Tshifhiwa Ramuthaga has come a long way from her hometown of Matangari, where her education started at the age of four in a mud school. It was a car that inspired her to pursue IT: she noticed that her brother's friend drove a Jetta, and wanted to know what he had studied for him to be able to drive such a fancy car.
Now with her Master's Degree in IT from the University of Pretoria and an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), she is the CIO of the Financial Services Board (FSB).
Ramuthaga is not adverse to a challenge, and her six-year tenure at Telkom is a case in point. She left with numerous achievement awards and experience within a variety of divisions, which gave her the knowledge required for her current position.
When Ramuthaga started at the FSB in 2011, she "had to do some infrastructure migration, quickly". She described the process as "painful, but we landed, we crash-landed, we cleaned up the mess afterwards and it has been amazing". She is a woman who always looks toward the future.
Ramuthaga has strong opinions driven by her relentless work ethic, her unwavering belief in talent management, and her ability to manage 'her team' of capable and smart people. She started with 14 staff members and now has 45. "What can I say? I'm a lady who likes to shop," she smiles.
As a woman in the IT industry, she pays homage to three men who have been instrumental in inspiring both her personal growth and management style. "Bob Howse taught me about the value of talent management." As a senior manager at Telkom, he taught her how to nurture it and create a space where people could thrive, teaching her to treat people as individuals. Ramuthaga nominated him for the boss of the year award. "He came in the top 25," she beams. Dube Tshidi, FSB's CEO, also passed on his passion about growing talent, and Justin White, her boss at Standard Bank, was equal in his support.
"Sometimes women who have achieved success in the business world behave like men," says Ramuthaga. "We need to be who we are."
Ramuthaga is insistent that it's not about gender equality, but about creating the harmony brought together by two sets of strengths. This is indicative of her upbringing.
They have either tapped into one of your fears or you don't understand the person's point of departure.
Tshifhiwa Ramuthaga, Financial Services Board
As a girl from Limpopo, Rumuthaga's beginnings were humble. "We worked the land," she recalls, but what she learnt at home has been instrumental in her success. "I saw myself as a worker - not as a woman, because everyone can see that that's what I am," she says. Her parents told her she was a person, first and foremost, and gender inequality simply did not exist in her family.
The value of education
Her father was a health inspector who dedicated his life to being excellent at what he did. "I never thought that that was a man's job," she says. "I never thought it was something I couldn't do because I'm a woman. I was raised to believe in myself, in the value of education, and to work hard."
But what about that much-lamented glass ceiling? Rumuthaga acknowledges that the glass ceiling exists, but it can be conquered. "I've worked for racist and sexist bosses," she confesses, but sees it as a rite of passage. The trick, she says, is to find out how to make the glass ceiling a floor you climb onto to keep moving. Her approach to conflict is also refreshing. "Walk towards the person, engage with them. They have either tapped into one of your fears or you don't understand the person's point of departure."
For CIOs who moan about their shrinking budgets, Ramuthaga has some advice: "When you're asking for budget, elevate the business requirement. In other words, talk business, not IT. We need to be conscious about aligning business objectives with IT."
The solid foundation of her upbringing, her mentors along the way, and her determination to succeed have placed her on a solid footing within the tech industry.
But this is not where Ramuthuga's dedication ends. She regularly visits her home town of Matangari to show the children there what can be achieved if you work hard and believe in yourself. The team at FSB, of which she is so incredibly proud, join her to provide support, mentorship and a listening ear to show the kids from her village that anything is possible.
Does she have that Jetta? No, she says, but she found her passion, and that is far more valuable. What makes her the winner of the 2014 Visionary CIO award (presented by the IITPSA and ITWeb) is a combination of her infectious positivity and her incredible effectiveness in her job. Speaking to Ramuthaga makes you believe that there isn't anything you cannot achieve. She inspires all around her to be the best they can be, and it's a standard to which she holds herself.
First published in the January 2015 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
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