Cathy Smith - Afrikan Heroes

Effective Modern Leadership Requires Technological Nous

August 22, 2022

Cathy Smith Managing Director at SAP Africa

By Cathy Smith

Championing the cause of technology as a business value driver has become an essential component of modern leadership. Notwithstanding the immense impact of the pandemic on the way we work, live and plan our lives, the world has long been in a state of flux due to the transformative impact of new technologies and increased digitisation.

Today, business is IT and IT is business. Even in the public sector, a state’s ability to harness powerful technologies and digitise its interactions with citizens plays a huge role in how effectively that state can deliver its services.

Collectively we will invest $1.8-trillion in digital transformation initiatives this year alone, a 17.6% increase over 2021 and a huge jump from the collective $1.18-trillion we spent on such initiatives in 2019. And with spending continuing at a compound annual growth rate of 16.6% over the next five years, the role of digital transformation has never been greater.

And yet, too often the impact and promise of digital transformation initiatives is undermined by a lack of understanding of the role technology plays.

Led by digital dodos

The truth is, many companies are led by executive teams with a limited understanding of technology. One study found that only 7% of large companies have digitally-savvy executive teams.

While not every CEO needs to be fluent in Python or be able to articulate the inner workings of quantum computing, a basic understanding of technologies and their function is essential in today’s digitally-led economy.

When business leaders are out of touch with technology, it can lead to some embarrassing situations. Just think back to ageing US congressmen asking Google representatives why negative stories appear when they enter their names into Google’s search bar. Or former IBM president Thomas J Watson’s 1940s comment that “there is a world market for about five computers.”

We may have a quiet laugh at the absurdity of such comments, but when they emanate from the mouths of company leadership at a time when sound technological investment can literally mean the difference between success and failure, they lose their comic touch.

Companies are investing more money, resources and manpower in technology and digital transformation than ever before. When the value of that investment is not clear to the executives leading the business, it’s unlikely that companies will achieve a positive return on investment or solve the challenges they seek to overcome.

More importantly, the lost opportunity cost could set back companies’ growth and innovation plans for years, leaving them lagging competitors at a time when competition is at a peak.

Turning tech investment into executive action

A sad but inescapable truth is that those controlling the purse strings – whether they be investors, boards of directors or finance ministers – will not become advocates of IT if they do not understand the value it creates.

Digital transformation projects that fail to realise value or experience severe cost and time overruns, can undermine the trust that decision-makers have in technology. This creates a disconnect between business and IT that hampers future digital transformation initiatives.

However, when executives do understand and see the value, and are clear on the application of technology in their own business to improve the lives of their customers, there is no limit to the innovation and growth they can unlock.

To start, focus on asking the right questions. Instead of wondering about which mix of cloud technologies is best, or what the scope of their IoT deployment needs to be, executives should focus on the business objectives they are trying to achieve.

“How can I remove friction from my customer experience?” or “how best do I respond to a new digital competitor to my business model?” are far better departure points for digital transformation than “which technologies should I acquire to be successful?”.

Once the objective is clear, business and IT need to collaborate to develop an effective implementation and change management plan driven from the top through middle management and across the organisation. A sustained campaign highlighting the value of the digital transformation project and what it means to business users, customers and the broader organisation can greatly assist with driving adoption of new tools and processes.

A CEO or CFO that is actively involved in the execution of the company’s digital transformation strategy and understands the close alignment between tech and business strategy can act as powerful role models to the rest of the organisation. It’s no surprise that some of the most successful digital transformation projects have hands-on involvement from the C-suite, who set the pace for how the business collaborates with IT.

Investing in training and skills development ensures every layer of the organisation – from the top floor to the shop floor – understands the value of the new tech-enabled capabilities and can apply the new tools effectively when performing their day-to-day work tasks.

Critically, executives need to establish a culture of continuous improvement and refinement where technologies, tools and processes are constantly fine-tuned to serve the precise needs of the organisation and its customers, partners and suppliers.

Whether you lead a nimble start-up, large enterprise or an entire nation, as a leader you need a well-developed understanding of the role technology can play in improving lives, developing new solutions to present challenges, and driving growth.

Gaining some technological nous is an essential component of successful modern leadership.

Cathy Smith is the Managing Director at SAP Africa

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Social Enterprises Could Hold the Hey to a Prosperous and Equitable Future for Africa

November 12, 2021

By Cathy Smith

As we continue rebuilding following the economic and social damage caused by the pandemic, there is ample opportunity for optimism. I am encouraged by the continent’s rich history of innovation and ingenuity. After all, Africa is the cradle of humankind, where stone tools were first invented (2.6 million years ago in modern Ethiopia), papyrus was invented by the Egyptians more than 5 000 years ago, and where the world’s first university – in 859 – was created in Morocco.

Today, Africa is more prosperous than at any other time in history, with more children having access to education opportunities, fewer people living in extreme poverty, and most people living in democracies.

Cathy Smith is the Managing Director at SAP Africa — **Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa**

A shining example of the continent’s willingness to meet our shared challenges, which include greater employment opportunities, economic growth, education, and mitigating the impact of climate change, is Africa’s vibrant ecosystem of social enterprises that put people before profit and strive to solve the issues we collectively face.

