“I Have Been Guilty of Thinking Small,” says Coke Foundation President Susan Mboya Kidero

Many may know her as Tom Mboya’s daughter or better yet, Evans Kidero’s wife but she has an identity of her own. Susan Mboya Kidero is a scientist with a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut, a Masters Degree and a PhD in Industrial Pharmacy.

She has worked for companies many can only dream of such as P & G (Procter & Gamble) for 14 years and as Coca-Cola South Africa’s General Manager from 2008-2011.

In a past interview with How We Made It in Africa, she explains that, “My career was built outside Africa and I don’t know if I would have achieved the same had I built it here. It’s so much harder here.”

She adds that due to the cultural biases, it would have been harder to be who she is today.

“I don’t know if I would have had the mentorship, advocacy and opportunity to train and to build myself, which were available in other countries. There are certain things that I had to do to fix myself and I don’t know if those things would have been available for me here,” she says.

Among her many accolades she is also the Founder and President of the Zawadi Africa Educational Fund a non-profit organization which provides high-achieving young African women from disadvantaged backgrounds with scholarships at over 65 top universities in the US, Canada, Africa and Europe.

So far, the NGO has disbursed over 230 scholarships, valued at over $45 million to students at over 60 Colleges and Universities.

While she confesses of growing up in an environment that required nothing but excellence, she also credits her success in the corporate world to her mentors who she says she had from day one.

“I didn’t get this way by myself,” she says, adding that she had the global CEO of Procter & Gamble as a mentor.

“I was a terrible public speaker and at one point my mentor just said to me this thing is going to get in your way unless you fix it. There were training courses I could do, and I did and now that is actually one of my strengths.”

She however feels that women in Kenya as compared to abroad have to be a lot more talented to get noticed, opinion she supports by adding that, “So I admire women here who are doing what I am doing because they must have been smarter, more tenacious and they had to fight bigger odds to get there.”

As far as encouraging young people goes, in her speech at a mentorship luncheon she said, “As someone who has seen and experienced many disappointments in life, I have often been guilty of “thinking small”, …based on pre-determined measures of my potential. The school you attended. Your grade point average. Your job. Your age. That’s what defines us right?”

But she added that, “But time and time again, I have seen these paradigms proven wrong; I have seen them ripped to shreds, and put back together in a way that makes them unrecognizable. And most often, I have seen this happen when ONE individual makes up his or her mind to defy the odds.

I have seen individuals who…one would say really SHOULDN’T amount to much, or DO much, I’ve seen these individuals in the face of a challenge or an opportunity, acquire superhuman strength, and do things that defy logic, and change the world.”

For those in the corporate world and have a dire need to succeed, she says it’s the little things such as punctuality, dressing and confidence that matter the most.

“Put up your hand. Don’t assume that somebody is going to pick you out,” she tells How We Made it in Africa, “You can’t be like everybody else.”

Source: How We Made it in Africa

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