Chimanya burns midnight candle to keep Seed Co at the top

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Seed Co Zimbabwe is the country’s leading seed producer and a household name in the business with over 75% of the market share.

This would give any executive comfort. But for Terrence Chimanya, the company’s managing director, there is no time to sleep as the company must grow its market share and deepen its research and development thrust.

“I’m a self-confessed workaholic and my colleagues know that I burn the midnight candle strategising on the direction the company should take to maintain market driven productivity,” Chimanya told Business Times.

“We are scheming to ensure that the company remains profitable even in the face of drought, our research and development is looking at breeding other products for local and export consumption of what we are referring to as climate smart varieties.”

Despite Seed Co’s origins being deep rooted in Zimbabwe, the local unit was facing some viability challenges and stiff competition from rival seed producers and it needed a strategic and hardworking leader to steady the ship and turnaround the company.

Chimanya who was the company secretary since 2019 was promoted to Seed Co Limited acting managing director from August 2021 before given a substantive role in February 2022.

He quickly settled and steered the ship guided by the group head office through applying contemporary business models and reconfiguring processes as well as motivating the staff resulting in positive results.

The executive, who boasts of experience in risk advisory and business development as well as company secretarial and governance roles in regional and international organisations, said the transition to MD from company secretary was smooth as he had some of his biggest mentors in his corner, “including group CEO Morgan Nzwere.

The strong finance and legal background, he said, provided a smooth landing.

“I am a lawyer who is passionate about number crunching which makes my life very easy as managing director, as I manage and have oversight of all the business operations through giving strategic guidance and direction to the Board to ensure that Seed Co achieves its financial vision, mission and long-term goals,” Chimanya said, adding the company is a scientific research and development-driven business.

Its thrust, he said, is to stay abreast of climate evolution by continuously innovating and introducing products adaptable to current and predicted climate trends.

“Through coming up with products that are adaptable to the erratic rainfall patterns I can see a brighter future for the country’s agriculture sector through Seed Co,” said the executive, who has been with the seed producer for nearly five years.

Zimbabwe is facing serious economic headwinds which include rolling power outages, inflation, currency volatility and foreign currency shortages among other hurdles and Seed Co profits have been heavily affected.

Chimanya said the economic landscape has continued to operate in a volatility, uncertainty, complex and ambiguity space which has made decision making a challenge. Added to that, climate challenges which have adversely affected seed production plans, he said.

“Given prevailing general market conditions, the fact that we have been able to maintain our market position is testimony to the strength and quality of our products and most importantly our staff,” the executive said.

With the weather experts predicting Cyclone El Nino during the upcoming summer cropping season, the Zimbabwean situation has been further complicated as the country depends on rain-fed agriculture.

The executive said the Seed Co group inventory availability of seed has always managed to meet seasonal demand.

“The challenge of climate change is continuously being managed through our research and development division as they continue to churn out climate smart varieties. Seed Co’s focus is to continuously improve in terms of quality control systems, human resources, and modern laboratory equipment,” he said.

“The company continues to invest in research and development as we pursue our vision of ‘Dominating the Agro industry in Africa’ by anticipating future needs due to climate change as well as changing consumption habits wherein people are gravitating towards consuming small grains.

The Seed Co boss said the company has embraced the digital ecosystem in its business development efforts which has seen it investing in modern value chain systems, including agronomy deployment apps, digital marketing, and online retail shops to enable wider direct access and a personalised offering to existing and new farmers for value adding engagement and building long lasting relationships.

It has also remained profitable despite the volatile exchange rate and forex challenges, posting a profit of US$40m in 2022 on the back of “resilient measures” the group has put in place across all its markets in Africa to ensure that “we produce market driven seed”.

Chimanya boasts of experience gained from working in government and the private sector.

He took his leadership style from the late Nelson Mandela who said, “It’s better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”

Chimanya did this when the local unit posted strong results against regional counterparts.

He wants to become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if one has no title or position, according to author Brian Tracy.

An avid golfer, the executive finds the sport fulfilling as it also presents opportunities for business and networking.

Seed Co is testing rice, potato, and sunflower to provide a wider range of products other than maize, wheat, soya beans, sugar beans and sorghum.

He targets to achieve the company’s aspiration of sound environmental stewardship where the seed producer aims to use the natural resources the business depends on responsibly, care for the environment in our operational and surrounding areas and limit the impact of our operations on our host communities.

“We do this by promoting farming practices that work with nature rather than against nature to mitigate climate change through among other things use of cover crops, crop rotation, composting, and mixed farming to improve soil and biodiversity,” the executive said.

He vowed to leave a mark in Seed Co’s history.

“The legacy solutions I intend to put in place for my area in Zimbabwe are to ensure the Seed Company embraces responsible practices for integrated management of economic, environmental, social and governance impacts and opportunities to deliver sustainable value to all our stakeholders.

“The legacy I would like to leave in place is to ensure that Seed Co is continuously committed to being a great place to work and pursue dreams, a place that is right at the start of feeding the nation,” said the award-winning executive.

A fellow/Chartered Secretary with the Chartered Governance Institute, Chimanya also holds an LLB (Hons) from Anglia Ruskin University, MSc in Finance and Corporate Governance from the University of Hertfordshire. He is finalising an advanced management programme with Chicago Booth University.

Chimanya is reading three books concurrently, Snakes in Suits – When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul Babiak, PHD and Robert D. Hare, PHD, Robert Sharma’s The Everyday Hero and The Ride of a Lifetime –Lessons Learned from 15 years as CEO of Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger.

The executive also enjoys reading journals on economics, business leadership, ethics as well as articles on thought leadership, technology, and agro-business sector.