African leaders should learn from successful firms

Most owners who take risks do so because they recognise the need to change. AFP 

By Canute Waswa
 

 

In Summary

• A good culture, positive attitude, investing in people and taking calculated risks are features that mark great companies.

“I didn’t choose this life, it chose me. Born in Pakistan, my life mirrors its turbulence, its tragedies and its triumphs. Pakistan is no ordinary country. And mine has been no ordinary life.”

Those are the opening lines of the second edition of Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography, Daughter of the East.

I have reflected a lot on Bhutto’s book this past week as I have watched the footage of Kwame Nkrumah as Ghana was gaining independence in 1957 and Julius Nyerere’s Tanganyika in 1961.

Nkrumah wanted immediate unity of the continent; Nyerere wanted political independence first, as half of Africa was still under colonial rule.

Nyerere called for a candle to be lit on Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, as a beacon for the liberation of the rest of Africa.

As I watched our leaders celebrate 50 years of the African Union in Addis Ababa, it dawned on me that George Santayana was right after all — those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Reading about the experiences of others gives context to the decisions and consequences that we all will


face. History will repeat itself because those who are making history are human beings.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the experience of others is by reading biographies of historical figures, not academic tomes about history. And that’s where Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography comes in.

Yet despite the bad news we so often hear about Africa, the news isn’t all that bad: Thousands of small businesses still start up every year and a good percentage of those companies have learned what it takes to survive the early years and become successful.

After consulting with dozens of small companies, I have discovered that successful countries share one common trait that your business can learn from.

Culture is defined as the “integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behaviour that depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.”

Despite being home to millions of skilled and talented innovators, African leadership has struggled to stimulate and retain its strongest resource — the people.

Africa’s people either live in unnecessary frustration, hopelessness and poverty, die of preventable disease or run to the West to gain appreciation.

The greatest crisis in Africa is not due to HIV, famine or even war. It is primarily due to the non-progressive leaders who have defined our culture for the last fifty years.

For successful companies, culture is about attracting and hiring the people who would be most successful in that organisation. And it’s about driving the behaviour that makes the company successful.

 

As the owner of a company, you must have a positive attitude and accept 100 per cent responsibility for the results of your business. Then you can act to make the necessary changes to achieve desired results. When success is achieved, you’re generous in giving credit to others within the organisation.

Without exception, the most successful business owners understand that it’s all about people — hiring and retaining the right people, eliminating ineffective people and providing the necessary resources for employees to master their tasks.

Successful business owners aren’t afraid to take calculated risks with clear outcomes in mind.

Most owners who take risks do so because they recognise the need to change as the economic climate changes, and they understand it’s disastrous not to embrace change.


Successful business leaders understand that being in business is about managing and responding to change.

The winds of change are blowing. Africa must succeed in embracing change and responding to the challenges presented by the rest of the world.

Mr Waswa is the managing director, Outdoors Africa.