Tanzania, March 31, 2016 – Murtaza Versi is founder, CEO and business coach of Noesis Strategic Institute, a resource that helps service organizations in Africa to achieve higher levels of performance, developments and profits. He shares more of his experience in this interview with Africa Business Communities and why he feels Tanzania will lead Africa in 2016.
Would you please introduce Noesis Strategic Institute?
Noesis Strategic Institute is a premier consultancy and training institute, providing superior quality programs across Africa’s service industry workforce. As a company, we continuously add to our “toolbox” new ideas, skills and approaches from all over the globe, so that we can deliver leading‐edge programs and value‐added solutions to our customers. We learn from the best so we offer the same to our clients. Our philosophy is simple; we build champions within an organization so they can teach others, internally, to do the same. And we do this with one goal in mind: to deliver tangible, profitable results. In today’s competitive marketplace, with rapidly‐changing technologies and growing consumer demands, the best way for businesses to succeed is to adopt a mindset of growth and learning.
In which industries does Noesis Strategic Institute operate and who are your clients?
We help service organizations in Africa, elevate, empower and sharpen the workforce by building a cohesive system to achieve business success.
What are the USP’s of your business?
Africa is our home ground. Change management is our expertise. We embed capacity in your people to be cohesive, customer focused and deliver success.
We believe in building capacity within the organization through champions. Behaviors and attitudes cannot only be changed through training, it has to be observed, and we teach the champions how to do exactly that. We have a range of products and programs which are global, and we bring local context to the programs.
Why did you start Noesis Strategic Institute?
Africans in totality are very hospitable and every individual is a gem that becomes more valuable with polishing. Developing the necessary skills, attitudes and behaviors at every level of an organization are essential ingredients for success. This is what we strive for at Noesis every day.
What did you do before starting Noesis Strategic Institute?
My background has been in the leading multinational service-based companies operating in Tanzania, such as Ethiopian Airlines, KLM and Precision Air.
What can be done by entrepreneurs and government to stimulate the business environment in Tanzania?
In any industry, Customer Service strategy is a crucial aspect of differentiating one company or Government from another; service style is something that cannot be copied. It takes leadership to create the culture and an environment of service delivery for long term sustainability.
If companies or governments focus on the culture of customer service, then innovation and marketing becomes part and parcel of the culture. If leadership believes and walks the customer service approach, creates a culture in the organization or government, they will benefit in a variety of ways: Word of mouth advertisement, More FDI’s in this case for government¸ Growth year after year, Globally competitive, Staff retention because they are happy to be part of a successful company
What can you say about the targets, plans and ambitions of Noesis Strategic Institute for the next few years?
Our target for the next five years is to create a Customer Service driven continent, and we will be able to establish this by creating a Pan-African consulting group which will bring together locals that are passionate in driving the customer service and emotionally aware, ethical and authentic leadership programs in the continent. We have already begun to establish partnership in South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Namibia. We are now embarking on establishing ourselves in the other parts African continent.
Which African countries do you predict will perform best in 2016?
I’ll say Ethiopia and Tanzania, and I’ll give my reasons. In the case of Ethiopia, with the population of around 96.5 million people, and according to World Bank statistics of a growth rate of 10.8% in the period of 2004-2014, this country is expected to see strong growth because of its Agriculture policy, and also having a strong national airline which promotes global traffic. Furthermore, the building of its cargo fleet will help establish exports of various commodities including the best coffee produce.
The new government in Tanzania has made a task out of curbing corruption and improving revenue collection. They’re also working to speed up the process for investment and service delivery, which will help in the growth process. A recent development in the construction of oil pipeline from Uganda to Tanga port in Tanzania worth 4bn USD is an example of what can be achieved. Also the using of locally extracted gas to generate energy will assist in reducing costs of doing business. Generally it’s the Leadership and improved policies of the country that will drive its economic growth.
