No Ordinary Path: A Corporate Warrior's Journey from Specialist to Generalist

By Joe Mutizwa

No Ordinary Path is a narrative of the key transitions that a young black Zimbabwean leader experienced in his unusual journey as a corporate warrior rising from the bottom to the top of the organization in Zimbabwes postindependence era. This is a compelling real-life example of how specialists transform into generalists comfortable with leading the whole enterprise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Africa
• Release date: May 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482807387

Joe Mutizwa

The author is a leading consultant on leadership development in Southern Africa. He has authored six books on various aspects of leadership. He writes from insights developed over thirty years in senior executive positions in the private sector. A Graduate of the London School of Economics, University of Zimbabwe, HEC-Paris and Oxford University’s Said Business School. He is a certified executive coach and a certified mediator. He Lives in Zimbabwe

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Joe Mutizwa.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4828-0739-4

                eBook           978-1-4828-0738-7

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Accidental Expert

Chapter 2 Battling it out in the Trade

Chapter 3 A Reluctant Transition into the Factory

Chapter 4 From Hedgehog to Fox

Chapter 5 Taking Charge of a Strategic Business Unit

Chapter 6 A General Without an Army

Chapter 7 Leading the Whole Enterprise

Chapter 8 Reflections on the Critical Transitions

Chapter 9 With Whose Army?-The Defining Question for Leaders.

Conclusion

References

About The Author

Other Books by the Author

1. Personal Crucibles :

Learning to Lead Through Adversity and Struggles

2. The Arc of Awareness: Broadening the Gaze and Widening the Heart of Leadership

3. Leading Without Command:

A Humane Leadership Perspective for a VUCA World

4. The CEO’s Role in Corporate Transformation:

The Story of Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited(1980-2010)

INTRODUCTION

The unexamined life is not worth living

Socrates

This book was motivated by my desire to share the story of my career as a corporate warrior for Delta Corporation Limited (Delta) – in Zimbabwe over a period of twenty nine years from 1983 to 2012. Taking time out to reflect on this journey allowed me to examine the transitions that I went through and distil learnings that others may find useful and relevant.

I joined Delta on 1 April, 1983 as a junior official in the Human Resources Department - or Personnel Department as it was then known. This was a posting in one of Delta’s various subsidiaries. Delta Corporation Limited was then a diversified conglomerate, employing around 7,000 people across its lager beer, sorghum beer, soft drinks, hotel, furniture, retail and transport subsidiaries. It was the most valuable company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by market capitalization.

It was widely understood even as far back as 1983 that Delta accounted for not less than 10% of Zimbabwe’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In many ways what happened at Delta was a good barometer of what happened to the entire economy given Delta’s large consumer facing businesses relative to the economy. It had a national geographic footprint and its range of products had a ubiquitous presence across the economy.

On 1 April, 2002 –after serving for nineteen years in various positions across the group I was appointed Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Delta and served in that capacity for ten years before taking voluntary early retirement on 31 May, 2012 - five months before reaching age 58.

Reflecting back on my corporate career in my new life, after leaving the corporate world, I found it rewarding to adopt the dual positions of both participant observer and examiner of my own journey through a long career. I had several objectives in undertaking this exercise.

Firstly, I felt that reflecting on the past was important to me as it would help me to identify patterns, factors, and influences that shaped me within a corporate setting and how these impacted on my mental maps even beyond my corporate career. So, in order to move beyond my corporate career I needed first to revisit it, understand it, and take away its core messages. I agree entirely with the philosopher George Santayana’s observation that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Secondly, as a student of leadership myself, I was interested in bringing a searchlight to the important debate concerning the transitions that people go through as they progress through their corporate careers from being managers of narrow functional areas to being leaders of the whole enterprise. I wanted to find out -to the extent that it is possible for one to dispassionately observe one’s own experience-what changes took place inside myself and within the context in which I participated as an upwardly mobile corporate executive. I was curious to know if there were any significant changes along dimensions such as:-

• The dominant discourses that populate the agenda of the executive as he or she moves up the corporate ladder.

• The changes that one experiences at a personal level

• The investments that one has to make to facilitate personal growth

• The sacrifices that come with the increasing level of responsibility

• The critical sources of support that one needs to endure the demands and loneliness of higher office.

When I suggested to my supervisor on my post graduate degree at Oxford (done soon after my retirement from Delta) if it would not be a great idea to do a dissertation based on my experience as a corporate warrior his response was that I should move away from wanting to be a guest at my own funeral! That hurt! What he actually meant was that I should move on and not focus on my past but find new and interesting subjects of study that would help me to transition into my new future.

I followed his advice and selected a different topic for my dissertation. The result was my recent book The CEO’s Role in Corporate Transformation: The Story of Dairibord Zimbabwe