Dr Tumelo Chaka unpacks why cultural intelligence is the growth strategy most businesses are missing
South Africa’s medium-sized businesses are not just missing marketing opportunities. According to Dr Tumelo Chaka, Marketing and Commercial Director at United Stations, they are missing the people entirely.
At the latest Kaya 959 Business Club session, held at Kaya 959 House in Parktown North, Dr Chaka delivered a masterclass on culture, the black consumer, and what it truly means to innovate at the speed of your market. The session, attended by a select group of growth-stage business owners and executives, left the room with a sharper understanding of why cultural nuance is not a soft concept. It is a commercial one.
Dr. Chaka opened with a story that stopped the room. A businessman operating a small retail store in a Free State town of 350,000 people generates R2.8 billion in profit annually. Pick n Pay, with 5,000 stores serving a population of 60 million, recorded a R1.5 billion loss in the same period. The difference, Dr. Chaka argued, was not scale or budget. It was cultural intelligence.
His top-selling products were not what anyone in the room expected. Seawater, salt, and a slaughtering and butchery service designed around urban South Africans who no longer know how to perform traditional funeral rituals but still want to honour them. Each product was a direct response to the lived reality of his customers, not a reflection of what the business owner assumed they needed.
“Marketing at the speed of culture means understanding the psyche of your customer,” Dr. Chaka told the room. “Most businesses open and become a self-reflection of what the owner wants. The question is always: what does the customer want?”
He challenged attendees to look honestly at who they are building for, and whether their marketing decisions reflect genuine insight into the black consumer or simply surface-level assumptions. For businesses at the R5m to R50m revenue stage, that distinction, he argued, is the difference between compounding growth and compounding losses.
The session also examined the role of shared value in building lasting commercial relationships, and why businesses that innovate without cultural grounding are always one S-curve behind.
Tumi Rabanye, Head of Marketing at Kaya 959, noted after the session: “Kaya 959 sits at the centre of black aspiration in South Africa. What Dr. Chaka unpacked today is exactly why that matters commercially. Culture is not context. It is the strategy.”
The Kaya 959 Business Club continues to bring South Africa’s growth-stage businesses into conversation with the thinkers, strategists, and operators shaping the next chapter of the economy.
Stay connected with Kaya 959 on social media for updates on our next Business Club session.
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