Zachary Wazara Spiritage Group Zimbabwe Businessman

"WHAT can be done should be done and what cannot be done should be done." These are the words that drive the founder and the chief executive of Spiritage Group, Mr Zachary Wazara.. Spiritage Group consists of companies in the health, telecommunications, information and communication technology sectors. Having spent about 11 years in the telecommunications industry, and with all the vast experienced he gained, Mr Wazara decided to go it alone. "After spending 11 years in the telecommunications sector where I was involved in the planning, setting up of GSM networks in both small and large markets in Africa, I decided to start my own company."

 His experience in the telecommunications industry was so diverse and as a result, he built his business empire, covering various sectors that include ICT and health. A devoted Christian, Mr Wazara said his passion and belief in the word of God has moulded him into the successful person he is today. Spirit Age Group uses the latest technologies to impact positively on the key sectors in the country. "What I studied at school and what I was taught by my parents is not exactly what I have become," he said. "Instead the word of God has been my inspiration. I attribute my success to God and it is the transformational side that helps us see the invisible and teaches us not to give up," he said Born 47 years ago in family of six, his parents were both teachers and were very nomadic that he never spent more than two years at one school.

 He did his primary education at different schools such as Pamombe in Kadoma and Chembira in Glen Norah, Matoranhembe in Zvimba. He did his secondary education at Kutama College from 1978 to 1981 then his A-Level at Gokomere High School between 1982 and 1983. Mr Wazara is a holder of Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) from the University of Zimbabwe, focusing on Marketing, Corporate Finance and Management Accounting. He says his special interest was marketing which he spent a considerable amount of time doing in the earlier part of his career. After college, Mr Wazara became a bit of a career nomad, jumping from one job to another seeking probably a job that he could work with passion. In 1987 he joined the Auditor-General's Office, where we worked for three weeks as a trainee auditor and left after he realised it was not his passion. He later joined OK Bazaars for only two days and left again after he realised that his orientation was creativity and doing what others deemed impossible. 


He later joined Zimbank's retail division where he lasted for only four months. He left the bank because his passion was not retail but rather corporate banking. He finally realised his dream when he joined Lintas Worldwide where he worked for almost eight years as an account director. "The foundation in advertising was built when I joined Lintas Worldwide and this moulded who I am in terms of my orientation. "It gave me a very broad perspective about advertising and the different media that are available. This also gave me an opportunity to be creative and generate ideas all the time," said Mr Wazara After resigning from Lintas, Mr Wazara joined Blue Ribbon Foods where he created a name for himself when he relaunched various brands including Chibataura and Baker's Pride. "Working for Blue Ribbon Foods gave me an opportunity to discover the other side of marketing and see if it was possible to take a product that had a generic way to generate brand equity. 


"The industry at that time was dominated by Red Seal and my task was to apply my creativity so as to change the fortunes of the company," he said. Because of his creativity Mr Wazara made noise with his rebranding of Chibataura mealie-meal and Bakers' Pride flour. This made the market share of both the Chibataura and Baker's Pride brands to rise marginally. He served Blue Ribbon Foods for over 18 months before moving to Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in 1996. Mr Wazara joined Econet as assistant general manager for marketing. "I participated in the legal battles that took place and I was doing more business development work," he said. 


In 1998 he helped set up Mascom Telecommunications in Botswana and was appointed the chief operating officer. In 1999 he became the Econet marketing director, and rose to become the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe COO in October 1999 until July 2000 when he was appointed managing director of Econet Zimbabwe. Two years later, he helped set up Econet Nigeria and was appointed Econet Nigeria chief executive, a position he held for three years. He left in 2003 and went to South Africa where he was appointed the Econet Wireless Group's chief operating officer. At that time Mr Wazara was responsible for setting up Econet Worldwide operating in countries such as Kenya, Burundi, New Zealand (though it uses another name) and Lesotho among others.


 He says his experience in implementing telecommunications systems on the African continent and the impact that it made inspired him to work for similar impact in the country. Mr Wazara says there are three visions that motivated him. "Firstly, is the way that I can contribute to the economy of Zimbabwe, secondly the way I can use technology to impact key sectors, and I am also driven by the need to build a business whose fundamentals are based on faith in Jesus Christ," he said. He is a Christian who believes in the revolutionary and transformational nature of the word of God. He does a lot of ministry activities and loves spending time with his children. He is married to Rukudzo and the couple is blessed with six children - two boys and four girls. (c) Herald

