because she did not want to break down in front of her team. All she was looking for was some reassurance from her boss; a kind of pep talk that would help her calm down and motivate her to find a solution.
‘I learnt from that you are not always going to get people to hold your hand. You must dig deep and be self-driven to find the solutions that are required. And that is exactly what happened there; we gathered ourselves to make one last solid effort to reconcile the numbers and succeeded just in time.’
Despite parting ways a few years ago, Wim is one of Abigail’s mentors and her favourite boss of all time. She often reaches out to him, and he is always ready to give her advice (now without the tear-inducing sarcastic laughter).
This article is an extract from the Masters of Money book by KC Rottok Chesaina (JONATHAN BALL PUBLISHERS)
