Organisational Design

It was mid-2008 and Zackie Achmat, founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) − widely regarded as one of the most successful HIV/AIDS activist organisations in the world − sat in his office in the historic Westminster House in Adderley Street, Cape Town considering the future. The organisation was facing two related challenges that he was unclear how best to address. Firstly, it was in urgent need of improved professional day-to-day management and administrative skills if it was to sustain its successes of the past 10 years. But with activists as the backbone of the organisation, motivated by ideological rather than career ambitions and with little knowledge of corporate processes, it was proving difficult to create the more structured working environment that the TAC needed. Secondly, Achmat, now in his mid-forties, HIV positive and with a heart attack behind him, was aware that he may have a shorter lifespan than most, and wanted to move on to do other things. He was unconcerned about the future political or ideological leadership of the TAC. The question was how to find a national manager or chief operating officer with consummate business skills, the knowledge to understand the complexities of the TAC’s organisation and work, and the ability to manage activists.