Broadacom: Telecoms’ new player

The landscape of the telecommunications industry appears set for a significant re-shaping with the latest entry of yet another network, Broadacom, which threatens the entrenched positions currently enjoyed by incumbent telecoms giants Econet Wireless, Telecel, Net-One, Tel One and Africom. Founded by former Econet Wireless executive, Zachary Wazara, (pictured) Broadacom could significantly chew into the existing players’ near oligopolistic dominant positions in the country’s telecommunications sector. Broadacom’s offering cuts across voice telephony and broadband internet on cheaper platforms. This is in contrast to some companies’ approach of offering new products at a premium price, enabling them to quickly recoup their investment and thereafter gradually reduce prices as the number of customers increases and competition picks up. Broadacom is entering the market with fairly low prices, where according to their submission to Potraz, an intra-network call will only cost six US cents a minute.  According to a business analyst, Broadacom is employing a phenomenon known as disruptive innovation, a process where new start-ups firms gradually but systematically chip away at dominant incumbent players’ market share by offering a lowly-priced option to lower and middle-income consumers. They then improve the quality of their offering and attract more discerning customers until their quality catches up with or even surpasses that of incumbents. The Broadacom service is based on a platform called McWILL. “This technology has a very efficient utilisation of bandwidth and can therefore deliver very fast speeds and penetrate buildings very easily,’’ Broadacom CEO Zachary Wazara said, adding that the technology allows the seamless delivery of video streaming, data, voice and value-added services at the same time. This differs from the conventional mobile telephony system, GSM. Analysts say the potential of the McWill system to disrupt the existing status quo is high and may explain why major companies as Econet, as the dominant owner of Wimax infrastructure in Zimbabwe, launched its own VoIP products early this year.   Wazara said: “We are targeting the average Zimbabwean who has been denied value for money on voice, and has had no access to broadband. So currently, all high density areas of Harare have instantly available and affordable voice and broadband. Service is now also in Chitungwiza, Ruwa, parts of Bulawayo and Mutare is coming up in the next 30 days. Thereafter we move into the cities in between.’’ Broadacom was granted a Class ‘A’ IAP licence and which allows them to setup and operate a national broadband network encompassing both public and private data networks, VPN Services and Internet Services. The licence also allows the establishment and operation of a voice network using Internet Protocol (VoIP) together with attendant services. Broadacom has invested more than US$20 million to date and are now closing their next round of financing for a further $10-15m over the next 18-20 months, with 90% of the base station equipment needed for the next 12 months already in the country. The company expects the quality of service in terms of coverage and capacity to increase with each month as it rolls out. In the next three months, they expect to introduce a few value-added services that will not be replicated in the short-term by existing networks. (c) Independant

Strive Masiyiwa Zimbabwean Businessman

Strive Masiyiwa was born in what was Southern Rhodesia in 1961. He went to High school in Scotland; he gained a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Cum Laude) at the University of Wales, returning to newly independent Zimbabwe in 1984, where he took a job with the state-owned telephone company. He later grew up to his own engineering company.
Strive is a committed Christian. He lives in Johanessburg, South Africa, with his wife, Tsitsi, and six children.

IStrive Masiyiwa certainly has an eye for a good deal. The electrical engineer who founded the Econet Wireless Group has made his name and money on a knack for a smart move and a quick decision. 

He is probably best known as a kind of African David, a CEO who fought off the Goliath of government monopoly repression to take the mobile phone revolution to Zimbabwe in 1998. Since then he has expanded into or bid for telcos in Botswana, Nigeria, Kenya, Cameroon, Malawi, Burundi and Lesotho as well as taking on ventures in the UK and New Zealand. In 2002, he was crowned one of Time’s Global Influentials - one of 15 selected in a global poll from a list of more than 100 - for his potential as well as achievements as an entrepreneur. 

His career has been built on the strength of his instinct for a savvy business move. For him, the decision to establish Econet was a natural process of watching and waiting: "You have an entrepreneurial feel about something that is going to happen, and you say, well, we’ll set up a venture on the side, we’ll hire a few people, we’ll keep a closer eye on it. That’s what we did in telecommunications, and by the early nineties I could see it was going to gather some momentum. So I began to invest a little more."

For Masiyiwa, business isn’t about being a visionary, but being quick to jump at a chance. "There was nothing original in what I saw," he says. "You can’t move on a vision, you move on insight. Insight is when you see something there that others don’t."

Doing his homework

As the nascent telecoms industry began to take shape, Masiyiwa drew from every available source for ideas and business models that could add to his venture. "I just travelled," he says. "I went to fairs, I went to see manufacturers, I met players in the industry, I argued with them about where things were going, so I could get my own clear view. And that’s when I decided that this thing is going to happen."

