At MBS, we speak a lot about the power of role models in business. We know from years of research into diversity that having visible leaders who come from underrepresented groups can transform the culture of an organisation.
One person who has felt this first-hand is Fatoumata Doro. Fatoumata is MD at Vlisco Ghana, the first Black woman to lead the Dutch-owned West African textiles firm. “When I was appointed,” she told me when we caught up last week, “I had people who I’d never met calling me up and crying. They said I’d shown them what was possible, that the world was going somewhere.”
In her time as MD, she has not only proved the impact of visible role models, but led the organisation into its next chapter, defined by new growth strategies and a relentless focus on people.
Last week, it was great to sit down over Zoom – Fatoumata from Vlisco Ghana’s HQ in Tema, Accra and me from our Primrose Hill offices – to discuss her story. Through the process of placing her as MD, I had come to know Fatoumata’s professional background, but it was enlightening to start from the very beginning.
Fatoumata was born in Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world. “It’s an amazing place, but a challenging one, too,” she reflected. “There’s a high level of poverty, the land is dry, and the government is weak. At school, there were more than 65 people in my classroom.”
Central to Fatoumata’s childhood was her father, who worked hard to ensure a better future for his family. He got a job in aviation and eventually was promoted and moved to Senegal for a new role.
In Senegal came a turning point in her life: failing her A Levels. “There are moments that transform you for the future,” she reflected, “and the way my dad looked at me after hearing I’d failed was one of those moments.” So, determined to prove herself, Fatoumata challenged her father to a bet. She would retake her exams, and if she came top of the class, he’d pay for her to go to university in Europe. After a year of hard work, Fatoumata achieved the best results in the year, and moved to Toulouse to study. This experience instilled Fatoumata’s drive: “it taught me that if I’m pushed to do something, I’ll do everything in my power to achieve it,” she told me.
“There are moments that transform you for the future. And the way my dad looked at me after hearing I’d failed was one of those moments.”
After gaining two master’s degrees in maths and statistics, Fatoumata returned to Senegal to start her career – first at Huawei and before joining one of the world’s leading FMCG brands in a marketing role to launch the business in Senegal. Fatoumata moved from Senegal to Nigeria and then to the Middle East, building brands and designing expansion strategies.
Fatoumata tells me that working in Nigeria was highly rewarding, but that relocating to Dubai came with its own challenges, not least the package that was offered. “Despite being new to Dubai, and being one of the first leaders to move from Africa to the Middle East with the business, I wasn’t offered the full expat relocation package,” Fatoumata said. “There were some serious inequality challenges back then. I had to develop a thick skin. I do think that the package was based on the colour of my skin, not on what I could bring to the business.”
In 2014, Fatou joined Arla to lead marketing across Sub Saharan Africa. “At Arla I had good, caring leaders who saw more in me than I had ever seen,” reflected Fatoumata, and it was this support that spurred her on to apply for the MD, Ghana role in 2018.
“They couldn’t find the right person for the MD job, so I put myself forward,” she told me. “I was young, with no MD experience, but I presented a compelling business case on how I would turn the company around. I remember my boss telling me that I’d be out of a job forever if I didn’t do well in this one – but I insisted, so he gave it to me anyway!”
We agree that having strong leaders who believe in you can change your life. “I knew I wanted a change away from marketing, but the leadership I experienced at Arla made me realise what was possible. The sky was the limit.” Fatoumata needn’t have worried about being out of a job: in just three years, she had driven Arla’s turnover in Ghana from €100,000 to €11m, eventually expanding her remit to lead the Ivory Coast and Liberia, too.
In September 2021, Fatoumata joined Vlisco as MD, Ghana. “I took the job because of the story I could tell when I left,” she said. “I saw from the beginning that I could have a real impact.”
“I took the job because of the story I could tell when I left. I saw from the beginning that I could have a real impact.”
After a year in the role, Fatoumata is proof that change can happen fast with the right leader at the helm. She has transformed the organisation, particularly from a diversity standpoint.
After arriving to an all-male management team, today her leadership is 50% women. To redress the gender imbalance at workforce level, Fatoumata insisted on recruiting 100% women shift workers at a recent hiring drive. She’s also put initiatives in place to retain and develop her female staff, including introducing a women’s network, hosting monthly talks with women leaders, and revamping the maternity leave policy.
Fatoumata has waved in a new era of compassionate and empathetic leadership. “It’s about stepping into people’s shoes,” she tells me, recalling one member of staff who brings her small baby to work. “I’m not sure how many bosses would be that happy with their staff bringing their baby to the office. But as a woman I know how it is for single mums: if she couldn’t bring her child, she’d probably have to leave us. And she does the job wonderfully, with her baby on her back. I see it as an image of strength and resilience.”
Alongside measures to empower women, Fatou has focused on employee wellbeing, building an on-site shop for colleagues to easily buy Vlisco fabrics, provididing full medical coverage for women who are pregnant for the first time in the company, and scrapping the tiered canteen system. “When I arrived, there were three places to eat,” Fatou explained. “One for the management, one for the grade three staff, and one for the workforce. But, as I said to my management team, the best way to get to know your business is to eat with your staff. So I scrapped the old system, and there’s no longer such an ‘us and them’ culture. My workers know I’m a normal person.”
“I feel a real duty to build up diversity. I’ve been told I’m not strong enough because I’m pregnant, underestimated because I’m a woman, and underpaid because of the colour of my skin. I want to make the world a better place for my daughter.”
Putting these sorts of wholesale changes in place hasn’t been easy, not least because of the highly challenging commercial landscape, defined by inflation, labour strikes and political unrest. I ask her what drives her to make change. “I feel a real duty to build up diversity,” she tells me. “I’ve been told I’m not strong enough because I’m pregnant, underestimated because I’m a woman, and underpaid because of the colour of my skin. I want to make the world a better place for my daughter.”
I left my conversation with Fatoumata feeling hopeful for the future. Her story is a lesson in determination, in the impact of good leaders, and in how much change one person can bring to an organisation. In a world full of “all talk, no action” approaches to issues like diversity and sustainability, speaking with Fatoumata was a refreshing reminder of the power of business to do good.