A lot of women have come up – there are many more rising up to the challenge and a wind of change is definitely blowing. Yes, I am in a male-dominated industry and I’m not ready to back down.”
These are the gutsy words of Nigerian business mogul Ngozi Oyewole, CEO of Noxie Limited – a leading Nigerian diversified service provider.
From trucking and haulage, protective equipment for rigs, to interior decoration, furniture supplies for multinationals and promotional items, Oyewole is a busy woman with a roving eye for ideas, many of which she has brought to life.
There is an infectious exuberance and confidence about Oyewole, one that is just as visible as her business savvy nature and can-do attitude. The evidence speaks volumes in her work, a trait many might not have expected. An Ikwerre princess – born into a the royal home of HRM Eze Frank Eke in Rivers State, Nigeria, who was also once governor – Oyewole is privileged, but that has not made her complacent or idle.
“My father was governor, he is also a king and society expected us to be spoon-fed and lazy but that isn’t the case. I had a thinking head on my shoulders and I wasn’t going to be swayed away by societal expectations or norms,” says Oyewole.
Sitting pretty today, with a fast-growing and diversified business with strong expansionary visions, Oyewole attributes her relentless drive and business acumen to her mother’s strong influence.
“My mother [Evangelist Beatrice Eke] was a very strong woman. She owned various businesses from hotels to beauty salons and she was very entrepreneurial. After school, there were expectations on us to work in similar areas,” she says.
After an undergraduate qualification in business administration and a postgraduate in information technology in the United Kingdom, Oyewole did just the opposite – she plunged into the corporate world and worked with a few UK-based firms, before returning to Nigeria to undergo her National Youth Service (NYSC) Program. Thereafter, she settled into the Nigerian corporate landscape.
“When I got married and had the first of my three children, my husband and I made the decision that I take a break from my career and raise our kids to an appreciable age.
“I started trading in 1993, when my youngest child started nursery school, and I would go overseas to buy clothes, shoes and household items to sell locally. I chose ‘Noxie’ as my business name because it was a pet name my sister-in-law coined for me, when she had difficulty pronouncing my name. I started with a small shop in Ikoyi Hotel and have since grown and diversified into several business interests over the years. I incorporated Noxie Limited in 2001,” says Oyewole
This was the beginning of a journey that Oyewole has found fulfilling and challenging, and yet it highlights the business terrain for women on the continent to be steep and rocky. In the same breath, however, she believes that women can only go as far as they allow themselves. A strong will, self-motivation and competence should be a businesswoman’s creed.
“The challenges I have faced over time are the same most women experience in our type of environment. In a society predominantly dominated by men, most times people don’t take you seriously because of your gender, but once you demonstrate your competence, dedication and professionalism on every job you undertake, they eventually have no hang-ups with dealing with you,” she adds.
Women need a voice within various business sectors and yet the inability to get finance from banks remains a major deterrent. More women should challenge the status quo by proving that they are capable and dependent business leaders.
Oyewole’s passion for entrepreneurship is shaped by her formidable mother, supportive family and her faith in God. All have fueled a healthy restlessness that drives her from venture to venture. Each has comforted her when her professional limits were tested and have pushed her towards self-development.
“Most of the businesses I run, I got into accidentally, after which I developed myself in these areas until I mastered the different technicalities. I have always been restless and enterprising. I’m very comfortable with what I do and it doesn’t intimidate me in any way.”
Noxie Limited has a portfolio that includes: office furniture, interior decoration for office space and the home, personal protective equipment (PPE), uniforms and industrial apparel, promotional items, barge and tugboat leasing as well as trucking and haulage.
As CEO, Oyewole sets the company’s long-term strategy to negotiating major contracts and financing. Having learnt the ropes and earned her stripes, Oyewole’s advice for young upcoming women is: “Have a conviction. Know what you want. Yes, African women do need a voice but self-conviction also goes a long way. The African woman can only go so far if she doesn’t believe in herself first.”
I am keen to find out if and how education has influenced such lucid business gusto.
“You don’t need to be in the classroom or an academic to be educated. It doesn’t take a paper qualification to make a formidable woman. As a woman, look for your strength and what makes you tick. Find what you like to do and do it very well,” she answers.
Noxie, as she is fondly called, may have achieved some grand feats in business but always sets her eyes on bigger projects.
“A major client contacted us to cater to their personal protective equipment business because they were impressed with our performance and track record on previous orders. I was thrilled on hearing the news but my excitement was also short-lived as I began to make assessments of my available resources, both financial and personnel. Although, I knew I had challenges in both areas, within me I believed I could surmount anything that came my way. I quickly realized that I needed to move up to a higher plane in terms of corporate image and presentation. I summoned up courage, took on the challenge head-on and the rest is history!”
Just like any entrepreneur worth their salt, Oyewole has various short, medium and long-term goals in mind. In the near future, she plans to open a showroom for Noxie’s home and office furnishings, and protective gear. Her medium-term goals are to set up a local factory for the office furniture as well as a production line for corporate uniforms, apparel and flame-retardant overalls and personal protective wear made from 100% cotton. Country-wide and regional expansion is on the cards as part of her long-term ambitions.
It might appear a far cry from the cushy comforts of royalty but Oyewole is transcending the myth that women are to be seen and not heard and from all indications, doff your hats as the Queen of gear is here to stay.

So Sure Of Her Business, She Put Her Pet Name To It

Bitcoins were worth nothing in 2009, when the digital cryptocurrency was first minted on the computer of its mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who claimed to live in Japan.
Four years later the value of one Bitcoin surpassed $1,100, thanks in large part to a surge in speculative interest from China. A little-known Shanghai company called BTC China met the demand and quickly became the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, with more than 100,000 of the virtual coins, or $100 million, traded on a single day, nearly double the market share of its closest competitor, Japan’s Mt. Gox.
BTC China attracted headlines and a  <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2491" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/FO012014_086-222x300.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="300" />$5 million investment in the fall from Silicon Valley’s Lightspeed Venture Partners as well as its China arm. But its rapid growth, and that of Bitcoin, also attracted the attention of the Chinese government.
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Unwanted attention, as it turned out. In December the People’s Bank of China decreed that merchants may not accept Bitcoin and forbade banks and payment processors from converting Bitcoin into yuan. The price of Bitcoin fell below $500 in response.
Bitcoin is still widely embraced by technophiles and libertarians (and porn and pot-dealing websites) because the currency is all digital, easily transported across borders and resistant to state controls. A Bitcoin is “mined” on privately owned, specialized computing equipment and passed around by a global, peer-to-peer network of computers. Transactions are trackable, but the parties to each transaction are not. Bitcoin has attracted entrepreneurs and investors excited about its legitimate use: cutting out the middlemen in online payments. In December venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz placed the biggest Bitcoin bet so far with a $25 million investment in San Francisco’s Coinbase, a platform for buying, selling and storing Bitcoins in the U.S. “As the world becomes more digital, paying physically with bills, gold or credit cards will seem archaic. Everyone will have Bitcoins,” says BTC China CEO Bobby Lee.
But China’s actions over the past weeks have put BTC China’s future in doubt. After Chinese regulators held a closed-door meeting to warn financial companies against working with exchanges, BTC China was swiftly abandoned by two payment processors. “There are 300 payment processors in China. We’re going to go down the list and find one that will work with us,” says an optimistic Lee. He doesn’t think the government is trying to put him out of business but rather put the screws on Bitcoin to cut down on the rampant speculation. “They haven’t declared exchanges illegal. That gives us room to maneuver, so there’s still hope.”
Lightspeed’s Jeremy Liew is keeping a distant focus. “Anyone investing in Bitcoin companies and Bitcoin specifically should be doing so with the expectation that there will be a lot of volatility driven by regulatory announcements. We invest over 5- to 10-year horizons, not over two-week horizons,” says Liew. “For Bitcoin to be credible, we need executives who have the gravitas to make its case to regulators. That’s Bobby.”
Lee, 38, was born in the Ivory Coast to parents who had moved there from China to set up a flip-flop factory. He was sent to an elite boarding school in the States, graduated from Stanford and spent eight years as an engineer at Yahoo in California. He moved to China in 2006 to work as an engineer at EMC. In 2011 he became Wal-Mart’s chief technology officer in China, charged with helping to build its commerce site.
Lee first heard about Bitcoin in the spring of 2011 while visiting his family in California. Lee’s brother, Charles, was using some of his computer equipment to mine Bitcoin at home. Lee thought he would do the same back in China and bought a bunch of graphics cards from his brother. He started mining in July, the same month he started at Wal-Mart. Neither lasted long.
“It was a hot summer, and the computers created a lot of heat,” says Lee. “My wife said it was too noisy and hot, and so I turned it off in October.” He mined 25 coins, which struck him as a “waste” because they were worth just $300 total at the time and he had spent $1,000 on mining gear.
When Wal-Mart decided to partner with an existing e-commerce site in 2012 rather than build its own, Lee found himself jobless. His mind returned to those Bitcoins gathering digital dust on his computer. His brother had founded a competing cryptocurrency called Litecoin, but Lee wanted to focus on bringing Bitcoin to China. BTC China had popped up two years earlier as the country’s first site for Bitcoin trading. “It was just two guys working part-time on it,” says Lee. They were charging a 0.3% trading fee, but seeing just a few hundred trades per day. Lee sought out its cofounders to convince them it could be bigger. Lee became CEO in April.
They relaunched the site in June and went out looking for venture capital. When they landed the round from Lightspeed in September, they eliminated their fee. That kicked off a bidding frenzy fueled also by the free Bitcoin p.r. that came when the FBI took down Bitcoin-only drug site Silk Road and Baidu announced it would accept Bitcoin for security services, plus the positive buzz around U.S. Senate hearings on the digital currency.
But then the People’s Bank of China, responding to what it says was a wave of consumer concerns, declared in December that Bitcoin wasn’t a recognized currency and shouldn’t be used in the market, prompting Baidu and other Chinese firms to stop taking it as payment. As the extent of the real-world ban became clear, the price of a Bitcoin dropped to $345 on BTC China.
Lee initially saw the declaration as just a speed bump. Chinese citizens were still free to trade Bitcoin. BTC China stayed on the good side of the government’s concerns about money-laundering by asking customers for official identification. BTC also reinstated trading fees to cut down on the frenzy. But days later the government crushed hopes of a thriving trading business when it unofficially barred payment processors from working with Bitcoin exchanges. Suddenly BTC China and others would no longer be able to move their customers’ funds from yuan to Bitcoin and back—which is what exchanges exist to do. “We’re reading the tea leaves,” says Shanghai Bitcoin entrepreneur Jack Wang. “But it looks like they’re going to squeeze the exchanges until they’re not able to operate.”
China’s move is not without precedent. Eleven years ago Chinese Web service Tencent created a virtual currency called Q Coin for use in games. It became increasingly valuable offline and started trading on exchanges along with renminbi and gold. The government declared such use illegal in 2007, sending its real world value crashing to nothing.
China is still letting people play with Bitcoin in its country, but by cutting off ways to convert it to real money, it is turning it into the digital Monopoly money that skeptics have always dismissed it as being. “If necessary, we’ll go into other Bitcoin services,” says Lee. The company plans to launch a secure online Bitcoin wallet called Picasso at the end of December. “This is not the end. It may be the end of a chapter, but it’s not the end of our company.”

