EOH Holdings Ltd.: From Blacklist to Market Confidence through Corporate Structure and Governance

The share price of EOH Holdings Ltd. (EOH), a company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and Africa’s largest technology service provider, decreased by over 30 per cent in December 2017 following allegations of fraud in relation to a corporate action within the group. Despite strong denials by the then–group chief executive officer (CEO), Zunaid Mayet, EOH’s market value continued to plummet, from a peak of 22 billion South African rand to 4 billion. In September 2018, Mayet was replaced as group CEO by Stephen van Coller, a former banker and telecommunications executive, who recruited a new executive team, replaced the board, and contracted out an unfettered internal corruption investigation. By June 2020, van Coller was wondering whether he and his management team had done enough to prove to the market that EOH was an organization once again worthy of trust and investment. Had they taken sufficient steps to restore EOH’s reputation? Had they earned the right to push the board to approve the next phase of EOH’s turnaround?

This case can be used in graduate-level courses in management development programs or in short executive education courses focusing on leadership, strategy execution, and turnarounds. The case allows students to consider how ethical leadership and corporate governance processes, practices, and structures should be employed to drive an organizational turnaround following a corporate failure. After working through the case and assignment questions, students should be able to do the following:<ul><li>Identify causes of corporate failure informed by CEO power and hubris.</li><li>Establish how firms can repair trust in the organization following a failure.</li><li>Gain insight into the role that leadership plays for renewal, growth, and strategy execution.</li><li>Assess and select the appropriate strategy process in a company turnaround.</li></ul>

• risk management
• corporate governance
• trust repair
• financial management