New Era journalist Selma Ikela sat down with well-known entrepreneur Twapewa Kadhikwa, who spoke about her journey and the challenges she faces in business. Kadhikwa is the co-owner of several businesses and the first female recipient of an honorary master’s degree in business from IUM.
NE: Tell us your journey in business?
TK: “We evolved into Kadhikwa group of companies. We have two main arms – the arm of hospitality, which is where Xwama is. Xwama is our flagship product. While in April this year we established a training arm to mainly benefit Xwama but also the market. We trained young people in skills for hospitality – waitressing, bar-tendering, housekeeping, food preparation and front office management. We did it really because as you go through various business cycles, in our case from five years ago, the intention was to build Xwama cultural village, the infrastructure, but after you have this big gigantic building what then if it is empty? Now you need to build the business and you can’t rebuild the corridors, the toilets. Now you need to build the business and it is going to happen through people, giving sufficient capacity to your staff, your cleaners, waitresses and the community. They are now the new infrastructure, they are now the building blocks of the business. You can have a beautiful infrastructure but if you have ill-equipped people it won’t happen. When I looked at the finances when I was sending my own staff for training all the time, it did not make sense. We needed to develop our own in-house programme in order to improve our own staff. That’s the first arm of Kadhikwa group of companies – Xwama the hospitality, the restaurant, and the Xwama school of hospitality.
Secondly the poultry farm based in Brakwater is called Kadhikwa chicken farming. We breed what is called ‘marathon chicken’ and that’s what we build the brand of the business on. We sell in many open markets in Katutura and other restaurants order from us. You know traditional food has become a delicacy in the past four years – because previously we didn’t commercialize our culture and I think that is one of the reasons I’m getting this honorary acknowledgement because I really brought a fresh look in our commercial, culture and tradition. Previously when people wanted mopane warms they had to go to the open market but now they can have it at a safe clean facility in a township.”
NE: You also started with hair products made out of traditional products.
TK: “That’s how Xwama was actually born, it was born by Pewa cosmetics where we used marula as a basic ingredient. Marula has two basic components, edible oil and cosmetic grade oil. Now the cosmetic oil, I did the Pewa and edible oil – my husband and I developed the concept of Xwama.”
NE: Are you still making hair products or have they graduated into Xwama?
TK: “The cosmetic company still exists – we are just reviewing our strategy now and repositioning ourselves in the market. Currently we are not in production because we are in review stage, but we will know what is what in 2017.”
NE: What do you owe your success to?
TK “First of all, I started this to finish it. It’s a commitment that I made. I am not a quitter, situations are not going to disappear in life, they will continue throwing themselves at you left, right and center. Will you demolish, eliminate yourself? You can’t do that. You need to equip yourself with a particular attitude all the time, no for good or bad times but all the time. There are a couple of virtues you need to equip yourself with – a persistence attitude, if your don’t have self-discipline. I started my business when I was 18 years old, if you don’t have self-discipline, when you are an entrepreneur, you’d better have self-discipline. If you don’t wake yourself up, who will? Who will say go to work, who will say clean your business, nobody. If you have a weak character or a couple of deficiencies, upskill quickly and constantly. It’s just like a seed, it needs constant watering. You can’t expect a seed to germinate if nobody watered it. Success, I acknowledge that I am in a public space and people know you. I didn’t wake and say I will be successful, I just woke up and I am attending to my destiny, my purpose I was created for, it happened to be an entrepreneurial purpose, it happened to be the one where people see me but I think a taxi driver is less successful than me. Because of my spiritual enlightening, I am understanding of this very well that there are gifts upon people and we are differently gifted. I would not like to sit here and say I’m special, therefore, if you are not like me you are not successful. I’m going through challenges everyday but I’m on my journey, my purpose, and I would rather encourage people to get inspiration from me but find your purpose. If you don’t people will define it for you. Those are my philosophies and I thank God for them.”
NE: What are your business interests?
TK: “Right now, I wouldn’t reveal business strategies at this platform but my personal philosophy is not to be big but great. Whenever we do our in-house training, we have a theme that says from good to great. People think if you are big you have hundreds of thousands of people and have got how many buildings – I think you can equally be successful with one building. Right now the anointing that I’m praying for is to be excellent because I know it exists and just to tap into that. Everything else can be built in that foundation but I don’t see why you need to overstretch yourself right now – rather build a strong foundation. My husband and I want to leave a legacy. Many times in the black community, businesses die with the owners. If the owner is sick the business is sick, if the owner is tired the business is tired, if the owner is frustrated the business if frustrated. If the owner dies that business is likely to die. We need to have a discussion there. Businesses are being built in generations, go to America, there is a 6th or 10th generation business. Those should be our case studies in school.”
NE: Family and business, how long are you married?
TK: “We will be married for 10 years by next year. We have four children.”
NE: Your body looks in great shape – do you gym?
TK: “If I go to the gym I just go to the steam room, I’m too tired to gym – (laughing) but I have cut out totally on sugar.”
NE: How do you balance family and business?
TK: “I don’t. I do my best, it’s a wrong notion out there that says you need to balance, balance what? Do you have a scale that says husband you get 20 percent, first born 10 percent and my mother 2 percent, how do you do that? – there is no balance. You just do your best and I learnt that from a great woman – Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. I was crying one year, I felt like a failure and wanted everything to close but I didn’t know how I was going to survive and I asked her, you a politician, I know your children and husband, when do you cook, I open the newspaper you are there, you are travelling. I call you on a weekend, you are travelling. How do you do that? She responded, is there something called ‘balancing’? Just do your best. If it means cooking only once or twice a month then you cook that meal with all your heart and intimacy, wearing slippers and playing music – that’s the best you can do. If it means you can only tie your school shoes once a week that’s the best you can do. If you need help get help, as much help you can. All strong women are fully incubated by help. PricewaterhouseCoopers Managing Director Nangula Uaandja told me the same thing. Monica Geningos, Kauna Ndilula Elise Nghikembua my spiritual mentor told me the same thing. Nghikembua told me pray through every situation. “
NE: What do you feel about the IUM honour?
“I got an honorary master’s but everybody is calling me doctor but I am not stopping them (laughing). But those are blessings being released and I am on a journey. I feel honoured. I was not focusing on the gender. I am honoured that I am representing women and I am only realizing how really special it is. Women feel I relate to them and I am blessed to carry that responsibility and intend to represent them. If your channel to somewhere is through me, use me. That is why I developed a program so that people can come get information and equip themselves. How I understand the honour from IUM, it means this person is trying, we notice what she is doing. Should we recognize it later and honour it later and we don’t know what the future holds, or should we be part of the encouragement now. I would believe I am not the only businesswoman in Namibia or the only one doing something worth noticing. There are a lot of excellent women in various regions, capacities and sectors of the economy doing much better than I am, but I don’t take it for granted and I will not become proud. I will become humble.”