China Bites  Into Bitcoin

You are a hard-hitting businesswoman or high-ranking female executive who has managed to avoid falling victim to poverty, res-trictive cultural attitudes, unfriendly workplace policies and biased education steering that generally stop most women on the second or third rung of the proverbial ladder of success.
Give yourself a pat on the back. Have some cake – eat it too
You certainly deserve it. It is no small feat in a world where women still make up roughly two-thirds of the population living below the poverty line. A world where yawning gender employment and wage gaps continue to prevail and top leadership and management roles are still held by men, even in typically women-dominated fields.
But the fact of the matter is, no matter what kind of corner-office view you have earned, you are still marooned in the big, bad sea of male majority. And you are still battling gender-based double-blinds.
A 2012 study commissioned by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) polled 60 Fortune 500 companies and found that executive committees were made up of just 14% women. In its 2012 census, the Business Women’s Association of South Africa found that the number of women in the working world has increased, but the number of women in senior leadership positions has decreased.
At the end of 2012, there were a measly 12 women CEOs/managing directors and 18 women chairpersons in the South Africa. Furthermore, women comprised only 21.4% of executive managerial positions and 17.1% of director roles in the country, the continent’s supposed economic pioneer. Depressing, yes? Even more shocking is that the same WSJ report discovered that only 18% of the women surveyed harbor CEO aspirations. It found that women were happy to adopt support roles fairly early in their careers and often exited the employment superhighway to fulfill family obligations. Often this happened before they had reached a point at which they could on-ramp again with ease, thus door-stopping their job prospects once and for all. In short, women are dreaming small and aiming low.
It is tempting to leave the business of change to someone else, perhaps understaffed, underfunded agents of women’s economic empowerment. But the fact of the matter is that the responsibility of elevating women into senior positions also lies with those already in senior leadership positions.
There is no time to sit around, waiting to see if a mass overhaul in company philosophy or government policy could lead to more widespread gender diversity in top management roles. Rather, the women who have fought tooth and nail to rise up through the ranks need to help revolutionize individual mindsets.
And how? Through mentorship.
The practice of sharing wisdom and inviting entrants into the workplace into personal networks has been shown to be instrumental in women’s career advancement. Such behavior instills confidence in and offers guidance to the intelligent, credible and bright women further downstream. Dr. Anita Bosch, the leader of the Women in the Workplace research pod at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, explains: “Countless businesswomen battle with psychological hang-ups that can stymie their success. Mentorship helps budding professionals realize their value and chisel out their workplace identity, a point that’s especially important to females.”
Studies have also proven that mentorship allows the up-and-coming to make sense of business culture and set out a strategic career direction.
Take the case of Viola Manuel and her mentee, Simone Daniels. Manuel is the executive director of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, the former head of the Cape IT Initiative, an entrepreneur and founder of her own company, Afrivate. Like so many women before her, Manuel has had to claw her way up the ladder of success without a helping hand reaching down from a higher rung.
“When I was starting my career there were very few role models that were approachable and within reach, and I know that if I’d had someone to lean on I would have been even more successful, had an even more accelerated understating of my industry,” she explains.
It has prompted Manuel to partner with the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation as a mentor and take on a mentee in her personal capacity.
Simone Daniels was a final-year chemical engineering student at the University of Cape Town when she met Manuel. At the time, she was prepared to flush four painstaking years of organic chemistry, calculus and general physics down the drain even before she had experienced her first day of work.
“I was done. Dead set on giving it up,” she says emphatically.
After only a few mentorship sessions with Manuel, however, Daniels was not only prepared to continue her coursework, but was motivated to envision herself in a leadership position further down the road.
“She helped me work through what I wanted to do. From talking to her and bouncing ideas off of her, I realized that if I abandoned the degree, I’d likely never be able to go back to engineering, which would be heartbreaking. Now I think my end goal would be to be less of a process engineer and more of a manager,” Daniels explains.
Confident, passionate and not the least bit fazed by the prospect of having to prove herself in a male-dominated industry, Daniels may yet be jaded by the working world, but she is also pointedly aware of a trajectory.
It is a refreshing example of foresight. Although mentorship is not a technical skill, it is a perfect demonstration of the how it facilitates prof-essional and personal development.
Similarly, a relationship between a woman mentor and her mentee can be especially useful for tackling the conversation around how women manage time.
“There are different expectations for women, especially if you want to have a family. Learning how to address that and helping prepare people around you for that is key,” says Manuel.
And she would know. Manuel had three miscarriages before realizing that she needed to quit her job if she wanted to keep her baby. It is an int-ensely personal experience and her willingness to share it with others in similar situations is what makes her such an excellent mentor.
“Mentorship is about forming a connection and building up a relationship of support and trust. It’s about making yourself approachable, so mentees aren’t scared to ask questions,” Manuel explains.
At the end of the day, though, mentorship is a two-way street. Rebecca Pillay, the mentor manager at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, points out that mentors also benefit. “They get to leave a legacy behind, stay relevant and connected with a younger generation, and even easily expand their networks.”
Pillay also stresses that mentorship does not have to be viewed as an all-consuming task.
“There are no formal rules of engagement, but by setting out a contract during your first interaction, you can very clearly lay out the frequency of meetings, address the way you want to communicate with mentees and show commitment on the part of both parties,” she says.
This means that businesswomen who already feel like they have barely enough time to find two matching socks in the morning do not need to feel overburdened by the idea of mentorship.
Pillay recommends only eight- to 10-hour-long meetings throughout the year, which adds up to a single workday.
During that time, she explains, it is important to set out high-value goals, remain authentic by meeting the mentee on their level, and avoid imposing your own expectations on the person you are guiding.
The end goal is to help women in business remove obstacles, give them the confidence to break through glass ceilings and provide them with the courage to detach themselves from sticky floors.
And the greater benefit, aside from the personal gains for both mentor and mentee?
For starters, the World Economic Forum points out that higher levels of growth domestic product per capita when gender equality in the workplace is better realized. Secondly, as Manuel so aptly explains, women put their income back into the economy in a more valuable way than men. Women are more likely to save or, if they have children, invest in them. And a healthier economy often means healthier salaries.
Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has even concluded that by closing the employment gender gap in the Brics nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and next-11 countries (three of which are African), per capita incomes could be pushed 14% higher than current projections by 2020 and 20% higher by 2030.
Of course, it goes without saying that the idea of affecting such macro-level change with a grassroots mentorship movement is a lofty aspiration. But then again, that’s exactly what women need to be doing: dreaming bigger and aiming higher. And as Viola sums up, “Whether we acknowledge it or not, it’s within the grasp of every woman in business to do something to elevate other women. That’s got to be our thinking. We have to find a way to contribute.”
So, ask yourself, are you doing your bit?

