GET TO KNOW
growing with become successful at what
they do. I love working with people. If you could go back and change one
career decision what would it be?
This couldn’t be more important than in the
role of Chief Customer Officer as my people
are the main interface to our customers.
They are at the centre of the feedback loop.
Without this feedback, we cannot truly
understand if we are meeting our customers’
expectations and ultimately delivering the
value we aim to. At Altron Karabina, we put
the customer at the centre of everything we
do and all the decisions we make, and I am
immensely proud to be part of this journey. I would have read more in my early career.
The world is full of amazing books filled
with knowledge and experiences. Learning
about these and applying them in your own
environment can accelerate one’s growth
path and trajectory.
What do you think is the current hot
technology talking point?
There are many buzzwords; however, I
think the one that we forget is the people.
Tech is an outcome of someone’s idea.
The technology that is built will often have
incredible capability to impact people,
businesses and governments in many
exciting ways. However, unless people are
fully empowered to use the technology,
understand the outcomes and apply these,
we are truly limiting the opportunity that
technology provides.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside the office?
I love paddle boarding, but my biggest
passion is food and cooking. On weekends,
I wake up and cook. I go and buy
ingredients at the market for lunch, and
so on. I always aim to live life to its fullest
and time spent with family and friends are
precious in this regard.
72
INTELLIGENTCIO
What do you currently identify as
the major areas of investment in
your industry?
Our customers continue to invest heavily in
preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
by optimising and modernising their
operations through the implementation of
a modern ERP platform such as Microsoft
Dynamics 365.
In addition, the investment into tools that
assist companies in extracting knowledge
and information from data is a high priority.
Finally, we are seeing significant interest in
systems focused on the customer and how
companies can better understand and serve
their customer base.
“
I BELIEVE A
COMPANY
SHOULD
UNDERSTAND
ITS CUSTOMERS
BY COMING TO
GRIPS WITH HOW
BEST TO PARTNER
WITH THEM.
What changes to your job role have
you seen in the last year and how do
you see these developing in the next
12 months?
What are the region-specific
challenges when implementing
new technologies in Africa? I believe a company should understand
its customers by coming to grips with how
best to partner with them. This will see
the relationship extend multiple years
and enable the parties to enjoy the good
times together and more easily survive the
challenging ones.
We have a serious unemployment challenge
and in certain areas of the tech industry,
we are desperately short of skilled and
experienced people. My role is about enabling our business units
to orchestrate internal change on behalf of
our customers to deliver value in the way
they see it.
This gap is something that the industry needs
to take accountability for and ensure that we
build the knowledge and experience
that the
industry needs.
The tech
industry is a
key pillar of the
economy, one
that will position
us well to
compete globally,
we cannot afford
to fall behind in
the tech space
and our people
are the key to
keeping us ahead
of the game. We must deliver innovation that matters
to our customers. By putting them first in
everything we do, we will achieve our own
business growth. Altron Karabina’s utilisation
of the Microsoft platform is strongly aligned
with the company’s strategy. In the Fourth
Industrial Revolution, our solutions are
enabling our customers to embrace a digital
business environment.
What advice would you offer
somebody aspiring to obtain C-level
position in your industry?
Work hard, invest in building your
relationships, read everything and get
the balance right between understanding
technology, how it is applied to business and
the business itself. n
www.intelligentcio.com