Pick 'n Pay, Cape Town, South Africa

In July, 2007, twenty EWMBA students and I visited the corporate offices of Pick 'n Pay (http://www.picknpay.com/), one of South Africa's largest retail companies. Amongst other executives, we met Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, Transformation Director for the company. That's right, transformation director. Not a common title for corporate directors. Her mandate is ( in my words, not hers or the company's,) to make Pick 'n Pay the most socially responsible, ethical company that it can be. Pick 'n Pay was one of the first companies in South Africa to make a strong commitment to corporate socially responsibility. But long before that, in the Apartheid era, the company founder (and Suzanne's father) Raymond Ackerman treated his black and colored employees on terms that violated law, because he refused to agree to Apartheid.

Quoting from the company's own site: "In tandem with a fundamental transformation which has taken place in the broad context of South African society over the past decade, significant changes have also taken place within Pick 'n Pay during the past three years. These changes are based on a fundamental belief that our ability to achieve service excellence for our customers is directly proportional to our capacity to establish a climate of dignity, respect and freedom amongst every employee in our Company. To achieve this, we embarked upon a fundamental change process called Vuselela or Rebirth which has brought about a dramatic change in relationships and the rehumanisation of our places of work."

It is Suzanne's job to implement this and, from what I saw, the results have been incredible. In the USA we're used to thinking of American companies as leaders. Well, we can all learn a lot by studying this South African company.