My career has taught me the importance of attention to detail

For the four decades that Ms Lucy Njoroge has worked in the corporate world, the one big lesson she has learnt is that in every business, change is the one thing you must always look out for and it will always call on you to innovate or die out.

This realization prompted her to start her accounting career in the early 1980s with a small audit firm in Nairobi where she has invested in understanding issues around accounting, auditing and advising businesses on all matters governance to remain relevant.

“I started working with a small audit firm while still studying. I learnt how to prepare financial statements from incomplete records. I then moved to a medium-sized audit firm where we audited SMEs and finally to one of the big four audit firms before moving into the banking industry to head the finance department," she says.

A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Public Secretary and an accredited governance auditor, Ms Njoroge's main job has been offering consultancy to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to grow by shaping up their governance, seeing the businesses achieve success and stability.

Success for SMEs

“This is a journey, you feel confident in certain areas but as the landscape changes and the way things are done you risk being rendered ineffective unless you keep and remain relevant,” Ms Njoroge says.

Her job is to help organizations, mainly startups and SMEs, appreciate the need for building strong governance structures for business sustainability.

“While working in the banking industry, regulations changed and banks were required to develop governance structures as well as provide a governance statement in their annual reports. I was attached to the consultant who came to advise on governance. This was my induction to governance,” she recalls.

Today, Ms Njoroge runs a consultancy firm as a governance advisor at the SNDBX, an SME growth hub which aggregates and hosts multiple professional disciplines that work collaboratively to ensure entrepreneurial excellence and success for SMEs.

“My firm provides audit, training and implementation of governance principles to businesses seeking to achieve sustainable success.” 

Biggest challenges

Ms Njoroge says recalling where she started as she learnt preparing financial statements has come to shape her journey and motivated her to help organisations develop proper governance structures – a key to every business’s success.

“It is through proper governance systems that organizations are managed and at the same time held accountable to key stakeholders,” she says.

However, she says one of the biggest challenges in her career is “staying the course and keeping oneself motivated when the outcome is not as expected.”

“My career has taught me the need for proper foundations and attention to detail. Your final work is your best advocate, they shall know you by your fruits,” she says.