Isuzu needs new leadership to break out of its corner, says outgoing MD
Billy Tom to become first black SA head of major vehicle manufacturer
Isuzu SA needs a new kind of leadership to break out of the corner of the new-vehicle market it occupies, outgoing MD Michael Sacke said on Monday.
The Port Elizabeth truck maker announced last week that Sacke will make way on July 1 for Billy Tom, who has spent the last 12 years at Coca-Cola SA and its ABI bottling arm. Tom, whose career includes a spell with General Motors SA (GMSA), will become the first black SA head of a major local vehicle manufacturer.
Sacke, GMSA’s CFO until the company’s US parent disinvested from SA at the end of 2017, was part of the management team that persuaded Isuzu Japan to buy the company’s manufacturing and distribution assets.
However, after successfully integrating the new company into the Japanese group’s global network, he started doubting whether he was the right person to lead Isuzu SA long-term.
The company is the smallest of SA’s seven major motor companies. While it is domestic market leader in the low-volume medium and heavy truck sectors, it is a minor player in the high-volume bakkie market, both at home and in exports.
In 2019, the company’s Struandale vehicle assembly plant — which has capacity to build 70,000 vehicles a year on a single daily shift — built 23,200.
This year, due to Covid-19 lockdown and an industry-wide collapse in new-vehicle sales, the number will be much less.
Sacke thinks the total SA market will contract by 30%.
“I’m an accountant. We have made great strides since we were created in January 2018 but I reached the conclusion that we needed someone with different skills and a different network to grow the company to reach its potential. We needed someone with a customer perspective,” he said.
Sacke, who was part of the selection process, said the company did not deliberately set out to appoint a black leader. The general expectation was for promotion from within the company. But Tom, who has had frequent dealings with the truck industry during a career that also included spells at SABMiller and Distell, was considered the best candidate.
In an interview with Business Day last week, Tom said his priority was to increase Isuzu sales.
Sacke has spent 23 years at Isuzu and its predecessors, having joined Delta Motor Corp in 1997. Delta, owned by local management, was created in 1986 after GM first disinvested. The US corporation bought back control in 2004.
After handing over control at the end of this month, Sacke will move to New Zealand. His wife Jo, a schoolteacher, has been there since mid-March, in the town of Hamilton. Covid-19 lockdown has kept them apart since.
Sacke will arrive in New Zealand with a work permit but not much idea what to do with it. There is no vehicle manufacturing industry.
Isuzu trucks and bakkies are imported but in very small numbers.
“Maybe I ’ ll find something in the industry or maybe something in finance,” said Sacke, who has a brother already in New Zealand.
“Or maybe I’ll discover that after years and years of being the main breadwinner, I like being a house-husband. We’ll see.”
I’m an accountant. We have made great strides since we were created in January 2018 but I reached the conclusion that we needed someone with different skills and a different network