I tend not to write a lot about the stories that everyone else who is in the African business space would share or that the readers would expect to hear from Africa: Logistical and administrative challenges that create significant inefficiencies in business.
But sometimes, there are stories to tell.
Even there are so many modes of communication, you can’t always expect that you can easily reach out to people when you want to especially when you are dealing with people who are used to the less structured lifestyle, which more or less applicable to the people I deal with my business in Africa.
Suddenly people get unreachable for some hours and days. You can’t call them, message them, and email them. Usually, they re-emerge though. The reasons of MIA can vary: Their phones were off because they didn’t top it up, they were out of town, or they were just busy. They are not very apologetic.
When you can’t reach out to people when you expect them to be reached out, it makes you feel anxious or angry and gives you psychological stress. But after experiencing such incidence several times, you learn how to deal with it or hedge the risk of putting yourself into that situation by setting different expectations.
I have been talking a lot about the mission, concept, and vision of the company. But how about actual daily operation, you might ask?
As we are currently at the stage of strategizing, pre-launch marketing (including B2B sales), prototyping, producing, and financing not a lot of B2C sales and logistics activities are happening yet. And my role at this stage (or at any stage) of the business is to communicate well.
Communication is SO SO SO SO SO important both externally and internally.
And I can’t say that I am perfect at it. Communication is always a challenge. I constantly need to practice, improve, learn, and re-strategize. Languages add additional layors of challenge when you want to get your message across globally.
I failed the relationship with my previous business partner partially due communication issues. We were not really listening to and respecting each other so we couldn’t build trust.
I experienced a number of times when you walked out the pitch feeling the message was clearly not delivered after being exposed to clueless eyes and off-point questions.
It might not be intuitive, but communication actually needs a lot of preparation. You need research. You need a lot of brainstorming and writing. You need trial and error.
To deliver a message to any external parties, say, my business partner, clients, customers, manufacturers, or financiers, I always have to research and understand the situation the other party is in and put its hat on me. Then I strategize to get my message delivered followed by drafting or simulation. Many times this works, but other times this doesn’t. Massive fail. Big time. Sometimes I underdo or overdo the process resulting either in mistakes or inefficiency.
Yet, I still think that communication is a very important driver for the success of our business. This is because we are trying to present new perspectives and ideas (Read: The African perspectives) to the audience (the global audience). I am trying to create different kinds of relationships with manufacturers or other value chain partners: Instead of working with them as vendors, we want to collaborate by getting their ideas and insights which they take for granted. I want to challenge the status quo at every level by figuring out how companies, businesses, economies, and societies can work better by not simply accepting how they operate right now.
Every day is hustling! You never fully expect what responses you get!
This is my 50th blog post on this website. And since I have been writing in two languages (sometimes with slightly different nuances) for every post, I think I deserve to say I’ve written 100 entries as I finish writing this post. I have been thinking and writing about opportunities, perspectives, and challenges around building Maki & Mpho, but maybe it is a good time to step back and ask myself, “so what?”
I believe that societies, countries and the world work better when people across different cultural values and backgrounds trust each other more, care about each other, and work together while acknowledging both similarities and differences.
And the first step to building trust among people across different values and backgrounds is to learn about each other through experiences and conversations.
Our brand, design, and products are the entry points for people to experience new Africa, engage in conversations, explore different ideas or values and see the world differently.
As I have been sharing in this blog, the splurge of creativity in African cities is real. Those young Africans being tired of the way in which their continent, countries, and people are looked at and how “African” stories are still skewed to those that evoke sympathy, fear, and nostalgia.
We offer creative solutions rather than advocating or ranting. We offer delights and surprises that engage people organically and emotionally.
This is inside the leather bag factory in Nairobi…
（英語のあと日本語）
It seemed like TICAD VI highlighted how Japan would take a different approach to Africa’s development compared to the one taken by China. The politics and diplomacy of the far east were played in the African continent. I also kept hearing how local Kenyan people were comparing what Chinese people and Japanese people have been doing. Like any other discussions, there are pros and cons for both sides, but whether you like it or not, China will continue expanding its presence in the African continent.