Mentorship: The missing link

Social entrepreneurship is becoming de rigueur as an alternative to the corporate career ladder for young people looking for work that is both intellectually stimulating and meaningful.
Three young women I know play in this space. Phillipa Wheaton (30), an Australian, is the CEO of enke: Make Your Mark. Based in South Africa, the organization supports teenagers who are proactive about addressing social problems.
Karissa Samuels (29) is the South African founder and CEO of the Ntshulisa Foundation, which aims to empower the nation, starting with children, by promoting civic participation and community involvement.
UK-raised Ruth Orbach (24) works for non-governmental organization (NGO) the African Leadership Academy as a monitoring, evaluation and learning manager – a space that is becoming increasingly important.
While all three are tired of the NGO label, preferring instead social enterprise, they are equally wary of self-titled ‘social entrepreneurs’. Samuels, who has been in the field for the past 10 years, explains: “Many people who began in the space with me have left because… of them not having a real interest in having a real social impact, but rather (using the sector) as a vehicle for their personal advancement.”
There may be goodwill, but “there simply isn’t enough interrogation of the needs”, says Orbach, who helps develop tracking systems to monitor the long-term impact of an investment on an organization.
Traditionally, the link between the success of a social enterprise and its impact on a community was presumed to be strong, but increasingly there is a need to re-examine this view. “People need to move beyond ‘something is better than nothing’,” urges Wheaton.
This desire to do more and to do better has seen many non-profits applying commercial strategies to maximize social benefits. And in fact there is significant potential for crossover of best practices in the profit and non-profit sectors.
All three young women agree we need to move away from the binary logic of the capitalist firm versus the NGO with a begging bowl. Instead, they see NGOs, social enterprises and for-profit companies as increasing points along a continuum.
Ideally, it is about businesses taking on a social element and non-profits incorporating business principles into their work. While in the long run, social enterprises could conceivably take over a large proportion of NGOs’ functions, there are limits. It becomes tricky for organizations such as orphanages, for which there is no market, in the traditional sense.
Judging from the conversation between the three, it is clear this sector is going through a number of exciting changes.
A TED Talk by activist Dan Pallotta called The way we think about charity is dead wrong has been shaking up the dominant narrative of the non-profit sector. Pallotta’s core argument is that we should not judge the effectiveness of NGOs based on overheads (salaries, rent or marketing). He claims that the non-profit sector is starved of the capital needed to adequately fuel growth and innovation, in order to fully address social problems.
Sustainability is another term that keeps cropping up in the NGO field, particularly the incidence of sustainability. The distinction between a purely capitalist business and a social enterprise is that one aims to sustain its operations indefinitely, while the other looks to sustain the impact of its operations indefinitely.
Wheaton, Samuels and Orbach agree that if they are to achieve the kind of impact they aspire to, they would ultimately put themselves out of work.
At the same time, the mantra, ‘Africa for Africa, by Africa’, is gaining momentum, resulting in Westerners and foreign do-gooders being met with skepticism.
It reminds me of when Nigerian author Teju Cole ruffled feathers with his controversial reaction to Kony 2012, the viral video calling for the arrest of war criminal Joseph Kony. Using the hashtag, ‘The White-Savior Industrial Complex’, Cole tweeted: “If we are going to interfere in the lives of others, a little due diligence is a minimum requirement.” He went on: “The White Savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.”
However, it is important that we Africanists are careful not to alienate those with experience and expertise. At this stage of the game, our collective intelligence and financial muscle may not be enough to eliminate the social problems that lie ahead.
We will need all the help we can get from those willing to roll up their sleeves and work themselves out of the system.

Social entrepreneurship, anyone

A couple of weeks ago I went on a real vacation. I didn’t bring my computer, I shut off my phone. The only time I even thought about work was when my mind wondered to topics of long term strategy. I didn’t worry about the day-to-day operations at my company even once. Why? I did not need to. I had a strong and capable team that kept everything moving forward in my absence.
Early in my corporate career, a manager leaving on vacation said to me, “Unless my house is burning down, don’t contact me.”
I was shocked by his brazen disinterest in work while he vacationed. “This guy is not going to last long,” I thought. Instead, it was one of the best leadership lessons I ever received. He had a chance to take a well-needed break. His team members had a chance to stretch their leadership, develop confidence, and grow. His actions were signs of an effective leader. But most leaders balk at the idea that a manager-level employee would even think of telling others that they will not be available during their vacation.
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<h4>Surviving vacation</h4>
In his Forbes article Take A Serious Vacation: A CEO’s Advice To All CEOs, Jim Moffatt, the chairman and chief executive of Deloitte Consulting LLP, says, “If your business can’t survive your vacation, you’ve got a bigger problem.” He suggests that leaders and managers treat their vacations as a “test” – not just of the leader’s ability to take a break, but of what happens to the organization when they are absent for an extended period of time.
However, the inability to take a vacation isn’t limited to the corner office. A recent study by Kelton Research commissioned by the Radisson hotel chain indicates that nearly half of the total American workforce doesn’t use all of their allotted vacation days. From my experience leading HR functions at mid to large sized companies, I can confirm that the core offenders are managers and leaders. And when asked why this group of hard working professionals left vacation days on the table, most sighted their fear of losing momentum or missing quarterly or annual objectives. In other words, they felt that things would fall apart as soon as they left.
Perhaps these managers and leaders are a product of a workforce that simply has too much on their plate. Kelton’s study did find that heavy workloads were one of the primary reasons workers decided not to take more time off. If this is the case, organizations must ask a critical question – who is taking a break from the day-to-day operations to think about the long-term strategy of the business?
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<h4>The problem with doers</h4>
If corporations don’t ask and answer this important question, they may very well find themselves with an organization full of doers and no leaders. While all companies certainly need both, employees need to be able to recognize and respect the difference. An organization full of doers is simply not going to last.
The story of Edwin H. Land and Polaroid is a glaring example of the fate of an organization of doers, brilliant as they may be. As Polaroid grew, Land had teams of people working in shifts at his side. As one team wore out, the next team rotated in to continue the work. Land was at the core of everything at Polaroid and was even accused of wearing the same clothing for eighteen consecutive days because he refused to take a break. Subsequently, his successors mismanaged the company and the once-great organization headed into a downward spiral. In his 2012 book Instant: The Story of Polaroid, Christopher Bonanos tells the story of Polaroid’s competitor Kodak referring to Land’s company as “He” instead of Polaroid. In October 2001, Polaroid declared bankruptcy.
I have worked for both doers and leaders. Despite the hours doers work, I always learned more from the leaders. One of the best leaders I worked for told me that as an HR executive I should be sitting in the lobby greeting employees and reading the paper. This is a bit extreme, but what he was saying is that I needed to spend my time thinking about the big picture – our people strategy to drive our business forward. I shouldn’t be down in the weeds chasing up performance reviews, reviewing improvement plans, or attending every vendor meeting. He encouraged me to build a strong team to do that work.
The other problem with doers is that they frequently don’t lead by example. It is disingenuous when a leader tells me to stop working and take a vacation or recover from an illness, but a week later they show up to work coughing and sneezing. Some doers will boast about not having taken a proper vacation in 10 years. Working for these leaders, I never felt I was allowed to fully unplug despite their encouragement to do so. As with all aspects of effective leadership, walking the talk is the only way to create lasting change.
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<h4>Making yourself redundant</h4>
A leader is not doing their followers, boss, or organization any favors by building a team that can’t function without them. They have a duty of care to teach their followers to fish instead of fishing for them. At day’s end, the true test of effective leadership manifests itself when a leader is absent.
The one thing that all effective leaders do is make themselves redundant so they can move on to even greater challenges and help more people – knowing that the team they built will flourish and carry on the mission. All my personal success as a leader has been a result of living this principle. The only boasting I do is about taking all my vacation each year. I encourage you to do
the same.
As a leader or manager, here are three simple questions you should ask of yourself daily to ensure you are practicing effective leadership and building sustainable teams and organizations:
<ol>
<li>Can I go on vacation without my computer and phone?</li>
<li>If I get sick, can I focus on getting better without working or being in contact?</li>
<li>If I quit today, would my team/organization continue to be successful and grow with minimal disruption?</li>
</ol>
If you can’t answer ‘yes’ to all the above questions, you need to either build a new team, develop the one you have, start trusting your people to work on their own making it okay to fail and learn from mistakes, or move into a role that does not require people management.

