Plumbing Africa Plumblink's first hundred stores | Page 22

A scholar and a salesman
W
Prior to Plumblink, Matsoso wrote an
undergraduate degree in Industrial
Engineering, followed by a BCom (Hons)
in Logistics, a postgraduate degree in
Business Administration, followed at
Plumblink, and the MBA. Inevitably, he’s
already planning to do a PhD.
Matsoso switched to sales after completing
his MBA four months ago, as the
company felt it opportune to tap into all
the knowledge he had acquired for the
purpose of sales.
The cornerstone of Plumblink’s success
is how they develop people and maintain
a pipeline of talent, and Matsoso is the
embodiment of this philosophy within the
company. Matsoso explains that the company
funded his MBA and recognised he could add
more value within the sales fraternity. “They
are good at identifying talent by looking at how
20
e’ve all heard the expression
‘A gentleman and a scholar’,
albeit normally tongue-in-cheek,
but ‘a scholar and a salesman’ sounds
much more of an oxymoron. Yet with five
degrees to his name, that precisely defines
Plumblink regional sales manager: Inland,
Nicky Matsoso. He recently completed his
MBA from Wits University and also won a
scholarship for a semester at the University
of La Verne, California, which compressed
six months of tuition into a single month
and was credited to his MBA – all assisted
by Plumblink, both financially and in terms
of study leave.
Plumblink regional sales manager: Inland, Nicky Matsoso.
you apply yourself to your role – at all levels of
the organisation,” he says.
He joined Plumblink five years ago from
SA Breweries, where he had specialised
in supply chain and logistics. His first four
years at Plumblink were similarly focused
on the group’s logistics, primarily managing
the Inland distribution centre, where he
introduced a number of efficiencies.
‘Inland’ is exactly what it says – the entire
country of South Africa except the coastal
provinces. “I started off in the supply
Your local plumbing store
chain. Moving into Plumblink – with its 10
000 SKUs to be managed – was initially a
challenge. Five years ago we did not have
the 103 stores we have today, and the key
ask for my position was ‘how are we going
to extract efficiencies in order for us to
propel the company forward’?
“My role was therefore about using the
supply chain as a key enabler of cost
containment; streamlining of customer
service; increasing corporate agility;
and creating the capability to open up
new stores. This was achieved firstly by
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