Ubuntu Economics: Rethinking Success in the Age of Connection

I was watching a clip, a short interview by Vanessa Stoykov talking to Allan Gray. One thing that jumped out at me was what Allan said. For the longest time, we associated business with cold, shark-like, bottom-line-first activity, with no connection to responsibility beyond the balance sheet.

Now I hear you say, but isn’t the bottom line the most critical aspect of business that must be protected at all cost? I tend to agree with you on the importance of bottom line protection as there is no business without a healthy cash-flow. One of my favourite principles is from Bob Proctor, who says, “Sales is the first order of business; everything else is sales support,” or, even more famously said by machismo American entertainers, “nothing moves before the paper.”

All of the above is true. But what Allan said in that interview echoed something I’ve felt for the longest time, and that is: “helping people develop a moral compass so that they can not just be entrepreneurs, but responsible entrepreneurs.”

And what does responsibility mean?

I paraphrase Allan when he says: "Responsible entrepreneurs are thinking of others — in essence, first and foremost, they want their clients and customers to do well. I think philanthropy and acting in the common good is, in fact, good business."

This resonates with the work we are doing at FAMA³. Our mission is to restore ubuntu by re-integrating Africans into food value chains and providing pathways for them to enter agricultural ecosystems.

The world has never been this small, with the advent of connection technologies — humanity has never been this disconnected. It is authentic connection that will drive humanity in our not so distant future in more ways than we can imagine. There are staggering numbers and predictions in the age of AI that suggest humanity will create more millionaires in the next five years than in the entirety of human history. Our ability to connect with each other is augmented by thousands of tech platforms, and yet real connection can be improved upon.

I am a part-time introvert, and I had the best time during COVID, but much like everyone else, I missed human connection more than anything. The emerging trend after COVID, of course, was connection, and we all went back to the offices chasing it vehemently. But the honeymoon was over before it began. We soon realised it was less about connection and more about authentic connection.

I have been thinking about what that really means. Because let’s face it — no one can teach you authenticity, even if they tried. Sure, there are many courses you can take online on the topic, but to be authentic, one must truly be themselves. This got me thinking about the minimalistic, single-minded approach of how we originally thought about business: do things this way and you get rewarded, even if the crux of what you’re doing relegates the very fabric of human connection and humane relation.

The irony in all of this is that there is no business without people. The business is the people. If you take a successful hotel resort in the middle of nowhere and remove the people, the business vanishes instantly. Much like the old adage, “If a tree fell in the forest and no one was there to witness it, did the tree really exist?”

And so, I echo Allan’s words when he says doing common good through business is, in fact, good business. And this is why we exist as FAMA³. Ubuntu economics are an integral part of not only our story but our design. There is no alternate universe anywhere where we can exist without this anchoring ethos. In fact, we encourage everyone in business, or going into business, to copy and paste.

Our mission is not ours alone.