‘More to life than being at the top’

Alistair Mokoena has an impressive CV: before taking the top role at Google South Africa last year, he was the chief executive of marketing firm Ogilvy. He has a law degree, an MBA and a PHD. But, he tells Sarah Smit, life is not all about climbing the corporate ladder

Your tenure as South African country director of Google began in April 2020, just when the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic took hold. What was this time like for you personally — coming to terms with all the uncertainty that lay ahead?

I joined Google literally a few days after the first lockdown was announced and have been working from home all this time. This means I have not set foot in the office in the past 16 months…

I’m very big on relationships, so working remotely hasn’t been easy. I thrive in a space where I’m working with people who I get on with and there is a sense of fun and camaraderie.

I’ve had to rely on my communications skills and relationship-building skills to network virtually around the organisation. And, thanks to my background in digital marketing and advertising, the transition to a big tech company has not been too difficult. I’ve been blown away by the warmth and willingness of Googlers to help a newcomer settle down and feel like part of the team.

In my first few months I did more listening than talking, just so I could understand why things work the way they do. Apart from the work we do to help our clients grow their businesses, I’ve been inspired by the role that Google has played in helping society deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. So the past 16 months have been a great journey of learnings and purpose-driven work.

Your father is Kaizer Chiefs legend Johnny ‘Magwegwe’ Mokoena. What is your fondest memory of your father and is football still a part of your life?

My father was such a rock star: He worked hard and played hard. Unfortunately for my brothers and I, his professional soccer career ended when we were toddlers, but from all the stories we’ve heard and read he was a genius on the soccer field. He was regarded as Orlando Pirates’ nemesis because he always scored against them.

My dad’s parents were teachers. And they kind of forced him into teaching, which he did for a little bit, but he quit because what he loved was football …

We don’t have any TV recordings, but we’ve got some newspaper clippings and just lots of word-of-mouth stories. So we didn’t get to see him play professionally. We got to see him play casually. It was fun.

But after his soccer career, he got into business. He was always kind of like a magnet — this light bulb that drew moths. People were always around him. He had a big heart and so he had lots of friends, lots of followers. We had a pub at some point and it was always full. And there are always stories. There was always jazz music and lots of soccer war stories ... I just remember him being a very happy, loving guy.

So your father was a businessman: Is that how you developed your entrepreneurial spirit?

Working in the family business was really my first exposure, at a really young age, to an MBA. And I say it was an MBA, because an MBA is supposed to teach you about all parts of business. So a small business, in my view, is a microcosm of a large enterprise. You do a lot of the stuff yourself — from finance, to bookkeeping, to distribution, to customer service, to sales, to marketing.

So I got involved in all of that stuff at a very young age. I learned a lot, but I also acquired this confidence that let me know I could make it in business; I can be an entrepreneur. As long as you know how to make money and how not to destroy money, you’ll be fine.

We have heard about your father, but what is your mother like?

My mom is 68 now. She’s a retired nursing professor and a wonderful, woman. She has this inner strength. She is driven, ambitious, selfassured, with a lot of self-love and a lot of love to give. My mom raised us with love. And she has been a friend, more than an authority figure.

She got married at a young age, at 21. So she had my brother at 21 and she had me at 23. She was finishing off her honours at the time.

And she used to take my brothers and I to the university library on the weekends. We would page through nursing, pathology and anatomy textbooks pretending we were mini-surgeons.

She also always supported my dad with his business enterprises and his life as an entertainer of people. There was always music in our home. And it was always lovely and fun.

Today my mom lives 20km from me, so we see each other often. And she is young at heart. You know, people who teach young people remain youthful forever. My mom knows all the music genres. She’ll even tell you about the latest amapiano song.

You have two young children. What has that been like, especially during the pandemic?

So, my wife and I got married at 26 and for the first 10 years of our marriage, we didn’t have kids. That allowed us to build a strong foundation for our marriage and to really get to enjoy each other. But it also allowed us to build our careers. We were able to achieve in our careers and throw ourselves into our work. My wife’s a lawyer.

When our kids came, we had many more resources to give them. We had a strong foundation in terms of our marriage. Our careers were at an advanced stage.

So for me the biggest priority right now is having a good, happy family and a good, happy home … Family will always be there and that’s really important to me. So I do what I do because I really want my family to have a good life and for my kids to have a good future.

I love the experiences that my job allows me to have. I’ve worked hard to be in the position that I am and I’ve had a lot of luck along the way. I’ve had a lot of support. I’ve had a lot of God’s blessings. And all of that is for my family. It is not just for me.

So, in your view, is there any rush for young people to choose between their careers and starting a family?

I really think there is no formula. I look at my friends who had kids in their 20s and their kids are now in varsity. As parents, they are like: “Oh, thank goodness they’re out of the house. We’re free. We can enjoy our lives and travel.” But my wife and I have been to so many countries around the world. And most of that happened before the kids were born.

The way we define success is so different now. I mean, entrepreneurship has become commonplace. There are very few barriers to entry. You can start a business with a cellphone or laptop and have a world market as your audience …

And the world of work has changed. Gone are the days of having to work up the corporate ladder for 20 years until you get a gold watch.

I don’t think all of us aspire to be the most senior person, or the most remunerated. There is so much more to life.

Photo: Delwyn Verasamy Google him: Alistair Mokoena, who heads the US giant in South Africa, says: ‘As long as you know how to make money and how not to destroy money, you’ll be fine’.