CHANGE demands disruptive leadership thinking. In this interview, I (JN) interviewed Dr Divine Ndhlukula (DN).
She is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and philanthropist. She is the founder and managing director of a Zimbabwean security company, SECURICO. She also runs Zvikomborero Farms, which is known for goat production. Below is the interview:
JN: How do you personally define entrepreneurial thinking, and why is it such a powerful tool for leaders today?
DN: Well, I think it is the ability for any person to see opportunities where others are seeing problems or issues that can impede progress.
Entrepreneurial thinking is really about managing risk through being resourceful and not just analysing.
As leaders, we tend to focus on analysis, but it is about seeing that risk in mind and acting on it.
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What is important for today’s leadership is to remain agile in this volatile economy.
We tend to continue looking at the status quo, and it becomes the greatest risk we face as leaders.
So, entrepreneurial thinking is the ability to think outside the box and not remain where you are.
If you remain in the status quo, you face the greatest risk in managing this volatile economy.
JN: You used the word agile. In such moments of uncertainty and crisis, how can entrepreneurial thinking help the leader remain resilient and innovative?
DN: Well, instead of seeing a problem, the leader is empowered to start asking questions: What is it that I can do? How can I pivot? What new things or needs can help manage this crisis? So, it is active.
That is how you can remain resilient in a crisis. You need to proactively search and research for solutions, and then you are able to build resilience that forces you to innovate.
Innovation will really come out of necessity if you force yourself to be resilient.
JN: Would you mind giving us a practical example from your journey where you had to use entrepreneurial thinking to make a decisive decision or a marked difference?
DN: Typically, in 2007-2008 or thereabout, salaries were rendered almost useless by the day. Our business is very much people-centred. We employ people as our raw material in every way.
So, how did we manage? We implemented new ways. We sat down with the employees, especially the low-level employees, because they were the ones being affected very badly.
We co-created strategies. We asked them: “How can we manage this situation? We all want to continue. You need to continue earning your salary and coming to work.”
But if you get to the end of the month and your salary is worthless at the beginning of the month, it is pointless.
So, we co-created solutions and implemented salaries in kind. That was one of the solutions the low-level employees themselves came up with.
We started providing transport. The security sector never used to provide transport, but we did. We even provided accommodation.
We had to prioritise our human capital. While others could not think of such solutions, we gained market share as a business during that time.
Our competitors were struggling, but we grew and remained stable. Our employees remained stable and focused up to this day.
JN: How can leaders then use entrepreneurial thinking to embed it into organisational culture, especially in environments that are changing every day?
DN: If you are talking about an entrepreneurial culture where everyone starts thinking about enterprise, you need to incentivise intelligent failure, not just failure.
Resistance to offering solutions normally stems from fear of making mistakes. People should be told mistakes are possible.
As leaders, we must reward people who come up with initiatives, like the idea we had to do focus groups with employees and get them to freely talk about what they think would work for both the company and themselves.
It is about leaders rewarding initiative. We encourage people to come up with pilot projects that allow teams to see small, quick wins.
That way, it becomes easy for that culture to be embedded in the way we do things. When people see that these ideas generally lead to good results without risking their employment, the culture shifts from defensive to participatory.
JN: As a follow-up to that, why is it that leaders, at times, would rather do the thinking themselves and allow subordinates to implement what they thought? At times, that kind of thinking might not even be contextual.
DN: It might be the wrong thinking for the moment. But still, some leaders will say, “Okay, you are employed just to do what I have employed you to do. The thinking part is for me as a leader.”
What’s my advice to such leaders? Innovation is not something where you have the monopoly of ideas as a leader. No way. A leader can only come up with about 5% of the solutions a business needs.
So, it is unfortunate that we still have leaders who think like that because they are missing out on 95% of the solutions they might be struggling with day and night. It is important for leaders to understand that. And I think the majority of leaders today do.
JN: So now, running this company, how do you use entrepreneurial thinking to extend beyond your personal business to create meaningful impact at country level, continent level, and beyond?
DN: Well, there are many ways. A business is also social. There is social entrepreneurship besides making profit.
This is why there is so much talk about ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance]. It is not just a buzzword anymore.
It is important to apply social entrepreneurship in business because it makes business logical to solve community problems.
In the first place, business exists to solve a certain problem. But it has to go beyond solving problems for paying customers. It should also solve community problems.
In my case, we pioneered the employment of women, mainly widows and single mothers, in the security sector.
At the time, the market insisted women were not suited for this type of work. But women bring certain traits: they are loyal and responsible.
While others saw risk, I saw a capable workforce. One competitor even said to me: “You are employing so many women, but they go on maternity leave, they ask for time to attend to children.” He saw risk, but I saw loyalty and responsibility.
We created a social safety net through stable employment. During hyperinflation, it was mainly women who stayed on the jobs.
Today, those women are not just security professionals; they are breadwinners and community anchors.
That proved that inclusive leadership is the most sustainable form of success.
At the end of the day, there was a strong business case to it, not just the social entrepreneurship aspect.
Business today is not only about profit. We talk about the three Ps: people, planet and profit.
A business is now an entity that is socially responsible for all three, not just profit.
JN: As my final question, what advice would you give to upcoming leaders who want to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking as part of their leadership style? Where do they get it? Is it books? Other leaders? Where do they get this quality?
DN: How do you cultivate entrepreneurial thinking? You should always be on the lookout for obstacles or problems society is facing.
Once you see that, cultivate curiosity and quickly act on it.
Do not wait for the perfect plan to start. Work with the little you have.
I started my business from a service quarters because I had seen an opportunity in the security sector. I started with three people. And here we are today.
So, cultivate interest because you have already seen a gap. Quickly act on it. Do not over-analyse. Be curious and act fast.
I also encourage entrepreneurs and aspiring leaders that their greatest asset is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn at speed.
Not slowly, but at speed. I started a security company with no idea what it was, but I had to learn as fast as I could.
It is important to read widely. Reading allows you to speak from a position of strength. If you know what you are talking about, people will listen. If you do not, they will shut you out.
As you may know, I wrote a book, Entrepreneurial Success: Growing Business in a Fluid Economy. It is transformational, particularly for emerging leaders in environments like Zimbabwe, where the economy is fluid. But do not just read my book; read anything and
everything.