An insurance business in South Africa, which still exists today, was initially owned by a European company. The European company pulled out of South Africa and sold the South African company to an international insurance company which had its head office in Toronto, Canada.

A few months after the take-over, the relevant executive in Toronto asked the South African company’s CEO to come to Toronto. He told him, ‘Sorry, I know it’s a long way. But I need you to come here because I need to say something to you face-to-face.’

It was not a comfortable flight for the South African CEO because he assumed that in Toronto he would be fired.

In Toronto, after a few niceties, the executive said, ‘I’ve asked you to come here to because you are driving me nuts. You keep on sending me these reports. I’m not interested. Worse still, you keep on asking me for permission. I don’t have to give you permission. We bought your business because we have faith in the calibre of your management team. Not only that, we know that you understand the South African market better than we could ever possibly do. So will you please stop pestering and irritating me and go back and run this business.’

The South African CEO said he felt liberated. He returned to South Africa. The critical thing was: now that he had the authority, he was in a position to devolve that decision-making authority to his executive team, and for them to do likewise down through the organizational hierarchy.

They did this over a number of years – to the point where today the people in the front line, the agents, are totally independent in terms of making their decisions. And – surprise, surprise – the organization is performing very well.