The country manager of EMC, Inana Nkanza has held positions of leadership on some of the world's (and South Africa's) most successful and influential high technology companies.
Nkanza has helped steer the likes of Sun Microsystems, Computer Associates, Software Futures, CCH and MGX. At EMC, Nkanza has been tasked with broadening the company's market share in South Africa, and creating local appreciation of EMC's expansion outside of the storage market into new areas that include security, cloud computing and managing the value that enterprise gets from information.
Although Nkanza is well known for his work and contribution to technology, he is a fairly private man and little is known about EMC's country manager beyond the role in business. In one of the most candid interviews he has given to date, here Nkanza talks about politics, poverty, bandwidth and how the Polokwane palace coup has changed governments technology mandate.
ITWeb: Who are you? How would you describe yourself?
Inana Nkanza: I am a Zambian born South African who is passionate about the development of Africa by Africans. I'm naturally an introvert but my work has forced me to be a lot more extroverted.
ITWeb: Why did you take up the challenge of becoming EMC country manager?
Inana Nkanza: It was a difficult decision to leave Oracle, which promised me plenty. What swung me to EMC was the management that I met, and their entrepreneurial spirit and approach to business. It almost felt like the passion of a start-up! It was one of the best decisions of my life.
ITWeb: What did you gain from your experience at Sun Microsystems?
Inana Nkanza: Sun was all about innovation and the success that it brings you. The company has delivered so much value to the world of IT, with Java but one example. It wasn't easy being in a company that was struggling and having to let go of some great people, but I will never forget the experience. We had a great team spirit and looked after each other. I miss the people I worked with.
ITWeb: What's the biggest challenge facing SA from a technological perspective?
Inana Nkanza: Connectivity. There is so much more we could do as a country if we could get services to the people. The lack and cost of bandwidth is really holding us back.
ITWeb: What's the biggest challenge facing South Africa from a business perspective?
Inana Nkanza: The inclusion of the masses into the economy. It is painful to see the gap between the rich and the poor. As long as this gap remains as it is, we will never truly be a liberated nation.
ITWeb: If you could change one thing about this country, what would that be?
Inana Nkanza: The extreme poverty and lack of education.
ITWeb: If a cabinet post for "Minister of Technology" was created, what would you do if you took up this post?
Inana Nkanza: Reduce the cost of bandwidth and work towards delivering Internet connectivity to the masses.
ITWeb: What would it take for SA to foster a tech brand success of similar scope to Sun or EMC?
Inana Nkanza: We have brilliant individuals who lead the world in the technology stakes, such as Mark Shuttleworth, and Paul Maritz of VMware, so we are not lacking in the intellectual capacity. I think the government needs to take a stronger and bolder step to funding local start-ups. It is incredibly hard to build anything from scratch in South Africa.
ITWeb: Why is EMC still known as a storage company?
There is so much more we could do as a country if we could get services to the people.
Inana Nkanza, country manager, EMC
Inana Nkanza: It is frustrating because we are at the heart of why technology is important. Information management. All our solutions are geared to managing an organisation's data and creating value added information. We are now focused on what we call "One EMC", where we align all our different products and solutions to the actual value of information life cycle management. We are truly "where information lives"!
ITWeb: How much of EMC's business comes from government?
Inana Nkanza: We are winning much more government business than before and we believe we are ideally positioned to become more strategic to government. The main challenge in government is to align technology to the ultimate mandate of service delivery. Too much technology is purchased without taking consideration of things like integration of departments' information and process, skills development and retention and speed of delivery.
ITWeb: Did the palace coupe at Polokwane realise a shift in government's technology mandate?
Inana Nkanza: I think the Mbeki government was quite forward-thinking about technology and its potential in government. Under Jacob Zuma the focus seems to be actual service delivery and technology is not the highest of priorities. Having said this, though, I believe we will see some interesting developments coming out of government over the next few years.
ITWeb: What's your view of SITA?
Inana Nkanza: I am passionate about SITA. It has the potential to be the best thing that has happened to governmental IT. SITA could potentially drastically reduce the government's cost of IT, improve and streamline government processes and ultimately improve the government's ability to delivery services to the people. There is plenty of work to be done within SITA before this can be a reality, but they have my full support!
ITWeb: What responsibilities do big tech companies have in South Africa?
Inana Nkanza: I am an African. My passion is Africa and South Africa in particular. As a leader of a multinational organisation it is my responsibility to define the contribution that our organisation makes to the country we operate in. As a business we are fundamentally about making money. But it is our responsibility to ensure that we positively contribute to the development of the country financially and otherwise. While we spend a lot of money on social upliftment, we have big plans over the next couple of years to significantly increase our participation in the development of South Africa and Africa as a whole. Watch this space!
ITWeb: What legacy do you want to achieve at EMC?
Inana Nkanza: Ultimately I would like to be known as someone who took EMC to another level in this region and developed the individuals within the team to become great leaders themselves. We have a great team of people and I am proud to lead them.
ITWeb: What do you want to be known for?
Inana Nkanza: I have been blessed in my life to have achieved what I have and I want to help mentor young Africans to exceed my successes. I believe that your greatness in life is defined by the greatness of the people you helped develop.
ITWeb: What's the most exciting thing to come out of the EMC stable this year?
Inana Nkanza: It is difficult to name one product, but our "cloud" strategy has really excited the marketplace. We have unparalleled integration capability with the core cloud technologies. Cloud will fundamentally change the way companies deploy technologies, and I strongly believe we will be at the centre of the evolution.
ITWeb: What pressures do business face and what differentiated solution does EMC offer to meet this?
Inana Nkanza: It is all about reducing costs but improving the service delivered. It sounds like a dichotomy, but it can be achieved and our products and solutions are geared to directly address this challenge.
ITWeb: You got into technology "by mistake". Can you imagine doing anything else?
Inana Nkanza: I used to dream of being a professional basketball player!
ITWeb: What's most important to you?
Inana Nkanza: My family.
ITWeb: How do you define success?
Inana Nkanza: Achieving what you set out to do.
ITWeb: What builds trust in business relationships?
Inana Nkanza: Doing what you promise and being honest enough to say when you cannot do something.
ITWeb: What does sustainability mean to you?
Inana Nkanza: Continuous growth that can be expected, managed and delivered.
ITWeb: Which business leaders in Africa do you admire?
Inana Nkanza: I admire all business leaders who have built something from nothing.
ITWeb: Which politicians do you admire and why?
Inana Nkanza: I won't name anyone, but I will say that being a politician is hard work and I think we unfairly bash them. I admire the tenacity of politicians.
ITWeb: What advice do you have for young people leaving school and wanting to craft a career in technology?
Inana Nkanza: Be flexible in what you want to do. Technology is always changing so their focus should be on how technology can change the world rather than any one sphere of technology. With that mindset, they may become another Mark Shuttleworth!
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