Johnathan Shoniwa Reflections

At some point, our very own, the late Dr. Bernard Chidzero, was thought of as the best economic minister on the continent. In fact he was held in such high esteem that he almost landed the post of United Nations Secretary General. However his economic policies were not quite successful, for they ignored the socio-political context. Indeed, the lesson learnt during that period was that one cannot implement textbook economics without fully taking on board the socio-political context Somethings never change! Almost all advice that has been volunteered by all and sundry on how to deal with the economic malaise falls short on this very same aspect. For example, how does one prescribe western FDI as the solution when one knows very well that this is not going to happen because of the political context. What the country needs right now is not theory but practical economic propositions that take into account our political context. In this regard, Dr Gono must be commended for sustaini...

It is unfortunate that commenting on political issues in this country is taboo. It shouldn't be so. Everyone should be free to express their views on any political issues without fear of retribution. Zimbabwe politics should not be for the fearless only but for all and sundry. It is with this view that I proffer the following comments. It is fair and reasonable to assume that President Mugabe will not contest 2018 elections due to advanced age. It is also a fair assumption that a new Zanu PF presidential candidate will need at least 2 years to consolidate and unite supporters across factions. His/her appointment must therefore be made at least two years before the elections. Given that we are 4 years from elections (actually less as elections will be held before July 2018), this gives ZANU PF at least two years to elect/appoint a successor or presidential candidate for 2018. If this analysis is correct,  it is therefore fair to say given the antagonism within ZANU PF at th...

As a corporate executive, I have operated in difficult external operating environments, namely: Price controls Foreign exchange shortages Shortages of inputs such as spares and fuel Skills shortages arising from brain drain And yes the hyper-inflationary environment Each situation required that we adapted our strategies and programs. One of my executives coined these survival strategies and we accepted we were in survival mode; we had to survive these conditions. The environment remains difficult and is now characterized by a debilitating liquidity crunch, whose results are a slow down in economic activity, low disposable incomes and a debt crunch.  To survive this period, organisations must accept this is an extremely difficult environment and convince their boards, shareholders and stakeholders that the key target is not necessarily growth and high returns but survival. Each organisation must define what it's survival is, for some it will be a break eve...

Organizations must have a clear focus on managing performance. Central to this is the need for an organization to have key performance indicators (KPIs). These are used to rally the entire organization behind the common causes and can act as a motivator or stimuli to greater performance. However having too many KPIs can militate against the very purpose they are intended to achieve. Organisations must have few simple and clear KPIs, which are then cascaded and blown out at functional, departmental and individual level. I would argue that at business level, the following KPIs are sufficient: market share, revenue, profit margin, cash flow generation and 2 sustainable development KPIs. Anything else can be tracked at functional, departmental and individual levels, eg productivity, customer service, employee satisfaction, learning and development, etc. this approach does not, in any way, make the other issues any less important but allows for more focus and clarity for employee mobil...

Once an organisation has indicated its intention to change its CEO it must move quickly to do so as performance can be adversely affected by the distractions that occur during the interim period. This applies even to organisations with clear succession policies. Whether the change is mutual or not, the time frame from the time the decision is made known to current incumbent to implementation must be as minimal as possible, i.e. allow new successor to take control within a very short space of time. I would argue that there is no hand-over-take-over necessary at this level. In fact. By having a quick  transition, an organisation is saved from the  distractions of the "off the ball incidences" that affect performance. The performance downturn, if allowed to set in, can take new CEO almost three years to turnaround. If a board is not ready with a successor, no discussions should take place with the incumbent, to avoid the negative scenario discussed above. My management ...

We looked at branding holistically by focusing on improving product quality and customer service. Every business does this. We however went further by using the sustainable development pillar to improve our environmental management to ISO standard. We improved our community engagement to levels where the community leaders were company ambassadors. We clarified and put more focus on our social responsibility programmes, and we were passionate about it too. We underpinned these by improving employee welfare; there was demonstrable safety leadership and employee upliftment programmes. The results were fantastic! We won the Super Brand Award three years after corporate rebranding, not a mean achievement given the well established brands in our category. Financial results responded too as 2012 still stands as the best year.