My role at the Foundation is Head of Impact Assurance (IA).  In my early engagement before taking on this role, I compared the role and function of IA to creating a well of knowledge, experience and intellectual rigour upon which the Foundation could draw in conducting its day-to-day work.  My specific role is to act as the originator and curator of this ‘well’ and to help grow the capacity internally in the Foundation to keep the well full and useful.  Doing this work was part of what motivated me to join the Foundation; it felt like a naturally extension of my work as both an entrepreneur and an entrepreneurship scholar and academic.  The work at the Foundation is by no means a culmination of any well thought through life plan; my life has taken many twists and turns (from selling real estate to being a theatre usher), what is common through most of my life activities has been a focus on being entrepreneurial. It’s only in the latter part of my life since completing my PhD that I have begun to focus on the philosophy of entrepreneurship. South Africa is a country absolutely pregnant with possibility, but it is also a deeply wounded country and one that daily enacts a fragile balance between this possibility and opportunity and the woundedness and challenges.  I don’t have hopes and dreams for the country, but I have hopes and dreams for my role in the country.  These are largely around using my talents and skills to the broader betterment of others; not in an evangelical way, but in a quiet, intelligent and useful way. Education and in specific entrepreneurship education is a slow, at times painful, but also rewarding process.  It needs to be undertaken with great care, enthusiasm and most importantly a sense of fun and passion.  I hope that my work at the Foundation and my continued work as an entrepreneurship educator reflects this belief.

Graeme de Bruyn, Head of Programmes at the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, recently visited the renowned Babson College in Massachusetts, USA, to attend an entrepreneurship course entitled ‘Driving Economic Growth Through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems’. Babson College is ranked the number one entrepreneurship educator in the world and has held that title for two decades. Graeme’s course and weeklong trip to the States was as a result of receiving the Foundation’s CEO Award for Significant Impact.

The course stems from an article published in the Harvard Business Review by Daniel Isenberg, professor of Entrepreneurship Practice at Babson Executive and Enterprise Education. In the article he discusses the need for and characteristics of an environment in which entrepreneurs flourish, asserting that they are most successful when they have access to human, financial and professional resources and can operate under favourable and safeguarding policies. All these facets of support make up what is called an entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Isenberg’s thinking around an entrepreneurship ecosystem is based on the various projects he has conducted in numerous countries to help with the creation of policies, structures, programmes and climates that foster entrepreneurship. The prevailing question asked by the public leaders is why throwing money at the problem is not working. A case in point is the Saudi Arabian government whose investment of 100 million US dollars over one year resulted in the emergence of less than 40 entrepreneurs.

In its most basic form the idea of an entrepreneurship ecosystem is very similar to what we find in nature. Just like there is no one factor that makes plants flourish, so also there is no one intervention that can bring about a surge of new entrepreneurs. In both cases there is a fine balance between nourishment, exposure and adversity. And, albeit counterintuitive, this notion of adversity is key here. Just think about the South African protea and how fire actually has a rejuvenating and propagating effect on them. In the same way entrepreneurs can benefit from not having rain and sunshine all the time. Or put differently, it is possible that providing entrepreneurs with too much support can turn out to be a hindrance to their entrepreneurial development.

Besides encouraging the idea of an entrepreneurship ecosystem, the course highlighted the need for adjusting expectation and, more importantly, the need to reconsider the definition of ‘entrepreneurship’. By Isenberg’s definition, a business endeavour should be growth-oriented before it can be considered entrepreneurship. This definition disqualifies the bulk of what is considered entrepreneurship nowadays. As Graeme puts it, “if one digs deeper, you’ll find that what is often touted as ‘entrepreneurship’ is in fact self-employment.”

These are valuable points to consider in any kind of entrepreneurship development programme. In order to measure success, there should be clarity regarding the expected outcomes – men and women who become self-employed or men and women who establish businesses in a constant state of growth.

Graeme was able to identify many similarities between Isenberg’s approach and the Foundation’s operations. For the last ten years the Foundation has been running on an ecosystemic basis, offering Candidate Fellows a range of training and capacity building opportunities before and after starting business ventures. They include a mindset programme called iShift, mentorship, post-Fellowship support in the form of the Association of Allan Gray Fellows and E², a Foundation partner set to provide venture capital to Fellows’ qualifying business ideas.

