Excelling as a female exec

A few years ago, Old Mutual Short Term Insurance managing director Nangula Kauluma set out on a journey to change her narrative for the better. She looked at her development plan and decided that it was time to become bold about achieving her career aspirations, crafting her path to transition from marketing to general management.Her sheer bravado paid off but she admits that it has not been easy juggling motherhood, building a career and challenging conventions. She recently shared her journey in an interview with Namibian Sun.She joined the Old Mutual group in 2006 as a corporate communications consultant and was employed in the local business up until 2007.In that same year, she took up an executive role as a marketing executive for Old Mutual Africa, thereafter taking on various roles within the group that would ultimately lead to her appointment as MD of Old Mutual Short Term Insurance. Gearing for the corner office“In 2006, I decided I was going to do an MBA thinking I wanted to transition into a distribution or operations role. I hadn't articulated necessarily what it was but I knew I wanted to eventually move out of marketing,” she says.Tired of being a spectator in an enabling function, she submerged herself in the workings of the businesses she was involved in, making every effort to learn about the operations along the way. “I made it my business to contribute to the conversation about the total business and not just my specialist function,” she says.“A few years ago I finally changed what I had in my development plan, making it explicitly clear that I want to lead a full profit and loss operation, end to end.Her upbringing, she says, has aided her ability to solve problems, something she traces back to her formative years in Windhoek.“The upbringing that I had was interesting, due to the combination of being a struggle kid and a church kid. Our home was this place where lots of people were always coming and going. We had on average between 12 and 15 people at the dinner table every day,” Kauluma says of her family setup.She attributes her problem-solving skills to her upbringing. “It could be any hour of the night that someone would come in seeking shelter, needing support, just needing a safe place, so I grew up with a lot of exposure to many different people and as a result I believe that diversity is the essence of greatness. Creativity is enhanced if you have diversity and if you apply creativity it's a great way to solve problems, both big and small,” she says.She attended an all-women institute of learning and believes that it provided a great foundation.“Spelman was fantastic in that it gave me a strong base for winning in the world as a woman. It provided a good theoretical base around giving language and name to things that we certainly didn't learn growing up, such as the pedagogies surrounding the miscegenation of women and how to bust these,” she says fondly of her alma mater. Her growth plans for old mutual's short-term insurance business Having lost some market share to other short-term insurers, she emphasises the need to put customers, culture and people at the apex of her strategy in an effort to regain ground lost in the competitive insurance landscape.“We've got the fundamentals in place and the quality of our business is sound. We've got good products, solid relationships with our distribution channels, and right now we are focusing a lot of effort on actions that will support growth, so looking carefully at delivering compelling propositions.Adds Kauluma: “The other item that is high on my agenda is our people, really focusing on embedding a culture of excellence and service orientation, as well as building a strong pipeline of talent. “Lastly, sustainability is high on my agenda. Maintaining a strong risk and control environment is a big priority, along with building strong relationships with our stakeholders and playing a meaningful role in our broader society,” she says. Changing role of women in the boardroomShe admits that it is hard to be a female executive but makes no excuses. “I can't think how many life moments I've missed over the years, but I've made a choice to make those sacrifices because I've wanted to provide the best I can for my kids.“To become an executive is hard work for men and women alike. Furthermore challenging for women is the societal expectation that by a certain age that you should be a wife, that you should be a mother, a perfect wife and perfect mother, maintaining a perfect home. It becomes a lot to manage when you're also trying to achieve your professional aspirations - with peers who often have wives carrying the load at home - and I think that's the part people often don't talk enough about.” Returning to Namibia has also been a good experience for Kauluma. She is encouraged that the narrative around women executives is slowly changing.“Coming home recently has been great in many ways. One of the things I have noticed is that there are quite a few black women running companies and excelling in their respective professions, in a lot of instances, in professions that are traditionally considered for men,” she says. “I would like to think that something is changing in our landscape and that we are moving to a system of merit based recognition and advancement,” Kauluma says.OGONE TLHAGE

Excelling as a female exec

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Namibian Sun 2025-03-10

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Excelling as a female exec

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Namibian Sun 2025-03-10

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