Author :

Claire Beswick; Boris Urban

Pages :

25

Product Type :

Case

Reference # :

WBS-2010-02

Teaching Note :

Institute:

Wits Business School

Setting:

Johannesburg

Year:

2009

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship, financial services, strategy, corporate environment, medical schemes

Summary/Abstract:

On 1 September 2009, as financial services firm, Discovery Ltd was about to release its annual results for 2008/2009, its chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Adrian Gore, took some time to consider the company’s trajectory since its inception 16 years ago. Discovery was now in the top 40 on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). This year’s results were excellent: in the context of the global economic crisis, operating profit had grown by 32%. Still, Gore was not one to remain satisfied with these achievements. He had worked hard to instil an ethos of entrepreneurship and innovation in the organisation. Now he wondered whether he had done enough to sustain that into the future and what the next opportunity would be.