The legendary Michael Spicer, who passed away last week, was a man who had great foresight and who did more than any individual to induct me to the world of business.

I first met Spicer at a formal meeting at the Anglo American head office in London almost 20 years ago this year. It was towards the end of my two-year stint as Associate Editor on The Independent, during which I had read for an MBA in preparation for a transition to the world of business. In the second half of that year, when I had finished the course work and was conducting research for my dissertation, I had written to Anglo Gold CEO Bobby Godsell to express interest in joining the Anglo American group on my return home the following year. That letter found its way to Russel King, the global head of Human Resources at Anglo American in London at the time, and he invited me to a meeting with him and Spicer. The date was some time in September 2002.

An avid media consumer, Spicer was a regular reader of my weekly columns in newspapers back home, but he and I had never met before. At the time, Anglo American had a strained relationship with the Mbeki government. Although the company had been granted permission to relocate to London, the government at the time believed that it subsequently showed neither loyalty nor commitment to the country of its origin.  

Both Spicer and King were attracted by the fact that my MBA dissertation was focused on brand management, and felt that I could add value in the same role at Anglo American. They made me a good offer to join the company in Johannesburg in January 2003 in the new position of Head of Marketing.

Spicer proved to be an amazing boss. From the moment I walked into 44 Main Street, he gave me carte blanche to do my job as I saw fit, and gave me all the support that I needed. The last research to establish how the company was viewed in the country had been done by MarkData and Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, and it did not make for a good reading. Then I knew that it was important to find a way of linking the Anglo American brand to an asset which would visibly demonstrate its continuing commitment to South Africa.

I soon realised that South Africa’s bid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was just the right opportunity. I figured that, since only African countries were competing for the opportunity and South Africa had come so close to winning the right to host the 2006 World Cup, there was a very good chance that we would make it that time. The sponsorship deal was R15 million, and there would be money needed to leverage it.

Two immediate problems presented themselves: there was no such financial provision in the new Marketing Department, and Anglo American had never been involved in any form of football sponsorship. Thirdly, not a single company had come on board as a sponsor at the time. Convinced that the bid was absolutely the right asset with which Anglo American needed to associate itself, one which would tuck at heartstrings, I prepared a comprehensive proposal and presented it to Spicer – who simply loved it. Next, he arranged for me to present the proposal to the Anglo American Executive Committee, which also approved it, together with an additional R15 million for a marketing campaign to leverage the sponsorship.

So, thanks to Spicer, Anglo American – which did not have any history with local football, and which has never done so again since – was announced, at a big function at the head office, as the first sponsor of South Africa’s 2010 bid. That opened the way for other companies to follow Anglo American’s lead and come on board. I went on to represent the company on the Board of the 2010 Bid Company, and we launched a massive marketing campaign, called “Anglo American: Passionate About South Africa”.

Among the very first things that Spicer did was to get me appointed onto the boards of various entities at head office. So, together with him, I served on the Board of the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, which was chaired by Clem Sunter, and I was appointed onto the Board of Trustees of the Anglo American Medical Aid Scheme. Externally, whenever he could not attend the Board of the International Business Council of South Africa (now Brand South Africa), he asked me to do so for him. He did the same with Board of Business Against Crime, where I ended up replacing him as a director.

It was clear that, instead of shielding certain responsibilities as his own, Spicer went out of his way to expose me to them and to delegate them to me. In the process, he empowered me considerably. He did not pay lip service to empowerment, but he practised it.

Whenever I mentioned to him, even in passing, a forthcoming event like the Mining Indaba, his standard response was: “Why are you not there?” Consequently, during my four-way stay with Anglo-American I was a regular in Cape Town, with him, not only for the State of the Nation Addresses, but also for the annual Mining Indaba and other important functions, such as corporate events at the Vergelegen Wine Estate in Sommerset West.

Similarly, when I told him that the Board of the 2010 Bid Company had asked Board members representing sponsors to consider travelling with Chief Executive Danny Jordaan to campaign for the bid, Spicer’s response was “why are not there?” So, I travelled extensively with Jordaan to Tunisia, three countries in South America and Spain to campaign for South Africa to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, or to try to lure either Barcelona or Real Madrid to come to South Africa on tour to promote the bid. In the end, England’s Tottenham Hotspur was the team that came out.

Thanks to Spicer’s support, Anglo American also hosted the FIFA inspection team at Vergelegen over dinner and provided it with the company’s aircraft to travel from one part of the country to another.

It was fitting, therefore, that Spicer, Lazarus Zim (after he had joined the company) and I were at FIFA headquarters in Zurich when Sepp Blatter announced that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Spicer also enthusiastically supported my other initiatives to promote the Anglo American brand both externally and internally. When I introduced the Anglo American Alumni Association, which was made up of former employees and, more importantly, those who had received Anglo American bursaries over the years, he was an immediate convert. So, too, when I introduced the annual Anglo American Sports Day, which saw employees coming from different mines and operations to participate in sports at The Campus in Randburg.

Collectively, these initiatives considerably improved the perception of the Anglo American brand in the country, as was confirmed by a subsequent survey conducted by Schlemmer.

Spicer’s passing is a sad loss not only for his wife Ireen and his two sons, but also for the country. He was a patriot who loved South Africa with a passion and was, during our times at Anglo American, outspoken on the country’s governance, especially when it came to decisions by Pretoria which impacted negatively on business and had the potential to limit foreign direct investment.

For me, he has been far more supportive than any Executive or CEO, regardless of race, to whom I have subsequently reported. Even though he had already left the company, my respect for him was such that I made an appointment to see him at Business Leadership South Africa to tell him in person when time came for me to move on from Anglo American. I have held him in high regard over the years and was pleased that, each time I invited him to be a speaker at the Southern African Metals and Engineering Indaba, he made himself readily available.

Rest in peace, Michael. Your contribution to this country (and to me) is indelible.

A former Head of Marketing and Vice-President for Corporate Affairs at Anglo American, Dr Nyatsumba is the Managing Director of KMN Consulting and the author of Successfully Implementing Turnaround Strategies at State-owned Companies.