From the deserts of Rajasthan to the dunes of Dubai and the corporate dens of Africa, Rakesh Wahi has weathered the vagaries of life and business. When only 23, while serving in the Indian Armed Forces, he was electrofied and almost died. That early experience taught him to chase his dreams – and fulfil them, no matter what.
Wahi, founder of the Johannesburg-based ABN Group, including CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA, has been a leader in media, IT, telecoms and education. Also based in Dubai as Chairman of CMA Investment Holdings, prior to moving there, Wahi had served in the Indian army for about nine years, and for distinguished services to the country in peacetime, was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India in 1985.
Wahi has built companies in over 22 countries, employing a little over a 1,000 people. “Extremely passionate about education”, it is his vision to set up educational centers of excellence across Africa. His first university was launched in Ghana in 2013. He is also the co-founder of Murdoch University Dubai.
Here, Wahi talks about education, innovation, and his debut book, Be A Lion, which will be unveiled at the finale of the 2016 CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Johannesburg on November 11.
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<h4>What is Be A Lion about?</h4>
It’s about people and the impact they have had on me. I think this entire journey I have made is about how people have influenced me. First, on your way up, it’s your parents who are your greatest influencers as that’s where you get your identity from; and then, over a period of your lifetime, it’s the people who come into your life and make an impact, some positively, some otherwise. And that is the greatest experience you can talk about.
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<h4>You own multiple businesses; what new innovative industries are you possibly looking at?</h4>
When it comes to innovation, the key is to focus on how the world is changing and how things are going to impact our existing businesses. You have to constantly think about how your consumers are reacting to your products and services, and constantly change and that’s what innovation is about; it’s about reaching your customers in a more efficient manner.
With regard to the education sector, it’s changing rapidly. The way children consume education is very different from our time. The traditional classroom environment is changing.
Now, is learning going to be classroom-based? Are holograms going to be the future of education? Can you superimpose a teacher sitting in New York into classrooms in core campuses across the world, and have concurrent teaching?  A lot is changing.
Online is a very important aspect of where education is going, but I don’t believe that is the answer to it; I think the hybrid kind of education is what is eventually going to come around. Face-time with teachers is critical, the social engagement with peers is critical, so therefore a lot of things are going to remain constant with education, and the rest of it will evolve in terms of where technology and innovation can be used to make it more efficient.
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<h4>What are your continuing goals for education in Africa?</h4>
We are setting up centers of excellence. In West Africa, with Lancaster University, we are going to be setting up an engineering college with strong laboratory-based learning. In East Africa, our focus is energy and a vast part of it will require simulators and modern training equipment, and we will be partnering with industry to make sure we get the best of breed. We will roll out energy programs in the rest of Africa, and encourage students from across Africa, Asia and emerging markets to come to Rwanda for instance, where we are partnering with the University of Aberdeen for our energy programs.
In southern Africa, we are looking to partner with one of the Scottish universities to set up a center of excellence for health sciences, including medical and nursing colleges.
We don’t want to bring in technology from the yesteryears just because it is cheaper, or because we think Africa is still an emerging market, we want to actually leapfrog and bring in the latest technical innovations into these centers.
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<h4>CNBC Africa turns 10 next year; what are the innovations in the media business?</h4>
The entire way in which people are going to view television is changing, so are distribution channels. What remains consistent is there will always be demand for high-quality content. Our focus on creating quality content, which stays with the values of CNBC globally, is going to be one of our core competencies, but how you distribute it is going to actually evolve in the next 10 to 15 years, particularly in Africa.
The viewing habits of consumers are changing, they are no longer watching channels; they are watching programs, and able to customize their own grids. What is relevant is you will be able to watch what you want, at the time you want, in a scheduled manner.
On the one side, we have to make sure we create best and compelling content; on the other side, we partner with distribution platforms able to cater to the needs of the consumers at an affordable price.
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<h4>How welcoming is the African economy today of innovation?</h4>
At conferences and workshops, people talk about innovation, but I am not very sure they are actually geared up for it. The practical elements of bringing innovation into your workplace, whether in government or large corporates, is about a change in mindset, when you have to change processes and the way you look at things. It’s about driving change, and also, the commitment of leadership.
You do find there are some leaders in Africa bringing about that change, and the one that I would single out is President Paul Kagame, which is why Rwanda is making strides the way they are. He has the ability to visualize the future. They also have restrictions in terms of the size of the economy, but when you are hungry, you are able to adapt faster.
Kagame has brought a culture of change in his country, and it is very visible in the way you do business in Rwanda. You can set up a company in six to 24 hours if you have your documents in order. Rwanda gives you the opportunity to adapt quickly.
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<h4>How do you balance profit and philanthropy?</h4>
I think these are closely related. There have been great leaders like Mother Teresa who have devoted their time towards a cause. And she has touched the lives of our family too – she was very close to my mother, and has been to our home. But eventually, even to enable what she was doing, required money.
Over time, our own CSR and philanthropy as a family has changed. When Saloni [Wahi’s wife] and I were starting out in our life, even when we didn’t have much, we were always engaged in making a contribution towards causes.
Over the years, we found we needed to have a cause of our own, and after we set up the ABN Education Trust, we rationalized what made sense to us as a family. We focused on financial journalism, and also, on helping destitute women and the girl child, a cause Saloni is very passionate about.
Money is an important contribution but you also need to make time. Saloni and I work as a team. The heart sits with her, while I become the machinery for generating the income.
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<h4>Your most prized possession is…?</h4>
Family. I am not a material person. If I were to pack my life, I could pack it all into one suitcase.
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– Interviewed by Methil Renuka; for the full text of this interview, visit www.cnbcafrica.com; All net proceeds from the sales of Be A Lion, published by Penguin Random House, will go to charity and  the ABN Education Trust.

The Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur

Rakesh Wahi, founder of the Johannesburg-based ABN Group including CNBC Africa, FORBES AFRICA and this magazine you hold in your hands, has been a leader in media, IT, telecoms and education. Also based in Dubai as Chairman of CMA Investment Holdings, prior to moving to the UAE, Wahi served in the Indian Armed Forces for about nine years, and was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India in1985, for distinguished services to the country in peacetime.
Wahi has built companies in over 22 countries, employing a little over 1,000 people. It’s his vision to set up educational institutions in Africa; the first of which he launched in Ghana in 2013.
Here, Wahi tell us about his debut book, Be A Lion, which will be unveiled at the finale of the 2016 CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Johannesburg on November 11.
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<h3>A few words on the book&#8230;?</h3>
It’s about people and the impact they have had on me. I think this entire journey I have made is about how people have influenced me. First, on your way up, it’s your parents who are your greatest influencers as that’s where you get your identity from; and then, over a period of your lifetime, it’s the people who come into your life and make an impact, some positively, some otherwise. And that is the greatest experience you can talk about.
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<h3>Why the fascination for the lion?</h3>
Every human being is inspired by animals, be it rhinos, elephants or gorillas. For me, the fascination has always been the lion. It’s something that’s inherent and perhaps speaks about my character in many ways. A lot of the conversations in the book are extrapolated towards the king of the jungle, the human jungle.
<h3>Do you often find that business can draw lessons from the military?</h3>
Absolutely! You will find that a number of army officers have made great business leaders; the reason is that the core of any business is people, and the one thing the military teaches you is to look after these assets. And right from the day I joined the forces to when I left, the only thing ingrained in me was how to motivate people towards a common objective. Military officers know it’s important to look after their people, starting with basic things, such as making sure they got hot food, they wrote home, they went to pray&#8230; These are the softer things of life that business sometimes tends to forget. The army teaches you these core values. And that’s the inherent need in business. If somebody is working for you – even if it’s one person on the job – you have to be there with him.
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<h3>While in the army, you once almost stared death in the face. What was that experience like?</h3>
It was a defining moment in my life. I was about 23. We were on a specialized task force in India’s western front. I was electrocuted and they couldn’t revive me quickly; I was clinically dead. And then my second-in-command saw my fingers move. I came to in 24 hours, and although they asked me to go home to rest, I returned to my troops in 72 hours.
But I realized at that young age that life is not something you take forgranted, therefore, whatever you want in this world, you have to set out to achieve it. At the end of the day, you are either there or not there; if you are not there, and if there are unfulfilled dreams, they will always be unfulfilled. You must always set out to do what comes to your heart.
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<h3>Your advice to entrepreneurs in emerging markets…?</h3>
If there is one lesson you will learn in emerging markets, it’s patience. Always remember to look at business for the long-term, make sure you have ticked all the right boxes, do your homework – don’t take short-cuts. When you go into these difficult regulated industries, people will tell you ‘we can fix this and that’. I have never ever gone to Mr Fix-Its. There is no quick-fix solution for setting up sustainable businesses and the reason for that is there are a lot of variables and if you haven’t set your foundations strong, you open yourself up to retroactive actions that result in many issues including corruption. And people talk a lot about corruption in emerging markets. But the businesses that we have been in, for the last 26 years, we have never once had to pay anybody to do anything for us, and the reason is that we have taken our time setting them up and making sure our foundations are strong.
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– Interviewed by Methil Renuka; Read more about Wahi in the November 2016 issue of FORBES AFRICA.

