Basic Training

Basic Training by Klingshield

At the age of 18 I had to deal with basic training in the South African Defence Force against my will. To cut a long story short what I did learn from this experience was three things - Discipline, War Tactics, Fitness.

These were the only things that I learnt and the rest of the times spent in the Army was a waste of time. However, after my Army service and serving my country, I decided to go into business .

The first thing I did was to educate myself by reading every book available on how to run a company and how to operate a business. I then set out to join a company to gain practical experience and learn from others. I found myself a mentor and worked with him, loading my brains before shouting my mouth off. 

My mentor was a very educated man who had lots of experience and taught me the ropes. I had the highest regard for him and stayed in touch with him for many years after I decided to start my own business.

When looking to getting into business I was fortunate and blessed to be given an opportunity to get into the window film business by a very good friend whom I asked to keep an eye out for me. My friend delivered a dream come true opportunity after going to an insurance conference in London and happened to be invited out for dinner and had a discussion with a young fellow who was in the safety window film business. At that particular time there were a lot of bombs going off in London as the disgruntled IRA were causing havoc in The UK by exploding bombs in major cities.

Flying glass is a serious problem in a bomb blast, as the glass flies at hundreds of miles an hour and injures and kills humans. It also damages property and is a major problem. The UK Government assigned a company by the name of Ozalid to design a self adhesive film that could be applied to glass to reduce the glass from flying under pressure as one experiences in a bomb blast. This product was an extension of an idea used in the second world war where people used sticky stately crosses on glass windows to reduce the extent of glass flying around. This idea was discovered when it became apparent that the worst effect of the explosions was death caused by the flying glass and that damage was caused to property by the shards of flying glass.

So once again to cut another story short, my friend brought back a brochure describing the use of window film to strengthen glass and turn it from ordinary glass into shatterproof glass.

Nothing for nothing, he requested a finding fee from me to have a look at this new product he had found. Desperate to get going I gambled on the opportunity to have a look and decided that I would have a shot at the product. A gentleman flew out from London to conclude a deal and teach me the basic training of how to market the product as well as how to install the product. Being a very serious person and also having a desire to succeed I learnt as much as I could from this person.

With all the experience gained from the learning processes I had been through, I decided to try my luck at launching this window film product under the name of Klingshield. The rest is history. Today this is a household brand in the market and our company is known worldwide for being leaders in window film technology as well as leaders when it comes to the marketing of window film.

The point I am trying to get across is that life is a learning curve and a circle of events. All leaders should educate themeselves and continue to keep learning. Learning is a continuous process. All this valuable knowledge needs to be passed on to one’s workers to improve the capabilities and their knowledge about one’s product and how to run one’s business. Any business is as good as the people who run the business and it is up to the leader to educate and teach the staff, who in turn can teach the consumer all about the advantages of a product. The window film business is like a sponge when it comes to each new experience. If you want to express it well, you must first be able to absorb it well.

This system will make any company staff more productive and profitable if your staff train the customers like a smart leader trains you. This type of business style will produce a maximum level of efficiency from a company.