Tebogo Ditshego is the Group CEO of
Ditshego Investment Group, CEO of Ditshego Media, Chairman of the South African
Reading Foundation, and Judge in season 4 and 5 of SABC 1 programme One Day
Leader. In 2017, he was selected to serve as a judge in the Gauteng Premier’s
Service Excellence Awards.
He grew up in Kagiso, which is in the
West Rand of Johannesburg and started his first company Ditshego Media in 2011.
Three years later, on 5 February 2014, he was listed as one of Forbes
Magazine’s top 30 African Entrepreneurs under the age of 30.
In November 2016, Tebogo Ditshego
received the “Nestlife Assurance: Young Business Achiever of the year” award at
the BBQ Magazine awards.
He is the founder of South Africa’s
biggest online book club Read a book SA which has over 39,000 followers on
Twitter, and over 15,000 books recommended by its followers. Tebogo Ditshego is
the author of bestselling fiction book “Kasi Nerd” which he published and
distributed through Ditshego Media. It was launched on 22 April 2016 and is
available at Exclusive Books & Van Schaik Bookstores.
On 24 January 2017, Tebogo Ditshego was
voted as Avance Media’s most influential young South African in business. He
went on to participate in the Austrian Leadership Programme organised by the
Austrian Government, for International Business Leaders in March 2017. In 2015,
Tebogo Ditshego was listed as one of Fast Company Magazine’s top 100 most
creative South Africans in business.
Tebogo Ditshego was nominated for the
University of Johannesburg’s Alumni Dignitas Award in 2015, which honours
graduates who achieve a dynamic legacy of accomplishment. He represented the
University of Johannesburg twice consecutively at the annual Southern African
Communications Conference for his Honours research essays.
He holds an Honours Degree in
Communications from the University of Johannesburg and he has a certificate of
completion in a Business and Entrepreneurship course from the University of
Wisconsin in the US.
SEIF KABELELE: What is the greatest mistake you’ve
committed in your current position and how has it contributed to building your
mental capabilities as a leader?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: I made three mistakes
that really stood out in the early
Ages of
starting Ditshego Media;
Using the spray and pray method. I wrote a standard
email and sent it to the various companies who we wanted to work with. This
almost led to a couple of successful deals being made, but it didn’t quite work
out. The lesson I learnt from this inspired Ditshego Media’s slogan
“Tailor-Made Solutions.” We don’t offer any two clients the same solutions
because every organisation has unique objectives, dynamics and challenges,
which we need to resolve.
SEIF KABELELE: How did you go about developing your
brand as a young entrepreneur?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: My brand was built like the Ancient
Egyptian Pyramids.
With an
ambitious long-term vision, a solid educational foundation, and at a
Standard that
put us in a position to inspire future generations of Africans.
You have to
take it one step at a time and live your brand, so that it can
Withstand
challenges when it is put to the test.
SEIF KABELELE: You launched a company
and failed. Why?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: The company failed mainly because it was
started without capital, the market wasn’t too receptive and because I was a
novice in the world of business.
SEIF KABELELE: What lessons did you apply when
re-launching the business in 2011?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: We went from being a mass producer in terms
of marketing services to a marketing company that offers Tailor-Made solutions.
As you would know an outfit that is tailor-made makes you look much sharper
than one that wasn’t designed especially with you in mind.
SEIF KABELELE: How did you succeed in building the
reputation of this new business?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: Our team constantly goes the extra mile and
continuously comes up with innovative solution that place us a step ahead of
the competition. We’re very agile and responsive and the company’s philosophy
comes to life in our work and the results we achieve for our clients. So this
helps us with our brand because we don’t just talk the talk, we also walk the
walk.
SEIF KABELELE: How has social media enabled you to
grow the company?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: It has cut out the middleman and provided us
with a platform to showcase our offering for all to see. Social Media was a
game-changer because companies could no longer use their decades of experience
to gain an edge over startups, it leveled the playing field.
SEIF KABELELE: What book changed your life?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: “The African Origins of Civilisation” and
“Precolonial Africa” by Cheikh Anta Diop. These books played a major role in
developing my pride in Africa and shaped the lenses through which I view the
continent. It also shattered stereotypes about Africa being a dark continent,
because this indeed is the cradle of civilisation.
SEIF KABELELE: What inspired you to start
‘ReadABookSA’? And why did you choose to do it via twitter?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: I envision an Africa that leads in invention,
innovation and knowledge production that is globally competitive, In order for
Africa to reach its full potential we need to develop a culture of reading and
hunger for knowledge. So I started ReadabookSA and used my marketing expertise
to spread a culture of reading and also to make it cool to be intelligent,
hence I coined the term IntellectualSwag.
SEIF KABELELE: What
is the one thing that young people that want to emulate you would have to learn
to sacrifice or do without in order to get to where you are?
TEBOGO DITSHEGO: A winner is a loser who is to stubborn to give up. Never give up.
