Ntokozo Ncongwane, Intel SA
Name: Ntokozo Ncongwane
Designation: Country Marketing & Public Relations Manager
Company: Intel Corporation, South Africa
What do you do every day? Develop and execute on the country marketing and PR strategy for the business in order to drive a cohesive and integrated message that will help achieve country sales goals and overall brand awareness.
How did you get into the tech space? After completing my degree, I started looking for opportunities in the communication field that would empower me to apply the knowledge I had gained as well as acquire new skills to drive my passion in marketing and business. I found the tech industry to be most flexible, dynamic and continuously evolving to allow different ways for people like myself to be most expressive. The ever-changing environment and technology in the ICT industry continues to give me the opportunity to keep searching for tools and adopt different ways of keeping in touch with the world, whilst making a difference both in my personal and business capacity.
What was the best advice anyone ever gave you? A former mentor would often remind me that ‘positioning is ninety percent acquisition’, emphasising that sometimes we don’t need to wait to for permission to initiate change but rather successfully position ourselves in such a way that makes it almost impossible for people not to notice the change. In male-dominated environments where opportunities for women are increasing with a growing level of acceptance for women’s abilities, for example, this pushes us to start thinking differently about how we position ourselves as business leaders and change makers.
What advice would you given someone wanting to get into the tech sector? Firstly take time to identify an organisation that is aligned with your value system. You need to be able to live with the decisions you make and still be happy with the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Secondly, pursue your passion, love what you do and be flexible to change. The ICT industry is one of the most dynamic environments to work in, it is filled with excitement and innovative thinkers and can be overwhelming if it does not link to at least one of your passions.
What motivates you to get out of bed everyday? The desire to be a good mother to my two daughters and to show up for them by being fully present in their day-to-day lives. It is so easy for me to get lost in my work and often overlook people closest to me therefore I put an equal amount of effort to be a present parent.
Who do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be the best version of myself I can be. I am not yet sure what that looks like but I do look forward to a wiser, more grateful, calmer and even happier version of me in the next five to ten years.
Find me on:
Twitter: @ntokozoNT
LinkedIn: http://za.linkedin.com/pub/ntokozo-ncongwane/65/9a1/917
About The Author: Samantha
Samantha Perry is the owner and founder of SJ Perry PR, a small, independent agency that specialises in providing public relations and media relations services to small to medium-sized businesses. She recently served as the JHB Agency Lead for Irvine Partners, an integrated public relations and marketing agency. She has over 20 years' of experience writing for a range of media - print and online - mainly in the ICT sector including Computing SA (editor), ComputerWeek, and Brainstorm magazine (editor). In her capacity as a PR professional and consultant, she has and does work with a variety of companies including Google (South Africa & Nigeria), Salesforce, CLEVVA, Euphoria Telecom, Paymenow and Tiger Content (UK). She also has a Masters degree in ICT Policy & Regulation. She served on the IAB SA Marketing Council as the PR rep, has worked as an independent telecoms researcher for some of the analyst houses in that field and was regularly called upon to comment on telecoms issues in the press. Nowadays she can be found commenting on women in tech issues in the press and speaking at conferences on the subject and the issues women in the sector face.
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