by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
I met Pierre Mutambwe relatively early in my career. Within months, he became “Papa Pierre” to me. He was about five years from mandatory retirement when we first worked together — a community relations manager with the kind of quiet authority that does not announce...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
He was young. An intern consultant on his first major out-of-country assignment. Fifty-two stakeholder meetings in remote central Africa for a greenfields mine not yet built. A public participation process that moved from village to village in convoy. He carried the...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
She is in her mid-forties and permanently on the move. Her car is her second office. The passenger seat carries a laptop bag, tangled chargers, and a large tub of jelly babies. They spill easily when she brakes too hard. She eats them when she is nervous. Which is...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
It arrives as a spreadsheet. Neatly arranged columns.Indicators grouped into categories.Units of measurement.Dates.Geographies.Descriptions. On paper, it looks obedient. Captured and reported, it provides executives with management insight and investors with comfort....
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
In the army-like hierarchy of large mining companies, distance is measurable. Head office and operations may share the same logo, but they do not always share tempo. I have met her in several guises over the years. The job title shifts with each reporting cycle —...