What a JSE listing taught me about leading through transformation

A stock market listing is often viewed as the moment a company arrives. The bell rings. The market opens. The share price appears on a screen for everyone to see.

For many, that moment represents years of effort. For those who have lived the journey, however, it feels less like an arrival and more like validation.

What stays with you are not the headlines or the milestone itself. You remember the decisions made long before anyone was paying attention. The difficult conversations. The trade-offs. The moments when progress felt slower than you hoped it would. The people who remained committed to building something stronger, even when the outcome was not yet visible.

When Cell C became a JSE-listed company, many understandably focused on the milestone itself. What stood out to me was everything that happened before it.

The listing was never the transformation. It was proof of the transformation. It represented years of work to strengthen our governance, improve accountability, enhance financial resilience, simplify the business and create a platform for sustainable growth.

Most importantly, it demonstrated what can happen when people across an organisation commit to a shared vision and remain focused on delivering it.

Looking back, the biggest lessons I take away are not financial. They are leadership lessons.

The experience reinforced something I have come to believe very strongly: credibility is built long before it becomes visible.

Today, stakeholders are not interested in ambition alone. They want evidence. They want delivery. They want to know whether organisations can consistently turn strategy into outcomes.

In many ways, the listing was visible proof of work that had already been taking place behind the scenes.

For me, that remains one of the most important leadership lessons of the entire journey.

Leadership Is Tested Before the Outcome Is Visible

One thing I have learned throughout my career is that leadership is not defined by how you lead when circumstances are favourable, but by how you show up when the path ahead is uncertain.

Those are the moments that test your discipline, judgement and ability to give others confidence without pretending to have every answer.

Throughout Cell C’s transformation, one of my greatest leadership challenges was balancing the pressure to deliver in the short term with the responsibility to help build a business positioned for sustainable, long-term success.

Transformation rarely moves in a straight line or at the pace people expect.

Stakeholders understandably want to see immediate results. A leader’s responsibility, however, is to remain grounded in the long-term objective, make the difficult trade-offs and ensure that today’s decisions create enduring value.

That requires patience, resilience and conviction, but also the humility to listen, adapt and change course when the evidence demands it.

What helped me navigate that tension was a disciplined focus on progress rather than perfection. People do not connect with transformation as an abstract programme. They connect with visible progress, clear purpose and an understanding of how their work contributes to the outcome.

Breaking a large ambition into meaningful milestones made the journey more tangible. It gave teams clarity, created accountability and allowed us to recognise the people whose consistent efforts were moving the organisation forward.

Looking back, that is one of the most valuable leadership lessons I carry with me: set a clear direction, stay close enough to understand what people need, and create the conditions for them to take ownership and deliver.

Transformation is not achieved through one decisive breakthrough or by one leader alone. It is built through hundreds of disciplined decisions, consistently executed by people who understand the purpose, trust the direction and believe their contribution matters.

The Power of Self-Leadership

Throughout my career, I have believed that leadership begins with self-leadership. Before you can lead a team, a function or an organisation through change, you need to be able to lead yourself.

Your discipline. Your mindset. Your standards. Your response to pressure. No title can do that work for you.

The listing journey reinforced this principle.

There were moments that required resilience, adaptability and a willingness to remain focused despite uncertainty. Those experiences reminded me that effective leadership is often less about having all the answers and more about creating confidence when answers are still emerging.

People take cues from leaders. If leaders remain grounded, focused and accountable, teams are more likely to do the same.

Credibility is built through proof, not promises

The listing reinforced a lesson I have come to value deeply, both as a leader and in business. Credibility is built through proof, not promises.

I believe ambition, vision and strategy all matter. But ultimately, stakeholders judge us by what we consistently deliver.

During our transformation, I saw first-hand that trust is not created through a single announcement, milestone or reporting period. It is earned over time, through repeated evidence that commitments are being honoured, challenges are being confronted and meaningful progress is being made.

For me, the listing did not create Cell C’s credibility. It made visible the credibility our people had worked hard to build over time.

That principle continues to shape how I lead.

Leading from the middle

One leadership principle that has become increasingly important throughout my career is what I describe as leading from the middle.

Leading from the middle means staying close enough to understand challenges and support people where needed, while creating space for others to take ownership, contribute ideas and grow.

The Cell C transformation reinforced just how important that approach can be.

Transformation cannot be driven solely from the boardroom. It succeeds when people throughout the organisation understand the vision, believe in it and can see themselves within it.

A strategy may be clear to leadership, but unless people understand where the organisation is going and how their work contributes to that future, momentum can quickly be lost.

