What Is Corporate Literacy And What Is A Company? – Corporate Literacy 101

Mutumwa Mawere, 04/01/2021

A WhatsApp group was created under the umbrella of C2C called – what is a company in an attempt to find out if a shared understanding exist on what a company is and is not because when knowledge is shared, it holds a better promise.

The group’s creation was inspired by an observed lack of shared understanding on what a company is and is not with a view to provoking, inspiring and igniting the building of the necessary body of knowledge on corporate matters.

It cannot be disputed that in many ordinary conversations, corporate issues feature rarely simply because those clothed with corporate ideas, experiences, insights and knowledge do not have platforms that promote the celebration of corporate issues through sharing.

On 1 January 2021, I had a wide ranging conversation with Mr. Lovemore Chanengeta, a member of C2C, who is the driving force of innovative business and educations solutions that are not only mind boggling but are helping shape and define the global virtual landscape.

COVID19 has accelerated the adoption and implementation of solutions whose use could probably was going to face resistance a few months ago.

Absent the C2C war against COVID19 and the platform itself that provoked me to be associated with financial literacy initiatives, I would not have known about Lovemore’ s innovations.

As history can prove, I hosted a Facebook Live show featuring an e-commerce platform that one of the members of C2C, Mr. Joseph Mudekunye who is based in the USA, invested in to bridge the Zimbabwean diaspora community to the opportunities to invest in solar solutions in Zimbabwe.

Through my provocation after the experience of Ms. Joy Mutare, a friend who is also based in the USA, who came to Zimbabwe on a vacation only to be exposed to unreliable power supply and had to drive to SA to purchase solar equipment for home installation.

She called me to help identify reliable solar equipment suppliers, I naturally recommended a corporate member of C2C, Nungu Solar Pry Limited who had successfully installed a solar system at my house in Bryanston, South Africa.

After consulting with Ms. Mutare, Mr. Tinashe Mafume, the CEO of Nungu Solar, sold the equipment to Ms. Mutare.

What followed was a drama of events starting with Ms. Mutare choosing her own installers in Zimbabwe.

Following installation, the inverter burst and Ms. Mutare naturally called me to complain about the outcome and she put the blame squarely on Mr. Mafume and indirectly on my recommendation.

This then sucked me into a dispute that was finally resolved after more than a year courtesy of Mr. Mudekunye who had also purchased similar equipment from Nungu.

Having helped Mr. Mafume access other clients, I proposed that it may be useful for Me. Mudekunye to start a business to help the Zimbabwean diaspora community pay for equipment in SA using companies like Nungu and then use a panel of installers to do the job in Zimbabwe.

Under this arrangement, the Mr. Mudekunye would then use the 1873 Network/C2C as a vehicle to raise awareness of the real risks posed by lack of knowledge by many people who need solar solutions but have no knowledge of the technology and related supply value chain matters.

He agreed to be part of the 1873 initiative to improve solar literacy.

In a related matter, I was introduced to Mr. William Ponela by Mr. Divine Mafa who had been following my live videos on the urgency and need of building community power around the real problems faced by retail operators who are predominantly domiciled outside Zimbabwe but have the funds to buy and install solar systems in Zimbabwe.

The prices of solar solutions are more expensive in Zimbabwe necessitating the do it yourself approach with the attendant risks.

Mr. Ponela is an experienced business operator in Zimbabwe and is resident in Zimbabwe.

I told introduced him to Mudekunye and proposed that it may be worthwhile for them to cooperate.

This led to the incorporation of a company in the USA called Zonful Energy Inc to act as a vehicle for members of C2C to pay to Zonful Solar Zimbabwe, the company founded by Mr. Ponela.

The United States company was established and bank accounts were opened to facilitate the prospective business.

Messrs. Mudekunye, Ponela and myself became the authorized bank signatories on the account opened with Bank of America.

The question that arose was on the online payment systems. On my recommendation, Mr. Mudekunye tried unsuccessfully to engage the services of a number of C2C to build a community online platform under the Zonful brand.

A WhatsApp group was created to link Mudekunye and myself to the staff of Zonful Zimbabwe. Mr. Mudekunye was forced to reach out to a developer based in Pakistan. He build the e-commerce portal but regrettably the Zonful Zimbabwe plan fizzled out leaving us exposed.

