Interview

Tell your story. What makes you who you are?

My family, friends, religion, studies, customs, and traditions moulded who I am today. All of these played a role in creating my beliefs, ethnics, and character. These traits are what make me the person I am today and will be tomorrow. I was born in the republic of Congo, started my early days of life in Pointe Noire, move to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for my tertiary education before moving permanently in Johannesburg, South Africa where I live since September 2005.

Reflect on your past successes and failures. As an individual, what are your greatest strengths and developmental areas as a leader going forward?

As an individual my greatest strengths are – keeping my word, my ability to make complex ideas simple. My social skills, communication skills, teamwork, Emotional intelligence, self-awareness, confidence and determination. My developmental areas as a leader going forward are:

  • Becoming the Best Leader I can;
  • Improving my listening skills under the label of communication skills;
  • Moving quickly on opportunities whenever they arise.

What significant global issue are you working to address? What role does leadership play in this issue? How are you uniquely positioned to make a difference by taking a leadership role on this topic?

I believe in the sustainable development goals as whole but I am particularly working on goal 11 “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. The role leadership plays in light of this goal is huge in engaging with local communities, in helping community members to learn new things and make them comfortable to adopt green and sustainable agenda. I am uniquely positioned in taking leadership role on this topic through personal engagement with the Junior Chamber International as active citizen and have my hands in the mud to assist in various projects in that regard.

Why Should we redefine Customer eXperience (CX) in time of Covid-19?

The coronavirus has, in this manner, constrained us to understand that at the centre of our reality is our co-occurrence; the affirmation that 'we as a whole exist in light of the fact that the others individual exists as well'. However CX has taken on another definition and measurement in the overwhelming challenge of Covid-19. A large number of us have needed to adjust to the new standard of being inside our homes, and as individuals' practice change, so too will their experience expectations change. This in essence has demonstrated that customer experience all through the interactions with a brand is fundamental to customer devotion.

You are presenting on ‘moving from cloud computing to the democratisation of technology’ – what does it mean to democratize technology? In addition, why would an organisations move from cloud to ‘democratisation of technology’?

The business landscape has been taken by storm by many factors including the campaign of BYOD = Bring Your Own Device. The new fashion “democratisation of technology” refers to the process by which access to technology continues to become easier to get to more people. It means more people are able to consume tools and information previously reserved for a small group of people in our societies worldwide. This big shift in business today is translated by the role of Information Technology departments and employees questioned by an increasingly tech-savvy population of end users who want to use the tools (hardware and software) of their choices instead of those dictated by (often outdated) company policies.

This new fashion in others terms is a maturity phase in the cloud-computing journey. The journey into the cloud like in any other technology is characterised by a set of phases from the early adopters to the laggards. The use of the diagram of technology adoption in our presentation will sustain our argument and highlight our understanding within the move.

The truth is that, cloud computing and the democratisation of technology are twin sisters that we cannot easily separate. One comes first to make way to the other in the enabling process of business as a whole. In addition, because the cloud computing has passed the chasm in any business, its adoption is the cause of transformation observed the business landscape today.

Democratising technology means giving access to a large number of end users without wondering the concurrent users’ issues, threats and others related queries to the administration of services and level of access given away. It also means, giving freedom of choice to users when it come to their devices (hardware) preferences. It does not mean, not monitoring activities of services at all.

My response to the question of why would an organisation move from cloud to the democratisation of technology is that: competition in the business market is taking place in the digital channels. These channels however, are the proof of maturity by an organisation that is willing to stand in the gap between old and new technological breakthroughs to gain the trust of new customers and retain the existing ones.

Because of the nature business today, market’s competition and others interconnected issues, the move from cloud to the democratisation of technology for an organisation is vital. This route is not negotiable following the necessity for any organisation wanting to sustain in this macro-economic environment. The pace of change is too faster in light of all predictions from adopters.

Honestly speaking, we are facing a complex authenticity painted by a very big paradigm shift of technology, which in essence is the business enabler of our days. Business today cannot sustain without technology.

