Shifting operations at MultiChoice

After just a few months as COO, he has begun looking at all aspects of the MultiChoice business - and this is where the questions start.

"There are many who believe that MultiChoice is at a saturation level in the South African environment - providing a top-end product to a discerning customer base in DStv. The truth is we are just at the beginning of a new cycle of growth, where entry level bouquets are attracting an altogether new audience with different needs."

"We will develop a new market and provide distribution infrastructure, packages and content which really suit our customers' unique needs." Khumalo is not convinced that offering cheaper bouquets and decoders will erode the more profitable high-end subscriptions, "as long as we provide top quality content, technology and service there will always be a ready market that is willing to pay".

MultiChoice is indeed already experiencing a shift in consumer profiles "We have a more cash-based business and a higher demand in middle-class suburbs and townships and we need to shift our operations to maximise sales potential and customer service benefits," he says. Looking at the operational infrastructure, branches and agencies will be an important part of this process. "I see a lot of opportunities for small business involvement and empowerment as we move forward," adds Khumalo, "but we will take everything step by step to ensure we involve the right team with us."

When probed on subscriber growth merely being a result of failed competitor offerings, rather than MultiChoice's new DStv bouquets, Khumalo remarks, "Broadcasting is a complicated business. You need to have the right people, with the skills and competence to deliver 24/7. It's more about what we are doing right, than what the competitors are doing wrong." You need the right people to build a business. Concentrate on getting the job done well - and customers and jobs will follow," he says.

Khumalo is a self confessed pragmatist and talks about being interested in the "nuts and bolts" of a business, but more than that, he is passionate about meeting the needs of customers with the right offering. With Khumalo at the operational helm, expect some shifts in delivery as MultiChoice approaches the next decade.

The nuts and bolts of MultiChoice

Khumalo, who hails from Middelburg in Mpumalanga, has been looking at the operational side of the MultiChoice business since he first starting working for the organisation back in 1996. Starting originally in the Human Resources division, he always knew there was more to business than matching skills to the business need. "I have always been self motivated and ambitious, and even as I had the job in HR, I went knocking on doors to find bigger challenges," remarks Khumalo.

These challenges he found first in a Business Development division of the organisation and later working in the content side M-Net, SuperSport and Channel O. "This was a great learning experience for me, but when you are working as a content provider, you often work with vague ideas and concepts for business - I really wanted to get back to the nuts and bolts, which is why I took the general manager position for MultiChoice in Botswana and later Nigeria," Khumalo says.

Over the past five years, Khumalo has been working out of the country in Africa, concentrating and perfecting processes, to improve the operations of the organisation.

His approach is simple - get in fast, understand everything, question everything, provide a common ground for focus and implement. "I am a fast-paced person and believe that you should get the heart of the matter quickly and make the tough decisions sooner rather than later. I believe that you have to really understand a business before you can effectively lead. Knowing what's going on everywhere and in all processes is a first step," adds Khumalo.

At MultiChoice Nigeria, Khumalo had to re-engineer the entire business around the environment, the customer profile and the cash-based economy. "In Nigeria, the traditional systems were not working and to maximise the nuts and bolts we had to seriously rethink our way of doing business - providing for a cash-based economy and for high-end customers with cars which had to be parked safely to allow for payments to be made for example."

It was this attention to detail and the ability to question why and work around obstacles which made Khumalo the logical choice for the chief operating officer position which was created earlier in the year. Nolo Letele, MultiChoice CEO, was looking for a right hand to ensure that the organisation moved into the next growth phase with a fresh perspective, and asked Khumalo to step up to the challenge. "It's a new role and I am still in the foundation phase, but already have a focus on improving the infrastructure to bring the MultiChoice offering to more people, to facilitate growth," he says.

The tough question to Khumalo is - what's the biggest challenge? To which he answers, "Not MultiChoice, but adjusting my work lifestyle to include family life with my wife, and children which includes very active three-year-old twins! Being up in Africa I was a monthly visitor, and now I am back to an integral role.... those nuts and bolts I am still getting used to!"