Share this
Mister Wong
Digg
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Hear this text
Print
E-mail
Microsoft solidifies itself as more than a mere provider of softwareJust over a year ago, when Mteto Nyati took over the reins as head of Microsoft South Africa, news reports indicated that this country would be spared the worst of the global financial crisis.
Economists’ predictions proved off course and in May, South Africa joined the long list of economies in recession – the country’s first in 17 years.
It was a baptism of fire for Nyati, yet despite the turmoil of retrenchments, repossessions and limited consumer spending, he was able to deliver growth and, under the circumstances, there was cause to celebrate when Microsoft’s year-end results were announced in June.
“When I joined the company, the economic crisis was not that severe in South Africa. I set huge growth targets, but two months later, the severity of the country’s financial plight hit home; I had made commitments based on a reality that changed dramatically,” explains Nyati of his first year as Microsoft SA’s managing director.
“In addition, the bulk of the leadership was simply not there; I had to address both the market and internal situations simultaneously.
“It was character building, and today I have a strong team with diverse experience, both locally and internationally,” he says.
Weathering these crises defined Nyati’s first year with the global software giant and now he is turning his attention to strengthening Microsoft’s presence.
“With the right people in the top jobs, I can give them space to get on with things, allowing me room for strategic planning,” he explains.
Microsoft’s low market share in some sectors is in conflict with the quality of products offered, believes Nyati, and requires addressing.
“Three screens and the cloud” may sound like the title of an art movie, but it is actually Microsoft’s strategy to solidify itself as more than a mere provider of software.
Explains Nyati, “The three screens are the mobile phone, TV and PC. We want to provide a seamless experience for our consumers as they move from home, to their car and finally to the office; linking and backing up information to the cloud – the ‘data centres that are sitting way up there’ – so that even if you lose a device, you do not lose critical information.”
The launch of Windows 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5 creates a buzz of excitement in Nyati. Windows 7 promises to make your PC simpler and make daily tasks easier to perform.
Mobile 6.5 will feature a new user interface and, in addition, Windows phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web; and direct-to-phone mobile applications that can be accessed from both the phone and
the Internet.
As exciting as these technologies are, Nyati is aware of the many people who do not have access to the Internet. What the vast majority of South Africans do have, however, are cellphones. A new consumer mobile service, mibli, was recently announced in South Africa by Microsoft and project partner, Blue Label Telecoms. It promises to give millions of citizens the ability to access high-end applications and services on ordinary cellphones, says Nyati.
The service enables so-called feature phones – commonly found in emerging markets such as South Africa – to access mobile applications like Facebook.
These services have until now been reserved for high-end smart phones, which make up less than 10% of all mobile phones locally.
“Too many people were denied new technologies and we wanted to address this,” says Nyati; being relevant to the local community lies very strongly at the heart of this business leader.
Users will have access to applications that will allow them to pay bills, manage their finances, buy airtime, stay connected with friends and browse online content using their phones.
mibli should also open doors for advertisers, marketers and developers – giving the estimated one million mobile developers in South Africa the chance to create new mobile solutions that address everyday needs, thus creating employment opportunities.
Mobile space is full of promise and there is much in the pipeline, says Nyati. “It is going to be an interesting battle, and the good news is that the consumers are going to be the winners.”
Tackling the space search sphere, Microsoft has developed Bing in partnership with Yahoo!.
“Although it is in its early stages, the design point for Bing is completely different from what is currently available; it centres on helping people to make quick, effective decisions. Users are rating it quite highly,” says Nyati.
Bing (which replaces Windows Live Search and MSN Search) is a decision engine that finds and organises the answers one requires in order to make faster and more informed decisions.
The information and communications technology (ICT) industry is a competitive one, and Nyati faces a number of challenges. “Some people are saying that the birth of the cloud is the death of companies like Microsoft. We are not necessarily in agreement; when you look at how people are doing things, you will find that a business does not exclusively use one company’s products. It is a heterogeneous environment.
“The cloud drives down costs for businesses, but at the same time there are certain elements that a business would continue to want to own because it provides them with a competitive advantage; these will continue to reside locally.”
