Businesses must adapt or die – Kunzekweguta

Nkosilathi Sibanda, Sunday News Reporter

THE local business environment has gone through a myriad of challenges, with some companies falling in the fold in the wake of hyperinflation, but others have stood fort and remained steadfast in turning the wheels of the economy.

It has not been easy. The hard and bitter pill that businesses have learned to swallow in the past two decades has been to “adapt or die”. Navigating through the economic and financial turmoil to find ways on how to survive in the age of technology has been the cornerstone of what has made one of Bulawayo’s longest business entities, Zero Suppliers, stand tall among the rest.

For a company that has reached a milestone of 25 years in business, the only trick was to become accustomed to the trends in the prevailing market and understanding the needs of the community. This was the message from Zero Suppliers co-director Mr Clemence Kunzekweguta, speaking at the occasion to celebrate the company’s Silver Jubilee at the Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church yesterday.

Having started off on a spiritual note on a chilly morning with a Holy Mass, ably led by Bulawayo Archdiocese Archbishop Alex Thomas, the event was to warm up in the day and make do with some merry.  Mr Kunzekweguta said in the past 25 years, his team learned the hard way of thriving to master the art of dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty in the economy.

Together with his wife Constance, Mr Kunzekweguta founded Zero Suppliers on June 22, 1998 in Bulawayo, with its mainstay being in educational supplies and sundries. Mr Kunzekweguta said their premise as a business was to forge a mindset of adapting or else sink in the doldrums. He spoke widely on the need for businesses to shun the old business models and move on to trending patterns presented by New Information Technologies

“The truth is, as a business, we simply told ourselves that we either adapt or die. We are known to be a business in the supply chain of school stationery but, in essence, we have changed how we go about our operations. We owe our survival to God’s mercy. We have grown in leaps and bounds and owe the support to schools in Bulawayo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North.  Over and above, I would like to stress that the future lies in the digital world. We need to gear ourselves up to be able to offer that service. It is either you adapt or you die. Business won’t be getting any easier or slower or less complicated.

“We need to develop thinking tools that will totally change our mindset, to think on several levels at once, and to be able to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty in a manner that turns any situation into an opportunity that can be developed into the betterment of our people’s lives and the bottom line,” he said.

At the celebrations, as many of Zero Suppliers’ associates, the Roman Catholic clergy spoke glowingly about the growth of the company. From educationists and other guests at the event, Zero Suppliers was hailed for uplifting society through education. As a toast to his unwavering honour to the education sector, Mr Kunzekweguta gave a gift to his primary school teacher Mr Enerst Ngwenya, who taught him at Matshayiskhova Primary School in Luveve.

Moreover, delight was extended to the Zero Suppliers workforce who were given monetary awards and a heifer each as tokens of hard work and dedication. The company went further to thank some businesses and personalities in the city that have helped in its existence over the years.