Kenyan entrepreneur Mike Macharia was only 25 when he ventured into business, establishing Seven Seas Technologies (SST), one of East Africa’s leading technology solutions companies. He is currently the Group CEO of SST. From a team of just five at inception in 1999, the SST Group today has more than 100 permanent employees in East, West and Southern Africa as well as Portugal.

Mike Macharia

Macharia argues that life is not always smooth sailing, not even for those considered to have made it, but it is the bumps along the way that mould one to perform better in the next instance.

Aged 37, Macharia feels that Africa views its entrepreneurs and success in a skewed manner that needs to be turned around.

“We are all trying to become the next Facebook, which is indeed a story of innovative success, but we need to move away from the ‘copy and paste’ syndrome. What may work brilliantly in one continent and culture may not be directly transferable across the board. In Africa, when learning from successful case studies, one should ask the critical question; ‘Is the solution provided related to the problems that are affecting Africa today?’ We need to link African problems with innovation and create monetary value. Now that is business,” said Macharia in an interview with How we made it in Africa.

He argues that the concept of entrepreneurship in Africa has a lower acceptability profile compared to the Western world.

“In Africa, we are conditioned and socialised [into thinking] that the vision of success is to work for a large company, earn a pay cheque, be able to have a mortgage and go out to social places with our families. The concept of entrepreneurship, therefore, does not fit into this bracket and is viewed as alien,” explains Macharia. “That is how we are indoctrinated from childhood and altering this perspective is a journey that has only just begun.” .....

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