Seamless Leadership by Groenewald Adriaan;

Author:Groenewald, Adriaan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
Published: 2015-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

Zunaid Bulbulia – CEO MTN South Africa

Seamless Leadership Principles:

1. Note Bulbulia’s seamless attitude towards competition.

2. Note the principle of becoming more consciously aware that one shifts from being a technical expert to being a leader.

3. Note Bulbulia’s emphasis on movement.

4. Try to identify more seamless leader principles.

‘Thank you, Alan Knott-Craig!’ may be a strange statement coming from the CEO of MTN South Africa, but these were the exact sentiments shared by Zunaid Bulbulia as I sat with him discussing leadership and the opportunities and challenges facing him while filling that office.

This particular statement came on the back of my question of what Knott-Craig and Cell C have brought to the South African mobile telecoms market. Bulbulia shared that he has great respect for his competitor because he is such an experienced campaigner in their industry. Bulbulia and his team have had to make sure they are working harder and with greater focus than ever before: ‘We’re learning to make decisions quicker, we’re learning to be more market aware, and we’re learning to not take them for granted. Alan knows the industry – he’s not a guy that parachuted in here and doesn’t know anything about South Africa. The unintended consequence for Alan is that he’s made us, and Shameel Joosub at Vodacom, even more determined to be successful ... and he’s made me more match fit.’

This is the invaluable contribution that competition offers the market place and consumers.

Zunaid Bulbulia is one of only two who remain of the original group of seven who were there at the birth of our familiar yellow telecommunications company, MTN. He has devoted 19 years to assisting it to move from a start-up to a small company of 200 to 300 staff members and 50 000 customers, which today is a multinational player whose reach extends into 19 different countries in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East and now employs well over 17 000 staff members, supplying services to over 189 million customers.

But who is he and where did it all begin for him? ‘I grew up on 14th street, which is the old Pageview area of Johannesburg, running my father’s shoe store which was also the beginning of my leadership career. I would often have to run the business because my dad would be involved in many other things, he travelled quite a bit, he was a seasoned traveller and loved seeing the world and doing all kinds of things – which is why I was actually born in Canada. My parents just happened to be there when I was born, but I have lived in South Africa all my life.’

He would later go on to study accounting and qualify as a charted accountant, having completed his articles with the then highly regarded Arthur Andersen.

This upbringing seems to have set the stage for his journey with and throughout MTN. After joining them in 1994, he spent the next 19 years meandering all over MTN – from marketing, sales, and distribution to managing a customer care call centre for about five years and even doing mergers and acquisitions.

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