The Observer - 2 March 2014 - 9
December 1995), and he thought that it would
be the last obstacle before Econet could start
operating a cellular telephone network. Banker
wanted to set up a financial institution of his own,
but he agreed to help his friend for four months.
Banker had not anticipated how tough it would be
to raise finances for Econet.
“It was almost impossible, because every bank
looked at us as anti-establishment, and therefore up
until then there hadn’t been any move or party or
forum that seriously challenged the establishment,
and Econet appeared to be that. So the entire
banking community, myself – you will see from
my CV that I started banking as early as 1979, so I
knew everybody in the industry, and Strive thought
that would be a useful asset, and I could open doors
that he couldn’t. So all the Chief Executives of
financial institutions were people I knew personally,
and I went to them to say: Can you please help us
fund [indistinct] and they all said: We can’t have
Econet in our books. Because we were viewed as
anti-establishment, except for one South African
bank that stood with us and that was Stanbic. They
had a totally different view, and subsequently a
Government bank helped us with the funding for
the operations. That was the Commercial Bank
of Zimbabwe. The then Chief Executive took a
totally different view and said: I want to support
this vision. I believe in what you people are trying
to do (Banker – Interview transcript).
Marion Moore, a white Zimbabwean7, joined
Econet as Chief Financial Officer in November
1995. She had professional accounting qualifications
and had worked for several years in the IT industry
and later for an American multinational firm. She
was looking for an opportunity to work in a local
Zimbabwean company, and was told that Econet
was looking for a finance professional. She had
followed Econet in the media, and was attracted
by the achievements and courage of Masiyiwa. Her
second interview was with Masiyiwa himself. She
described it as an unusual one, in that she was asked
many personal questions about her family. He was
also interested in her IT background. She came
away from the interview with the impression that
she and Masiyiwa had gotten to know each other
quite well. She recollected the atmosphere in the
firm, which by then had grown to about 35 people:
“It was the most amazing company to work in,
and what I can say is those three and a half years
we were fighting the battle, were probably the most
valuable working experience I’ve ever had, and I
learnt about resilience of willpower and leadership.
And in those years Strive – and I think that was
one of the things, he’s on a huge pedestal for
me, he’s sort of one of my heroes – and in that
time his own dedication and his own – he did it
selflessly because when – I mean, we ran on no
money, that was another revelation to me is that
you can operate with very, very little money, and
with the will anything can be achieved” (Marion
Moore, Chief Financial Officer, Econet 1995-1999
– Interview transcript).
Masiyiwa explained that he placed great
importance on the character of a person at the
time of recruiting. Usually, a managerial candidate
would have been seen by the Human Resources
Department and other senior managers before he
or she came to Masiyiwa to be interviewed. The
questions Masiyiwa posed to the candidate were
more to do with character than with professional
competence. He drew inspiration from the Bible
– in particular the Book of Exodus, Chapter 18,
verses 19-21 – for defining the attributes he looked
for in employees. In these verses, Moses receives
advice from his father-in-law Jethro about the
type of people he should recruit to help him. The
verses refer to able, God-fearing, and truthful
men who hate covetousness. Masiyiwa believed
that professional competence was a necessary but
not sufficient condition for recruitment; it was a
baseline requirement without which a candidate
would not be considered. But Masiyiwa looked for
more things than professional competence alone.
He recounted the case of one very highly qualified
candidate for a senior finance position whom he
had rejected. Masiyiwa had asked him about his
family, and about his children. The candidate had
initially replied that he had only one child, but had
hesitated before replying. When asked why he had
hesitated, he responded that he had another child,
from a relationship with his high school classmate.
He explained that he had not married the mother
of his first child because he had moved to a big
city to pursue his university studies. For Masiyiwa,
the fact that the candidate had not included his
first child in his initial response was indicative of a
serious character flaw.
Due to the capital intensive nature of the cellular
telephone business, fundraising was considered a
key competence. Moore was responsible for the
financial management, whereas Banker settled into
a fundraising role. During this period,
“Banker had to figure out how to persuade
somebody that we would succeed one day, and
keep going. And of course, one of the key people
he had to always pers XYH