adminfailure”.
This is the conviction and guiding principle that Mr Henry Madovi, the general manager of William Bain and Company Holdings, has lived by all his life.
As a young man growing up in the small town of Shurugwi, Mr Madovi was always up for a challenge.
To him facing a challenge is the first step towards success and for one to achieve it, there is need to refuse to be a captive of the environment that one finds themselves in.
“As I was growing up, I have always wanted something challenging and for me marketing is challenging because its dynamic as there is something new almost everyday.
“This forces one to come up with strategies to face the new challenges in order to stay on top of the game,” he said.
Henry Madovi was born on May 21, 1970 in Harare and grew up in Shurugwi where he did his primary and part of his secondary school before proceeding to Chaplin High in Gweru for his Advance Level
He started off his professional career as a teacher in Gweru (1991-1992) but switched to sales and administration as a supervisor before being appointed quality assurance head of customer services at then the Forestry Commission from 1993 and 2001.
After his stint at Forestry Commission he joined PG Industries as branch manager for Chipinge from 2001 to 2003 and National Tyre Services as senior branch manager from 2004 to 2006.
In 2006 he landed his current job at William Bain & Company Holdings where he is in charge of all its three subsidiaries – Bain Iveco for trucks and buses, Bain New Holland and Bain Case for agriculture and construction.
Mr Madovi is a holder of several qualifications that include a Higher National Diploma in Marketing from Harare and Gweru polytechnics, a postgraduate diploma in Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing-UK, a Masters in Business Administration from ZOU and an executive Diploma in Business Leadership.
Mr Madovi is always motivated by the desire to get to the heights that he envisages in his mind.
“I am motivated by the desire to get to the apex of my profession all the time. I do not give up on anything I set my eyes on.
“I am also guided by the principles of the Bible especially the scripture in Colossians 3 verse 20, where it says do everything as if you are doing it unto the Lord, so even when I am working I work as if I am working for the Lord,” he said.
A soft-spoken man, Mr Madovi takes his relationship with God seriously. He describes himself as a born-again Christian and believes in the anytime message, message of the hour.
His views on the economy are that although there are challenges at present there are a lot of opportunities and it is just a question of refocusing strategies.
“We have a balanced economy because there are lots of opportunities. We just have to exploit them. While agriculture has been the backbone of our economy you find that we have got very vibrant mining and manufacturing sectors that are on the rebound,” he said.
He also highlighted the need for a shift in mindset from the traditional way of doing business in the face of competition from the region and the rest of the world.
“If you have been producing high quality products for the market and you see that the market wants cheap products why not follow suit.
“Come up with different products for different services because this business of crying for protection can only work to some extent and beyond that we will end up protecting inefficiencies,” he said.
He also said that there is need for access to cheap funds to recapitalise in order to lessen inefficiencies in the production system and reduce production costs and match competition at the end of the day.
After having worked for different companies, Mr Madovi said he sees himself setting up his own business empire.
“There are a lot of opportunities as I have said and it is only a question of identifying what I want to do,” he said.
His last words are that Zimbabweans have got a lot of power in their hands, it’s only a matter of realising their thoughts and going for it.
Online Reporter