Africa got under my skin in 2005 — not through boardrooms or big deals, but through living inside semi-urban communities and witnessing firsthand what success truly looks like in African markets.

It was there I learned one of the most valuable business lessons of my life: a consumer who buys a small sachet of cooking oil instead of a 5-litre container isn’t being irrational — they’re being smart with what they have. It’s a lesson that has sat with me in every boardroom since.