#AfricanBusiness: 5 key reflections on 2022 and 2023

As I reviewed 2022 and reflected upon 2023, the following five points were at the fore of my thoughts. 

1. 2022 as the year of recovery: We came out of a Covid-19 pandemic. This was a period that required us to go back to basics or to reset. We had to re-formalize business, reorganize, and in some instances, to simply start from scratch. The pandemic was catastrophic, unprecedented and it radically disrupted business (and life) as we knew it.

2022 compelled us to start picking up the pieces. 

2. 2022 as the year of resilience: Bouncing back from a life-altering setback of that magnitude required a paradigm shift in the workplace. Across the Inyatsi Group Holdings, for instance, there has been demonstrable resilience within the workforce and greater investment in wellness programs to deal with the residual mental stress our teams faced. 2022 reinforced the necessity of resilience.  

The pandemic left no one and nothing unscathed. We had to find ways to bounce back.

3. 2023 as the year of values: Returning to the drawing board in terms of redefining or otherwise reinforcing organizational values has been central to the post-pandemic recovery process across the Inyatsi Group of companies. For instance, our teams doubled down on our culture of adopting and reflecting a ‘can-do’ attitude. Our operations in 2023 will continue to foreground and reflect the Inyatsi Group’s values of teamwork, commitment, agility, accountability and embracing change.

When you come out at the other end of a world calamity, you default to and appreciate company values, because they shape your organisation's legacy.

 4. 2023 as the year of providing solutions: The pandemic allowed for what I call natural attrition. Therefore, when there is natural attrition there are gaps. I say this because businesses in various sectors closed, and somebody must provide a solution for those gaps. COVID-19 pandemic had restricted not just travel, but the means of travel and this meant that access to markets was limited therefore opportunities arose that were untapped as there were fewer players who could leverage on them.

2023 will invariably see greater access to markets and opportunities to proffer solutions, because there was a prolonged period of attrition.  

5. 2023 as the year of conflict-triggered opportunities: Any conflict creates a gap in economic activity because it disrupts the supply-chain process. For Africa, it means we must produce more as the markets are looking for goods, services and resources hence we have to increase production and improve our infrastructure in order to meet demands that arise due to conflict-triggered shortages.

The opportunity that arises is enormous, equally the human cost of conflict is tragic and incalculable.

We must be much more equipped to ensure that African economies recover fully. This will require, amongst other things, an diverse pool of skills. Indeed, there might be a need to import skills as we are forced to become more of global as opposed to local because we will need every expertise the world can offer to rebuild our countries