We have been watching the events unravel at Uber for sometime now. When the announcement came that investors in the ride hailing company had demanded for their maverick CEO and founder to resign, it was an indication that there was lessons to be learned for investors of Zambian premier startups. Leadership conduct in this context lies in the realms of good corporate governance. However, Guhan Subramanian in his Harvard Business Review article of 2015 argues that “achieving best practices has been hindered by a patchwork system of regulation, a mix of public and private policy makers, and the lack of an accepted metric for determining what constitutes successful corporate governance”.
The lack of having an acceptable metric is predominately one of the main concerns for startup companies in Zambia as they attempt to establish themselves. Research from Chris Zook and James Allen for HBR in 2017 shows that rapidly growing companies (unicorns) face a high risk of stumbling. Leadership remains at the core of the causes of these risks. Some will argue that the challenges that come with success matched by being in growth industries become the dilemma of leadership of startups. Therefore, Zook and Allen further argue that it is the founder’s mentality that remains a strategic asset to the company. If nurtured correctly, this could yield great success for the company. However, founders can become the ingredient of their own undoing. Coveting the allure of the hedonistic lifestyles can be detrimental to the progress of the firms they setup. Many have found themselves losing focus and neglecting the teams they set up at the cost of less innovation.
It is one thing to startup a company. It is another to keep the company’s growth momentum on course. The proverbial question is whether or not the leadership should be separated: the founder starts the company and the manager continues to run the company afterwards. It’s difficult to say. But judging by the failure rate of many Zambian startups, it is indicative that management of startups in crucial for the growth of the firm to be sustained over the long term.