Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst

April 17, 2022 Melanie Hawken

No one can be in any doubt now about the impact the Russian attack on Ukraine and subsequent horrific war is having on our day-to-day lives. Two countries that provide a huge amount of the world’s basic staples such as wheat, sunflower oil and many other food essentials, at war, was always going to be felt in our weekly shop, no more so than in Africa given its massive imports of those basics. Many in the West have never experienced inflation of this kind, although for our Lionesses in Zimbabwe, there is still a long way to go as they sadly know only too well. The battle scars gained through having to cram Trillion Zim$ notes into their pockets and then fight their way to the front of the queues at the shops will never go away…

It gets better - just persevere

April 10, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Following on from our article last week about changing the flow of Luck through working on the ‘little things’, this week we look at how this can actually be achieved. We’ve all heard the adage - ‘How do you eat an Elephant? - One bite at a time!’, to show that even the most monumental task can be brought down to bite-sized chunks and indeed at that level the chances of success if you persevere is far greater than sitting in front of a massive ‘Nellie’ and wondering what next?! This has been recognised through time and it is certainly no wonder that one of the most famous and well-known Chinese sayings is "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.

‘Luck’ flows in one direction

April 3, 2022 Melanie Hawken

As far as business is concerned, ’Luck’, ‘Hope’, ‘Fear,’ are all four letter words (you know, the ones our Mothers always told us not to use), for a reason. In business we have to avoid relying, or getting carried away, or even dragged down by them. ‘Luck’ more often than not, is simply down to ‘Timing’ - good or bad, and timing we can work on (see our article here). ‘Hope’ is often involved because of bad planning on our part (and we have all been there at some point in our lives). ‘Fear’ is our sub-conscious telling us that we need to be more careful in the future before committing too far.

Just when you thought prices would return to normal…

March 27, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lionesses of Africa prides itself on being apolitical as our central role is to guide, train and create a safe community for our incredible and inspirational membership where they can work with, and learn from, each other, but sometimes world events overtake and impact us in a way previously never imagined. The terror of war, any war, be it (as recently seen) in Syria, Ethiopia or now Ukraine is simply unimaginable for those of us sitting safe in other countries watching on CNN.

Relatable AND Reliable? Sounds like a Lioness!

March 13, 2022 Melanie Hawken

So much of our membership is B2C that we tend to concentrate all of our attention on that, and assume that new ways of doing things, all really great ‘touch points’ and omni-channels for customers are driven by the B2C customer wants. Yet this is not so it would appear…B2B uses many of the same touch points as B2C but with differing needs these touch points, or as some call them ‘Omni-channels’, are often used with different emphasis. For our many members in B2B, this weekend we turn to you!

What really excites Private Equity, Part III? Beware of the Genie!

February 26, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Over the past two weeks, we have looked at what excites PE Investors at the back end of your business (production, supply etc) as you come to them to catapult your business into the next stage of its growth. We then looked at the front or sharp end of your business - can your current customers handle the massive increase of products, or will you need to find new customers? If so, why the PE Investor is interested in your cost of acquiring these and just how sticky they are. Oh and what your retention rate is over this time, can you hold onto customers, or are you expensively bringing in new, to replace old as they leave for whatever reason? We also pointed out that we as Lionesses need to expect difficult questions, because as the Harvard Business Review has shown here, there is a dis-balance between questions asked of male founders (promotion orientation) and of female founders (prevention orientation) - as if we haven’t enough issues to work around!

What really excites Private Equity? (Part 2) Or how to think like an Investor.

February 20, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Last week we looked at some of the questions that will be thrown at us when in front of Private Equity Investors, indeed any investor will have those same concerns so be prepared! Look at your business as if an Investor, and start to think like one.

What to expect from Private Equity Investors

February 12, 2022 Melanie Hawken

We were fortunate enough recently to be invited to listen to various Lionesses as they pitched their fabulous businesses to different Private Equity firms we had introduced. We say ‘fortunate’ because firstly the pitches we heard were absolutely perfect, with the right blend of ‘story’ with detail, and secondly the various PE Firms came back with questions that not only showed their interest, but also their concerns which the Lionesses each answered clearly and with conviction.

Fear, risk and being human

February 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

“If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.” — Pythagoras. “…if prosperity, adversity” or put another way, ‘if profit, there is risk’. Risk is there, it may be hidden, but it is there… you cannot have one without the other.

Four Thousand Weeks

January 30, 2022 Melanie Hawken

“I have become to myself a land of trouble and inordinate sweat.”

St Augustine in his confessions (here) wrote: “Assuredly I labour here and I labour within myself; I have become to myself a land of trouble and inordinate sweat.”

I labour within myself.

We’ve all seen them - the surveys that ask just how busy we are, how much time we have for a walk in the Park or a chat with our neighbour. The results are all depressingly similar - as the years move on so we become busier and busier. Running at full speed is never enough and as we fall exhausted into bed after yet another day spent at 100mph we have that nagging thought that perhaps we just didn’t achieve all we set out to do when we bounded out of bed that morning.

