EMPOWERMENT

It was very important to her to ensure the standard they experienced was world class, as she never wanted them to feel less than because they were from Africa. “If anything, I pushed them harder, and I demanded more, because I didn’t want the world to ever see them as being less than, when in reality, I think the talent that comes out of that part of the world is 10 times more resilient, 10 times more creative, and you’re 10 times more resourceful – because you have to be. That’s just how it is. Plus we had smarts. And then we taught them and managed their programme experience so they could develop and get amazing jobs. They were extraordinary.”

More than 75 African professionals graduated from the programme during her tenure. “Many of those alumni now hold positions at firms in Africa, Europe and the United States. They’re doing very well for themselves. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished with these individuals, because it has changed their lives for the better and allowed them to reach their full potential. We’ve got good results from our investment in them, which is something I always keep in mind when thinking about my legacy.”

Impacting Africa as a CFO

In early 2021, the opportunity to join Microsoft came up after 15 years at GE. Welela had been living between Kenya and Nigeria for her last 10 years, and had risen up the ranks to take up the role of CFO, GE Africa. She says, “Microsoft was an opportunity that aligned very much with my interests and aspirations. My purpose and mission are very important to me, so it was critical for me to work for a company whose values matched my own.”

She says the role has all the components of a CFO role that she loves – where it’s highly commercial, focused on growing market share and building a pipeline, revenue-focused, with an operational element to it as well.

“I like to refer to my previous CFO experience as being much more traditional and ‘analogue’,” she says. “My current role is more impactful and strategic from a financial perspective – meaning that I am personally more focused on commercial growth and operational excellence. Microsoft has digitally transformed the role of finance in the company and because of this, I have the capacity to focus on impact.

“I still have balance sheet and P&L responsibilities at the end of the day, however, I don’t have the burden of process, because of the digital technology and tools that we have in place. Instead, I get to focus on the commercial side of the business and partner with our commercial leaders – which is the fun stuff and what I truly love to do.”

Enabling a digital Africa

She considers herself very fortunate to be a finance leader at a time of massive digital transformation. The company has a mission of sharing its own modern finance journey, which means leveraging the power of technology, AI, machine learning and the cloud to streamline processes with the aim of shortening the distance between data and action.

She explains, “This frees up time for finance professionals to do what they’re best at: analysing data to provide valuable insights and driving business impact and strategy based on those insights. For example, budgets are typically a very painful and manual process that takes enormous capacity and time. But Microsoft leverages machine learning, which allows a budget to be produced in a matter of days with a handful of people working the process, versus hundreds of finance resources spending weeks on it.”

She says when thinking about the future of finance, it’s clear that CFOs have to be digitally savvy. “So I’m spending a lot of time now talking with our customers about this, because we actually offer these tools. As a CFO myself, I know the pain points other CFOs are dealing with. It is more effective for me to have these conversations, as I can speak to it authentically because I am able to experience the value of digital transformation. I operate differently as a CFO today versus how I used to operate – I am able to be a true business partner to our commercial leaders rather than getting bogged down by process and activity.”

She’s also quite focused on how Microsoft can make its solutions relevant to different industries. “The best way to do this is to listen to our customers and understand their needs and challenges, and from there, help them understand what is possible and chart the journey alongside them.”

Collecting African art

When she’s not working, Welela enjoys travelling and spending time with family and friends. She also loves fashion and supporting African designers, but her biggest passion is collecting art. She describes herself as an avid art collector and is deeply passionate about collecting modern and contemporary African art.

“I find that it brings me joy, it brings me peace. It’s something beautiful to look at, and collecting art is something that over the last 10 years has become a huge, huge passion of mine. In addition to buying pieces from galleries and at auctions, I attend art fairs in many different cities across the world.” l