At a time when Zimbabwe faces unprecedented challenges, it is becoming more important for us to celebrate the good things. Join hundreds of people in the Puget Sound area over the long weekend to experience the music and joy of Zimbabwean culture!

Zimfest 2008 will be held July 4–6 on the beautiful campus of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.

About Zimfest:

The Zimbabwean Music Festival is an annual celebration of Zimbabwean music and culture. The first festival was organized in Seattle in 1991 and has travelled up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast since then.

The mission of the Zimbabwean Music Festival is twofold: to provide a venue for the increasingly international community of students, teachers, and performers of Zimbabwean music to come together and share, and to foster the growth of that community by reaching out to an ever-wider audience through educational and performance initiatives.

The vision of the festival encompasses the diverse aspects of Zimbabwean performing arts and a wider perspective on culture and education. The festival now presents over 100 workshops and over 30 hours of concerts. Click here to learn more!

Who is JANINE - our VP for Membership Development?

I believe that if you don't make changes, you can't make progress in life. That's why membership development appeals to me: careers are all about growing and transforming! I enjoy helping people through transitions, and find that sharing knowledge and experiences is a good way to do that. There are so many talented Africans at Microsoft, and we have the power to transform how Microsoft does business with Africa, by changing it from within.

Did you Know?

* Nollywood, the Nigerian Film Industry is a $250 million operation owing its success to digital technology, creative energy and the entrepreneurial spirit of the movie makers.

Editorial Perspective by Wambui Kihanya

Leadership and Execution at all Levels are Key to Unleashing Africa’s Potential 

I have always thought leaders are not only born but can sometimes be made in time. This past week, I had lunch with a friend and a mentor and while we were discussing the veracity of that cliché, she made a point that resonated with me - leadership is not to be confused with ambition. A leader is one who has the ability to affect human behavior to accomplish a mission. The fundamental premise is that a leader is able to influence others to follow, execute and deliver progress. This is the leadership needed in Africa to leverage resources and bring to light positive stories told about Africa.

What many people hear about Africa is poverty, disease, civil war, slavery and other not-so-positive stories. What they may not hear is the huge market potential, the work in progress to turn around Africa and more that is going on in Africa. While candor is important about the problems in Africa, this is not the only reality. For example, on civil war, there are 53 nations in Africa and less than 10 have civil wars. Africa's story needs to be told differently to highlight action being taken to combat problems and opportunities that exist.

When WECA (West, East and Central Africa) leadership was at Microsoft in April, they presented the opportunity that lies in Africa through its sheer size and market potential. One of the stories about Africa is about poverty, yes, Africa has some of the poorest countries but there are some positive stories. Africa is wealthier across the continent than say India: the average gross national income (GNI) per capita across all 53 African nations in 2005 was about $954, more than $200 higher than India's according to the Harvard Business Review.

Harvard Business Review, June 2007

South Africa was voted a top off-shore call center, by 2020 Nigeria is forecasted to be among the top 10 economies in the world. Leaders are key to communicating and helping to realize this potential.

One of the discussions at the WECA gathering was on Africa's brain drain and how to get talent to stay in or move back to Africa. Fred Swaniker, a Ghanaian returned to Africa and founded a leadership academy aimed at retaining graduates to work in Africa. In this academy, if the graduates work in Africa for 10 years, their tuition debt is waived and if not, then they will pay back full tuition. Among the top leaders to speak at the academy is Pfungwa Serima, GM at Microsoft South Africa. 

Great leadership is not the only necessity for progress, but with enough of it and ambition from all levels to execute, Africa’s scarce resources will be sufficiently leveraged, economies will grow, and the story of Africa will be more positive.

“We are focused on realizing Africa’s potential through people and technology and we can achieve this through capability & capacity building at Microsoft and with our partners, focus on IT for education, government & society,  and with innovative approached to  Africa’s challenges,” - Thomas Hansen, GM Microsoft WECA

Six Steps to Getting Promoted By Janine de Nysschen, Group Audience Marketing Manager

We held our first career brownbag recently and talked candidly about the things you need to do at Microsoft if you want to get promoted.  Here’s a recap if you didn’t attend:

· Do what you love, love what you do. Key question: don’t ask do I enjoy my job? instead ask do I know what I enjoy? Then start figuring out how to do the things you enjoy, building it into your career plan.

· Be yourself, brand yourself. There’s a connection between your personal brand and your professional reputation. Decide how you want to be judged, and remember your actions and interactions add up to how people describe you and the value they think you bring.

· Careers don’t have built in GPS. Map out what you want and the plan to get there. Look for opportunities that give you new skills, a better network and specific experiences that grow your career.

