When conversations in our industry turn to leadership, they often gravitate towards strategy frameworks, digital transformation roadmaps, or the latest technology buzzwords.  

Yet some of the most instructive leadership lessons emerge not from grand theory, but from how leaders respond to pressure, regulation, and rapid change. My recent discussion with Sameer Kumandan, managing director of Search Works 360, offered exactly that kind of grounded perspective.

At first glance, Search Works 360 operates firmly in the world of data, identity verification, onboarding, compliance checks, and real-time access to trusted information sources. But as Sameer explained, their role is less about “data” in isolation and more about acting as a conduit of certainty in an increasingly complex ecosystem. By aggregating information from golden sources, from Home Affairs to deeds offices, credit bureaus, vehicle and compliance databases, and delivering it through a single platform or API, their work sits at the heart of trust-based decision-making across financial services and beyond.

Leadership under regulatory pressure - Reflecting on the past year, Sameer highlighted two developments that materially reshaped how businesses interact with data. The first was the dramatic increase in the cost of accessing Home Affairs records, a shift that changed the economics of onboarding overnight. What had once been a marginal cost suddenly became a material line item, affecting banks, insurers, and smaller businesses alike. The second was the sharp enforcement of penalties under the FIC Act, as regulators intensified their focus on compliance in support of South Africa’s efforts to move beyond grey-listing.

For leadership teams, these were not abstract regulatory shifts. They forced immediate operational decisions: How to manage rising acquisition costs, how to redesign onboarding journeys, and how to ensure compliance without adding friction or delay. From a data provider’s perspective, this meant finding new ways to deliver value, not simply by supplying raw data, but by embedding interpretation, workflow, and audit-ready processes into client systems.

This is where leadership in a specialist service business becomes visible. Instead of passing complexity downstream to clients, Sameer’s team focused on absorbing it internally, rethinking pricing models, redesigning workflows, and accelerating product development to meet new regulatory realities.

Speed, automation and the customer journey - One of the strongest themes in our conversation was the growing importance of speed and seamless customer journeys. Sameer illustrated this with a simple but powerful comparison: If one institution allows a client to open an account at two in the morning and be fully verified within minutes, while another takes 24 hours for the same outcome, the difference in customer experience is profound.

For leaders, the implication is clear. In competitive markets, friction is no longer tolerable, whether it appears as delays, manual checks, or repeated data requests. Automated verification, real-time scoring, and decision transparency are becoming baseline expectations, not differentiators.