A consistent voice, a clear purpose, a coherent strategy and a long term view

January 23, 2022 Melanie Hawken

We woke to find it was Davos week! The gathering of the ‘Great and the Good’ of the finance world under the World Economic Forum banner who meet once a year in Switzerland to discuss, deliberate and invest, is as regular as a one of their famous Cuckoo Clocks. Sadly, at the last moment, and especially for those already in their Ski Jackets, Covid hit again and Davos was postponed until the summer and replaced by a few on-line speeches. All was not lost however, because one who is always at this event, a certain Mr. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest investment firm with many US$ billions under management, recently published his annual letter to shareholders. In this there is a call to arms for all CEOs:

Harness the power of purpose to your advantage

January 16, 2022 Melanie Hawken

“More than 19 million US workers — and counting — have quit their jobs since April 2021, a record pace disrupting businesses everywhere.” according to McKinsey (here). What is going on and what can we learn from this to ensure that the same does not happen within our businesses?

‘Arch’ of Joy

January 9, 2022 Melanie Hawken

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The South African Nobel laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu (“Just call me ‘Arch’) who sadly died on December 26th 2021, was according to the Financial Times (here)“…a beacon of honesty, conviction, inclusiveness and human decency.” He was also one of those rare people in public life to be totally consistent. His battles were against injustices, any injustice and this drive of his, through his words and indeed actions remained constant and consistent throughout his life: “We cannot afford to be silent in the face of injustice, inequality and poverty, and we may not falter in the face of oppression.” (here)

Grow Your Own Resilience

December 12, 2021 Melanie Hawken

As we come to the end of yet another year ‘like no other’, it is only right that we look to the future with an understanding of what has passed. After all, none of us can claim not to have been infected by the events of the past two years, not only by the horror that was 2020, but then the realization in 2021 that Covid was here to stay, and either we adapted our businesses or we were finished. Sadly, no one cares why a company goes out of business, there are no excuses in the business afterlife - it is just closed, which in anyone’s books is pretty final.

‘Tuko Pamoja’ - “We are in this together” / ‘Ubuntu’ - "I am because we are”

December 5, 2021 Melanie Hawken

The South African Scientific Community have done it again. They have found the next variation of Covid19. Following the Greek Alphabet in naming each new variant, the WHO jumped a couple of letters and named it Omicron.

“Inopem me copia fecit!”, or abundance makes me poor

November 28, 2021 Melanie Hawken

Without doubt the greatest playwright this world has ever known, not least because his plays delve deep into the psyche of the human mind and thereby stay relevant for all age, William Shakespeare knew a thing or two about decision making and their consequences, intended or otherwise. From the horrific decision by Macbeth to kill the King; to the indecision of Hamlet fighting with his thoughts and morals (to kill the King); to the madness of King Lear following his insistence that his Daughters tell him which loves him more; to the jealous decisions of Othello utterly convinced that his wife is cheating on him; to the horrific unintended consequences of Romeo and Juliet, with both dead in the end (he wrote so many incredible plays, we should perhaps stop there!). But decisions rule our lives.

If you live in a world where you don’t need ramps, you simply do not notice

November 20, 2021 Melanie Hawken

The above powerful photo of Sázia Sousa, in her words “a proud member of Lionesses”, the General Director of Technoplus, Lda, Mozambique (here), taken by the brilliant Giulia Bosis, says it all for what we are, as she says:

“A note for the International Women Entrepreneur's Day:

Be a # woman and be a # entrepreneur! I have this photo as a symbol of much that I have achieved so far. And for all women I scream: We do not want to be equal to men. We do not want to stop taking care of the house or the children. We just want them to stop looking at women as a being incapable of opinion, intelligence, and strength. We want to stop conditioning our life to a successful marriage. We want to continue being women, but above all, we want to be human beings able to help our community.”

Climate change leadership takes bravery, courage and action

November 13, 2021 Melanie Hawken

At the time of writing, COP26 is into its last days and sadly it is not looking good for any meaningful results. The current feeling is that (non-binding) commitments so far given are driving us to an increase of 2.6 degrees, significantly higher than the 1.5 required to keep the globe relatively stable. The above quote tragically says it all. It is from Philip Davis, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, one of the many countries on the battle front of Climate Change, as he arrived home disappointed but sadly not surprised by the lack of courage in his fellow leaders. "I invited them to be brave, to be courageous and act…” But as he added: “They don't seem to have any teeth to them.” (here)

“We can’t get to net zero by flipping a green switch”

November 6, 2021 Melanie Hawken

…and so said Mark Carney the ex Bank of England Governor, now the UN’s special envoy on climate action and finance (here), and indeed he is right. To save the world; to ensure people continue to have homes, jobs and a future; to allow for a world where crops are not constantly facing drought one day and then hit by flood the next; to ensure that forests continue to provide habitats and local (and global) climate ecosystems - this all requires long, hard work from us all. Just to put it into further context, successive years of extreme weather events have plunged Madagascar into what WFP officials say is the world’s first climate-induced famine. Five years of consecutive drought compounded by sandstorms, as well as cyclones, an invasion of locusts and growing insecurity have created what World Food Program officials call the perfect storm. There is no magical green switch.

COP26, Trick or Treat?

October 30, 2021 Melanie Hawken

In a recent interview, climate-change activist Greta Thunberg when asked how optimistic she was that the COP26 conference could achieve anything, responded "Nothing has changed from previous years really. The leaders will say, 'we'll do this and we'll do this, and we will put our forces together and achieve this', and then they will do nothing. Maybe some symbolic things and creative accounting and things that don't really have a big impact. We can have as many COPs as we want, but nothing real will come out of it.” (See here her interview), but should we be so negative about the work that our politicians are about to do in a wet and windy Glasgow in the UK?