Nhlanhla Dlamini

ByWBSComms

Nhlanhla Dlamini

Current title
Founder and Managing Director, Maneli Foods

Course at Wits Business School
Postgraduate Diploma in Management, 2005

A defining moment in my career
In February 2015, one month after getting married and two months after my best performance review at McKinsey & Company, I decided to end my career as a management consultant to pursue my lifelong passion of being a social entrepreneur. 

This was not an easy decision for several reasons: I was less than a year from becoming the first home-grown black associate partner in South Africa; I was building strong relationships with senior executives in crucial sectors of the economy; and – most worryingly – I had very little experience as an entrepreneur.

Despite the warning signs, I took the plunge and started Maneli Foods with the vision of building Africa’s largest export-focused agribusiness as a conduit for economic growth and job creation. While still a young company, Maneli Foods has grown in leaps and bounds. 

The company employs 150 people (mostly black youths) and sells a variety of food products locally and internationally. Entrepreneurship is a challenging career path, but I am constantly energised by my social impact and the economic potential of Africa’s industrial sector. I am glad that I took the risk of living out my passion and purpose through my work.

Similar Posts

  • Madelein Roos

    ByWBSComms

    Having always had a deep interest in science, I first qualified as a chemist, and thereafter at a later stage as an engineer. In order to broaden my capabilities, I started to lecture evening classes at the Vaal Triangle Technikon, now the Vaal Institute of Technology.

  • Lezanne Human

    ByWBSComms

    The defining moment of my career was when I left a successful career in the corporate world to join a few ex-colleagues and friends in starting a new bank. This was a daunting move after having spent most of my career in a world where complex challenges were sheltered by the relative security of size, then moving to another world of complex challenges with no security.

  • Lauren Liebenberg

    ByWBSComms

    I used to try candy-coat things, but no longer: giving birth is less painful, less bloody and infinitely quicker than getting your first novel published. If you haven’t been smothered under the avalanche of “Dear Author, Thank you for your submission, but …” slips by the time you find a publisher, you and your manuscript will still have to face the pitiless glint of your editor’s scythe.