So why can’t we collaborate more instead of emotionally unfriending them or diplomatically trying to overpower them?
If there’s one country that will build more infrastructures, buildings, and factories, that would be China. That means that China will be the biggest external driver to create jobs in the African continent.
If we are to build a textile factory or garment factory in Kenya, I would definitely want to look at opportunities for the joint venture with a Chinese company…
I’ve read the series of articles published back then right after the previous TICAD V by the expert of Asia’s economic development, Mr. Hirano, talking about how Africa “cannot” develop by simply applying Asia’s development model to industrialize the countries. The articles also mention about how Japan should work together with China, and there were quite insightful.
Having lived in Shanghai and learned Mandarin, I cannot stop thinking about how my company can do better by collaborating with China…
Trying to get into my designer’s head… Impossible! (Wait, what? Cuba?)
（英語のあと日本語）
From Amsterdam to “New Amsterdam” and from England to New England, here we are, we’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean to come to the East Coast US, and I am right now briefly in Boston to follow-up discussions with my business partner Mpho who’s finishing up new design for our upcoming textile products (while literally singing out loud) and to make new business connections in Boston/NYC while coordinating with South Africa/Kenya via Whatsapp/Emails and getting some documentations done for upcoming meetings my potential sponsors and investors in Japan.
しBoston is a really important city for Maki & Mpho for many reasons. Boston is where I first met Mpho, we discussed our initial business concept, launched our first collection, and got featured in the major newspaper, The Boston Globe. I still remember vividly how we sat down at the coffee shop at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge. While there have been some interruptions and pivoting in the course of the development of our business, the core value and commitment remain the same.
I still remember vividly how we sat down at the coffee shop at the Harvard Coop in Cambridge, and naturally came up with the core belief and value of the brand: Our core belief is that your individuality is your culture; therefore, we value and celebrate individuality.
Celebrating individuality is not about being individualistic or self-centered. It is rather opposite. It is about nurturing empathy, respecting others, and working together toward the common goal to make a better society while co-existing with the natural environment.
Maybe the environment where we can celebrate individuality in that sense is what we would call a truly diverse society. And this is the kind of diversity that we want to communicate through the means of the contemporary African design and storytelling. Why do most people always want to paint Africa with a single color? Why do we still have so much tension around differences in racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds?
We believe that design and art not just heal such tensions, but can also create economic values by suggesting different relationships and creating trust.
We all know that capitalism is not about money but about trust!!! (No, we don’t trust Trump!)
ボストンは、Maki & Mphoにとって重要な都市です。ムポと私が知り合い、ビジネスコンセプトの構想をした場所であり、最初のコレクションを発表して、米国の有力紙The Boston Globeの記事にもしてもらいました。そこからのいろいろな事情による紆余曲折やピボットなどもありましたが、私たちのコアバリューとコミットメント変わっていません。
We put people first… (and we’re not just saying this)
（英語のあと日本語）
One of the reasons that I strive to build my own business is to (try to) “do the right thing.” Obviously, there is no single way to do the right thing, but, at least, I have certain perspectives to do things better to pay my fair share to contribute to this world.
I always have so many questions about how things work in ways they work: How large organizations work in a certain way even though some or many people who work there think that they are not necessarily doing the right things. While I am not chasing any idealistic situations, I also want to challenge doing things in a certain way.
This underlining thought applies to all kinds of decisions I make in building a company. And lately, I have been thinking a lot about “job creation.” I have to put parenthesis on “job creation” because I have been really thinking about the very meaning of it. There are at least two perspectives that make it harder for me to think of the activity of job creation. One is about creating decent work and another is about dealing with the dynamics around work (and the meaning of the work) in the global context.
The 8th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) is about decent work and economic growth. According to the ILO’s definition (excerpts from the video), “decent work means dignity, equality, fair income, and safe working conditions. Decent work puts peopleat the center of development. It gives women, men, and youth a voice in what they do.”
“Decent work puts people at the center.” This, to me, is the biggest paradox. “Creating job” in a traditional sense, in my opinion, actually puts companies and businessesat the center (even though so many companies in the world “say” they value their employees). Except for the cases of few startups and the founding teams, I haven’t really heard of cases of companies that hire people first and build businesses around their talents.
