The Bulb World: Ready to light up the world
In an interview with The Bulb World CEO, Ketshephaone Jacob, Botswana Guardian reveals the ambition of this nascent brand that is striving to lighten up Botswana and beyond. The interview was conducted by Business Editor, KOOBONYE RAMOKOPELWA.
BOTSWANA GUARDIAN:
What does 2021 bring to The Bulb World as a Botswana ba s ed el e c t ron i c / bulb manufacturing company?
KETSHEPHAONE JACOB:
It brings new opportunities and challenges, new innovative products, including one that will help with power cuts and lastly, growth. This year we are continuing with our expansion strategy, which started last year. This will see us expand our footprint across Botswana to Ngamiland, Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Central and Southern Districts. For this year, and next, we are penetrating Southern Africa. We are looking to set foot in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and eventually Malawi. It is a really big move for us and we hope for Batswana’s continued support in this venture.
BG: How has the business managed to survive its first few years of operations, given the fact that the bulb manufacturing and selling subsector is a mature market with established brands?
JACOB: Although we entered the space with bigger brands, our upper hand was that we are the only local bulb manufacturer in Botswana. It hasn’t been easy, it’s been challenging, but definitely a challenge that we’ve embraced as it forced us to think outside the box. We didn’t have the budget that our competitors had but with the little that we’ve had, we’ve gained reasonable traction. The support from Batswana has helped us get to where we are today and we remain ever grateful to every Motswana who has supported and bought our products. I’m fortunate enough to have a team that loves the brand. The team has assisted me in ensuring we get as far as possible with the little that we had.
BG: What are some of the major challenges that The Bulb World encounters on a daily basis as it tries to push its products into the domestic market?
JACOB:
As I’ve already mentioned, Batswana have made us the brand we are today but we need greater support and bigger numbers from the rest of Botswana so that we can become the lighting brand of choice that is found in every household. Uptake from the
Government has been slow, but we remain optimistic for the reasons below mentioned; we’re 100 percent locally owned, set up in the SPEDU region, youth run and has created youth employment for 65 people, our products are of high quality and our pricing is competitive.
BG: What kind of strategic partnerships/ alliances can we expect from the company in the short to medium term?
JACOB: As a brand, we are passionate about education and youth empowerment. We hope that this year we will take on more schools to light up through our Lesedi Ke Mpho CSR initiative, which saw us light up Lobatse Senior Secondary School with First National Bank Botswana last year. We are also interested in partnering with some international partners such as United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP), so that we can contribute towards achieving our Sustainable Development Goals ( SDG’s).
BG: COVID - 19 remains a major challenge to almost all the companies. What strategic interventions have the company managed to come up with which will ensure it maneuver the pandemic?
JACOB: One thing we have fought ‘ tooth and nail’ for is to ensure our employees are paid every month without fail. COVID 19 or not, we have tried to make sure that all our employees have job security. The pandemic has also forced us to be agile. We’ve had to be creative, disruptive and use unconventional ways of marketing to achieve more with less as well as increase our efficiencies and productivity
BG: Two years ago, the company floated an expression of interest in relation to franchises. How has been the reception regarding the expression so far?
JACOB: The reception was actually great in terms of the feedback but in order to ensure that the franchisees would get their value, we felt we needed to grow the brand more. It was important that we grew the brand, defined its architecture, tone and expression first before handing it over to franchisees. We’re looking to floating another expression of interest ( EOI) before the end of 2021.
BG: What kind of support is The Bulb World looking for from government especially when it comes to citizen empowerment and domestic procurement?
JACOB: The Bulb World would really appreciate the Government’s support in terms of buying power. We especially need support from our Government during this pandemic so that we can stay afloat and preserve as many jobs as we can, create more employment through key projects and provide quality products with a wonderful end user experience to our consumers.
BG: In the view of The Bulb World, are citizen owned and run companies given the necessary support to thrive and become successful entities?
JACOB: Our manufacturing industry in Botswana is relat ively new and st i l l developing, so we are at a stage where we may have had teething issues and slowness but I do believe we are headed in the right direction. We are doing our utmost best to engage all our relevant stakeholders, because we can only thrive with their support. As a youth run company we are committed to lead in the manufacturing space and be a pioneer to show other Batswana companies in manufacturing that indeed it is possible.
BG: Funding is the major hurdle to most start- ups. Is The Bulb World also experiencing the same challenge as others?
JACOB: For a start- up, we’ve achieved a lot with the little that we had. The Bulb World was built and established with my own personal sourcing and business funds, but as a business that wants to expand its footprint into Southern Africa and the world, we are looking for funding that will meet our needs. Currently, our funding doesn’t meet all our needs. We need funding to be able to compete with well established brands, reach bigger markets and renowned international advertising and news outlets such as CNN, Forbes Africa, eNCA to name but a few. We are hopeful that our current conversations with institutions such as Norsad and Botswana Development Corporation ( BDC) will bear fruit.