the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
by Manini Mbongwa
The year 2020 brought about a lot of changes worldwide. Not only did we have to be cooped up in our homes and separated from our loved ones, but some people also lost their love in the fight against COVID-19. People also lost their jobs which meant that they also had to lose their assets like houses and cars, even worse kids had to be taken out of schools not only because of COVID-19 but because parents could not afford to pay school fees anymore.
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
We were shocked to read this week (here) that plastic, or to be more correct, plastic microfibers, have not only been found at the lowest depths of the ocean in the Mariana Trench, at the highest points of our Mountains on the top of Everest, but now even across the Arctic. We as humans have now polluted the entire planet with plastic!
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
One of the things we all learnt in 2020 was what was meant by the ‘R’ number - the rate at which a sick person will pass on (in this case) COVID-19 to others. According to ISGlobal the average ‘R’ for an infected person with CV19 is around 2.5 in each 5 day period of incubation. An ‘R’ of less than 1 is good because it means that the number being infected is growing smaller, but over 30 days will still infect others, and thanks to the brilliant Visual Capitalist looks something like this…
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
January, just the mention of that month brings high hopes and expectations of greater things. Given the low base that was 2020 (although as we pointed out in our last Blog, 2020 was a year of such incredible opposites, not only of terrifying lows but also for many Lionesses, incredible highs), 2021 for the entire world from a health perspective has to be better!
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by Marjon Meyer
The future is not what we used to think it would be…our world is literally infected with new ways of thinking and working. With so many staff members working remotely, the way organisations manage performance has to be adjusted. There should also be a bigger focus on re-skilling and constructive feedback to build confidence amongst staff. Problems and challenges need to be solved differently and creatively.
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The year 2020 was the 250th anniversary of the world’s greatest composer, Beethoven. Many consider Mozart to be the greatest, but his abilities came too easily, he never had to struggle, his music flowed as if from the heavens. Beethoven was mortal, he was human, he struggled. Mozart found composing easy, as if he had a ‘hot line’ to the angels, and indeed if you see his original manuscripts, there are no corrections, he wrote everything down once (when was the last time you wrote an email with no corrections?) - this was an orchestral work with 20 different parts! Beethoven, however, struggled and with errors, scribbles, corrections, angry lines crossing out, starting afresh many times, he forced incredible music out, finally accepting (begrudgingly) that he had gained immortality on paper.
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by Suret Alive, founder of Alive Wellness Company
Here are the top 5 things that I’ve been doing for myself during the pandemic that will make my business thrive.
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
“…a company cannot achieve long-term profits without embracing purpose and considering the needs of a broad range of stakeholders. A pharmaceutical company that hikes prices ruthlessly, a mining company that shortchanges safety, a bank that fails to respect its clients – these companies may maximize returns in the short term. But, as we have seen again and again, these actions that damage society will catch up with a company and destroy shareholder value.”
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by Ronel Jooste
Facing the chaos of a world pandemic during 2020, the thought of the December period where we can scale down, relax and recharge is certainly something to enjoy. It is time to forget about what happened in 2020 – the good, the bad and the ugly – and get ourselves ready for 2021. Pure bliss!
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Sam Shepard as Chuck Yaeger in The Right Stuff. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The Lionesses of Africa has a user community of over 1.1 million inspirational African Female Entrepreneurs owning and running businesses from all countries of Africa, from SME’s to large multinationals, employing thousands…and across all industries. We even have an ever growing membership in the Diaspora such as the US - currently above 100,000.
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by Tatenda Rungisa
The year 2020 has been filled with a lot of uncertainties, low productivity levels and time loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic which hit the whole world at large. Most businesses dwindled and some only survived by grace. In all this, it meant business owners, entrepreneurs, and employees as well, have worked tirelessly throughout the year to ensure they survive. That said and done, it is a few days to end 2020 and start on a new slate, and it is only proper for every entrepreneur to unplug and take time for self-care.
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From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The title picture this weekend is of the Peters’ Globe (℅ Graphic). The ‘normal’ globe inflates the sizes of regions as they move further from the equator. Since much of the developing world lies near the equator, these countries appear smaller and less significant. On Peters' globe, areas of equal size on the globe are also equally sized on the map - so poorer, less powerful nations are now restored to their rightful proportions. GO AFRICA!
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by the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
Terrific Tuesday (or ‘TT’ as we like to call it) is, if you remember, when the Head of Finance (HoF) gives us the morning to think outside the box, to move for a moment away from the incredible projects with which we are busy and step back for a moment from the crazy energy that is Melanie who, in the last 2 months, not only brought us the amazing LOA/Harvard Conference, then the Lioness Xpo B2B platform with Absa, and not stopping for breath just this week, the brand new (and in time for Christmas no less), incredible LOA / Facebook - Virtual Masterclass Series.
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by the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
“But every person in poverty, they dream of a better life, they want a better house, they want to provide for themselves, they want better roofing, they want water inside, they want electricity inside their homes.”
…so said an inspirational Lioness who is setting the world alight winning awards for her work to bring clean water to villages and into homes in Rwanda. At the tender age of 26 (so she is still a Lioness cub!), she is of course Christelle Kwizera of Water Access Rwanda.
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by Ashika Pillay
Our worlds are in a state of flux and change and we simply cannot control what’s going to happen around us. This is the nature of the uncertainty in the world and in our worlds. We can make plans for the future to some extent, and even that is somewhat filled with a sense of what might “not happen”. Are we going on holiday? What will happen next year? Will we have a second wave?
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By the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
“Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before.”
…and so said the brilliant and inspirational Kamala Harris in a speech that many of us feared might not be possible as we saw the initial numbers coming out of the US Election on the night of the 3rd November 2020.
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From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
It was the morning after the night before and the Head of Finance (HoF) was in a pensive mood, finally calling us one by one into the Boardroom.
What was this all about?
Why all the secrecy from the HoF?
Had we possibly made a terrible error and put decaffeinated beans in the Coffee machine?
These questions and many other horrific thoughts rushed through our minds.
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by Anja van Beek, Talent Strategist, Leadership Expert and Executive Coach
Missing that ‘happy feeling’? This article focuses on why your mental wellbeing matters. How would you rate your current mental wellbeing? We all have been challenged over the past few months and have experienced how our mental health (our emotional, psychological, and social well-being) can impact and affect our thoughts, feelings and actions.
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by Elizabeth Otieno
It’s a difficult time for many business owners and employees. The handful of us who have managed to keep our jobs are grateful and ensure to work diligently to keep it that way. We either occasionally visit the office or permanently work from home, until this pandemic is over that is. Now that our safe haven, our home, has become our workplace as well, will our work efficiency rise or fall?
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From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
The AbsaLionessesXpo opened with a bang to a VIP guest list on Tuesday and to the whole world on Thursday 29th October (although there will be other special invite days ahead - so keep an eye out for that VIP Gilt-Edged Invite from Melanie!).
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