Acha Leke
Acha Leke is a Cameroonian business executive, economist, and management consultant. He is a Senior Partner and Chairman of McKinsey & Company's Africa region, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has advised governments, multinational corporations, investors, and development institutions in more than 20 African countries on economic development, growth strategy, investment, healthcare, and public-sector reform. He is also a co-founder of the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership Network.
Quotes
[edit]- I was born in Cameroon and grew up in Montréal while my parents studied medicine in Canada. We moved back to Cameroon for a while; then I went to high school in Belgium and to the US for undergraduate and graduate school. That’s a good bit of moving around, but once I got to McKinsey I stayed and have been here for more than 20 years. I started as a summer associate in our Johannesburg office and joined full time in our Atlanta office. After a couple of years in Atlanta, I moved back to Jo’burg for what I thought would be a year. That was 19 years ago, and it’s still the best professional decision I ever made. I also spent time in Nigeria, setting up our office there. Now I’m based in Jo’burg, working across the continent. So that’s me in a nutshell.
- Yes, one pivotal moment was when I decided to move to South Africa. At the time, nobody was moving to the continent. When my parents were back in Cameroon they said, “We sent you to the US for college. Why do you want to come back to the continent? Stay there, make money, and send some back home.” However, my main thought was that if those of us who lived outside Africa didn’t come back to contribute, how would things get better? I felt it was our responsibility, our obligation, to come back even if I didn’t know exactly if I could have an impact or how to start. I decided to come back, but I said, “I’ll move with McKinsey.” My lesson then was to take a risk but manage the downside. That concept of assessing and managing risk has been crucial for my career and life.
- I gave it a lot of thought and landed on an objective to help expand McKinsey’s footprint across the rest of the continent. That was my mantra, and I started sharing that with anyone and everyone in the office. I remember there were six partners in the office. I went to each of them and said, “Hey, this is what I’d like to do, this would be my platform.” Three of them said, “Why don’t you focus on serving your clients in South Africa. Once you get elected partner, you can go and follow your passion.” The others said, “You know, it is an untraditional approach, but if it’s something you want to do, we’ll support you.” Out of that came my fundamental question, which was “do I follow the traditional path or the road less traveled?”
- I remember thinking, “How do I make that decision?” I thought about how, once you get elected partner, there’s a memo to the entire firm about your election, with a bit about your story. I felt strongly that if my story was “he got elected because he served clients and he had a certain expertise,” that’s not really me—that’s not my whole story. But, if the memo said, “Acha got elected after helping to expand our footprint across the continent,” that was the story I wanted written about me. So I decided to take the nontraditional path and follow my passion.
- First, decide who you want to convince. The question is who are the decision makers you need to get on your side or at least make sure they’re not blocking you? Some people were very supportive. For the others, I wanted to be straightforward about considering their advice and my decision to choose a different path. I went back to them and said, “I respect your perspective and thank you for your advice, but this is what I’ve decided to do.” And, honestly, they were quite supportive. I heard, “If it’s what you want to do, then good luck.” I didn’t need to spend time trying to convince them and was intentional about acknowledging their input.
- It’s critical for all of us to define our purpose in life. One question I ask myself every day guides everything I do: “Would it have mattered to Africa that I lived?” I realized early on that to really make a difference on the continent, I needed to serve the public sector, so I started pivoting my work away from telecom and other private sectors and toward the public and social sectors. My North Star was to help change the negative narrative on Africa. I spent a lot of time on that, including time with the McKinsey Global Institute writing a series of reports, like Lions on the move.
- I believe in being transparent. It’s part of my belief in bringing your full self to work or to anything you do. I’ll give you one example to highlight what this looks like in real life. For more than a decade, I traveled every week from South Africa to somewhere else on the continent. At one point, I was burning out. I decided to take three months off work and to focus on one simple goal—to spend 30 consecutive nights in my own bed. That goal was easy to think of and commit to, but I wondered if I should tell my clients and how they would receive it. I told all my clients.
- Well, that’s because it was the title of a news article. What I will say is I have consciously and unconsciously built a network across the continent and with folks who are interested in the continent. Being transparent about your purpose is helpful in building a network. People know I focus on Africa. I help clients in Africa. I want to help multinationals looking to expand in Africa. I want to help investors deploy capital across the continent. That purpose attracts a network that’s focused on the same goals. Purpose attracts a network that’s focused on the same goals.