09/07/2024
Entrepreneur toolkit essentials:
__How to be a fearsome negotiator (Part 3)
As an entrepreneur, you must be conscious that every day you must negotiate with someone. It might be a supplier, an investor, a lender like a bank, or a customer. You will do it so often, and the better you and your team are at it, the more successful you will be.
To continue the story from last week:
Almost 5 years after we were unceremoniously kicked out of the board and management of Mascom [we still had about 20%, because no one can take your shares, even though they can dilute you], I received a call out of the blue from a gentleman who said he was the new CEO of Portugal Telecom.
He told me he had recently travelled to Botswana to see “our” operation [by then they had more than 60% of the shares, having made unnecessary equity calls, and having even pushed out the original local partners by buying them out for cash].
He said he also decided to pay a courtesy call to the Botswana regulator, Mr Moses Lekaukau. Apparently he had been received politely but just before he was about to leave, Mr Lekaukau said to him:
“As a regulator, it’s none of our business what shareholders do. You are the majority shareholder now. But let me tell you, it saddens me what happened and I really wish you would look into it. You will not go far in Africa if people think you mistreated Strive Masiyiwa.”
As soon as the new CEO got back, he started a thorough investigation into the history of the transaction. Then he decided to call me. Meanwhile I knew nothing about these developments and had not spoken to Mr Lekaukau and his team for years. I had never tried to involve them in our disputes. I had no idea they had been watching so closely.
Unlike his predecessor who refused to even take my calls because I was just too small, the new CEO of Portugal Telecom was an honorable man wanted to make amends for what happened. After we resumed our negotiations, he called me and said:
“We would like to offer you an opportunity to subscribe for your shares at the original price, and to return to a respectable level, and have the option to buy us out in the future. One more thing: Would you be willing to enter into a strategic partnership to work with us in other parts of Africa in future?”
I accepted the first part of his offer, which was extremely generous, but graciously declined the latter, saying I was now accepted as having all the experience to build, operate, and finance mobile networks in Africa without technical partners. He accepted.
I exercised some of the options and many years later when PT opted to leave Botswana, I invited other investors to buy some of my options, because by then I had turned my full attention to markets like Nigeria and New Zealand and I needed the capital for these new opportunities. I remain a substantial shareholder through a company that controls the majority shareholding even today.
As I mentioned earlier, the company still retains the name “Mascom” which comes from Masiyiwa Communications, the name of the company I initially registered to bid for the license.
What is your takeaway?
Today my business is bigger than Portugal Telecom which was itself taken over by a European-based entrepreneur.
It does not matter how talented or passionate you are... just read about the life of Steve Jobs and see what happened there! You must have the temperament, resilience, and fortitude that allow you to deal with failure and setbacks. And there will always be more of those than actual successes.
Personally, I have one added advantage: my Faith. Surely I have heard it said that Hope is not a strategy. I would not disagree but try living without it [Hope] and let’s see how far you get. Hope is more than strategy. It is one of the key pillars of life.
I've never lost either Hope or Faith, and I never allowed anything but Love to dwell in my heart. That is why I could get right up from such bitter and cruel setbacks and go on to try again, each time tweaking my approach by applying the scholarship of my studies and experiences to improve.
I cry a little when I remember some of these things; cries of joy, and appreciation to God even for my teachers, some good like Mr Lekaukau, and some bad, for nothing worked against me ultimately, even as I believed, based on my Faith.
I would have loved to tell you more of my secrets on the subject of negotiations, but I cannot right now because I’m still in the game. Maybe I will do a book on some of my toughest negotiations when I finally retire. Hahaha!
"You cannot fly like an eagle with the wings of a wren." William Henry Hudson. !
Image credit: Dave Mantel