As we mark the hosting of the 2021 Social Enterprise World Forum, which took place in late September, it is important that we note the role such enterprises play in Africa, and identify ways in which the public and private sector can support the growth of this critical sector.

Understanding the role of social enterprises

What constitutes a social enterprise? According to one South African study, a typical social enterprise is purpose-driven, is not reliant on grants and handouts, and has a particular identity that shies away from being bundled along with normal businesses, charities or NGOs.

At the previous Social Enterprise World Forum held in Ethiopia in 2019, public and private sector leaders from around the world recognised the important role social enterprises play in addressing socio-economic issues.

In Ethiopia alone, data suggests that half of the country’s estimated 55 000 social enterprises are led by people under the age of 35, and more than a quarter (28%) are women-led.

Youth unemployment in particular remains an issue in most African countries. With the world’s largest youth population – 20% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is aged 15 to 24 – ensuring gainful and sustainable work opportunities for youth remains a key priority for the continent.

Across sub-Saharan Africa, social enterprises are estimated to directly create between 28 and 41 million jobs. In fact, based on available data, social enterprises employ on average 20.6 people compared to only 1.7 for the average SME.

Social enterprises can therefore play an important role in addressing youth unemployment. One report estimates that the 141 500 social enterprises in South Africa directly employ 590 000 people, a figure that is expected to grow to 666 000 direct jobs by 2030.

Considering the country’s urgent need for youth employment opportunities – the latest official data suggest nearly half ( 46.3%) of the country’s citizens aged 15 to 34 are unemployed – the impact that social enterprises could have on youth employment should not be underestimated.

Social enterprises inspire hope

Take the example of the Siyafunda Community Technology Centres. Siyafunda, an Africa Code Week (ACW) partner, is a social enterprise providing a network of community centres that extend access to computers, the Internet and digital technologies to local communities where such access may be lacking.

In addition to its work with Africa Code Week (ACW), Siyafunda provides accredited digital ICT courses and skills training, business and entrepreneurial skills development, adult literacy programs and e-learning facilities.

Vitally, Siyafunda enjoys the benefits of a robust ecosystem of partners, including local, provincial and national government, schools, universities, and private and social organisations.

With research indicating that African youth are more inclined toward starting social enterprises than commercial ones, improving support for social enterprises could have far-reaching positive consequences for youth employment and skills development across the continent.

Support needed to ensure social enterprise success

As with any emerging small business or start-up, social enterprises face the daunting task of survivability, especially during the early stages of its growth. A study conducted in Mexico found that 83.5% of social enterprises in that country failed within three years. Four in ten failed within the first year of operations.

A World Bank report found that South Africa was the only country in sub-Saharan Africa that explicitly recognises social enterprises in policy, and recommended that it supports existing initiatives, programs and capacity building, including at universities and NGOs with a view to growing the social enterprise ecosystem and improving its chances of success.

Governments can certainly play a vital role in supporting social enterprises, but the private sector can make valuable contributions too. Private sector support – via investment, technology and skills transfer – could accelerate the impact social enterprises make.

This shouldn’t be a CSR project or peripheral activity: companies must link their support for social enterprises to their core business to ensure relevance and sustainable impact.

For example, larger enterprises could build this type of support into their supply chain processes by committing a percentage of their procurement spend to social enterprises. Leveraging the size and reach of the Ariba network – which supports more than double the commerce of Amazon, Alibaba and eBay combined – could give enterprises an accessible entry point to grow their businesses.

SAP, for example, launched its 5x5x25 initiative, which commits 5% of our global procurement to social enterprises and 5% to diverse businesses by 2025. The initiative is designed to leverage corporate support from B2B procurement and technology to give social enterprises a boost and increase their impact.

Considering that 78% of social enterprises actively seek to create jobs (compared to only 27% of for-profit enterprises) and that 35% of social enterprises purposely support vulnerable population groups (compared to only 7% of for-profit enterprises) support for social enterprises can have far-reaching positive consequences for countries, communities and the continent.

Now is the time for private sector leaders to step up and play an active role in the success and growth of Africa’s social enterprise sector.

Cathy Smith is the Managing Director at SAP Africa

Kelechi Deca

Why I am resolute in my afro-optimism despite the continent’s challenges By Cathy Smith

May 18, 2020

It is becoming clear that most – if not all – our major social, economic and political decisions over the next few years will be made through the prism of the coronavirus and the ripple effects of the pandemic. Lacking the financial resources and healthcare capacity of the more developed Western countries, Africa will have to pave its own way in dealing with the crisis. To date, the continent has been spared the worst, with Europe and the US forming the current epicentres of the pandemic.

However, it is certain that we are yet to see the worst of the disease, in terms of health, social impact and the economy. While lockdown measures are evident in much of the region, public health experts are unanimous in their view that we won’t escape a surge in new infections, especially as we head into the colder winter months in many countries.

Already, the economic effects of lockdown can be felt, as informal traders and small to medium enterprises grind to a halt due to government restrictions. The effects, while impossible to fully predict, are likely to reshape the future of the continent in fundamental ways.

