Michelin launches innovative industry podcast
Michelin launches innovative industry podcast
Solutions are sometimes hard to come by, but they are out there. “What’s Treading” is a new podcast sponsored by Michelin. As COLIN WINDELL reports, it aims to highlight issues within the transport sector and look for (or expand on) solutions.
What’s Treading brings a range of key commercial industry opinion leaders together to discuss issues and provide insights and solutions within South Africa’s key sectors. These include the construction, mining, transport, and agricultural industries, amongst others.
The South African economy has faced a barrage of issues in the last few years. Crippling power cuts, volatile commodity prices, ailing infrastructure, and a challenging external environment have hampered growth, leading to low levels of business and consumer confidence.
Using this as a starting point, What’s Treading – hosted by veteran journalist Bongani Bingwa – has curated the best minds in the commercial industry to not only give a holistic view of the issues, but also offer innovative and pragmatic solutions.
Marcus Baffoe-Bonnie, vice president & managing director, Sub-Saharan Africa for Michelin, says the concept is a perfect fit for the tyre company’s ethos of giving everybody a better way forward. “Michelin is an innovator in the mobility space,” he emphasises. “Not everyone realises we did not start out as a tyre company: our core competencies lie in the chemical industries. Work with compounds and polymers saw tyre production start almost as a side hustle to that.”
The “better way forward” for Michelin also lies in the famous Michelin Guide map series and the setting up of road signs in pre-war France. Baffoe-Bonnie chuckles as he points out: “The Allies used the Michelin Guide to find their way around France during the war.” On a more serious note, he says industry is being tightly squeezed in South Africa and that profitability is under pressure. “We believe we have a moral obligation to get conversations started that can help or provide solutions that will ultimately benefit everyone. This aligns perfectly with our own strategy of ‘people’, ‘profit’, and ‘planet’,” he expands.
“While it is important to talk, it is also important to act on that. We will look at ways of taking our role in What’s Treading further than just being the series sponsor,” Baffoe-Bonnie adds. “The What’s Treading podcast is an addition to already ongoing activities in the industry, such as our VIA Road Safety initiatives and building the first motorcycle training facility in Soweto. From the podcast, we are now also involved in Nicci Scott-Anderson’s ‘Safer Stops’ initiative,” he continues.
“It all comes back to doing what we do within our own business – helping our partners maximise efficiency and contain costs, and being a caring partner to the environment,” he points out.
Experienced host Bingwa will lead the conversation by taking listeners on a journey alongside the likes of FOCUS on Transport & Logistics correspondent Scott-Anderson (CEO of the Commercial Transport Academy), Gavin Kelly (CEO of the Road Freight Association), Jehiel Oliver (founder of Hello Tractor), Njombo Lekula (MD of PPC’s South African Cement and Materials Division), Wandile Sihlobo (author and chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa), Abdool Kamdar (author and green transport/net zero activist), and Eugene Herbert (CEO of MasterDrive).
What’s Treading attempts to start and continue honest conversations about what is needed from government, business, and labour to kickstart the country’s economic engine. Each episode focuses on a specific sector, giving listeners in-depth industry insights into challenges and, most importantly, solutions.
“Michelin is proud to sponsor this podcast – created by the industry for the industry – which gives listeners an unfiltered and authentic view of what’s truly happening in key sectors of the country,” says Saajid Hoosen, marketing manager for the sub-Saharan Africa Business-to-Business division at Michelin. “Each episode is truly an eye opener and will leave listeners hopeful and energised to play their part toward the success of our country.”
What’s Treading explores topics such as nurturing and growing the pipeline of women truck drivers, educating more people on sustainability and net zero initiatives in the transport sector, using technology in agriculture to empower small-scale farmers, and building capability in the construction industry to grow the economy.
The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Click here to learn more and watch the video podcast.
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