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5 Minutes With Rakesh Wahi

Within minutes of driving out the parking lot at the Kathmandu airport, the first earthquake struck. Our vehicles rocked from side to side, like boats on a choppy ocean. At first, we didn’t realize what was going on. When the shaking continued and we saw people screaming and running from the airport – we realized we were amid the worst earthquake Nepal had ever seen.
In 2013, I took 15 middle management executives from the ABN Group to the top of Kilimanjaro. Soon after our return, we started planning the next adventure – Everest Base Camp (EBC). The earthquake changed everything.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30060 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2070.jpg 682w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
When the tremors stopped, we had a chance to assess the situation. From the airport in Kathmandu, we could see black dust billowing from the city. The magnitude of the tremors was more than I had ever experienced in my life. We were told that the airport was closed and the runway had cracked. The intensity of the earthquake and the damage was not clear. It became so as we made our way to our hotel.
By this time, all the residents of the city had moved into the streets. Dharahara Tower, the tallest building in the city, had collapsed. Icons, like the Dharahara Tower, are pillars of pride. When they fall, it makes people desolate and uncertain, particularly when most of the buildings are old and poorly maintained.
The tremors continued at frequent intervals and in the frenzy our vehicles were separated. Our driver was young and seemed to have lost his nerve. He took us into a built-up area in the city, parked the car in an enclosed parking lot and without saying a word deserted us. We never saw him again. I was with Gary Fernandes and Biju Vetil who are both senior members of the Transnational Education (TNE) management. By this time, the network was clogged and we were unable to contact Chris Pilgrim and other members of our team in Kathmandu. We were, however, able to connect intermittently with our HR Manager, Bidisha Sen, in Dubai. The most important thing was to let everyone’s families know we were safe.
By 1PM, my son Sidharth, who is based in Johannesburg, started providing me with information based on what he was able to pick up from news reports. We were told that there was another severe quake expected at 3PM. Since we were stranded, the three of us decided to go towards a canal in an open area until the next wave of tremors. By 4PM, we asked a person in the garage to drive us to our hotel;  he reluctantly agreed. The journey was eventful as most roads were blocked by fallen buildings and debris. Kathmandu is an old city and the streets are extremely narrow. Another death trap was the low hanging power cables that are part of a dilapidated grid. While most of the city had lost power, there were still some main cables that burst at the nodes as we were passing by. By this time, everyone had evacuated their homes and moved into the streets. By 5PM, we regrouped with the team at our hotel.
The hotel was in disarray. All the guests had moved into the lobby and the small courtyard outside. It was getting cold and people went to their rooms hesitantly to collect sleeping bags and blankets for the night ahead. I assembled the team and my first goal was to make sure that everyone was calm. I stressed that we had to stay together and the safety of our team was paramount. We agreed that we had to abandon the trek and plan an exit strategy.
The airport was closed. Our next option was to get transport to the Indian border and cross to Delhi to fly to Dubai. This needed visas from the Indian embassy as we had four other nationalities: Canadian, Chinese, Filipino and Egyptian.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-30061 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2081-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2081-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2081-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2081-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2081.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
We were told that the Indian Air Force had deployed C-130 aircraft to evacuate Indian nationals. The team agreed that we were not going to evacuate piecemeal until there was a proper plan for each member. It was clear to me that I would be the last to leave. I also realized, rather than listening to rumours, a physical recce of the airport was needed so that I could decide whether it was going to be an air evacuation or by road.
