"Made in Cape Town"
MIM Leadership in Action - 2024

Picture credit: Asha Eleven (Working Group 5.)
Over the past few weeks, we met with your clients to find out if, and how, they were progressing towards implementing some of your recommendations.
From the onset, as you know, the goal of the week was not just only to observe, interact and learn, but also to create a real impact on the entrepreneurs. This is a real challenge, perhaps to a larger extent than elsewhere, because measuring impact is a difficult exercise when so many variables are at play. Indeed, there are no standard indicators of success. Even usual performance indicators, such as profit or revenue, are often not precise, and in some instances wouldn't be relevant only a few months after the LiA intervention.
Many entrepreneurs also face challenges that are typical of the environment that they work in; such as the difficulty of obtaining finance (which has often been mentioned), the seasonality of a demand (often relying on the international market) or simply the challenge of staying focused when personal circumstances suddenly change. This may cause an entrepreneur to go through a range of actions and emotions: From changing priorities, suffering from a lack of self-confidence and motivation, or conducting business in new ways.
For the reasons outlined above, we felt it was important to monitor the progress of the entrepreneurs and report back to you. As you will see, they are very grateful that they have not been forgotten, and were keen to provide us with feedback.
Some business owners have been able to make more use of the recommendations than others. It is important to understand that if your client has not managed to implement a recommendation, or if your client has not seen a clear success out of your initiative, this does not mean that you have failed or that he or she has failed. The recommendations, suggestions and ideas are, by nature, work in progress.