‘Colon cancer?’
Motus Group CEO Osman Arbee gasped as his doctor nodded. ‘Well, I guess it is what it is . . . What are my options?’ he asked.
He had only one choice, his doctor said: immediate surgery. Five days later, in June 2018, Osman was on the operating table, undergoing a procedure that was meant to take six hours but lasted almost a full day. Although the doctors managed to remove all traces of the tumour, Osman suffered a stroke while in recovery, which left him partially paralysed and unable to work.
Back in the doctor’s office later, Osman demanded to know what he could do to recover. The doctor recommended physiotherapy and occupational therapy, and so started his journey back to health.
Six month grace
When Graham Dempster, chairman of the Motus Group, visited him at home, Osman told him the board should make a decision that would be in the best interest of the business. ‘If they think it’s best for me to retire early [from the position of CEO], I’m happy to go,’ he told Dempster.
His chairman replied that they’d give him six months to recover. If he was unable to return by January the next year, then only would they think about searching for a replacement.
Osman knew failure to recover was not an option. By October that year, four months after his surgery, there was hope. He was able to take a few steps and he could use his right hand again. A month later, he was driving – which was important, because he was getting depressed being cooped up all day. In December, he went on an overseas holiday, which did wonders to recharge him mentally.
‘Initially I could only work for six hours, but over time I was able to get back to my usual 12 hours a day,’ Osman tells me almost four years later. ‘God has been very good to me. I am blessed because the cancer was removed, and it has not recurred – touch wood. I suffer from some side-effects of the stroke, but it’s part of life. I’ve been able to lead this company successfully despite it all.’
Osman advises leaders to surround themselves with intelligent people whom they trust and share a vision with. If you’re hungry enough to achieve what you set out to do, nothing will stop you. If everyone on the team agrees on the vision, everyone will be committed to it, he believes. But, he warns, it’s easy to talk in the boardroom; it’s much harder to do it in practice. If CEOs aren’t dedicated to their company’s vision, they will end up doing things that are counterproductive, which will eventually lead to failure because you cannot micromanage all your businesses.
Vision
‘A vision is like a journey’, says Osman. ‘If you’re travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town, it doesn’t matter whether you go via Bloemfontein or Kimberly, the vision remains the same – to get to Cape Town.
‘You can be strict about your destination but not about your route, because that would make you an entrepreneur with tunnel vision. Your vision must be flexible – within reason – because businesses, economies and people change. It’s not an easy skill; it’s something that you develop over time with your team.’
Motus demonstrated great flexibility when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. They had a rental car fleet of 25 000 vehicles, which they intended to grow but instead had to bring down to 8 000 during 2020. The rental cars were an illiquid asset and they needed cash, so Osman instructed the team to offload them over an eight-month period. They decided to take their time because he did not what to flood the market and damage residual values.
The cash generated from these sales, freezing capital expenditure and retrenching some staff brought the group’s debt down from R9 billion to R4 billion. Now that the immediate crisis is over, they’re building up the fleet again and expect to be back at 25 000 vehicles by the end of 2023.
Ethical business
At Motus, doing business in an ethical way is engrained through having good governance principles in place. They run regular internal audits in the company and the legal department ensures that processes are robust. Staff are required to trade in a fair and reasonable way, never overpromising and then under-delivering. Integrity issues are minimised because the bulk of profits come from new car sales. The 65 used-car dealerships in the group sell cars from the rental business that are between 9 and 15 months old and have a detailed service history.
‘If you buy a car from me and I do a bad deal, that is the last time I will see you because you won’t come back to me to service your car. That will be a terrible outcome, because I actually do not make real money on selling the car; it’s the servicing that is profitable.
‘When we take trade-ins of cars that are over five years old and have high mileage, we sell them to traders, because those cars are often problem children. You sell it to a customer today and tomorrow the aircon is not working. The customer will blame you, even though it is just an old car with no functional guarantees.’
The power of positivity
Osman’s health setbacks has shown him the benefits of positive thinking. ‘You cannot get depressed with these things, because whatever is meant for you is meant for you. I can’t change it and you can’t change it, and the doctors can only do their best. A positive mindset and great support from my wife and family helped me a lot. I was also thankful to my colleagues for not pressuring me and being willing to keep my job for me for six months.’
Osman tries to forget negative things that happen in a work context and rather focus on the positive. In managing people, he says it’s key to never play the person – because then you end up with an enemy. If you deal with the issue, the focus shifts away from the people and you will get the right result for the business. If you make things personal, you are likely to come up with the wrong business answer.
‘It’s a philosophy I have maintained over the years: deal with issues and let people be part of a process. Of course, sometimes you have no option. For example, if you have to deal with a person who is a racist, you have a choice. Their racism is an inherent characteristic of their personality and it does not fit with the organisation. I can usually separate the problem from the personal, but when a person is part of the problem, I must deal with them.’
At close to 65, Osman says he’s ready for a mental break from the events of the last difficult five years and that he is considering retiring. Not that one expects him to be away from the grind for too long, for positive and experienced entrepreneurs like Osman will always have a home in South African business.
This article is a brief extract from the book THE CEO X FACTOR – Secrets for Success from South Africa’s Top Money Makers – available here https://www.takealot.com/the-ceo-x-factor/PLID92980382
