CHANNEL CHIEF
The technology that ANDRE FRONEMAN is keeping tabs on is
IoT, which he says will drive massive changes in the way that industries
create new profit pools.
D
Describe your current job
role and the parts that are
somewhat challenging?
Andre Froneman, Business Unit Manager
(Software and Industrial Technologies) at Axiz
My current role as Business Unit Manager is
to decide on the strategy and the execution
method of each vendor in my various business
units, to achieve both the vendor and Axiz’s
revenue and channel growth objectives.
When you look back at your
career, what has been the most
memorable achievement?
My rapid ascension of the corporate
structure in a very short time frame within
Axiz is a memorable achievement for me;
this was largely due to great mentorship and
an extremely energetic work ethic.
The tech that I am really keeping tabs
on is the coming of age of Industrial IoT
solutions. This will drive massive changes
in the way that industries create new profit
pools and how executives will focus their
energies in creating new revenue streams
out of data.
What are your personal interests
and where do you like to spend
most of your time after work?
I am firstly a family man, but also a military
man. My personal life is mostly spent
engaging in activities surrounding these
two factors.
What made you think of a career
in technology? How do you cope with stress and
demands of your career?
For me, technology started as a gaming
hobby during school in the early 1990s. The
interest then set my decision-making process
to be extremely tech driven in every aspect
of my life – personal and professional. It does
not matter what role I will have in the future; I
will firstly be a technologist. The hardest part of my career so far is
finding the right mix of staff, funding,
support, sales and operational strategies
to make new vendors thrive within the Axiz
ecosystem. The best way for me to handle
this is by working harder at problems and
trying different angles until we find the
right solution. Being idle creates even more
negative stress for me personally.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ at
your current position?
My management philosophy is trust-based
enablement, empowering staff and giving
them the freedom to execute on our strategy
with their own flavour and in their own style.
What is your style as a
team leader?
Lead by example; if you’re not the hardest
worker in the room, why should any of your
staff be?
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What do you think will be the hot
technology talking point of 2019?
What gives you great
job satisfaction?
Seeing my staff members turn from
introverted beginners to professional
business owners. Each staff member is given
the opportunity to run their vendor as if it
were their own business. This gives them a
great understanding of why management
asks the things they do and how to really get
under the hood of the business. Inclusion is a
winning strategy in my team.