That search provided all the tools he needed for Econet’s success - and gave him the assurance that the market was bigger than any previous expectations. "In the early nineties I argued to anyone who would listen that cellphones could go to mass communication, but even some of the industry’s best people couldn’t see it," he says.

"I heard about an Israeli company that had come up with a concept that everybody now knows as pre-pay. When I saw it, I thought, yes, that’s where the money is." 

His research gave him the conviction to push all his resources, including those of his family, into Econet. "As soon as I saw where this was going, we sold out of every other business area - our family business, our construction businesses - everything - and said ‘We’re in telecommunications now’". 

The entrepreneur in Masiyiwa clearly thrives on pivotal decisionmaking, though he claims it is a careful process. "I don’t consider myself rash. I spend a lot of time in prayer, thinking about it, meditating about it, and when I’m comfortable - I use an expression around here that I have to have found the peace - then I make the decision."

It’s also his instinct to enjoy the cut and thrust of business - chasing the deal and bidding in high-stakes plays. At the same time as facing down the Zimbabwean government’s telecom monopoly in the Supreme Court, he pitched for the Botswana telecoms license against four other well-prepared consortia. Against the odds, Masiyiwa won the day and Mascom, the cellular operator he founded there, has performed strongly and recorded 557,000 subscribers at the end of September 2006. 

"To the surprise of many people he won the license," says Alan Boshwaen, CEO of the Botswana IFSC. "People attributed it to the fact that the man is very entrepreneurial; he spotted the opportunity. The business rolled out very quickly and is very successful, probably only limited by Botswana’s population size." 

Clouds form on the horizon

With his first two markets established, in 2001 Masiyiwa stepped up into the big league with a bid for a Nigerian mobile licence. It was a bizarre three-day public auction: "We weren’t allowed any recording devices, telephones, only a TV. We couldn’t get hold of anyone." He remembers the challenge with relish: "We went all the way to US $285 million, and everyone said we were crazy. And now we have licences in Africa or Saudi Arabia changing hands for $6bn. So we were vindicated there too."

It may have been a victory, but soon it got messy. Econet didn’t have the cash to pay the $285m fee, and Nigerian investors ended up taking most of its stake. One Nigerian CEO who watched the deal closely recalls a lack of real resources to back up his claims. "Strive ran into a situation where there wasn’t enough money to invest in the business. He saw Nigeria as an opportunity to expand his position in the GSM environment and he led people knowingly or unknowingly to believe that financing was not a problem. He didn’t have a lot of money to bring to the table and he had already developed a reputation with a few other financiers who were clearly not ready to back him."

It was not only financiers - a partnership with Vodacom that rebranded the network as VMobile failed, prompting years of litigation from Masiyiwa, but his efforts to regain a stake were finally thwarted in 2006 when Celtel stepped up to the board and smoothly bought 65% of the company for a staggering $1bn. Econet, outraged, claimed it had expected to buy VMobile entirely instead, and filed more litigation to prevent the sale, but to no avail; Masiyiwa has had to stick to his 5% stake in the new Celtel Nigeria. In Kenya, and Cameroon too, rash financial promises have fallen through or deals have become mired in controversy.

With a trajectory as bumpy as this, does he ever regret the decisions he has made? "I’ve never regretted a decision. I can regret a mistake I’ve made, but I can’t regret a willful decision. If I’m comfortable that that is the right decision, with all the information in front of me -that’s ok. If it turns out that I didn’t understand something, or have the right information, or things got better or worse, I’m not going to regret that."

Path ahead

There are other threats, to Econet too, as the telecoms sector in Africa matures. The fast-paced environment is increasingly crowded with new investors, prices are high and virgin territory of the kind Masiyiwa knows is ever scarcer. Accessing finance for speedy acquisitions is crucial - could Econet lose out by alienating potential partners? 

As Boshwaen says: "Telecoms is an attractive sector in Africa now, and it has drawn investors with deeper pockets and access to capital markets that have come in and taken the shine off Econet. They can come and raise funding very quickly." 

Masiyiwa remains bullish about the prospects for Econet’s future, and takes a long term view of the company’s growth. "Econet is a generational project. Great businesses are not built in the generation of one man. Our vision is that we are going to be in every single African country - but it doesn’t have to happen in my lifetime." 

More than this, he doesn’t see an exit from a market as a closed door. "When we walk away, it is not because we don’t like that country," he says. "But at that point in time we are not happy with the deal that’s on the table." 

