Ready for anything

Covid-19 has ripped through the economy of Mauritius, despite its island geography in the Indian Ocean. While this has been devastating for much of the community, it has greatly emphasised the importance for businesses of risk assessment and contingency planning.

This has played to the strengths of  Sheila Ujoodha FCCA, founder and managing director of SmarTree Consulting, who has been able to draw on her expertise in risk consulting to help her clients cope with the effects of the pandemic.

‘In current economic conditions, organisations need to be smart, agile, creative and forward-thinking,’ she says. ‘A business advisory agency offering a full range of services can help clients tackle challenges, maintain focus and address issues beyond traditional auditing and services.’

Mauritius’s important tourist sector has largely been shut down since the pandemic struck, with borders reopening only at the start of October. Meanwhile, depressed retailing worldwide has suppressed demand for the island’s garment manufacturing businesses – a key export sector for Mauritius. With the government imposing a robust lockdown during April, May and June, a double digit figure for the national GDP contraction has been predicted for 2020.

Challenging times

It’s a daunting prospect and Ujoodha has been kept busy, advising companies in survival mode on how to preserve cash, while making plans for a post-coronavirus era characterised by significant uncertainty.

For SmarTree’s Mauritius clients, the effects of the pandemic have been compounded by the impact of a major oil spill in July, which damaged the country’s reputation as a pristine beauty spot for tourists. Foreign exchange earnings from tourism are essential in helping Mauritius to purchase food, medicine and other basic necessities.

Alongside last year’s Mauritius Leaks investigations and the EU’s inclusion of the tiny country on its list of high-risk jurisdictions, such economic shocks and events show that ‘we need to change the way we think about risk’, Ujoodha believes.

‘Instead of trying to anticipate low-probability, high-impact events, we should concentrate on reducing our vulnerability towards them,’ she says. ‘We should promote a risk culture that builds trust and readiness for comprehensive solutions to manage disruption and business interruptions.’

Dodging damage

In her 21 years as an ACCA-qualified finance professional, Ujoodha has amassed a great deal of international experience, giving her insights into how unplanned events can damage businesses.

She honed these insights on assignments across Africa, notably with British American Tobacco, where she was an internal audit manager, working in countries including Angola, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In creating SmarTree, she has sought to leverage her experience of risk assessment for the benefit of her clients.

Underpinning it all, she says, is her ACCA training, which she financed over three years out of her salary as a customs and excise officer on the island.

‘The ACCA Qualification is an endorsement of acquired accountancy skills, which attests to a command of diverse financial or management domains,’ she says. She believes accountants must make the most of this knowledge and play ‘an active role in designing organisational strategies’ – something she herself found useful when hatching plans for her own consultancy.

Diverse roles

The qualification has also enhanced her suitability and preparedness for other business roles, Ujoodha says. She sits as an independent non-executive director on the boards of blue-chip corporates, including Mauritius food major Innodis and sugar and renewable energy company Alteo. She is also a member of the Mauritius Institute of Directors’ (MIoD) audit committee forum and of the MIoD’s Women Directors Forum, promoting the inclusion of more women on boards and at leadership level in private and public organisations in the country.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ujoodha is no stranger to awards. She picked up a CMO Africa Woman Leadership Award in 2017 for her contribution as a business leader, then in 2019 received the Africa Impact Leadership Award from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Women Forum, and was inducted into the SADC Women Leaders Hall of Fame.

With such a busy schedule, personal discipline is crucial for Ujoodha, and she maintains hers through careful planning and also by setting aside time for sports and yoga to boost not just her fitness but her focus. In SmarTree’s high-value business market, ‘Everything must be done to the highest standard’, she says. ‘We want to be the best, and that only adds to the pressure.’

Over the years, she has learnt to ask questions and not worry that this might suggest a lack of knowledge. Indeed, a willingness to learn and then leverage past experiences and intellectual capital to generate new solutions, insights and successes has been one of her key strengths. ‘The ability to develop soft skills as an entrepreneur has helped me build trust, become an excellent communicator and always expect the best performance from myself,’ she says.

These personal qualities, she believes, will help her realise her ambition for SmarTree to be a promoter of sustainable growth, delivering quality management advice that locks onto the future rather than the past.

Post-pandemic stability

Which brings her back to Covid-19. Compliance and internal audit are especially valuable in providing solid facts for developing assessments of risks and opportunities, which will help businesses prepare for a more stable time once the pandemic abates, Ujoodha believes. An example is the expansion in virtual and remote working, which brings additional fraud and cybercrime risks.

‘Quality, reliable and objective financial information from professional accounting is crucial in helping businesses make informed judgements and allocate resources efficiently to resolve tough challenges,’ she says.

It is an approach that will be an essential component of the economic recovery Mauritius and its trading partners so badly need – and in which Ujoodha is determined to play a part.

Since this interview took place, Sheila Ujoodha has been appointed chief executive officer of the Mauritius Institute of Directors.