Regarding the second point about dealing with the dynamics around work in the global context, my biggest concern is around some sort of double standards. The “global minds” (like McKinsey, the MIT Lab, the World Economic Forum, you name it) are talking about the emergence of A.I. and how such technologies can change the types of jobs to be created. There are a number of research reports and articles coming out talking about how the Millenials have different values and attitudes toward work/life (where they value more personal happiness over economic gains) or how technologies are creating more self-employers, freelancers, or nomad workers. On the other hand, when it comes to the economic development of the emerging or developing economies, job creation simply become the mechanisms of entering faceless people to the “labor forces” and “growing population” often mean “economic growth” because they are the labor forces.
There is another paradox related to that. As China’s labor costs go up, companies have been moving their factories to Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam. And of course, the trend for the past few years is to apparel companies like H&M are starting to look for East Africa like Ethiopia and Kenya to leverage “low-cost labor.” The question here is whether we continue to support these trends of mass production (at the low cost) and mass consumption. The latest report on Africa’s economies published by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) suggests that Africa needs more large companies and that there are zero African companies listed in the Fortune 500, but are we continue to support the companies like the Walmart (yes, the biggest company in the world by its revenue amount) whose key successful strategy is the EDLP (Everyday Low Price) or oil/energy companies that we see on the Fortune 500 top 10 list? Are we making progress to the sustainability?
So okay, I really cannot get my head around these paradoxical aspects. But what’s important for me right now is to look at what I’ve got and to test my hypothesis around “job creation.” I’m not the CEO of a large company (yet) anyways so I can take a risk to fail.
I may be optimistic but I believe that as Millenials actually become the decision makers of the era (there are still bunch of decision makers of the previous generation), more and more people start to value relationships (amongst people), happiness, health, wellness, creativity, arts, and culture more than accumulating wealth and economic gains.
And I might not be the only one who is thinking about these kinds of change that may happen. The recent article on the conversation between President Obama and Joi Ito of the MIT Lab mentioned about such topic.
There are actually very high-level jobs, things like lawyers or auditors, that might disappear. Whereas a lot of the service businesses, the arts, and occupations that computers aren’t well suited for won’t be replaced. I don’t know what you think about universal basic income [(concept where all citizens receive at least a living wage, provided by the government as a form of social security)], but as we start to see people getting displaced there’s also this idea that we can look at other models—like academia or the arts, where people have a purpose that isn’t tied directly to money. I think one of the problems is that there’s this general notion of, how can you be smart if you don’t have any money? In academia, I see a lot of smart people without money. – Joi Ito
So how is all this relevant to Maki & Mpho. Our fundamental philosophy is to celebrate individuality. We put people first. We put creative people first. We put Africa’s creative people first and let them create. We use design as a tool to tell their creative stories because that’s the way we can create and communicate values. We believe that Africa’s biggest asset is people not because they can potentially become low-cost labor to work in garment factories or off-shore call centers. We believe that their creativity and design skills can help people around the world to live more meaning and satisfying life.
Does any of this make sense to people? Let me elaborate… but probably this shall be continued another time…
パラドクスは、これだけに留まりません。中国の賃金上昇で、企業がベトナムなどの東南アジアに工場を移転しています。そして、ここ数年の動きとしては、H&Mなどのアパレル企業などが、エチオピアやケニアなどの東アフリカに生産拠点を作り、「安い労働力」をレバレッジしようとしています。ここでの疑問は、我々は、引き続きこの大量生産（低コスト）、大量消費のトレンドをサポートし続けるのかということです。McKinsey Global Institute (MGI)が発行した最新のアフリカレポートでは、アフリカにはもっと大企業が不可欠であることと、現時点で、フォーチュン500のランキングには、アフリカ企業が1社もないことを指摘しています。しかし、我々は、世界最大の企業であるウォールマートとその戦略であるEDLP（毎日低価格）であったり、トップ10リストに君臨するような石油・エネルギー関係の企業を、サポートし続けるのでしょうか。持続可能な社会に向けて、正しい道を歩んでいるのか。
弁護士や監査役など、ハイ（スキル）レベルの仕事すら、（AIの発展によって）なくなる可能性があります。一方で、サービス業、アート、それからコンピューターが得意でないような仕事は、存在しつづける。ユニバーサルベーシックインカム（政府が最低レベルの収入を全国民に保証する制度）に同意されるかわかりませんが、人々が職を失うということを考える上で、学問やアートの世界のようなモデルを分析するというようなモデルも出てきています。つまり、こういった人々はPurpose（目的やビジョン）を持っていて、それが必ずしもお金に結びついているわけではない。お金がないのにどうして頭がいいといえるのかといった一般的な概念があることも問題です。学問の世界では、お金持ちではないが、優秀な人が沢山います。 – Joi Ito
In my previous blog post, I talked about how it took forever to get the contract with South Africa’s Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) settled, and how we began. Today I want to share a bit more about the scheme.
