03/04/2021
Let us all become astute in running our business and avoid the death of our homegrown business at their prime
: The Power of Process
When I was a young entrepreneur, I was invited to visit one of my country’s most prominent entrepreneurs at the time. He was already in his 70s. His business consisted mainly of a very large and profitable supermarket complex that he had started from scratch, and had built up over decades.
I was invited into his small office at the back of the complex where he was counting the day’s takings. It was a ritual that he proudly told me he had personally done since he had started. He trusted only a small group of people, and outside were all security guys.
After finishing, he gave me some time, reminding me what a privilege it was for me to even get to see him, which I appreciated. I listened to him talk and share whatever he had on his mind. He focused on the virtue of hard work, which in his case meant that he slept for just a few hours every day. It was a punishing schedule.
He had a huge family which he complained about because they would not be willing work as hard but were waiting in the wings for him to die so they could squander his money! I carefully and respectfully asked him questions, and as he noticed the astuteness and sincerity of my questions, he became even more excited and shared with me things he would never otherwise have spoken about.
This was a lesson for me: If you want to learn something from someone do not try and do it on your terms. I could have behaved like a brash young and confident young man, and for his generation that would have forced him to close me out.
Once I had gained his confidence, we were able to talk more freely. Then one day he said to me: “Strive, my son, tell me how they run supermarkets like mine in England where you lived for so long.”
“I have read of a man called Sam Walton who is also in this business, and he is the richest man in the world.”
“Really?!”
“He has hundreds of stores, each ten times bigger than this one.”
“How does he do it?”
I was careful in my explanations because I took care not to offend on the one hand by criticizing how he ran his business. He was already too old, and it would be difficult to make any real changes. But had he been younger, I would have given him a lecture on the 3P’s.
He himself could easily have built a business that could have spanned across Africa had he become a of Scale [you can follow how this is done on Podcasts/Masters of Scale].
By Mastering , he would have never had to visit a single store, and he could have enjoyed his golden years. He could have become a philanthropist and left the business to be run by professional executives.
The 3Ps [Product, People, Process], for those of you new to the platform, is a subject I taught about for more than a year, a few years ago. It is what drives the growth of a business, and how you take a small business and turn it into a national, and even a continental or global enterprise...
I will not return to this subject. Those who really wish to learn will go back to that material. You can also go on Sasai Podcasts, and listen to the series called Masters of Scale by the billionaire who started LinkedIn. There is also a series called “How I Made This”.
Businesses become big, not simply because you have a great product, but because you know how to scale, using the 3Ps.
Our company has businesses and operations in countries where I have either never been, or have not visited for a long time. I don’t chase around people all day to see how much money they made!
I don’t even know what they charge for their products. I have no idea what a “data bundle” costs in Zimbabwe or Lesotho! People who think I do must think I’m superhuman! I have no idea how many cars they have or even who works in some of these businesses!
It is called the Power of . I have mastered , so I don’t have to be involved in details that can be done by others.
No one steals from me. They can’t!
When something goes wrong, we go into overdrive to review the systems that are at the centre of our !
This is what happens, for instance, if there has been a fraud in any business.
All over Africa I see businesses that could be 10 times, even 100 times bigger, but they will not be because the founders do not believe in Power of Process!
The supermarket business is a low-margin, high-volume game. In any retail business like that, even if you are small, matters.
Looking back to those meetings with the old man, I relish the incredible lessons he taught me. And there were many, applicable to many types of businesses.
I also knew then that I had to become a of Scale.
When I arrived in South Africa, I used to call the CEO of Econet Zimbabwe every day, at least 10 times a day. Then it became once a day, then once a week. These days I don’t call him that often. We communicate through .
I have never met a lot of our leaders around Africa, but I know them through , much more than you can ever imagine!
You must begin today to engage on . Master it, trust it. It’s the pathway to becoming a big business, as long as you have the ability to choose, attract and retain good .
That is entrepreneurship today.
