“I view myself as a steward of the business”

Ever wondered what goes on in the mind of an athlete in a relay race right before the baton is passed on? Assuming the team is in the lead, does the athlete get nervous about letting the lead slip away? Does the athlete worry about losing momentum? Or do they draw mental strength by trusting that their training was prime? Family-run businesses could be compared to a relay race in the way that the responsibility of ensuring the sustainability of the business is passed on to the next generation. JD Mwaura recently took over running the business his mother founded more than 25 years ago. He has been at it for close to two years now and he is barely 30 years of age. The Inquisitor sought his perspectives on what it takes to grow and protect family wealth.

What are the names behind the acronym ‘JD’?
The names are John David. The reason I go by JD is that I have no names for myself. As it goes with tradition, I am the first-born son of the first-born son and so I carry the main names in the family. John is my ‘guka, David is my dad.

Is that how you are called in the office?
Yes, it is. JD is what I use professionally.

Are you a fan of any sport?
I am a big football fan, but I love sports in general.

What is your favorite football team?
Manchester United.

Suppose you made the first 11of the Manchester United team, what position would you play on the field?
My goodness! [Chuckles]. God blessed me with a rugby body. He did not bless me with football feet.
I would play the right-back position. I like the idea of being able to hold the backline and prevent the opponent from scoring goals. But I also like the idea of being able to move up and down the line and provide assists for the team and so I fancy the attacking aspect of the right-back position as well.

For those of you not familiar with where a right-back plays on the football field, picture a four-person defensive wall. The right-back is the farthest on the right of this wall just in front of the goalkeeper.

Do you find any similarity between your preference for the right-back position and your approach to business?
Absolutely. I am a lot more of an observer and a lot less aggressive. I am much better at assessing risks and being able to mitigate them as opposed to going on the offensive. However, whenever I see an opportunity to be exploited, I can get quite aggressive.

Talk to us about JD the person.
I am an ambivert. I love spending time with myself and being able to generate my own energy. I am however not afraid to engage people no matter their stature. I have learned to enjoy my own company, and this has allowed me to be self-reflective, a quality which I believe makes me good at what I do. We are a people business. People are our product and service and being able to develop a culture and an ethos for that requires one to have a good understanding of themselves. My experience over the years has taught me to not only understand how my personality can fit within businesses and the different spaces that I step into, but to also add value to these spaces.

How about Preferred Personnel Africa (PPA)?
PPA was started twenty-five years ago by my mother at Nairobi Baptist Church. Before founding the company, she had been working for a temp agency in the USA. She developed the idea of replicating a similar concept here in Kenya as she thought that it would work well. At the time, there were about seven firms that were doing recruitment but for her, the sole intention was to connect the right staff with the right business. She had a big belief that there was no conduit between good people getting into good businesses and this conduit is what she set out to provide. This also became part of her motto and still is to this day which is ‘the right staff for the right people’

When did you join the business?
I joined the business full time in April 2016, but I have practically worked at PPA since I was 14.

Talk to us about the transition of PPA’s leadership from that of its founder to the current leadership with you at the helm.
There were a lot of growing pains on my part at the time. I was very green and still had a lot of confidence to build. I needed to understand the rhythms and the seasons of the business. I needed to understand why things happened the way that they did. I would never have been able to learn during the short stints I had been in the business before joining in 2016.
Around the beginning of 2018, my mother started slowly handing over the reins to me. She had hired people with more experience than me but the only difference between them and me was that she had raised me, and she ran her home the way she ran her business. Consequently, it was easy for her to hand over the reins to me because there was a lot less translation.
I fully stepped into the leadership space in 2019. My mother was pretty much out of the office and I was the one handling the big issues, occasionally seeking her counsel on one or two matters whenever it was necessary.
The transition was easy for her because she was ready to hand over. The business is not her identity. She however acknowledges that the business is a big part of who she has been, but she could care less about the day-to-day issues and would rather focus on the big picture.
On my part though, the transition was a lot more painful because I had a lot to learn.

How has it been so far? Have you had second thoughts?
Absolutely! In 2018, we had, what I thought was a solid team that was put together, but people just started dropping off and moving to different organizations. I had a real sense of doubt as I questioned myself whether I had the capability of being a leader in the company. I sought counsel from my mother who assured me that it was only temporary and that it would pass.
I am in a much better space right now because I understand that I still have so much to learn, and because of that, I realize that I am the right person for PPA because I am not going to be stagnant. I acknowledge that there is going to be an evolution within myself and within the team that I develop because the more I learn about the business, the more I understand my limitations.