The proposed project with the DAC is a design competition to discover and nurture emerging young textile artists in South Africa. The problem we wanted to address was that there are talented students graduating with the design degree, but these students barely have opportunities to pursue their career in the design field. Unfortunately, students are often even discouraged by their own design professors not to pursue such career.
So we work directly with the students to encourage them to keep creating and to be entrepreneurial. We had a workshop at the Textile Department of the Tshwane University of Technology where Mpho graduated from to introduce the design challenge project. There were 17 students who showed interests and Mpho went over the work of each student. Each of them has an interesting point of view. To participate in the design challenge, each student will be sending a collection of six designs which tell stories from the African perspective. And the winner (or winners) of the design challenge will have an opportunity to work with our brand and realize their design into products. We also hope to hire many talented students down the road…
For the realization and distribution partner, we identified a well-known company in South Africa that has historically been supporting local artists and designers. We cannot share the name of the company yet, but if everything works out, this will be a great platform for us to share our brand stories as well as featuring many more young artists because companies have physical stores not only in South Africa but also in other regions including Europe and North America.
Throughout these processes, we value partnerships. Like many countries that are economically rising, engaging the public sector in South Africa is inevitable. As they are often working together with large companies, schools, and other organizations, working with the public sector gives us new opportunities to partner with other players in the ecosystem. In the case of the creative sector in South Africa, DAC sponsors or supports major art and design programs including Africa’s biggest design platform Design Indaba.
So this partnership with the DAC is basically a key milestone for us to operate in South Africa and beyond!
だからこそ、私たちは大学と連携することで、そうした学生に直接アプローチをし、デザイン業界で活躍する可能性やアントレプレナー精神の醸成を目指しています。最初のアプローチとして、私のビジネスパートナーのMphoの母校であるTshwane University of Technologyのテキスタイルデザイン学科でワークショップを行いました。17名の学生が参加し、Mphoが一人一人のワークを見て回りました。それぞれの学生がユニークな視点を発信しています。デザインコンペへの参加方法は、6つのデザインで形成されるコレクションを作成し、アフリカの視点からの自身のストーリーとともに、提出することです。最終的に選ばれた学生のデザインを、私たちMaki & Mphoのカプセルコレクションとして展示や商品化の機会する予定です。将来的には、こうした優秀なデザイナーたちにMaki & Mphoチームに参画してもらいたいと思っています。
The other day, I talked about the African print, but wanted to share some follow-up today as I visited the exhibition and dialogues of “Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design” yesterday in Netherlands. I have already talked about the company Vlisco, but I thought it would be worth sharing what these words they presented in the very context in Netherlands.
A key role is played by Africa’s centuries long history of colonialization and, in particular, a type of textile that erroneously became a symbol of (West) African tradition: Dutch Wax also called Ankara. In the mid-nineteenth century, several Dutch and English companies commenced industrial production of Indonesian batik fabrics, among which Vlisco soon became the market leader (and remains so to this day). How the textiles made their way to Africa is subject to dispute, yet the colourfully patterned wax prints quickly grew so popular on the continent that they never really took hold in the originally intended Dutch market. today many designers and artists make use of Dutch Wax for their creations. At the same time, an increasing number of critical voices have questioned the embrace of this colonial commodity.
