When we meet for an interview at his office on the sixth floor of Debswana headquarters at the Main Mall, Blackie Marole is as cautions, modest and laid back as he was nearly six years ago when we conducted the first interview with him only a few weeks into his job.
He had just taken over as Debswana Managing Director.
When we asked pointed questions on where he wanted to take the company which his predecessor had created and moulded into his own image and personality, Marole recoiled and said he preferred to tell us more about his past than his future.
“I’m still to learn a lot about this company before I decide where I want to take it,” he said at the time.
We had gone to seek the man’s vision for the company, the control of which he was assuming, but ended up with a profile article about the man instead.
While modest and humble as ever, the only difference this time around is that he comes across as more confident, more assertive and more generous with information.
Increased confidence notwithstanding, Marole is still a far cry from the brash and swaggering that was his predecessor.
A direct opposite, where Louis Nchindo was showy, flashy and glitzy, Marole comes across as modest, cautious and restrained.
While six years ago he would not want to discuss Louis Nchindo who had just left the group after many years as its key man, this time around Marole is as upfront as to volunteer information on just how his management style contrasts with that of his predecessor.
“My attitude has been to empower shareholders to use their money based on their priorities. I have a problem intercepting shareholder money. I believe that Government for example can use their money much better than us.”
In here Marole is indirectly taking a veiled slight at Debswana’s past involvement in such diverse portfolios as agriculture and tourism, which he insists had nothing to do with the company’s core mandate.
With his eyes firmly cast on economic diversification, the late Nchindo had a vision of using Debswana’s financial muscle to venture into projects that he believed had the potential to give government’s economic diversification programme a shot in the arm.
He took Debswana to the Pandamatenga farms, where the mining giant ploughed millions of pula into the ground as part of desire to prove against all evidence that commercial farming was a viable option for Botswana.
Before the results on farming were out, Nchindo had convinced the board to further broaden their sphere into tourism.
He implemented these two projects with a formidable fortitude and conviction of purpose that upon his retirement many questions came to the fore as to how, in the first place, Debswana was allowed to entangle itself in such projects that it had nothing to do with.
And it fell to Marole, the incoming Managing Director at the time, to withdraw the company and get it focused on its core mandate.
“We are a diamond mining company. Agriculture and tourism expertise reside elsewhere. It is very important that we keep the eye on the ball,” he said, justifying why he found it fit to withdraw Debswana from projects that had controversially started to win the company a lot of praise and public goodwill.
If anybody had hoped that after ruthlessly cutting off tourism and agriculture from the Debswana portfolio Marole would be done with his hatchet as to take it back into the sheath, they would be disappointed.
Without mincing words, he says his six years at the helm of the world’s diamond producing company have been a process of making the company’s operations “leaner, more efficient and more cost conscious”.
And by his admission “the journey” goes on.
In fact, he makes no attempt to hide the fact that the process will come at a cost not only to traditional jobs, but also that some people will, as a result of the ongoing restructuring, be forced to forgo their comfort zones.
He says effective next year, all Debswana employees will have to welcome a totally different culture of doing things.
“It cannot be business as usual. People will be expected to do things differently.”
He underscores the importance of sustainability.
Of concern to him is that, compared to other organisations in its league, Debswana has a bloated staff structure, with a wage bill as a ration of costs comparatively much higher.
He is quick to point out that while the overall wage bill is destined to shrink as a result of inevitable redundancies and outsourcing, employees remaining will earn significantly higher.
This, he says, is because the company is moving to a level of using more skilled and brainier personnel.
“I’m sorry to say it but this organization can no longer be driven by short term demands.”
In that regard, he says 2011 is going to be the year in which Debswana aims to do everything based on international benchmarks.
“We are not at the level of BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto or even De Beers. These companies are way ahead of us.”
His areas of concern include safety, targets, wage bill structure, cost per tonne and, perhaps most crucially, security.
“We believe there is pilferage. In fact, there is evidence in the market. Our security has to be upped to international standard and we are not there yet.”
He is under no illusion that he will never be able to achieve his targets without a fight from vested interests, including the all powerful Botswana Mining Workers Union.
“I don’t think we have choices. The challenges Debswana faces are numerous. We always have to review the way we do things and adapt the organization to a changing environment. Our model has to keep on changing. Our review has revealed a lot of deficiencies. And it is a journey.”
Before joining the De Beers group for which he worked at the Johannesburg and London offices, Marole had spent his entire career as a civil servant inside the Botswana Government, rising up the ranks until he became Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals.
When Nchindo retired in 2004, Marole was a natural shoo-in that enjoyed the full backing and support of both Debswana shareholders, De Beers and Botswana Government.
A close friend says Marole’s slow and systematic approach should under no circumstances be mistaken for a lack of resolve.
“A mistake that people often make about him is to misinterpret his soft demeanour for weakness. That, I think, is the mistake that some of his board members have failed to avoid. I have known Blackie since we were school boys and I can assure you he never gives up on a conviction, no matter how long it takes for him to prevail,” said an acquaintance from their days at Gaborone Secondary School.
This is in reference to a persistent allegation that his laid back, nonchalant approach has often exposed him as a sitting duck for some of the more predatory members of the Debswana Board directors ÔÇô at least three of whom have been accused to have shown active interest in his job.
“It is inappropriate for any board member to have vested interest in the position of Managing Director before the contract of incumbent expires. But once the contract expires, I think anyone can show interest. Once a Managing Director has been appointed it is obligatory on board members to give him total support. It is not a choice, it is a duty,” he said emphatically.
It is very unlikely that six years ago, the man would have been able to muster enough confidence and courage to make public a pronouncement on such a sensitive issue of both principle and governance.
