Do entrepreneurs make great CEOs? We know one who does
WITH more than a decade since the advent of his start-up company, Arnoux Maré has secured a slew of leadership awards to his name, including CEO of the Year from the Africa Leadership Awards for 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Maré initially created a holding company, Innovative Solutions Group (ISG), with two divisions: Innovative Staffing Solutions and Innovative Accounting Solutions. Today, the group consists of 17 operating subsidiaries offering a wide range of services – as both a direct service to ISG and a separate offering to the ISG client base and others.
Being accountable for around 20 000 employees, through ISG, is a responsibility that rests easily on his shoulders, knowing he has done all that is possible for not only his employees, but also the clients they service.
“There are a lot of livelihoods at stake, especially those whose incomes are entirely dependent on this group of companies, which is why I can never stop. It’s my job to ensure they can improve and build upon their lives. I will always look for new and better opportunities for my staff so they, in turn, can take care of their own families.”
Maré is a one-of-a-kind, along with the likes of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who has made the transition from a successful entrepreneur to a successful CEO. They are two completely different disciplines and quite often opposing. The day-to-day management of an already built company is a CEO’s job, while an entrepreneur is in charge of building the business, often from nothing. There is no guarantee that an entrepreneur will automatically make a good CEO.
However, some will argue that “founder CEOs” are stronger than professional CEOs because they are completely committed to the long-term success of the company and are part of its DNA. They also understand every core operational aspect of the business, as they have held key roles in building each segment of the business.
The transition from entrepreneur to leader requires that changes be made.
“Entrepreneurs tend to be emotional about their business, and this leads to subjective decisions that are not always best for the business. I had to learn to curb this impulse. As a CEO, one has to always ask the question: is this the best decision for the business and its needs? It’s also your duty to support the majority of your employees, who rely on the business doing well. Sometimes that requires tough choices.”
Learning is key to the transition – and as an entrepreneur, Maré’s focus was on being the ideas man while building a business infrastructure with limited resources. Once established, he points out that it is just as important to have gravitas with clients and staff, and that requires a different expertise.
Many successful businesses have failed because their CEO didn’t see the landscape changing. Technology, legislation and community pressures have all played disruptive roles across various industries over the years, and Maré had quickly re-engineered his business to a multi-service outsourcing one that offered HR services and staffing, logistics and driver management, B-BBEE consulting, accounting, driver training and even PPE provision – long before the pandemic.
“Too often, businesses do what they have always done or what an industry has always done simply because that’s the way it’s always been done. If you want to grow, you need to start challenging those assumptions,” he adds.
An example of his risk-taking is that even though a Covid-ravaged 2020 was an extremely challenging year for business, this did not stop Maré from starting up yet another new business venture, truck driving academy and Innovative Learning Solutions (ILS).
“I already knew from the early days, after our evolution to outsourcing, that I wanted to start a group of companies, of which brands like ILS would be just one division. The solution was to ensure subject matter experts ran each division, providing clients with the best expertise so that they can focus on their core business.”
This approach provides a succinct example of how Maré is adaptable and mitigates issues. He believes we are living in unprecedented times that require not just intuitive leaders, but a more flexible outsourced business model that upskills employees to effectively pull their weight.
“In a business environment dominated by periodic lockdowns, ratings downgrades, a high unemployment rate, skills shortages and endemic unrest, companies are increasingly recognising the wisdom of choosing to outsource as the best growth strategy to rebuild corporate SA.”