We then decided to convert the idea into a C2C general e-commerce platform with the help of the developer.

This platform was created and launched. I decided to use the launch to raise awareness that an open but community centric platform now existed.

This live video provoked Lovemore to call me to inform me that he also was a developer and wondered why we were using a foreign service provider when he had a better solution.

He then presented an education management and information system that his company, Edusyms Pry Limited, developed and the payment system that was already operational.

Lovemore has walked the talk and for every problem that has been presented to his companies in the quest for building a community solution to the digital challenges that are often addressed on a silo basis, he has been able to respond with excellence solutions.

We have been working behind the scenes with Lovemore and a number of solutions are now available for use in virtual business opportunities.

I shared the thread I had with Lovemore with Mr. Brian Manyati, a member of C2C, who recently informed me that his contract as a financial literacy program instructor had been terminated effective mid-December.

I told him that through the vehicle of C2C, he could improve his visibility to allow him to acquire the status of a go to person in the community for people who have wish to improve their literacy.

I had in mind that he would use Lovemore’s platforms to offer literacy programs to the world using Zimbabwe as the address. I provoked him to start writing and publishing articles.

I introduced him to the editor of iniAfrica News, Mr Brian Kazungu, who is also a member of C2C, to provide him with a platform to publish the articles.

This was implemented. I agreed to assist him with the content and context that could possibly provoke even those who are experts on financial literacy matters to consider relearning and being part of a bigger learning tent.

So I just copied and pasted a thread of my conversation with Lovemore so that he could get a context of what I have been trying to do.

As part of building his brand, I proposed to him that he should consider creating a what’s app group called – what is a company – to provoke and promote interest in shifting the paradigm on financial and corporate matters.

Below is the thread that I share with Brian and also my conversation thereafter with him.

In this conversation, I sought to help Brian understand the importance of staying on his course and absorb as much knowledge as possible without appearing to know more.

It is significant that after reading the thread with Lovemore, his primary conclusion was advice to me that I should give room to Lovemore to maneuver the best way he thinks with the iniaghts coming in from me.

Brian confuses me with C2C yet the thread with Lovemore was involving me, the person, and not C2C the vehicle that exists for members like him to learn from shared experiences.

By sharing the thread with Brian, my hope was that he would convert the thread as a story to be shared to respond to the often asked question why black business people are found wanting as mentors.

This thread is about mentorship between me and Lovemore but the tragedy is that a retail approach only benefits the Individual actor but imposes costs on the mentor to repeat himself.

I personally prefer a classroom approach learning that would have followed with Lovemore and others who I have interacted with on corporate matters availing themselves to share their experiences and insights on the virtual platform that Lovemore developed that is equal if not better than platforms like zoom.

After having created the What Is A Company platform, it is clear that the message is not coming out clearly why it is necessary to have the group as a platform to provoke and inspire people to improve their literacy.

I had hoped that Brian would see my sharing threads with him as a vehicle for boosting his personal brand visibility.

Is it not ironic that if asked to name even 3 persons in Africa who shine as go to persons on corporate matters, I would struggle to find the names?

Even in the Zimbabwean context, the only careers that seem to generate celebrities are politics, arts and sports etc and not corporate actors.

Some of the corporate actors are pervasively illiterate on corporate matters that you would not believe that they are actually trained and experienced on these matters resulting in confusions in dealing with corporate issues

As part of the quest for excellence on corporate matters, please ask this question to just 10 of your friends – who do directors owe a duty to – and record the responses to share in this group:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/LoPLvTSCu8RJ9jvbiSTMUE

 [1/2, 6:14 PM] Lovemore Chanengeta: https://skwama.co.za/en/

[1/2, 6:47 PM] Lovemore Chanengeta: https://www.mallofthings.com/home/product_view/915/Sauvignon-Blanc/?product_affiliation_code=aff_f8220764fd26225f9321

[1/2, 11:17 PM] mdmawere1: https://www.go4worldbusiness.com/pricing

 [1/3, 7:47 AM] mdmawere1: Good morning

[1/3, 8:20 AM] mdmawere1: Tried to log in without any success.

