Given your vast and varied experience, what advice can you offer to entrepreneurs?
Firstly, being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. We’ve created an incredible respect and understanding of entrepreneurship, way more in this country even than when we were starting www.ag-bc.com. Businesses are being started way more frequently and if you look at the numbers, we have many, many more entrepreneurs or people that call themselves entrepreneurs in the country. But I don’t think everybody needs to be one. It’s hard starting your own business. It’s not for everybody.
The second thing is, if you are starting your own business and you can find somebody to work with, it’s immensely rewarding. These are tough times, but if you can share that burden, you can see around more corners. I think that’s the thing that I come back to again and again – if you find that right partner, it can be immensely rewarding.
As the new president of the AGBC, what excites you about the future of African businesses, and also the AGBC and the Chamber Network across the African continent?
One of the reasons that I was thrilled to join the AGBC is because it does seem to represent the best of Africa. It’s got an amazing voice and punches way above its weight. I respect how Chambers, on an individual level but also at a national level, have built a real force to be reckoned with, that the Government takes seriously which is no mean feat.
I think on a more personal level for me, I was very excited to become President because I hope to be able not only to learn, which I’m sure I will from all of the Chambers, but also, because I’ve got this slightly strange and eclectic mix of experience, I hope I can add something into the mix as well and bring some of that to bear.
We need different voices being raised up. We need to make sure that different voices are embedded in the heart of policymaking. And that is what the AGBC is doing, what I know the businesses that work in the Chamber Network are doing and what I want to help do as well.
What area do you think holds significant potential to grow the African economy and businesses over the coming years?
Firstly, we haven’t even begun to digitise yet. Everything that can be digitised is going to be. The software revolution is only just starting. I’m sure some of the businesses in the Network think ‘oh my god, I can’t cope with any more technology’ but I’m sorry, I have to tell you that we haven’t even seen the beginning of it. And there are therefore still massive opportunities not only to reinvent your own business, but also to reinvent us as a country and the skills we have and services we offer.
The second area just has to be climate-related innovation. Whether it’s energy-related innovation or whether it’s climate tech-related innovation, or food reinvention, there are so many opportunities. I think we, as a country, have huge heritage in manufacturing, in agriculture, in all the things that need to be reinvented. So those are areas that I think are very exciting, and those are going to be the trillion-dollar businesses of the future, so we want to be able to gobble up as much of them as possible – improving the planet and our profits in the process.
What will the digital revolution of the coming years look like for businesses?
We need to encourage all businesses to constantly think of themselves as digital businesses in order to be able to survive by 2050. And that means investing in infrastructure, reimagining processes, upskilling, reimagining their products and services. The challenge with this is it doesn’t stop, it’s not like a checkbox. Digital transformation is a never-ending process, which again, probably will fill many of our members with horror because they think ‘oh I’ve just completed that IT project’. But the truth is, we don’t take enough advantage of the digital world in this country.
When I started my business in the 90’s, I imagined that by the mid 2020s we’d have digital entrepreneurs everywhere, in all shapes, sizes, colours, backgrounds, and we haven’t, so there’s a massive opportunity in upskilling more of our general population. More women, more people of colour, more people from different socio-economic backgrounds, if they’ve got different technical skills, I believe they will be able to start better businesses and grow the whole pie for everyone. So, from every angle, there’s still work to do, but I’m hugely optimistic. We’re a small country. We’ve got so many of the factors. We just need to keep pushing.
What is your inspiration for the supporting the business of young entrepreneurs?
I really am looking forward to coming around the country and meeting businesses. I feel I’m so lucky to have a small voice in this country, and I want to deploy it by understanding what’s going on. One of the absolute joys of doing the work I did in Government in the past was getting the opportunity to go around and get a fast track into different parts of the country. And I’m really looking forward to doing that again. I’m going to Uk and Europe very soon and I plan to be in other places too. I’m really looking forward to meeting Chambers and their members and exchange our experience in order to motivate African people to do more for their continent.
What are your interests outside of your very busy working life?
I love reading. I read all the time. I was absolutely thrilled last year to chair the Women’s Prize for Fiction judges. The winner was a novel called Hamlet by Maggie O’Farrell which is completely astonishing. I love that. But for non-fiction, I’ve just finished reading a book called The Changing World Order, by a private equity expert called Ray Dalio. He’s American. He’s very famous, he founded Bridgewater. But he’s written about how empires rise and fall and what the economics behind that is and how it can predict the future and what it means for business.
