The dynamic Lerato Manaka has discovered the hard way what it takes to break through the ranks to become a key player in South Africa’s corporate governance universe, writes Ido Lekota
Corporate governance—the system by which companies are directed, controlled and held accountable—has become critically important in the digital era that organisations are currently operating around the globe.
This is the environment in which Luvivi Corporate Governance—an independent professional services company founded by a group of friends in 2015—operates, specialising in corporate governance and regulatory compliance for organisations and their governing bodies.
Luvivi’s services include company secretariat, governance training, risk management and supporting SMEs with governance practices tailored to their specific challenges. The Black-owned and majority women-managed company has the ideal background to offer these services: their team brings a wealth of experience in corporate and regulatory advisory, gained from working for multinational corporations and some of the largest companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
However, as Luvivi’s co-founder and director Lerato Manaka stated in a recent Leadership interview—due to South Africa’s complex historical realities, including entrenched inequalities, and persistent structural barriers, they discovered that their prior experience, although solid, did not translate easily into success when trying to break into the industry.
“Notwithstanding our extensive experience in the corporate world, and in governance, our qualifications and our empowerment status, organisations were reluctant to give us an opportunity.
“I recall a meeting with an organisation within local government, where we were presenting our service offering, the CEO suggested that we wouldn’t succeed as a Black company unless we partnered with a white company or one of the big audit firms. Which was disheartening.
“Throughout the years, we’ve frequently encountered the question, ‘Who is this Luvivi?’, and in many instances management was often challenged on their decision to choose us over more established companies,” reveals Manaka.
To redress the situation, Luvivi learned to approach each assignment thoroughly prepared. She and her team would first conduct thorough research on an organisation, its governance structures, industry and competitors. They would then benchmark these findings against the regulatory universe, applicable case law and culture. This approach led to them delivering high quality, customised work by addressing board dynamics and business needs, among other results.
“Over time our work spoke for itself, and we got commended and recommended to other entities. We’ve learned from setbacks through debriefing sessions, identifying areas for improvement and continuously enhancing our services. Our shared values, our vision for Luvivi, and our trust in each other fortified us during these challenging times, during which we were supported by a talented team that had a shared belief in this vision. Our commitment, belief in our capabilities, focus on quality, perseverance and tenacity have kept us standing for 10 years.
“Unlike larger entities, as a small, Black and relatively unknown company, we have little room for error… so we therefore thrive by letting our work speak for us.”
Luvivi’s leadership style
As part of Luvivi’s leadership, Manaka believes it is important that how the company is run is deeply influenced by the values that were first instilled in her by her mother. These include authenticity, understanding one’s worth and having grit.
“These values also inform our business philosophy, which focuses on building enduring client partnerships that foster long-term, mutually beneficial success. We don’t see engagements as just being once-off achievements: we want to walk the journey with our clients. This requires continuous effort built on a foundation of transparency, reliability, competence and trust. Clients need to feel confident in our abilities and know that we have the best interests of their organisation at heart.”
For Manaka, leadership is also about empowering people, creating an environment where the team feels encouraged to ask questions, challenge ideas, learn, grow and excel. It is also about trusting the team, giving them responsibility, supporting their development and holding them accountable. Achievements are recognised and acknowledged, while setbacks are seen as learning opportunities.
“We have managed to create an environment where the team feels they are part of Luvivi, and as such they are motivated to contribute, encouraging collaboration, nurturing growth and excellence.“
Luvivi’s contribution to strengthening ethical leadership and accountability in organisations
Manaka believes that as governance professionals/company secretary services specialists, they are the guardians of leading governance practices. She sees Luvivi’s role extending beyond mere compliance with legislative requirements and regulations, by helping custodians of corporate governance and their organisations to build a culture of ethics, accountability and transparency that permeates all levels of an organisation, to foster sustainable value creation for all stakeholders.
“At times, we are required to act as the conscience of the organisation. As governance advisors, we play a pivotal role by assisting in shaping an ethical tone from the top through frameworks, policies, codes and procedures infused with ethical practices, guiding the board and organisation when navigating complex ethical dilemmas.”
Luvivi’s board inductions, workshops and training interventions also focus on ensuring that leaders are not only aware of their ethical responsibilities but are also equipped with the requisite information and insights to champion an ethical culture throughout the organisation.
“Additionally, we are central to the effective functioning of the board and its committees. This includes advising on the composition of these governance structures to ensure a balance of skills and independence, and, where so required, guiding the deliberations to ensure these structures provide robust oversight.
“We promote the philosophy that good governance should be aligned to the organisation’s overall strategy and embedded across it, as opposed to being seen as a separate function that relates only to the board,” she adds.
Luvivi on the importance of leadership development
Manaka believes leadership development is a critical component of good corporate governance and must accordingly not be compliance-driven but, rather, performance-oriented. For her, a practical performance-driven training initiative is “substantive and meaningful, designed to improve performance and ensure leaders understand their fiduciary duties”.
This is the opposite of a compliance-driven training initiative promoting a “tick-box” approach that merely ensures compliance with regulatory requirements—thereby undermining sustainability.
It is Manaka’s view that Luvivi is strategically positioned because, currently, leadership development has now become critical with boards grappling with a host of complex issues that were not on the radar a decade ago.
“Our knowledge and expertise allow us to deliver effective training interventions. We customise our training to take cognisance of the organisation, governance structures and their respective mandates, in addition to the industry/sector in which the organisation operates. This approach has ensured that our interventions move beyond theoretical principles to provide practical, relevant and actionable guidance that is directly aligned with an organisation’s unique circumstances.”