Make Yourself Redundant:

A consortium of Ghanaian and foreign firms look set to transform Ghana into a modern, tech-friendly, hub for innovation in Africa.
Multi-million dollar information communication technology (ICT) schemes in the investment pipeline include the Ghana Cyber City, Appolonia City, King City and Hope City projects.
The $40 million Ghana Cyber City, Appolonia and King City projects are being promoted by Gateway Innovations (Ghana), Xalles Limited (Washington), Ernst &amp; Young (now EY, New York), Technolopolis (Finland) and Russia-based investment bank, the Renaissance Group. However, the Hope City project—a $10 billion technology park with residential and office accommodation including the tallest buildings on the continent—is the grand vision of one man: Roland Agambire, founder, chairman and CEO of Ghana and Dubai-based AGAMS Holdings.
An incurable optimist, Agambire, 39, is no stranger to ambition.
“This is turning out to be my biggest and most exciting challenge yet. We have a three-year plan to finish building Hope City. Any investor who invests in Hope City will recoup his investments within the first five years, including also making a projected turnover of over 250%,” says Agambire.
Hope City is expected to provide office and residential space and facilities for more than 50,000 people.
“I am extremely passionate about transforming Ghana into a knowledge-driven economy. My ultimate desire is to create opportunity for every African… we must also begin to explore the issue of how Ghana can begin to export services and ICT to the rest of the world,” he says.
Hope City will be located in the Dokuna district a few miles north of Accra, the Ghanaian capital. Agambire is optimistic he will raise the cash from the local and international markets to make his grand idea a reality. He will also add $2 billion of his own funds to the project.
His unwavering efforts have already made him one of Ghana’s wealthiest businessmen.
For a man whose early years were spent in poverty, Agambire’s current cozy lifestyle is a far cry from his humble beginnings. He shies away from any reference to his personal net worth. He, however, tells FORBES AFRICA that through AGAMS Holdings. He employs more than 500 permanent staff and 10,000 casual workers with an annual turnover of about $2 billion. AGAMS Holdings has interests in oil, construction, computing and telecommunications, financial services and trading.
His story proves it is possible to be lonely in the middle of a crowd.
Born in Sirigu, a farming community in northern Ghana, his father reportedly had about 50 children and his mother is the sixth of his father’s 10 wives.
For most of the seventies and eighties, Ghana’s economy was in the doldrums and village life was all about subsistence farming, fishing and survival of the fittest. Success was defined by the number of wives and children a man could muster. Agambire recalls how 10 people would sleep on the same mat, like prisoners in a crowded jail, wake up in the morning and eat from the same bowl. He says his success came from this start in life.
“At that time, going to school was a struggle, all they wanted you to do was to grow into a shepherd boy, to be part of the domestic services, but I broke out of that.”
By the age of six, his survival instincts led him to picking up coins dropped by much older folks, drunk on liquor, in the open air drinking holes in the market.
“I was going from one pito bar to the other to pick up money. This was how I made money to feed myself,” he says.
One day, his granddad accused him of pilfering. He told the old man that revelers obviously had too much money to spare. Why else would they throw it away every day and who would be identified as the owner of the money if he were to take the ‘lost and found coins’ to the village chief? The old man had no reply.
Soon, a few older folks noticed and joined him in the coin gathering exercise, so he changed tactic by going earlier to pick the pennies.
Soon, Roland the teenager was selling kuli-kuli (a local snack made from peanuts) and ferrying much sought after cigarettes, kerosene and petrol across the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Agambire worked his way through the Navrongo Secondary School. He would often travel down south to Accra, during vacations, to push trucks and wash dishes in bars to make money to pay his school fees.
By the mid-1990s, his trading activities had expanded and he had dabbled into cash crops exportation. He completed various courses in export and marketing with the Ghana Export Promotion Council, put himself through a regime of Business Administration courses at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) at the University of Ghana and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
A trip to Japan in 1999 opened his mind to the social impact and business potential of ICT. In 2000, he invested his first $200,000 into an internet café business in Accra; the dotcom age arrived and soon he was importing computers from the United States, and providing after sales support and computer networking services to Ghanaian businesses. He has never looked back since.
AGAMS’s leading subsidiary, RLG Communications, with offices in Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Dubai and China is helping to transform West Africa’s personal computing and mobile phone landscape. The firm has a technology training institute and a mobile phone assembly plant and will commission a $100 million facility, Ghana’s first PC and mobile device manufacturing center, in 2014.
The Ghana News Agency once described Agambire as “a personification of determination”. Having conquered poverty, he now wants to put West Africa’s second largest economy on to the global technology map, permanently.
Not bad for someone who used to pick up pennies.

Penny Picking On The Way  To $10 Billion

When gold is poured it doesn’t glitter. It drips out in thick globs of orange. If a small amount splashes you, it will burn a hole right through your hand. Yet, the moment it is out of the furnace, you can feel your hand drawn toward it. This is the allure of gold: the most sought after commodity in the world.
In the sooty recesses of the 93-year-old Rand Refinery, to the east of Johannesburg, South Africa, almost 50,000 tons, a third of the world’s gold, has been melted by craftsman clad in singed overalls. In a place that never sees the light of day, where the churning of machinery can deafen you and the light and gas from furnaces can blind you if you don’t wear safety glasses; no one leaves without a full-body x-ray.
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It takes 15 minutes to pour 10 bars, each worth R5.7 million ($570,000). By the time it’s cooled, the rising price of gold makes it worth a million more.
“In this industry no day is the same as the previous day, especially right now when gold is so volatile,” says Howard Craig, CEO of Rand Refinery.
The refinery turns raw gold, flown in from the mines by a fleet of heavily armed helicopters and trucks, into bullion. In churning out the wealth of nations, these men are able to do what machines cannot; pour molten metals into casts to a perfect weight of 12.6kg. The refinery makes its money by this smelting and refining of the metals.
In October, things were cooking when gold was selling at $1,790 an ounce. Since then, the gold industry has hit a downward spiral of fluctuating prices, ending $300 lower at around $1,400.
“I’m still very bullish about gold and a lot of people panic when they see the gold price drop by $150, like it did in the last couple of weeks. But for me what was really encouraging was [when] people came into the market and we have seen such massive purchasing and demand as a result of the price going down. I think, as a leader at a gold refinery, you have to believe in it. But I think there are some good fundamentals that underpin that belief,” says Craig.
Adrian Saville, an investment analyst from Cannon Asset Managers, believes that, this year, gold’s role as a buffer against economic uncertainty has waned.
“First, the US has a much firmer footing in its economic recovery. Second, through 2012 there was a huge question mark over the survivorship of the euro, especially surrounding Greece and the so-called Grexit [Greece’s possible exit of the Eurozone]. Today, some of this anxiety has been taken off the table and the euro appears to be on firmer ground. Third, in early 2013, investors have been encouraged by Japan’s massive liquidity boost, which has helped reflate the Nikkei and restore some lost confidence,” says Saville.
The analyst says that, as the price has decreased, the historical relationship with other precious metals has revived.
“At first glance gold has no inherent investment value. Gold has no real industrial application; it is a lump that people want or desire. In this way, the gold price is largely sentiment driven, which is hardly the basis for successful investing. But, at the same time, when countries are wildly printing money, gold offers people a stable store of wealth and that makes it very appealing. In 2000, two million Zimbabwean dollars would have bought you a wheelbarrow of gold. In 2008, you would have had a wheelbarrow full of paper,” says Saville.
They say, get too close to a fire, or molten gold, and you will get burned. It seems, for the moment, the allure of the shiny yellow metal is worth the risk. The trick is, getting out before you get a hole in your hand.

Is The Golden Bubble About To Burst?

He calls himself an African optimist; in the coming days, he faces a test of this comforting belief.
Iqbal Survé has made millions investing in the continent, turning himself, in less than a decade, from a medical doctor into one of South Africa’s top entrepreneurs. Now, he faces controversy and opposition around his newest deal to buy a clutch of Africa’s most powerful newspapers.
At the same time, he will promote the continent in the global economy, as a member of the recently launched BRICS business council. South Africa came late to the party. It joined the group of significant emerging economies in April 2010, turning BRIC into BRICS, nine years after its inception. Today, the southern African nation plays an important role within the forum. It acts as a gateway to the continent for China, Brazil, India and Russia; as a catalyst for African integration. BRICS launched a business council in March, which consists of five key business leaders from each nation.
“The council is an important development to foster intra-BRICS economic ties. It will not only focus on trade, but also on technology transfer, skills development, banking, manufacturing and industrialization,” says Survé.
He will direct South Africa’s role within the BRICS council together with mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, Business Unity SA CEO Nomaxabiso Majokweni, Zungu Investment Company executive chair Sandile Zungu and Transnet CEO Brian Molefe.
“The members of the business council are people who understand the nexus between business, politics and economic growth,” says Survé, who serves as an economic advisor to South African president, Jacob Zuma.
The business council will work to boost trade, encourage entrepreneurs in member countries to pool capital and form joint ventures; while the five governments will usher in market access by easing visas, registration of companies and exchange controls.
“Our purpose is to create the smoothest possible interaction between companies,” says Survé.
Already, trade between BRICS and Africa has increased tenfold since 2002, with an estimated current value of $340 billion.
But there’s more to it. South Africa wants to use the BRICS business council to advance, not only, its own agenda but also that of the continent. Part of this will be moving trade relations with China, India, Brazil and Russia away from the narrow focus of commodity exports.
Africa’s progress is something close to Survé’s heart. The former ‘struggle doctor’ cared for political prisoners and victims of detention and torture during apartheid, including former South African President Nelson Mandela. He left medicine, in 1997, to launch investment holding company Sekunjalo Group, which is known for purchasing controlling stakes in firms to empower black workers.
Sekunjalo has investments in more than 170 companies and is South Africa’s top-rated black empowerment company. It comes as little surprise that Survé, from a poor family in Cape Town, has made a fortune from investing in oil in Africa and is regarded as an entrepreneur who is shaping the continent’s future.
“At Sekunjalo, we pay serious attention to skills development, corporate social investment, enterprise development and transformation. It’s a gentler form of capitalism that puts people before profits,” he says.
The newest acquisition by Sekunjalo could prove a test of these words. A consortium, led by Sekunjalo, bought the South African arm of Irish Independent News and Media for $200 million.
The deal means that Sekunjalo will acquire newspapers such as The Star, Pretoria News, Sunday Independent, Cape Times, Cape Argus, Mercury, Daily News, which employ around 1,400 people. There has been an uproar about the failure to disclose the identity of the other funders. Survé was sworn to secrecy by the Irish media house but revealed the funders in late June after a general meeting of the sellers, when it emerged that the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and some of its affiliates comprise a major portion of Sekunjalo Independent Media’s (SIM) shareholding and that employees of Independent News and Media South Africa (INMSA), would get 10% of shares in the company. It has been reported that if the sale goes through, banks could write off €100 million ($133 million) of the group’s debt. Sekunjalo Independent Media, will claim 75% ownership, while the remaining stake is reported to be held by the Government Employees Pension Fund. But Survé has refuted this statement. Staff at the media group—who formed a trust to acquire the remaining 25%—say it is being bought by a newly formed company with no records, turnover or assets.
Away from acquisitions, Survé believes BRICS presents an opportunity for Africa to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).
“FDI is key for development. Our continent is on the threshold of dramatic change. For the first time, we are at a point where all people might be able to access capital,” the black empowerment pioneer and philanthropist reckons.
This economic growth is closely tied to the continent’s fortunes, Survé stresses: “BRICS is not a South African exercise. It’s good for the whole of Africa and will lead to stronger bridges between South Africa and its African counterparts, too,” he says.
If all goes to plan, Africa could emulate the Asian tigers.
“Some African countries, like Mozambique and Ethiopia, do it already. Thirty years ago, China was in exactly the same place where Africa is today. It has seen enormous development from not being among the top 100 of the gross domestic products in the world to being the world’s second largest economy,” he says.
A key role of the BRICS business council, which will convene twice a year, is to examine business models.
“The idea is to learn the lessons of how some of the countries, such as Brazil and China, have achieved their phenomenal economic growth. How do they support the private sector? What policies and capital initiatives were put into place? What are the lessons in terms of infrastructure development?”
Survé stresses the fact that the formation of the BRICS business council does not mean trade relationships with western countries will be put on the back burner.
“From our perspective, we need the African economy to grow. For that to happen we need to do business with multilateral partners, whether they come from BRICS, North America or Europe.”
With his foray into newspapers, Survé may need nerve as well as optimism.

