FACE-TO-FACE
Q
asim Abrahams has a successful
track record in developing new
market penetration strategies,
strategic sales, business development, and
operations within the energy and mining
industries. His area of focus has been in
developing market entry strategies, business
development, and capacity planning in
emerging markets, and he has extensive
experience in managing work streams and
teams, both regionally and internationally.
Abrahams is passionate about
transformational leadership, which he
believes is an integral part of creating the
much-needed paradigm shift from conducting
business as usual to innovative and
sustainable business practices.
Robyn Grimsley (RG): Could you tell us a bit
about your background?
Qasim Abrahams (QA): I am a mechanical
engineer by training, and I started my career
in the mining sector working as a design
engineer for a boutique firm that designed the
first sub-sea mining crawlers for De Beers.
I worked there for six years. In 2008, a lot
of big projects in South Africa’s mining and
mineral sector were put on hold due to the
global economic crisis, and I decided to look
for opportunities outside the mining sector. I
was approached about an opportunity at ABB
Turbocharging, and that is when I made the
shift from technical design engineering to sales
and business development.
RG: You also have some experience in the
energy sector in Africa?
QA: Yes. When I went across to ABB, I
worked in a business unit primarily in power
generation. At the time, ABB was doing close
to 70% of their business in South Africa with
Eskom, and they were looking to grow their
business outside of South Africa. First, they
needed to understand what the mar ket looked
like, so they needed to do a heat map of the
energy sector across southern Africa. And that
was my first task.
I actually spent several months travelling
across Africa to gain a better understanding
of what the energy-economics market looked
like across Africa, as well as who the major
players are — parastatals, independent power
producers (IPPs), developers, operators and
maintenance crews, and so forth. Once we
had that, we then developed the heat map and
put together the sales strategy. I presented the
strategy to the Exco team, who then asked me
to head up the sales team to actually realise
this business.
I spent a large part of the next three to four
years developing the sales business for ABB
outside of South Africa. During that time, I also
completed my honours degree in business as
well as an MBA, and then in 2014, they gave
me the opportunity to head up the business
unit and also to focus on renewable and
alternative energy solutions within Africa. So,
from 2014 to 2017, that is what I did. And then
in January 2017, I was approached by Metso,
which is where I am today.
RG: How big is the South African market for
Metso, and do you still see a lot of upside
given everything that is happening in the
mining industry at the moment?
QA: I have had a lot of people asking why
I chose to move back into mining at this
time. I believe that coming in from the
energy sector after being away from the
industry for seven years gave me a fresh
perspective. The first thing I did when I
came into the organisation was to look at
Metso’s sales over the past seven years,
and the interesting thing was that we hadn’t
actually lost any business, even during the
decline. When I looked at top-line business
for Metso, it has been fairly consistent, and
the top customer list has also stayed more-
or-less the same. What this showed me is
that Metso South Africa as an organisation
hasn’t harnessed enough of the market —
the fact that we have retained the amount
of business we did despite the downturn
shows that the business is there.
In the discussions we are having with our
end-users and our customers at the moment,
specifically the mining houses, there is a
large focus on optimisation — upgrades,
retrofits; really, they are looking at what they
can do to help the operation improve, rather
than operating and maintaining the plant. So,
I believe that business is looking good for
Metso South Africa. Our forecast for 2017 was
that we would have grown by close to 10%
year-on-year in terms of top line, despite the
difficult times.
RG: What sort of regions are you looking at
in Africa, and what are the risks you look at
before making your decisions?
QA: Metso South Africa is only responsible
for operations in southern Africa, so when we
start to look at expansion, we are looking at
countries in that region. Where, specifically?
At the moment, Zambia is a key market
for us, and we are also definitely looking at
Namibia and Botswana, as well as at the DRC
to a large extent.
In terms of the key indicators that really
drive the decision regarding where we go to
and what kind of investments do we make,
we need to understand the macro situation.
So we need to understand what the political
environment is like and what the trade
environment is like in terms of logistics —
the ability to actually get our goods and our
people into and out of the country. One of the
things that we sell is reliability and the ability
to react quickly, so we need to measure all of
these factors to find out how long it actually
takes to get a piece of machinery from South
Africa, Finland, or Spain straight into Zambia,
the DRC, or Botswana.
Then we need to understand the situation
around ethical business practices. Metso
is committed to ethical business, and
we won’t compromise that under any
circumstances, so we really need to do
an in-depth study to understand what the
challenges are in this area.
For example, at the moment the DRC is
seen as having the highest potential when
it comes to mineral resources and in terms
of install base for Metso, but we are not
looking at it as a high-potential country just
yet because of the political challenges and
the flux that we see within the country.
So, we take all the variables in terms of
ethics, macro and micro challenges, logistics
challenges, access to resources, and very
importantly, what is the view of the local
government when it comes to actually
supporting the industry.
I will use Zambia as an example. Zambia
has realised that there is a huge industry
opportunity for them to manufacture
batteries because of the cobalt and other
minerals that they are extracting. So, the
Zambian government is looking at setting up
manufacturing and processing industries that
will enable the country to start manufacturing
products out of the resources they are
extracting. That indicates to us that the
government is planning to invest, and that
they believe that this is a critical part of their
economic drivers.
RG: Do you have an internal team looking at
these countries?
QA: We do. I am actually heading up that
function as part of my responsibility for sales,
MARCH 2018
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