At the age of 13, Sibongile Gumbi began her secondary education in a different country, indeed on a different continent; the young South African girl attended a boarding school near the coast of north Wales, United Kingdom. This formal British setting, with old stone walls, school uniforms and team sports, was in a very different culture. It was also one in which she thrived. She completed her schooling in western Canada.
“What I would really, really like to do is to actually uplift areas around me and communities around me.”
The experiences forced her to be independent at a young age – and adaptable to other cultures. “It was a very, very different experience to what I was used to. I grew up so fast as a young girl… I had to sort out my own budget for pocket money, for the term, and at the end of the term, or before end of the term, I would have to plan where was I going to spend the holiday since I couldn’t travel home nor stay at school.”
One can see in this crucible an entrepreneur in the making, but it was several years into her career before founding her own business: there was much preparation and planning beforehand.
A year after the EMBA, she launched Smart Biotech, initially developing products for animals in the farming sector that were proven in terms of efficacy, but were ultimately not commercially successful. This led to a difficult but valuable lesson: you have to look at “not just the technological readiness, but also look at the business readiness, the commercialization readiness, the manufacturing readiness” of a new technology.
She offers a thought-provoking reflection on the low rate of success in scientific invention, given the necessity of a viable business model, strong governance and effective management. “There are so many innovations that end up in a thesis and never get introduced into society or into markets.”
Her own PhD was on medicinal properties of herbal products. The thesis ultimately did lead to a successful product – so it is sobering to reflect that this is the exception. It formed the basis of her successful strategic pivot, switching in 2018-19 to aloe-based supplements for humans that are beneficial to gut health. The business moved into the launch of a new and novel gut health remedy.
“That it [the product] works is great, but what changes the game is for the market to buy it, and that is more a commercial issue than it is a technology question.”
Even after demonstrating market demand, the learning and adaptation need to be continuous. An early discovery with the SmartHerbals Healthy Gut product was a simple one: the containers were too large. With a new product, people want to purchase in small quantities and amounts to first test it.
A central discipline of the EMBA recurs; the ability to take a step back and identify the real problem to be solved. “At each stage of growing a business, you need to focus on what is the next step up.”
Managing cash flow, for example, is a significant challenge for a manufacturing business serving the consumer market. Given the production costs and payment terms that major retailers demand, there can be a heavy working capital requirement. Many a profitable business has run out of money. “I’m going back to my notes and my scribbles and the like [from the EMBA] to [look at] how to make sure that we manage our cash flow month on month. Because if you look at it yearly, you don’t see the month-on-month dips.”
“That the product works is great, but what changes the game is for the market to buy it”
When asked about the impact of the learning on the EMBA, she highlights both the very technical subject of understanding costs and the profit centers within a business; and a very personal discipline – learning about yourself and your emotional reactions, including the paradox that understanding your emotions prevents you from being overly governed by them.
While the business has thrived since the strategic reorientation – she has stories of a customer overcoming lactose intolerance and being able to enjoy ice cream; of another whose irritable bowel condition was brought under control, transforming quality of life – there is a restlessness, an undying ambition, a guarding against complacency. She fears that “the minute I feel a sense of accomplishment, I fear that I will stop doing important things”.
Much of her aspiration lies in the social domain. Sibongile laments how many young people in rural areas in South Africa have few opportunities; young men who are unemployed, young women going into prostitution. She also observes that many young African people who are educated and professional have a strong humanitarian impulse – setting up a foundation while still young, and not waiting for semi-retirement. So there is simultaneously considerable need, and considerable potential.
“I need to make a lot of money through my products in order to do what I would really, really like to do, which is to actually uplift areas around me and communities around me.”
You wouldn’t bet against her on either count – making lots of money, and successfully investing in social entrepreneurship.