Activist Doctor  Turned Capitalist

On March 1, 2001, a small bank opened in South Africa with the aim of providing easy and affordable banking services to its customers. Attracted by this alluring promise, in no time people were queuing up to open a Capitec account. Today, the bank has more than four million customers; clearly CEO Riaan Stassen’s move from the liquor industry to banking has been a fortuitous one.
Born in Cape Town, Stassen earned a Bachelor in Commerce Honors degree from the University of Stellenbosch. He then did his articles and CA qualification at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) before spending 14 years in the liquor industry.
The course of his career changed in 1995, when Stassen was asked to reengineer Boland Bank, a conservative regional bank established in 1900. After South African retail billionaire Christo Wiese bought Boland, it merged with Natal Building Society (NBS) and Board of Executors (BoE).
Stassen spent five years at BoE Bank, during which time he came up with a different banking concept: a retail bank for mid-to-lower income people. According to Stassen, the incumbent banks were failing in four areas: accessibility, affordability, simplicity and personal service. He left BoE with his management team and a goal to succeed where others had failed.
Stassen says that South Africa’s existing banks had never transformed to align with the cultural diversity of the country.
“So we saw that as quite a key opportunity for us to create that cement with our customer base,” he says.
Stassen and his team were approached by PSG Holdings, a company owned by South African millionaire investor Jannie Mouton, to manage PSG Specialized Lending, its micro-lending company focused on low-income customers. The name was changed to Capitec and the bank listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2002.
It was no easy road for Capitec. The start-up capital was R250 million ($28 million), it listed with net assets of just under R400 million ($45 million), at R2 (around 2 US cents) a share. Within three months its market capitalization dropped to just under R50 million ($5.6 million).
The first few years of Capitec’s life were dedicated to developing an application platform that could handle high-volume, low-value transactions, efficiently and at a lower cost.
The system is run from Bellville—a small town just outside of Cape Town. From there the bank runs the administration that usually takes place at branch level, shifting the branch focus to its customers. The last fundamental of the technology component is the ability to conduct all processes in real time.
The bank uses fingerprint biometrics to counter fraud and is currently testing new ATMs fitted with the system. Capitec is also the first bank in South Africa to allow coin deposits at ATMs, further evidence of its focus on low-income customers.
Stassen says other South African banks are rife with high costs, lack of transparency and confusing jargon.
“We believe what a person needs from a bank is to move money, to park money and to get money,” he says.
Capitec’s solution to this is its Global One account—a single account that can be used for transactions, including online purchases, as a savings vehicle and as a way to apply for credit. Customers can get up to R230,000 ($25,700) in cash within minutes of applying for a loan. This amount is determined by an affordability assessment based on their monthly cash flow and is repayable over one to 84 months, also based on personal ability. The interest paid, 17% to 28%, also depends on the individual’s credit profile.
A big bone of contention in South Africa has been unsecured lending. In the past, borrowers were required to secure a loan with collateral. With unsecured lending, clients do not need this security, “In South Africa nowadays unsecured lending has become a swearword, and that’s absolute nonsense,” says Stassen.
He points out that as far as Capitec is concerned, it’s not about the assets a person has, but their cash flow.
“There are 20 million active credit clients in South Africa. There are 1.8 million credit clients who have any form of home finance, a mortgage grant. Only 1.8 [million]. So what are the other 18 million people doing to improve their standard of living?” asks Charl Nel, the head of strategic communications at Capitec.
Few deny the fact that South Africa, like most of the world, is a consumption-driven society as opposed to a saving one, or that defaults are part of the territory, but as it currently stands, over 95% of Capitec’s book is current. Despite citizens’ household debt often being greater than disposable income, according to Capitec’s interim results from September, its number of arrears had decreased to 4.4%.
“The profile of our credit client is definitely changing as we are seeing new credit clients with higher income levels attracted to our offer,” the interim report says.
According to a report by South Africa’s National Credit Regulator, unsecured credit in the first quarter of 2012 grew by 49.4% year-on-year. This is a rate far higher than any of the other types of credit.
Capitec has millions of customers, and Stassen attributes the bank’s success to widespread discontent with the big four banks among their customer base, as well as its strong proposition to customers. His is the first bank in South Africa to be open on Sundays, a move that persuaded one of its large competitors, Nedbank, to follow suit.
“We had to think a lot on our feet. We change things a lot. What we thought was going to work had to be changed slightly. And often in a very old, stale, established organization you get resistance and that’s dangerous because people kind of trip up the process,” says Nel.
How does the bank manage to make money and a success out of low-cost banking, especially when they have kept their prices unchanged for the past three years? As most business minds know, you can only undercut your competitors for so long before it becomes costly. Stassen says Capitec could only be priced significantly lower than their opponents if they took smaller margins or lowered their cost structure. Their solution appears to be running the bank like a production line.
“Stassen is an exceptional CEO. One of the best that I’ve come across because since he joined Capitec we’re really focused. They developed a great computer system and it’s a great success,” says Mouton.
Stassen admits that they were initially ignored by the bigger banks because they started off as a micro lending organization. When they began to look beyond this; their competitors believed their primary focus would be on the unbanked and the lower income market. Then around two years ago the more established banks started to take notice.
Capitec now has around 9% of South Africa’s banking market share and their most important objective is to attract primary banking accounts, those into which salaries are directly deposited. The bank also plans to launch a credit card at the end of this year.
The interim results stated that Capitec’s transaction fee income for the first six months of the financial year grew by 61% to R583 million ($65 million) year-on-year. Headline earnings per share grew by 35% to R7.02 ($0.80). Income from credit was R3.6 million ($403,000), which the bank says is due to growth in the unsecured credit market.
The management team at Capitec had been part of a share incentive scheme, allowing them to buy into the company. Last year, there were numerous reports and speculation as to Capitec’s health and suggestions that its captain, Stassen, was abandoning ship, and that other executives were offloading their shares too. When asked about it Stassen says: “It was very bad reporting”.
The truth of the matter is that Stassen sold most of the shares in his own name but that 95% of his investment in the bank is held by a company in his family trust. The private investment company owns more than R400 million ($44.8 million) worth of shares.
“I believe it’s extremely dangerous for executives to be over-extended to the company they run,” says Stassen.
He says this is because, when executives become over-exposed, they start making short-term decisions and manipulate numbers to protect the share price.
Last year, Capitec sought to raise funds through a rights issue, which increased the bank’s capital base by R2.25 billion ($252 million). The funds were for the extension of the branch network, with 55 to 75 new branches proposed for this year, and to increase lending.
Earlier this year PSG sold off some off its stake in Capitec to repay debt incurred in the purchasing of approximately R724 million ($81 million) from the rights issue last year. PSG’s stake in Capitec has dropped from 32.2% to 28.5%, and the company says it will not be selling off any more of its shares.
Then in February, the South African Public Prosecutor confirmed that it will launch a formal investigation into a black economic empowerment deal, from 2011, resulting in a consortium with ties to the country’s ruling party acquiring nearly R1 billion ($122 million) worth of Capitec shares. Nel says they will cooperate fully with the investigation.
Capitec is currently focusing on South Africa but will start identifying opportunities in other countries on the continent. Its long-term goal has always been to internationalize its banking model. Infrastructure is however a concern as the bank is highly reliant on technology. As the fastest growing retail bank in South Africa for individuals, winner of Africa’s Top 100 JSE Companies for the second time, forging into an under-tapped market and making the big dogs follow suit, could mean Capitec will lose its underdog title.
Goliath may not be down and out yet, but he is certainly taking notes on David.

