Winning the War for Africa’s Talent. Together.

by Christopher O.H. Williams, Expert-in-Residence at ALC Mauritius

In 1997, McKinsey announced that a war for talent was underway. Baby boomers were leaving the workforce faster than trained employees were replacing them, and big companies were finding it difficult to attract and retain good people.

As a recent undergrad living 30 minutes from Silicon Valley, I was experiencing another front to this war — the dot com boom, where thousands of young people pursued their fortune in tech, start-ups, venture capital, or in the growth industries they spawned. During that boom, employment in the tech sector grew 36%, while average wages for tech workers doubled. At its peak in 2000, tech represented over 4% of total private jobs in the US.

I did not join the tech gold rush, but like many, I wanted to break free from a rote corporate culture. I joined Gap, in a role that paid me 50% less but brought me close to everyday consumers and creative people — which I desired. Gap was then one of the most popular companies in the world, and one of the fastest growing Fortune 500 companies. With masterful understanding of America’s segmented consumer base, it popularized and benefited from the casual-to-work initiatives that many traditional employers implemented to stem the loss of young talent to tech.

The tech bubble burst in 2000 and immediately, $1.8 trillion of value was destroyed. $1.2 trillion of value remained and along with it 1.6 billion more people on the internet. Today the total number is close to 4 billion, 10 times more than at the start of the boom. In the year 2000, there were approximately 17 million websites. By 2010, there were an estimated 200 million (today, that number is over a billion). All the money poured into tech companies in the first half decade of the internet era created an infrastructure and economic foundation that would allow the internet to continue to grow and mature, and that it did.

This was the new normal. The internet accelerated and transformed many aspects of human interaction. Digital devices became a way of life and their use spawned new descriptors in demographics, digital natives (in reference to those born into this internet age) and for those of us who had to seek entry and adjust into the new age, digital immigrants. Around the same time, a new term entered the global corporate vocabulary — VUCA, used to describe the new state of the world of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

When I joined Nike in 2005, the company was waking up to the impact of this new empowered consumer. A year later it reorganized from a focus on product to a focus on consumer-category experiences. Internally, it launched one of the first diversity and inclusion initiatives having surmised that to capture the hearts and minds of millennial consumers it had to hire and listen to millennial employees — who were after all consumers too. “Step into the intersection” we were urged, that place where diversity would be a key driver of innovation. We did. And it did. All said, this consumer-focused business strategy and diversity-focused people strategy helped drive an uncontested 10-year dominance of Nike in sport and created one of the most successful brands and investments in the world.

Business managers had to learn new ways to manage diverse and multi-generational talent — because just as consumers valued experience and innovation, employees valued mindfulness. When I joined VF Corporation in 2012, the company was crystal clear that it was the responsibility of managers to be multipliers of talent and to create a learning culture that would spur innovation. “People don’t quit companies, they quit managers” was a continuous reminder of how accountable we needed to be. Again, a major corporation transformed its management culture and place learning and innovation at the center of its business and people strategy. The company was also rewarded with dramatic business success.

In 2014, adidas had one of its worst years ever. Within a few weeks of celebrating the Germany’s World Cup win, it announced its inability to meet its 2015 financial goals. Externally, consumers saw the company as their parents’ brand, its market position was weak, and internally its culture was lagging the digital age. The company not only launched a new strategy called Creating the New, but also kicked off a new conversation about culture. It launched a monthly Net Promoter Score survey that asked employees the simple question — Would you recommend adidas as a place to work? Today, already, adidas is a very different company than it was in 2014.

What do these stories mean? About capitalizing on consumer trends as at Gap, about becoming a forerunner in diversity and inclusion as at Nike, about making management accountable for people development as at VF, about creating a new corporate culture as at adidas? First, that the world has changed — fundamentally and permanently (we digital immigrants need to come to terms with that). Second, that consumers and employees are melded together today under the single, simple concept of mindfulness. Third, that companies that don’t change, risk demise — maybe sudden, maybe slow, but demise all the same.

