The Businessman
In an ideal world we should all have a clear vision of what business we want to get into. This business would be run according to a clearly defined mission and vision statement. Unfortunately, many of us end up in business situations we never envisaged, often due to circumstances beyond our control.
Any business must be carefully designed and as the owner you should take responsibility for how your business is crafted. A win-win approach looks at business as a cooperative arena and not a competitive one. With this frame of mind and heart, that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all business interactions, businesses grow.
Communicating well and synergising energy for creative cooperation is a process that ensures that a team gets far better results in business. Valuing and understanding diversity drives synergy and helps a business meet its targets
It would appear that James’s journey into business and his subsequent successes were due a stroke of luck with a dash of hard work and smarts. It was, however, more than this. It was a confluence of defining moments in his life that led to his successful career as a pioneering businessman in Africa and beyond.
James was raised by entrepreneurial parents at a time when there were very few opportunities for Africans in Zimbabwe. Growing up under a colonial regime and enduring the segregation and disenfranchisement of Africans, James’ father was industrious and innovative and ran many small but successful businesses in his community. He was also respected and valued as a community leader. James looked up to him and he modelled many of his business philosophies and practices on what he saw modelled by his father.
This early exposure to an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to one day open his own business and be self-sufficient, as his father had been, fuelled James’s passion in all his business ventures. His career successes span from his days as a radio broadcaster who introduced a novel way of packaging advertising for local businesses on a popular music show, to his success at Old Mutual as a consultant who was one of the first Africans to become a member of the Million Dollar Round Table for securing one million US Dollars’ worth of insurance and investment business in a record period of eight months.
James also showed a keen ability to make meaningful connections and successfully collaborate with others to innovate. This skill was clearly displayed in his participation in the formation of Telecel Zimbabwe, one of the three companies to be awarded cellular operator licenses in Zimbabwe. James formed a consortium of women’s groups, miners and other indigenous and previously disadvantaged people, under the banner of the Empowerment Corporation Pvt Ltd. Through the Empowerment Corp, he was able to partner with Telecel International, the first cellular services provider on the African continent and created an inclusive investment model for the upliftment of the previously disadvantaged in Zimbabwe.