1n 2018, Dr. Nataliey Bitature was listed on Forbes 30 under 30. She currently serves as the Chief of Staff at Simba Group. She’s also the Founder of Musana Carts, Tateru Properties, HER Initiative, and the Co-Founder of Handymen Uganda.
My call with Nataliey is set for 4:00 PM and at 3:59 PM, she promptly joins the Zoom call. Her tone is firm and kind. I thoroughly enjoyed having this conversation with her. Read on to find out about her career journey, her thoughts on gender stereotypes in the workplace, and her passion for the people she leads through several of her business ventures.
Tell us a little bit about your career journey and the roles that brought you Simba Group.
Simba Group is a family-owned business. I started working there when I was about 14 or 15. It was easy and my parents expected this of me. I was working at Simba telecom shops, sitting in board meetings, taking notes, and working as my dad’s assistant during the school holidays. I was already used to the working environment at an early age. When I finished my undergrad degree, I joined Stanbic Bank as an intern doing investment banking and admin. I then worked for a bio-organic farm in Gulu but their office was in Kampala so we’d go up and down. I liked going to Gulu. I had never experienced fieldwork on that level, dealing with outgrowers, seeing the sites and the different setups, lots of grant writing, and managing the funds. The bosses I’ve had have been a great source of mentorship and I’ve learned a lot from them through the years.
After that, I started a real estate and property management company. This idea came to me when I noticed that my family had properties that were not being professionally managed and also a lot of my friends who were moving to Uganda at the time were really struggling to find apartments and living spaces. When I lived in the UK, I thought their structures were great and my dad suggested that I work with one of his friends so that I could learn more about property management. To date, she has been one of my greatest mentors. It was very refreshing to learn from a female mentor. Through this, I started my second business Handymen after seeing the gaps in the industry. It was only after completing my master’s degree that I started Musana Carts while still living in the States. When I came back to Uganda, I then joined Simba Group as the Chief of Staff.
What are the most important lessons that you have learned as the Chief of Staff at Simba Group?
That the most important part of any business is the people. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most undervalued resources. We are always looking for technical skills and tools while at the end of the day, you’re dealing with people. Whenever you’re trying to solve a challenge, you’re dealing with other human beings. What has helped me the most is being able to work with other people, having empathy, and being compassionate. Emotional intelligence is such an undervalued skill in the workplace. I believe any problem can be solved if the team can work well together. Business leaders should create a positive environment for their teams to collaborate, brainstorm, fail without embarrassment, and be open to expressing their fears or concerns.
You are a Founder and Co-Founder of a couple of ventures, starting with Tateru Properties, HandymenUganda, and now Musana Carts. What entrepreneurial skills have enabled you to thrive and what have you learned over the years?
Resilience. For an entrepreneur, every day is an obstacle, things fall out of plan, it’s a struggle after struggle. People see the exciting, sexy side of entrepreneurship like nice cars and fancy lives but they don’t see the actual day-to-day grind, the hard days. Owning a business means that everything is on you. I grew up with parents who ran a business and saw early on that giving up was never an option.
Research is another key skill. When starting out especially, you will perform almost all the functions of the business from HR, Sales, Marketing, and Operations. In today’s day and age, this has become easier. You can learn through listening to a podcast, watching a YouTube video, or a simple google search. By researching, you are able to identify the gaps in your business or skill set - you’ll know where to seek expert advice, mentorship, or where you need to hire someone.
What is the most rewarding aspect of the work you do through these initiatives, especially Musana Carts?
Hearing a good response from a customer, or speaking to a vendor or someone telling me that they saw a Musana Cart - these are the small things that make my day.
Do you have any other interests that you’d like to try your hand at?
(Laughs). No, not really. I still always get ideas of things that I would like to try out. What I’ve been doing over the years is to write down all these business ideas I have and then when I meet people who work in that sector, I give them the idea for free if they are interested in taking it up or if they have the capacity to do it.
Understanding my own capacity of what businesses I’m able to run helps a lot because I don’t want to be overwhelmed or lose focus because I’m trying to do several things. I believe great things happen when you collaborate with other people.
How has the pandemic impacted your business on the recruiting and hiring front?
Within Simba Group, the companies that have been affected the most are the hotels. We don’t have guests. Accommodation is down all over the world.
I’m very grateful for the local market because that has really kept us going. We’ve managed to bring back most of our staff as we’ve been running very large restaurants, doing conferences, weddings or birthdays.
Uganda has had a huge unemployment problem for the last few years, and the pandemic has even made it worse. Some companies have obviously grown, like Simba Medicare which came as a result of Covid and we were able to create jobs and grow the company. Our hiring practices haven’t necessarily changed. We also transitioned to working remotely for most of our companies.
Our company culture is largely family-oriented so people are not rigid about their roles, this is something I really appreciate. When people came back to work after the lockdown, they were willing to be flexible, for example, someone who was a waiter before was willing to help out at the front desk. Our teams understood the circumstances and were very appreciative that they even got an opportunity to come back to work. This really strengthened our team.
In your opinion, what challenges or stereotypes hold women back in the workplace that shouldn’t exist in the 21st century, and what can leaders do to help?
(Pauses). Wow, what challenges aren’t there? I mean if I feel it at my level, with the privilege and the opportunities that I have had, it just angers me and motivates me to think about how to create a difference in the lives of other women. Women get sent for tea, we are told to take notes, we get talked over in meetings. This needs to change. It was one of my motivations to start the HER initiative.
Growing up, I was never treated differently from my brothers. I was never told I can’t do it because I’m a woman or I’m not smart enough so it was very shocking for me when I started working and I started being treated differently.
I believe men have a huge responsibility towards changing the narrative and should be more proactive about stopping the problem. There is some progress but it’s happening so slowly. Taking care of the home does not hamper our ability to do our jobs as women. There are many stereotypes and assumptions being made and that’s something that we have to catch and stop. It’s also the responsibility of men to call each other out. When you see a fellow man sexually harassing a woman, or making jokes, or treating them differently, speak up and stand up for that woman - make sure these things don’t happen in your workplace.
You play a huge role in driving social change and have committed to impact and support 10 million women. Tell us more about your HER initiative and how it works?
HER is an online mentorship platform. I had started getting lots of questions from young women on my social media for advice about business and career development. I created a Whatsapp group at the beginning and we would also do meet-ups. Last year, I decided to move the group to Facebook as the numbers grew. In this platform, I provide a space for resources for women empowerment whether it’s articles, videos, courses, workshops, webinars, conferences, scholarships, job opportunities, or a marketplace for women running businesses. Women share their stories and experiences, challenges, advice, contacts, and networks. It’s been amazing to see how it’s grown organically and now there are more than 2500 women in the group.
How do you juggle all of your responsibilities at Simba Group and your personal initiatives? What’s the secret to managing your time?
I am very very organized. When I took on the role of chief of staff, I realized that there are so many people pulling at me every single day so I took time to read and learn more about efficiency, time management, and productivity so that I am making the most of every minute of my day. We all have the same hours in a day as Beyonce, but many of us are not really making the most out of it. I delegate as I need to, I prioritize, and I am action-oriented.
At this stage in your career and life, what are you learning about yourself?
I am a curious person so I’m always reading and learning new things. I understand business finance very well but I am taking time to learn more about personal finance - budgeting, saving, and investing. I’m learning all this so that I’m able to effectively share this with other women.
Outside of work, what’s your guilty pleasure?
I love watching TV. I love documentaries. I recently watched Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance. I really enjoyed it. I think it was well executed.