A Plucky David Banking  On Beating Goliaths

There is no air of self-importance surrounding the co-founder and CEO of Nkonki Inc., Sindi Zilwa. In fact, if you did not know her, you would walk past her without a second glance.
Born 45 years ago in the city of Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape Province, she has come a long way to become one of the most important women in South Africa’s corporate world. Zilwa’s dream was to see more black women become chartered accountants (CAs).
“I lost sleep over the fact that I was the second women to become a CA,” she says.
Nonkululeko Gobodo, executive chairperson of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, was the first and because they came from the same city it was inevitable they partnered to form Filtane Nkonki Accounting Consultancy in Mthatha.
But before she opened the consultancy, Zilwa had pursued her dream of producing more black chartered accountants by lecturing at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the then University of Transkei (Unitra).
“I was in a hurry to see more black CAs but the people I wanted to see qualifying were not in a hurry, there was a misalignment.”
“I was so sad when I marked the scripts and realized that no one with an ambition to become a CA was willing to work hard for it. Others wished to become CAs but they didn’t do what it costs to become a CA,” says Zilwa.
Zilwa had come from the same poverty stricken background—her mother was a hawker—as her students and was not willing to take any excuses.
“Based on that I said, ‘Let me try to use my time in some other way’. So, I decided to concentrate on my practice.”
That practice was established in late 1992 when Zilwa moved back to Mthatha after leaving Deloitte in Johannesburg. Three years later, the two partners decided to go their separate ways.
“If the car you are driving from here, Johannesburg, to Butterworth, a town near Mthatha, continuously gets tire punctures, you need to make a decision whether you want to continue with that car. For me reaching Butterworth, the destination, was more important; I just had to find another vehicle,” she says.
That vehicle came in the form of her brother, Mzi Nkonki, who was working as a chartered accountant in East London. The siblings joined heads and formed Nkonki&amp;Nkonki in 1996. It was clear that Zilwa—whose maiden name was Nkonki before she married lawyer Sivuyile Zilwa—would become the CEO.
“When we won a contract worth R5 million ($565,000) from the Bisho government to do their audits, we really felt our confidence grow,” says Zilwa.
In 1998, 31-year-old Zilwa caused waves when she was voted Businesswoman of the Year by the Businesswoman Association of South Africa. The hard work was paying off and the partners decided to expand nationwide.
Nkonki Sizwe and Ntsaluba accounting firms joined hands to form the first national black-owned accounting firm, NkonkiSizweNtsaluba. Zilwa was the CEO of the joined entity. This relationship lasted for six years before it was disbanded. Interestingly, Nonkululeko Gobodo has since replaced Nkonki as part of SizweNtsalubaGobodo.
“At brand level we did well but at administration level we didn’t do so well. I could only share in the liabilities and profits in the Eastern Cape but where I was based, in Johannesburg, I didn’t get anything,” says Zilwa.
The Nkonki siblings decided to revert back to working alone after another short-lived joint partnership.
“We made a commitment never to burn our fingers again. When you merge you move ten steps forward but if it does not work you move twenty steps back. I think that was the problem,” she says.
Today, Nkonki Inc. has more than 55 partners and directors based in the country’s major cities, with 300 staff and a turnover of around R60 million ($6,7 million). Although it is a thriving business which counts, amongst others, South African Airways, Hernic Ferrochrome and Eskom as clients; the company still experiences many challenges.
“As a black firm you are more inclined to get public sector work because you get more support from there. All the medium-sized firms are owned by the white middle class so they tend to get private sector business more,” she says.
Never one to back down from a challenge, instead of complaining the mother of two shows that she is a solutions-driven person.
The first time she opened her accounting firm, Zilwa wrote to the then Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni, to tell him about the challenges faced by black accounting firms.
“I always aspired to audit a bank because that is an intellectual hub of knowledge, so I wrote to him because of the conditions.”
“Companies wanted you to have 10 years of partner experience but none of us had that experience. Where would you have been a partner for 10 years back then?” she asks.
This was to be the beginning of her other career as a member of a number of boards including Aspen, Woolworths, PRIMEDIA and the Billion Group.
“The deputy governor of the Reserve Bank gave me call and said I should come up to Johannesburg to meet him. That really opened doors for me,” she says.
The first board she sat on was the Wiphold Group, which was once listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Currently, she is making waves as part of the high performing Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, led by FORBES AFRICA Person of the Year nominee, Stephen Saad, which he started with deputy CEO, Gus Attridge.
“She is an extremely warm-hearted person with a great sense of humor, which makes her instantly likeable. I admire her career and personal achievements as a person who has reached the heights of her profession when she was afforded no privileges in her upbringing or early education,” says Attridge.
Zilwa has come a long way from being instructed by her brother to study accounting to being a leader in the accounting industry.

Never Let A Puncture Slow You Down

“When sailing a boat or driving a bus, I don’t want to be in the passenger seat, I want to drive.” These are the words of former MXit CEO, Alan Knott-Craig Junior, who stepped down on October 19. He and the shareholders knew where they wanted to take MXit, but didn’t agree on how to get there.
In 2013, instead of sitting in the boardroom, Knott-Craig won’t be driving a bus but a motorhome, contemplating his future. He bought MXit in October 2011 through his company, World of Avatar, and announced his resignation in October 2012; in the same breath MXit announced a R100 million ($11.4 million) investment.
The word is that Knott-Craig clashed with shareholders and FirstRand heavyweights Paul Harris and GT Ferreira.
Knott-Craig sold the shares in World of Avatar, which bought MXit from its founder Herman Heunis; who in turn sold all his MXit shares to World of Avatar and is now on sabbatical photographing wildlife in Botswana.
Knott-Craig will also be taking time out to reflect on his decisions and traveling.
“They bought me out, it was quite emotional. In retrospect it was a long time coming,” he says.
Duncan McLeod, tech columnist, founder and editor of TechCentral says it appears the disagreement was largely between Knott-Craig and Paul Harris. He also said that Knott-Craig’s management style, which included not taking minutes; allowing staff to wear baggy pants and having an unstructured approach, was appreciated by his employees, especially at iBurst.
“It depends on who takes over MXit. They’re facing fierce competition [from] BBM and WhatsApp as the market moves to smartphones,” says Mcleod.
Knott-Craig believes his former business will prosper.
“It’s got a lot of money invested in it. It makes a lot of money. It’s got a lot of employees; a lot of users and that’s the ecosystem. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon; it’s on the right track. My [former] co-shareholders are not fools, they wouldn’t be investing in this thing unless they thought we had a chance. So it’s quite exciting,” says Knott-Craig.
For now, Knott-Craig is off on holiday for six months; he’ll travel the States with his wife and two children in a Winnebago mobile home. He will have plenty of time to consider his future on the open road. When he gets back he wants to study South African history, maybe he would do well to study South African boardroom politics as well.