People want to know that they matter. They want to understand the purpose behind the work they do and how their contribution helps build something bigger than themselves.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the journey has been seeing individuals and teams grow alongside the business.

Milestones matter. Watching people realise their own potential matters even more.

Governance creates confidence

Preparing Cell C for life as a listed company fundamentally changed the way we thought about governance, accountability and transparency.

Governance is often viewed as a compliance requirement.

I see it differently. Good governance creates confidence.

It enables better decisions. It strengthens trust. It supports long-term value creation.

The listing process required us to strengthen reporting, enhance accountability and ensure that decision-making was supported by robust governance frameworks.

Those requirements were not simply necessary for becoming a listed company. They were necessary for building a stronger organisation.

The increased visibility that comes with being listed requires a higher level of discipline across every aspect of the organisation. Decisions are scrutinised more closely. Governance standards become more important. Stakeholder expectations become more immediate and more visible.

Far from being a burden, I believe that accountability makes organisations stronger. When accountability is clear, confidence grows. When confidence grows, trust follows.

Today, governance remains a competitive advantage. When information is reliable, accountability is clear and risks are understood, organisations can make decisions with greater confidence and conviction.

Trust ultimately sits at the heart of governance. Investors trust the numbers. Employees trust the direction. Customers trust the experience. Partners trust the commitments we make.

Protecting that trust remains one of the most important responsibilities leaders carry.

The modern CFO creates future value

The listing journey reinforced just how significantly the role of the CFO has evolved.

Financial reporting and compliance remain fundamental responsibilities. But they are no longer the entire job.

Today, finance sits at the intersection of strategy, governance, performance, risk and value creation.

The responsibility is not only to explain what happened. It is to help shape what happens next. It requires finance leaders to look beyond numbers and understand how value is created across the organisation.

I have always believed that a strong finance function should serve as an enabler of growth, helping the business balance ambition with discipline and opportunity with accountability.

A challenger mindset creates opportunity

One of the things that excites me most about Cell C's future is that we continue to operate with a challenger mindset.

Our asset-light operating model reflects the belief that growth does not always require ownership of every asset.

Sometimes it requires agility. Sometimes it requires partnership. Sometimes it requires the courage to approach established challenges differently.

For me, one of the most important lessons from Cell C's transformation is that value creation increasingly happens through collaboration.

Organisations do not succeed in isolation. They succeed by building strong ecosystems, creating mutually beneficial partnerships and focusing resources where they create the greatest impact.

That philosophy has helped shape Cell C's growth journey and continues to inform how I think about long-term value creation.

The future increasingly belongs to organisations that know how to leverage partnerships, build platforms and create value collaboratively.

Creating value through participation

As a telecommunications business, our role extends beyond providing connectivity.

Connectivity is what enables participation. It enables access to education, employment, entrepreneurship, financial services, information and opportunity.

It helps businesses grow, communities stay connected and individuals participate more fully in the economy.

That perspective has influenced the way I think about value creation as a CFO.

Shareholder returns matter. Financial performance matters. But long-term success is also measured by the value created for customers, employees, partners, communities and the broader economy.

The strongest organisations understand that commercial success and societal progress are not competing priorities. When approached with discipline and purpose, they strengthen one another.

 What the journey taught me about myself

If there is one thing the Cell C journey taught me about myself, it is that leadership is far more about enabling others than directing them.

The experiences that shaped me most were not the moments when everything went according to plan. They were the moments that required learning, adaptation and resilience. They reinforced the importance of listening, remaining curious and being willing to challenge your own assumptions.

Transformation is often measured by its destination. In reality, its success is built through hundreds of smaller wins that create momentum, confidence and belief.

People need to see progress before they can see outcomes. That is something I appreciate even more today.

What comes after the listing matters most

For many years, conversations about Cell C understandably centred on turnaround and stabilisation.

Today, the conversation is increasingly about credibility, execution, trust and sustainable value creation.

The listing represented an important milestone in that evolution, but ultimately it is not the milestone itself that will define our success.

What matters most is what we build from here.

My vision is for Cell C to continue strengthening its position as a trusted, differentiated player in South African telecommunications. One that remains disciplined in how it allocates capital, focused on customer outcomes, committed to partnership-led growth and capable of creating sustainable value for all its stakeholders.

When people ask what I hope my contribution to Cell C will be remembered for, my answer is not the listing itself. I hope it will be for helping create a business positioned for long-term success. I hope it will be for helping build an environment where people could grow, contribute and realise their potential. And I hope it will be for demonstrating that leadership is ultimately not about titles, milestones or individual achievements.

It is about trust. It is about impact. And it is about leaving something stronger than you found it.

The bell may have marked our arrival as a listed company. What we build from here will determine what that moment truly meant.