Good morning Dr. KAWUMA and welcome to this first interview with Liberia Public Radio.
Please, can you introduce yourself with your full name, education, family, work experience, and all necessary information about you?
I am Frederick Sandey Mulalira KAWUMA, a Ugandan by nationality, born in January 1960 and I am a family man with one wife and three adult children. My undergraduate studies were in business, at Makerere University, Kampala, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) specialising in marketing, then studied communication and marketing strategy from Wheaton College, Il, USA, graduating with a Master of Arts.
I finally graduated with a PhD in organisational leadership, specialising in Entrepreneurial Leadership, from Regent University, Virginia, USA. While early in my career I worked as a research associate and assistant lecturer at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya, I left the academic field to work with the Government of Uganda in 1989, where I got engaged in the early stages of the liberalisation of agricultural marketing in Uganda.
I was involved in the project that liberalised coffee marketing, in 1990-1992, under the guidance of the World Bank, during which time I was part of the team that created the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to handle the regulation of Uganda’s Liberalized coffee industry.
I worked with UCDA for two and a half years and then joined the private sector in late 1994, where I helped to set up the secretariat for the Uganda Coffee Exporters Association, which I helped to get incorporated into an industry federation–the Uganda Coffee Trade Federation (UCTF) in 1996, which later become the Uganda Coffee Federation. In the early years of the coffee Liberalisation in Uganda, there was mutual suspicion between the private sector and the public sector.
But, having worked in government before, I helped a lot to bridge this gap and foster better cooperation between the two. I was also instrumental in the promotion of Uganda coffee internationally, in helping the coffee exporters’ begin to break into new markets. I also played a significant role in building the cooperation between industry players in the East African region through the formation of the Eastern African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) that morphed into what is now the African Fine Coffee Association (AFCA).
In order to help the African coffee producers and exporters to have a forum that would promote and showcase their coffee, I conceived the idea of the African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition, which we developed as a team and it became an important feature on the global coffee calendar, attracting coffee buyers and roasters from North America, Europe and Asia. This was a landmark in the African coffee industry, and on these efforts, I received a commendation from the US Congress in February 2004.
Thereafter, I took a break from the association, to start a consultancy and coffee roasting business in 2004, but served as a Board Member of EAFCA from 2005-2007.
I also took on the role of CEO of ACLAIM Africa Limited which, with support from my fellow directors, built into reputable management and leadership consulting business in Uganda and the region, building accountability systems, training leaders and launching a number of new products. I erstwhile also remained active in the private coffee business.
In 2012, I was nominated by the Uganda Government for the position of Secretary-General of the Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO) and in December 2012, I was elected to serve in that position with effect from January 2013.
Having served my two terms, based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, I retired from IACO in 2021 and returned to Uganda to continue in my leadership journey, more in an advisory capacity and as a consultant within the coffee industry. I was also appointed IACO’s Goodwill Ambassador and therefore serve as an African coffee Ambassador, as an advocate for African coffee.
Sir, I would love for us to look at the topic of business leadership, what is the actual meaning?
You see, Benjamin, there are many, many definitions of leadership–perhaps thousands of them. Each expert has his or her own take on it. However, first of all, leadership is about influence. A leader is someone who has the art of motivating others to pursue a common goal and in business or organizational leadership one goes beyond management capabilities and concerns himself or herself with both internal and external stakeholders, where the business leader will have the skills to interface with others in the same industry and other sectors in pursuit of the organization’s goal.
A leader must have followers. A business leader will have certain qualities that others admire and follow him or her in the pursuit of a common goal. Usually, the followers will admire the business leader and have confidence in him or her and will constantly refer or defer to him or her.
Let’s look at business leadership precisely in Africa, what are your views about this topic?
In Africa, business leadership is somewhat limited in some respects, because of various factors. Today’s business environment is so globally interlinked that a business leader in Africa needs to be well exposed to best practices that can enhance one’s business performance and efficiency.
Unfortunately, there are many who do not have the exposure. There are those who may have great ideas which if well implemented could have significant financial dividends, but the lack of finance, poor governance systems, an environment riddled with corruption can all work to undermine the business leader’s progress.
The business leader must have some accomplishments that set them apart in leading a business or organization and be noted for bringing significant influence to bear in the marketplace.
Are there advantages when we talk about business leadership in Africa?
The advantages, or if we could refer to them as opportunities, are many. As the economies of African countries grow, they create opportunities for entrepreneurs to identify products or services that can be offered to meet specific needs. An astute business leader, who is alert to the emergence of such opportunities, will definitely grasp them.
In this age where technology has greatly improved communication and access to knowledge, business leaders in Africa can leverage this technological boom to expand their business horizons. For example, a business person who is in the tourism sector can create virtual-reality presentations that will draw potential visitors.
You may be aware that the innovation of using mobile phones for payments, or mobile-money transfers, started in East Africa. There are many other examples in Africa where a glaring one of Tony Elumelu, who has now developed thousands of young African entrepreneurs, is commendable. If you look closely, every African country has business leaders with varying levels of influence, but they are there.