Knott Mixing It Anymore

As the recipient of a prestigious fishing award, the chief executive officer of the biggest fishing enterprise in South Africa and the driving force behind the leading canned pilchards brand in South Africa, Francois Kuttel is surely deserving of some accolades.
Recently, Oceana Group Limited, of which Kuttel is CEO, was rated the second most empowered company in South Africa.
Kuttel is inspired by Warren Buffett, arguably the greatest investor in the 20th century, and the CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway.
His ability to embrace some ‘Buffettisms’ might have contributed to Kuttel’s rise from virtual obscurity to the CEO of a big company.
Buffett’s emphasis on value addition, knowing his product and investing in people has had a major influence on Kuttle.
The American billionaire says that nobody should invest in a business they do not understand.
“Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down,” says Buffett.
He also claims that it’s better to hang out with people better than you.
“Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction,” he said.
Kuttel’s insight into the truths of these ‘Buffettisms’ contributed to his ability to transform Oceana into an industry-leader.
Kuttel’s father, popularly known as Padda Kuttel, left a career as a lawyer to pursue the fishing industry. He purchased a wooden boat and a fishing rod in the early 1960s and started Atlantic Fishing, which became one of South Africa’s most successful fishing industries in the 1980s.
When his family immigrated to the United States, Kuttel was ready to assist his father with an Alaskan fishing venture.
But his father insisted that he attend the University of San Diego to complete his Bachelor of Accountancy degree.
For several years, Kuttel worked in Alaska with the family business, until he took over operations with his brother.
Now well versed in all areas of the fishing industry, including fishing, steering trawlers and processing and packaging, Kuttel returned to South Africa in 1995 to become the managing director of the family-owned businesses Namsea and Namfish.
When the businesses were sold in 2002, he worked extensively with his brother in the United States and commuted between there and South Africa.
His wife, Kimberley, was not keen to move permanently to the United States, so he moved back to South Africa and took up the position of CEO at Irvin and Johnson (I&amp;J) before he became CEO of Oceana in 2009.
Because of Kuttel’s intimate understanding of the fishing industry, he could easily invest time, energy and money into it—true to the ‘Buffettism’ of knowing your investment.
He joined Oceana six months after they had posted a headline increase of just under 60%. The challenge was to keep growing performance, top and bottom.
Kuttel’s ability to aggressively market and grow the Lucky Star brand, was key to the growth.
At the end of 2012, Oceana, with a 65% canned fish market share, mainly through Lucky Star, had its catch quota increased by 10,000 metric tons to 120,000 tons in South Africa. It imports fish from Morocco, Thailand, the United States and Japan.
Sourcing the raw material from these countries allowed Oceana to grow the market substantially. Already the biggest seller of canned fish in South Africa, the company had a 33% jump in full-year earnings at the end of 2012.
Its net income increased from $33.4 million to $44.5 million a year earlier.
Kuttel, again quoting Buffett, says that when you want to grow a product, you must ensure that the fundamentals of good business are in place. Yet, you have to look at the undervalued investments that have scope for improved performances, and unlock that value.
In June, Oceana announced the acquisition of Foodcorp’s fishing rights, which could give the group the resources it needs to increase its presence in Africa. The Foodcorp deal will enable Oceana to lift its total allowable catch (TAC) in pilchard from 14.3% to 25.6%.
This gain was critical for Lucky Star, with Kuttel noting Oceana recently needed to import as much as 65% of its pilchard stock for the canned fish business. Oceana also increased the TAC for anchovy from 16.8% to 24.7% and hake from 4% to 8.8%.
Kuttle was the recent recipient of the Fishing News International’s 2013 Person of the Year award. It was recognition of his business philosophy of investing in people and being pro-active in sea life management.
As chairman of the Responsible Fisheries Alliance, he has played a part in pioneering a successful program to reduce bird fatalities.
When Oceana closed a plant at Lamberts Bay, on South Africa’s west coast, they did not entrench workers, but looked to create economic opportunities for them. They established a French fry facility that could employ more people than the fish processing facility did.
In Lamberts Bay, Oceana doubled its spend on the skills development of black employees from $600,000 in 2010 to more than $1.3 million in 2011, while spend on suppliers, with a turnover below $3.5 million, increased from $17.5 million in 2010 to $42.4 million in 2011.
Kuttel says Oceana has created a very successful empowerment trust.
“All our black employees are beneficiaries of that trust and it could possibly be in excess of R700 million ($70 million) in terms of accrued capital value when that trust unwinds.”
A staunch advocate of investing in people, Kuttel believes this is one of the keys to Oceana’s success.
“I believe if I surround myself with clever people, I look clever,” he says.

The Buffett Of Southern Seas

The best way to get corporate heavyweights in the same room is to host an event based on something close to their hearts—making money.
This is why investors from across South Africa flocked to the Michelangelo Hotel on September 14, for the Nigeria Business Opportunities Roadshow. The speakers, all dressed to the nines, wooed the crowd with words like ‘high returns’ and ‘economic growth’.
The roadshow was hosted by two Nigerian-based companies, AiQ Capital Management Limited and Detail. AiQ Capital offers financial and management advisory services as well as a hospitality and retail fund. Detail is a legal consulting firm specializing in cooperate and commercial law. It aids businesses in areas such as structuring partnerships, due diligence, as well as regulatory and corporate compliance.
According to Uzoma Nwankwo, CEO and MD of AiQ capital, Nigeria’s progressive economic climate is ripe for investors.
In 2011, Nigeria’s GDP was $247 billion with a growth of 7% driven by non-oil production. Industries including agriculture, manufacturing and services contributed to this growth. The Nigerian informal sector is the greatest employer of Nigeria’s workforce but is not reflected in GDP data.
“That is why you’ll find a street vendor with three children, two houses and a car, and wonder how he’s able to sustain his lifestyle when the country’s GDP per capita is $1,600,” says Nwankwo.
Almost all of Nigeria’s sectors need investment. The power sector may be one of the most needy, as production is dependent on it. Nigeria needs 10,000MW yet produces a mere 6,000MW.
The country loses $500 million annually to medical tourism as medical care is poor. Last year, 250,000 Nigerians traveled to India for medical care and each paid at least $30,000 on transportation, accommodation and hospital bills.
Then there’s the hotel industry. According to a biannual study by Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), hotels in Lagos are ranked as the second most expensive in the world; they charge an average of $341 per night, behind Moscow, Russia, where they charge $407. Debbie Peters, who heads the AiQ Capital Hospitality and Real Estate Fund, says that there is a desperate need for quality branded hotels in the middle market.
“The 20-year-old four star hotels are below international standards and charge very high rates,” she says.
“The middle class, roughly 40 million people, is the fastest growing market in Nigeria forming the biggest market for hotels,” says Peters.
According to the website howwemadeitinafrica.com, the risks involved in investing in Nigeria include: choice of partners, corruption, poor legal systems, difficult logistics, poor infrastructure and insufficient power to name a few. A common mistake investors make is partnering with corrupt people. Although it is vital to have a local partner for logistical reasons, local knowledge and market penetration, many potential partners claim to have connections in government, false credentials or undisclosed interests, which could affect one’s reputation.
On the upside there’s a population of 160 million people which has potential for a consumer boom. This year the country’s estimated GDP growth is 8%—placing it in the same league as India, China and Indonesia.
Investors at the Michelangelo Hotel appeared enthused by Nigeria. Patrick Katabua, from AfRES (African Real Estate Society), said that he had been to Nigeria and knows the need for affordable accommodation.
“There are so many overseas companies coming to invest in Africa. The potential in our countries is booming and if we do not invest we will lose out,” says Katabua.
Sandile Mabuza, CEO of Mbuza Capital &amp; Maika Holdings, was attracted to the possibility of high returns and is looking to invest in infrastructure and property. Mabuza’s main concern is the lack of strong institutions to protect investors.
The Nigerian minister of trade and investment, Olusegun Aganga, recently reported that 18 of the 20 countries he visited in the last year had shown interest in investing in the country. Among those countries were the United States and Japan. This gives testament to Vision 20:2020 made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to make Nigeria one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020.
Whether one should invest or not isn’t the most significant question at this time. Rather ask how to go about investing, who to partner with and understand the risks involved. The ball is ultimately in your court.

Nigeria: To Invest Or Not To Invest?  That Is The Question

The year was 1994. South Africa’s political climate was changing; a new president promised democracy and opportunities for all. For Romeo Makhubela life was just beginning. After years of teaching, he decided to register at business school. He put down the chalk and left the classroom, and today he is the CEO of a 100 percent black-owned investment company, a world away from high school teaching.
This epiphany turned him into one of the country’s emerging financial services providers. The reason Makhubela was in the classroom in the first place was no surprise. For most black South Africans at the time, that was the highest you could reach. You could either be a policeman, nurse or teacher.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like teaching. He had studied for a Bachelor of Commerce degree and topped it with a teaching diploma, which led him to become a commerce teacher for final year students, in the North West province of South Africa.
“The most exciting part as a teacher, especially a high school teacher, is when the [matric] results come out, and you realize that the investment that you made [has paid off]. I remember one year ‘I’ had a lot of distinctions and for me that was so fulfilling because you could see people going to university, some are now working and you know that you were part of that product,” says Makhubela.
“I started teaching in 1990… Around 1992 or ’93 I started noticing that a change was coming in South Africa and clearly businesses would start transforming and there would be huge opportunities, especially for people who had a Bachelor of Commerce qualifications,” says Makhubela.
It was never easy, amid the political turmoil of his country. During his university studies, Makhubela was also politically active.
“I matriculated in 1983. Things were quite tough at that stage; I think the upheavals were starting… It was terrible in those days and I had [to take] a break in ’84, then in ’85 I started doing my Bachelor of Commerce degree ’till around ’88. There was one year where we didn’t write exams because of the [political] problems.”
“Politics then was something that you just couldn’t avoid because there were a lot of injustices in this country… Especially at [university] because you started seeing the world and seeing that certain things weren’t correct… The way some lecturers conducted themselves, I can tell you one example; [In our first year] the one [lecturer]… just came and said ‘Look this is such a big class, I’m not used to teaching [so many people] and I can assure you that in third year 80 to 90% [of you] will be gone’. And you sit down and say ‘How could you make such a statement?’.”
Today, he is no longer in politics; he sits at the head of Vunani Limited. The eight-year-old company was launched in 2004 following a management buyout from African Harvest. In 2007, the company listed on the JSE AltX Exchange raising R175 million ($21.4 million). They currently have offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, in South Africa and Harare, Zimbabwe.
He worked his way to the top, starting out at an insurance company as a graduate trainee, then he became a financial analyst for an asset management company and after around six years in the asset management field, he was recruited as chief investment officer for a life insurance company. And now he is heading Vunani Limited, an emerging company that wants to leave its mark as South Africa’s leading black-owned financial services provider. Vunani Limited is listed on the JSEAltX; it is currently listed 19th in the financial services sector, with R204.5 million ($24.96 million) of market capitalization. The company has a diverse portfolio, which consists of Vunani Fund Managers; Vunani Capital; Vunani Technology Ventures; Vunani Securities; Vunani Capital Markets and Vunani Properties. Now it is going up against the best in the financial services industry and is forging its own way. One challenge they, like many other companies, are facing is growing the industry.
Makhubela’s focus now is on getting his countrymen to start putting away more for a rainy day.
“One of the biggest gripes about South Africa is that if you look at our saving ratio, it’s quite low and clearly that tells to the culture or the environment from which people [come from]. My sense is that, maybe in the white culture it’s much better because at least that kind of information was instilled but in the broader black community… the kind of savings that you generally see within [them] would be pension funds, which is forced, because when you work you get your pension fund automatically.”
Last year, South Africa’s minister of finance, Pravin Gordhan, said that South Africa’s savings rate was low and that it “needed to increase its saving rate if it were to become the ‘China of Africa’”.
Makhubela agrees.
“Savings are critical… look at the Chinese for example. The savings rate there is extremely high—but you could argue that it’s influenced by a number of facts because they don’t have a proper social system… But that helps because if you look at the global crisis we are experiencing now… the Chinese have played an important role in terms of lessening the impact of the global crisis because of their savings.”
According to The South African Savings Institute (SASI), South Africa is the lowest ranking member of BRICS when it comes to saving.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) statistics show that since 2001, compared with its BRICS counterparts, SA’s rate of national savings has remained flat… In China, gross savings are over 50% of GDP, in Russia 30% and Brazil over 18%. In South Africa that figure is about 16.5%… It’s 72nd in the world behind Algeria (3rd), Morocco (25th), Nigeria (27th), Zambia (32nd), Namibia (34th), Botswana (42nd) and Lesotho (62nd)”.
The poor argue that saving is the last thing on your mind when you are living from hand-to-mouth, while the middle class chooses to splash out, so where does that leave the future of the fund management industry?
Makhubela says that when the rate of unemployment decreases, and more people start earning and being forced to save, then the tide will change. But while there is no growth in savings right now, Makhubela and his team are looking beyond borders, with Zimbabwe under their belt, they are also currently setting up in Namibia.
From marking exam papers to signing off millions, Makhubela is trying to teach one of the greatest lessons in life—how to save even when it hurts.

