What inspired you to start this summit in 2025?

The Business to Brand Summit was born from a conviction I have carried for years: Africa has no shortage of businesses, but we need far more brands that are trusted, culturally relevant, commercially resilient, and globally recognisable. Through Pat on Brands, I have spent years telling stories about great marketing, great leadership, and great businesses, but I kept seeing the same pattern. Many founders and business leaders were focused on sales, operations, and survival, but not enough on the long-term work of building a brand.

The summit was my response to that gap. I wanted to create a platform that moves the conversation from simply running a business to intentionally building a brand. It was also inspired by my broader vision of helping African businesses make that transformation in a meaningful and practical way. The summit became the space to convene founders, executives, marketers, creatives, and investors around one important idea: that brand is not a luxury; it is a growth asset.

You’ve positioned the summit as an economic conversation rather than a marketing one—what’s fundamentally broken in how African businesses approach brand today?

What is fundamentally broken is that too many businesses still see brand as decoration rather than infrastructure. Brand is often treated as a logo, a campaign, or a communications function that sits on the side of the business, when in reality it should sit at the centre of value creation.

Across Africa, many businesses are under pressure to chase short-term revenue, and that often leads to brand being deprioritised. But when brand is neglected, businesses struggle to build trust, command a premium, attract loyal customers, inspire teams, and scale sustainably. In many cases, we are building companies without building meaning around them.

Pat Mahlangu.

That is why I position this as an economic conversation. Strong brands create demand. They shape perception. They unlock partnerships. They attract talent and capital. They travel across borders more effectively. If Africa wants to build enduring companies and globally competitive institutions, we have to stop treating brand as soft work. It is hard business work.

What gap does the Business to Brand Summit fill in the current landscape of industry events across Africa?

The gap it fills is that it brings business strategy and brand strategy into one room. Many events focus only on marketing trends, and others focus only on entrepreneurship, investment, or leadership. Very few create a serious platform that recognises brand as the bridge between vision and commercial growth.

The Business to Brand Summit is deliberately curated to connect corporate leaders, CMOs, founders, creatives, and growth enablers in one conversation. It is not just about inspiration. It is about practical insight into how brands are built from the inside out, through leadership, culture, innovation, reputation, customer understanding, and commercial execution.

It also fills an African gap. We need more spaces on the continent where our own leaders, builders, and thinkers can define what iconic African brands look like, on our own terms, from our own realities, and for our own future.

Why have you chosen people like Thebe Ikalafeng to be part of the summit?

Because voices like Thebe Ikalafeng bring both credibility and depth to the conversation. Thebe is not simply a branding commentator; he is one of the foremost thinkers on brand, reputation, African identity, and value creation. He understands that brand is not just about market visibility, but about how nations, businesses, and institutions position themselves in the world.

For me, speakers at the summit must do more than attract attention. They must elevate the quality of the conversation.

I look for people who have substance, lived experience, and a clear point of view. Thebe represents exactly that. He brings intellectual rigour, continental relevance, and a long-standing commitment to building African excellence. That is the calibre of thought leadership we want associated with this platform.

What challenges come with building up a yearly summit like this?

One of the biggest challenges is that building a summit of substance takes far more than putting people on a stage. You are building trust, relevance, partnerships, audience confidence, and a reputation for quality, all at once. That takes time.

African brand guru Thebe Ikalafeng appointed chancellor of Sol Plaatje University

There is also the challenge of balancing ambition with sustainability. You want to grow the platform, strengthen the speaker lineup, improve the delegate experience, and increase industry impact, but you must do so without losing the integrity of the event. Funding, sponsorship, ticket sales, timing, speaker availability, and audience behaviour all become real variables.

Another challenge is education. Because this summit sits at the intersection of business and brand, part of the work is helping the market understand why this conversation matters. You are not just selling an event; you are building a movement around a way of thinking.

What big lessons have you learned from the inaugural summit that you are bringing to the second one?

The inaugural summit taught me that there is a real appetite for this conversation, but people respond best when the value is clear, practical, and rooted in real business outcomes. One of the biggest lessons was that content must not only be inspiring; it must also be actionable. People want to leave with sharper thinking, better questions, and usable insight.

I also learned the importance of sharper positioning. When you are building a new platform, clarity matters deeply. People need to quickly understand who the summit is for, why it matters, and what makes it different. That lesson has shaped how we have approached the second summit, from programming to messaging.

Another lesson is that curation is everything. The strength of the room matters just as much as the strength of the stage. For the second edition, we have been even more intentional about bringing together speakers and delegates who can move the conversation forward in a meaningful way.

Most importantly, I learned that this summit has the potential to become more than an annual event. It can become a platform that helps shift how African businesses think about brand, growth, and legacy.