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ZAKHELE MGOBHOZI :FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR MODERN CENTRIC HOLDINGS
ZAKHELE MGOBHOZI :FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR MODERN CENTRIC HOLDINGS
T H E B U S I N E S S L E A D
Our growing company
by Magdaline Nair
Founded in 2013 Modern Centric Holdings (MCH), our goal is to become a meaningful enabler of both the private and public sector service delivery through relationship building and exceeding our client’s expectations with practical sustainable solutions. MCH is committed to offering high-quality and exceptional service that will deliver real and sustainable value and are confident that our approach will meet client requirements.
Activities and Operations – MCH symbolizes an amalgamation of various successful black-owned enterprises to create a reliable, energetic and entrepreneurial player in the skills and recruitment services industry. Our core business is positioned to deliver the following scope of work: Skills and Training Advisory, Recruitment Consulting, Youth Development, Persons With dis-Abilities Recruitment, Management, and B-BBEE Advisory.
Exciting highlights for the year – 2021 has been a big year for MCH, we are incredibly grateful and honoured to have been named as finalists for three Top Empowerment Awards and taking home Top Empowered Entrepreneur of 2021, one of the biggest honours on the night at an event that showcases companies leading in transformation over the past 20 years. Topco acts as a beacon of inspiration for South Africa’s fast-growing SMME’s and business elite. We were also certified by The African Professional Staffing Organization (APSO). APSO is the largest governing body in the South African recruitment industry and requires all its members to live up to their strong code of ethics. Lastly, our Founder & Managing Director, Mr Zakhele was appointed as an APSO Executive Board Member and Chair of the Professional Development Standards Committee.
At MCH, we believe in empowering the community and helping society's most vulnerable. In 2020 we founded Modern Community Foundation (MCF), our CSI division and through MCF we have ran a couple of initiatives to aid those in need. Our most notable is our food drive which saw the MCH team delivered 45 food parcels through our Adopt-a-Family. Through this initiative, we have adopted families headed by children living with dis-Abilities. We also have our Reusable Pad Drive initiative that is aimed at keeping young girls with special needs in school throughout the year. We have been on a process to get them SABS approves and these reusable have a lifespan of 5 years. We are forecasting the approval to be within 2021 still so we can start distribution and education countrywide. This is in partnership with Wild-Hearts Foundation.
Q&A With Zakhele Mgobhozi
by Dylan Mgobhozi
please give a brief summary of the company, and its current products and services , and which markets it caters to.
Modern centric Holdings is a 100% Black Owned, Level-1 B-BBEE company, specializing in recruitment across the board including recruitment of persons with disabilities. We offer value to strategic partnerships through our focus on recruiting and empowering disabled candidates, graduates, women, and other underrepresented communities in corporate South Africa. We achieve this by working closely and identifying challenges that corporates are facing in real time, innovating towards talent solutions that emphasise on high impact and a return on investment. Overall, we have an emphasis on building human capital through continued learning, which we believe supplements skills development beyond prior learning and/or work experience.
What are your company's key transformation milestones?
In the last two years, the height of COVID when many companies closed down, where many had to let go of their workforce - Modern Centric has been fortunate enough to keep its doors open. We have empowered 55 Persons with dis-Abilities with key skills needed in the 4th & 5th industrial revolution. Partnering with telecommunications giants in Africa to achieve this. We have ran a re-skilling development program that assisted 216 retrenched employees for our client with 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) & 5th Industrial Revolution (5IR) skills. Our client was giving much-required skills to people that have served in their company for decades but simply could no longer keep them on their payroll due to the effects of COVID-19 and the job market. This is huge for us as a growing company, it was a new product that we presented to them and they bought into it. Now the 216 skills recipients are skilled in Digital Marketing and Technopreneurship development programs and are able to find new opportunities in this digital age.
How has your B-BBEE rating brought you business or expanded your business?
Modern Centric Holdings is a Level-1 B-BBEE contributor. If I am honest though, I would say for us, what has helped with our growth is the innovative solutions that we sell to our clients more than our scorecard. I do believe though that we have made great progress with B-BBBEE, it is, however, clear that we need to bring greater correctness and integrity to BEE stats and practices and ensure that claims are made by organizations in their B-BBEE reports are verified. This may require amendments to the reporting conditions. There are great misunderstandings on this subject among black business owners. Black-owned businesses need to also learn how to work together, as we believe that collaboration is the new innovation. There is enough pie for all of us to enjoy out there.
What do you see as the key challenge for transformation in your sector?
MCH's core business is recruitment, we find employment opportunities for persons with dis-abilities (PWD) and youth. Our country's unemployment rate reached 32.6% in the first three months of 2021, as reported by Stats SA. The unemployment rate of PWD is likely to be double that of the general population. In fact, it is estimated that the unemployment rate of PWD in South Africa is between 90%, 100% in rural areas. We cannot then speak of transformation if the numbers reflecting South Africa’s unemployment rate reached 32.6% in the first three months of 2021, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said is not part of the movement, if we as a society, as Corporate continue to leave PWD's out and slap them with a grant to shut them up
This is quite a challenge for me as an entrepreneur in this space and as a member of a community where I see firsthand that PWD's are not given the same opportunities as able-bodied people. MCH has a new acquisition called DeafCentric (DC), a company that is aimed to make the lives of PWD's a little easier. DC is a call center management company that will assist PWD's with emergencies and link them with a person who understands their dis-Ability and is able to offer assistance/ send help as quickly as possible. Ask yourself, what does a deaf person do when they are in an emergency, left stranded on the road, and need emergency care - can you answer today and say that our 112 emergency line is able to assist them efficiently and in a timely manner?
How do you retain personnel in your company and stop key staff from jumping ship?
Firstly I do not work with 'employees', I work with entrepreneurs! Entrepreneurs push with me, they hustle with me, they are more self-managed than employees. I do not believe in the construct of a formal interview because you do not necessarily get the best out of a candidate. I conducted all my colleague's interviews very informally, all of them were not aware they were actually being interviewed. It could be coffee in a café, or while running CSI projects, or while staying at a hotel and I bump into interesting characters. This has given me the best team I have ever had in the 20 years I have been in this industry, and look what we have achieved together in the past 2 years alone. There is more growth and transformation in the pipeline. I have also noticed that my team enjoys this model, they run their departments as though it were their business, it gives them a sense of belonging, and the trust I have in them gives them the confidence to run with their ideas with very little interference from my side.
What tips or advice do you have for pitching business contracts?
The most important part of the pitch is getting to know the client’s business, their needs, get to know what their challenges are and find a solution that fulfils all their requirements. Only then can you present a pitch to close the deal. The first thing that you need to do is to make sure that you are pitching to the right people or person that are decision-makers. It is a waste of your time if you are speaking to the wrong people! Full research around the company and their industry is crucial. Find out who they are. How long they have been in the industry? What does the company do? What challenges do they face? And who their competitors are? Remember that you are trying to find out what the client’s specific business needs are and how this will link with what you are selling, so ask yourself all the time what they will gain by working with you.
Clients will always see through a pitch that has been reworked from an old one. To grab their attention, you need to show them that you care about their business and have done the research to tailor the pitch to them.
What skills do you think the new generation of black leaders are going to need?
To have strong knowledge about governance
Tech skills and knowledge
Innovative ways of thinking with regards to our economy Authenticity, optimism, and confidence
Network of mentors in specified industries
