Women in the workplace: Thabile Dikobe
In South Africa, August is National Women’s Month. In honour of the women who work at PG Bison, we’re taking this opportunity to profile some of them. In this post we chat to Thabile Dikobe, National Enterprise Development Manager at PG Bison.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Thabile and I’m the National Enterprise Development (ED) Manager for PG Bison. I joined the company in September 2013, originally as a marketing assistant.
Outside of work, I’m very family orientated and I’m a bit of a daddy’s girl.
What does your job entail?
Well, to simplify it as much as possible, big corporates, including PG Bison have to do enterprise development as part of their Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE). But while many companies focus on supporting a security company or a cleaning company, we wanted to look at how we can give back to small businesses that already consume our product. Although they don’t buy directly from us, we look at how we can engage with them and help them to grow, and hopefully the ripple effect from that will be brand loyalty.
I’ve learnt that a big part of what we can do is to spend more time listening than talking and to really understand and listen to small businesses. We support everyone from a one-person, like a carpenter whose business assets are a backpack filled with tools, through to kitchen manufacturers and installers that might have a workshop or showroom space. Every business is different and has different needs, so the biggest part of my job is to understand those needs.
Some of the ways we support our ED customers include providing samples, product training, helping with business skills, branding initiatives (for example, sponsoring signage for their workshop), and product sponsorship for showrooms.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
I love the impact that we are having, especially with our indirect customers. I love seeing the way they view their businesses change a year later after engaging with us. It excites me that no two days are the same. I’ve realised that entrepreneurship can be quite lonely, and that many of our ED customers value being able to talk with us about their businesses, and see us as an accountability partner too.
What’s your experience of being a woman in the manufacturing industry?
It’s challenging because it’s complex and it can be intimidating. But in the same breath, when I initially started working here, I was fortunate to have a manager who was quite open to teaching and mentoring me. I think the men in this company, have opened themselves up to helping with educating and mentoring women in the manufacturing space.
What’s your encouragement to other women?
My encouragement would be that, as intimidating as it might be, as a woman in this industry, sometimes you just need to make the jump; take the chance. Show the confidence until you actually feel confident. And trust the process. Invest in yourself, educate yourself, work on yourself, so that when an opportunity presents itself, you are ready to take it.
