MNG3702 ASSIGNMENT 1
SEMESTER 1 - 2023
UNIQUE NUMBER: 615972
DUE DATE: 17 MARCH 2023
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MNG3702
Semester 1, Assessment 1
Read the Anglo American case study thoroughly to answer the questions that follow. All the
questions are based on the case study. Please ensure that you read the questions carefully before
you commence answering. In addition, please take the mark allocation of each question into
consideration when answering this assessment.
PLEASE NOTE
No emailed submissions will be accepted.
No late submissions will be accepted.
Anglo American
Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Anglo American (2007 – 2013)
Anglo American plc is a multinational mining company based in Johannesburg, South Africa and London,
United Kingdom. It is the world’s largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well
as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and metallurgical and thermal coal. In
2007, Cynthia Carroll was appointed as CEO of the company, the first outsider (non-South African) to
manage what was a very top-down, male-dominated, hierarchical organisation.
Ms Carroll always had the view that safety is a key indicator of rigour and discipline in an organisation.
Anglo had been losing about 45 people to fatalities every year for the five years before she was
appointed as CEO. Consequently, her first focus was on safety. In 2007, her first year as chief executive,
Carroll went to Anglo's Rustenburg platinum mining operation in South Africa, a key part of the
company's global activities. Within hours of her visit, she was told that one of the workers had been
killed at the mine. She was told at the end of the day that they had yet another fatality. She gave orders
to shut down the mine complex, to assess the infrastructure and the standards, and to work to retrain
people. She also gave instructions that people will only be returning to work once they feel confident
that they will be working in safe conditions. It was a bold decision that affected around 28 000 mine
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workers. Carroll knew she would have to win allies for her safety campaign within the wider industry,
the labour unions, and the government. Workers felt scared and threatened by the decision and resisted
the change. Although Carroll felt confident that she made the right decision by making the change, she
was not supported by mine managers. At the same time, the company had been transitioning from a
largely South African company, to a global company. Carroll also needed to make another change by
taking out a layer of people reporting to her early on. Also, these strategic changes lead to changes in
terms of the embedded culture and organisational hierarchy. During these changing times, Carroll spend
a lot of time with external stakeholders, shareholders and never received resistance to change from the
shareholders – they understood the reasons and ultimate benefits for implementing the changes. Also,
communications and relationships with labour unions were very good – Carroll never had a major
walkout and the company never experienced a strike since they had built a trusting relationship
between all parties.
During her tenure, Carroll also had to face down the threat of a takeover, a downturn in the commodity
cycle, and criticism of her environmental record and strategy decisions, notably, Anglo's investment in
Minas Rio, a Brazilian iron ore project that went into operation four years late and at twice the original
budget. Minas Rio is a tier-one asset and identified as a potential acquisition before she was even
appointed as CEO. But the fact was, Anglo had changes that they did not anticipate - and nobody in
industry anticipated - in Brazil, in the regulatory environment. These changes delayed the project.
Eventually, Carroll needed to make tough decisions, not all popular. For example, she had to reduce the
number of people. Eventually, these decisions payed off. The company delivered $3.2 billion of value
over and above their committed number of $2 billion. They had a clear strategy – they were joined up.
They reduced the number of fatalities by about 70% and that cascaded into the industry, which was
reduced by about 50%. That's an achievement.
Source:
Available online: https://www.ft.com/video/d8edd628-8afa-4c53-90da-7f7968d9ff58 [Accessed 9
January 2019].
QUESTIONS
Question 1
Those leading change in organisations need to make key decisions around the way in which the
change process will be managed. John Kotter developed one approach to manage change in an
organisation.
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