A signal well read by Microsoft was the phenomenal future of the social-networking Web business, Facebook, which prompted Microsoft to acquire a minority stake in it – a clever move given the intense rivalry that exists in the booming online advertising game.
“The biggest opportunity globally,” believes Nyati, “is online advertising. People are shifting their marketing away from traditional mediums to online every day.
“As a company, we want our fair share; today, Google is enjoying the lion’s share and we need to give online advertisers new options, which is why Bing is such a strategic move for us.”
Referring to Facebook, he says, “We now need to look at how we can incorporate the success of social networking into the business environment, to help drive productivity and forge a deeper understanding of our people. This field offers scope for employers to keep valuable staff though the ability to be connected and in touch with their workforce’s feelings,” believes Nyati.
Another boardroom bonus heralded by Facebook is its potential to reach communities and facilitate thorough market research, he adds.
Touching on rival Google, which issued a challenge to Microsoft when it announced plans to have a new computer operating system aimed at laptop users available in the second half of 2010, Nyati admits that it is a great competitor.
“However,” he says, “if a hammer is the only tool that you have, every problem will look like a nail. Our sense is that our customers are looking for different things; we need to be able to cater to all their needs. The cloud is not a silver bullet that addresses all our customers’ issues. Rather, it is an element of the various solutions.
“So yes, Google has a lot to offer (the ability of the cloud), but if you look at IBM and at what Microsoft has been doing over the past two years in terms of data centre capability, these companies are able to match the data centre capabilities of the cloud.
“Google is a great thing, a great business model, it adds value in terms of reducing the costs of the entire industry and ultimately the costs to the consumer, but it is not the only thing,” says Nyati.
Speaking from Microsoft’s impressive Bryanston office, Nyati is emphatic when talking about what solutions the ICT industry can offer South Africa, including improved education, health and service delivery. This passion underlines his personal philosophy – “It is never crowded along the extra mile.”
Putting his words into actions, Microsoft recently signed a partnership agreement with the Department of Basic Education, which will see teachers, learners and schools themselves – through their principals – being taught how to leverage information technology for the good of education.
On the home front, Nyati has taken Microsoft from a BEE level 6 to a level 4, meeting another target he set for himself last September. By March, it is hoped that a level 2 will be achieved.
Nyati came to Microsoft from a 12-year career at IBM, where he held a series of senior executive roles, including that of an executive director of IBM’s South African operations.
His belief in South Africa and its potential may have helped him secure the job, believes Nyati.
“There was a connection between my values, and those of Microsoft. Also, the company is investing in its services component, and given my track record managing IBM’s services business, it was a good fit.”
In his previous position as director of SMB Channels for Europe, Middle East and Africa at IBM’s European headquarters in Paris, he consistently delivered double-digit growth over a four-year period.
Nyati grew up in the Eastern Cape village of Thabasa in Mtata, in a large family of 10 children. When his mother left teaching to become an entrepreneur, running a general dealer, Nyati and his siblings were expected to help out, regularly waking up at 4 a.m. to collect fresh produce and bread from the city.
“Today, it would be called child labour,” laughs Nyati, but the lessons learnt have stood him in good stead and today he is still an early riser and in the office well before 8 a.m.
He matriculated from St John’s College in Umtata in 1980.
In 1982, he was given a scholarship by Afrox to study mechanical engineering. It was during the dark days of apartheid, and he had to apply to the minister of Education for permission to attend Natal University, where he achieved a BSc in 1985.
“Although I did not experience any direct racism, I was not allowed to stay on campus and always felt like an outsider.” The experience prepared the young Nyati for many of the psychological challenges he was to face.
He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to study towards a master’s degree in Engineering in Germany in 1985, but had to turn it down due to his mother’s poor health. He did, however, gain his MBA from Wits University in 1992.
In 2004, he was named as one of Yale University’s World Fellows on Global Leadership, which sensitises participants to global challenges facing countries in the 21st century, with a view to developing leaders with a social conscience.
Nyati’s interests include cycling, travelling, table tennis, writing (he is a published columnist), reading and coaching. ?
Allison Cooper
