The power of slowing down...

The view from my living room:

What you notice when you slow down

He who has ears, let him hear...

As business leaders, it is amazing how easily we sometimes forget the advise we get?  It's even more mind boggling when the advise came from mentors who have already walked the paths we're now treading.  One advise we frequently get but hardly take is that of SLOWING DOWN....

It's difficult to imagine ourselves being in any other mode besides the "getting it done" mode.  We have convinced ourselves that in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) competitive market space, we cannot afford to slow down.  That's flirting with losing out to the competition.  We have to get things done!  We need to execute! But execute what?

In their book, Strategic Speed (Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution), the authors make an interesting but obvious discovery.  Their studies show that many factors that are associated with achieving speed in execution require some slowing down.  As they put it, "it sometimes takes slowing down to speed up."  That's because when we slow down, it is amazing what we discover.  We miss the very obvious opportunities that stare us right in the face when are constantly busy.  To highlight this fact using a non-business example,the picture above shows a view I have from one of my windows at home. I decided to spend a couple hours this past weekend, doing nothing...that's right nothing.  I just sat in a chair and stared out of that window.  Then it hit me, wow! I actually have a very nice garden.  And I just realized how inspired I get just starting out into this garden...This is a garden I whisk through at least twice daily, on my way to work and back.

Imagine the business opportunities and potential breakthroughs we miss by just being in constant execution mode.  Slowing down allows us to think, dream and ensure that our teams are in sync with us.  Patrick Oduro, CEO of Hephzibah Christian Center, highlighted the power of thinking for his ServLed talk.  To effectively slow down and do the kind of thinking that radically transforms our organizations, one needs to retreat.  One needs to completely withdraw from the everyday routine of doing to spend a few hours, days, even weeks just thinking and daydreaming.  Believe me, it does wonders.

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Thanks and God bless...

Maintaining control of ones business when others come on board

Fixing our eyes on the end...

That can always be difficult.  I keep remembering a question an entrepreneur asked the speaker during the most recent ServLed Friday.  We had reached the Q&A session of the program and questions about valuation, control and preserving the founder's vision were being candidly asked.  And his question created a silence that was deafening.  A question that seems to have crossed the mind of every entrepreneur in the room who may have raised or is looking to raise growth capital.  His question was: "Will you (the investor) get rid of the founder as CEO if you took 90% of their company?".

While the equity stake cited in his question may be extreme, most entrepreneurs struggle with the likelihood of losing a controlling stake in their business when investors come in.  The thought of not being in the "driver's seat" of the entity they birthed seems unfair.  What happens to the dream?  And how do you even break the news of no longer run the show? It's unheard of in these parts of the world.  The founder/owner/director is a lifetime role for most entrepreneurs here.

Well the speaker's answer was interesting and insightful.  
First of all, what is the dream?  Whenever one attracts money (even in the space of impact investing), the dream evolves from just a personal, ideological goal to a shared one that involves financial targets.  The financial targets must be achieved for the investor to find your venture a worthwhile investment opportunity.

Secondly, let's assume the shared goals are absolutely clear to both entrepreneur and investor, the followup question then is: is the entrepreneur right person to lead the company to achieve that dream?  Does the entrepreneur have the right experience, training and network to achieve the desired goals.  In some cases the answer is "no" and in other cases it is "yes".

The concern though is: what happens in the instance where the answer is no?  Well in some cases, a more experienced CEO is brought in to run the show and the founder is given another role in the organization (say leading product development or being COO).  There are other cases where the founder is left in the CEO but a more experienced executive, say a COO, is brought in to lead the growth efforts.  There are other instances where the founder just has to be taken off the management team altogether.  The founder still gets to retain a board seat in most cases and is still very much an owner of the organization.  Now all this is based on the premise that the company follows best practices in corporate governance.  

Whatever the arrangement, it is imperative for both founder and investor to keep their eyes on the end goal and answer the hard questions.  The right answers may not always sit well with all.  Egos may be bruised.  Relationships may be strained.  But in the cases where business maturity prevails, the right financial end goals are reached for the entrepreneur as well as the investor.

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Thanks and God bless...

Show me the money - Financing ones business in Africa

Finding money to run ones business in Africa is extremely difficult.
I am sure most entrepreneurs will agree with the statement above.

Finding viable businesses to invest in is almost impossible in Africa.
This is where I can see my financier friends nod in agreement.

So, what's the real story on the ground?  Both statements have some element of truth.  It appears there is a big knowledge gap in the business community when it comes to identifying and pursuing the right financing options.  The type of financing a business can attract is highly dependent upon the level of maturity and/or growth of the business.

Anthony Siaw (CEO of Bridge Capital) engage a group of entrepreneurs who were highly passionate about the topic of financing at the most recent ServLed Friday.  He used an illustration of a business' life cycle (very much like the profile of a typical product life cycle) to highlight the kind of financing entrepreneurs should be looking for at various stages of their business.  For instance, it is almost impossible to attract debt (unsecured loans) from anyone besides friends and family at the early stage of your business.  In fact, although debt is always cheaper than equity, it just isn't available to entrepreneurs at the early stage of the business.  And even if it is available, it may be a bit irresponsible to use that option for a business model that hasn't been validated and proven to be scalable.