The news from social media and family came in. The extent of the damage was not clear but by this time we knew about the avalanche at EBC, the devastation at the epicentre and the rising casualties. We could hear the sirens of ambulances and rescue workers moving around trying to help people trapped in the rubble.
My team was tired and emotionally drained but never showed a moment of weakness nor despair. I wanted to make sure that we found a place to eat. The city had shut down; nothing was open other than small grocery stores selling water and basic food. People had left their place of work and returned home to care for their families. We found a small restaurant and were told the only dish they could serve was chow mein. The half cooked and barely warm dish was perhaps the tastiest chow we had ever eaten.
After dinner, Chris and Biju went on a mission to find a taxi to go on a recce. They found a broken-down vintage taxi that Gary and I rode to the airport. It had started drizzling and it was heartrending to see families, particularly children, sleeping on the streets. Some people were keeping a vigil to make sure that their groups were safe. To our delight, we found lines of tourists and expatriates lined up to fly out. The only operational flights were by the Indian Air Force which gave me the comfort that commercial airlines would soon start flying in. This is the information that I needed to have a proper plan for the next day.
My wife Saloni had been in touch with all the airlines flying out from the UAE and had made tentative bookings for us on Air Arabia. By 3AM, our seats were secured on the 10.55PM flight from Kathmandu to Sharjah on Sunday.
We had a sleepless night which saw several tremors, including a severe one at 5AM. It rained and was freezing cold. We had to move into the dining area where the guests were crammed like sardines. People were edgy, every time a chair moved they darted to the open courtyard.
At 7AM, we received a princely breakfast of tea, slices of bread and jam. It was a blessing. At 9AM, the hotel owner came to meet us and offered us a lift in his van. The only problem was it was the team or the luggage; not both. Since we had over 12 hours until our flight, I asked him to take the baggage. Our travel agent assured us it would get to the airport.
We decided not to walk through the built-up areas as a lot of the buildings were unstable. We found a map and planned our more than 20 kilometer route along the canal and then finally on to the wide main road to the airport. The extent of the damage and the displacement of people we saw while walking was an eye opener. The open areas were packed and temporary shelters, of tarpaulin and plastic, were everywhere. Rescuers pulled dead bodies from the wreckage. We were full of remorse and knew it could have been us.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-30062" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2191-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2191-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2191-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2191-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2191.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
After a six-hour march, that included the second-most severe earthquake at 1PM, we finally made it to the airport. We joined long lines of people waiting to board commercial planes. The airport had been shut down once again and we had no idea if we would fly out. My wife stayed in close contact with the airline and at 6.30PM told us that the flight had taken off from Sharjah. Hope was revived. We checked in at 9PM and the way the baggage was piled up in the airport, and the lack of any tracking and staff, made it evident that the luggage was not going anywhere. We boarded at 1AM and took off an hour later to the cheers of relieved and exhausted passengers. The ordeal, for us, was over. Our families and the hot coffee and muffins at the airport more than compensated for our lost baggage that we have no hope of getting back. I only hope the contents make it to the needy people of Nepal and not into the hands of thieves.
This experience was a reality check. We often believe we are infallible; the truth is we are far from it. I was just happy that I could bring all members of my team back safely. I would not have been able to live with myself if anything untoward had happened. Our team members in Dubai and families stepped up and played a crucial role in lifting our morale. We went there for a team building exercise. Nothing prepared the team for a real life catastrophe that brought out the best in each of them and brought them together as a family and inspired them to contribute to the suffering people of Nepal.

