Interview with Dionisia Tabureguci of the April edition of Islands Business

In 1995, Emmanuel Narokobi entered Law School at the University of Papua New Guinea and spent the next four years studying for a legal career.

His father, Camillus Narokobi, was a lawyer and ran the family law firm Narokobi Lawyers in the PNG capital, Port Moresby. His uncle, Bernard Narokobi—an active politician and former government minister who served under two Prime Ministers and later became Opposition Leader—is also a lawyer. And so are his cousins. Law, it seems, runs in his blood.

Twelve years later in July 2007, Narokobi was signing contract papers with new mobile company Digicel PNG to develop and maintain its website. While law was steeped in his blood and ran in the family, the lure of the digital world proved too strong for the enterprising young man from East Sepik Province.

At the time he was signing papers with Digicel, Narokobi was already owner and managing director of Masalai Communications, a small Port Moresby-based interactive media company that specialises in website development, SMS marketing, digital signage and touch screen kiosk.

What began as a personal interest in websites in 1999 while he was still at law school had progressed to become a modestly successful and promising home-grown outfit poised to absorb opportunities in a liberated local telecommunications environment.

“I started around 1999,” said Narokobi, who had spent his childhood years in PNG, the United States and Spain and five high school years in Australia, as a result of his father’s movements for study and work. Internet services in PNG started around 1997.

“When I started, it was very hard to get work, the demand was not there and I pretty much struggled to make money in the first couple of years. I had initially thought of doing a classifieds website which I got started. Back in 1999 though, not too many people in PNG were on the Internet, so it was pretty much a flop. So to make extra money, I began teaching myself how to develop websites.”

The last update on the company’s website was dated October 30, 2007. By then, Masalai Communications had managed to sign up some 45 websites on its portfolio —a range of businesses from government departments to private firms and organisations.

Radical switch: It may have been a radical switch in the early days but the career change was definitely a “no regrets” move for Narokobi.

His earlier foray into classifieds website made him realise there was a lack of good PNG websites, “good in terms of design and functionality”. It led him to believe he could help outsiders understand his country better through well designed websites.

Masalai Communications was then incorporated in 2001. The word “Masalai” meaning “Spirit” in Tok Pisin (PNG Pidgin), explained Narokobi, roughly translates to “a spirit that watches over a certain part of the forest or rivers. I took from the name the qualities of a strong guardian and something you could not see but could feel the power of,” Narokobi added.

Masalai’s “unseen but potent spirit” has no doubt taken it quite a long way from its humble dial-up beginning in Narokobi’s bedroom.

“The business today has expanded its services into Digital Signage in retail outlets, where we sell advertising on flat screens; SMS marketing such as our involvement with the SMS voting for the Ice Discovered Show, which is a PNG version of American Idol, and Touch Screen Kiosk, which we are currently developing for a client,” he said.

But this success was not without challenges. Funding and Internet access had been and to some extent, still are, major hurdles.

The funding challenge and shaky start were mitigated in a big way through strong support from family and friends. The Internet access bit is something Narokobi hopes would blow apart in the not-too-distant future, considering the changes going on in PNG’s telecom market.

“Internet access is definitely the biggest ICT hurdle in PNG for both education and business development. It has to be cheaper and it has to be more readily available and so the only way to do that is to introduce competition at the undersea Internet cable level, at the international gateway level and at the service provider level.

“For PNG, everyone has seen the benefits of competition in the mobile industry upon Digicel coming to PNG, so I’d love to see another tsunami hit PNG of the Internet access kind,” he said.

While that sort of readiness to accept new forces in the market may not be forthcoming at government and network operator level in PNG and the rest of the Pacific, it is easier to find at small operator level like Masalai Communications.

When ISLANDS BUSINESS interviewed Narokobi last month, the company was on its toes with the Digicel PNG job, so far one of its biggest and very active clients.

“I think there are two key points to succeeding with technology initiatives for smaller Pacific companies. Firstly, by having a tight network of friends, colleagues and business associates who can assist in identifying opportunities for you. You also have to be technically up-to-speed with your IT capabilities, resources and what’s happening in the market.

“The second part requires that you think smarter in terms of what a multinational would be after in a given market so that you don’t compete with them but you find a niche where you can exist without the pressure of competition.”

And in these days where the ordinary Pacific islander is often seen struggling to make it in business, Narokobi’s “getting there” recipe is simple: believe without a doubt that you can make your idea work and ask a lot of questions.