[1/3, 8:20 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Did you create logins?

[1/3, 8:20 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: what error are you getting?

[1/3, 8:28 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: try now

[1/3, 8:33 AM] mdmawere1: Great. I see the account.

[1/3, 8:33 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: https://edusyms.online

[1/3, 8:43 AM] mdmawere1: How did you find the meeting?

[1/3, 8:43 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: I think we now need a clear governance structure for C2C

[1/3, 8:46 AM] mdmawere1: Indeed. The individual versus corporate is an area that she wanted to get a better understanding about.

Like JJ versus The Royal India Restaurant

Same Lovemore v Mall Of Things.

Then what is a company is a question that calls for a shared understanding.

[1/3, 8:48 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: https://www.mallofthings.com/home/product_view/916/Chardonnay-LAVO-Wines/?product_affiliation_code=aff_a4c3790f93c5f580d189

[1/3, 8:49 AM] mdmawere1: Great. This looks proper.

[1/3, 8:49 AM] mdmawere1: Is it now working?

[1/3, 8:49 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Thank you

[1/3, 8:52 AM] mdmawere1: I was saying that Lovemore is not Mall of Things. Understanding this at the foundation makes it easier to apportion credit to the human factor.

This was in relation to what Brian asked.

You have created enough capital to deliver streams of value to any blind person. We need to compliment this with a focused strategy and deliverables.

[1/3, 8:52 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Indeed

[1/3, 8:54 AM] mdmawere1: Do you have an inventory of the digital assets that you hold?

[1/3, 8:55 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Yes I do. I have https://lvmre.com

[1/3, 8:55 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: I will publish the full portfolio there

[1/3, 8:57 AM] mdmawere1: If you are at the top of the pyramid as you are, do you prefer consolidation of admin purposes of horizontal approaches?

[1/3, 8:59 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: I prefer the pyramid upside-down: the funnel approach.

[1/3, 9:00 AM] mdmawere1: This was the Rhodes model? It works and simplifies everything.

[1/3, 9:00 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Planning and performance approach to deal with all problems of work

[1/3, 9:01 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: No need to invent the model

[1/3, 9:02 AM] mdmawere1: Great. Since you are the face of the assets, should a holding company approach be used or the divisional model?

[1/3, 9:05 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: I thinks Assest as a Service approach will be best.

[1/3, 9:06 AM] mdmawere1: Should I start working on possible structures and branding propositions for you to look at?

[1/3, 9:06 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Thank you. I would appreciate that.

[1/3, 9:07 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: Much appreciated

[1/3, 9:07 AM] mdmawere1: Which companies are legal entities?

[1/3, 9:08 AM] mdmawere1: Should we use C2C for ideas and ideology?

[1/3, 9:13 AM] Lovemore Chanengeta: LVMRE, EDUSYMS, NATIVE AERO TECHNICAL

QENSA – Quality Education Network South Africa, ECOBURY SCHOOLS, Home Office Farm Industrial Civic Makeover, BrightindeX Collections, Bright Index Consulting, Miss Zim-SA Pageant, RIZE

[1/3, 9:17 AM] mdmawere1: If adopted LVRE Solutions Holdings Pty Limited would it work

[1/3, 9:19 AM] mdmawere1: Then LMS or LVRE Management Solutions as the services provider.

[1/3, 9:35 AM] Brian Manyati: Goodmorning Sir

[1/3, 9:36 AM] Brian Manyati: All coming out good. Give him (Lovemore) room to maneuver the best way he thinks with the insights coming in for everything C2C as both of you are doing in the shared conversation.

[1/3, 9:56 AM] mdmawere1: Do you wish to learn about yourself even from the response that you have given above?

If so, please do not get offended by the questions that will follow from the response.

[1/3, 10:13 AM] Brian Manyati: At 8:43 am Lovemore indicates “we now need a clear governance structure for C2C”

At 9:08 am you asked “should we use C2C for ideas and ideology”

It would be a good thing if you converse more on these propositions and both of you see to it there is implementation virtually and any way else progressive.

[1/3, 10:38 AM] mdmawere1: I asked to do you want to learn?

Can you be both a professor and student in the same class?

