Setlalekgosi served Botswana Couriers for five years where she initiated a number of ambitious operational measures geared to make the courier company more viable.
She says to date, the company has attracted about 60 percent of the domestic market share.
“We started with zero clients when the company was launched about five years ago but now we have 671 clients. I am proud to say that Botswana Couriers is currently the leader in terms of courier service delivery. I intend to do the same with African Express although there are challenges ahead, like in any other company, to achieve such ambitious goals,” she says.
Setlalekgosi, who served 16 years with another courier company, DHL, is pledging to improve the courier image of African Express in about six months and vows, “if I do not turn the company around, I will retire and settle down in my village. I believe I am not a failure in this courier business”.
“I am very good at my job and I know that no one can do the job better than Pinkie Setlalekgosi. I don’t have to prove that, the courier industry players are aware of this revelation,” she asserted.
Setlalekgosi, who is the first GM for Botswana Couriers, pointed out that managers should strive to cultivate a sense of collective understanding of problems besetting individual companies with all employees, in the best interest of improving service delivery to the courier market.
Setlalekgosi noted that an unhappy workforce reverses the growth patterns of the company, adding that it was the responsibility of the industry captains to ensure that the concern of employees were adequately addressed and employee expectations met to boost the production processes.
She cautioned: “I do not believe in managers who spend all their time closed in cosy offices without understanding, let alone do not know basic events surrounding operations of their own company. Managers should think and act fast, they should make and take decisions timely for the development of the entire country. Their interest should be to improve the company they serve”.
“There is need to respect everybody’s job portfolio in any given company. The management needs support from the staff to be able to function efficiently and produce credible results as a team.”
She pointed out that success of the courier service providers was dependent on efforts tailored to fully explore the growth business potential offered by the existing market trends, adding: “For instance, my success in the courier business could be easily attributed to the fact that I know the needs of the customers out there in the market and I go the extra mile to meet their expectations”.
Setlalekgosi observed that pertinent decisions undertaken to serve the interest of any company should strongly reflect the concerns of the employees, adding: “We should openly appreciate each other’s contribution in any company, whether one is a driver or a cleaner”.