In the exhibition, there are many more of sharing educational and fresh stories from African perspectives via different creations of entrepreneurs, designers, and artists. More and more people get educated through learning these stories, more opportunities Africa’s creative entrepreneurs have to grow their businesses while maintaining their cultural heritage and nurturing their pride in their African identity.
When you are selling products, generally speaking, you first have to figure out who you are selling to, what products you are selling, how to make them, how much it costs/how long it takes to make them, and how/where/when to sell them at how much.
But that’s obviously from the perspective of the seller.
From the customer’s perspective, there’s only one thing that matters: WHY. The buyer only asks one question: Why do I have to care enough about this product to keep it as mine in exchange for my hard-earned money (or for the limited budget, in b2b cases)?
So that’s why we are focusing on the WHY. Why in the context of our business, it is about really understanding the needs/wants, sharing stories of making things, and engaging people to nurture mutual trust. So by the time we have products, it becomes irresistible… And customers can tell you how much they would pay for it: The perceived value.
You think it is just a dreamer’s ideal? Well, maybe not. Look at all those crowdfunding projects that are succeeding. We started a new project with a business client in South Africa just by telling stories. So I guess this is starting to work…
I am taking this approach because we are not about making trends. We care about the longevity of the business. I am taking this approach because I used to work for consumer goods companies that accumulate years and years worth of stocks that are impossible to sell out (or even to give away!). If customers can’t find the reason to own it, they don’t take it even if an item is FREE of charge!
Let me bring you back to the context of the African business. I don’t (want to) believe Africa will become the next China – the manufacturer of the world, the next source of CHEAP labor. I am presenting the opportunistic views but consumption behavior will change. When people stop buying lots of cheap goods and start buying less valuable goods, Africa should be ready to offering high value rather than low price. N’est-ce pas?
She can inspire millions of youth in the continent.
（英語のあと日本語）
The biggest reason why we need globally competitive “attractive” brands created by Africans is simple: To inspire young people in the African continent to be confident, proud, motivated, and ready to take ownership of their own economic development and cultural diplomacy.
Of course, creating jobs and educating youth are important, but before everything, what’s also important for those young people is PURPOSE.
Your purpose in life. Vision and motivation to be a part of a society and the rest of the world. THE MEANING OF LIFE.
Urban-dwelling and mobile-savvy youth in Africans (or in any emerging economies) in this globalized world are not different than global millennials (plus gen. Y&Z) in any other cities like Tokyo or San Francisco. They want to align their values to how they live (and work). They are motivated in doing something that they can honestly feel proud.
I met quite a few African entrepreneurs and creators in Nairobi, Kigali, Addis Ababa, and Johannesburg while meeting many more Africans and African diaspora outside the continent. They know how the majority of people outside the continent perceive “Africa.” They are tired of how Africa and Africans have always been discussed in the context of sad, tragic, tribal, development, poverty, challenge, corruption, war, diseases, you-name-it stories… These stories are demotivating and discouraging.
That’s why more Africans (including former lawyers, business professionals, or international development practitioners) venture into fashion/creative businesses. Some examples include South Africa’s Kisua (African fashion online consisting capsule collections by designers across the continent) founded by former finance guy Samuel Mensah, Lagos-based creative agency Style House Files founded by former lawyer Omoyemi Akerele, and Nairobi-based Vivo founded by former international development expertise Wandia Gichuru… just to name a few.
We build a globally competitive brand that more Africans (starting from South Africans) can be proud of their own culture and we create a globally competitive company that everyone would LOVE to work for.
だからこそ、新しいイメージを発信できる可能性が高い、ファッションやデザイン系のベンチャーに、弁護士やビジネス、国際協力の分野などの異業種からチャレンジするアフリカ人達も増えています。ほんの一部の紹介ですが、例えば南アフリカのKisua (African fashion online consisting capsule collections by designers across the continent founded by former finance guy Samuel Mensah)、ラゴスのクリエイティブエージェンシーであるStyle House Files (founded by former lawyer Omoyemi Akerele)、以前このブログでも紹介したナイロビのVivo (founded by former international development expertise Wandia Gichuru）などがあります。
