Ross Macdonald joined M-Net in early 1993, working in something called Commtech (the name was short for “communications technology”). Commtech was, as Ross puts it, the broadcaster’s business development “skunkworks”, a small experimental team with a remit to think big – and to think outside of the box, in pursuit of the next big thing.

Commtech had friends who knew something about mobile communications – a few individuals from Cable & Wireless. In the early 1990s those C&W people were thinking big about South Africa’s mobile potential and were instrumental in putting together, with Commtech, a bid for the country’s second mobile network. That bid was, of course, successful and the rest is fabled MTN history.

Hitting the ground running

As soon as the bid was won, Commtech moved out of its Multichoice Randburg offices and into the maelstrom that was the MTN headquarters at Pin Mill Farm, Sandton. From the outset, Ross found himself the owner of the nascent MTN business plan, something he had to constantly refine, update and expand, working with experts from C&W and a growing legion of MTNers who, he recalls, were “joining the business every week”.

Ross’s responsibilities extended to supplier relations, especially with the people at Ericsson who had helped put together the licence bid and were instrumental in refining the business plan.

There was little Ross didn’t get involved in. “I even recruited a chief financial officer [Buckley McGrath] – who promptly became my boss. And I  began recruiting service providers, [the then mostly little businesses that would be MTN’s primary route to market] the businesses that signed up customers and serviced them on an ongoing basis.”

As if developing MTN’s own business plan wasn’t enough, Ross had the added responsibility of developing business plans for most of the service providers, sitting with each of their founders to get their businesses off the ground.

On top of all of that, Ross found the time to hold the initial discussions which led, ultimately, to Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC) becoming a shareholder. “And I found myself regularly engaging with shareholders, particularly on the pressing need to capitalise MTN’s meteoric growth and meet its insatiable need for investment.”

Developing business development

In 1995, under newly appointed CEO Bob Chaphe (who came from SBC), Ross started the MTN business development unit which originated the company’s website and (guided by boffin-in-chief Ari Khan) initiated a number of technical innovations including what would become the Matrix vehicle-tracking system and the (then) revolutionary mtnsms.com, which allowed cellphone users to send messages to a website.

As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Ross began agitating for expansion beyond South Africa’s borders, beginning with the Zimbabwe opportunity. After the failure of that venture (through no fault of Ross and the team from MTN, Ericsson and C&W), Ross added “international business development” to the nameplate of the business development department and his career quickly led him along new paths – most of them heading northwards.

Those were the first steps on an epic journey that was to take Ross – and MTN – all across Africa.  [See another of our MTN@30 stories: ‘Into Africa]