Johnni Kjelsgaard Email & Phone Number

After more than 25 years, having worked with over 5000 entrepreneurs and their almost 3500 startups and small & medium-sized enterprises in virtually any industry or sector, and in all parts of Africa - and beyond - I feel it is time I share some of the insights and knowledge I have been fortunate enough to gain on this journey.I am an entrepreneur, a teacher, an investor, a mentor, trained economist and banker, and I am a techno-optimist and an afro-optimist even after almost three decades immersed in the entrepreneurial ecosystems across the continent. But I am also a pragmatist and a realist - I am not a big believer in fairytales and unicorns. Building businesses is hard work, back- and mind-breaking! It requires patience, discipline, diligence, staying power and a will well beyond the normal - you must have tough skin and an ability to acquire a strategic mindset like a chess grandmaster.I strive to contribute to the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurial leaders who think holistically about their businesses and the impact they have on the communities and stakeholders they interact with - not just about the bottomline and the wealth they create for themselves, their families and their investors. Businesses must be drivers of added value - they must give back more than they take, and they must always strive to do minimum harm in the short and long run. Businesses are engines of growth, prosperity and the wellbeing of our societies, and its leaders must embrace this responsibility fully!The way to get there is through a comprehensive remodelling of how we build the foundation of our businesses. The right aspirations, objectives and values must be deep inside the DNA of any successful business, and they must form a firm matrix that guide their strategic planning, tactical choices, operational set-up and day-to-day decision-making.To that end we have, over the past decades, built and refined a system, a process, a methodology that enables entrepreneurs articulate this holistic growth foundation and then use it to revisit their current reality and build a suite of strategies that will enable a more responsible, inclusive and sustainable journey to success. Albeit, not as a one-off, but rather in a framework steering quarterly and annual cycles, allowing for further development, optimisation, refinement and adjustments when realities change and new learning manifests.We call it the Growth Compass! Feel free to contact me to know more...

Listed skills include Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Start Ups, Business Development, and 36 others.