No wonder then that, Josh Bersin, renown industry analyst at Deloitte is known for saying, “The war for talent is over…and talent has won.”

How does Africa fit into all this? Or Mauritius, or Nigeria, or Kenya, or South Africa, or Egypt? Our consumers are interested in the same technological and educational opportunities as elsewhere, and the opportunities are extraordinary, not only for us to catch up but also for us to leapfrog the rest of the world. Our companies will navigate similar waters as western firms have.

But we are notably different. We are surrounded by too many asymmetries, needs and opportunities in all dimensions of life. Moreover, we have the fastest growing army of digital natives. Their impact, as consumers, as employees, and yes — as competitors — will be significant and exponential.

Today, the signs of Africa’s burgeoning growth are very evident, and again, tech is a significant focal point. Also evident are new people shifts that portend new paths for our talent.

According to Jake Bright, co-author of The Next Africa: “While much smaller by Silicon Valley or Shenzhen standards, Africa has one of the fastest growing tech scenes in the world right now. Its corporate and tech centers in the core economies are pulling back repatriates and creating competing hubs of African talent across the continent. There is a growing list of startups founded by repatriate entrepreneurs or Western talent including Paga, MallforAfrica, Twiga, Mines.io, Kobo360, Andela, Nala, Flutterwave, Yoco, Africa’s Talking, and others.

International firms on the continent are shifting as well by employing a higher percentage of African talent versus a reliance on expats in the past”. Of note, some, like Google, recently announced that they would stop requiring college degrees of employees, creating a new wave of opportunity for Africa’s growing self-taught pedigree.

I offer the following advice to African firms:

• Disrupt yourself, before someone else does it for you. Identify your orthodoxies — those deceptive heritage truths upon which your companies and cultures are built and make it safe for your people to challenge them as employees, versus disrupt them as competitors.
• Adopt a mindset that reflects today’s emerging workforce. Address Volatility with a clear Vision, Uncertainty with Understanding of the consumer and industry dynamics, Complexity with Clarity and simplifying tasks for the organization and Ambiguity with Agility and the ability to change versus be stuck in rigidity.
• Place wise bets on the future. Invest in the growth drivers, not the revenue contributors. Make meticulous planning and disciplined execution a competitive advantage. Most companies do not plan at all or plan well. Some rely on dumb luck.
• Build a workforce for tomorrow — hire and train ethical problem-solvers with agility to attack new global challenges. Reframe the definition of leader from that person who can grow revenues to also include one who can grow people.
• Create an employment brand that maximizes people growth and well-being. Help employees find where they can thrive within the organization — more and more they will not tolerate environments that stifle their development.
• Reset your contract with consumers. Make service and experience an integral part of your brand. Think global and refine existing western models to deliver relevant value to an evolving and competitive market. If we can win within our region’s constraints, we can compete and lead in the global market.
• Create partnerships for change. Business managers should engage more creatively with HR leaders who are the important gatekeepers to the organization, catalysts for culture conversations and thought leaders to executive teams. External experts and thought leaders can help accelerate these internal change processes. I saw this in all the transformations I discussed.

I offer the following advice to Africa’s youth:

Go for it! Do not be obliged to follow traditional career paths!

Strive Masiyiwa, Chairman of Econet, says “As long as you are providing a product or a service that is consumed by people, you have to think of Africa…For those who are taking a long-term view, interested in where the great consumer opportunities are, Africa has so many needs. Needs are the playground of entrepreneurs in almost anything you could consider.”

In 2014, Ernst & Young declared that the war for talent in Africa had started. This war will intensify over the next 3–5 years when Generation Z comes of age as discerning employees and empowered consumers.

As in the other war, I am very certain that this war will also be won by talent. How African companies fare depends on how well they learn from the past and play their cards today.

Christopher O.H. Williams is a global specialist in business, brand and commercial strategy and he advices, speaks and writes about unlocking potential through transformation. This article is excerpted from the full text of a keynote speech given to employers and students at ALC’s Career Day in March 2019.