Stephen Osler, Nclose co-founder and Business Development Director, explains the importance of investment and growth within one of Africa's major economic cities.
"Our Johannesburg team has seen tremendous growth over the past three years – recording more than a 100% growth in team size alone through each year, and we plan on keeping the team growing. We were one of the few companies that can say we were active employers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because of how highly adaptable our company structure is. It wasn't just the team size that saw tremendous growth. Our profits reflected the efforts of the Johannesburg team, increasing from 2020 to the end of 2021 by a staggering 300%, three times more – which was a monumental achievement, indicating we are here to stay and planning on growing even further. Our successes and growth can be attributed to some key areas:
Industry diversification
"We adapt our service to any industry that requires our expertise, alongside our agility and flexibility to provide value as we diversify. Our most extensive client catalogue of growth now falls under a variety of industries:
- Financial services;
- Legal and insurance;
- Automotive;
- Mining and agriculture;
- Petro chemical; and
- Document storage.
As our base of operations expands in Johannesburg during 2022, we expect our client base to diversify even more."
Growing the team
"We were once considered a Cape Town-based company, operating around Africa and abroad. Over the past year, this has changed as the team has evolved into an independent structure that can meet our clients' needs in Johannesburg and support the team in Cape Town if required. This independence has allowed us to acquire more large blue-chip clients based in Johannesburg, giving us a significant presence while bringing diversity and strong cyber security engineering skills to the region."
Sustaining our culture and core values
Osler continues: "Our company culture and values have been a catalyst to our success in Cape Town. This was never something that was going to be compromised and has been carried over to the Johannesburg team. While consistency is key to success, our executive team has ensured that our service delivery model was replicated successfully and quickly. As the team grew, the culture and values that make up the success of our brand have now become cemented with the team in Johannesburg."
Relationship derived growth
He continues: "Arguably, our biggest differentiator is how we provide value to our clients and place importance on maintaining personal relationships with them to build partnerships for long-term success. What makes us unique is the way we have grown in Johannesburg. We have not marketed ourselves but rather let our clients do the talking for us, and as they have progressed to other companies, they have taken us on that journey with them. Trust is something that takes time to build in business but can be lost in a moment; the fact that our customers trust us with their referrals to others or continue to keep us on board as they move is a testament to the value and dedication we provide – even to clients who have moved overseas. Thanks to them, we've had little need to market ourselves, and this continues to be a successful path for us in the future in Johannesburg to deliver and derive value."
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