It appears one challenge most financiers have in this part of the world is the issue of exit.  After investing so much in a company, how do I get money back with a big return?  In the west, you hear of exciting exits with venture capitalist walking away with hundred and sometimes thousand times the amount of money they invested in startups.  This usually occurs when the companies are either purchased by another investor or go public.  These kinds of transactions are rare in this part of the world but hopefully will be become common as the venture capital and private equity segment matures. 

The issue of entrepreneurs being willing to give up equity in exchange for growth capital seems to be a challenge here too.  There is always the suspicion of one being cheated by the investor. "I have my idea, do all this work, and they want so much for the money they are bringing in.."  It is however worth noting that without the investor's money (and hand holding in the case of angel investors), the entrepreneur would probably not achieve their dreams of growing beyond a little operation with not much to write home about.

Overall, the session was highly informative and inspiring with a very engaging Q&A session.  The full transcript as well as audio recording will be posted on the ServLed website.   We'll be looking another discussion shortly at ServLed Friday that focuses on each of the investment options in more detail.  We'll be looking at the structures of these options and how an entrepreneur must position themselves to attract the right kind.

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Thanks and God bless...

Why render unto Caesar, when...?

"Why do I have to pay taxes on the goods I sell when it is clear that the authorities just misuse the money?  Tell me...I don't see why I should.  In fact, you cannot convince me to." 

These are words from a frustrated entrepreneur Nana (my co-founder at ServLed) and I had lunch with yesterday.  She is a very bright, highly educated but street smart business woman who gave up her corporate executive job to start her own business.  Her concerns are not unique.  Everyday we encounter business men and women who share the same sentiment.

First of all, there is the issue of the tax authorities.  Most entrepreneurs and businesses complain that they literally have to beg them to perform their duties.  In one such instance, it took the entrepreneurs several visits to their local tax office over a two month period before a tax account was created for their organization.  They were apparently turned back on a couple of occasions with PAYE checks in hand.  Reason? The physical address of their office had to be confirmed for their tax file to be created.  And, the gentleman who had to perform this duty just happen not to be in the office whenever they visited, called or sent a driver to pick him up.  It finally took the entrepreneurs walking into the office of the deputy commissioner to have a file created for them.

Then of course, there is the issue of allegations of non-compliance from state institutions.  You also have countless judgement debt cases.  Then there are allegations of illegal disposal of state owned properties and inappropriate use of tax payers' money by the tax authorities themselves.  Now these allegations while not confirmed, still create a perception that it is pointless to comply.  "Why should I pay my taxes...?"
This is question from our entrepreneur and countless others.

Nana and I spent almost an hour trying to make a case to our concerned entrepreneur.  As difficult as it was, we explained why it is our civic and christian duty to pay our taxes.  I could however feel her pain as she made argument after argument trying to justify her stand.  We eventually managed to convince her to comply...and she did.  In fact, we helped setup her accounts, factoring in the requisite sales tax to preserve her desired margins.

As painful as it is to bite sometimes, it is our duty to pay our taxes.  We cannot evade taxes with the excuse that tax revenue will be misappropriated by the authorities.  We just become part of the problem instead of contributing to the solution.  This generation of business men and women must contribute to achieve the desired change.  Ghana, the 3rd most corrupt country?!?  Things have to change and it starts with each one of us.  Let's do our part and place the burden on our leaders to do the same.

At ServLed, we believe that African businesses can operate with integrity and still be profitable.  We teach this, practice this and refuse to do business with parties who insist on doing otherwise.

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Thanks and God bless...

Let's start with the "WHY"...

Starting with the "WHY"

What excites me about what I do everyday...?

Could it be the passion I have for building things? Or the satisfaction derived from giving life to ideas? (After all, God is a creator and created us in His image)...
Could it also be my firm belief that Africans can excel at everything we set our minds to?  And oh, building world class businesses is no exception.

Well, to answer the question about what excites me about what I do everyday?  All the above and more...

Nana (my co-founder at ServLed) and I started ServLed because we believe Africans are capable of creating world class businesses that:

• operate with integrity and are profitable
• are socially responsible
• can outlive their founders to multiple generations

We can easily name successful companies outside Africa that have survived generations (eg: Walmart, Merck, Sony, Toyota etc) but we always struggle to name even two successful African businesses with similar track record. This has to change!  And ServLed has decided to effect this change, one company at a time...

How are we going to effect change?

We believe that faith allows us to do the "impossible", to defy the norms, challenge conventional wisdom, swim against the tide. When everyone says it cannot or should not be done, we stand firm and pursue the cause.  This is what keeps us going everyday.  This is what gives life to ServLed.  And we trust the good Lord to continue to guide us through this journey daily.

What the ServLed blog is all about

Our desire is to use this blog to share the ServLed journey.  We would like to share the insights, lessons, challenges and success stories tied to "doing business the right way in Africa".  If you share our vision, kindly subscribe via our RSS feeds to receive updates from our blog.  Also tell the world about our blog...invite your friends to come share their experiences as well...

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Thanks and God bless...