Seeing the CZI conference through football eyes The same scenario in businesses, economy, enterprise, policy and development partners is similar to football particularly the excitement that comes when goals are scored

Sekai Kuvarika

am excited about the conceptualisation and planning for the CZI Annual Congress for 2022. 

It has invoked in me the thoughts of one of the sports I know very little about — football. I love football by the way, particularly the excitement that comes when goals are scored, I am just poor at understanding the off-sides and other technical aspects of it. 

When playing in the local league, our local football teams, Dynamos, CAPS United, Highlanders and others have locally based players playing for them, some of these locally based players may also have been acquired from beyond our borders (expatriate players). 

We have the same in our businesses, economy, enterprise, policy and development partners landscape in Zimbabwe.

And then competition goes continental (since 1980, we have qualified for the continental league AFCON only four times) and of course there is the whole World Cup, which we are yet to qualify for. 

We are not alone in these showings by the way but that’s a story for another day. Back to business and the economy. 

Our local businesses, some of which are multinational hailing from nations yonder and some with executives and technical teams from beyond the borders are here plying their trade in the local economy. 

There is SADC, COMESA, AfCFTA and the whole wide world where our products, services, enterprise and economy (remember the various global rankings on all manner of global indices?) are supposed to play. 

Whether we qualify to play and how much of our products, services and entities qualify is a product of our pedigree in as far as the attributes that make us able to compete can take us. 

Sometimes we realise there are platforms where we are not present.

Here is my business and football analogy, when continental or global competition calls, we usually assemble our best local players and call on our foreign based players to be released for national team duty (Zimbabwe Inc). 

As we plan the CZI annual meet up, we are thinking, we need our international based players to come and join the national conversation to help us qualify for some continental and global competitions. 

We are inviting the Zimbabwean business leaders, entrepreneurs and policy leaders who are plying their trade beyond our borders to bring home some of their expertise and experiences to interact with our own at home so that we can shift gears to play in the big leagues at various levels.

We have aptly themed the congress “Glocalise’’ to reflect both where we are in the larger scheme of things and to characterise the content of the conference.

Internet and open trade brought the world to our shop shelves and onto our gadgets and the local consumer has become a global consumer while sitting right here at home; so what does that mean for local and export trade? The game we are playing is very global whether we are playing at home or away. 

The challenges are of a global proportion and we are not immune to them, quality standards and trade are both global agendas, then we have the climate agenda, sustainability etc that have quietly become part of the competitiveness matrix. 

Putting our “best feet (minds) forward’’ and ensuring policy, business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and talent all come together to gain ground or score some goals is crucial.

The annual conference is “Thee’’ annual business and policy conversation and this time around some of our internationally based players, the ones that the outside world identified and recognised to play in the global league will be making some great passes and sharing expert advice, encouragement, inspiration, motivation, energy and morale to take our game (business, entrepreneurship, economy) to the next level. 

Our top business leaders and entrepreneurs, policy thought leaders and analysts will make the line up. We need to take our conversations to the next level!

I hope you can join us for this year’s premier business conference.

Sekai Kuvarika is Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) chief executive.

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