16
As required by the government, MTN established an employment equity plan in
1998. The government mandated that company’s racial profiles were to ultimately mirror
the racial profile of the “economically active population.” To prepare the document,
MTN developed targets for each racial group in each department and at each level of
management. The company modified the targets where necessary to create space for
whites to still be hired and promoted in an effort to ensure that the company was
perceived as a good employer for all racial groups. There was a shortage of skilled
information technology (IT) workers. In the late 1990s, developed economies around the
world were importing IT professionals from countries such as India and South Africa. In
South Africa, the end of apartheid and some of the attendant changes exacerbated the
situation. To escape the violence in South Africa and earn salaries in a more stable
currency, significant numbers of South Africans were electing to leave the country.
43
Foreign jobs were particularly
attractive to young, white workers who, unsure of their
prospects in their home country, often chose to establish their careers in countries where
whites did not fear reverse discrimination.
Johnnic appointed Charnley to chair MTN’s board. She sat on three of the board
subcommittees, the Investment and Strategy Subcommittee (ISC), the Human Resources
and Remuneration Subcommittee (HRRS), and the Regulatory Subcommittee. As one of
the hoped for delivery channels of the content produced by the other Johnnic companies,
MTN was to play a pivotal role in Johnnic’s strategy to capitalize on the synergies
between media, entertainment, and telecommunication. Charnley was charged with
delivering MTN’s cooperation. As a black woman with little experience in business and
no experience in the telecommunications arena, Charnley assumed she would be
challenged at every step. And as one MTN executive observed, she was coming into an
organization in which many members of the top team had “three degrees behind their
names.”
In her first months in her new position, Charnley immersed herself in the MTN
organization, freely contacting and talking with staff throughout the organization about a
wide range of topics from the very tactical to the strategic. Many MTN executives were
surprised by the depth and style of Charnley’s engagement with the organization. Some
took time to grow accustomed to Charnley’s take charge, no-nonsense style while others
immediately respected it. In particular, her frank criticism had the potential to create
misunderstandings. One white colleague remarked, “Sometimes people take her
criticisms personally instead of realizing it’s an issue-driven thing.” However, others
appreciated this trait. Another white colleague noted, “I would consider her to be
completely and utterly a woman of integrity, in the sense that there is no game playing
and you always know where you stand.” Still another noted that Charnley was in a
difficult position because of the racial and gender “subtext.” Many people acknowledged,
even some of those uncomfortable with her hands-on style, contended that since Charnley
wanted change to happen quickly, her approach was probably necessary. As one
executive remarked, “With our structure, a lot of things didn’t happen in this company
without people putting their fingers in.”
43
Although estimates of “white flight” range widely, trusted estimates suggest that 6.45% of South Africa’s 4.4 million
whites left the country between 1991-1995, 7.38% left between 1996-2000, and 3.15% migrated between 2001-2003. See
Mid-Year Population Estimates Report 2005, Statistics South Africa, May 2005, p 6.
17
As Charnley developed a sense of how things worked at MTN and felt that
progress was being made, she became less involved in operational issues and focused her
attention on what she saw as four interrelated strategic priorities for MTN. First, the
company’s core South African market was maturing and new growth areas needed to be
identified and developed. Second, MTN needed to accelerate its expansion into Africa.
Third, MTN was key to Johnnic’s synergy strategy. MTN needed to be convinced that
cooperation with Johnnic’s print and media companies would be good for them as well as
for the rest of the Johnnic group. Fourth, MTN needed to embrace BEE and bring more
black people into the company at all levels. Although approximately fifty percent of
MTN’s employees were black, less than a quarter of the managers and almost none of the
senior team were black.
While for the purposes of this article, we will focus on Charnley’s efforts with
regard to the fourth priority, it is important to note that Charnley emphasized all four
priorities. She understood that an empowered, but unprofitable MTN would be of no use
to anyone. Furthermore, Charnley saw the priorities as interrelated. For example, when
Charnley joined MTN there was a perception that the marketing strategy was not
adequately addressing South Africa’s black population which comprised 89% of the
population (see Exhibit 4 for country demographics). Charnley, and others in the
organization, struggled to enlarge people’s vision of “the possible.” To Charnley, this
issue was critical because the perception was that MTN’s rival, Vodacom, was clearly
marketing to the black market and had already captured a larger share of the black market
than had MTN. Charnley felt that the company had a long way to go in developing the
expertise and sensibilities necessary to attract and retain black consumers. She believed
that having more black professionals and executives in the company could help accelerate
the learning. Charnley provided an example of the debates within the company:
We had to decide whom we wanted to sponsor. Did we want to
spend money on soccer, which targeted the majority of the population, or
rugby, which targeted a smaller, predominately white, section of the
population. Should we give money to a rural school, or give money to
sponsor the rugby team of the most elite school in South Africa? People
failed to recognize that the black market represented a huge potential
future market. A lot of companies have begun to change—you can find
more black people in advertisements—but we have not moved quickly
enough in that direction.
She encouraged the executive team to develop products and services that would meet the
needs of the underserved black community (for instance, billing procedures that did not
require customers to have a bank account).
Selecting, Retaining, and Developing Black Talent
44
MTN’s approach to employment equity included three distinct, but not mutually
exclusive policies and practices: Affirmative Action,
Employment Equity, and Managing
Diversity. Affirmative Action focused on increasing the representation of designated
44
For more detailed information, see MTN Group Employment Equity Plan, 1998.