The Sunday Mail
Enacy Mapakame
From humble beginnings to top executive in some of Zimbabwe’s blue chip firms, mentor and entrepreneur, Phill Mushosho, feels there is still more to learn, more trophies to amass for his cabinet and more ladders to climb.
Now the chief finance officer for the country’s biggest retail group, OK Zimbabwe Limited, Mr Mushosho’s story is incomplete without acknowledging the role God played in his life.
Apart from the education he acquired from various institutions of higher learning locally and across Zimbabwe borders, his values, and ethics in the corporate world have also been shaped by his Christian walk.
He is a born again Christian and a Pastor.
“The greatest factor in who I am today is my belief in God. Being a born again Christian and a trained Pastor, my value system, ethics and life outlook have been shaped by my beliefs. I believe in integrity, hard work and continuous commitment to excellence.
“….(I) will forever be grateful to God for the person that I am today,” he said.
Married to Patience, and blessed with four kids, Mr Mushosho was born in Gutu and went through formal education to become a Chartered Accountant and a holder of an MBL degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA).
His initial plans were to become a lawyer by profession but this changed after being exposed to the world of accounting. He started off his career with Delta Corporation, where he trained to be a Chartered Accountant before holding various positions within the beverages giant.
From Delta, Mr Mushosho moved to diversified industrial conglomerate — Innscor Africa, where he was the finance director for the SPAR group before briefly leaving formal employment to set up a family business. He later joined BOC Gases as finance director and Univern Entreprises where he rose to become the chief executive officer, then OK Zimbabwe.
“I have always had a desire to work for OK Zimbabwe and I was quite pleased when I got the opportunity to join the company as the Chief Finance Officer,” he said.
He, however, highlighted that success does not come on a silver platter. To him, hard work and excellency in everything pays off.
One has to show zeal to learn and research, have a laser focus on goals, uphold good moral standards and integrity, always have a positive outlook and attitude, determination and be interested in the operations of the organisation.
To him, there is no substitute for hard work and excellence.
“Qualifying as one (chartered Accountant) is just the beginning. One needs to apply themselves and must continuously seek to improve their knowledge about the profession and business in general.
“A good accountant must take a keen interest in and understand the operations of the business that they work for and other aspects of the business such as marketing, ICT and others in order for them to be able to add value to the business.
“Further, one should be committed to excellence, produce quality work and must develop the ability to articulate financial insights to help the business to achieve superior financial results,” he said.
Apart from the tertiary education, Mr Mushosho encouraged the young professionals to seek mentorship from those who have already made it in the business world, something that he did himself, as he drew inspiration and mentorship from his brother Jonas Mushosho — also an accomplished Chartered Accountant and business leader.
Despite his busy schedule, Mr Mushosho still makes time to groom and mentor young professionals grow in the corporate world and their enterprises.
“Having realised the value of mentors and role models in my career, I am determined to also help others, especially young people, to grow their careers by mentoring and inspiring them to be their best self in all that they do,” he said adding tertiary institutions themselves needed to spearhead research and development in order to contribute to industry needs in the face of technological advancements, new management philosophies as well as strategic thinking.
He said: “….The courses being offered by these institutions, are lagging behind and are no longer relevant to industry. The starting point is to increase funding into these institutions to allow relevant research and continuous improvement of the tertiary institutions’ curricula and ultimately the quality of graduates.”
