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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
STARTING a business is not always about money and machinery but ideas, says Zwelibanzi Ndlovu, the founder of Stop to Start International (Pvt) Limited, a thriving Bulawayo based transformation management consultancy firm.
True to the saying “the opportunity lies in the problem”, Ndlovu,52, retired from formal employment in the Diaspora in 2011 to set up his own company in Bulawayo at a time when most firms in the city were closing shop with others relocating.

For the past 17 years spent in Kenya, he developed and copyrighted his own proprietary transformation management tools collectively known as STOP or the STOP analysis.

The approach seeks to diagnose problems facing companies, tracing its targets and proffers strategic turnaround coaching and advice.

Ndlovu believes no meaningful transformation can take place in an organisation unless the individuals in that organisation have been personally transformed.

“When I came back in 2011 to establish Stop to Start, most people advised me to take my services elsewhere saying there was no business in Bulawayo.

But my vision is to transform the world, one person at a time,” said Ndlovu, an IT expert and a business leadership strategist with vast experience from years spent in the corporate world.

He said he forged ahead with his plans because he had made a resolve, inspired by his vision, which no one could stop and “didn’t care what people said”.

“I looked at business methodologies at different places that I worked for and noted the obsession with organisational vision yet lacking individual or personnel transformation.

“I realised that corporate strategy was articulated in a very complex language. I then developed a new approach that demystifies strategic

transformation for businesses, which I called the ‘STOP analysis’”.

Ndlovu, who holds a Master of Science Degree in Systems Engineering, is one of the founders of Zedesen Africa Ltd, an IT consulting company he worked for while in Kenya.

While in that country he contributed during the automation of the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation.

The outspoken entrepreneur said he did not need much financing to start the business as the bulk of his work was consultancy service.

He said he wrote 22 proposals to do a diagnosis for companies and started marketing his services to which clients responded positively.

“I realised that no meaningful transformation can take place in an organisation unless individuals in that organisation are personally transformed.

“You can’t fulfill a vision, mission and core values using people who don’t know where they want to be and have no daily plans for themselves,” he said.

Ndlovu said the essence of his expertise is to demystify business concepts and articulate them in a form that is digestible to all levels of the organisation so that strategy is linked to performance and reward.

Zweli, as he is affectionately known, grew up in Bulawayo and did his primary education at Mzilikazi Primary before going to David Livingstone for secondary education.

He then went to the then Soviet Union under the PF-Zapu facilitated learning programme and studied signals and computer engineering.

Ndlovu was attested into the former Zimbabwe National Army in the commissioned rank of Captain between 1988 and 1990 and worked as assistant director in charge of computer operations and training.

He also taught computer studies at the Bulawayo Polytechnic.

Today Stop to Start International employs five consultancy officers and has clients across different businesses in the country and in the region.

The company has begun franchising its services to organisations, allowing them to hold certification to use part of its intellectual property to provide services to clients.

Ndlovu has made presentations at high profile forums organised by the United Nations and Sadc in addition to conducting workshops at training institutions and assisting different organisations in crafting strategic plans.

He has served as an adjunct lecturer at Strathmore Business School, East Africa’s leading Business School and speaks extensively at seminars and workshops across the continent focusing on how to assist people to overcome resistance to use of technology and the fear of innovation in developing and implementing ICT and corporate strategies for sustainable change.

Ndlovu’s specific special competencies include strategic and change management for both corporates and individuals.

Some highlights of his career include the position of Partner in charge of IT consulting at KPMG (East Africa) and later the position of regional director for East Africa at SAP- the world’s market leader in enterprise management software.

Ndlovu has been appointed by the World Bank three times as project adjudicator in projects of national importance in Uganda and Zambia.

He is multi-lingual, able to speak English, Ndebele, Shona and basic Russian, Spanish, Swahili and French.