“MANY businesses have forgotten why they were established in the first place.”
With that powerful statement, renowned Zimbabwean public speaker, author and Pan-African thinker Joshua Maponga III challenged the country’s business leaders to rediscover the passion and purpose that gave birth to their enterprises.
Delivering the keynote address at the Business Eswatini Ignite Eswatini Gala Dinner held at Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini on Thursday, Maponga urged entrepreneurs, executives and company founders to return to the drawing board and ask themselves one fundamental question; Why does this business truly exist?
The annual dinner brought together leaders from across the country’s private sector to celebrate the organisation’s 2025/26 financial year while providing a platform for dialogue, collaboration and reflection on the future of business in the country.
The event also recognised the vital role the private sector continues to play in driving economic growth, creating employment, attracting investment and strengthening the country’s competitiveness as the country pursues sustainable economic development.
Speaking under the theme, ‘Sow or Starve: Reimagining the African entrepreneur as a farmer of thought’, Maponga warned that businesses that lose sight of their founding purpose often sacrifice long-term impact in pursuit of short-term gains.
He said as businesses grow many gradually drift away from their core mission, chasing trends and diversifying into activities that were never part of their original vision.
“Many organisations have lost the passion. Why did you start that company? What is it that you wanted to do? If I walk up to you right now, are you still doing that very thing that you said you wanted to do?
“Some of us because of marketing we have become printing houses of banners, but that is not your core business. Go back to fundamental business because your whole budget is now going for marketing, marketing what as you did not come here to print photocopies and run adverts. What is that thing and your passion which established your business?” questioned Maponga.
He cautioned that commercial success should never come at the expense of purpose, saying businesses that continually pursue every opportunity risk losing the very identity that once made them valuable.
Throughout his address, Maponga challenged business leaders to move beyond ideas as well as intentions and focus on decisive action.
He also defined success not by profit alone, but by execution. He defined success as reducing the distance between what one thinks and what they do. Maponga also challenged leaders to redefine success by focusing less on titles and more on the value they create.
He said authentic leadership was demonstrated through action rather than position, urging executives to be known for what they consistently accomplish instead of the titles they hold.
“You might have lost your first love and you might end up doing other things that you are not called for. Do not just think and feel because it is not good enough. People always say it is in the pipeline; cut the pipe and we cannot spend our whole lives waiting for the pipeline to deliver. Do not specialise in your nouns, specialise in your verbs. People should not be known for their positions, but should be known because they lead. Do not tell people you are a teacher or director, just teach or direct,” added Maponga.
Beyond individual businesses, Maponga encouraged the country’s private sector to cultivate innovation, original thinking and purpose-driven leadership capable of transforming organisations and the country’s economy.
He maintained that companies anchored in their founding vision are better positioned to innovate, inspire employees and build lasting value.
