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resilient men and women who are keen to get the Zimbabawe economy going again.
Mr Luxon Zembe is one such person. He is the chairman of the country’s leading financial institution, CBZ Holdings, proprietor and managing director of Management Solutions Group of Companies with business interests in business development and management consultancy, financial advisory services, insurance broking, education and training, as well as farming.
Mr Zembe joined CBZ as board chairman in June 2010 and has worked hard to make the right decisions that have seen the bank rising to the top. He says his work with the board entails crafting vision and providing strategic direction and entrepreneurial leadership to the group.
“We ensure the organisation is properly resourced to deliver on its mandate with distinction, ensuring that the board sets and agrees performance targets with the executive management team.
“I can take my hands off business operations, but keep my eyes open on the overall performance of the organisation. All this is done with intellectual honesty and integrity, responsibility and accountability, transparency and fairness,” says Mr Zembe.
He said although CBZ Holdings has faced challenges, they have been able to overcome them through active engagement and prudent risk management.
“The problems we have faced include an unstable and unpredictable operating environment, policy inconsistencies and strategic alignment of operational units, creating synergistic relationships across all business units, ensuring harmonious board and management relationships and maintaining leadership position.
“To manage this, the board and management carry out regular annual strategic planning workshops, board and management evaluations. We have a clear workplan every year, as well as making the necessary and appropriate changes to the board configurations, skills and gender mix. We also created a culture of transparency, trust and espirit de corps,” he said.
Mr Zembe said having the right people in the right positions is the key to business performance and this has helped him create time for the many responsibilities he has, including doing God’s work and giving quality time to his family.
“It is not easy to strike a healthy balance between all these competing demands for my time, but strategic thinking and leadership helps. I also believe that strategic focus and setting clear and realistic challenging goals and continuous personal development is key. Teamwork and a competent support team, as well as regular exercise are also my key success factors,” Mr Zembe added.
Born 56 years ago in Makoni District, Mr Zembe hopes to be a centurion like his maternal and paternal grandparents who lived up to about 110 years.
He was born to parents who were both teachers and leaders in society and he says they trained and instilled leadership values in him from childhood.
“They developed a solid, focused work ethic appetite to learn more and more in me that has carried me through the years in school, in the bush and at work,” he adds.
Growing up, he was a leader among the youth in the village, at school and at college. He says he is also a leader in church, in the corporate world and in civil society and national platforms like the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Zembe did his primary education at Handina Seventh Day Adventist Primary School in Rukweza Village and proceeded to Nyazura High School for his secondary education before participating in the liberation struggle in Makoni, Wedza and Buhera areas.
“I stayed at a Zanla forces refugee camp in Botswana and in 1980 I joined De Beers Botswana Mining Company for three years and completed my Diploma in Human Resources and Training with the Institute of People Management in South Africa,” he added.
He then joined Treger Group of Companies from 1983 to 1988 as group training and development manager during which time he attended the University of Zimbabwe for his adult education.
He was at Standard Chartered Bank International from 1989 to 1996 during which time he did his Diploma in Business Management and International MBA with Henley International Management College in the UK.
Mr Zembe’s next step to self-actualisation was his Business and Management Consultancy Company that he established is 1996.
In 2005 he attended a Commonwealth course in Corporate Governance, came out tops and was selected to attend another course as trainer/consultant in corporate governance.
“All the schools I attended and companies I worked for were leaders in their own sectors at the time of my service with them. Even today I am with CBZ Holdings which is a market leader in the banking sector.
“Both ZNCC and Zimbabwe Institute of Management were market leaders during my presidency and I give glory to God for such distinguished achievements. My wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord,” he said.
His working career has covered four years in teaching, three years in the mining industry, seven years in manufacturing industry, eight years in the financial sector and 16 years in business development and management consultancy locally, regionally and internationally.
“Going forward my career is focused on and pitched at corporate directorship level, and growing my businesses to create more employment and contribute more to GDP, especially in human capital formation, business development and farming,” he added.
He also hopes to pick up national leadership positions as a service to society, not as a means of survival or politics, which he regards as a dirty game.
Mr Zembe has been awarded for his contribution to the corporate world as he was voted IPMZ Human Capital and Business Practitioner of the year in 2008 and he was also voted the individual with the greatest policy influence and impact on business by the Zimbabwe Quoted Companies Survey in 2005.
He was inducted into the International Who is Who of Professionals in 1999, and profiled in the first issue of Who is Who in Zimbabwe in the same year.
Mr Zembe sits on a number of boards including chairing the ZNCC Advisory Council, board member of Schweppes Zimbabwe Ltd, board member of PSMAS and Premier Services Medical Investments.
He is also the immediate past chairman of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust and vice chairman of Gender Fund of Zimbabwe Trust. In 2005 he was appointed to serve as a member of a high level panel of local and international experts, led by renowned corporate governance guru Prof Mervin King and retired Supreme Court judge Justice Smith, mandated to review the curatorship of failed banks in Zimbabwe.
The panel is supposed to recommend appropriate regulatory measures and policy framework, corporate governance structures and regulations for the banking sector in Zimbabwe.
Mr Zembe has also been very instrumental in driving the business strategies that influence national development policies through analysis, debates and presentations in the media.
He has spearheaded enterprise development and women empowerment programmes sponsored by ILO, Sida, IFC, and ADB in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria. These initiatives involved market research and analysis, stakeholder analysis, macro-economic policy analysis, engagement of donors and cooperating partners, policy recommendations and business development and capacity building strategies.
His latest business venture is an institution of higher learning called Ambassadors Advent Academy, which opened doors in January 2011 in Harare.
To take his mind off the pressures of work, Mr Zembe says he enjoys spreading the word of God through preaching, social services and community development. He also enjoys travelling to get broader exposure, jogging, nature adventures and mountain climbing.
He has great advice for the youth who wish to venture into the world of business and make a success of themselves like he has done.
“We have the creative likeness of God in us as human beings. Continuously educate yourself or else you expire and be dangerous like expired medicine. Diamonds are but pieces of coal made good under pressure. Develop a sustainable work ethic. Volunteer to do any work that offers an opportunity to be done and do it with all your might. Entrepreneurship liberates and unleashes your potential beyond measure. Do not be a prisoner or slave of the past,” he said.
He urged youths to find a good, reliable mentor who will help nurture their talent and guide them into the future and take risk because risks bring breakthroughs.
His parting shot was a word of advice to critics who believe that CBZ Holdings is riding on the back of Government accounts and should those accounts be moved to the central bank, the group’s operations would be affected.
“Losers blame others and the world around them, winners play with boundaries. Losers externalise their failure, winners learn from their failures. Government banks with all banks and banks more with those who give them good reliable service as a customer. We are in business and we will do business with a good customer who gives us good value on behalf of our shareholders. If Government becomes a bad customer we will exit the game with them. It is simple business sense,” he said.
Online Reporter