Mavis Thandizo Kanjadza is a chartered accountant and personal development coach with over 15 years of experience in accounting and entrepreneurship. She is currently the Founder of Own Your Lane limited and a Finance Controller with Morgan Stanley in Scotland, United Kingdom. 

An Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Professional accountant, Mavis began her professional journey in 2008 when she joined Stansfield Motors Malawi Limited as an accounts assistant. Later, she then joined the Malawi College of Accountancy as a lecturer, where she taught  various levels of ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) UK, Association for Business Executives (ABE) UK, and PAEC (Public Accountants Examination Council) Malawi courses. 

A year later, she joined the Ministry of Local Government, USAID and Standard Bank Joint Capacity Building Project, where she worked as the financial advisor. As a financial advisor, she reviewed the local authority’s accounting and financial management system and recommended areas for improvement.

Her experience on this project allowed Mavis to join the banking sector in Malawi with Standard Bank Malawi in 2011. She joined Standard Bank as a Finance Manager for the Standard Bureau and was later promoted to Finance Manager, Personal and Business Banking. 

With her impressive career record, Mavis was on the road to becoming a Chief Financial Officer(CFO). However, Mavis decided to quit corporate and venture into entrepreneurship. 

‘I felt stuck. I am a creative person. I always wanted to do work that enlightened me. I felt I didn’t do that kind of work.’-Said Mavis

She also continued to mention that she had always had secret ambitions of venturing into entrepreneurship, which drove her to venture into agri-business. Mavis started Kanjadza Acres in 2016. However, there needed to be more connection between the idea of entrepreneurship that she had in mind and her personal experience. 

‘I was sort of in my head. I romanticised business…just because I had worked and risen in corporate did not mean I knew everything about entrepreneurship…’-Said Mavis.

Mavis lost all of her capital, forcing her to reflect and adjust.  Mavis decided to use her experience and lessons from agribusiness to set up another business called ‘Own Your Lane Limited.’

Seven years after leaving corporate, Mavis decided to return to the corporate world. Why did she return to corporate after taking a break for seven years? How was her experience migrating to the United Kingdom?

Press play to listen to the podcast below.