Koos Bekker talks about his late “putative” successor, the new CEO, and a second sabbatical

Despite news over the weekend that its guiding light Koos Bekker would be leaving the corner office at the end of March, the Naspers share price put on a few extra rand today.  That has as much to do with approval at Bekker’s anointed successor as with his decision to take a second sabbatical – and return as chairman in April next year. Koos has provided some fascinating conversation over the years, both on and off air. This one, this morning is one of the more insightful. Perhaps because it is so personal. Bekker talks the late Antonie Roux who he calls his “putative successor”. When Roux died in June 2012, the group conducted a worldwide search. It ended with the youthful head of eBay Germany whom Bekker and Roux had considered bringing into Naspers five years ago – but didn’t have a job big enough. This interview, carried on our CNBC Africa Power Lunch show today, looks at those developments and the role Bekker intends playing at Naspers for a good few years into the future. – AH  

ALEC HOGG:  Koos Bekker, Chief Executive of media group Naspers now the eight-biggest Internet business (see table below) in the world, will step down at the end of next month.  This comes after his most recent five-year contract expires.  I spoke to him earlier about his feelings about his resignation as Chief Executive.

KOOS BEKKER:  We recently did a superficial scan of the major media companies in the world.  I’ve been running the pay-TV side for 22 years as Chief Executive and we couldn’t find anyone who’s been doing it longer, so maybe I’ve had a good run.

ALEC HOGG:  But you also, were very sensible about the way you broke up six years ago, when you went on sabbatical for a year.  In a way, this sounds like a little bit of sabbatical as well.  You’re gone for a year and back as Chairman.

KOOS BEKKER:  When you’re Chief Executive…I think the same happens when you’re the President of a country or maybe Chairman of the SPCA.  You fall into a rut, you start taking yourself unduly seriously, and then people start making errors of judgment.  I therefore think it’s quite an idea – from time to time – to simply yank back from the rat race and take a look from a distance.  Maybe there’s something your company should be doing completely differently.  Even walking to the supermarket and buying your own pint of milk, gives you the chance to look at the way housewives operate in a different way.  There’s some isolation about being a CEO – I think it’s the isolation of a king, isn’t it – that it’s an unnatural life, so for me it’s quite a pleasure to break away and sometimes experience the world from a different perspective.

ALEC HOGG:  And you stay curious in that way.

KOOS BEKKER:  Yes, in our industry the next wave always had an element of surprise about it, so when we started pay-TV I went to the States in the 80’s with absolutely no idea that something like pay-TV existed.  I discovered it at business school.  In the 90’s, when pay-TV was up and running we had a guy – Ian Wilkinson – back in the US.  He said ‘guys, there’s something that you can put in your car and allow it to make a phone call’.  That was the start of MTN, so quite often there’s an element of surprise in new directions, and being open to those surprises may be one of the main things, which CEO’s should do.

ALEC HOGG:  One of the surprises was that Bob van Dijk has been appointed as the Chief Executive and I guess it’s a surprise because you are so thorough in your planning throughout.  You knew your contract was ending at the end of February.  Is this a consequence of the untimely passing of Antonie Roux, whom many of us thought was going to be next in line as CEO?

KOOS BEKKER:  Yes undoubtedly, you’re totally correct.  I was extremely fond of Antonie.  He was a livewire and such a positive person.  For about five years, he was the putative successor and would have been ideal in the job.  Even six months before his death, we were still talking about giving him and extra month to recover, and then he’ll take over.  However, he had cancer of a very vigorous kind, and he passed away suddenly on the operating table – more or less – so it was a great blow to the company.  We then started casting around for a successor.  We scanned the world and we used the biggest head-hunter in the world to try to flush out talent.  Eventually, Bob was recruited – not as part of that, but as part of a direct headhunting.  Antonie and I saw him five years ago and we wanted to bring him into the company to succeed Antonie, but we simply didn’t have a weighty enough job available.  However, with Antonie’s passing last year we got the opportunity, so we brought him in and he’s been a great success.  He consolidated Allegro, our biggest ecommerce business and gradually, we placed everything except Classifieds, under his command.  Today, he’s running the whole ecommerce business, except for the Classifieds category.  The head of that is a fellow called Martin Scheepbouwer, who used to work under Bob at Schibsted – so they’ve already worked together in the past so internally; the succession is smooth and very well accepted.  Externally, the market, especially in South Africa, hasn’t had exposure to him so there’s an element of ‘who’s this’.

ALEC HOGG:  Does it tell us much about the way Naspers has developed?  It’s the eighth-biggest company in the world, an incredible achievement you’ve done in the past 17 years you’ve been the CEO in that (a) this is the first time a non-South African is going to run an intrinsically South African media group and (b) that he’s 41.

KOOS BEKKER:  Yes, well I was 43 when I took over Naspers.  Of course, I was 32 when we started M-Net, so in our business youth is an advantage.  The most interesting things on the Internet, been developed by people under 30.  Naspers is actually no longer an intrinsically South African company.  There are some different ways to develop models of our value, but I would say that the vast majority of our value is now abroad – China, Russia, and Brazil – and the minority, locally.  In South Africa, we have two companies: Media34, that you know with Rachel Japhta as Chair and Esmaré Weideman as Chief Executive – they both live locally – and then MultiChoice with Nolo Letele as the Chair and Imtiaz Patel as the CEO.  They both live in Johannesburg.  Naspers itself is now sort of a cosmopolitan global company, and our guys live more or less, where they please.  Some live in Hong Kong, some in London, Holland, and São Paulo.  The key thing is, when we meet…let’s say we decide to meet in Buenos Aires, we expect everyone to turn up and where you fly from is of little significance as long as you’re there.  On a daily basis, we talk by way of the Internet.

ALEC HOGG:  Will he stay in the Netherlands then – Bob?  Will he be based there?

KOOS BEKKER:  He’ll be based in Holland with his wife Tina, who is Norwegian – they have two daughters – and he’ll fly around as much as all of us.  I spend about 50 percent of the time on the road and you learn to live in hotels.  With the Internet connectivity these days, I think it matters less and less where people live, as long as they’re connected.

ALEC HOGG:  Yes, indeed.  Koos, just to close off with, you’ll be back in a year.  You’ll be 62 at that stage.  Ton Vosloo, when he retires, will be 77.  Does that suggest that you’re going to be like him and Chair until 77?  You have 15 years to get there.

KOOS BEKKER:  Alec, I may not reach there.  That’s a very admirable achievement on his part.  I’m not sure, given the type of life I’ve led, that I’ll get there but maybe I’m good for a decade or so; at least, I hope so.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI:  That was Koos Bekker.  He is the outgoing Chief of Naspers.

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