Dr Modupe continues to share real life stories of entrepreneurs and insights on how to find succession in a VUCA environment by exploring the journey of a Rwandan Industrialist, Jean Dio Kagabo- Founder of Soft Group & Soft Packaging.

Jean started numerous businesses but failed. He recognized the need for toilet paper in Rwanda on a travel to China. His idea of traveling to China was to sell something that was lacking there but rather discovered a machine for making toilet papers leading to setting up of his company, Soft Group & Soft Packaging.

The 2 lessons learnt are:
1. The importance of recognizing that in a VUCA environment, agility is necessary and it is achieved by being willing to take the initiative to ask for and find out what the market needs or what the gaps in a market are and to pivot to that
2. ⁠The importance of recognizing that while VUCA and agility are important to survive, that achieving scale requires stability.

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This week’s episode on the SIA podcast, Dr Modupe shares the story, lessons and insights of Dr Hend El Sherbini, Group CEO of Integrated Diagnostics Holdings. IDH is one of the most successful medical service companies in North Africa. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Before she became the CEO of IDH, her mother entreated her to join her diagnostic laboratory. Barely seven years after joining the family business, she grew it exponentially in terms of number of laboratories and employees. Despite the negative turn of events at the peak of the growth of the organization, they were able to maintain their market share and win an investor confidence which led them to a merger. This resulted in an even bigger expansion into other parts of the world.

Dr El Sherbini credits her success to hard work, consistency, attention to detail and luck.

3 Lessons learnt are:
1.Working hard to understand the market to make adjustments pay off
2.Consistency and discipline play a critical role in success
3.Preparation is necessary to benefit from an opportunity

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Welcome to the 57th episode on the SIA Podcast. In this week's episode, Dr. Modupe shares the story of Jesse Moore- Founder of M-Kopa around the theme of the podcast for the quarter.

Jesse’s vision of providing solutions to identified problems in Africa led to formation of M-Kopa, even though his initial reason for coming to Africa from Canada was not entrepreneurial.He equipped himself with business knowledge by getting an MBA and building his networks by working with M-Pesa.

2 Lessons learnt from this episode among others:

1.Recognize that your current circumstance does not have to dictate your destiny.
2.Know your business and the problem you intend to solve

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