YPO:
LEAD AS ONE

Jason English is a mechanical engineer, co-founder and CEO of CG Holdings, a R1 billion group of companies and previous CEO of Prommac – a business he grew from R30 million to R300 million in just 6 years.

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According to Jason, this startling growth wouldn’t have been sustainable without a relentless focus on culture. After all, as rapid growth occurs, especially at this rate, a company’s culture becomes diluted. Something which is the enemy of any CEO who prizes the value of a business’s core values.

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Jason refers to this as the ‘Oros Effect’ (Oros is a South African juice concentrate. The more water added, the more diluted the taste). This speaks directly to the dilution of a business’s core values through its people when large amounts of unguided growth take place. “Rapid growth and expansion can lead to a dilution of the foundational principles that defined your company in its early days,” he says. However, Jason believes that by focusing on culture, new employees can be the catalyst to retain the concentration of a business ‘original flavour’, which drove the growth in the first place.

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“Protecting and nurturing a company’s culture isn’t easy, but it’s worth the effort. Prommac has enjoyed excellent growth, and I ascribe a lot of that success to our company culture. Whenever we’ve spent real time and money on replenishing the Oros, we’ve seen the benefits of it directly afterwards.”

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To do this, Jason believes in a programme of lifelong learning for his staff (and himself – evident in his ongoing studies with the likes of Harvard Business School). Prommac invests heavily in training that not only optimises its staff’s performance but their alignment with the culture. This ensures new employees fit and understands the criteria of the company and what is expected of them, as well as providing them with the tools needed to fit and benefit the company culture. Because of this approach, Prommac’s employee work environment isn’t like most other traditional engineering firms but rather like a creative space where a person’s individuality is

appreciated and encouraged.

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Jason says, “You can’t just tell people to do something; you have to show them why. Focus on training your members and ensure they buy into your vision. They need to support your business, not dilute its culture.”

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Aside from his employees, Jason also believes in the potential of his fellow communities. So, alongside CG Holdings and its operating companies like Prommac, New Age Engineering and Al Laith, Jason supports the South African bounce team that won silver in the recent world championships, Lolla Mokoena, who is the current South African schools hurdles champion and recently sponsored South Africa’s first national robotics team, the Springbots, who ranked 6th in the world at the first-ever Global Robotics Olympics which took place in Mexico City this month. The Springbots reached great heights as they momentarily broke the world record for the most points scored. And later also won the gold medal from Walt Disney for the most inspiring journey in the competition.

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“I just could not understand how South Africa was not represented when countries across our borders were,” said Jason, “We just had to have a team from South Africa represented, and just look how well they’ve done.”

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Jason has been a member of YPO since 2015. And in his opinion, YPO is about much more than just networking with leaders who share similar lifestyles, but rather networking with leaders who share the same goal of lifelong learning and creating personal connections. "We are just a group of like-minded people who simply want to connect and learn and don't care about egos or personal

positions." says Jason.

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Find out more about YPO and how they aim to elevate Africa by connecting influential business leaders at www.ypoleadasone.com

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Natalie Jabangwe is CEO of Ecocash, one of Africa's leading mobile money companies, which is based in Zimbabwe.

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She was born in the UK, but her childhood was spent in Zimbabwe. As soon as she was old enough for independence, she ventured out back to the UK and the USA. During this time of incredible personal growth, she delivered financial services work which covered Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

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To go into more detail, shortly after finishing her A-levels, Natalie returned to the UK and Middlesex University. First, with the intent of studying law. But luckily for her, her parents pushed her into computer science. By the time she was in her second year, Natalie was a top female student. This earned her a scholarship at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, the best female African American institution in the US and top 100 in the World & New report.

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Natalie ended up interning at the Atlanta Mayor's office, where she developed the city's first IT Security Policies. This led to her being employed by NCI back in the UK, followed by the NCR Corporation, where she formulated their digital strategy.

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Whilst her technical competence was taking her place, she decided to seriously sharpen her business acumen with an MBA from Imperial College London. She attained her MBA whilst nursing her first child and implementing NCR's digital strategy, which led to the $650 million acquisition of Retalix and an alliance deal with PayPal. While this was all happening, she also developed an NFC-based cashless wallet which had her nominated for the 2012 Mayor of London's Olympics business programme.

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She's also still managed to maintain being a published technology columnist, being an advisor to corporates on how to use technology as an innovation pillar, being a speaker at technology hubs and advising start-ups on how to build sustainable business models.

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In 2014, Natalie was headhunted by Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe to scale the Ecocash business, then one of Africa's fastest-growing mobile money transfer services and arguably one of Zimbabwe's most innovative companies. At this point, she moved from being in the talented diaspora to helping international companies grow, to bringing world-class excellence and thinking back to Zimbabwe.

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She used the opportunity to access the potential of technology business in Africa, with the view of delivering an African business which is globally competitive and at par with the world-class giants. Within 18 months, she was confirmed as substantive CEO, driving the firm's annual revenue beyond $150m. Subsequently to this journey,  EcoCash was named the 2017 uncontested recipient of the Mobile World Congress Glomo Award, Best Payment Solution in the World.

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In the last few years, she's been ruthlessly focused on making the platform as inclusive as possible, making sure no one is left behind. It currently sees 6.8 million people use it monthly. And this is especially true of helping the diaspora of Africa work with the potential back home. She continues to pioneer the platform, using her vast international experience to find new ways to benefit Zimbabwe's people.

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Natalie has been a YPO member since June 2017. She was also nominated as an Oxford University Tutu Fellow in 2017. And has been subsequently named as a 2018 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

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It's this kind of passion and excellence which continues to not only create a rich environment within YPO but will continue to help Africa to rebuild and rise to new heights.

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