Leadership talks to the 2010 Businesswoman of the Year

Santie Botha has been a spectacular trailblazer for women in business and tertiary institutions in South Africa.

National Businesswoman of the Year in 2010, the pioneer of a strategy that merged four retail banks with a brand equity of more than 400 years into the one universally popular Absa name, and arguably the youngest chancellor yet appointed at a South African university – Botha’s torch is burning brightly.

In August 2010, the group chief marketing officer of MTN was crowned Businesswoman’s Association (BWA) Businesswoman of the Year at a black-tie event at Vodaworld in Midrand.

Her rise in business has seen her win innumerable awards and accolades, including the Young Business Person of the Year, Marketer of the Year and one of the Top Ten Business People of the Year.

Prior to her employment with MTN, Botha pioneered the Absa brand success story, implementing a strategy that merged four retail bank brands into the now popular Absa name.

While her corporate and business career was still in its infancy, this Stellenbosch University BEcon Honours graduate worked in London for six years for Unilever.

She was based with the company in Durban before she was seconded to the company in the United Kingdom.

Shortly after receiving the coveted BWA Businesswoman of the Year Award, Botha accepted the position as chancellor of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth.

A delighted NMMU vice chancellor Professor Derrick Swartz told www.mype.co.za at the time: “Her exposure as a corporate leader in a highly cosmopolitan, globally linked and multicultural industry will be invaluable to NMMU’s own strategic interests going forward.”

The dynamic Botha played an integral role in the success of the Fifa World Cup in 2010.

Her biggest legacy was that a company born in Africa (MTN, of whom she was the group chief marketing officer for seven years) became the first-ever global sponsor of the Fifa Soccer World Cup.

“The association with Fifa started in 2005 and no-one ever anticipated the enormous success that it would be in the end. The MTN countries embraced the sponsorship across Africa and the Middle East and through the ‘Africa United’ and ‘Ayoba’ campaigns, united a nation and a continent,” she says.

Botha is immensely proud of the global standing of South Africa’s cellular market: “South Africa is globally very competitive, and in many cases were the pioneers in the offering of services in the cellular market that were later copied across the globe.

“A good example is pre-paid airtime (Pay as you Go), which was initiated and launched by MTN as a first in the world,” she adds.

The 45-year old business icon had to overcome some challenges during her teens. Her father died when she was 13 years old.

Her mother taught her the importance of staying grounded, to always have and form her own opinions, and to be confident.

That confidence was partially shaped by a sharp mind and by her championship qualities as a sportswoman. Botha started playing tennis at the age of eight, was a provincial tennis star at age 13 and a member of the South African University tennis team at 19.

She fostered dreams of becoming a professional tennis player, but thought she was not good enough to make a living out of it.

Botha does not believe winning is everything – it is the only thing.

“When I joined the NMMU, I enquired why they were not performing so well in sports. It was explained to me that the students who play do it to participate, not to compete,” she told www.forewomen.co.za.

“Things were very different when I was at university, you knew your pecking order. If you are going to do something, do it to win.”

Asked to reflect on what women can do to break through the glass ceiling of male-dominate boardroom directorships, Botha told www.forewomen.co.za: “As a woman in corporate, it’s important to be yourself, make sure your opinions are respected. If you feel you are not being taken seriously, find out why – don’t make it a gender issue.”

It comes as no surprise that her meteoric rise to business stardom has seen her receive several awards over the past 13 years.

Asked to share her business secrets, Botha says: “I am very goal-orientated and I like to surround myself with a great team of specialists.

“Work must be challenging and allow for creative output. The greater the challenge, the more rewarding the final result will be.

“Also, I find that you must never be afraid to lose, as it is the best way to learn and grow as a leader,” she adds.

Asked what her message to young business executives would be on how to be proactive and how to retain the competitive edge, Botha says one must be a specialist first and a business generalist second: One must surround oneself with as diverse a specialist group as possible and only employ the best people.

A leader must empower his/her colleagues and ensure he/she gives them all the credit.

As a business executive, one should work in other countries and other industries to broaden one’s business perspective.

“Take your work seriously, not yourself. And be at the forefront of global happenings in your industry, politics and economies,” she adds.

Is there a real chance that a business executive can lose that competitive edge, and is it pivotal to ‘sharpen the saw’ daily? Says Botha: “You have to be conscious of where you are in your career and life. Therefore, reinvention has to be part of your modus operandi.”