[1/3, 11:05 AM] Brian Manyati: You may go ahead with the lesson you wish to deliver on me. I am all ears kindly

[1/3, 11:07 AM] mdmawere1: Q: What facts informed the recommendation that I must give LOVEMORE room to maneuver?

[1/3, 11:12 AM] Brian Manyati: Giving any innovative person room enough speeds anything up.

[1/3, 11:13 AM] mdmawere1: Was this informed by the content of the thread or your own mind frame?

[1/3, 11:14 AM] Brian Manyati: From reading the content in the thread I managed to note the innovative person (hi-tech or e-commerce or e-business side) that Lovemore is

[1/3, 11:15 AM] mdmawere1: So the advice was targeted at whom?

[1/3, 11:22 AM] Brian Manyati: At us all working with Lovemore including him, he needs to see such open feedback, also however, most importantly you who is having first hand and fingertip up to date conversations with him as regards the current C2C online side developments he is in charge of

[1/3, 11:24 AM] mdmawere1: Who are you telling to give Lovemore room? In what capacity are you giving this advice?

[1/3, 11:25 AM] Brian Manyati: My apology if I mis-stepped

[1/3, 11:26 AM] mdmawere1: No apology necessary. Learning needs a willing learner. Do you agree that no one asked you to give advice but you were privileged to be copied?

[1/3, 11:35 AM] Brian Manyati: I agree

[1/3, 11:39 AM] mdmawere1: When you read something for learning do you have to assume any judgmental role or draw lessons, if any?

[1/3, 11:48 AM] Brian Manyati: I did not seek to judge any, but to help out with an insight of my own only, I seek to draw lessons hence my communicating back

[1/3, 11:49 AM] mdmawere1: Lesson: Never interpose yourself in any matter without the consent and knowledge of the actors. Someone has to request you to do so. Assume even a fool that has not requested you for anything is not a fool. You should only deal with what you are given and if you have earned the trust of the person, it is ok.

You will note from the thread that I asked him to lead the process without me advising him.

I have to respect the person and if he knows it all, I have no duty to advise him unless he explicitly requests me to do so.

Do you agree that C2C has nothing to do with this conversation?

[1/3, 11:55 AM] Brian Manyati: On the lesson, I have learnt one thing: To wait until someone says or asks “have you any comment on the conversation I have shared with you”, above I saw your shared conversations with me (per a copying privilege from you) and assumed the conversation you shared out needed my communicating into it yet from the conversation I now have had with you it has turned out that was not necessarily it.

[1/3, 11:56 AM] mdmawere1: Do you agree that comment is not advice?

[1/3, 11:57 AM] Brian Manyati: Middle order content is well with me kindly. Am now onto the last part

[1/3, 11:57 AM] mdmawere1: In life never assume anything unless told otherwise.

When you read a book, do you give advice to the characters in it?

[1/3, 11:58 AM] Brian Manyati: It is alright that C2C has nothing to do with this conversation.

[1/3, 11:59 AM] mdmawere1: Who are the principal actors in the thread?

[1/3, 11:59 AM] Brian Manyati: Only here now seeing how the two can be different, from you mentioning it and not taking it for granted that I know the difference

[1/3, 12:02 PM] Brian Manyati: “Never to assume anything unless told otherwise,” I have noted this down.

No you do not give advice to characters inside a book you are reading, neither are you able to advice the author this character should have said out these words on page 92 end of first paragraph this way or that way

[1/3, 12:03 PM] Brian Manyati: Lovemore and MM are the principal actors in this thread

[1/3, 12:03 PM] mdmawere1: We are members of C2C but C2C is not us.

[1/3, 12:04 PM] Brian Manyati: Okay thanks

[1/3, 12:08 PM] Brian Manyati: Kindly am I allowed to talk further freely, to the thread shared out?

[1/3, 12:09 PM] Brian Manyati: In relation to this line

[1/3, 12:17 PM] mdmawere1: By whom? It has been shared to learn and not debate.

[1/3, 12:18 PM] Brian Manyati: Okay thanks. Is this what you mean in the thread by “should we use C2C for ideas and ideology?”

[1/3, 12:19 PM] Brian Manyati: In the conversation between you two as principal actors in the thread

[1/3, 12:24 PM] mdmawere1: We can go through this after learning from the above.

