Liquid Intelligent Technologies chief technology officer David Bagandanswa is intent on building empowered teams that “run themselves”. As the company transitions into a fully-fledged tech solutions provider, his focus is set on building a global presence and pivoting fully to strategy.
“The moment you, as a manager, come to the office and are able to do nothing, then your teams are functioning.”
This advice, given by a former supervisor of French origin, has been Liquid Intelligent Technologies Uganda CTO David Bagandanswa’s north star. It has proven especially useful in his current role, where his team comprises people of different age groups.
“You have the Gen Zs, you have the baby boomers, you have this whole omnibus of people of different ages. I have those in their thirties to forties. I have some in their fifties to nearly sixties across the teams, and to be able to get the whole team actually working simultaneously and seamlessly given the age differences has been a good challenge for me. It has also been very interesting to look at their temperaments and how they work with each other,” he says.
Although the shift from technical officer to manager can be fraught with challenges, David believes his life experiences since his university days have prepared him for his current role.
“My entire educational journey, I was a student leader. So, managing teams has been a part of me from school really. My first interface with managing teams was with Orange where I was dealing with a crop of guys coming in from the university, about seven of them who came in as telecom engineers. It was very challenging because these were really young people that had just left the university and they were all over the place. They wanted to do everything and go everywhere,” he says.
David’s task at that time was to mould the new recruits into engineers specialising in areas that could be of benefit to the organisation. In the first six months, he would train each one individually, taking time each day to teach them the tools of the trade and show them the ropes at the telco before eventually letting them work independently. This has served him to this day.
Giving people a chance
“I manage the whole section of IT people as the chief of technology. I oversee roughly about 40 to 47 employees internally and about 60 outsourced employees. So, in total, I have a team of roughly about 120 dealing with multiple solutions from cyber security to cloud services to internet connectivity to IPMs lines and software development,” he says.
In his quest to give back to his community, David makes a point of giving young people the opportunity to gain experience, often guiding them through the beginnings of their careers and seeing them off to more advanced roles. Over time, he has observed that new entrants – grateful for the chance to prove themselves – often outperform experienced hires.
“I hold it very dearly because every time you apply for a job, they’ll ask for experience. We have these students coming in from the university and they don’t have an ounce of experience and I always tell myself that the best way to give back is to give those young people a chance. I have done that here, and I can see that our productivity levels from the time I joined to now are very high. So, for me, getting young people into the industry and giving them the tools to do their jobs and gain experience is a priority. That's very gratifying and an element of success for me,” he says.
David’s career took off in an unexpected but serendipitous way. After his A levels, he had applied to study law. At the time, his mother worked at the American embassy, and some navy officers had been recruited as IT assistants.
“I went to her office one day, and these guys were working on computers. I was very fascinated about what they were doing at the time, and she said, ‘Oh, and they earn a lot of money as well.’ I did not get sponsored by the government to study law at the university. So, we were sitting in the living room and applying for private courses. And she said, ‘I think you should do IT if you want to be rich,’ and that's how I ended up in IT,” David says.
Focusing on strategy
After stints at Alcatel Lucent, Orange France Telecom, FINCA Uganda, and MTN, where he had a hand in the creation of MTN MoMo, he assumed his role at Liquid Intelligent Technologies. The company has evolved from an internet service provider to a fully-fledged solutions provider offering products and services beyond connectivity including cloud services and cyber security. Having reached the proverbial ceiling, David has taken the initiative to work closely with Liquid’s finance teams to understand core aspects of the business including sales with the aim of gaining a global view of the business.
“I've tried to shadow my CEO for the last four years, and I'm looking to transition into a role where the focus is mostly on strategy as opposed to the day-to-day roles,” he reveals.
Over time, David has observed tectonic shifts in Uganda’s tech space that he believes warrant a new approach.
“There have been a lot of cutbacks in terms of expenditure for most companies in the market. Competition is tight. Pricing is going down while customer demands are much higher. So, everyone has been looking for efficiencies in terms of sweating their current assets to make the best out of them without having to invest money. We have seen some people go home so that the books can look good, which is very sad, but also, we see a lot more push for innovation of new solutions using current systems or resources to grow revenue. We see businesses transitioning from telecom companies into technology companies providing not just connectivity and data but also solutions,” he says.
Although the industry is in flux, David is excited about these changes, which he calls a “rebirth of the business”. He has played a key role in Liquid’s transition, part of which has required driving a change in the market’s perception of the company from a connectivity provider to a technology company. The rebrand has also seen the teams within the business repositioned and staff retrained for its new offerings.
Dinner and Scotch
“Getting people to actually go back to school and study these new services that we're providing or new skills that they need to stay within the industry and then see them transition from just normal engineers to technology engineers has also been very very interesting,” he says.
While the push to reorient Liquid seems to have put fresh wind in David’s sails, the highlight of his day is the one hour he spends picking up his daughter from school.
“I can switch off and just be in the moment with her and ask her about her day and have a conversation with her without taking phone calls from work. It is very relaxing. It normally happens in the middle of the day. So, when I get back to my desk, I'm slightly more energised or recalibrated. The last two hours of the day when I have dinner with my wife and enjoy a whiskey are also my favourite,” he says.