What challenges did you experience during this journey? How did you overcome them?

The challenges experienced during this journey hold two unfolds. One been on the personal and professional level and the other on the business level.

On the personal and professional level, my journey in the cloud computing faced fear and the lack of knowledge and understanding on top of others challenges early adopters started to talk about at the time. And how did I overcome them was a consistency of purpose behind my mind that people should know what I believe is going to happen in the nearest future and where I was going with that idea. Conversation helps to overcome these challenges.

On the business side of things, the challenges among many others were the security threats from early adopters. Some people were discouraging others for security issues without proposing alternatives; this built a sustainable argument for advocates on the later stage to convince the majority. Some businesses, which we call “laggards” for professional reasons, could not entertain any discussion around the cloud because of several reasons that are still viable today. E.g. Integration of solutions.

How did the business overcome them? Business created platforms or forums internally and externally to engage into the dialogue for better understanding. These forums enabled several businesses to weight benefits vs. threats to formulate new strategies and take a genuine decision to embark into cloud. We used cloud benefits of scalability to change the decision makers’ perception; and this argument helped turn things around.

We also used predictions from big firms like Forrester and others to make our point, to justify the future of business in the 21st century. We used quotes like “by 2020, anything other than a cloud-only strategy for new IT initiatives will require Justification”, fear changed side, and because people did not want to account for any future mess, they end up adopting cloud at different pace.

In conclusion, we overcome challenges faced into the journey of cloud by business through dialogue and critical engagement.

Have you experience any ‘major’ benefits associated with moving to the cloud?

YES, Businesses have managed to translate the patterns of our behaviour over time while moving into the cloud. When one is updating his Facebook status freely using the enterprise resource, he is using cloud computing. When checking the bank balance on the phone while connected to the organisation Wi-Fi? Yes, we are in the cloud again. Whether we are firing off emails on the move or using a bunch of apps to help us manage our workload.

The major benefits associated with the move in the cloud are the flexibility, cultural the changes and the freedom of automatic software updates. The privacy and power of end users to choose what to and do not share. The power of the users to choose to upload personal stuffs into the public domain or not and many more.

On the personal ground, I can remotely addressed work issues while I do not have to physically be there. The success happened on purpose. It happened because I knew the benefits associated to my endeavour. The stake of this benefit is between the business and myself as a person not necessary as an employee. This benefit from a business point of view is a consequence of a great productivity. In the cloud, everyone and every party wins.

If you had to provide a checklist of what you did to make this transformation happen – what would the five key check boxes be?

This is a tricky one because of the nature of each business in the cloud. The why that I had to respond or justify does not necessary applied to any business. I am cautious about best practices in any fields that constitute the business landscape today.

A random check box if necessary will be as follows:

  • Build a strong business case to why do you think your organisation should consider moving into the cloud now and what type of cloud solution will you consider in that move. Remember, cloud is not one size fit all when it comes to implementation because of the variety of solutions.
  • Change is good and not easy to implement. One has to advocate why change is required at any particular time in the organisation. Transformation occurred for one or several reasons, the most important issue is to change the lenses when looking or scanning the business environment. Please engage critically with all the stakeholders.
  • Create a change management team constituted from individuals of your organisation who will be researching to see whether the chosen solution fit the current need of your organisation and a fraction of which will be piloting the project initiation. We do not guarantee success, but a proper assessment will definitely lead to it.
  • Review the company policies about information and communication technologies resources usage and the legal framework. Please note that compliance is key in any environment of exploration one or two organisations found themselves. Update policies to encompass changes.
  • Visit successful and failed implementations from different service providers to make an inform judgement before embarking into the journey. Be aware of scalability in the cloud as success is through a phase of different tests.

One should always remember that there is never a right time to do the wrong thing, and there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. It is right to be honest, and right to be on time. Cloud is maturing in our business landscape today and we have to make the right move now not tomorrow.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said I quote: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”. Everyone is responsible of the future of the enterprises irrespective of their levels of seniority in the business, because cloud computing is here to stay and to transform our businesses.