The Financial Turnaround – Interview with Chief Financial Officer Rajendra Rajcoomar
Q
: You were appointed SEIFSA Chief Financial Officer in May 2014 . What was the state of the Federation ’ s finances when you occupied the CFO ’ s office ?
A
: I think the most important fact to state as far the finances are concerned is that
SEIFSA was is a serious deficit , which had started in 2012 when the Collective Bargaining Levy ( CBL ), which the Federation was accustomed to receiving every year , expired and was not renewed . In addition to the expiry of the CBL levy , the Federation ’ s losses were also generally increasing .
Q
: What strategies were then put in place to mitigate the Federation ’ s financial losses and to narrow the gap created by the expiry of the CBL ?
A
: In 2014 after Mr Nyatsumba took over as the Federation ’ s new CEO , we embarked on a journey to turn the SEIFSA ship around and to make sure that the Federation starts to generate revenue and , subsequently , to make a profit from the products and services it offers , among other measures . Key to the turnaround strategy was the review and repricing of all the products and services offered by the Federation , most of which were grossly under-priced . In this regard , we also added more products and services to our basket of offerings . Some of the items we added onto our basket include BEE services , legal services and the Small Business Hub , among others . The establishment of the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba as well as the SEIFSA Awards for Excellence Events also subsequently contributed towards improving the Federation ’ s finances .
In addition to repricing and adding to the basket of our product and service offerings , we also had to find ways to contain the Federations expenditure . In this regard , we had to start making changes even with little things such as changing and sharing printers and doing as much as possible internally , instead of using consultants . This meant bringing on board experts into the SEIFSA fold . Furthermore , the unfortunate cost-containment measure of retrenching 11 SEIFSA staff members in 2015 , along with the resignation of others , also contributed towards boosting the Federation ’ s bottom line because we have not filled those positions . Instead , we have reassigned the work among the remaining employees , brought on board Alliance Partners and outsourced some of the roles , where it made sense for us to do so .
Rajendra Rajcoomar Chief Financial Officer
Another important measure that the CEO insisted upon to improve SEIFSA ’ s bottom line was to rebrand our training centre from Fundi Training Centre to SEIFSA Training Centre during the 2013 / 2014 financial year . The rebranding helped us raise awareness of the centre among our existing members , which in turn resulted in our members using
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SEIFSA AT 75 - SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE MAGAZINE 51