Forget the UEFA Champions league, The NFL Super-bowl, game seven of the NBA finals, the rivalry of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi…one insanely competitive sport currently is business. Businesses are scrambling for market share. It’s a strategy warfare, a marketing battle, a fight for attention and more importantly a quest for sales.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is getting into full swing, and it is affecting how business is conducted as it were. Artificial intelligence is making it possible to attain information and analytics about clients, customers, prospects, suppliers, competitors, and entire industry trends. Having this kind of well researched data allows for companies to press the right buttons in their businesses. CEOs, Product developers, marketing managers can make calculated decisions to meet desired goals. Having this data is essential for any business to thrive post the Covid Pandemic as it ensures that one’s business stays ahead of competition or at the very least remains competitive.
Mining that data, conducting that thorough research to come up with detailed competitive intelligence, that is what ThamiGlobal and Datadvise do. They help businesses grow through data.
ThamiGlobal, formally known as Thamsanqa Ndlovu is a world leading market research expert. His firm (Datadvise.org) is based in the United States of America (Atlanta Georgia) and has operations across the Middle East, Europe, Australia, Dubai, and Southern Africa. Thami has served businesses in consumer products and services, software and mobile apps, e-commerce, health care, financial services, media, telecommunications etc. Playing to his strengths he fuses a professional yet laid back style with clients where he ideates collaborative strategies and implementations for flawless execution. As part of the top one percent hired talent in the USA, he is outstanding when it comes to market sizing, providing segmentation analyses/audience targeting, forecasting industry trends, growth drivers, regulations, competitive intelligence, and keys to sustainable UVP, customer acquisition and sales, channel identification and customer research. The young CEO holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) & a BA in Philosophy & Law from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. He also has an MBA which he attained at the Hult International Business School. It is not surprising that he brings an impeccably unique business and legal perspective to research needs whilst using lateral thinking approaches.
He established Datadvise in 2020 after working as a top researcher in a globally respected firm. When Covid-19 affected businesses and Thami found himself facing unemployment, he took lemons and made lemonade. He had the expertise and experience so instead of job hunting he took up his own clients and built the business from scratch to what it is today. One of the highlights since then was working with the product development team of arguably one of the biggest communications companies in the world on an application which most organizations use for collaborative work and communication every day.
Thami has a culturally rich background, being born to a Zambian mother, in Zimbabwe, studying and living in South Africa and proceeding to building a life in Europe and the United States of America (Boston, Dallas and Atlanta).
Thami argues that one of the biggest challenges SMME’s face is the lack of due diligence. It is overlooked by not only SMME’s but most businesses in general. That is where research and Datadvise come into play. Companies can move in a direction that is supported by conclusive information. That simply means businesses can optimize their operations and messaging with their customers whether it is a Business-to-Business operation or Business-to-Customer setup.
In the beginning of 2022 Thami established the Ndlovu Development Foundation through which he assists students through their education and assists entrepreneurs. To help develop African entrepreneurs, Thamiglobal has a radio show on Wow FM 88.1 (www.vowfm.co.za) every Thursday called Paperbags on the Market Place (Area Code with Pretty Ngwenya). On the show he assists entrepreneurs with competitive intelligence, mentorship, and resources to assist them with taking their business operations to the next level. Episodes can be found on streaming platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, and apple podcasts. As a child of the soil himself, he believes Africa has a lot of potential but unfortunately as third world countries lack of institutions and programmes which empower entrepreneurs as much as needed.
Outside business Thami is passionate about personal development, thus he is involved with and a part of a select network called the Affluent Standard which is essentially a men’s grooming movement for high performing men who help one another unlock their full potential physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially.
His mantra is simple yet so profound, “excel today so that you become a better version of yourself tomorrow. Repeat”. Thami is a very grounded and approachable individual. He is accessible on the business website which is www.datadvise.org for any business engagements be it public speaking purposes, mentorship, networking or just any business enquiry. There are interesting projects to look out for in 2023 for Thamiglobal and the Paperbags projects as there will be events for entrepreneurs, resources and other activities that will contribute to the growth of African economies. Be sure to follow him on his socials @thamiglobal.
Article by: Pamela Sibanda