Microsoft South Africa has selected six black-owned SMME organisations within the IT field that they will develop. The initiative is tasked to develop and transform these organisations into global players within this seven year period. Part of the selection criteria were organisations that:
• have exhibited the development of
products around original ideas, • that already have customers, and have been in business for more than three years, • have a unique product to sell, and • that they do not currently employ more than 30 staff members.
Microsoft South Africa’s commitment to the Department of Trade and Industry is that, at the end of the seven year period, these organisations will each employ more than 100 staff members, that they will offer many more products than they currently do, that these products can be integrated with the Microsoft product range and that they will export to other countries where Microsoft trades. Some of the expertise and support to these SMMEs entail relocating the business if necessary, developing the managerial competencies to deal with the expected organisational growth and easing capital demands around salaries of newly graduated staff.
Nyati does warn against becoming complacent with the organisation’s achievements. “Again, I’m going to put it in the context of the changes that are happening in the environment in which we operate. What we need to be doing is to continue to find ways in which we sharpen our level of understanding of reality. But reality is also changing over time. Which leads to the question ‘How do you do that?’ It means taking yourself much closer to the action, rolling up your sleeves and doing some of the dirty work.
It means we need to go and engage customers and partners. A leader that is not engaging customers will lack that customer insight that should then guide you as an organisation. Go out and find opportunities that support your engagement with customers, partners and Government. We have to be able to identify these opportunities as effective leaders. And it is probably the most difficult thing for most business leaders to do. But the more you do it, the more you will grow as a person. We all walk around with so many assumptions about so many things. It is critical to verify these assumptions. What I like most is when my assumptions are proven wrong. I find then that new possibilities just arise. And that is where we can make the biggest difference as leaders.”
To read more about the other organisations featured in the CRF Institute’s Best Employers project 2011/2012 please visit
www.bestemployers.co.za
Celebrating 30 years of inspiring Africa’s managers
March 2012 | Management Today 25
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