Entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone: What You Need To Know About Service Delivery, Sabotage, and Work Culture

Leaving a meeting with former MD of Activa Insurance SL. We had just signed them as a client so I was all smiles.

As there are very few resources online about entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone, especially from a woman’s perspective this post is one of four where I share my insights and tips on clients, contracts, recruitment, service delivery, and safeguarding tactics for women. This is part 3

Entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone: Service Delivery, Sabotage, and Work Culture 

It is always easiest to deliver services to clients when they don't have an in-house team. We are able to develop the project plan, and execute on time and to the client’s satisfaction.

Where we struggle is in those instances where the client has an in-house team and requires we work with them.

Here are two stories. 

We got a contract to work for a government agency. The head of it asked that we liaise with their PR team. After I created the first drafts I sent the documents via Google Drive and asked for review and approval. They never came.

I sent follow up emails and WhatsApp messages and each time I would get an excuse. Then when we were due to go live, one of them traveled up to the Provinces without delegating to anyone else. 

I realised that their normal work culture was meetings without  follow through. No one outright takes responsibility and everything is a mad rush at the end. They had limited digital skills. They could not open attachments and struggled to edit a doc on Google Drive. We got the work done but it was tedious. 

The other problem you might face working with in-house teams is sabotage and theft. 

A client with an in-house team asked us to create a budget for a product launch. We did so and submitted the budget for approval. For each line item the in-house lead said he had someone who could deliver the same service for cheaper. He said so without checking with those vendors or preparing a counter budget. We sat in his MD’s office days to launch as he called his vendors for quotes. Imagine being in a top executive’s office waiting for someone to call a caterer to check on the price of chicken wings. Their caterer's price was much higher than my quote. After the meeting, where I had received budget approval, he still did not give up. He called me to request that I reduce the chicken wings we had catered for. The plan there was that he wanted to pocket the difference. I refused. We catered for four chicken wings per person. He came to the launch and he ate a dozen pieces on two plates. I was watching and counting.

And that wasn’t all. We had an outdoor activation for the same client. Again I had completed the plan and budget weeks in advance. At the eleventh hour the same man announced that he had vendors who could supply the materials for less. The MD asked him to confirm before the launch. On the actual opening day for the football tournament, he did not bring any of the supplies. My team was on location at the venue. I was sitting with the MD at Kempinski in Accra (he had come for a regional board meeting). I told him that his people had not done the work. The MD called his guy on speaker and asked him if he had provided us with the materials. He said not only had he done so, he was at the venue right now. I asked the MD to request that he send a photo of the setup. That’s when he began to explain that what he meant was that someone else on the team was on their way there. The MD was so furious he called him a liar and hung up. 

While we have communications and marketing professionals with experience, few have technical expertise. Do not mistake experience in a role for expertise. 

You will have a power struggle as in-house leads sabotage work, or  misrepresent facts. To protect yourself (and you must always be on the defence) you must always be early, efficient and excellent like me. Document everything in emails. Emails are your record of what you said you were going to do, when you said it, and how they responded. 

You can't avoid the resistance. When the going gets tough send a stern email and copy all DiPas at the top for the bambai.

Continued on Part 4: What you need to know about entrepreneurship in Sierra Leone: Tactics to Reduce Sexual Harassment Against Women