‘’Being authentic is at the heart of everything I do, and it’s what inspires my best work. Sometimes it means doing things very differently but what keeps me focused is knowing that being myself hasn’t failed me yet’’.
Freda is the founder and chief mixer of KAEME, a luxury personal care company. She has over fourteen years’ experience in NGO-, public and private-sector programme management, communications and research across four continents. A graduate of Sciences Po, Paris, she has worked with the EU Delegation, Accra and USAID West Africa. Freda is an avid marathoner and has run over five full marathons globally including in the United States, Austria, Spain, France, Britain and Singapore. She enjoys good food, the company of close friends and family, and loves sharing the joy of KAEME with the world. More about Freda’s work at https://fredaobengampofo.com
KAEME is rooted in Ghana- but you want to create a global brand. What would that look like and what’s your strategy for getting there?
I see the KAEME brand growing bigger and establishing a global presence in the skincare and cosmetics industry, where you can walk into any major luxury store and find KAEME. We’re working towards that by maintaining high standards with each of our products and continuously improving our internal processes to deliver excellence at all our customer touchpoints. Becoming a global brand will always be a journey because our biggest priority is to make every KAEME experience unforgettable, and we hope one day soon KAEME becomes the first name that comes to mind when people ask what the best African personal care company is. We want KAEME to be that brand.
The global market is very competitive but you have a rather unusual take on what constitutes competition- you believe there’s a lot to go round- a kind of competing collaboratively? How does that work in practice?
There’s a saying that it’s better to have a piece of a bigger cake than all of a smaller cake. I’ve found that it takes more than one mind to truly birth innovation; it takes a diversity of minds and ideas informed by their shared knowledge and experiences. Take a look at the ocean: it’s essentially a collection of rivers from all over the world that have flowed into one place to support exponentially more aquatic diversity than is possible in any river. That’s why I’m a strong believer in synergy, and the only way to achieve that is to be open to collaboration. I believe that when we collaborate, we achieve results that are way bigger than us.
Your business is growing and that comes with bigger problems. Which ones are most daunting and what’s been your approach when things get overwhelming?
Scaling up to serve different markets has not come easy. Like many small businesses, my team and I juggle multiple roles to ensure KAEME runs smoothly. I find that maintaining open communication to swiftly address challenges that arise allows us to stay agile and responsive. As KAEME expands, so does our demand for premium shea butter to maintain the quality of all our products. We’re concerned about the sustainable cultivation and harvest of shea nuts. Deforestation, over-harvesting and failing to consistently plant enough trees to ensure a steady supply are real risks to shea butter production. It takes about two decades for a shea tree to mature, so this is something that really keeps me up at night because shea butter is the backbone of our business. We make it a point to work with suppliers who produce shea butter sustainably in the interest of both the environment and our value chain.
We know that women have more challenges overall including in business. How has the fact that you grew up feeling that being a girl/woman wasn’t a disadvantage helped you achieve the success you’ve had to date?
I was raised in a home that instilled a strong sense of purpose in me. I grew up believing that I could do anything I put my mind to and was willing to work hard for. To be honest, it wasn’t until I went to boarding school that I realised there was a real separation between males and females. It was the exact opposite of what I knew; my father, mother and four brothers really made me believe anything was possible. There was nothing I felt I couldn’t do, so I’d already been “brainwashed” by the time I discovered the world was “segregated” by gender. I’m glad I was raised in the family I was and taught to believe in myself at a young age. I have also come to see challenges as opportunities to grow and do the seemingly impossible. Being female has never been enough reason for me to think any differently, and this has given me a completely different perspective when it comes to female-specific challenges. It’s also empowered me to do things and go places no one else in my family has before, allowing me to make a positive impact in a way that makes us all proud. More importantly, I am passing this fearlessness on to my female employees and the young women I mentor.
You’re the Chief Mixer of KAEME and that involves creating scents for your products. How do you figure out what fragrances will resonate with customers?
My process is very customer-centric. Before creating KAEME, I made products as gifts for friends and family. I always encouraged them to tell me what they liked or disliked, and I learned a lot about what appealed to different people. I’ve maintained the same approach; before I introduce a new fragrance, I first share it with my team and a selection of customers to get a sense of how they feel about it. A number of them have never been launched because our customers didn’t love them, and some of them have been received very well in other markets because they were a better fit there than locally. I’m always open to going back to the mixing board to find what works.
You seem to be quite contrarian– for example, doing as your 4 brothers did when growing up, seeing others getting into the Shea-butter business as good for the cosmetics market/business (and not as competitors) etc. How do you make this temperament and life philosophy work for you in a somewhat cut-throat world?
I think we all owe it to ourselves to remain true to who we are no matter what the world would like us to be. Being authentic is at the heart of everything I do, and it’s what inspires my best work. Sometimes it means doing things very differently but what keeps me focused is knowing that being myself hasn’t failed me yet. I should add that I also love challenges. I love proving people and organisations wrong especially when it comes to my ability to perform or adhere to the status quo. I think I owe a bit of that trait to being raised in a predominantly male household.
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