Picking up momentum?

The returning CEO has big plans for the company — but three years is a short time for a turnaround

It isn’t often that a CEO comes back more than 12 years after stepping down — but that’s exactly what’s happened at MMI (formerly Momentum).

There’s no doubt many MMI executives were looking back nostalgically to the nine years from 1996 to 2005 that Momentum fell under Hillie Meyer. But he agreed to a contract as MMI CEO for just three years (he says he was not interested in committing himself for the rest of his career). And three years is a short time for a CEO turning a business around — it’s just enough time to identify a half-dozen key priorities and choose a successor.

Several of Meyer’s former dream team have returned to the company, including Jeanette Marais, the new deputy CEO. She was the leading architect of the linked investment platform, which is Momentum’s core offering. Johann le Roux, who developed the Myriad risk product range, has also rejoined.

The timing for Meyer’s return was good: he’d just completed folding his private equity business, Nodus Equity Partners, into the Bee-led New Seasons business.

His first big decision as CEO has been to cancel the move — involving 1,500 people — of the company’s head office from Centurion to Sandton.

“It was conceived when MMI had aspirations to become an international player and it was going to be the global head office,” says Meyer. “But we have all the offices we need in Sandton, in the EY building. And the plan would have left Centurion as an admin hub with no decision makers there.”

When Meyer left Momentum in 2005, it had an enviable reputation for providing the best service to brokers and offering the best linked investment platform. Since then, the rise of investment houses such as Investec and Allan Gray has led to an erosion of market share and a decline in profitability. Core earnings have