Tech firm banks on coaching to drive business recovery

By Fred Ndung’u

The new business normal brought about by Covid-19 pandemic means new capacity gaps for business owners in leading their businesses to sustainability and growth. 

For Phoebe Nyangweso, resilience programs are very important especially when building a tech empire. As the managing director and founder of Agro and Real Limited, an ICT operating company, the need to spur growth led her to appreciate the need for capacity building as the starting point in putting her business on a positive recovery and growth path.

Ms. Nyangweso said her business scooped its share of challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, especially with social isolation and lockdowns limiting the company to smaller projects within a smaller geographical area. The scaling down of operations meant a dip in revenue returns and reduced capacity to sustain the company.

Memories of how she had to find ways to smoothen her business operations to avoid closing shop at the height of the pandemic are still fresh in her mind. She was struggling with navigating the new business environment so much that she had to ponder her
next move.

At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Invest in Africa (IIA) partnered with Mastercard Foundation to front the survival and resilience of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). That is under an initiative dubbed SMEs Recovery and Resilience. Through this initiative, IIA has collaborated with industry experts to deliver capacity-building support to SMEs through; Business Coaching, Virtual Masterclasses, peer-to-peer mentorship, and an investor readiness program.

Under the program, Ms. Nyangweso was assigned a certified business coach. She said the coach opened her eyes to new opportunities mainly digital.

“Through discussions with the coach, I confidently pivoted my services to optimize the opportunities availed by the ICT migration,” she said. 

She has also improved her staff management skills. By delegating roles effectively, she now has sufficient space to think about the sustainability and growth of the company. Delegating has also given the staff enough autonomy to roll out new ideas with a view of scaling up the business.

For example, one of her employees came up with “home connections to fiber infrastructure”, an idea which has brought the business a new market, and increased revenue. 

“Through the business coaching that was offered to me free of charge, I have realized new ways of putting the staff to use, and this has brought the company new ideas, including new revenue lines,” said Phoebe.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a lot of mindset shifts to business owners. In terms of operations, a big number had to suddenly go online, with most players adopting technological solutions – several companies are expected to reinvent themselves by going digital to stay in the market.

According to McKinsey, ten years of e-commerce adoption was compressed into three months, as an example of the abrupt digitization of business processes. This sudden change disrupted business for Nyangweso’s firm big time. The new ways of running businesses left her with uncertainty on what steps to take next.

However, this situation did not last long for Ms. Nyangeso thanks to a program run by Invest In Africa, an organization that ensures that start-ups can access skills, markets and finance – the “recovery and resilience program” has helped her lead the company successfully during the
challenging times. 

Despite the current tough business environment, she is happy to reiterate her optimism on the business and how the coaching placed it on a clear growth and sustainability trajectory. She advises fellow entrepreneurs and business leaders to consider business coaching as the breakthrough to adapting to the rapidly changing business terrain.