· It’s not who you know, but who knows about you. Promotions are about perceptions and performance. What other people say about you is more important than what you say about you. Get a mentor to help you navigate your career.

· Work smart, not hard. Remember, Microsoft rewards jobs that help the company grow its business. Get deep, go broad and learn to be strategic. And 20% of your effort should get you 80% of your result.

· Understand how it works, ask for what you want. Promotions have three pillars: business, budget and performance - find out about your team’s cycle and criteria. Know what you need to move between level bands. Ask your manager where you fit in the 20/70/10 framework.

Tell us your story: From Redmond to Lagos, An Interview with Ken Spann

Africhat: What do you do at Microsoft?

Ken: I’m currently a Senior Program Manager for Windows Server. We just completed Windows Server 2008, a 3-year effort and will be wrapping up the Hyper-V TAP soon. I have been working here for the last 3 of my 8 years at Microsoft!

Africhat: Your relocation to the Nigerian subsidiary, how did this come to be?

Ken: From a post on the discussion group alias about opportunities in Africa. As I lived in Ghana in 1999, I was interested and reached out to contacts in WECA.

Africhat: What was your experience when you traveled to Nigeria?

Ken: I traveled to Lagos, Nigeria on April 7^th 2008  my first time there. Upon departing from the plane I immediately felt at home among the throngs of people that looked like me. I did not take into account Jet lag and after the 17-hour flight from Seattle, went immediately to the Microsoft Office on Victoria Island. Jet lag eventually caught up with me later in the day. The most striking part of my trip was meeting so many skilled and passionate employees in that office. They are doing an incredible job without knowledge of many of the tools and resources we take for granted in Redmond and in other parts of the world. I was greeted warmly (in addition to a Nigerian lunch served daily at the office!) and immediately felt at home among my soon to be teammates.

Africhat: Are there challenges you saw and how could they be eliminated?

Ken: One of the main challenges is the lack of a bridge between our African employees and US employees. Imagine if we construct a virtual 8-lane highway between US employees and those in Africa, that continually carries information, tools, opportunities, and challenges that flow over that highway! A network, perhaps leveraging Facebook.

Africhat: Anything you like to see more of or less of from Africans at Microsoft?

Ken: Africans at Microsoft should do more of what they do. After all it was through one of the threads that I learned of opportunities in Africa. I think that you can (since many of our members are from some of the 49 countries of WECA) help to dispel the wrong stereotypes people have of Africa. Yes, there is abject poverty but Lagos, a city of 12 million people is a vibrant a city like others NY, Paris, London, or other chic metropolitan area. Perhaps expats can form knowledge centers around a particular topic or country so that our counterparts in WECA have a resource they know will respond to issues. Also, more collaboration (unless it already exists and I am simply not aware) between BAM and Africans at Microsoft since after all, are we not all Africans?

Africhat: What you are looking forward to in Africa?

Ken: Being a part of the Microsoft fuse that will ignite the technological and economic explosion which is about to occur across Africa. Microsoft will not only add value to the businesses and corporations of Africa, create opportunities for new and existing partners, but we are committed to providing millions of people with opportunities. In this global economy, physical location is minimized by the communication means at our disposal. I will take Redmond and the contacts and friends I have made. Rest assured I will leverage the contacts. However, I will not abuse as Charles Barkley in his Fave Five with Dwayne Wade

Africhat: Your final thoughts?

Ken: I like to quote a story I heard: "Two salesman went to Africa in the 19th century to sell shoes. The first one saw everyone walked barefoot. He booked passage back the next day, totally despondent, muttering to himself, "I can't sell shoes in Africa, nobody wears them."
The second salesman saw all these unshod people, and cabled back on the newfangled wire service "hurry, send shoes, *nobody* wears them, market is wide open, it's HUGE”

While this story is set in the 19^th century, it was still relevant in the 1990’s. Do you know that 9 years ago, Nigeria government approached multinational telecommunication companies to put a bid for the mobile communication license in Nigeria? These companies asked PriceWater House Cooper to carry out research on Nigerian market.

PHC reported statistics such as current usage of phone is one phone to 10,000 people, majority citizens live on less than $1 a day, even if they afford the handset they will not afford making regular call. Based on this, the multinational telecom company pulled out. MTN (South Africa) decided to take the plunge, MTN made their total investment cost payback within the first 2 years of operations in Nigeria. The profits made in Nigeria every year is more than profits made in all other countries in which MTN operates – together.

Microsoft, like the second salesperson, and MTN saw no one had computers and wired “Hurry, send computers with Microsoft software, no one has computers here!

