Meet the go-getting Zambian Breweries manager climbing the corporate ladder
“I’m bold, curious, smart, ambitious, and funny,” says 25-year-old Zambian Breweries manager Zewelani Phiri.
Zewelani is the Voyager Plant Optimisation (VPO) Manager at Zambia’s leading brewing company, having joined the company barely two years ago as a global management trainee (GMT) under the internship programme run every year by Zambian Breweries’ parent company AB InBev in every country where it operates.
ZB VPO Manager
Zewe, as she prefers being called, was unemployed for a year after graduating from university until she saw an advert for the GMT programme. She had no idea the advert would change the course of her professional life forever.
“I saw the advert for the AB InBev Graduate Management Trainee programme on LinkedIn. I didn’t even know what AB InBev was all about. I didn’t know it was connected to Zambian Breweries,” she narrates.
Zewe was sending job applications anywhere. All she needed was a job. She applied for the GMT programme, after noticing the job description matched her personality, despite not knowing exactly who AB InBev was.
“I didn’t know I would get it! They really screen a lot of people to ensure they get the right ones for the job,” she explains.
Out of the 47,000 applicants from Africa in 2019, Zewe was one of the two candidates selected from Zambia. Only 23 applicants from the continent succeeded in her intake.
“It was interesting,” Zewe recalls her GMT days at Zambian Breweries with a broad smile. “It’s super-high energy; it’s fast; I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.”
Zewe did not just work in Zambia or in one department at ZB as a management trainee. She worked in South Africa and Ghana, and was placed in various departments from supply, sales and marketing to logistics and human resource management.
Growing up, the young Zambian Breweries VPO manager never imagined she would ever work at a brewing company.
“Never, in a million years!” she says excitedly.
“I didn’t imagine I’d ever work at ZB. My parents still don’t understand it, I think, but they’re getting there,” Zewe notes while nodding her head.
The 25-year-old manager was born on July 12, 1994, in Lusaka, although she attained most of her education on the Copperbelt Province. She is the third born in a family of five.
“My current job is totally different from what I studied. But, here at ZB we dream big and we say challenge accepted to everything,” she says while flashing thumbs up with both hands.
Zewe holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Copperbelt University (CBU). She completed general education at Ndola Girls National Technical School, before going to CBU.
She got her junior secondary education (grades eight and nine) from Mpelembe Secondary School in Kitwe. Being Lusaka-born, Zewe started school at Lubu Road Nursery and Primary School in her hometown.
The ZB VPO manager loves everything about her job. She spends most of her time in the brewing plant coaching staff to ensure adherence to optimum standard operations.
“It’s knowing that I work with the best people on the best products and brands that gets me out of bed every morning,” she says.
Zewe counts it all joy working in a male-dominated field, and ZB makes her feel at home.
“It’s very hard for me to feel out of place, even if I’m in a male-dominated industry. People here are very supportive. Zambian Breweries is very diverse and so inclusive,” she notes.
As a young feminist, the 25-year-old manager does not subscribe to looking at challenges through the eyes of gender.
“I am just a woman working, not a working woman. When I face obstacles, I don’t think it’s because I am a woman,” she stresses.
The main challenge she faces in her job almost every day is staff not getting instructions right at first.
“People tend to be stubborn sometimes,” she says jokingly.
Zewe sees challenges as opportunities for growth.
“When people are not getting my instructions, I slow down and intensify coaching. It’s about getting everybody to see the bigger picture,” she explains.
As Zambian Breweries dreams big, so does Zewe. She hopes to run the brewery operations someday.
“I’m in love with operations. Brewing is a science and supply is my passion,” she says enthusiastically.
Zewe is grateful to ZB for supporting young people and women.
“ZB doesn’t keep you in one place. They don’t believe you have to be 60 to be MD,” says the confidence of a 25-year-old manager.
She is calling on women to dream bigger and enter traditionally male-dominated industries such as manufacturing.
“As long as you can dream it, you can become it,” she begins, “Women are smart; they are capable! Girls can do so much better; they must be allowed to dream bigger. Even in the technical field, they should not hold back.”
