(Harvard Business review, 2020)

The following steps will help you

Read carefully the following case study!

What is the real problem of Sonia? Discuss it!

What is the decision to be made, problem to be solved? What are her objectives?

According to you, how do you respond? What are the decision criteria? What are the alternatives?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sonia? What are the market opportunities?

Whos the expert you agree with?

What is the plan of action you propose for Sonia? Outline your plan by answering the questions who, when, what, where, why, and how? What results do you expect? Why?

Interpret and analyze all the available information!

Should Sonia accept the offer from LFM Capital or stick with her vision for Inganci?

THE EXPERTS RESPOND

ACHA LEKE js the chair of McKinsey & Company's Africa practice anda coauthor of Africas Business Revolution.

Although | admire and respect Sonias entrepreneurial ambitions, | would urge her to Seriously consider the offer from LFM.

Sonia needs to do some deep thinking about why she wanted to start Inganci Tumatir. Is her dream to start and run her own business? To help smallholders? To transform agriculture in Nigeria? A job at LFM could pave the way for her to achieve all those things. As someone still early in her career, Sonia could benefit from the training and development shed get in a large, established company like LFM. She would not only learn effective investment, problem-solving, people management, and business-building processes but also gain exposure to a variety of industries and countries in Africa and a huge network of investors, operators, and government officials. The experience would give her newand maybe betterideas about opportunities in Africa and probably make her a better entrepreneur should she want to start another venture ina few years.

It sounds as though LFMs mission aligns with hers: to help small-business owners. At the investment firm she could do that on a much larger scale and with structure, support, and guaranteed financing. And she might still be able to focus on Nigeria or agriculture or both.

On the personal side, I think she would feel less isolated. Shed be surrounded by like-minded peers and based in Nairobi, which offers a vibrant community of locals and expats. Plus shed be earning a good income instead of constantly raising funds from inves- tors while making very little herself.

This might not be an either/or decision. Pulling the plug on Inganci is just one option should Sonia go to LFM. Another is putting the start-up on hold and relaunching it in a few years. Sonia could also hire someone to run Inganci in her stead. She could provide strategic guidance as an adviser or a board mem- berand, with her LFM salary, possibly lend financial supportbut not handle the day-to-day operations.

Thats the model Ive followed. Ijoined McKinsey right out of graduate school. Ive been at the firm for 20 years, and Ive launched, advised, and funded anumber of start-ups on the side. This means Im not only consulting to clients butalso helping to grow institutions that could transform the continent. The key is finding the right partners: people who will commit to leading those institutions ona daily basis and who understand the local dynamics. Those partners also need operational skills they dont teach in business schoolskills Sonia is just beginning to pick up. My advice to Sonia: Reflect on the purpose of your life, and then figure out whether LFM can help you achieve it faster and more effectively than Inganci can.

MIRA MEHTA is a cofounder and the CEO of Tomato Jos.

If building a successful

agricultural business in

Nigeria is Sonias dream, She should pursue it.

I know exactly what shes going through, because her story is based on mine. Istarted my tomato paste company in 2014. I thought Id be running a large, profitable organization by now, but everything has taken twice as long as

I expected. We now aim to launch our product in 2021seven years after I started! Its been a long and challenging journey. But if we can get a homegrown and -made product onto the shelves and into the hands of consumers ahead of our competitors, who are far better resourced, Ill feel an immense sense of accomplishment.

Id counsel Sonia to stick with Inganci for a few reasons. First, she seems to havea passion for entrepreneurship in general and this venture in particular. She believes in the business and her ability to run it. Its her baby, and shes clearly not ready to leave it.

Second, the best time for her to man- age this kind of start-up is now. Shes single, and theres no mention of college debt, so her financial constraints seem minimal. Her friends might be living lavish lifestyles in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere in Africa, but when else will she be able to live in Kano and build something from the ground up? The LFM job, and others like it, will probably still be there in a few years. Maybe then, after having proved her start-up mettle, Sonia will be offered a VP or director position instead of coming in as an analyst.

Third, I think the best kind of learning happens on the ground. There will be mistakes and setbacks, of course, but those teach you resilience. And as a start-up CEO, you gain invaluable real-world experience. Its a lot harder to learn how to be a hands-on manager while working at an investment firm.

Fourth, the psychological rewards of running a small business are huge. Icame to Nigeria to create greater eco- nomic opportunity for its citizens, and nothing inspires me more than seeing my staff members develop their skills and watching our farming partners learn techniques and strategies that will help them commercialize other crops. Im not sure Sonia will feel that same high writing checks from Nairobi.

Assuming that Sonia decides to press on with Inganci, she can doa few things to increase her chances of success and enhance her well-being. These include continually reviewing her business plan to ensure its viability, hiring a strong local team to whom she can delegate some tasks (thereby avoiding decision fatigue), andalthough this is easier said than donecontrolling her entire supply chain, from farm to factory to distribu- tion. She should recognize that progress may come more slowly than shed like, and should take more time to recharge and connect with friends so that she feels less lonely and stressed.

They say that every start-up is a failure until it succeeds, and because you never know when success will come, you just have to keep pushing. If I'd realized at the outset that Id spend the first two years living in a converted chicken coop with no electricity while taking no salary, and that it would be seven years before we had a product to sell, I might not have had the courage to launch. But now that Im in, Id never give it up. Sonia is in too. She loves it, and she should stay.