How One Television Producer Is Putting Her Strategy Execution Skills into Action

Kudi Maradzika, an executive producer for ViacomCBS Networks Africa, says she’s been on a path since birth to pursue the career she has today.

Growing up in Zimbabwe, Maradzika was the youngest of four girls and raised in a high-achieving academic household. Her mother is a renowned clinical epidemiologist, and her father has held various roles in academia. The whole family is bilingual, speaking both English and Shona. Maradzika is also fluent in French.

Maradzika says she was an imaginative child, always fascinated by words and acting.

“One of my earliest memories was a story I wrote about a mischievous rabbit that ventured too far from home,” she says. “It was a terrible story, but it was the start of my obsession with words. I was also a dramatic child, very outwardly expressive. I was constantly performing little plays for my family.”

One of Maradzika’s sisters loved films and brought different movies home every week. Maradzika’s favorite was “Jurassic Park.” She says Steven Spielberg is the person who most inspired her.

“For me, ‘Jurassic Park’ was life-changing,” she says. “The special effects really blew my seven-year-old mind away. Because of that, fantasy fiction has always been one of my favorite genres. It also got me interested in the sciences, especially astrophysics and engineering, because I wanted to understand how things work.”

Her curiosity in entertainment continued, and she soon became fascinated by television production. She recalls a lightbulb moment when she realized how news was produced by shooting multiple angles with different cameras all pulled together in a control room.

“In high school, I was on the honor roll for speech and drama,” Maradzika says. “As university neared, I told my family I wanted to be an actress, which my mother wasn’t immediately a fan of, but she let me pursue it in any case. I changed my mind the first day of theater class and chose to study journalism, television, and film production instead, but continued to act.”

In fact, Maradzika received two honors for drama: the Zimbabwe National Arts Merit Award for Outstanding Actress in Theatre and Drama in 2006 and the African Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in 2005. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Cape Town and, six years later, went back to school to pursue a post-graduate degree in digital marketing.

Her first two professional jobs were in journalism. First, as the editor of a French magazine, and then as a freelance writer for a series of lifestyle magazines. After a few years in Cape Town, she relocated to Johannesburg, where there were more opportunities in television. She worked her way up through several roles at various production companies until she landed her current job as executive producer for ViacomCBS Networks Africa, working on notable brands such as MTV Base, Comedy Central, and BET. On the side, she’s a voice actor and has been in numerous campaigns for brands such as Mercedes and Tecno Mobile, as well as some animated films.

“What I love about making content is that it’s a form of creative problem-solving,” Maradzika says. “No two days are the same.”

Because of her desire to constantly challenge herself and try new things, she decided to round out her background and gain business skills. She began exploring MBA programs but then found HBS Online’s Strategy Execution course and decided it was the perfect stepping-stone.

“Even in content, it’s important to understand the strategic and business side of production and distribution,” Maradzika says. “I learned a lot from the course and especially liked learning from, and with, other students around the world.”

Maradzika is now seriously considering an MBA and hopes to go to one of the most prestigious US business schools. Her dream is to run her own film studio someday, and she’s got a good start. She recently had the opportunity to pitch a comedy-drama to Netflix executives as part of a competition called Episodic Lab. The competition is a partnership between Netflix and the Realness Institute, a nonprofit designed to elevate African storytellers. Maradzika’s project has been chosen for further development.

“Mostly,” she says, “I want to stay curious and always ready for the next challenge.”

If you're also interested in learning more about strategy and want to develop the skills to allocate resources, measure performance, and manage risk, explore our eight-week Strategy Execution course.