The emphasis as far as the CE is concerned moves from control and direction to vision and integration. Worldwide, there is a shortage of such people, but SA manages both to attract them and provide them to global companies. That, however, does not detract from the skills shortage, which Chris van Tonder, senior partner at executive search consultants SpencerStuart's SA office, says is exacerbated by emigration. Companies are bleeding skills. Retaining staff is indeed a major issue.
Good salaries count, but companies are looking at other ways to keep staff.
Also important is going beyond share options to engender in staff a sense of ownership and career direction. All this surface fiddling irritates people like Joburgbased strategist Tony Manning, who says the real issue is the rapidly deepening management crisis and non- delivery. We talk a great story, but we just can't get things done. He says this has become a year of non-delivery in both the public and private sectors. The rapid transformation of many organisations has meant the blind are leading the blind.