The experience – having all that exposure to thought leaders, evidence from actual cases and supporting as well as contradicting literature – has left Graeme with a lot of questions. While intensely preoccupying, these questions are in no way disconcerting. Instead they have allowed him to think about pertinent issues in the Foundation and in our country in an altogether different way. Or as he puts it, “what this course has done for me is really flip the script.”

It’s common wisdom that one should not count your chickens before they hatch, but in Kega Mukwhevo’s case you might want to. Not only does she work in tandem with South African chicken brand, Galito’s, she is also a co-founder of MKP Fast Foods and a recent finalist in the She Leads Africa business pitch competition.

Kega’s drive to succeed has become especially clear since her election as one of She Leads Africa’s top ten finalists. She happened upon the website of this Nigerian-based social enterprise after having her first taste of a business pitch competition at the annual Jamboree, an event organised by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. After this experience all she wanted to do was practice her business pitching skills. So she googled the words ‘pitch competitions’.

She wasn’t exactly looking for a women-centred competition, but Google or Fate led her to one anyway. This was particularly significant as Kega cringingly noticed that she was one of only three woman to have a top-ten position at the Jamboree. “I knew right there and then that I needed to rise up as a woman and empower myself in any way that I possibly can.” Entering this competition was certainly a step in the right direction.

The ten finalists of She Leads SA had six weeks to prepare for the concluding event where they would pitch their idea. This included training and business plan development with an assigned mentor. In Kega’s Case it was Juliana Taylor, CEO of Start Smart. They spoke to each other weekly, for about two to three hours at a time, discussing Kega’s business ideas regarding MKP Fast Foods. Derived from the initials of the founding members, Malatja Manthata, Kega and Phumlani Nkontwana, MKP Fast Foods creates youth employment in South Africa by operating a low-cost, scalable mobile kitchen for the chicken brand, Galito’s. Many of her peers and family members would agree that gravitating toward the food industry was inevitable for Kega; she was always selling cupcakes at school or doing the catering at family functions.

Even though Kega’s attention was divided between her studies (in B.Com Accounting) and prepping for the competition in this time, she never lost focus. Understanding the importance of attending classes – she is an audial and visual learner – she made going to class and tutorials non-negotiable. This rigid refusal to give in to the temptation of focusing on the more exciting business part of her day cost her a lot of sleep. “I was surviving on 2 or 3 hours of sleep per night preparing for the event. Sometimes no sleep.”

In addition to the six-week long preparation time, the finalists attended workshops in Lagos on various business topics, including branding, marketing and leadership. “I absorbed the entrepreneurship spirit in Lagos … the entrepreneurial bug bit me harder and it was there where I felt at home,” she says. In fact, she explains how everyone she met either had their own business or was starting a business on the side, balancing it with full-time jobs. “There is a yearning for success in business that lingers in the Lagos atmosphere … All I want to be is an entrepreneur and [this] energy [has just] fuelled my craving for business development.”

Being in Nigeria also allowed Kega to rub shoulders with the who’s who in the world of entrepreneurship. The finalists were invited to the home of Africa’s 40th richest man, Hakeem Belo-Osagie, and to the same event as Aliko Dangote – Africa’s richest man (as of November 2014). Many interactions like these left her with a strong network of contacts and various offers from venture capitalists and angel networks looking to invest in her endeavours or provide free marketing and life-long mentorships.

While the title of She Leads Africa went to the founder of Rare Customs, Cherae Robinson, there is no doubt that the other nine finalists walked away with invaluable business and life experience. This is clearly true of Kega who says the following of her future endeavours: “I have learned to see other opportunities and there are way too many!” She is well on her way to qualifying as a CA, having successfully completed her degree after the competition. Next up will be an Honours in Accounting. And this will happen alongside her plans to expand MKP Fast Foods and the business she has with her brother, K & I Cuisine Pty (Ltd).

It is already clear that, for Kega at least, 2015 will be both very busy and very full of her first love – good food!