One can’t shake the feeling that he enjoys antagonism and controversy enough not to let it hinder his expansive vision. He’s rightly proud of his successes over the years - "only the diamond business is supposed to be bigger than Mascom in Botswana, and we started that business," - and, he says, he’s still turning down offers from other companies at least once every six months over the last two years. 

The future is definitely still rosy for Masiyiwa - and he’s not at the end of his dealmaking by a long way. 

BOX: FAST FACTS

About him

Born: 1961, Zimbabwe; then Southern Rhodesia
Education: high school in Scotland (UK) and a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Hons) at the University of Wales (UK)
Family: wife, Tsitsi, and four daughters 
Lives: Johannesburg, South Africa

About Econet 

Generates revenue of more than $300m per annum
Has interests in five networks worldwide reaching a total of 8m subscribers
Is the first emerging-market operator to own a 3G license in an OECD country, through its 3G license in New Zealand

Other activities
Amongst his other business leadership achievements Strive was a member of the coordinating committee which set up the Social Dimensions Fund (SDF), an initiative to alleviate the impact of poverty arising during the implementation of economic reforms in Zimbabwe. He was also a founding member of the African Latin American Institute at Punta Del Este in Uruguay in 1994. The institute promotes cultural, educational and business linkages between Southern Africa and the Mercusior region of Latin America.
Strive has served on numerous boards and trusts both in Zimbabwe and internationally. In 1995 Strive was appointed by American President Bill Clinton to a Board Member of the Southern African Enterprise Development Fund (SAEDF) which is chaired by Ambassador Andrew Young. He is currently also a member of ThebeInvestment Corporation of South Africa, an empowerment company that was set up by the Mbabatho Trust of the ANC.
Strive has won numerous business awards and recognitions. Notable of these are the following: in 1990 he was the youngest ever recipient of Zimbabwe's coveted Businessman of the Year Award; in 1998 he was named his countries Manager of the Year as well as Entrepreneur of the Year. He was recently named by Junior Chamber International (JCI) as one of the "Ten Most Outstanding Young Persons of the World" for 1999. In 2002 he was named to Time Magazine's Global Business Influentials List. He is also known as the Bill Gates of Africa, on account of his business and entrepreneurial savvy. He is a workaholic who has bucket loads of guts and passion to achieve his goals notwithstanding anything standing in his way.
He was also the publisher of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, shut down by the government in late 2003 after its management refused to comply with new media regulations which required that media organisations be registered with a government commission.
http://www.africainvestor.com/article.asp?id=1757

Sifiso Dabengwa MTN CEO

Sifiso Dabengwa may be the new chief executive officer and president of the MTN Group – Africa’s leading telecommunications company – but few people know much about the man behind the title. And that is exactly how Dabengwa wants it. He dislikes interviews and is unwilling to discuss anything personal. “I prefer it that way – it is easier to manage,” he explains.

He is fiercely private and finds talking about himself uncomfortable, and being photographed disconcerting. He mostly refers to himself as ‘one’ rather than ‘me’, and speaks very softly. From the short time we spent together, my sense was he would rather have stood naked in the freezing cold than answer my questions while being photographed. He must have thought a profile in WBS Journal was worthwhile...

Dabengwa, 52, was appointed to his position in December 2010 after 11 years with MTN. He hails from Zimbabwe and has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe and an MBA from Wits Business School. As a youngster, he had no career aspirations, other than “to be an engineer”. And when he completed his engineering degree, he did a couple of years as a trainee on British Rail. After that, he went to work on Zimbabwe Railways, before joining a consulting engineering firm based in Pretoria, where he worked on projects in Botswana, Swaziland and the former Bophuthatswana.

“In 1990, I decided I needed to do an MBA, so I gave up working to do it full time,” he says. He chose to do it at WBS because “it made sense for family reasons”. He insists that doing his MBA was “very demanding but not that difficult, because if you are willing to meet the demands, nothing is impossible”. Was it life-changing, though? “In the sense that it was unique, because it created new opportunities for changing my career.” It was while on this course he met a man who became – and remains – his best friend.

Professor Joel Stern lecturing on corporate finance stood out for Dabengwa because, he says, “what we talked about then, I deal with now in terms of business performance, mergers and acquisitions, among other things”. But the person who influenced him the most was Nick Binedell, then director of WBS. “We have a great
relationship and I still work with him.”

Dabengwa believes education is fundamental to anyone’s career and life. “It is a crucial building block in one’s life,” he says. He joined Eskom on completing his MBA and left the parastatal as executive director of distribution to join MTN in 1999 as managing director of South African operations. He finds the telecommunication industry fascinating.

