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Darlick Marandure – Winner of the Megafest Leadership Award for ‘Outstanding IT and Innovation Leader of the Year, 2017’

Lynn Murahwa – Creative Writer

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but by all means keep moving”. These words,spoken by Martin Luther King Jr.  many years ago form the foundation of Darlick Marandure’s belief that progress comes after effort. Diligent effort at that. A motivator par excellence, an inspiring and straight talking leader, Mr Marandure firmly believes that persistent effort will always be rewarded with eventual success.

Mr Marandure, a humble guy who believes people are the most valuable asset any business can have, has had a fascinating professional journey that has taken him from humble beginnings as a management trainee with Zimbank (ZB Bank), to the first Chief Technology Officer of Zimbabwe’s largest media conglomerate – the award winning Zimpapers.

Mr Marandure’s leadership was recognized with the Megafest Leadership Award for ‘Outstanding IT and Innovation Leader of the Year, 2017’. He sees this award, as the symbol of teamwork, dedication and a future with countless possibilities for Zimpapers.

“This award is testament to all the hard work my fellow associates and I have put in over the past few years to ensure we see some growth, not only in the Digital space but in other units in the Zimpapers fold, such as Star FM and Harare branch.

“And we will continue to work as a team to ensure that Zimpapers continues to produce results that our shareholders can be proud of.  It’s our mandate as employees to ensure we manage the organization as good stewards on behalf of our shareholders,” he said.

Success is the reward of time and effort put into any project, while passion acts as the fuel. And passion is one thing Mr Marandure is not in short supply of.  The good thing with passion is that it can be contagious, and his drive for results is evident in the groups that he works with here at Zimpapers.

Mr Marandure  (fourth from left) with the Zimpapers’ Marketing and Advertising team comprising of (from left) Charity Gwata-Chirume, Henry Diya, Joyce Makwarimba, Phillipa Gomo, Patience Mhlolo, Godfrey Koti and Phillipa Chikutsa. 

“I’m passionate about what I do and that allows me to fully apply myself to the task at hand.  Having been raised in a family where we were challenged to be the best that we can be encourages me to always try and go that extra mile in accomplishing my goals,” he said.

Another great trait of Mr Marandure’s leadership is his ability to mentor others as well as identify and cultivate potential,encouraging excellence not only professionally but personally too. He has joined the ranks of forward thinking leaders who speak candidly about life’s challenges and lessons, but believe in the value of a good days work and a positive ‘can do’ attitude.

“My advice to others would simply be to always give it your best shot because hard work pays off, always! Nothing good comes easy so we ought to work hard until we eventually make it.  The Biblical ‘Promised Land’ was full of milk and honey, but the inhabitants still had to wake up and work, they had to till the land, tend the sheep and feed the cattle.

“We too live in our own ‘Promised Land’ here in Zimbabwe. Whilst we have our own version of milk and honey in the form of our natural resources (and so much more), we still have to wake up and work hard to monetize those resources.  We must do our part as individuals” he said.

Mr. Marandure spent close to two decades in the USA working for fortune 500 companies that include IBM, Pfizer and Schering-Plough winding up with a 12 year stay at Mars Information Services. As the Director of Global Technology Programs at Mars, he led a $105M technological transformation which saw the introduction of cutting edge tools as well as the revamping of all technological platforms for the group.

The time spent overseas was beneficial and it helped to shape him into the remarkable leader he is today.“The exposure I got from spending most of my working life in the USA was invaluable.  That’s where I developed my work ethic, my passion, my drive for results and my desire to always succeed. As a leader I also learnt the value of creating the right organizational culture, the kind of culture that allows everyone to contribute to the success of the team. I also learnt that there are more lessons to be learnt from an occasional failure than from multiple successes.  The question remains, what we do with the lessons we learn when we stumble?” he said.

With most talent leaving the country for the diaspora in search of ‘opportunities’, Mr Marandure saw the opportunities in his homeland and made a conscientious decision to return and contribute to the growth of this economy.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to be back home using my experience and learnings from the USA for the good of Zimpapers. It feels good to be able to contribute albeit in some small way to the rebuilding of this economy one company at a time. I am excited about the prospects we have as a country and it’s my hope that we can begin to turn around some of the ailing corporates, so we can see industry thrive again.  It’s possible but we have to work at it,” he said.

Since joining Zimpapers in March 2013, Mr. Marandure has used his knowledge of both technology as well as business operations, assisting with turning around ailing units such as Star FM back in 2014 and more recently Harare branch.

Mr Marandure ran Star FM as the Acting GM from July 2014 till Aug 2015 taking that radio station from 4^th on the Zamps survey to number 1.  Mr Marandure was able to inculcate a performance based culture at the relatively young station and with a very motivated workforce the unit was able to transform and is now one of Zimpapers’ best performing units.

Mr Marandure, showing his versatility when it comes to running business operations,moved from Radio to the Newspapers side of the business stepping in to assist Harare branch as the Acting GM for several months after the departure of that branch’s GM.

According to the ‘hands on’ Mr. Marandure, “Leaders should be able to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty when required to. We should not back down from challenges or run away from the fire, so to speak. It’s our job to probe and see where the challenges are and how best we can fix them as leaders.”

Mr. Marandure holds a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Economics from our very own University of Zimbabwe (1993), a Masters in Business Administration from Howard University, Washington DC (1999) and another Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School, USA, a degree he was awarded with distinction (2010). He is certified with both ITIL and Project Management Professional (PMP).

He plans on furthering his education by pursuing a PhD in the not too distant future. This is in line with his plans to go into teaching, sharing his experiences with others in his later life.

He is married to Busisiwe, Executive Director and Country Manager of Boost Fellowship/Enactus. The couple has three sons whom Mr Marandure believes are his ‘real’ job.