How feeling like an outsider fueled a CEO’s purpose

An adapted version of this newsletter first appeared on?Inc.com

Sim Tshabalala's journey from harsh and humble beginnings in Soweto to the highest reaches of finance is a story of courage and purpose.????

Tshabalala grew up in a Black family in apartheid South Africa; now he is the CEO of Standard Bank Group, the largest bank in Africa by assets. He joined the bank’s project finance division in 2000 and worked his way through the ranks until he became CEO about a decade ago, at age 45.

Throughout, he was guided by the idea of being bound to a higher purpose – and also the notion of “high reverence for the humanity in others, and always seeking to connect with them,” he told me on my podcast.

Standard Bank’s purpose is: “Africa is our home. We drive her growth.’ Here are some takeaways from my interview with him.

The sacrifices made by his parents got him where he is today. Tshabalala’s mother and father worked hard so they could send him as a boy to a private, mostly white Catholic school in the Johannesburg suburbs. The Marist Brothers at the school introduced him to the concept of heroic leadership, he said, encouraging him to strive for something that was bigger than himself.

Feeling like an outsider has been an advantage. It wasn’t always easy being in classrooms and offices that were overwhelmingly white. But that turned out to be a good thing, because it enabled Tshabalala to develop imagination, courage and resilience – while retaining his humility, he said. Now, as the head of Standard Bank, he considers himself to be an “outsider insider.”

Purpose is embedded in his company’s code of ethics and performance standards. ?Tshabalala said he talks about purpose at every opportunity. He said he is confident that you could walk into a bank branch in, say, Luanda, Angola, and any teller there would be able to tell you the company’s purpose. Similarly, the company’s “hard-nosed investment bankers” based in London also have an abiding sense of the purpose, he said.

He seeks to create value for all stakeholders. That includes shareholders, employees, customers and society. “We don’t believe that the sole purpose of management is to maximize profits,” he said. He believes all stakeholders can come out ahead through following a larger purpose.

He feels his company has important obligations to society. Sim said he believes Standard Bank’s job “is a social one and that it is an integral part of the social fabric.”

One key aspect of Standard Bank’s purpose has been to ensure that people of color have more access to banking; the bank has partnered with the government, trade unions and tech companies to help make that happen. And in 2016, the bank started the Tutuwa Community Foundation to encourage economic development and reduce poverty in South Africa, with a focus on young people.

He considers the past while mapping his company’s future. Standard Bank was founded in Port Elizabeth in the 1860’s to help farmers sell their wool abroad. Now it has a presence in 20 African countries and is represented in the major money centers of the world.

There’s no ignoring that the bank was a part of the apartheid era. I asked Tshabalala how he reconciles the bank’s past with its modern day purpose. He said that the bank, while rooted in a colonial past, has always had a progressive tradition, and that, as an example, it served leading Black intellectuals in the 19th century.

Yes, the bank has had a mixed past, but overwhelmingly it is headed in the right direction, “and I’m very proud to be part of it,” he said.