Victorine Mbong Shu, the founder and CEO of Profounder Intelligence Management Services was born in the North West Province of Cameroon in 1977 as a 4th child in a family of 10 children. She went through high school hoping to be a broadcast Journalist. Fortunately for her, she got admission to study Journalism and Mass Communications in 1996 at the prestigious University of Buea under the sponsorship of her brother; Mr. Kum Godlove Bezeng.
After graduating in 1999, Victorine came to face the realities of the world. She picked up a job as a Communications Officer in a traditional medical research company in Yaounde-Cameroon. After working there for 5 months, she left for South Africa on the invitation of her big Brother.
It was in South Africa that Victorine came to realize that her dream of becoming a journalist was just that; a dream. Instead of furthering her studies with the University of Grahamstown as was the plan, she joined her brother to work as a researcher or simply put, a conference producer in his conferencing company called Excellante International.
In 2004, Victorine enrolled with the University of KwaZuluNatal to persue an MBA, specializing in Strategic Communications. In 2005 after a full year of study and as she embarked on her long essay, she got the news that changed her life forever. The MBA programme by the University was not accredited and has been suspended until further notice. Though not particularly good news, it was well received by Victorine for two reasons. The first one is that she was not particularly good at accounting (which was a compulsory module), and the second was that she and her husband were excitedly awaiting the birth of the next person who will still her heart and take centre stage in her life. This was an opportunity to say Good-bye to further quest for knowledge without feeling guilty. After all, her brother’s dream was fulfilled and she is about to fulfill her mother’s dream of ‘finding a man and bearing children’.
THE COINCIDENCE:
Meanwhile Victorine excelled in this position until early 2007 when the tides changed. Haven gone on maternity leave for her second baby, she learnt in the month of February that the company was retrenching and preparing for a close down in March. Her brother, who loved her so much and feared to hurt her, had concealed this from her even though he had in the past months urged her to try and get a job elsewhere. In many indirect ways, her brother had made it clear that the company might not continue to run in the near future. On her part, Victorine did not want to desert her brother who has done so much to see that she is educated and fit for work. As faith had it, in March 2007, Excellante closed down. Maybe he was serious about this but Mr. Kum said to Victorine “you have been such a wonderful producer in the past. Just pick out some furniture here, and start-up your own business. I know you can do it. You are a people’s person and peoples’ people always go far”. Did he really need to persuade her that much? As she pondered on this point, also took his suggestion very lightly, as she continue to give it deeper thoughts as days go by without food on the table.
God “Blessed” Victorine with a job offer in another company; Unicapital Consult starting May 3rd that same year. This job lasted only until May 12 when she was fired via an SMS for non-performance.
As a young mother of two with a full-time Ph.D student for a husband, Victorine again turned to her brother for shelter. He handed over the furniture to her and two very good employees whose loyalty had kept them by him for the past weeks.
Within the first weekend of May, Victorine, Emmanuel and Harry sat to brain storm on a company name. The name Profounder International was rejected by CIPRO in favour of Profounder Intelligence Management Services and voila on May 10th 2007, there was a new baby in the training industry.
Profounder had a Conference inherited from Excellante which was marketed from her two bedrooms flat with limited resources. The start-up furniture and staff was available. A total staff of 7 in numbers who were basically the two employees, Victorine, her husband Emmanuel, their family friend Harry and her sister Judith. God has seen the company through, and today it boosts over 24 full time workers. A management team of 6 compliments this staff with one of them a Ph.D holder.
The need to feed the four children she has and at the same time secretly fulfill her dreams, the passion, trust, support and commitment from Victorine’s husband, the dedication of Profounder’s clients, the loyalty of staff members and especially her managers, and most of all the invisible hand of God has made Profounder Intelligence a company that boosts a stable work environment that only gets better.
PROFOUNDER INTELLIGENCE’S SCOPE OF SERVICES:
Profounder Intelligence’s provides corporate and management training solutions to private and public sectors within South Africa and its’ footprint can be seen throughout the African continent. The company’s services include; Training through conferences, workshops and in-house trainings, Business Support Services through coaching, mentoring, and Soft Services, venue sourcing, transportation, cleaning services, etc.
Other services include;
• Catering and events management
• Stationery, Consumables & Office Supplies
• Cleaning for commercial and residential accommodation
• Conference Facilities
• Transportation and Distribution Services
• First Aid and OHS Act Management & Consultancy
GRATITUDE
To the Lord Almighty for using Mr. Kum to inspire Victorine and for paying her bills when we had no cent.
To Kum Godlove Bezeng (MBA) for his trust and inspiration.
To Emmanuel Anyefru (PhD) for his dedication and selfless efforts.
To Mr. Haddison Fonane for, financial, morale, and physical support.
To all the two unnamed staff members and Judith that hatched this egg called Profounder
To all Profounder’s clients for being there when they were, are and will be needed the most .
To Profounder Intelligence (the staff) for turning a nightmare into life worth living.
To all those who have been very instrumental but are not named here; please note that your effort has not been unnoticed or forgotten.
And finally for those who did not believe in Victorine because their doubts helped her build the community she survives in today.
******************************************************************** Also to you for reading
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