The Business Strategy in Reality. How I Masterminded the Rawson Properties Harare Deal and The Brought Rawson Brand Into Zimbabwe.

I am Eng Simon (The Metastrategist) Bere for masterminded the Rawson Harare Deal. Rawson Properties is one of the four biggest real estate companies in South Africa. Rawson Harare is a franchise run by RM Africa. The founder of RM Africa is called Richard Matengambiri. People do not know how Rawson Properties can into Zimbabwe and here is lay the facts bare. With story I want to demonstrate four things.

1.     That you can outperform the environment if you deal with your thinking barriers

2.     That what and who brings your business to a certain level is not necessarily the same thing or person who can take your business to the next level

3.     The fact that you are the one who started a business does not necessarily mean you have what it takes to take it to the next level

4.     That it pays to get business consultants and especially strategists to help you.

5.     That never trust the word of mouth in business deals, have things written down. Never trust anyone in business even if the person appears to be a devoted Christian.

The Rawson Harare started when Richard hired me as his strategy consultant to help him grow his business. Then his company was an unfashionable small business operating from a crowded corner office in Margolis Plaza opposite NetOne Headquarters in the capital.

We met and agreed on a step-by-step process. I believe in processes. The first thing I asked Richard was his strategic plan and business plan and he did not have either of the two. Nothing new here. This is typical of small and medium business owners. (I have a full list of the characteristics that define a typical SME business owner. They have a core set of characteristics that they have in common)

So I suggest to him that we do a strategic planning workshop and we ran the workshop in his small office. I was not used to doing workshops in offices because with most clients they have the money and we do it in proper hotels, lodges and other comfortable venues.

The first question I asked him in the strategy session was what he thought about his location. "Imagine, Richard, you are selling properties with tens to hundreds of thousands of United States Dollars and they come to this small office in a very crowded and noisy building. What image are you portraying and what confidence are you building?"

After the strategy sesson RM relocated to Samora Machael Eastlea where it is operating from now. After the location I then trained his sales team on how to sell and especially selling property. At the same time I was coaching Richard how to be a CEO and how to lead a company. I was also helping with ideas and advice.

At some point, I realised that Richard was operating in Harare and not through out Zimbabwe and I started thinking our how he could operate throughout Zimbabwe. I proposed to him a strategy which I will not disclose here.

While we where busy putting together the growth strategy, I one day bumped on real estate book on Richard's desk. The book was written by a South Africa by he name Jason Lee. I thought it would be a good thing if we organised a real estate workshop and invite Jason Lee to be the facilitator. Richard, to his credit never said "no" to anything I proposed. He was always open to my ideas.

The workshop idea was great and exciting to me but we had one big problem. We had no way of contacting Jason Lee. His book had no contact numbers. Realising this Richard gave up the idea. However I suggested to him that I will find Jason Lee by all means necessary, ethical and legal. One day an idea popped up! Go to LinkedIn.

I immediately hopped onto LinkedIn, typed in Jason Lee hit the press button. And boom! I got Jason Lee. When I tried to message him I hit another brick hall; Jason was on a paid package which does not allow direct autiomatic messages. I had to ask one of the Zimbabweans in South Africa to conntect with Jason and fortunately he agreed.

So I emailed Jason my invitation for him to come to Harare for the workshop and how much he wanted as fees. Jason flatly refused to come to Harare, stating that he was almost arrested in Victoria Falls where he had visited after he was suspected of being a spy.

“But you come to South Africa for an opportunity instead.”

Through his LinkedIn profile I discovered that Jason was working for a company called Rawson Properties. I quickly Googled Rawson Properties and discovered that Rawson Properties was then one of the fourth biggest Real Estate Companies in South Africa.

With this intel, I immediately changed my mind. I dropped the original business expansion idea we were working on and shifted to getting the Rawson Franchise for RM Africa. I proposed the idea to Richard and asked to think about it overnight. This was after I noticed some reluctance to let go of the RM Africa name.

The following day, when I met Richard, he sounded warm to the idea but he was sceptical it would happen. He kept on asking if it was possible that such a big South African brand would agree to franchise its brand to a small company that has one manager and a team of property negotiators.

“l leave that to me Richard,” I told him.

https://www.newsday.co.zw/property/article/238207/rawson-establish-franchise-in-zimbabwe

To be continued.

simonsbere@gmail.com  +263-77-444-74-38

©Simon Bere, 2024