Instead of following the bigger players in the banking industry, Sasfin is creating its own path, based largely on the mindset that bigger isn’t always better. Michael Sassoon unpacks the thinking behind staying agile as well as building products and offering solutions that meet customer needs.
1 Have a long-term vision
Although Sasfin is a listed business, the Sassoon family still owns 40% of the company, and the recent succession of Michael Sassoon to CEO means the bank’s leadership has also remained in the family. The appointment had to be approved by both Sasfin’s board and the Reserve Bank, and so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but it does mean that there is a high degree of continuity between founder Roland Sassoon’s vision and his son’s continuation as CEO.
“It comes down to the agency theory question,” says Michael. “Because of reward structures that focus on short-term gains, professional managers can tend towards short-term orientations and decisions. This could mean they invest less in the short-term for long-term projects or goals.
“We’ve always taken a different approach. The strategic benefits of ownership mean that we are not only focused on what this business looks like tomorrow. We are far more interested in what the business looks like in 20 years’ time.
“Many of the decisions that this business has taken in the past only reaped results and bore fruit ten years later. It’s an important distinction. Without those decisions this would be a completely different business today.
“We’ve had cash cows that weren’t part of our long-term vision. Instead of investing more in those for short-term gains, we went into a different spread of activities. If we had a short-term view only, the importance of a banking license may have not been as significant then and the long term gains would not have been realised. Even entering transactional banking four years ago against some very large and established players is the result of a future-forward view.”
2 Make decisions based on your competitive space, not what you think you should be doing
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Denne historien er fra August 2018-utgaven av Entrepreneur Magazine South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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