According to Manaka, the case studies they use in their training are tailored to the specific circumstances of each organisation, ensuring they are both relevant and relatable. This approach fosters alignment within the leadership team and—where applicable—enhances the board’s internal dynamics.
This is because—as Manaka posits—a generic, one-size-fits-all training approach is rarely sufficient to address the specific pressures faced by the leadership of a specific organisation.
Luvivi’s assistance to SMEs
Through its governance training programmes, Luvivi ensures that the governance practices it promotes are applicable, fit-for-purpose and cost-effective for SME’s, taking into consideration the legal nature as well as the size and complexity of the business.
“The practices we adopt for SMEs help them build a governance foundation for scaling and investment readiness, while ensuring compliance with statutory obligations,” explains Manaka.
“These training programmes enhance their business resilience and sustainability, improve strategic decision-making, build and maintain a good reputation and trust, in addition to improving access to funding. However, it is also a key to success that developed and implemented processes do not impede the business’s agility and growth.”
Luvivi’s initiatives in mentoring and developing—in particular—black women leaders
“Our operational team is currently entirely composed of women. We have been intentional in identifying talent and providing them with an opportunity for skills development and growth. As a small company, we are fortunate that we are not constrained by some of the hierarchical structures that often exist within corporates.
“We have the flexibility of providing our team members with exposure to complex corporate governance issues, as they work closely with us in identifying suitable fit-for-purpose solutions. This has assisted in accelerating the development of our team with some of our members moving on to occupy company secretary roles of large institutes and some being absorbed by clients.
“We are a corporate governance company that is formed by highly experienced and qualified individuals. We are good at what we do and always strive to deliver output at the highest standard in our field. We just happen to be Black,” smiles Manaka.
Luvivi on Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
As Manaka states, Luvivi considers CDP important for both company secretaries and board members, especially in today’s rapidly evolving regulatory, legal and governance landscape, exacerbated by the challenging operating environment and advancement of technology.
“Recent corporate governance challenges and the fast-paced, changing domestic and global market trends have highlighted the importance of established robust corporate governance practices and processes.”
Hence, company secretaries need CPD to keep abreast of this evolving landscape to ensure they continue to have the requisite knowledge and experience to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities. Without CPD, both company secretaries and directors risk becoming governance liabilities instead of strategic assets. In contrast, ongoing development fosters excellence, resilience and value creation at boardroom level, avers Manaka.
She also points out that, as it is, global best practice recognises that governing bodies of organisations are relying more and more on the company secretaries to advise them not only on their statutory duties under the legal and disclosure obligations, but also in respect of corporate governance requirements and practices, as well as effective board processes.
Luvivi on promoting a culture of performance improvement—as opposed to compliance-driven—governance
To this end, Luvivi deems evaluation a critical component of good corporate governance and must accordingly not be compliance-driven but performance-oriented. Hence, the company’s evaluations are designed to improve performance and identify areas of improvement of governance.
“We have a bespoke governance system, Luvivi Board Evaluation System, with concise questionnaires that are designed in line with local and global best practice, taking into consideration statutory and regulatory obligations, King IV and ISO 37000.
“Our evaluation processes address challenges relating to the effectiveness of the governing bodies which depend on a variety of factors. The evaluations are conducted in a manner that seeks to obtain insights and understanding of the culture, interactions, dynamics, functioning and performance of the Board, both collectively and individually,” explains Manaka.
Luvivi on incorporating global best practices in governance while addressing local regulatory and cultural contexts
For Luvivi, incorporating global best practices is not about uniformity, but about intelligently contextualising proven principles to elevate governance, support sustainable development, in addition to reflecting the unique regulatory, economic and cultural dynamics of our local operating environment. This is because of the company’s understanding that South Africa is deservedly part of a larger global community.
In fact, as Manaka correctly points out, South African jurisprudence incorporates international law and our Constitution mandates that international law be taken into consideration when interpreting the Bill of Rights and legislation. This goes without saying that governance will follow the same approach.
“In incorporating global best practices, we follow a balanced, context-aware and principle-based approach that ensures that the practices are aligned with our local regulations, in addition to taking into account South Africa’s cultural context,” contends Manaka.
Luvivi’s vision and impact
Luvivi’s strategy is to continue to grow at a pace that still enables the company to maintain quality and sustain its relationships with clients.
One of the exciting projects the company is set to launch will in 2026 is the Luvivi Academy with its stated objectives being to educate, empower and equip board members, executives, company secretaries, governance professionals (and aspiring governance professionals) with the knowledge, skills and tools needed to uphold effective, ethical and accountable leadership.
Luvivi’s advice to upcoming entrepreneurs aspiring to make difference in governance and leadership
“Uphold ethical standards and transparency in all your endeavours. Integrity builds trust and credibility, traits which are crucial for effective governance and leadership. Let your actions reflect your values and your commitment to excellence.
“Have a clear vision for the impact you want to make and the legacy you want to leave. Let this vision guide your decisions and inspire others to join you on your journey. Your leadership can shape the future of governance and leadership.
“Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in governance and leadership. Stay informed about industry trends, regulatory changes and best practices. Education is a powerful tool for overcoming challenges and making informed decisions,” concludes Manaka.
Ido Lekota is a former Sowetan Editor and regular contributor to Leadership Magazine.