An African Recognized: Gladys Kenfack Receives Social Enterprise Award

At Seattle Univeristy’s Annual Business Plan competition with AgriDev, Gladys Kenfack won a Social Enterprise Award. The business plan focused on creating a food processing co-op in the Village of Dshang in Cameroon. It would help preserve food for fighting hunger after harvest season, create jobs, reduce food waste, increase income circulation to increase demand for dryers and lightly processed foods and raise money for micro loan programs.

The critique she received was that the plan was too broad so she decided to select a small portion of the business plan to implement as proof of the concept. Gladys is graduating in June and will continue to work as consultant to a group of students from Seattle University and University of Washington to pilot solar dryers in Ghana and explore their feasibility during the summer and then later replicate in Cameroon by December. 

In Gladys’ words as to what is next for her, “I am very passionate about designing and researching new technologies and new innovations for emerging markets. Microsoft, has a ton of opportunities for one to develop that passion further. 

For me, winning this Social Enterprise award at Seattle University was more than just a monetary prize. It helped making the project crispier and boosting confidence in the impact that the project could have on many lives back home.” Kudos to you Gladys!

Microsoft in Africa: Business Unusual - How Technology is Shaping Africa - By Patrick Onwumere, MSIT APEX Candidate

This year’s Stanford Africa Business Forum was informative and engaging. Keynote speakers and panelists were experts in their fields and along with attendees from Stanford’s academic departments and industry representatives discussed Africa’s potential: future and realized.

Dr. Reuben Jaja, the President of the USA Africa Chamber of Commerce and CEO of the BFI Group Corporation, gave an address on what is missing in Africa and how Africans can get connected. He broke down production in Africa into 4 areas: land, labor, technology, and capital. With 24% of the global land mass, 13% of the world population, and as the trailblazers in technology (started along the Nile), Africa has 2% of the global GDP. 

In general and in relation to Dr. Jaja’s keynote, the panels discussed the role of Africans in the Diaspora and that they are the bridge to move Capital and Technology back to Africa. For Africa to remain relevant, it needs effective leadership, accountability and individual contributors in the production and manufacturing space of Africa.

On Information Communication Technology (ICT), the speakers and panelists agreed this area has grown exponentially in the last few years. Another keynote speaker, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) stated that Nigerian telecom industry has enjoyed growth of over 50MM lines in less than 7 years and that the needs of the industry are constant electric power supply, ICT Reliability, and Fiber Optic Infrastructure.  He said there great opportunities in the communication space and “You don’t have to be in Africa to make a change.”

Call to Action: Entrepreneurship is a state of mind and to be successful you need to create an innovative strategy that tackles problems without focusing on the corruptions and challenges. As Africans at Microsoft we need our Engineers - Think about modifying or adapting the technologies here to meet the needs in Africa. Business People - Think about what business models have worked here and how they can be modified to work in Africa’s market. All -Think about innovative ideas to address the socio-political challenges and stealth modes to bypass the governments status quo.

"Ideas are the real capital - Everything else is just money" Deutsche Bank  
Advertisement in The Wall Street Journal

Faces, Places and Spaces of Africans at Microsoft By Vera Arthur, Search Media Analyst

Meet Nneka Keshi, New York Office

Nneka is a Search Media Strategist in the New York office and is in her third year at Microsoft. In her role, she works with Microsoft’s premium online advertisers to help them deliver results to their business through effective paid search advertising. She hails from the Delta State of Nigeria.

Nneka’s initial challenge at Microsoft was understanding the dynamics of getting things done quickly in a multi-matrixed organization. She has since learned that identifying the key stakeholders up front and getting their support or input speeds up the process. An aspect of her job that she enjoys the most is the customer relationship and enabling customers achieve their goals on the Microsoft advertising platform.

I asked Nneka what she thought could be done to improve online marketing in Africa and she indicated that for Africa, we should begin by reaching out to the masses and begin with mobile marketing since this is an industry that has increased immensely in Africa. That would be the starting point. The last thing Nneka wants to share is a quote: “A dream is just a dream, but a goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline.” Those are words she tries and remembers as she navigates her career.

Kelly Brock - An Honorary African

If you are on Africans DACs, you could not have missed Kelly Brock’s emails diligently leading efforts to help to get Emmanuel Dismas and his family settled in Washington or thanking those who had offered help. Kelly, a business administrator with Windows Server, showed an amazing zeal advocating to others what this refugee family needed from housing and clothing to a landing a job at Microsoft. What was also amazing, was how many people responded with donations both money and needed items, and acting as interpreters. Through her efforts, Kelly became aware of other families who have relocated from Tanzanian refugee camps. If you are able to assist, reach out to Kelly (or leave a comment on the blog). What an amazing show of concern, action and leadership in an area of need!