INTERNATIONAL:
BOOK REVIEW
Lessons from
South Africa
BY ANDY ANDREWS, VISITING PROFESSOR, IESE BUSINESS SCHOOL
Turnaround Management and Corporate Renewal,
A South African Perspective
EDITED BY Neil Harvey
PUBLISHED BY Wits University Press
This book is about corporate turnaround—specifically, making and implementing the key
decisions that renew and transform
any company or organization facing
decline or collapse. Turnaround
Management and Corporate Renewal,
A South African Perspective, is a
collection of articles or chapters
from 35 academics and practitioners
from various backgrounds, and their
contributions draw on their considerable
business experience in the field.
advisory firm, in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, where he now lives.
The book’s origins are in a series of
articles by Harvey about turnarounds
and cases involving them that appeared
in Professional Management Review,
a monthly South African magazine,
from 1993 to 1994 and 1999 to
2003. The book also has roots in
the executive program “Managing
a Turnaround and Corporate
Renewal” that Harvey and Frans
van Heerden have convened at
Wits Business School in South
Africa each year since 2002.
Jan/Feb
2013
Journal of
Corporate
Renewal
42
Neil Harvey, PhD, has held top
management positions in a number
of South African and international
companies, has led more than a
dozen successful turnarounds, and
has served as a professor at Rhodes
University in South Africa. He also
founded Strategic Global Investments,
an investment management and
Some might question why lessons
from South African business
turnaround experiences are
relevant to a broader audience.
But the country itself is a
wonderful example of a political
