Hwengwere: The goal getter

 

ordinary statements have no attribution, but they are certainly pregnant with life changing meaning.

A good vision, hard work and focus bring success and results. This is the simple truth many do not want to hear, but little if anything was ever achieved through laziness.

But a strong vision, hard work, focus and the zeal to succeed has taken young businessman Munyaradzi Hwengwere around the globe as he fought to build his future.

These qualities, combined, saw Hwengwere demonstrate his witty, confidence and hunger to succeed, as he rose through the ranks in a short period of time to become, in 2001, the youngest chief executive, at 32, in the history of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

But it was his insatiable desire to succeed in the communications business that saw him traverse opportunities and the world as he laboured to realise his vision. It has not been an easy road thus far, but perseverance has helped him set up the foundation and the results are promising. And it all looks promising because, thus far, most of what he has put his mind and effort to has come to pass.
His vision, initially, might have been to secure employment to look after his family and help run the family business, but born an achiever, he naturally felt motivated to scale new heights after leaving the employ of ZBC.

Born in the humble environs of Munene in Mberengwa, Midlands Province, in 1969, Mr Hwengwere did his primary education at Munene primary and secondary schools.

On completing high school studies, he enrolled with the University of Zimbabwe in 1990 for a degree in Political Science and Administration and graduated in 1992.

Fresh from college Mr Hwengwere secured his first job as a personnel assistant at Indarama Mine in Kwekwe in 1993. His stay there was short lived as he returned to the University of Zimbabwe in 1994 for a post graduate diploma in Media and Communication studies.

He was to further his studies the following year at the University of Natal where he did his Masters in Media and Communication Studies specialising in advertising and broadcasting.
On returning home in 1996 Mr Hwengwere was contracted by the University of Oslo to conduct a research on the listenership patterns for radio stations in Zimbabwe.

After completing the research he then joined Dicomm Advertising and was immediately sent to South Africa for a stint with MTN and made recommendations to Econet, which was setting up, on the best model to adopt.

“It was one of the major highlights of my life, it was my first time to go on a plane,” said Mr Hwengwere, but crucially, because he had his first encounter with how a major mobile phone telecommunications company operated.

The experience he gained at MTN was invaluable as he was advised that Econet Wireless Zimbabwe were not supposed to use service agents when the start operations as that would detach them from their customers.

“They said they (Econet) should not use service agents as that would detach them from the customers,” he said.

An ambitious young man keen to explore the frontiers of adventure and success, he left Dicomm to join the Office of the President in 1997 as a press secretary and deputy to the secretary of information and publicity, Mr George Charamba.

The time he spent in the media fraternity, from his internship with the SABC, when it was mutating from a state broadcaster in the apartheid era to a state broadcaster serving diverse interests and races in different languages after independence in 1994 was meant to fine tune his finesse in the media.

As such, after leaving the Office of the President Mr Hwengwere joined ZBC as the head of Newsnet, where he introduced new programmes that went popular including the Mai Chisamba Show, Good Morning Zimbabwe, urban grooves music and Studio 263.

His success in that capacity in a short period saw him appointed chief executive of ZBC within a year of joining the corporation and he revamped programming such that its financial performance improved dramatically.

He said since he became CEO the firm could afford to pay its workers in time and even award salary increments.

The experience he gained came in handy after he left ZBC in 2004 when he decided to start his own business in the communications and adverting industry to cater for small firms. This resulted in the birth of Savanna Media Centre.

Mr Hwengwere contends that his ideas have been phenomenally successful, but the biggest challenge has been lack of financial support to grow his business initiatives.

But under the difficult circumstances Savanna Media has managed to establish, regionally, in Zimbabwe, South and Zambia, where it has taken over the production of one of the continent’s biggest and popular soapy operas, Kabanana. Through Savanna Media Centre in Zambia, he started, My Own Boss, an entrepreneurial reality television series in 2007, which he introduced in Zimbabwe in 2010.

The programme promotes development of young entrepreneurs who are given real life challenges facing companies and tasked to develop solutions that are long lasting. But first, they go through training from experts in the field.

The third edition of My Own Boss (Zimbabwe) came to a close last week when the ultimate prize winner was presented with a US$25 000 prize money and other benefits.

The two finalist participants of MOB (Zim) demonstrated the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial skills training they received after managing to sell products for such big firms as Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries, Pinnacle Properties and Capri within a short period of time.

The entrepreneurial TV show has been a huge success considering the fact that it has premiered on Zambian TV stations, on ZBC and on satellite station known as Africa Unite.

But Mr Hwengwere said it boggles the mind that most corporates still do not appreciate the innovativeness of young entrepreneurs such as the ones they nurtured through MOB to developing solutions dogging their businesses.

“We lack the discipline to understand that unless we step up our game we will be last or continue to play second fiddle to countries like China and India,” said Mr Hwengwere.

His creative instincts also saw him start the Buy Zimbabwe initiative, which is making strides in promoting consumption of locally produced goods to protect local firms facing choking competition from imports.

The initiative has received considerable backing from both the Government and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, a business lobby group for local industry.

While he has managed to establish his own media businesses that are running and seemingly thriving, Mr Hwengwere contends the journey to establish a truly vibrant African media communications has just but started.