INTERVIEW | A SA woman revving things up in the wheel world

Brenwin Naidu speaks to a woman helping to steer the future of motoring in Mzansi.

THANDEKA NGOMA: Consumer sales director at Bridgestone SA 

Talk us through your background.

A girl from a small township called Kanyamazane, just outside Nelspruit. After getting a BCom degree at Wits University, I started my career in financial services with Investec, then Ernst & Young Corporate finance. I t found my passion in building brands when I joined Procter & Gamble in 2006, where I worked on some of the biggest brands in the country for about five years. I then had a short stint at a mobile marketing agency before joining Philips to head marketing for the SA organisation before being promoted to lead marketing for the personal care and coffee business across Africa. Then the rubber called me in 2017 when I joined Bridgestone as head of marketing, and eventually took up an opportunity to lead the consumer sales organisation in March 2020 when the whole world went into Covid-19 lockdown. I am passionate about making a difference in people’s lives. I am also one of the directors of a non-profit organisation (NPO) that provides long-term mentorship to more than 300 boys growing up with absent fathers across our country.

Walk us through a day in your role.

My day starts with briefly reflecting and planning for the day/week to ensure I have what I need. It’s a fast-paced environment. Sometimes my day is fully booked with meetings, so planning is important. I’m in a sales environment so number one on the list is always looking at how we are tracking on our sales figures – risk and opportunities and how we mitigate is the heartbeat of any sales organisation. The rest of the day is typically spent on different activities that enable my team to deliver on our targets and deliver quality service to our customers. Keeping my team highly engaged and motivated to deliver on our strategy and commitment to the business. I also spend a fair amount of time on stakeholder engagement, connecting with other colleagues in the business cross functionally to hold each other accountable on initiatives that drive our business. Because I’m a holistic being, my day also includes dropping kids at school, helping with homework, quality time with my husband and investing time in the NPO.

Challenges and rewards of your position?

The challenges are plenty: Juggling all the different roles in my life – with help at home, a strong capable team at work and being deliberate about quality over quantity, I have found a good rhythm for now. Navigating a highly male-dominated industry has been interesting. I am privileged to work in a business where diversity is valued, and very aware of my responsibility to create opportunities for others and normalise women and people of colour in senior positions in the industry. Lastly, leading in a time where market volatility is the order of the day, responding with agility and a resilient attitude has been key. But in all of this, there is no greater reward than the honour to serve others and speak into their development as they also help me grow as a leader. This is truly my greatest blessing in this role.

In which areas can the local motor industry improve?

View transformation not as a matter of the letter of the law, but the spirit of it. There must be corporate will to transform because it is good for business to be diverse. There is no excuse for lack of diversity today except that we do not wish to transform. Skill is no longer a good excuse as we have plenty of qualified and experienced people in the country. We need to be intentional about it and create opportunities for our organisations to truly represent the total market we serve.