EBU Vertical Segmentation Overview

07 August 2013

Nomalanga NkosiSurvival Guide – Women in IT, South Africa8 August 2013

My Professional Experience

A Chartered Marketer (SA) with more than 15 years of strategic marketing experience in the B2C and B2B marketing space respectively. More 12 years in the business-to-business Telecomms space – both fixed and mobile environments.

I have had the opportunity to manage products and business solutions at different stages of their evolutionary cycles across different market segments.

Have also had an opportunity to work on established brands, new market entries, introduced and launched new brands and products to new markets, re-positioned mature brands (and businesses), including providing head input in localising an international brand, achieving a very successful global-to-local introduction.

In 2012, completed 10 columned articles on the subject of Entrepreneurship in the Entrepreneur Magazine, South Africa. Professional Memberships include Marketing Association of South Africa, Black IT Forum, Women in IT and the Black Management Forum.

Responsible for the design, development and commercialisation of the Enterprise Customer Value proposition across multi-industry channels-to-market, spanning fixed and mobile voice, data and ICT solutions. Provide head input in strategy sessions where the business defines the go-to-market strategies.

Philanthropy: Board Member - Khulisani Foundation

My Operating Rhythm

• Believe that women are more ambitious that their male counterparts – period.

• We also score higher on various other parameters as compared to our male counterparts – work-life balance, corporate culture, reward and recognition, learning and development and career growth.

• Female professionals tend to excel in IT sector because of some specific skill-sets like a creative mind and conceptualising abilities, which are required for code writing.

• Also, lateral thinking ability is more nuanced in females.

• Another skill that comes naturally is the ability to multitask. This is most important given the tight schedules and multiple projects that one needs to handle.

• With capability and success comes ambition. Research has shown that women in leadership tend to build a natural loyalty factor be in terms of customer engagement or motivating their workforce.

• Women emphasise and solve problems!

My Leadership Orientation

Survival Tip #1: Forgiveness as a Business Tool

Forgiveness can make us a better person but does it make a better leader?• Leaders who can tolerate mistakes, who see them as learning opportunities, are those who create a

great corporate culture. • Forgiveness offers people the chance to take risks, to be creative, to learn and to grow their own

leadership capabilities• Holding onto resentment, bitterness and spite is not what transformational leadership is all about.• Forgiveness builds loyalty and good citizenship.

Great leaders know the art of reconciliation. • ‘Truly transformational leaders are acutely aware of the cost of animosity’* • ‘Truly transformational leaders realise the havoc that can be created by an unforgiving attitude…

holding grudges is a form of arrested development; it holds people back.’ - Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD, Distinguished Professor in Leadership Development and Organisational Change

Survival Tip #2: New Habits to Develop

1. Take An Input Inventory. So take stock of where the valuable information and insight lies. Who in your work life should you be listening to? Who in your personal life? Which social media channels are relevant?

2. Stretch Your Muscles. Now that you have an idea of who and what you should be listening to, start to practice. Within the next 24 hours, seek out someone who you think is smart and insightful and pick his or her brain on a specific topic. Thank them, and then go write down what they said and anything actionable that you have gleaned from it.

3. Listen To What Is Unsaid. In both our professional and personal lives, absolute candour can be tough. Successful leaders learn to listen between the lines. In the next 24 hours, have a conversation in which you’re listening for what is unsaid. Then go write down what was said and what you feel was meant. This exercise is closely related to emotional intelligence.

4. Refresh Your Ears. We all fall into patterns, which can lead to stale performance and career ruts. Shuffle the cubicles (including your own) in the office every 6 months. This workplace culture reorientation will refresh everyone’s creative juices and encourages collaboration.

5. Keep An Open Ear (And Mind). Start listening to people who you never listened to before. (Yes, I know this seems to contradict Step 1, but actually it compliments it, and keeps it fresh and spontaneous.) This means seeking out people who you never really paid a whole lot of attention to, and actively soliciting their input. You’d be surprised at what people have to offer when asked – hopefully they are women!

Survival Tip #2: Five Minds for the Future

We live in a time of vast changes. And those changes call for entirely new ways of learning and thinking.

In "Five Minds for the Future," Howard Gardner defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead:

The Disciplinary mind--mastery of major schools of thought (including science, mathematics, and history) and of at least one professional craft;

the Synthesizing mind--ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others;

the Creating mind--capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena;

the Respectful mind--awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings and human groups;

and the Ethical mind--fulfillment of one's responsibilities as a worker and citizen.

Random Quotes – Women & Technology : ICT

‘Engendering ICT involves among others designing ICT policies & programs with strong gender perspectives at all levels supported by systematic collection and use of sex-disaggregated data on access, use, control and participation of women and men in ICT sector.’ - Alex Twahirwa Gender Expert MIGEPROF (11.04.2013)

‘Marilyn once sang that diamonds are a girl's best friend. These days that's not true. ICT skills are a girl's best friend. Have them, and the diamonds will follow.’

The fact is, this issue of women in ICT isn't a problem: it's an opportunity. Enabling and empowering. Something that should excite every talented, ambitious woman out there. A chance to make the most of your potential.

We need more women working in ICT. It matters to women. Every woman should have the tools to take control of her life: and today, it's almost uniquely ICT skills that offer growing employment, innovation, and opportunity

Random Quotes – Women & Technology : ICT

Thank You Merci Siyabonga

Nomalanga Nkosi+2782 200 2323Nomalanga.nkosi@gmail.com