What role if any, does your mother play in the business?
She is the executive recruiter as well as the executive ‘face’ for the business.
There is an older generation that still serves within leadership and who require to see a certain face. She acts as that face. I have popped up on people’s screens during meetings and I could see the doubt on their faces, wondering whether I could meet their expectations. My mother is the face of the business whenever we are dealing with clients that have these kinds of expectations that need to be met, which I can respect.

Many businesses adopt the ethos of its founder. Talk to us about the difficulty if any, of keeping the initial vision and mission of the business but with ‘fresh’ leadership.
This is an interesting one because I am slowly building my perspective on this.
When I initially took over in 2018, the team was built around my mother’s bureaucratic style of leadership. I am however more collaborative in my approach. I believe that excellence comes from within and the approach I love to take is to work with you to draw out this excellence. Translating and incorporating this into my management of the business has not been the easiest of tasks.
However, the ethos of our founder is excellence, and this is something that we both share. It is the reason why it was easy for my mother to hand over; because she understood that she had raised me to think a certain way and that we shared certain values. She can trust the decisions that I make because she understands that they are driven by the desire to be excellent in our engagements with our clients.

Excellence remains the backbone of the business despite your different styles of leadership…
Absolutely! There is no way that PPA would continue to be here without that core drive of excellence.

Who else is in your support structure other than your mother?
I draw inspiration from a lot of sources. I do not feel like there is one person who has all the answers. I believe anybody can be a source of wisdom to me. I have drawn inspiration and lessons even from our house manager who essentially manages our lives. I am currently part of the Fast Forward leadership group which is an opportunity for me to extend my network and sources to draw inspiration from.
I do not think the business is big enough to take on outside counsel in a board-like structure. We understand that the business as it stands is not being built to become this mega organization that is going to take over the world. It is being built to sustain a certain lifestyle and to give people opportunities to grow and learn within a business.

In your experience and understanding, what pitfalls of family-run businesses have you become aware of and how are you mitigating against them?
The two major pitfalls that I see with a lot of family businesses is ego and hubris.
Ego viewed on its own is no problem at all. The ego is who we believe ourselves to be and understanding who we are as a person means we have a source of energy that cannot be diminished by anybody else. Hubris is the arrogance to go ahead and think that your ego is right when in a lot of situations, it is not.
I did not build this business and therefore, there are certain things that I will never understand about it. That is the default position that I start with. It is not a weak position and I am not shackled by it.
The business has a life of its own. It has people besides me who are contributing to its success, and the ideas they continually bring into the business could lead it to a growth path I could never have imagined myself. Thus, I am a lot more receptive to the advice of other people besides my mother because I do not treat this business as my birthright. I view myself as a steward of the business.

Is this a view you would advise other folks running family businesses to adopt?
Indeed. It is a much healthier view. When you view yourself as a steward, you are less emotionally attached to it and can then look to add value to the lives of the people and business at large.

What is your most prized experience as a leader and as an entrepreneur?
Hiring people and knowing that they have left better is something that I could never put a price on. There is one hire whose gone off and is steadily building a career many would be envious of so giving her that opportunity to grow is something I am proud of. Success for me is being able to deliver a certain level of impact to the people I am working with and for.

How has 2020 been for your business?
Much better than most. We have not laid off anyone and we have managed to work with our clients within their constraints. We have also continued providing support to the community through our foundation, the Guza foundation which provides funding for underprivileged kids to access education.
It has been a good year because we have sustained what we need to do and continued to make an impact in the lives of other people.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not at work?
I love watching football. I am a passionate Manchester United supporter despite our inconsistencies.
I inhale a lot of content. I listen to lots of podcasts and watch a lot of YouTube.
I am also a big reader. That is me outside of work

Any favorite podcasts?
The Black Guy Who Tips. I resonate with their humane view of the world.

I found JD to be forthright. I noticed he used the word ‘self-reflective’ quite a lot in explaining his evolution as a person and as a leader. Of greater importance, however, is his insight on viewing himself as a steward with ownership in the business. He mentions that whatever rights he may have to the business come second to the fact that the business is an entity, with stakeholders who have greater interests than his own.
Here is the Inquisitor’s take: Business, as is with life is about evolution. Much can be learned from JD’s story particularly on the topic of protecting family wealth. Your job as a steward is to ensure that the business evolves with the times such that at an appropriate time in the future, you can hand over the baton to the next generation for them to grow the business to even greater levels.
The Inquisitor