IT Leadership Series: Sibusiso Mbingo, an ‘Agile’ leader who lives his hobby

Sibusiso Mbingo, CIO at Momentum Metropolitan Africa, started his career 21 years ago as a Java developer in the banking industry.

Over the years, he grew into fields such as IT architecture, technology consulting, technical leadership and development management. He has been an IT executive for the past 10 years.

Mbingo has vast experience across sectors, ranging from banking to consulting, telecommunications and insurance.

As an Agile evangelist, Mbingo specialises in Agile implementation and roll-out in the corporate space. In addition, he specialises in mentoring and managing people to maximise their potential.

While attending a recent TechCentral C-level roundtable event, we posed some questions to Mbingo.

What does your company do?

Momentum Metropolitan Africa specialises in insurance (life, short-term, investment and health) in Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya and Ghana. We specialise in selling insurance products to clients using omnichannel, digitisation and self-service.

What do you see as the CIO’s top priorities in 2022?

1. Cybersecurity: The acceleration of digitisation due to the Covid-19 pandemic has opened doors for threats. Cybersecurity has become a top priority in ensuring resources and skills availability.
2. Digitisation: Due to the changes in the way of life in conducting business, especially in Africa, digitisation has become a must for every CIO in Africa.
3. Cloud technologies: The demands of accelerated technology deployment and the availability of the cloud technologies has forced CIOs to rethink cloud as no longer a luxury but a must for every enterprise.
4. Skills: The demand vs supply of new skills in the technology industry has created a massive headache for most CIOs. Employees have an option of working anywhere in the world while spending time with their loved ones. The demand of new skills in the digital space, cybersecurity, robotic process automation and so on has jumped the queue.

What/who do you most admire in business and why?

The business leader I admire most is Michael Jordaan, former FNB CEO. Being a business leader, he understands the role of technology in running successful organisations. At 36, Michael led FNB to be named the “World’s Most Innovative Bank” in the 2012 BAI-Finacle Global Banking Innovation Awards, and in 2011 he made the top-five list of SA Newsmakers of the Year for FNB’s social media presence. The highlight was pioneering the onnovation programme within FNB and that impacted many organisations.

How do you attract and retain talent?

Firstly, the organisation must be transformed to understand the calibre of the employees it wants to attract.

The talent must be recruited from institutions of higher learning and be brought into the organisation for development. Invest time and resources in developing the best out the cohorts, ensuring you develop technical leadership, among the things.

Allow them to innovate and try/fail new ideas without reprimanding them. Continuously assess the best and grow them for leadership roles in the organisation at their early age.

Lastly, have a backup by partnering with Asian countries like India and China to supplement your workforce.

If you could go back and give your 18-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

In choosing a career, focus on what is your hobby, and what you are good at without applying any effort. If your career becomes a hobby, you will never work a day in your life.

What’s your favourite productivity hack?

E-mails and WhatsApp messages are the biggest distraction in our daily lives. I have learnt to create a discipline around time of reading e-mails and WhatsApp messages. Any other time, I close the e-mail client on my PC and close WhatsApp from my mobile.

What occupation (other than your own) would you like to try?

Actuarial/data scientist. Dealing with massive numbers fascinates me and keeps me in my toes.

Where do you see the technology industry heading in the next three to five years?

The evolution of fintech in the banking and Insurance industries will accelerate. These fintechs will continue to disrupt/contribute the industry.

The world will never be the same again after the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore digitisation will be the order of the day.

Platform businesses, fuelled by technology, will grow and disrupt every industry from banking to hospitality to transportation and mining.

What is one book you’d recommend to our audience and why?

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It teaches how constant innovation creates radically successful businesses. Applying the “lean start-up” approach in everyday life helps to continuously innovate and deliver world-class service to our clients. Even if you work for a large corporate, if you apply the lean start-up mentality, you will always outsmart the competition.  — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media