How to Sell Your Vision – and Execute On It Hennie Botes is a true South African entrepreneur. In spite of numerous challenges, he has developed an unrelenting ability to sell his vision, and execute it. Through technology he created - which challenges traditional building techniques – he is also empowering other entrepreneurs.

Vital Stats

• Player: Hennie Botes
• Company: Moladi
• Established: 1986
• Visit: moladi.co.za

South Africa has a housing backlog of between 2,5 million to three million and it's continuing to grow. The country also has a persistently high number of unemployed people at 5,98 million, according to the latest numbers from Stats SA. One entrepreneur who is committed to helping address both crises is Hennie Botes.

A toolmaker by trade, the Port Elizabeth-based founder and designer of construction system Moladi developed this innovative building technology as a means to address many of the cumbersome and costly aspects of conventional construction methods, without compromising on the quality or integrity of the structure. The system replaces the bricklaying process with an approach similar to plastic injection moulding.

Founded back in 1986, when Hennie first realised how difficult it was for the poor to get good quality housing, his solution was the development of a whole new building system, which he named Moladi. The company has been in existence for more than three decades, and exports to 22 countries around the world.

"I built the first house based on the Moladi system in Benoni, in 1987," Hennie says. "Substandard craftsmanship has resulted in South Africa's poor living in inferior housing structures. I wanted to fix this problem, and I wanted to show people that the concept I had developed actually worked in real life."

Like many truly innovative entrepreneurs, however, he discovered that a brilliant business idea is no guarantee of success. Converting an idea into a reality (regardless of the required investment of time and money) is never an easy task. In fact, it can be extremely difficult.

"I was naïve to think that a phenomenal breakthrough in the way we build houses would have people beating a path to my door, but academics and politicians speak different languages from entrepreneurs. I discovered that the saying, "Eat the elephant one bite at a time' really does apply to entrepreneurship."

Hennie learnt that you have to believe in yourself enough to handle the consequences of your decisions. "When you take on the responsibility of developing something that had not existed before, you become accountable. To turn that opportunity into a reality, you have to believe in yourself 100%.

"Great ideas fail because the unexpected challenges become more than you think you can handle, and the risk is that you lose the belief in yourself to see things through all the way to the end. In many ways, it's like competing in a triathlon — you achieve one goal, and you have to move on straight to the next one."

Hennie says his goal is not to enrich himself, but to use his technology to help empower other entrepreneurs. His methodology has been used to build thousands of houses all around the world — from Mexico to Sri Lanka. Today, Moladi exports to multiple countries, including Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Kenya. Moladi recently built a showhouse for a low-cost housing development in Trinidad and Tobago — the structure went up in 12 days.

Another big win has been the construction of the 1 600m2 Kibaha District Courthouse in Tanzania. It was built in six months, at a cost of 4 250 per m2, which is less than half the cost of a conventional building. In Mauritius. the technology is being used to build 2 000 low-cost homes on 250 acres of coastline.

"Despite the housing backlog in this country, what has sustained my business over 32 years is the work we have done beyond our borders," he says. "But that is changing. Earlier this year we were contracted by the Western Cape Department of Education to build four classrooms in Philippi, as well as a double-storey building with eight classrooms in Robertson.

We completed these projects in a record four months, at a third of the price. Usually, the construction of just one classroom can take between four to six months. This kind of government project is exactly the foot-in-the door that Moladi is after. The Western Cape has to build 20 schools a year to provide for its growing population."

Moladi provides training in the construction of its houses and licences people who finish the course to build Moladi houses. Training is free, but trainees need to pay for the moulds and admixture. Licensees are supplied with viable business plans to help them secure loans for their start-ups.

Hennie has a vested interest in the success of the licensees, since poor outcomes reflect badly on the business. He also prefers working with cooperatives rather than individuals, as it means that people will check up on each other. This is especially important when it comes to cash flow. Many new entrepreneurs fail, he says, because they splurge on cars and cell phones instead of the must-haves required to make a business grow.

Hennie has kept his team small. Low overhead costs have enabled Moladi to remain profitable in the low cost housing market. Companies with high overheads simply cannot compete in this small-margin, big-volume space.

"The real market requires a vast amount of homes below the R500 000 range, and that's where our focus lies. Also, I did most of the work alone for many years after I started the company. These days my daughters, Shevaughn and Camalynne, are key to the successful running of Moladi and they fulfil vital roles.

"We outsource work to keep overheads down and have very good relationships with various suppliers, building experts, engineers, town planners, architects, and funding institutions. Our biggest differentiator is the pride we take in our "land to stand' approach' — we are a one-stop-shop for home building."

His goal now is to find ways to work together with organisations like the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).

Hennie refers to his customers as partners, which forms part of his holistic approach to construction. Typical clients include private construction firms and property developers. Governments can often play indirect roles, as they would usually contract state-funded housing programmes through the tender process.

"I believe we need entrepreneurship that looks beyond spaza shops, hairdressers and car washes," he says. "There is an enormous and pressing need to provide dignified housing for South Africans, and to address our appalling unemployment levels.

"What better way to begin to do that than by using accredited, affordable technology that can achieve both goals at an accelerated rate? Moreover, to fulfil the supply chain, work would be provided for painters, plumbers, electricians and roofers."

MOLADI HIGHLIGHTS:

• Exports to 22 countries
• 2006: Moladi was presented with an award by the Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu for its contribution to the Innovation Housing Hub in Soshanguve
• 2012: Moladi reached the finals of a $1 million global challenge to solve the crisis of creating secure and affordable shelter for the poor. Over 100 presentations from around the world were submitted for the 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge, in the housing category, and just six, including Moladi, made the cut.

The Moladi building system uses a removable, reusable, recyclable and lightweight plastic formwork mould, which is filled with mortar to form the wall structure of a house in only one day. Hennie describes it as the "Henry Ford' of mass housing. "We produce components and products that reduce the cost of building, and we work on a production-line basis, from production to homeowner, bypassing the middleman in the supply chain."

The process involves the assembly of a temporary plastic formwork mould, the size of the designed house, with all the electrical services plumbing and steel reinforcing located within the wall structure, which is then filled with a specially formulated mortar mix to form all the walls of the house simultaneously.

All the steel reinforcing, window and door block-outs, conduits, pipes and other fittings are positioned within the wall cavity to be cast in-place when filled with the Moladi mortar mix. The mix is a fast curing aerated mortar that flows easily, is waterproof and possesses good thermal and sound insulating properties.