The Execution Gap: What It Takes to Get an Industrial Idea Built

Donovan Chimhandamba has spent fifteen years getting an industrial project to construction. What separates the ideas that get built from the ones that do not, he says, is the people behind them. 

In this Gamechanger Interview, Donovan Chimhandamba, President and CEO of Nyanza Light Metals, joins Simpson Nondo, Managing Director at Stanton Chase Johannesburg. Nyanza is building a titanium dioxide pigment plant at Richards Bay. 

In His Own Words

• On what beneficiation is for: “Beneficiation is not a story of making money on the continent. It is a story of creating opportunities for the local people.” 
• On what is missing: “Africa is not short of ideas. Most of these ideas have been around since the late 90s. What are we short of? Execution.” 
• On what one company proves: “I’m a drop in the ocean, but I can only do as much as I can. The last thing you’d want to see is one Donovan. What you want to see is 10 or 20.” 
• On what lenders are really asking: “They’re looking at an institution that can deliver, or a system that can deliver a project.” 
• On loosening the founder’s grip: “The decisions must happen without you. If people come and go in the organization, you must not feel it.” 

Why Does Raw Ore Leave a Continent and Come Back as a Finished Product?

Ilmenite leaves at around $300 a tonne and comes back as titanium dioxide pigment at around $3,000. “We are well endowed in many mineral resources, but we don’t do value addition on the continent,” he says. What interests him is the employment that travels with the ore. 

What Do Funders Ask Before They Call a Project Bankable?

Closing that gap means getting a plant financed, and capital moves on a familiar list. “Can you build it? How are you going to manage the cost overruns? Who are the people leading this?” The last one is the question he keeps returning to. 

The Difference Between Exposure and Experience?

When a lender asks who is leading the project, it is not really asking about the founder. It wants an institution with a delivery record standing behind them. “I think those are two important distinctions, exposure and experience,” Chimhandamba says. Exposure is what a founder has seen. Experience is what an institution has already built. Nyanza could not supply the second from inside, so it bought it, partnering with an engineering firm Chimhandamba says has built 41 titanium pigment plants and operated them. 

What Changes When a Project Reaches Construction

Contracting an engineering firm answers the lender. It does not staff the company. “Ideas are just ideas. They’re executed by people. So capital invests in people.” Through development, Nyanza could recruit within reach of its own network, selling people the story. Construction, though, needs specialists that network does not reach. “We are not recruitment specialists. We don’t know where these people are,” he says, which is why Nyanza brought in Stanton Chase. 

Watch the full interview here.