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Profile: Zyda Rylands shares her career journey at Woolworths and offers some advice to women who want to get

Zyda Rylands shares her career journey at Woolworths and offers some advice to women who want to get ahead in business. By RYLAND FISHER

After a long career in retail giant Woolworths that started in 1995, Zyda Rylands was replaced as South African CEO last year and put in charge of the South African food business until the end of 2024. In some quarters, this move by the company was viewed with misgivings, but Rylands says it had everything to do with her health.

“I lost both my parents during the COVID-19 pandemic in the space of 10 months and contracted long COVID myself, forcing me to reassess my priorities and approach the Woolworths board with a request to take early retirement. I was just very tired. They asked me whether I would be prepared to stay on to run the food business. I agreed to stay on for three years, and I am busy resetting the strategy, making sure a successor is identified and set up for success. Then I am off in

2024,” she says.

In her 27-year career at Woolworths, Rylands, now 57, has occupied many positions, most of them far removed from her qualification as a chartered accountant. But she has always seen herself as a people’s person, which explains her involvement in the Black Management Forum (BMF) almost from the minute she joined Woolworths in 1995.

She joined the company as audit manager in the finance department and became the executive assistant to the then CEO after only being with the company for a few months. Soon after this, she won the BMF’s Manager of the Year award in the Western Cape. She later joined the Western Cape board of the BMF, which exposed her to more board positions, mainly nongovernmental organisations in the beginning, but soon also other commercial boards, including FirstRand.

THE BMF WAS A SPRINGBOARD

“If it was not for the BMF, I would not have been exposed to the many board opportunities that came my way,” she says.

“Inside Woolworths, I worked very closely with Nolitha Fakude, who went on to become the president and the managing director of the BMF, and we wanted to be a voice for change in the company. We decided that we would empower people with knowledge and process. We spoke to anyone in the company who we thought could help drive change.”

But working in the office of the Woolworths CEO, also exposed Rylands to the company’s board and “demystified it for me”.

In 2005, 10 years after joining the company, Rylands became a director of Woolworths South Africa and later joined the board of Woolworths Holdings. She says her exposure in the BMF was a springboard for her involvement on many boards.

FROM TEACHER TO WOOLWORTHS’ EXECUTIVE

Rylands began her career as a teacher to pay back her student loan. She taught for a year at Crystal Senior Secondary School in Hanover Park, the same school from where she matriculated. She is still involved with the school, and in the community of Hanover Park, partly through the feeding scheme she started in memory of her father. She detoured via a petroleum company for a short while before ending up at Woolworths, where she has spent the bulk of her career.

Rylands worked in several departments in Woolworths, including finance, retail and human resources. She worked as a regional manager, a divisional executive, chief operating officer and human resources director.

When she took on the human resources director post, she insisted that there should be greater transformation in the business, including more black people on the board and at other senior levels. Her official title was people and transformation director.

She eventually spent six years running the Woolworths SA food business and turned the struggling business around before becoming Woolworths SA CEO in September 2015, a position she held until August last year.

Rylands says that, if she could, the only thing she would do differently on her journey in Woolworths would be to gain international experience.

“But I have no complaints about my time with the company. I have worked with many interesting people and been exposed to many others, including government ministers and the president. It has given me a completely different lens.”

“I have worked with many interesting people and been exposed to many others, including government ministers and the president. It has given me a completely different lens.”

“I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED IN PUSHING BOUNDARIES, BUT HAVE NEVER WANTED TO BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE I AM A WOMAN OR A MUSLIM WOMAN.”

SHARING WHAT SHE’S LEARNED

Rylands says she would like to share with young women some of the lessons she learned in the advanced management programme at Harvard University.

“The first thing is to become who you are. Do not pretend. Do not change to become someone else once you are in the business, because then you are in the wrong business. My father taught me to speak truth to power, and he and my mom taught me that the greater your success, the greater your responsibility. My mother always said that I should not let anyone be afraid of me. They should respect me.

“The lessons I learned at Harvard were anchored in life’s purpose. What is your purpose? Why do you matter? Why are you in this world?

“The main reason I stayed at Woolworths all this time is because the Woolworths values are very much aligned to my values. That does not mean that my time here has been without challenges, I just practice this ‘speak the truth’.

“Women need to be clear on their purpose and what they stand for as individuals, and this must be accompanied by humility. At Harvard, they asked ‘how do you want people to feel in your presence?’ Even if you are delivering a difficult message, it must be one that inspires people to do better. That is the privilege of a leader.

“Women should be clear on where they want to go, and please, do not outsource your career to anyone. Nobody can define where you need to get to, and you are not in competition with anyone. You define your own path in any organisation. Just follow your path and be clear about where you want to go. If you cannot get it in the organisation you are working for, then find another one.”

Rylands says that the biggest challenge came after she returned from pilgrimage to Mecca with her parents and decided to wear a headscarf. “I had to sit the directors down and tell them that this was what I was going to do. ‘You are going to see me wear a headscarf, but please do not treat me any differently’.

“I have always believed in pushing boundaries, but have never wanted to be treated differently because I am a woman or a Muslim woman. I am, first and foremost, a human being, a person, thereafter, I am black, I am Muslim, and I am a woman.”

Rylands says that South African corporates have not done enough over the past 28 years of democracy to transform themselves to represent the diversity in our society.

“Black people now have political power, but most of the economic power is still sitting with white men.

“I am pleased that we started, under my leadership, an inclusive justice initiative at Woolworths, which tries to deal with racism. A lot of businesses do not like to deal with the conversation around race and racism. They prefer to talk about diversity.”

CONTINUING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Rylands says she will welcome being able to take a break when she retires at the end of 2024, but “I don’t think I can ever stop building or making a difference”.

She says she wants to spend more time in the Giving Feeding Team Foundation (GIFFT), which she started in honour of her father. “I had the privilege of selling my shares and donating to the charity, but I want to invest more time and effort in the foundation so that I can make a difference. I want to serve on boards, and I hope to mentor. I hope to speak at leadership sessions at universities or schools. I want girls to understand their power to make a difference, to be themselves, be authentic, and show up who they are.”

She says she will continue to be involved in Hanover Park, including supporting the high school where she matriculated and “I would love to continue doing flower arranging for weddings, but I might also like to paint”.

From The Editor

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2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

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