[1/3, 12:27 PM] Brian Manyati: Not a problem

[1/3, 12:28 PM] mdmawere1: Do you agree that he is expecting answers from me about C2C?

[1/3, 12:30 PM] Brian Manyati: Yes I agree, like at 8:43am when he quips, “I think we now need a clear governance structure for C2C”

[1/3, 12:31 PM] mdmawere1: Do you agree that he is using we because he has interest in C2C?

[1/3, 12:33 PM] Brian Manyati: Yes, by any chance is it possible to define the interest in C2C he has?

[1/3, 12:40 PM] mdmawere1: What is your understanding of what C2C is before addressing his question?

[1/3, 12:44 PM] Brian Manyati: C2C is an online community that is building up. Its aim is to inspire, provoke and generate interest in delivering solutions both business or not in an endeavor to address our everyday challenges as a people. C2C is a vehicle for use by its members to drive from point A to B. In a way C2C is a company of various individuals with varying interests.

[1/3, 12:55 PM] mdmawere1: Is it not a vehicle for members?

[1/3, 1:10 PM] Brian Manyati: It is part and parcel of what I believe I comprehensively said above. In part in my post, I have a line which yes reads “C2C is a vehicle for use by its members to drive from point A to B.”

[1/3, 1:12 PM] mdmawere1: Does a vehicle exist or the Individuals?

[1/3, 1:15 PM] Brian Manyati: The C2C vehicle does exist yet only intangibly unlike its natural person members who have a physical/tangible presence or existence

[1/3, 2:02 PM] mdmawere1: Do you think it exists? If so, where is the residence?

In this thread, I am talking to a person who has used corporate entities as vehicles.

The decision to use MOT is his but the property is in him.

He is talking to me and not C2C.

Anyone who misconstrues me as C2C is illiterate.

[1/3, 2:53 PM] Brian Manyati: Yes C2C exists. C2C is an Intellectual Property (IP). It is capable of being patented. It is how it is possible of being an intangible non-current asset. Its residence is in, or within its members who are tangibly existent. Or also it can also be alternately said that C2C has an online address. It exists online. When its physically offline members get online they set C2C (the vehicle) in motion.

[1/3, 2:57 PM] mdmawere1: What would be the basis of the intellectual property? Who would give up his time to benefit a human construct like C2C?

[1/3, 2:58 PM] mdmawere1: Never confuse human actors with human constructs.

[1/3, 3:07 PM] Brian Manyati: Time basis. There is a point in time when C2C will just roll on like Facebook, like WhatsApp. Or maybe I am thinking too much that C2C at some point it will just be an application or like an application as just as Facebook, or Twitter, or WhatsApp are. A lot happens on these vehicles that I am likening to a fully grown C2C at some point. You converse on Facebook, you transact, you link, you do all sorts of things, I personally envisage C2C doing that to human actors out of being a human construct.

[1/3, 3:07 PM] Brian Manyati: Who would give time, some men and women already are giving time to things C2C and these only are early days, by the time volumes get to know of Facebook it is already fully grown, no longer at research and developmental phase of its life cycle

[1/3, 3:10 PM] mdmawere1: Yet no property or value exists without the human value add. The earth’s greatest treasures lie in the personality of man. Some think citizenship is free yet anything of value solves a human problem and value add becomes its measure.

[1/3, 3:12 PM] Brian Manyati: Okay

[1/3, 3:17 PM] mdmawere1: People and not animals pay taxes yet they still have to work to sustain life.

[1/3, 3:18 PM] Brian Manyati: May you kindly link this to the thread on the two actors

[1/3, 3:22 PM] mdmawere1: The two actors are like tax payers. They paid membership but this does not entitled them to any benefits but work in progress till death. There are people who believe that being members of C2C confers rights yet the truth is that they still have to add value as individuals and if the value is through the vehicle of C2C, they will be rewarded by the customers who pay for all.

[1/3, 3:30 PM] Brian Manyati: Such that I kindly do not lose you

[1/3, 3:32 PM] Brian Manyati: A clear message. Needs each of us carrying it. It is a clear message indeed

[1/3, 3:36 PM] mdmawere1: If you understand this basic message, then you see where the problem is.