you ’ re developing and how much money you ’ re going to make out of it before you can get any capital released to change the organisation .”
Common to all organisations the world over , COVID-19 has impacted Telkom ’ s way of working . Remote working has left an impression , with plans to change policies and enable flexible location and working hours . Siyo emphasises the fact that this requires a change in management style . “ How do you manage people that are working virtually instead of focusing on what they do on a daily basis ? How do you drive proper outputs from your own people that are driven by certain key indicators that would add value to your business ? You look at productivity and output .” It ’ s also provided an opportunity to accelerate Telkom ’ s approach into ecommerce by virtue of changing consumer patterns in response to COVID 19 .
Thanks to the changes that have been put in place , Siyo is confident that the company is very ready to thrive , even with the current circumstances . “ We ’ ve become a platform business , completely - aggregating both the demand and supply side . We ’ re evolving out of being just a normal telco , into a platform player that is able to help small businesses scale and grow .” That tallies with his wider mission to grow the South African economy by allowing small businesses to thrive and contribute more . “ Right now they probably contribute around 25 % towards our GDP . We think it should be around 50- 60 %, more like in developed economies . Large enterprises don ’ t drive GDP growth - small businesses do .”
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