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By Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe
For most modern women, the kitchen is a place at home that must not even be mentioned at the workplace. Talk of the kitchen conjures up the implied cliché of the barefoot and pregnant home-maker slaving away for the family while leaving the serious business of running the world to the men.
Not for Tabitha Machaka Fredriksson. A woman who has gracefully found her own perfect niche between tradition and modernity, Thabitha has made the kitchen her business.
The founder and CEO of Tusilago Kitchens and Crown Cabinets remains the same humble girl who ran ten kilometres to school and the same distance back in Chiweshe decades ago. But she is also an accomplished and astute business woman who is almost 60.
“After secondary school, I went into temporary teaching which is what everyone did in those days. Then I came to Harare and found a job as a secretary for a mining company.
“That is when I met Karl who I married and in 1989 we moved to Sweden, his home country. While there I was lucky to find work with an organisation that needed a person who could speak English.
“I learnt Swedish and can speak and write it fluently. But we always wanted to return to Zimbabwe and we eventually did that in the mid-nineties.
“While abroad I had gotten used to modern kitchens in almost every home and as soon as we came here I noticed the gap. That is how Tusilago Kitchens was born in 1996.”
Karl and Tabitha are business partners, best friends and boon companions. Their one daughter is in Sweden with their grandson.
Tabitha says that three Fs help her maintain a cordial and mutually respectful relationship with each single one of her 65 employees.
“Firm, fair and friendly. As a leader I must be firm because we have built our reputation on delivering international standards and everyone must be inducted into that culture.
“I also need to be fair so that everyone knows what to expect from me. There are no double standards and no questions asked.
“But as a leader you must always be accessible because everyone is a part of the family.”
At almost 60 Tabitha says she wonders if she should go out and conquer new territory or if she has left it too late.
“I guess if I would want to found a school for girls, but I ask myself if I am too old for such a big venture. I am concerned about girls because in cases of strife and deprivation it is the uneducated woman who suffers most. Education is the only way to ensure women empowerment.”
But that ambivalence has no place in her role at Tusilago kitchen where she is firmly in the driving seat and would like to see a spread of branches to other town to save clients the trips to Harare.
“Over the years I have seen Zimbabweans develop a culture of wanting modern kitchens. I believe that as Tusilago we raised the bar on standards and now everyone just expects the best, no matter who their supplier or fitter is.”
It is difficult to separate the woman from the business person when it comes to kitchens but the former comes out when Tabitha defines a good kitchen.
“It must be attractive and functional. The design must fit into the triangle where the major usage points which the stove top, the sink and the oven must be within a triangle for easy access.
“But a kitchen must not be utilitarian without consideration of how it looks. In fact the trend now is to have the kitchen as a showroom where you display expensive items and prized collections.”
On tips for the latest trends, Thabitha says bright and durable is the way to go.
“Bright glossy colours have come in with a bang. In fact we have just brought in a shipment of the first high gloss scratch resistant boards to make sure that Zimbabwean home owners satisfy their need for world trends and standards.”
Almost every modern woman must employ all the advantages of multi-tasking to ensure that she meets the demands of each of her many roles.
Business executive, wife, mother, grandmother, relative and society member, Tabitha says she has learnt that planning is the biggest secret not only to equilibrium but to actually getting things done.
“You have to know what needs to be done and be realistic about what you can achieve in one day. You have to balance everything out.
“I plan everything from when I will go to the gym, get my nails done, get my hair done and be on the job. In a perfect world your manicure, pedicure and hair would all get done on the same day, but that usually does not work out so I space it out.”
Tabitha’s personal style is simple and understated which only emphasizes the innate elegance that is translated in the creations that Tusilago infuses in homes.
Tabitha believes that corporate social responsibility should not be optional but voluntary as a way of making a difference.
She is heavily involved in charity work but will not say much except that she believes in helping where the biggest need is and where the simplest gesture makes a huge difference, the rural areas.
She also believes in direct effect with any help paid to a specific service provider like a school and not to a charity organisation or to an individual
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