Go-getter finds his calling through patience, resilience
Lebo Motshegoa is the MD of Foshizi, a mass market research and strategy company. He tells Margaret Harris that working as a shelf packer when he was a student taught him many important lessons
What do you do?
Foshizi specialises in mass market research and strategy. We go where the research takes us and we talk to people in their own language.
My day involves quite a lot of meetings. I am either in meetings with clients to discuss new projects or I am pitching a new project. When that is not happening you will find me in the “war room” at the office, brainstorming solutions for our clients or brainstorming new offerings for clients or their customers.
If I am not at the office, I am out doing public speaking at marketing or research conferences.
How did you find yourself in this role?
Before Foshizi, I owned — with a couple of friends — a company called Tobetsa, an SMS communications company.
We eventually had to close down as the market got more competitive when broadcasters started to develop their own SMS communication channels to run competitions.
Then I moved on to SowetoRocks.com — an online magazine about Soweto for Sowetans. It had a good run, especially when I introduced the events arm to it. Unfortunately, it was ahead of its time as there were no smartphones back then — you could only access the internet via computers and laptops.
I saw a gap in the market, to be honest. Before Foshizi was established in 2004, a gap existed for an insight agency that intuitively understands “black life” and its subtleties.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
I was a shelf packer at one of the top retailers. I worked there for three years throughout my studies.
My salary paid for my transportation and school material, and my dad paid for my tuition fees.
The job taught me discipline. I chose not to belong to a union, so that taught me to fight my own fights.
It was hard to be a student during the week and an employee on weekends and during the holidays, so I then came up with an idea with a guy by the name of Kagiso who was my co-worker.
We went to management to pitch an idea to rotate the casual merchandisers so that those who worked during the day could take a break the following weekend by working a night shift instead. The manager’s name was Solly. He said: “Okay, let’s pilot the idea.” I was going to be responsible for the night shift team allocated to me.
To cut a long story short, the store made a lot of money that December, outperforming some of the other stores.
Eventually, the system was adopted as a norm, and the last I heard, it is used as a holiday system throughout their stores.
So that taught me to be part of the solution and to always remember that not everything has been discovered yet, so always strive for improvement.
What did you study and how does that help you do your job?
I studied marketing and advertising at the AAA School of Advertising. It helps me do my job because I always have to market and advertise our company; at the same time, I am still required to put my magic in the work that our clients have commissioned us to do.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
When I was a child I wanted to travel the world. However, when I was in matric I thought I was going to study law because I was good at history. Now I travel a lot for work.
What would you most like to outsource from your job?
I would outsource operations and accounting. Operations is very hands-on and administrative. Accounting is also administrative, especially when you have a board meeting due.
What is the best thing about the work you do?
I love creating new stuff, be it a new research methodology or a new research recommendation to our client. I am not set in my ways, so it is easy for my staff to bounce new ideas off me. I also love the leadership role because it allows me to teach.
If you were to choose another career, what would it be?
It would be something in film and TV. Maybe work in broadcasting as a commissioning editor; it is my second passion. I am also venturing into the farming of cows and pigs. I have identified various independent breeders in whose business I will be making investments.
What character traits do you need to do your job?
It requires me to be creative, resilient, calculative, solutionoriented and patient as well as have a strong arm.