Meet Akhona Qengqe, trailblazing general manager of KFC Africa

After joining KFC in 2015 as a development director, Akhona Qengqe worked her way up to General Manager for the whole continent, a position she was appointed to in 2023.

This makes her the first black, and also female general manager of KFC Africa.

While this trailblazer knew at a relatively young age that she would end up in business, she dropped out of her accounting degree at UCT to do a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) instead.

Starting out with chartered accounting was entirely her father's decision, she tells Stephen Grootes.

"He looked at my matric marks and said to me, we've got an accountant in the making! This was about 25 years ago and he said that I'd probably be one of the first black, and female CAs in the country and as a result I'd never have to look for a job in my life."

Her dad proved to be half-right.

"Strangely enough I found myself being a female first in many things. I also found myself never having to look for a job even though I never did end up being a CA. I registered for the degree but quickly dropped out of that stream because I realised looking at financial statements all day every day, doing audits on different companies, wasn't exactly my cup of tea."

Qengqe highly recommends her eventual course of study to young people faced with the choice - she says a Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) degree through a B.Com prepared her thoroughly for the business world.

"The benefit of that degree and the reason why I chose it is I still got to stay within the commercial stream, but also I'm quite passionate about all things politics and philosophy and just understanding how the world works... It's quite a broad degree that looks beyond just business, at the factors that impact how economies operate, how policies are shaped, how philosophers of old thought about the world."

She's found that even now in her current role, her exposure early on in life to this thinking has helped her navigate some difficult periods.

After graduating, Qengqe worked both in the oil and quick service restaurant (QSR) industries before joining KFC.

One of her biggest learnings has been the way culture shapes a company's performance.

"I've always asked myself what differentiates one company from another, especially when you look at companies within similar sectors... and what I've come to realise in my 20 years' working experience is that culture is actually the biggest differentiator."

Ultimately this boils down to what the company allows to happen and what it does not tolerate, she says, and how this starts to drive performance within teams.

"I do think the biggest responsibility for us as leaders is to make sure the cultures that we're building are not just based on the nice words you see on company websites and statements, but that they're really deeply entrenched in creating environments that allow our people to be their best self, to fully thrive and to help companies outperform. It's become quite competitive across different sectors, so we have to make sure that our environments are conducive for our people to be their best."

Sustaining this IS possible she says, citing the example of KFC: "You don't get to the size we are as the fastest growing QSR on the continent or in Sub-Saharan Africa at least by sheer luck; it is by design."

The QSR giant is very deliberate in the culture they create, which they call a heart-led high-performance culture, she explains.

"We've very clear in terms of what it actually means and we hold every person to the same standard. With anyone who falls outisde of that it's honest conversations and quite quickly people are able to align. And it's not because we force people into a culture or we control them, but we create an environment that actually makes people want to show up in a particular way."

"We celebrate success, so obviously you want to be successful because you know you'll get celebrated. We're rewarded highly - we create a space where people can be innovative, they can bring in new ideas and we also create autonomy for teams. People want to feel that the work they're doing and the results of it they fully own, so we create that."

Qengqe also talks about her personal interests, and the WIFA franchising network for women that she founded - take a listen in the interview audio at the top of the article