You must be ready to drop your titles and venture- Ian Ortega

If the name Ian Ortega sounds a bit familiar, it is because he writes a witty entertainment column in Monitor’s Sqoop magazine. What his readers may not have known thus far is that he was one of the seminal managers at Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL) and only got to write social commentary articles when he raised his head from his urgent tasks at the brewery.

Ortega is the brains behind brands such as Bond 7 Honey, Smirnoff Green, Captain Morgan, Tusker Apple Cider and Bell Dark. He worked on most of these brands when he was barely 25. By the time he left the brewery last September, barely 30, he was managing the biggest budget of any department at UBL, running in the dozens of millions of dollars.

 It goes without saying that he was miles ahead of the curve. Everything was going for him. He had a bright future in top management. He knew it. His bosses knew it. His friends knew it. And yet he quit to go and start a business.

It is one thing to start a business straight from school because if anything, it is a natural rite of initiation into adulthood. It is a gradual trajectory from financial hardship slowly into financial freedom and hopefully riches. What Ortega did is a whole other matter. It is akin to leaving the Promised Land where milk and honey flows effortlessly to go back into the desert to wander around for years. It is losing your life in order to find it.

No ordinary employee

Ortega, however, had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, never an employee. Maybe this is why he was so successful. In a Facebook post after quitting in September last year, he wrote, “I never thought I would be employed in life. But events [overtook me]. My mother [had] passed away a few weeks to my graduation [in 2016]. I thus decided I was not going to combine the pains of entrepreneurship and my mourning moments. That is how I settled into UBL.”

He settled for UBL. Seven years after joining the brewery and on a sure way to the top, Ortega threw in the towel. His bosses protested, his colleagues cajoled him, his friends were shocked but nothing could stand in the way of his passion for entrepreneurship. He had mentally prepared himself.

“From the time I joined UBL, I knew that one day I would have to leave. I always worked in such a way that I was ready to leave any day. It is my principle in life. I have accepted change as a constant. That things have a start and they have an end. This also helps you to make the most of the moment, to play your full role when you are given the stage. Of course, it also means cushioning yourself with some savings, for example in the Sacco. But that for me is the minor aspect to this thing. The major thing is the mental shift, the mental preparation,” he says.

Ortega Group

Ortega Group is his new beginning. It is majorly a strategic management.

consultancy firm but it also has interests in food export. The nascent company currently does not run any physical offices. It is a cost they cannot afford now as it would “lead to an early death”. In any case, because it is mainly a consultancy firm, the team spends most of their time at the offices of their clients.

He joins his like-minded friends that went into business straight from university. Their progress in their respectively fields is what kept him uneasy in employment and reassured of success once he finally left.

“I think of people such as Francisco Kyambadde. He offered Automotive and Power Engineering at campus. He never went out to look for a job, he drifted into graphic design and wood-crafting. Today, I do not think there is any better creative in this space than him. My current mechanic, Marvin Sserukwaya, went into his own trade,” he says.

He adds, “My lesson from them is that life rewards courage. Life rewards the bold. The first two or three years could test you, but once you stay put, once you keep showing up, there is always a breakthrough. I say this, because I saw these two people start out, I witnessed their early days. I could even mention Yunus Masaba of Mas Group. He ventured into the tracking business, took it seriously and that led him to the next thing.”

Applying skills learnt

Ortega is poised to win at his new venture because as he admits, he learnt from the best: “UBL is a fast-moving consumer goods company. The thing about [such companies] is that almost everything is urgent and important. You learn to ruthlessly work hard. And you learn to structure yourself. The day does not end until you have done the things you committed to do. There is this discipline that builds in you.

He adds, “UBL people really work, extremely hard. You also learn so many things. You see, although I was in engineering, I am versed with logistics, I am versed with finance, with marketing. You are forced to know and learn about other functions.”

It is these skills that he hopes to apply to his new venture to move it forward. Coupled with his one in a million passion, the sky may become the limit for Ortega Group.

The future

Ortega is in no rush for real results. He is not delusional like that. He expects the first year to really be about survival, finding footing. He is not even looking at revenue in the first year but rather building the company’s DNA, setting up the core, defining the philosophy, and being firm about the mission and values. It is the year that defines the true north.

“Most people rush for revenue, that is not what I am doing. It is to focus on the essentials of what we want to be known for,” he says.

In five years, he expects Ortega Group to be a force to reckon with, in the same docket as the big global three; McKinsey, Boston Consulting or Bain & Company: “And in the next two decades, we see ourselves in the same aspect as a Blackrock group, influencing all strategic elements in this region.”

Why others develop cold feet

While many people would love to leave their jobs and start building their empires, Ortega believes that most people do not have it in them to pay the price.

“The point is, you must be ready to pay the price, to drop your titles and venture out. It is a process of killing the ego. If you are not willing to pay the price, then you are not passionate about that thing. Most people’s passions are illusions,” he says.

Grounded by upbringing

Ortega comes from two different worlds; the rich world and the struggling world. This, he believes has grounded him well in the game of life. His father and mother separated when he was around three years old. For the next several years, he kept living between the two parents’ homes. His father successful, his mother struggling.

“I learnt how to survive in chaos early. For me, my childhood taught me how to survive in both worlds. Put me in the ghetto, I will survive. Put me in Kololo, I will still thrive,” he says.

Ortega attended Shimoni Demonstration School for his early education, St. Henrys Kitovu for O-Level and Uganda Martyrs’ Namugongo for A-Level.

“It was in A-Level where I met some of Uganda’s best brains. For the first time you realise that there are intelligent people and you get out of your bubble,” he says.