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Remorse And  Rubble In  Nepal

Roberta Naicker is watching CNBC Africa in her sunny corner office in Johannesburg’s upscale Sandton suburb, and she is not looking happy. A series of bomb blasts have ripped Abuja, Nigeria, only days before the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa summit, and she has a team of cameramen, TV journalists and managers leaving to cover the continent’s most important business meet.
As Managing Director of the ABN Group in South Africa that operates CNBC Africa, she has the onerous task of deciding the course of action: news first, or people first?
The coffee on her table is cold. Her fingers are perhaps clammy, as she clasps them, pursing her lips, making her decision. Her people come first.
For the group’s 40-year-old managing director, family has always been a pertinent part of her life, and this, her 300-employee company, is family too.
Hailing from Durban, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province where the weather is warm and the Indian population numerous, Naicker spent most of her girlhood aspiring to become a chartered accountant. Where others dreamt of Barbie dolls, she dreamt of a college education.
Money was always in short supply, but her parents encouraged her to study. It was 1991, three years before a free South Africa, when Naicker completed her matriculation. She recalls boycotting classes and participating in the ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ campaign in school. Somewhere in the mind of the young girl, the stirrings of change. Would she have known that 17 years on, she would be at the forefront of a large media organization covering the country Mandela envisaged?
After school in 1992, Naicker enrolled for a BCom degree at the University of Durban Westville (now UKZN).
“My parents said, ‘you worry about getting into university, we will worry about paying for it’,” says Naicker. But that was not to be. Naicker discontinued college, opting to pursue her second year BCom part-time through the University of South Africa (UNISA). In 1993, she signed up for a full-time job in her hometown at the age of 19.
“I always had a passion for numbers and my first job was as a junior accountant in a small manufacturing firm. I knew that if I am not going to get somewhere through a formal education, I am going to have to do it through hard work. Those were the goals I set for myself and that is the way I have lived my life the past 20 years,” says Naicker.
Marriage in 1998 saw her relocate to Johannesburg with her husband; this is where her career blossomed, starting in the commercial property management industry. Next up was an assignment as the finance manager of a large organization for six years until 2006.
This was before joining the ABN Group in March 2008. The group had just launched CNBC Africa, and she was hired as Head of Finance. Naicker admits it was an industry she had little knowledge of at the time.
“I was comfortable from the finance perspective, but I didn’t understand media at all. It was completely nerve-racking walking in here and thinking, ‘what am I honestly going to do’? But I saw it as a challenge.”
Naicker calls it the start of an association with an organization that believed in her, and placed all faith in her to do the job, and do it well. For this, Naicker gives all the credit to ABN Group’s Co-founder and Vice Chairman Rakesh Wahi.
As Managing Director, Roberta Naicker is responsible for the overall operations of the ABN Group, which includes CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA. She plays an instrumental role in the strategic planning, financing and implementation of FORBES AFRICA, ABN Productions and ABN Training Institute. She currently also serves as a board member; Chair and Managing Director of ABN Productions, ABN Pictures and the ABN Training Institute, Chair of the ABN Education Trust, and Chair of ABN Nigeria and Kenya.
A firm believer in the empowerment of women, here, Naicker speaks about how she made every opportunity – and adversity – a part of her learning curve.

Tag: ABN Group

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur

5 Minutes With Rakesh Wahi

Remorse And Rubble In Nepal

Nothing But Belief