Our Final Featured BBF Superwomen | #SalutingIndustrySuperwomen

Behind BBF Safety Group is a team of strong, talented, ambitious woman driving our business. Over the past three weeks, we’ve been finding out more about their journeys to where they are today, the challenges they’ve overcome and why they remain fiercely committed to the safety industry.

Here are the final four featured formidable ladies of BBF Safety Group:

Thulie Khumalo- Making Supervisor

• What has been the highlight of your career journey?

Being a Supervisor. I enjoy dealing with people and the communication with employees. As a supervisor, I need to make sure my communication is always strong and open to be trusted by the team.

• What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced, being a women in a male-dominated industry?

As a mother, I feel concern when someone is struggling emotionally and things aren’t going well for them. So, I often find myself taking on a ‘social worker’ role when I see that employees are not performing and ask them questions and listen to their problems. This can be tough emotionally, but I care about the people I work with.

• How have you overcome these challenges?

I trust God, which helps me overcome any challenges. I don’t let challenges stand in the way of my work. – I stick to my goals.

• Why are you so committed to the industry, despite these challenges?

I believe in myself and what I can do, even though the industry is tough. I believe in sticking to your goals – no industry is easy, there will always be challenges.

• Why do you think it’s important for more women to be part of this industry?

I think it helps to build good relationships with people and develops strong leadership skills.

• What message do you have for other women facing challenges and obstacles in their career journeys?

We need to be strong and firm. We must know what they want to achieve and go for it.

 

Cynthie Thakurpersadh –  Group Procurement Manager

• What has been the highlight of your career journey?

Continuous progression and reaching Management levels in a short space of time.

• What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced, being a women in a male-dominated industry?

Two of the greatest challenges have been resistant and undermining authority and not being seen as an equal.

• How have you overcome these challenges?

By standing my ground and being persistent and enforcing teamwork, thereby ensuring co-operation and building good work relationships.

• Why are you so committed to the industry, despite these challenges?

I am very passionate about my job and I do not give up easily. I love challenges and learning new things, and I know for a fact there’s always a solution to every problem.

• Why do you think it’s important for more women to be part of this industry?

Women have proven  time and time again that they are capable of handling any task or situation.Being in a senior position in a challenging industry helps build confidence and self-esteem and adds significant value to many aspects in this industry.

We need more woman in this industry to share more great ideas and innovation and to add to the enhancement and growth of the future.

• What message do you have for other women facing challenges and obstacles in their career journeys?

Do not give up. Have a positive approach in any situation. Believe in yourself.

As Marie Curie says “nothing in life has to be feared; it is only to be understood.

Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less”.

 

Dingiwe Makhubu – Receptionist

• What has been the highlight of your career journey?

How I’ve grown at BBF. I started working in the factory as a moulder and am now a receptionist.

• What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced, being a women in a male-dominated industry?

As a woman, sometimes you get undermined but you can definitely prove them wrong.

• How have you overcome these challenges?

Having self-esteem has helped me a lot. Being told that I can’t do certain things motivated me to show them that I could.

• Why are you so committed to the industry, despite these challenges?

My motivation is what keeps me committed. That’s what got me from working in the factory to a receptionist – and nothing and nobody can take that away from me.

• Why do you think it’s important for more women to be part of this industry?

I think it’s an industry that helps people grow into stronger, better people and women have the right to the opportunity to be a part of that.

• What message do you have for other women facing challenges and obstacles in their career journeys?

There will always be obstacles along the way, but you are strong and can overcome them with enough determination. Don’t give up.

 

Lebogang Mokwele-  SOE Sale Manager

• What has been the highlight of your career journey?

This is the only company that I’ve worked for that has had such a steep growth path. Being a part of a company that’s the leader in its industry, being a part of the transformation of the business and acquiring new skills and challenging myself has been a huge highlight for me.

• What are some of the greatest challenges you’ve faced, being a women in a male-dominated industry?

As a new entrant into the market, with experience in sales and management but new to the industry and lacking in industry-specific knowledge, my first challenge was to position myself as being on par with my colleagues.

Secondly, it’s an emerging market in the sense that there’s still a lot of room for growth but there are old role players and it’s quite a close-knit community, so breaking those walls and being in a position to work together with people of a different mindset and have them accept me, that has been the greatest challenge.

Diversity management has been quite key and a challenging issue for me.

• How have you overcome these challenges?

I do not allow circumstances surrounding me to affect how I react to them. I make sure my reaction is professional and make sure that how I respond is a good projection of myself. I haven’t always been successful at it, but that has been the greatest learning path for me. I can’t control how people react to me, how they behave towards me and what people do but I can control how I react.

I keep my eye on the ball – I’m here to do a job, to learn about the industry and most importantly, I’d like to be part of the growth of BBF.

• Why are you so committed to the industry, despite these challenges?

I’m committed quite selfishly to my own personal growth first and foremost. I’ve always approached any situation knowing that there is ‘Lebogang Inc.’ I have a service of value that I want to offer to the company and as long as I’m in a position to grow ‘Lebogang Inc.’ and positively contribute to the company, that is what keeps me going. I love my job.

• Why do you think it’s important for more women to be part of this industry?

I don’t feel that it’s important only for more people who are  female to be a part of this industry but for there to be more new entrants overall, so that there can be more innovation.

Most importantly, we need more diversification. I do believe that there are certain situations that I would look at from a female perspective, that a male colleague would not be able to so therefore it would improve the overall wellbeing of the company having a more diversified perspective.

The more you have a representation of the people you’d like to sell to and the people of the country, the better understanding you will have of your customers.

• What message do you have for other women facing challenges and obstacles in their career journeys?

I’ve always looked at myself as a person, as opposed to a woman first. So, I would say, always keep yourself accountable to your own growth and development and be true to yourself and the rest will follow. Be honest, willing to learn and most importantly, have integrity in your dealings with others.