What are some disadvantages that you can talk about regarding business leadership in Africa?
We will refer to these as challenges. Having mentioned the opportunities that information technology can create for business leaders in Africa, one of the biggest challenges is the poor Internet connectivity in much of Africa.
I attended an EU virtual conference where some business leaders from Africa were invited to make presentations and some of them had serious connectivity challenges that one in particular completely failed to make his presentation and the moderator of the discussion had to save time by moving on with others. African Business leaders also suffer from the perennial lack of access to affordable financing mechanisms because the cost of borrowing in Africa renders African entrepreneurs largely un-competitive against their counterparts in developed economies where lending rates are quite low. Another challenge is corruption.
While moral decay is a global phenomenon and corruption exists everywhere, there are systems that deter corrupt behaviour in the more developed economies, but most African countries (and some other parts of the developing world) have poor or weak institutions and sometimes the would-be enforcers are beneficiaries of the corrupt systems. Also, the legal and regulatory systems in Africa are generally weak so that business leaders are greatly frustrated by an environment that inhibits instead of enhancing business operations.
Since the outbreak of Covid 19 [and the WHO declaration of the Global Pandemic] in 2020 up to today, what have you really observed in respect to business leadership and development in Africa?
The COVID-19 Pandemic has prompted many business leaders in Africa to think outside the box. Business meetings quickly shifted to online platforms and in many companies, the employees moved to work from home. Business leaders who survive turbulent times will each have a unique story and will share lessons from their experiences, but critical of all of these is to have a learning organisation and internal systems that promote innovation and creativity. In several forums, there are many business leaders in Africa who have shared their stories with respect to how they have ridden the storms and continued to operate in the midst of the pandemic. Unfortunately, some businesses particularly in leisure and entertainment and the hospitality industry generally, have been hit hard, including tourism and related services. Operators of hotels, restaurants, and such other ventures have been so badly hit. Businesses involved in the production and or distribution of certain consumer goods not deemed so essential also took a bad hit, due to depressed demand as consumers’ disposable incomes dropped and consumption priorities were evaluated in almost every household. Business leaders who were financially leveraged have ended up with a significant debt burden. All this has dampened Africa’s development as a whole. Notwithstanding, some business leaders with diversified portfolios did much better than those in the worst-hit sectors. It has been interesting to see how some of these business leaders made quick adjustments and started providing services in the public health sector, in various forms.
If covid -19 will have to continue for the next ten to fifteen (10-15) years what will happen to business leaders and their organizations?
What you are stating is like the worst-case scenario. God forbid that it should happen. However, even without the pandemic, there are various disruptions that take place in the business environment all the time and this makes many aspects of business very unpredictable. We live in a time where an explosion of knowledge and technological advancements constantly create disruptions in the business environment. All of these, plus the pandemic, can completely disorganise a business leader who is not prepared to deal with such challenges. What it means is that many businesses will be obliterated. While some developed countries’ governments have provided stimulus packages aimed at resuscitating their economies, African countries are already dealing with struggling economies and have limited capacity to provide the support that can address the ensuing challenges. One might say that it will be a matter of survival of the fittest, but sadly, because of corruption and declining morals, many dishonest business people can end up eating the bigger chunk of the cake.
Do we still have sincere business leaders or entities in Africa and if so to what extent?
Yes, I believe we still have sincere business leaders in Africa. First, we need to recognise that every business leader will be driven by some culture or worldview that will determine their value system.
There are people with a very strong value system, who decide to do what is right at any cost. Such will exist in other parts of the world, as well as in Africa. They tend to be in the minority, although they may also have a significant influence on others who follow their example. Such leaders will also build institutions that will tend to outlive many others.
In interaction with other players in the business community, it is possible to identify such business leaders as well as the entities that you are asking about.
How do you see the growth and development of businesses in the foreseeable future especially on the African continent?
Almost all the time, successful business leaders will be those that are able to identify opportunities and deploy resources to take advantage of such opportunities. When they see a problem in society or the environment, they figure out how it can be solved and in solving it they provide services or goods to meet the need. Inevitably, investors take risks and then get rewarded through the profits that will be generated. In doing so, they create employment and contribute towards economic development, and of course, create wealth.
Where the opportunity is external to Africa, it means that goods or services will be exported, thus helping to bring in foreign earnings and reduce the trade imbalance. However, with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that recently became operational, business leaders in Africa can identify opportunities to provide goods and services in different African countries and promote intra-African trade that can reduce the dependence on external trade while providing employment opportunities that increase incomes and the prosperity of Africans.
If Africa is to take on a positive development trajectory, it is the African business leaders who will be the major catalysts of the continent’s economic transformation.
Any final message to business organizations and leaders in Africa and around the world?
Every organisation has a culture. The culture largely depends on the leader, who has the power and influence with respect to the values and practices in the organisation. Thus, business leaders have to be proactive in ensuring that they promote good cultural practices in their organisations and refuse to condone the immoral and corrupt behaviour that is rendering Africa uncompetitive in so many respects.
Thank you very much for accepting our invitation.
