MO IBRAHIM’S MIDAS TOUCH:
CELEBRATING AFRICA’S GREATEST TELECOMS ENTREPRENEUR
EVER!
What kind of human being do
you expect to get after subjecting a child to the following conditions: born in
poverty stricken Ershkert in Northern Sudan in Africa, raised by a cotton
trader and educated in Egypt? Of course, a celebrated telecoms engineer and
African development advocate! Really, if
it wasn’t for an unassuming Sudanese engineer, the world of telecommunications
as we know it would not exist. To say therefore, that Mo Ibrahim is an
entrepreneur extraordinaire and one of the greatest leaders ever in Africa is
no understatement!
Ever since I started the
series of articles on new venture creations, I have become an ardent student of
business and the experience has been very rewarding indeed! It is my considered
believe that these inspiring lessons can be of immense help to aspiring new
venture creators as well as established ones.
In this article, we shall
examine some remarkable lessons from the life of one of Africa’s greatest
telecoms entrepreneurs, Mo Ibrahim.
1. DRIVING AN INSPIRING VISION
The first notable attribute
you find in Mo Ibrahim is his vision. Right from a very young age, the desire
to make an impact in his generation was evident. His vision was clear,” to become a top engineer and win the noble
price in physics “, and he did.
The young lad was determined to live
footprints in the sands of times. The year was January 1985. Mo Ibrahim made
history when he led the team that invented the first mobile phone network. The amazing feat became a springboard that led
to other astonishing accomplishments.
It appears that the size of
one’s vision determines the kind of life he lives. Mo Ibrahim had great vision
and did everything possible to realize that dream. What you should be asking
yourself is whether your vision is indeed inspiring. Is your vision generating
enough impetus?
Ibrahim’s passion for
telecoms was amazing. Hear him as he express his passion:
“I actually
enjoy working with networks and engineering. It’s fun and it’s a very creative
job. I never intended to really stay
long in the academia because I’ve always been an engineer and I really wanted
to play with the big train and you cannot do that in the academia”
Passion plays a critical in
achieving success as an entrepreneur.
Without passion, there cannot be greatness. Telecom was second to none to any other
passion on planet earth for Mo Ibrahim. Mathematics and physics had been his
favourite subject in school and that was instrumental in achieving his life dream
of becoming one of the finest engineers in the world.
His passion payed off. I his
own words,
” It just fascinated me. Mobile communications was a
complex new mode of communication with very little knowledge (available) and
about how to effectively plan or management it. I made a real breath through,
but of course, nobody could predict at the time that mobile communications
would be so universal today. At that time, it was a very small industry” .
It was his desire to explore
further opportunities in the telecoms that actually inspired him to travel
outside his home country Sudan to Geneva for the International
Telecommunications Union conference during which he made the discovery for the
first mobile phone in the world.
3. PEOPLE, PLACES AND TIMING OF LIFE’S
OPPORTUNITIES
Yes, places do matter! I have
it said severally that many African do better when they travel outside the
continent. The reason for migration is not just the desire for a better life
but moreso, a better system to maximize ones talents. It appears the African
business environment is still not favouring many locals. I beg to differ, I may
be wrong.
A critical success factor in
business is about people, places and timing of life’s opportunities. In Mo Ibrahim’s own words, his success was
linked to these three pillars.
“I’m no hero myself; I’m just somebody who happened to be in the right
place at the right time, with the right know-how”.
And he was right! The right
place was Britain. The right time was back in the 70s and the right know-how
was telecommunications. This is instructive because I can’t imagine what would
have happened if he had not travelled to the UK. Skills and talents are
essential but the lack of the right environment can frustrate them and hamper
further development into full potential. Environment holds the key to
fulfilling our God-given potential.
4. GIVING UP TO GOING UP
One of the most difficult decisions
Mo Ibrahim had to make at one point in time is leaving British Telecom’s to start
his own business after several frustrations. The company did not see the
opportunity he was at the time nosing to drive the world.Telecommunications. It
was difficult but he had to leave.
As a new venture creator, you
will be required to make several sacrifcesfor the growth of the business into
an empire. There is always a price to pay for every success.
Taking calculated risks every
here and there also become essential especially when your dream is to go
international. Just like Ibrahim, Bill Gates dropped from Harvard to give us
all Microsoft. There are some people who may have to move out their current
positions to give the world, a better offer, but the timing is important. And
when the time comes you must move with courage and conviction!
“ I didn’t see BT as agile organization and at that
time they were not focused on mobile telecommunications. The management failed
to see the future f that industry so the support we were getting from the company
was very lukewarm”.
He continues,
“ I really wanted to have my own freedom and that essentially
was my motivation; it was not to try to make money. I just wanted to have my
peace of mind to enjoy what I was doping”.
But a lot of his friends
could not side with him. “Yes, of course,
a lot of people thought I was crazy. I had a very cushy good job. I had a big company car. I had all my
telecoms for free., but I increasingly become
unhappy and I relay wanted to
enjoy what I was doing .. There
was no point so I had to quit”.
Armed with a few loyal
friends and his able wife, Mo Ibrahim left BT to set up Mobile Systems
International (MSI), a company that was to grow employees to 900 by 11 years. Ibrahim
grew MSI to be one of the leading mobile phone network designers at the time.
They designed networks for companies all over the world. But it all began when
he took the bold
5. NEVER DISCOUNT ‘COMMON SENSE’
Unlike most business leaders
and great people, Ibrahim does not spend much time reading. That sound strange,
isn’t it? He just applies his common sense. He believes that people can do much if they
look within themselves first and use their thinking
One thing that Ibrahim
attributes to his success above all else is something so glaringly obvious and
freely available that most business books forget to recommend.
He explains, ” it is called commons sense. Forget about
all those Harvard books and business schools. It’s just common sense. If that prevails
in what you do, you will always be safe”.
He had worked for several other telecommunications
companies before founding Celtel, which
when sold had over 24 million mobile phone subscribers in 14 African countries.
At the time of inventing the world’s first mobile phone, he was working for the
state owned telecom operator, British Telecom.
6. MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM SUCCESS TO
SIGNIFICANCE
One thing that is worth
noting about Mo Ibrahim is his desire to let his success touch other lives. He
had succeeded in making his success count. Really, you cannot claimed to be
successful and until your success has touched other lives.
In 2006, he established what one may described as a rather radical
initiative, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation
which offered the world’s biggest price,
US$ 5 million and US $ 200, 000 a
year to a different African
president each year. He does this under the criteria of
leadership, good governance, and most important for all, a president who steps
down from power timorously. The Mo
Ibrahim index has to some extent ignited the quest for some leaders on the
continent to drive exemplary leadership.
He started a US$ 150 million
private equity fund, Satya Capital to
invest in African businesses. T a large
extent his private equity capital has succeeded in giving a facelift to many
new venture creations across the continent. Today, he divides his time between
the fund and the foundation.
We all have a responsibility
to impact other lives around us!
CONCLUSION
It is not enough to be successful; we must all be
busily asking how significant our success has been to our society and nation
and perhaps by extension, our continent and the world. Mo Ibrahim has become more significant o
Africa today because of his foundation either than Celtel. I shudder to think
how many people know he founded Celtel and produced the first mobile phone. But
his known more for his philanthropy.
May we all make our success significant to generations
unborn as entrepreneurs!