Though traditionally a figurehead, this new NMMU chancellor has already indicated that she would like to be involved in enhancing the objectives of the university, particularly as a global African brand.

“I relish the challenge. I look forward to adding value to the leadership objectives of NMMU from a business point of view,” Botha told www.mype.co.za after a meeting with key role-players at NMMU.

“You don’t get a bigger and more iconic brand than Nelson Mandela. The equity around the name is unbelievable. I hope I can help the university in elevating this,” she added.

Botha shares her vision as chancellor of NMMU with Leadership: “My vision is for NMMU to be ranked as one of the top universities in South Africa. Also, I would like NMMU to have global appeal and attract some of the best academics and students across the world.”

There is an alarmingly high dropout rate at local South Africa universities, and NMMU is no different to other leading tertiary institutions.

Botha says NMMU is gravely concerned about the dropout rate and has various measures in place to try and address this trend.

“For example, we have reviewed our admissions criteria and have a developmentally focused admissions process, in which applicants who do not meet the admissions criteria are assessed by the Centre for Access Assessment and Research (CAAR).

“It assists in the admission, appropriate streaming of applicants to programmes in keeping with their development strengths, and to make recommendations about their development needs,” she explains.

In all, 53% of NMMU’s students are now admitted after being assessed by CAAR; and in some programmes, such as engineering, this has contributed to enhanced success rates.

In addition, an increased emphasis has been placed on assisting first-year students to adjust to university and to develop the skills required to succeed academically.

Furthermore, more attention is being given to monitoring the progress of all students so that those who are experiencing difficulties can be identified as early as possible during their studies and interventions can be instituted to support them.

NMMU makes extensive use of peer-assisted learning, both face-to-face and electronic, to make it possible for students to meet in small groups to discuss their work and for them to clarify aspects about which they are not clear.

These small groups are facilitated by about 500 senior students who have been trained to facilitate peer learning and who are supervised by professional and academic staff.

However, until there is a drastic improvement in the standard of schooling in South Africa, this general dropout figure – particularly between the first and second year – will continue, Botha warns.

Certainly, a lack of finance is a contributory factor to the high dropout rate, and NMMU is committed to ensuring every learner with the potential to succeed at university should be given the opportunity to do so.

In 2010, the university assisted 14 204 students with finance from various sources, which totalled R190 554 397.

Many applicants to NMMU have not had opportunities to explore their career options and to match their career interests with their capabilities.

This often results in their choosing the wrong course of study, which could lead to failure.

NMMU has a range of initiatives to address this matter. A number of workshops are presented to life orientation teachers in the region annually so that they can get the latest information regarding career options and admissions criteria.

In addition, NMMU provides a community service: Grade 12 learners can obtain career counselling at one of its five Student Counselling, Career and Development Centres.

On the Missionvale Campus, located in the Missionvale township, this career counselling service has been extended to disadvantaged communities in the area, which has been made possible by generous donors who have provided funding for computers as well as career information.

NMMU has extended curriculum programmes to make the institution more accessible to greater numbers of students. This gives prospective students the opportunity of completing the same degree or diploma over an extended period – usually an extra year.

A key part of the curriculum of the extended programmes is a module in English for academic purposes in the first two years of the programme and literacy development is integrated across the other modules in the programme.

In order to address the high unemployment rate of 25% in South Africa, universities in general need to ensure that their curricula are relevant and are constantly transforming, says Botha.

It is therefore wise for academic departments and faculties to establish advisory boards where leaders in industry and professions can advise them on what outcomes students should be developing in their programmes.

Providing more students with work-integrated and service-learning experiences as part of their courses makes them more employable when they graduate.

One of the new roles developed for South African universities, which NMMU is embracing, is to contribute to the strengthening of the further education and training college sector.

“NMMU has strategic priorities in place through Vision 2020 – a shared dream that staff and students have for the NMMU for tomorrow,” Botha says.

“Key in the 2020 vision is to grow the active involvement of students in learning through expanding peer-assisted learning further.

“The purpose of Vision 2020 is to ensure that all students have small-group learning experiences, to make greater use of technology-assisted learning, and to adopt a humanising pedagogical approach that builds on the knowledge and strengths of learners,” she concludes. ▲

Fanie Heyns

• |2011-03-10 13:43:35 Alan  - Thank You
  For accrediting MyPE - makes me feel a wonderful sense of Ubuntu.
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