Johannesburg - Almost 16 years ago Kevin Hedderwick entered the world of Steers when its market capitalisation was R105 million and its share price R1.69.
This was at the time when there were jitters in the market with McDonald’s entering its space, but that made no significant difference.
Hedderwick thrust Steers forward and it became what can be described as a fairy-tale involving the acquisition of household brands like Wimpy, Debonairs Pizza; Fishaways; Mugg & Bean; Tasha’s; House of Coffees; Milky Lane and many more. Today the business is called Famous Brands and it has a market capitalisation of just over R14 billion and a share price of close to R134. Can anyone doubt this man’s ability to create a successful, dynamic movement?
A down-to-earth man
Hedderwick easily refers to Adrian Gore and Stephen Saad as examples of great leaders who have achieved the extraordinary. When I suggested it was time to place him in the same category, he was hesitant, as though he did not feel worthy of joining them yet.
His response is indicative of his character. Despite the fact that he started out on this journey with only the desire to not be poor but then achieved success beyond his expectations, he remains a down-to-earth, humble human being.
In the bigger picture this may be more admirable and positively affect the people around him more than his business achievements. People follow great leaders because of who they are, more than because of what they say or have achieved – though what you have achieved usually helps to form who you are.
Digging deeper to find what drove the man – whether it was as simple as a desire not to be poor – I discovered more. His mother’s influence was central. She repeatedly said to anyone who would listen to her: “This kid is special.” He lost her when he was 17 years old, but she had made her mark. The belief that he was special grew inside him and he has achieved consistently since then.
Hedderwick has “street cred” in his industry. He left a very senior, cushy corporate post to start a Keg franchise in East London where he mopped floors and served tables. Possessed of a competitive spirit, he and his family took the struggling pub to becoming the “Keg of the year”. Head office needed his corporate leadership experience to take the restaurant chain forward. He, meanwhile, was craving greater mental stimulation. He was appointed managing director as expected. This added perfectly to his experience for what lay ahead.
In leadership he talks about two fundamentals. The first is people: “Leadership is having the ability to surround yourself with the best damn people you can find, and it doesn’t matter if they are smarter than you or academically brighter.” The other fundamental is process. These are the two things he feeds off: “People, being able to pick them, spot them. And process is the ability to be able to go and look for best practice and install it wherever you go, for continuous improvement.”
He has come to learn that managing people is not complex; they need three things: “Tell me what you expect of me exactly; give me help when I need it; and reward me accordingly.”
This may seem simple, but it is not easy. Hedderwick had to learn the hard way, probably the only way with anything worthwhile.
The right people
When he started at Steers, he brought blue chip company principles along. He explains: “What I did have in my tool box was process and I pushed all this process into the business. It didn’t work. The reason was that we didn’t have the right people in place. You can’t have the one without the other. They feed off each other.”
The Famous Brands success thus far has also been the result of sticking to their core: “In the early days we were under no illusions as to what our core was.”
There was also understanding of the market “in terms of where you are going to participate or play”, says Hedderwick. At Famous Brands they continually drive for answers to two questions: “How do we get closer to our customers (franchisees) and how do we get closer to our consumers (clients in restaurants)?”
Another part of his success was the backing of the main shareholders, the Halamandaris family and its vision to bring someone from the outside in and support the overall strategy.
Hedderwick and his team would never have achieved success without his culture of hard work and attention to detail, which he says takes some of the risk out of the journey. He also states: “If you are going to be successful in any business, you have to be fanatical about the detail. I don’t know whether you can be a great leader if you don’t pay attention to the detail.”
During a personal discussion with the global chief executive of Coca Cola in Atlanta, Hedderwick asked him what the one thing was about managing such a large corporate successfully.
His spontaneous response was: “Kevin you have to have line of site.”
For Hedderwick, this is about being close to the detail. As organisations grow, hierarchy follows, and leaders become further removed from the people and the essence of the business. He believes in flat structures for this exact reason, “to keep your finger on the pulse”, he adds.
The greatest challenge for success is when a leader or team reaches a place where they believe they have arrived. At that moment, Hedderwick says, they start moving downward.
He believes the way he has prevented hubris from sneaking in the back door has been by surrounding himself with a great team of people, “who execute flawlessly as we want them to do”, he says.
Growth champions
The team prompts him about growth, because they are fanatical about being “growth champions”. Hedderwick explains: “Growth is never off the agenda at Famous Brands.” They also do climate surveys on a regular basis and feedback from stakeholders is that they have a high performance culture, which they protect fiercely.
As a business , they have completed one chapter and I can’t help sensing that they will write several more. They have a strong balance sheet, no debt, are highly cash generative and according to their credible leader: “Famous Brands is about to embark on a whole new chapter in its life.” This could be another AVI or even Bidvest story with a great leader at the helm and a team who know that their strengths lie in brands, logistics and manufacturing, and their understanding of the food and beverages space.
For Hedderwick, self-belief, tenacity and lots of courage are key. This Famous Brands team has a lot going for it. At this stage of the journey it seems unstoppable. Like the All Blacks rugby team, they have moved from good to great. The next chapter will probably be about moving from great to significant.
* Adriaan Groenewald (@Adriaan_LP) is the author of the recently released Seamless Leadership: Universal Lessons from South Africa (@SeamlessLeader). He is a leadership expert, commentator and presenter of the Leadership Platform show on Mondays on CliffCentral.com @LeadershipPform)
BUSINESS REPORT