1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am the founder and CEO of Nkgwete IT Solutions, a business that started twelve years ago and has grown into what it is now: an influential, impactful, and successful IT service provider in South Africa. I am a businesswoman passionate about technology, our beautiful country South Africa, and the people of MZANSI and responsible for leading a team of more than 100 people at Nkgwete IT Solutions and also a wife and mother to four children.
2. What work do you do?
I am one of the founding members of Nkgwete IT Solutions, an IT Services company with a national presence across South Africa. I fulfill the role of CEO at Nkgwete IT Solutions and I am responsible for setting the strategic vision and ensuring I empower my teams to deliver on our strategy.
3. How long have you been in the industry?
I have been working in the ICT industry for the past 28 years.
4. Has your work always been your passion? Tell us why.
Yes, my work has always been my passion. When I first started working as a personal assistant, I was fascinated by computers and so I saved up my salary and bought myself a pc for home, I would spend hours tinkering with the hardware and learning MSDOS and later Windows and then made a conscious decision to learn more about IT and pursue a career in ICT. The rest as they say is history.
5. Being a woman in the industry – what does it take?
Initially, when I started my career in ICT, it was very daunting and challenging to be the only female in a technical team, and what made it more daunting was also being a woman of colour, as this was just post-1994 in South Africa. Later when I moved into management and again I was the only woman and the only person of colour it was also challenging.
However, Oprah once advised that excellent is the best deterrent for any form of prejudice and this advice has been critical to me for overcoming the challenges but also has been fundamental to my success. Once people see that you know what you are doing, and you excel at it, you earn their respect.
6. What has been the most difficult challenge of your career?
The most difficult challenge of my career was two years into starting Nkgwete our biggest client, reduced our price by 30% and expected us to continue delivering the same levels of service. This was challenging on a few fronts, starting a new company, the first two to three years are tough, and stats show that more than 80% of startups fail within the first two years.
Couple that with your biggest client demanding such a huge price reduction, meant that we had to undergo an operational restructure, and offer severance packages to some staff. My people at Nkgwete are very important to me and having to do this was extremely challenging. However, we found a solution that ultimately worked for the affected employees and Nkgwete and we weathered the storm.
7. What advice do you have for other women in your industry?
My advice to other women in the industry is in the ever-changing technology space, it is imperative to keep on learning to keep on staying abreast of technology, or else you will become irrelevant, knowledge is power.
Secondly learn to communicate effectively, if you can write and speak well, you will be able to command attention, and reading is what helps you to be able to read and write better. Make a conscious choice to read at least one book a month.
8. Who inspires you in your industry?
Lillian Barnard the CEO of Microsoft Africa, inspires me. She is very knowledgeable, has great expertise, and contributed greatly to technology in South Africa and she is a champion of Women in Tech. Notwithstanding all of this, she has remained a humble, authentic person who makes every person she interacts with feel like they matter, these are qualities and attributes, I truly admire.
9. What’s the best advice / key learnings have you received from your industry peers?
This is not an industry peer, but I have learned and applied a lot of business and life lessons from Steve Jobs, some of the most noteworthy being. Stay hungry, stay foolish. Always be hungry, learn more, do more, and become more but at the same time don’t take yourself too seriously, and have fun and enjoy what you do.
Jobs also said Focus and strategy are subtraction, and I have come to learn over the years, that strategy is not about chasing after everything, it’s also about choosing what not to do, and this has helped in defining the Nkgwete strategy.
Lastly, at the end of the Steve Jobs biography, the author Walter Isaacson asks Steve Jobs something to the effect of, you have created the IPOD, IPAD, MacBook, etc, what do you consider your greatest achievement, and he answers my children and it’s so important to realise that your children are your greatest legacy, they have been entrusted to you by God and you have a responsibility to raise them well.
10. What is your leadership style?
For me, effective leadership is an inside job. It is a question of the heart. It’s about character and intention.
I believe two characteristics describe great leaders. Execution is everything, so as a leader, you must have the will which is the determination to follow through, and the humility to realize leadership is not about you, it’s about the people and what they need and so you must use your capacity to influence others by unleashing their power and potential to become the best versions of themselves.
11. Have you experienced failure in your career, if so, what lessons did you learn from that?
I don’t consider them failures, I consider them life lessons, yes I have had my fair share of those and I have learned, that mistakes happen, when things go wrong, it’s how you choose to handle those situations that matter.
12. What are your plans for the future?
In the near future, I would like to continue working towards the Nkgwete version of Unlocking Africa’s Pulse through technology, I believe there is huge potential in our country, that can be unlocked by bridging the digital divide. I would also use my knowledge, experience, and expertise to continue making a contribution to our country by mentoring, coaching, and guiding women-owned startups in the ICT sector to successfully manage and run their business.
Short bio
Siddika Osman is chief executive and founder at Nkgwete IT Solutions, a business that started twelve years ago and has grown into what it is now: an influential, impactful, and successful IT service provider in South Africa.
Siddika is a businesswoman passionate about technology, our beautiful country South Africa, and the people of MZANSI. She is responsible for leading a team of more than 100 people at Nkgwete IT Solutions. She is also a wife and mother to four children.
To get in touch with Saddika, email her at Siddika.osman@nkgwete.co.za
