‘I am firm, but do listen to my people’
Lunga Siyo says strong growth in data use is a major opportunity for Telkom
Telkom consumer and small business chief executive Lunga Siyo has managed businesses at the telecommunications company facing major technological change and fierce competition.
“Given my age and energy, what drives me is turning around something challenging,” Siyo told Sunday World during an interview. “Handling change, impacting customers’ lives and having a huge societal impact also drives me,” he added.
He is responsible for South Africa’s third-largest mobile network operator Telkom Mobile, which has over 18-million customers. In addition, Siyo manages Telkom’s fibre business targeted at small businesses and about 900 000 retail customers, including about 250 000 with fibre – the rest have fixedline services.
When he joined Telkom, he managed the evolution of the Yellow Pages business from a print advertising unit facing declining circulation and advertising.
“The changes we made altered the revenue mix of the business, and we kept it afloat. We grew the bottom line and kept the customers.”
In addition, Telkom’s small business unit faces headwinds because of its declining copper business.
“If you turn a business around, there is a feel-good factor. I have contributed to value enhancement in the firm. For example, in the mobile space, I took over the consumer business, which was under immense pressure, and over the last 12 months, we grew the number of customers by 10% to 18-million,” Siyo said.
He said it was exciting and daunting working at Telkom, which faced the challenge of competing with MTN and Vodacom in the telecommunications market. However, in the fibre market, Telkom is a large ship facing competition from small, agile players, which Siyo acknowledges is a challenge, too. “However, Telkom has an advantage in [the fibre market] because we already have customers. You must improve the customer experience and acquire customers faster than they can.” He started his career with BP in 2000, and spent over six years at the company. He later worked for MTN, Santam, followed by a spell at Barclays and then had a stint at Standard Bank. In May 2018, he joined Telkom.
Siyo describes himself as a “servant leader”.
“It is about creating an environment for my people to thrive so they can service people better. I consult with my team before I make major decisions. I am firm and make hard calls. I dream big and take my team along that journey,” he said.
“For me, leaders have to create hope for stakeholders, shareholders, the board and the employees, so they have something to look forward to.”
He said he had failures during his career but had taken those mistakes as learning opportunities. “Success is not a good teacher, but failure is. Failure makes you stronger. However, failure can make you anxious, but you will do better going forward,” Siyo said.
He said his greatest lesson since joining Telkom was to listen to his staff and customers. “They know better,” Siyo said. He said his greatest achievements were the numerous challenging roles he had landed, which he had tackled head-on and built credibility about his ability to deliver.
A major opportunity in the mobile telecommunications and fibre markets is the strong growth in data use.“people are streaming content, they want access to the internet. As a result, data consumption in South Africa has significantly increased over the past two years. Telkom is capitalising on this data opportunity by offering strong, cost-effective propositions.”
South African business | people he looks up to include former Shoprite CEO Whitey Basson, because of the retail empire he built over 20 years.
He also admires former Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko, EXFNB CEO Michael Jordaan and his boss Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong.
Outside work, Siyo has a wife and two children.“my family anchors me, and they, including my extended family, especially my parents, give me purpose.
“Over weekends, my family and I like spending time outdoors, including hiking and boating. I attend most of my kids’ events at school and play golf. I travel with my family, including going on road trips.”