Business leader Denzil Steyn’s journey is nothing short of inspiring, writes Shirley le Guern.
Newly appointed president of the Durban chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation (EO), Denzil Steyn, is passionate about developing entrepreneurs. “I want to get them out of their comfort zones, challenging the norm, and into a space where they feel like they have cheerleaders helping them along the way and advising them,” he says.
EO is a global, peer-to-peer network of more than 16 000 business owners with 213 chapters in 61 countries. It is open to entrepreneurs with businesses that turnover more than US$1 million a year.
Denzil, who is managing director of Intellisec, intelligent site-management systems, describes his membership as his best investment ever. He values the support of forum members who are always on the sidelines cheering on their peers, while also being vulnerable enough to share lessons learnt from foibles and failures along the way.
Denzil’s story is certainly inspiring. After completing his studies, he worked as the export accounts manager for a timber door and shelving manufacturer. Four years later, he left to open his own business which purchased goods from local manufacturers for export to homeware businesses worldwide.
“Since I was a young boy, I was always itching to own my own business,” he explains. By the age of just 28, his growing company was exporting more than 100 containers a month. However, in 2003 the Iraqi war and global politics post 9/11 saw the rand unexpectedly strengthen. As an export business, he quickly became uncompetitive.
“I bought one of the factories from which we were buying and tried to ride it out. I held on for seven years. Eventually, I paid off all of my creditors and left with nothing and no job to go to,” he recalls.
A friend at City Hill Church offered him a CCTV business that he was about to close. “I hardly knew what a CCTV camera even looked like, never mind how it worked. So I just bought into the mantra of the time that perception was reality, and had corporate clothing and business cards made. I operated like an established business and started banging on doors,” he says.
In reality, he was operating from a single room in Kloof and had to borrow a vehicle. “I just asked people and learnt as I went. Slowly, slowly one customer led to another. I need to pinch myself sometimes thinking about where we were and where we are now. We are growing by 30 to 50% each year. Our pipeline of work shows that we will grow further.”
Intellisec has a head office in Pinetown, six branches across South Africa and a newly opened office in Mozambique. There are plans to open in Angola later this year.
Denzil admits that EO has played an important role in his success. He joined because he found running a business was a lonely journey. Intellisec had also grown during its first seven years, and he had no experience in running a business of its size. He says he realised that he needed to be around people who had walked this road.
As his businesses expanded beyond South Africa, Denzil has also benefitted from EO’s international connections. As president this year, he hopes to grow membership so that more local entrepreneurs can benefit both as business leaders and as people. “This is not just a business organisation. At the end of the day, it is about developing a person so he can be a better parent, a better spouse and a better leader.” Business growth will happen along with that, he points out.
Although he admits he has a heavy load this year and won’t have much spare time, Denzil loves swimming and scuba diving, and family time at Sodwana Bay with his wife, Nicky, and children, Tayla and Joel.