“This is a capital-intensive, technology-based business mixed with retail, and one has to manage across the two, which is quite unusual,” he says. “This industry is
young and has a lot of opportunities and challenges, from a penetration of mobile telephony perspective to being highly technological and continuously changing. It is an integral part of facilitating the Internet today... It certainly keeps one on one’s toes.”

As this is his first year leading this massive telecoms company, he is clear: “The role of leadership is fundamentally to deliver results, and it is how you get to that, that counts.” He also acknowledges that he needs to surround himself with quality leaders, dispersed through the business. When asked if he plans to make changes, he smiles for the first time during the interview and says: “Yes, of course, otherwise why get the job?”

Dabengwa explains this by using an analogy. “If we both look at a teapot, we see different things. So it is when running a company. It is important for a company to be refreshed with new leadership and management to see things differently and make necessary changes.”

While he was not willing to divulge what changes he intends making, he says: “There are always things that need changing, and the important thing is to focus on priorities. One needs to set priorities and strategic objectives and execute them. If one make mistakes, it is essential to recognise it and take corrective action.”
He explains that he inherited his leadership team but as he implements new strategies, he will make both structural and staff changes. “For example, developing
infrastructure was important until now, so people with those skills were essential, but it is not so important any more. Instead, people with skills around the Internet
are.”

While Dabengwa’s workday might start at 7.30am and end at 6.30pm when he leaves the office, he never stops working. “It can’t be switched off. When one goes home, that is when one does one’s work-related reading and preparation for the next day.” When he has time out, he says, he mostly reads... business books and articles. At least 50% of his time, Dabengwa is travelling and working at MTN offices in other countries.

He has clearly reached a pinnacle in his career – I mean, where does one go after running this international giant? “Retirement,” he says almost in a whisper, before smiling broadly and admitting that, at 52, with his propensity for work, he was unlikely to do that anytime soon. “There is always a lot one can do, whether it is within or outside the company,” he says. “One sees a situation and you do what you can, carrying on for as long as you are capable.”

As for a 10-year plan, he says: “I have a number of ideas but nothing fixed. Right now, I am concentrating 100% on what I am doing.” As a role model, his advice to youngsters wanting to go into business is to make their starting point a quality education. “Strive to get into a good institution. The key issue is the quality of the people teaching you. They must be able to provide you with much more than just the tools to pass your exams. They need to be able to provide you with the tools that give you a better chance for a successful career.”

Dabengwa believes it is essential to get any good degree with a numeric component. This, he says, gives you the basics and discipline of working to deadlines and being graded. “A person at 18 or 19 does not know what they want to do, so they need to get that degree and some work experience and then they will find out what they want. “They also need to be committed to what they are doing, and prepared to work really hard. Like in sport, in the past, it might have been possible to get away with practising three days a week but, today, you can’t take time off because the standards keep getting higher. So, to do well, you need to put in the hours. There is no room for being average – it won’t get you anywhere.”

Dabengwa uses sport analogies to illustrate his business beliefs, and admits to being a sports lover. “I always play sport – squash, tennis and soccer – but not
seriously. I am a believer in keeping fit and maintaining a lifestyle that includes fitness.” In his criteria for hiring, he comes back to sport. “If a football player has not scored goals in years, would you hire him to score goals for you? Then you need to decide whether, culturally, they will fit into the environment and the team. Will they work the way the team works and find the opportunities in this environment? At the end of the day, it is a judgement call. If one makes a mistake, it is
soon evident and one needs to correct it quickly.”

And much like the person hired to score the goals, the continent is watching to see Dabengwa’s skills and abilities on this telecommunications sports field.

Sifiso Dabengwa is group CEO of MTN and serves as the company's vice-president of the South and East Africa region. He previously served as CEO of the Nigerian business, where he is now director, after a stint as MD of MTN SA. 

Before joining the telecom company in 1999, Dabengwa headed Eskom's distribution division, where he controlled a multibillion-rand budget in a division employing 17 000 people and generating revenues of more than R20bn/year. 

Dabengwa is the former chairman of the Dawn Suite Hotel Group. He previously served on the boards of Peermont Global and Impala Platinum Holdings. 

Dabengwa is an electrical engineer by training. He obtained his junior degree in engineering from the University of Zimbabwe, and has a Wits MBA.
http://www.wbsjournal.co.za/profiles/people-profiles/78-mtns-top-scorer.html 
http://www.mtn.com/AboutMTNGroup/Leadership/BoardOfDirectors/