While our current focus is on overcoming the immediate challenge posed by the virus, I cannot help but look up and consider what awaits us beyond the horizon. And, despite the chaos and uncertainty we all presently feel, I remain highly optimistic about our collective future, both as a business leader and as an African citizen.

Inspiring an entrepreneurial spirit

Due to the digital skills divide and a number of other factors, most Africans are not actively working in the digital economy. The overwhelming majority of Africa’s citizens are informal traders, smallholder farmers and other forms of entrepreneurs. An estimated sixty percent of Africa’s workforce is engaged in agriculture alone. The continent’s 250 million smallholder farmers, working on plots of around 2ha each and earning less than $1,000 per year, produce 80% of all food consumed here. A single smallholder farmer financially supports multiple family members and makes an invaluable contribution to food security. Any intervention that supports this sector has the potential to deliver dramatic socio-economic returns.

We can see this in Nigeria, where an initiative by the Convention on Business Integrity’s for-profit arm CBi Innovations has seen the deployment of a technology tool to support 850 000 maize farmers and connect them more sustainably to the agricultural value chain.

Where countries have invested in building stronger agriculture sectors, the entire economy has been lifted. World Bank data shows that Ethiopia’s poverty levels dropped by a thirds since 2000 mainly thanks to impressive agricultural GDP growth of nearly 10% per year.

A growing and evolving continent

Africa’s population growth has been on an accelerated path for some time. Experts agree that, at current rates, the continent’s population will double by 2050. This will be accompanied by a mass urbanisation that could see rural areas empty as more citizens seek a better life in fast-growing cities. The World Economic Forum predicts that the population in Lagos in Nigeria could pass 88 million by 2100, making it the most populous city on the planet.

However, these oft-quoted predictions are extreme. The latest data shows that the working age population in Africa – those aged between 25 and 64 – is growing faster than other age groups, which provides an opportunity for accelerate economic growth, also known as the ‘demographic dividend’.

How we engage, mobilize and equip this demographic dividend in service of the continents socio-economic goals will be instrumental in our collective effort to build a better future. Which makes the advances in digital skills development, driven by investments from public and private sector organizations into digital skills development among teachers and students, all the more exciting.

Digital skills training crosses tipping point

With more than 700 million youth spread across 54 countries, Africa’s wealth of youthful talent is the envy of even more developed nations that face aging – and in some cases, declining – populations. A broad collective effort has been underway over the past few years to equip this youthful talent pool with the skills and knowledge they need to be active participants and contributors to the global digital economy. Much of the developed world has been able to quickly shift learning to online platforms thanks to the pervasive high-speed internet connectivity and broad use of internet-enabled devices in those markets. In Africa, too many children simply don’t have that option.

Public and private sector organisations will need to build on the success that has been achieved over the past years to bring digital skills learning to more of the continent’s youth. Such efforts should focus not only on expanding access to technology among especially rural communities, but on equipping teachers and educators with the tools and knowledge they need to be effective digital learning champions.

The investments we make in training our youth today will pay huge dividends as we steer through the coming years and decades.

Diversity our greatest strength

Just as technology is supporting smallholder farmers by connecting them to better information and market opportunities, so too will we see innovations that empower female entrepreneurs to maximise their business ventures. In the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Women’s Report, sub-Saharan Africa boasted the highest rate of female entrepreneurs at 21.8%. This against a global rate of 10.2% – in Europe, the rate drops to 6%. This means more than one in five women in Africa are engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity.

Social entrepreneurship is also gaining ground as a more sustainable and broadly beneficial business model for addressing socio-economic challenges on the continent. In 2019, Africa hosted the Social Entrepreneurship World Forum, first established in 2007, in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. In that country alone, 55 000 social enterprises have sprung up to address a wide spectrum of challenges. Surprisingly, more than a quarter of social entrepreneurs in the country are women, compared to only 4.5% who lead mainstream Ethiopian businesses.

I believe it is our diversity and multiculturalism that gives us immense strength in innovation and resilience. Three thousand ethnic groups speaking more than two thousand languages lend the continent an unmatched richness in perspectives and lived experiences.

As a greater share of our daily work output becomes automated by more efficient machines and algorithms, we’re likely to see a shift back to those skills and qualities that make us uniquely human. Empathy, creativity, and compassion, the ability to consider and engage with a diverse set of views – these are the skills that will distinguish us as we head into the coming decades.

In closing

There’s no doubt we face a difficult and uncertain road ahead. Things are likely to get worse before they get better. But we have done so much work over the past decades, achieved so much, overcome such immense socio-economic challenges, that I take heart that our continent will survive.

More than that, I believe we are well-placed to create a pan-African community with a shared vision for a more equitable future, one driven by the deeply African belief in Ubuntu. Some global analysts believe there is opportunity for Africa to rival China’s economic might, despite our challenges.

I think Africa will chart its own course, one that is no less transformational than the so-called Chinese Miracle, but takes all our best qualities: our diversity, our natural wealth, our youthfulness, our creativity and resilience, and forges an inclusive future for all who call this continent home.

By Cathy Smith isthe Managing Director at SAP Africa.

Kelechi Deca