Strategic intention and goals for the short and medium term

Our strategy is to build Mvelaserve into the leading provider of sustainable outsourced value-adding services in partnership with our clients. We aim to achieve this strategy through organic growth in our existing portfolio and, from time to time, value-accretive acquisitions.

We intend to expand our footprint across the rest of the African continent. South Africa benefits from a relatively sophisticated services industry and therefore its companies are the logical partners to accompany local and international expansion on the African continent.

As primarily business-to-business outsourced support service providers, we are well positioned to take advantage of economic growth in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We seek to partner our clients in the management of their assets, affording them the room to concentrate on their core business while we deliver a value-for-money basket of services.

Strategy map

To ensure sustainable growth of Mvelaserve, the main imperatives will centre on consolidation and stabilisation, followed by a growth and expansion phase that happens by design, and will result in sustainable growth over the long term. The primary consideration for the optimisation programme is a progressive approach that recognises the fact that all of the subsidiaries might not be at the same level of structural maturity. Structural maturity in this instance refers to issues related to the sustainability of governance, organisational arrangements, organisational culture, and capacity. All of these elements will be subject to dynamic leadership that recognises innovation as an essential characteristic to ensure alignment with the Mvelaserve strategy.

To ensure that the relationship between leadership and management can be sustained, both of these will be confirmed as disciplines and skills during the optimisation process. The strategic intention of Mvelaserve can be presented as follows:

Goals of the optimisation programme (First phase)

With due consideration of the importance of strategic leadership within the organisation, the following goals will guide the optimisation programme. With the primary objective being to stabilise and establish firm baselines for continuously improving the profitability of Mvelaserve, the following goals are appropriate to all subsidiaries in line with corporate strategy:

• Standardise management processes and practice with due consideration of the uniqueness of each company towards realising its strategic objectives (goals) within a framework of appropriately structured governance.
• Ensure structural (organisational) “balance” between the respective functions within each company and within the Group, whilst at the same time optimising corporate management arrangements and mechanisms.
• Develop a common culture of continuous improvement with characteristics such as ownership and collaboration that operates around a common set of values with appropriate transparency.
• Facilitate continuous improvement and alignment of all activities and organisational capacity within the governance framework.

All of the above will be done with due consideration of status and activities, changes in the business environment and the strategic intention of Mvelaserve.

Guiding principles for optimisation

To ensure a formalised process for optimisation, the following guiding principles will be considered at all times. The focus is to provide clear and transparent guidelines for each organisation that will be subject to robust control measures and are focused on continuous improvement. This will be achieved by:

• establishing ownership, collaboration and transparency to empower the management team of each subsidiary;
• ensuring strategic alignment with the Group and within the subsidiary;
• developing organisational culture that is conducive to managing risk with due considerations of the imperatives for performance and compliance;
• placing emphasis on expanding and improving each business area within the subsidiary according to formalised plans;
• developing and sustaining company identities and brands with due consideration of the Mvelaserve identity and brand;
• appropriate centralisation of transversal functions such as procurement; and
• continuously improving the bottomline.

Mvelaserve – operating principles

The following operating principles will apply to ensure the success of the intended strategy:

• Autonomy of individual subsidiaries under strong, entrepreneurial, experienced and decentralised operational management.
• Leadership and support from a small team of corporate executives.
• Strong financial management and operating systems at subsidiary level, with a focus on corporate governance.
• Take advantage of cross-selling opportunities and maximise Group procurement savings.

Conclusion

Under the current economic situation, with the size of the cake remaining constant, we have been successful in increasing our market share. This was achieved by optimising the functioning of the Group as a whole to decrease cost and increase revenue. This occurred in parallel with the continuous improvement of quality and the diversification of our value-added services. This puts us in a position where the competitive advantage can be sustained and the strategic intention realised.