Trading The Classroom For The Boardroom

It’s refreshing when you come across a foreigner passionate about Africa. The continent has become the new big market for multinationals all over the world. But Ewan Cameron, CEO of Lonrho Hotels is not jumping on the bandwagon, he’s had his sights set on Africa for a long time, and not only for business, he’s also ardent about the continent and its people.
“My interest in Africa came at an early age, I’ve always been interested in the people and the culture,” says Cameron.
<div id="attachment_979" style="width: 810px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-979" class="size-full wp-image-979" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/test.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533" />Lansmore Masa Square, Garborone, Botswana</div>
Cameron has a long history in the hotel industry though he’s only 39. Born and raised in Glasglow, Scotland, he started out waiting tables and cleaning rooms at the Swallow Hotel and Conference Centre in Dundee, while he studied Business Sciences at the University of Dundee. After graduating in 1992, the Swallow Hotel Group offered him a position as front house manager of the hotel. His keen interest in hotel management won him a transfer to the Glasglow Swallow Hotel, where he became the business development manager. Then the United Kingdom’s two biggest hotel groups, at the time, Thistle Hotel Chain and the Forte Hotel Group, noticed him. Cameron went with Forte, because of its international exposure. Thistle is the biggest hotel chain in the UK but had no hotels outside the region. Forte has hotels all over the world. Cameron’s portfolio included some heavyweight clients like UBS, the Ford Motor Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He later took over new business development at Forte. In 1999, Forte bought the Holiday Inn franchise. And in 2002, Cameron moved over to head up franchising. This is where he got his real feel for Africa. He travelled extensively overseeing operations in the Middle East and Africa. Cameron worked closely with Southern Sun, which at the time was running some of its hotels under the Holiday Inn brand. But in 2008, Southern Sun cut ties with the Intercontinental franchise and dropped the use of Holiday Inn.
Cameron also decided it was time to cut ties.
“I tried for years to convince Forte to expand in Africa, but they were not interested, they wanted to expand in Asia and the Middle East, I wanted to grow Africa. I drew up a strategy for Africa and Lonrho liked it,” Cameron recalls. The Lonrho Group has been operating in Africa for over 100 years. It is invested in luxury hotels across Southern Africa. It also runs airlines and is involved in the agricultural sector. The group took Cameron’s strategy and made him CEO in 2010. Since then, he has wasted no time in implementing his ambitious plan. Lonrho has partnered with easyHotel Group to roll out 50 new hotels by 2016.
“There is growing demand in Africa especially for the business traveler,” notes Cameron. Lonrho has five-star luxury hotels in 16 countries in Africa. The group is now moving towards building more business-friendly hotels.
“These hotels wouldn’t have the luxury that our high-end hotels offer, but they’re comfortable for the business person going on a quick trip,” he says. His strategy is to open hotels with a fresh and modern design. They will offer all the services a businessperson needs, like a conference venue, gym facilities, a coffee shop for meetings and full Wi-Fi. Hotel managers are also being trained.
“Our managers should be able to link travelers to local businesses and help link them to potential clients and vice versa; the hotel needs to become a one-stop shop,” he says.
The new low-cost easyHotels have opened in some countries with rooms from $35. In June, Lonrho opened a hotel in Gaborone, Botswana. Another hotel opened in Beira in Mozambique in July. There are plans for new hotels in Nairobi in Kenya, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Accra in Ghana.
<div id="attachment_981" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-981" class="size-large wp-image-981" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/lonrho-head-office-photos-033-681x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="713" />Ewan Cameron, CEO of Lonrho Hotels</div>
Later this year, Lonrho will also open its first hotel in South Africa in the Johannesburg city center. The hotel will be situated outside the new Gautrain rail link from O.R. Tambo International Airport. In recent years, several international hotel groups have opened hotels in the affluent Sandton area, but not many have ventured into the city’s center.
Cameron is not one to follow the herd; he believes that not everyone travelling to Johannesburg wants to go to Sandton. He is also not too worried about going into areas that pose political and social risks. Lonrho recently purchased a second hotel in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). For decades, the country has been torn apart by war and civil unrest. This has not deterred Cameron who believes there’s rich tourism potential in the country’s capital. Cameron is certainly a risk taker but he does his homework and says he has an exit plan for every hotel the group owns. He works closely with the Mckinsey research group for facts, figures and other data on Africa. According to Mckinsey research, the DRC will be the fastest growing economy in Africa by 2026.
But not everyone has an appetite for risk. Tsogo Sun Holdings, Africa’s biggest hotel and gaming group, is not convinced there is a real demand for hotels in Africa. It already has a strong footprint in Africa with its Southern Sun hotels and feels more confident in South Africa than the rest of Africa.
“There are no volumes in Africa,” says Tsogo Sun CEO, Marcel von Aulock.
“African economies are small and there’s still very little corporate activity to propose new hotels.”
Tsogo recently posted a solid set of annual results. The group raised earnings 39% to R9 billion ($1.1 billion). Von Aulock is also no newcomer to the industry. He joined Tsogo’s finance department in 1999. Ten years later, he took over as the group’s CEO. He believes he understands the hotel industry and while he does see opportunities for further expansion on the continent, he feels the timing needs to be right.
Tsogo’s approach to the hotel industry differs from Lonrho’s. The group is focused on taking full ownership of hotels; it doesn’t just take over the management and operations.
“We want to own the land the hotel is standing on, we want to manage and operate it and own the brand, and it’s not always easy to do that. But we are not about taking the easy approach,” adds Von Aulock. The group recently closed its famous Southern Sun Grayston Hotel in Sandton after 30 years, because it didn’t own the land. The tenants raised the rent and Tsogo felt it was no longer feasible to remain on the property.
“This served as a lesson for us, that’s why it is more important now that we stick to our business model,” says Von Aulock.
But he concedes this is one of the main reasons it’s hard to penetrate Africa.
“Land is still a very controversial issue, the operating costs are very high. If we build a hotel in Africa, we have to set up our own power generation, our own water purification and sewerage systems—it requires a massive cash injection,” says Von Aulock. This is where Tsogo and Lonrho differ. Lonrho takes over existing hotels, rents the properties and provides the management and operational expertise to run the business.
Tsogo has also done well with its gaming business in South Africa, but says it has no plans to open casinos anywhere in Africa.
“Again there’s no market for gambling in Africa. The South African market is very different—our casinos here are doing very well, even in tough economic times, there’s still spending capacity in South Africa, not in Africa, there’s no middle-class in Africa and unfortunately that’s where the spending comes from.”
But Tsogo Holdings is not staying away completely. It’s still positive about future growth and says it will continue to look for opportunities. It owns 95 hotels in southern Africa, most of which are four- and five-star hotels. But last year, it ventured into the business traveler market opening a two-star StayEasy hotel in Lusaka, Zambia. The hotel is a nice fit for corporate travelers looking for tourist activities. It is attached to a shopping mall, another strategy Tsogo is exploring.
“We want our guests to have quick and easy access to any services they may need,” says Von Aulock.
Tsogo has also taken over distressed hotels successfully. The group recently bought The Grace in Johannesburg’s northern suburb of Rosebank for R85 million ($10.12 million). The iconic boutique hotel closed its doors in August last year after the operating company ran into financial difficulty. Tsogo Sun has spent over R20 million ($2.4 million) on refurbishing the hotel. The new 54 on Bath hotel opened its doors in July.

Tag: CEO

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