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Jasco moves from planning into execution as it tweaks strategy

12th October 2018

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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New Jasco CEO Mark van Vuuren has made a few tweaks to the company’s already solid strategy to bring about a new sense of purpose.

Jasco, which continues its recovery after returning to profitability in 2016, aims to build a sustainable profitable business by directing the corporate purpose towards ensuring employees are the “soul of the organisation”, making customers valuable advocates and becoming innovative in every task.

Underpinning this are the three strategic goals of improving earnings, developing employees to achieve formal employer of choice certification and accelerating transformation.

“It is imperative that the organisation now shifts from planning into execution mode to deliver against these three strategic goals. This will be management’s key focus over the next 12 months,” he says.

Jasco plans to improve earnings by bolstering business units’ operating profit; reduce head office costs by cutting property rental expenses; decrease audit, debt and interest costs; and reduce executive management positions, as well as improve the effective tax rate by reducing nondeductible expenses.

The

Power and Renewables and Datavoice business units have been placed on a ‘watchlist’, owing to disappointing performances.

To develop employees, Jasco has implemented a talent management framework across the group to focus on its skills development programme, while benchmarking itself against the top ‘employer of choice’ programme to ensure that it attracts, acquires, develops and retains employees.

In terms of transformation, Van Vuuren says that Jasco has identified three aspects of transformation that should be addressed to achieve transformation objectives, namely broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE), back-office digitalisation and smart solutions.

These include the individual BBBEE ratings of the various business units in their applicable sectors, as opposed to only at group level.

The digitalisation of back-office support functions has also become a key focus area to assist customer-facing business units to improve customer service, with a unified technology platform to be implemented that deals with processes and systems for both enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management.

Lastly, the company aims to evolve the portfolio into a smart solutions provider of choice by leveraging growth technologies and divesting from low-growth, nonperforming business units.

Further, to counter South Africa’s low-growth environment, Jasco will focus on key additional areas, including targeted opportunities in Africa; the reduction of financial gearing over the next financial year through continued cash generation from operations; and ensure a return to acceptable and sustainable profitability levels in the Power and Renewables and Datavoice businesses.

Jasco will also drive growth in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape; boost its products and services portfolio, with emphasis on services in the form of managed solutions; target large corporate and public entities with the full portfolio; and continue to transform Jasco, with employment equity and skills development a priority.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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