‘Being a CEO is not a walk in the park’

By Lillian Kiarie

Kenya: After two decades as a marketer, Susan Makobu felt she was ready to branch out and start her own company. Now in her 40s, the CEO of Progress Partners discusses the challenges she faces in making the transition, and the achievements that have made it all worth it.

Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start Progress Partners.

I am a mother of three children, wife of a loving, hardworking man and the founder of Progress Partners, a company that is out to build skills in the advertising and marketing field.

I worked as a marketer in the agency sector for more than 20 years, and saw the need for better collaboration between clients and agencies. I started my company to improve the client-agency relationship, which is a bit like a marriage — both parties engage with each other constantly, meaning teething problems will arise.

How do you improve the relationship?

My company puts together programmes aimed at improving general and specialised skills for both clients and agencies so as to create better working relationships, and ultimately better business results. I work in close collaboration with the Association of Practitioners in Advertising (APA).

Our trainings cut across client service, strategy and media. We are planning on introducing creative modules, but already have a proprietary course, Creative Fitness, which is an interactive workshop programme for marketers to master the inputs to great advertising. It teaches, among other things, how to write briefs, understand the creative process, differentiate between ideas and execution, evaluate and give constructive feedback, and build great relationships.

What is your hardest task as CEO?

Balancing between executing on-going projects and thinking ahead is a taxing role.

It is also time consuming, which leads to late nights and spending less time with my husband and kids, and it sometimes takes up my weekends. That’s something I intend to fix as the business grows.

What is your management style?

While working with competent people, I give them a lot of space and I love generating new ideas with them. But if it’s otherwise, you may find me overbearing.

Your worst mistake?

Misjudging an employee and letting her go. She ended up doing really well at the place she moved to.

What is your typical working day like?

My day starts at 6.15am with prayers. I believe in committing all I do to God and that way I know he guides all I do. I leave home by 7.15am, drop my lastborn in school and by 8am, I am in the office.

After checking and replying to my emails, and looking through proposals that need to go out, I mostly spend the rest of the day in meetings. I try to be done by 6.30pm to spend time with my family if I don’t have official evening functions or meetings. Once the children are in bed, I watch the news then work on proposals until around midnight.

I am terrible when it comes to physical fitness and it’s something I need to work on.

If you were not in your current position, what would you be doing? 

I would be a farmer! I would be settled up country, farming maize and wheat while tending to my garden — it’s what I plan to do after retiring.

What would you say is your biggest weakness in running a business?

Always wanting to be in control and expecting everything to be perfect. Sometimes I forget to look at things from other people’s perspective, which would enrich the end results of our task.

What is the worst part of your job?

I believe the worst part of my job is when I need to pay my debtors yet I have not been paid by creditors. I don’t like being caught unprepared.

What do you think is the most overrated virtue in business?

Consistency. Sometimes you need to let loose, stop working for a while, relax and re-boot so that you are refreshed and ready to complete or begin a new task.

Something people do not know about you?

I am completely obsessed with homemade crisps. I can shamelessly finish a large packet by myself in under an hour.

Your biggest influences?

 My Christian faith, my husband and my father.

Life’s biggest lesson?

There are many lessons I have learnt over the years. The one thing I have come to understand is that whenever I go through a rough patch, I always gain as I learn something from it. I strongly believe in the saying, “Never a failure, always a lesson”.

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