It takes a coherent company to successfully and sustainably close the gap between strategy and execution in Africa, and one of the key factors in doing so is unconventional leadership, which is needed to foster the behavior required of coherent companies, according to PwC partner Jorje Camarate.

Speaking at an event focused on successful business strategies on Thursday, Camarated that it was critical for companies expanding into Africa to focus on their own capabilities to successfully execute their business strategies, adding that challenges facing businesses today were not caused by external forces, but were the outcome of the way most companies were managed.

While Africa offered potential for investors, it also carried a number of risks and challenges, and the conventional leadership practice of seeking growth at all costs had resulted in many unsuccessful attempts at penetrating the African market, explained Camarate.

“Globally, we have seen that companies do not think about strategy and execution together,” he said, adding that there were a number of business leaders who understood this problem, but few who knew how to overcome it.

Camarate further pointed out that coherent companies usually had the ability to align their value proposition with their distinctive capabilities and their portfolio of products and services, shaping its identity, culture and approach to managing resources.

Traditionally, he said, firms formulated strategies by looking for growth opportunities in the market.

“For large enterprises, such an approach would include expansion into Africa, however, attempts to build businesses in Africa frequently result in value destruction.”

Meanwhile, Camarate revealed that PwC’s global research indicated that 50% of executives did not think their companies had a winning strategy, while 80% of companies said their overall strategies were not well understood, even internally.

Moreover two-thirds of executives polled believed that their company’s capabilities did not support the way they created value in the market.
 
“Often, there is a significant gap between a company’s vision and what it can actually accomplish,” he said.