Own Career Path Testimonial

Nomalanga Nkosi – GM: Enterprise Marketing

MTN South Africa

Quote of the day: Everyone is gifted, some open the package sooner!

Presentation Context

1. Career Path

2. Professional Experience, Competencies & Critical Mix

3. Personal Strategic Intent & Mandate

4. MTN Operational Environment

• Challenges @ MTN as a Female GM

• Opportunities @ MTN as a Female GM

5. Social Media Reputation Management

6. Using Social Networks

1. Career Path

1993 - 1996

1996 – 1997

1997- 1999

2000

2001- 2005

2005 - 2009

2005 – Date

2a. Professional Experience

Strategic Marketing Management & Brand

• More than 18 years of strategic marketing experience in a wide range of environments; including FMCG, Financial Services and IT/Telecomms.

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

• I have also worked on established brands, new market entries, introduced and launched new brands and products to new markets, repositioned mature brands (and businesses).

• Have had head input in localising an international brand, achieving a very successful global-to-local introduction.

• More 12 years in the business-to-business Telecomms space – both fixed and mobile environments

2b. Competencies

• Specialities – Sales & Key Account Management , Strategic Research and Market Analysis, Product Development and Management, Brand Management, Advertising & Promotion, Public Relations, Media Relations, Internal and Corporate Communications, Stakeholder Management, Corporate Social Investment Strategy (CSI) Concept and Implementation, New Media and eMarketing, Search Engine Marketing, Digital & Direct Marketing and Strategic Management – from concept to implementation and measurement.

• Professional Memberships: Black IT Forum, Women in IT and Black Management Forum.

• Philanthropy: Board Member - Khulisani Foundation

2c. Critical Mix

• The importance of work life balance

• Shared success – climbing the corporate ladder..

• Family Support – Lindo, Daughter, the Big 5, House Chair

• Mentors, Coach, Confidante, Mentees

• Colleagues – Line and Direct Reports

• Friends

• Customers

• Social Networks & Hobbies

• Professional Networking

• Competitors

3a. Personal Strategic Intent

1. Use thought leadership and pioneering endeavours to lead MTN Business and the Enterprise Marketing team to the leading edge of technology today.

2. Automate customer business processes using MTN Business’ managed services suite to improve their bottom line while allowing them to spend more time improving their own customer experience management (B2B2C) – MTN becomes indispensable as they run on our technology. Beyond just a service provider.

3. Optimise SME businesses through closing the digital divide and mobilising their potential – one stop shop, SME in-a-box value proposition design

4. Assist the public sector customer with interoperability issues within strategic government clusters, enabling government to delver n the G2C Strategy – Batho Pele.

3b. My Mandate

Accountable for all Enterprise class customer value proposition design,

development, commercialisation thereof through the value chain , multi

industry channels to market - fixed and mobile voice, data and ICT solutions.

R5.82bn Business

+_ 7,500 Customers

Team of 50 - 8 Direct Reports

8 Product Categories

34% Market Share – Mobile

22% - ISP Market Share (Access)

4. Challenges & Opportunities @MTN

• Skills set

• ICT Orientation

• Perception

• New business fever

• No deep institutional understanding

• New team

• No influence

• Unchartered territory

• Follower in the market

• FMC product Suite

• Cloud

• Machine-to-machine (M2M)

• Managed Network Services

• Enterprise Class Price Plans – data, voice, VAS

• Competent workforce

• Passion

• Having fun

• Networking

5a. Social Media & Reputation Management

Here are five ways social media users can destroy their online rep, and tips for steering clear of these costly mistakes: 1. Boring posts. • A boring post is anything that lacks your unique personality or perspective. Giving a fresh

perspective on an old topic or going against the status quo is what gets noticed. • So ask yourself how you can infuse your own character or sense of humour within each post. This

is the essence of personal branding. The last thing you want to be is forgettable or immaterial. 2. Disrespecting others. • Social media is not the place to work out your problems with people. It’s no different than yelling

insults at someone in public or raising your voice at a retail store employee. Yes it gets peoples’ attention, but that’s not the kind of attention you want.

• Unfortunately, the higher you climb in social media, the more people will want to throw stones at you. But don’t retaliate publicly. Simply delete the negative comment, block the person and then decide if you want to address the issue privately, or just move on.

3. Failing to promote others. • When it comes to building your personal brand and developing a powerful network, you’ll want to

develop a reputation as someone who highlights others. Not only does this give credit where credit is due, it also communicates that you’re secure with your success and who you are. Good idea to have the ability to promote others in your industry.

• When someone gives you a great piece of advice, post it on Facebook or Twitter and tag that person. Also, utilise the Endorsements feature on LinkedIn and begin endorsing people within your network – a great way to build your networks and highlight others (knowledge economy)

5b. Social Media & Reputation Management

Here are five ways social media users can destroy their online rep, and tips for steering clear of these costly mistakes:

4. Not replying to comments.

• Not replying to comments on your blog or over social media is no different than starting a conversation with someone and then ignoring their response.

• Actively monitoring comments and questions on every post can be time consuming, but even posting one follow-up comment per post can show you care and that you’re engaged.

5. Being tagged in questionable photos.

• Most everyone has been captured in a photo that should be titled, “This is not how it looks.” As funny as some photos can be, think twice about allowing yourself to be tagged in questionable photos.

• As a woman of substance, be mindful of how you want to be perceived publicly and professionally.

• Untag or delete yourself from any inappropriate photos.

• Your best ally in creating an image that attracts the right kind of people and attention is to simply use common sense, which usually not so common.

• As long as you’re consistently infusing your unique style and communicating with the same class that you would in public, you’ll do just fine

In closing

Siyabonga Thank You Dankie Merci

1. Have a patronal development plan – self investment

2. Keep Reading

3. Stop taking yourself seriously

4. Family time is all you have – make sure you do not lose sight of that.

5. Laugh at yourself and learn from your mistakes.

Q&A

@Nomalanga Nkosi

https://www.facebook.com/nomalanga.nkosi

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nomalangankosi

Quote of the day: Everyone is gifted, some open the package sooner! Good day to all…