Divine Ndhlukula’s 10 steps to grow a successful enterprise
By Kate Douglas, howwemadeitinafrica.com
Divine Ndhlukula |
“I got the idea thanks
to a gap I saw in the market,” said Divine Ndhlukula during her keynote
speech at the 2014 Anzisha Prize awards ceremony this week, where 12 of
Africa’s top young entrepreneurs were honoured in Johannesburg.
Ndhlukula is the entrepreneur behind one of Zimbabwe’s largest
security companies, Securico. She started it in 1995 with only four
employees and today it has grown to over 4,000, including 1,000 women.
The company is also expanding operations into Mozambique and Zambia.
But according to Ndhlukula her road to success has not been easy,
especially being a woman entrepreneur in a typically male-dominated
industry. Addressing the young entrepreneurs in the audience, she shared
10 lessons she has learnt over the years that have helped her grow
Securico into today’s large enterprise. Here are her pointers.
1. The customer is always king
“I always knew that treating the customer as the boss was the key
thing,” she began. “And creating value, giving the best value… is the
way we built loyalty.”
She added that the amount of money an entrepreneur or business makes
can be directly related to the amount of value they provide for their
customers or clients.
2. Look after your staff
“Success depends on employees. For me knowing and connecting with my employees is very important. I have done that very well.”
Ndhlukula explained that by connecting with her employees, she was
able to create a “sense of belonging” for them in the company, and
ensure they bought into her vision.
“I have ensured that I aligned their personal goals with their
business goals and that makes everybody go in tandem with each other. I
try to know almost all my 4,000 employees: their families, their
aspirations, their worst fears and so on.”
3. Success comes with hard work
“I have learnt that earning by working hard is the way to go,” she
said, adding that the magic formula for success is always simply: “The
right attitude, plus hard work”.
4. Embrace new technologies
According to Ndhlukula, Securico is constantly adopting (and adapting
to) new technologies, and she advises entrepreneurs to always keep an
eye open for new technological developments in their industry.
5. Executing a plan needs discipline
“One of the key features in any business leader is execution… and it is a critical block in building a successful enterprise.”
She quoted Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in their book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
“Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and
ineffective. Without the ability to execute, all other attributes of
leadership become hollow.”
6. Always be frugal
“Pay it off, don’t pay it forward. Or put simply: be frugal,” she continued.
To build a business, entrepreneurs will need to ensure they have strong financial discipline in their management, she emphasised.
7. Never stop learning
“The seventh lesson that I learnt is to always keep on learning. I
believe in learning all the time, I’m a life-long learner… I also
believe in re-learning, because there are always new things coming out.
My kids are teaching me things today.”
8. Celebrate success
“In our company we believe in celebrating success because it creates,
and maintains, momentum,” she noted. “Everyone celebrates even the
little things that we succeed in doing, and we have a jolly good time.
That is how people look forward to winning and being successful. Because
they know there are rewards of celebration.”
9. Failures can be valuable
Acknowledging and accepting failure is part of the entrepreneurial
game and Ndhlukula said she has had her share of failure. However,
failures have taught her valuable lessons that made her into a stronger
entrepreneur today. “For me, failure teaches self-confidence and
tenacity.”
10. Use your business ‘to do good’
“What Africa requires are entrepreneurs that start up and create not
just wealth for themselves, but employment for others, because that is
what is vital for sustainable development.”>>>
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