Lawrence Kandaswami

Lawrence Kandawswami is the current <big>Managing Director</big> of the South African operations of the technology multinational <big>SAP South Africa</big>. Appointed in April 2016, he is the 5th MD to head up SA’s operations, but more meaningfully, is that he is the 1st black South African to lead the mainly South African employee contingent. His single-minded focus for his tenure as a leader of SAP, and as the head of a company in Corporate South Africa, is job creation. His commitment to investing time, money and effort towards skill development and talent management for the IT sector, is followed by his passion for driving innovation in the SA technology sector.
Lawrence is a qualified Mechanical Engineer that started out in the obvious Mining industry in SA. His route and ultimate success in the Technology world is truly a story of ‘finding your passion’, when he found himself at SAP, after the tech company he worked for (at the time, after leaving the Mining industry), was acquired by SAP. Starting out at SAP, as part of the initial team, when it first opened its doors in SA, Lawrence was a salesman ‘par excellence’ and he was responsible for some of the biggest deals and largest client portfolios. In his current MD role, he is still the proverbial ‘salesman’ always focussing on the numbers, but now looking at things strategically and fine tuning operational processes to maximise the achievements against globally-measured quarterly targets. He has already made significant changes in the efficiencies of functions throughout the business for the benefit of the bottom line.
Hailing from humble beginnings, he was the 1st person to pursue and attain a tertiary education in his family. Today, his belief that education is a catalyst for change, drove the creation of the SAP Skills 4 Africa program, which looks to educate, and create opportunities of employment, for the truly underprivileged tech-talented youth of this country. Adding Africa Code Week to his already impressive portfolio of programmes, Lawrence Kandaswami is definitively changing the game of the technology industry in South Africa.
Lawrence’s leadership legacy is going to be remembered long after he has retired, both in South Africa and globally. His passion for innovation-in-technology comes through naturally - he was speaking at global SAP events about innovations in SA long before he even thought about one day being in the lead role. He is unconsciously emphatic about his passion for the development of the technology industry and in particular SAP, its leading products and innovative culture.
While South Africa’s operations, does not necessarily yield the kind of financial returns that other territories of SAP, around the world do, their employee talent and relative performance, is respected by the multinational, globally. Lawrence intends on making this country’s operations, bigger and better than ever before, by focussing on solutions for clients, based on their need, optimised delivery on objectives, and improved efficiencies to reduce delays and show results quicker.
Lawrence Kandaswami is a tech-intrapreneur that is on the rise, and he intends taking his role to greater heights through his passion for innovation and commitment to skills development for job creation.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu