2014 cps congress - keynote address by mr joel nana kontchou

Keynote Address at CPS 2014 Annual Congress, Rice University, Houston Texas By Mr. Joel Nana Kontchou, CEO of SONEL, Cameroon

LEADING FROM WITHIN AND OUT: BUILDING LONG-TERM

SUCCESS WITH LOCAL RESOURCES AND THE DIASPORA

Cameroon Professional Society P.O. Box 623, Silver Spring, MD 20918, USA

[email protected] | +1-888-294-0429

mailto:[email protected]

Cameroon Professional Society | P.O.Box 623, Silver Spring, MD 20918 | [email protected] | www.cpsociety.org |+1-888-294-0429 | p 2

Thank you and good afternoon

ladies and gentlemen

I would like to thank the

Cameroon Professional Society

for extending the invitation to

address such an esteemed

audience at the 2014 annual

congress. This is a privilege for

which I am grateful and very

much humbled.

So, why are we here today? I

am here because I was so graciously invited to speak with you about leadership. You are here,

because you are current and future leaders of the Cameroonian society. You are game-

changers, developers, creators, and doers.

The concept of leadership is, for me, closely aligned to that of teamwork. True leaders know

that there are few—if any—really impactful achievements you can accomplish 100% alone. I

think the same is also true for change in Cameroon and beyond. The biggest successes we will

witness will not be the work of one single individual, but as a result of the combined energies

and experiences of many. One of the most important lessons I have learned as an executive

working in Africa, is that consistent, winning performances are achieved only by those who

know how to make the most of the available resources, particularly our human capital. In this

particular context, that means leveraging both local talent and the Diaspora. It means

transforming the brain drain phenomenon into a powerful tool, into a key lever for

development and success. Africa has a great opportunity ahead of her. There are many ways

we can go about this transformation. I’m mindful of the many African experts here today, so I

will not risk going into a debate with experts. Today, I am sharing my personal views from my

own experience, and I trust that you might just find some of it useful.

A little bit about me. As Mr. Gabriel Kuiatse noted, my name is Joel Nana Kontchou. I trained in

Mechanical and Electrical engineering and I was hired by Schlumberger straight out of the

University of Yaoundé 30 years ago. You could say I’m an engineer made in Cameroon. But I

am also an internationally-trained petroleum engineer and a global executive.

Of the over 85 countries Schlumberger operates in, I have had the opportunity to work in 10 of

them; Egypt, Syria, India, Nigeria, Angola, USA, UK, Algeria, France and Congo. In my most

recent position as General Manager of Central Africa, I managed operations in 6 countries,


Congo, DRC, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, with a total of 2,300 employees.

This means, that I have been fortunate to have been both local talent, through my university

training and work in Africa, and, through my work with Schlumberger internationally, part of

the Diaspora.

As you may know, I have recently been appointed by the board of directors as CEO of Sonel. I

am taking over the position on Aug 11th. SONEL is one of the largest companies in Cameroon in

terms of revenue and employment with over 3,600 local people and more than 600

subcontractors. As I look to the future, I am one among many who want to see a better

Cameroon and a better Africa, one among many who are ready to embark on the journey to

more consistent winning performances.

Since the turn of the millennium, a wave of afro-optimism has taken the world by storm. Why is

that?

Africa has a dynamic youth and a growing population of more than 1 Billion.

There is a growing and dynamic middle class.

The continent is resource-rich and these resources are in demand.

Africa has exceptional GDP growth and strong projected ones.

The need for products and services is vast, though most of the markets are under-

developed.

This is a time of great opportunity for our continent. This is Africa’s time! There are needs to be

filled, and countless avenues through which to fill them. I’m convinced that the majority of us

would like to give back to Africa, but the question I am most often asked is—how? How can you

get started? Which opportunities should you pursue? What can you contribute?

As leaders, we must give back, give our time, and share our experiences. That is why I feel so

blessed to have the opportunity return to Cameroon and apply what I have learned both in

Africa and abroad.

For some of you giving back may mean creating a business—generating employment. For

others it may mean serving in the administration, or giving to a good cause; finding an

innovative solution to some of the many problems plaguing our society, or, helping to train and

develop people.

When exploring your options, my first recommendation is this:


Build your future where the intersection between market needs, and what

you do best—and what you enjoy most—meet.

Pursuing an opportunity simply because it exists is not good enough. The opportunity has to

match your unique skill set; it has to be aligned with your vision and way of life. Remember, we

are all unique with unique talents. This implies that you need to go through a self-discovery

phase.

Secondly, for those going into business, apply basic time-tested MBA teachings: Vision, goals,

targets, returns, competition etc. Put simply:

Define success.

Ensure proper business structuring. This is not a luxury or nuisance but a critical factor for

success. A good business needs to rely on solid governance. Too often, this critical part of a

business is neglected in favor of an informal, family-type structure where rules are unwritten

and set as you go. It is time we set up businesses, organizations, and social projects that can

survive us.

And finally:

Be patient.

Here in the United States things move at super-speed and with great efficiency. Bing-bang-

boom, and it’s done. This is not the case in Africa—and certainly not in Cameroon. We use

BMT1. However, just because you don’t see immediate results it doesn’t mean that things

aren’t happening. In fact, it is better to go slow in a Cameroonian environment so that you can

make sure that work is being executed properly at every stage of the process. A good train

driver knows that the speed capacity of a train depends not only on the quality of the train, but

also on the weight of the cargo, the engineering of the train tracks, and the terrain that the

tracks are laid upon. Your business may be well-conceived, but it doesn’t mean you can ignore

the realities of the surrounding context.

I would be doing you a disservice if I emphasized the rewards of giving back without also

acknowledging that African-specific risks are plentiful. So here are my views of the surrounding

environment:

Don’t expect to simply fly back home and have everything you wished for. The journey will be

difficult and stressful, but with right state of mind you can turn risks into opportunities. To do

1 BMT – Bantu Man Time


this however, you first must be aware of the risks. Some of them have been presented during

the workshop on “Running a business in Africa”:

When conducting business in Africa, setting up a charitable organization, building a

school or a hospital, in fact, when attempting to do anything with Africa, you need to be

aware of heavy/unclear administrative procedures and the challenges to access basic

information/data.

o There are no harmonized procedures/requirements across the same economic

zone, laws are not regularly published or updated, hence the legislation is not

applied consistently and litigations can last for years.

o There is a lack of efficient regulatory systems within the institutions that

presume to protect investors/project initiators

o It is one thing to know of these challenges, and it is quite another to actually

know the challenges themselves. Therefore, I recommend setting aside time for

serious observation. You should study the system with an open mind before

proceeding. If this is not possible, the use of a good agent/facilitator who

understands and who can work the system is advised. I’m not suggesting here

that you hire someone who will facilitate by bribing government officials/paying

“grease payment”. Emerging markets are littered with guys whose only purpose

is to sandwich themselves between the investor and the government decision

makers - solely to extract value for themselves – and as such they must tread

carefully when selecting such agents.

o After all, it is recommended that when you arrive in a new country, you need to

observe the driving habits for few days before getting behind the wheel, or ask

somebody who understands the driving practice to drive you around. The same

logic applies here.

While all this information is important, what a leader knows is not nearly as important

as what he or she does. There is an acronym, AIDA, used in marketing and

communications that describes the progression of a consumer’s path to purchase. If we

think of African development as a product, on the AIDA scale (AIDA stands for

Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action), Africa has completed the awareness phase on

leadership and is moving into the interest phase. People are now aware of the

consequences of both good and bad leadership but unfortunately the African mindset

still praises bad and corrupt leaders providing that they have money. The desire and

action to effect change is not yet real—and it cannot be until we agree on mission aside

from financial and self-enrichment:


o If we take Nelson Mandela for example, we all agree that he was a good leader.

What was his reward? How many of us have taken the action to follow his steps

and teachings? It is our personal responsibility to exhibit the leadership we seek.

If we want to emulate Mandela, we should strive to act like him. If we want to

see change, let’s support and emulate change-makers.

o Looking at a statesman as grand as Mandela might seem overwhelming. But

leadership doesn’t require a high position. It simply demands that you serve as

an example to others. People often ask me how I moved from Lycee de

Bangangte to manage a business worth more than 1 Billion USD in Schlumberger.

From the start of my career, as a field engineer, I decided to be the best engineer

I could be, step by step, being consistent always focused on my personal

development, integrity and honesty. I worked hard to maintain a positive

attitude and more importantly positive communication. What we do, what we

say, and how we say it matters.

o I cannot emphasize enough the power of a positive attitude. And this must come

from the top-down, bottom-up, and inside out. Positivity is infectious. This is

most certainly our weakest point. I’m not sure if this stems from our Bantu

culture, but is extremely hard for us to go for an hour without saying something

negative. The worst part of it is that not only are we negative about others, but

we are negative about ourselves, about our wives/husbands, about our children.

What does it mean to be a positive leader? It means that you emphasize

people’s strengths, not their weaknesses. Let’s try to see the good in people and

not their faults. This is important for maximizing our human capital long term.

At the heart of everything I have discussed so far, there are people. Africa is somewhat unique

in that it has two groups of people with different attributes that if applied in a smart way will

certainly create the dynamic for sustained development and progress: The local resources and

the Diaspora.

We need to work in a united way to take charge of both the local talent and the Diaspora. Each

needs to be leveraged because both groups bring something unique and necessary to the table.

Contrary to popular belief, these are complimentary forces.

The benefits of local talent are:

they hold the knowledge of local administration,

they have a good understanding of the current culture,

they are the memory of the place, and

they have a strong network.


On the other hand, some of the challenges of local talent are that often they lack initiative and

pro-activeness; they lack ambition or have lost their ambition, believing nothing positive can

happen. They need continuous training and development, often they are not held accountable.

The Diaspora can fill in some of those gaps, as this group typically comes with high skill and

a high level of education, good managerial skills, and experience with international

standards, specialization, self-motivation, and ambition. But people from the Diaspora

come with challenges too. You know it! We can be very difficult when coming from

abroad—we can be judgmental, culturally disoriented, easily frustrated by local realities,

and above all we have a misplaced superiority complex. These traits do not make for

effective leadership.

However, by combining resources from these two groups, by maximizing the positive attributes

of each we can enable a winning performance. This can be done by developing attractive

projects and business initiatives, by putting a high priority on training and development, and by

empowering people with responsibilities and clear goals. Through these actions, we can, in

effect, begin to tackle two of the greatest human resource challenges for Africa—the brain

drain and youth unemployment. When we develop attractive projects and business initiatives,

we can facilitate the return of professionals from abroad and the recruitment of the best local

talent by seeking the loyalty of workers through:

1. competitive compensation—paying them above the market rate

2. by establishing incentives directly linked to the success of the company or the mission.

Some of you may be wondering why I have devoted so much time to emphasizing collaboration

between different groups during a speech about leadership. Why not spend more time talking

about the leader? I have chosen this angle because leadership is precisely about everything but

the self. It is about the people being led. You who are leaders must be deeply interested in

people—in their talents, their weaknesses, their backgrounds, their biases, their desires, and

their motivations. The leader is not concerned with himself and his position but about others.

He is concerned about those he leads and the mission he is responsible for. When the leader

considers his actions, he concentrates rather on the reactions his actions produce. He uses

people’s responses as cues to direct his behavior. And once he directs himself, he can direct

others. The role of a leader is to go forth and bring forth. To be the first to go—to move, to

act—and then to motivate others to move forward as well. That is why the leader must be

positive, because positivity inspires action. That is why the leader must be focused, because

focus inspires trust. Trust in the direction of movement. That is why the leader must be

professional, because professionalism inspires discipline. That is why the leader must be calm,


because calmness inspires order. That is why the leader must be tenacious, because tenacity

inspires hope. And where there is hope, all things are possible. As leaders, you define the

breadth of possibility.

Now is the time to reconsider our plan. We are hearing about Boko Haram. Do they exist? Yes.

We are hearing about Ebola. Do we have it? Yes. We are hearing about corruption. Is it true?

Yes.

What we are not hearing or paying attention to is the number of Chinese landing in Africa every

day. The number of French, British, Japanese, Italians, and Americans focusing on Africa. They

have heard about Boko Haram, Ebola, corruption etc… but they have looked past that, and they

have seen something great. Something that belongs to you and me. Make your choice: Actors

or Spectators?

Thank you

Joel Nana Kontchou

CEO of SONEL, Cameroon

Sponsors of the 2014 CPS Distinguished Annual Congress

2014 cps congress - keynote address by mr joel nana kontchou

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