Debriefing- Cynthia Carroll at Anglo American- Leading organizational change and developing organizational strategy

Anglo American

CEO at South African mining company

Key Case themes

-transforming operations and culture of a large organizations
-communicating across a diverse organization
-managing key stakeholders
-organizational change

Difficult and Brutal Working Conditions

only 3 feet working space, 40 lbs of gear, hard/physical work, 12 hour shift, one mile of solid rock above you

How many is too many?

1/2 million mine workers; 15,000 die each year

History of Apartheid

mining companies profiting from inexpensive and oppressed labor, hostility and violence between black workers and white leaders, unemployment rate 25%, anglo american's competitors less progressive (resist changes due to financial cost)

Financial Issues

the anglo-american stock is lagging, poor financial performance, if mine closes will lose $8 million per day,

Pros of closing the mines

sends message that Carroll is serious about safety, creates a sense of urgency, If workers paid, government, unions, and workers are happy. , established anglo americans as a leader on safety (recruit workers), stakeholders opposed may stay silent

Cons of Closing the Mines

expensive, upset shareholders, increase dangers of mines (not maintained), carroll needs more data to determine cause of deaths, closing will not address culture of valuing workers, focus of safety will increase cost, sets precedent about future accidents (close mine when death occurs)

Stakeholder analysis

shareholders, senior executive, mine managers, mine workers, unions, south african government

Carroll is the right choice

great track record, as an outsider, she has a chance of building relationships with unions and government, track record of taking risks to transform organizations, record of convincing and persistent behavior

Carroll is the wrong choice

- unlikely to fully understand anglo american or the industry as outsider
-lack of mining experience
- previous job was 10% the size of anglo american
-mining industry historically male dominated

Cythia Carrol in Action

unilaterally closed Rustenbery, called her crazy and dangerous, believed that injuries and deaths are preventable

What Carroll demanded

carroll wanted input from all 30,000 rustenberg employees, wanted managers on board- safety was job 1, wanted to meet all safety standard, all 9 shafts were closed on rotating basis

Listening to 30,000 employees challenges

different languages and many dialects, 70% illiteracy rate, workers never asked and fearful couldn't trust

Meeting the Challenge

brought all employees to stadium and used visuals, hired consultants to create groups of 50 people, used traditional method of village assemblies to have workers share ideas on to improve safety from 30,000 people

Reopening the Mines

mines were brought up to standards, workers given right to close mine if concerned about safety, workers felt empowered, mine was less productive, $40 million loss

The mine is reopened but the work is not done

- identify best practices and disseminate across Anglo American
-ensure workers' voice heard
-getting all executives on board
-established dedicated teams to investigate accidents
- zero tolerance for no compliance
-bringing regulators and competitors onboard
- try to industry

Improving safety

-improved relationship with unions, workers, and the government
-safety programs provided strategic opportunity to address all operations to improve overall performance

Next Steps-long term

-create a summit where anglo american, unions and government worked together for zero harm
-tied executive bonuses to safety
-executive required to go into mines
-developed new technologies to support newly blasted veins (most accidents)

Postlude

- departed in 2013, decrease in deaths and injuries, change generations of behavior in company and industry, demonstrated opposing stakeholders to work together

mining employees some of the

poorest people in world and she didn't exploit black workers