How does an African enterprise become a compounding institution?
That is the one question. Everything published under Paradigm Research exists to answer it with evidence rather than opinion.
The dataset is the base. Every finding carries its instrument.
More than 60 businesses read at CFO depth across more than 80 analyses, in 8 countries, between 2020 and 2025, on Cash Flow Story. The dataset is the sole source of the headline finding: two in three profitable businesses do not keep the cash they earn.
businesses read at CFO depth
analyses on Cash Flow Story
countries
period
Four surfaces, one question underneath them.
Forthcoming, annual
The African Business Performance Study
The annual study of how African enterprises convert profit into cash, cash into capacity and capacity into enterprise value. Published once a year on a fixed instrument so the record is comparable across years.
Forthcoming, Q3 2026
Paper Profits
The Field Manual for Turning Profit Into Cash, by Elton Mutize. The dataset written as an operator's manual in three movements: Diagnose, Release, Compound.
Explore Publishing→Written to a schedule
The Founder Letter
A letter to founders and chief executives, written from inside the work. One decision, read properly: what the numbers said, what was chosen, and what the choice was worth.
One day, by invitation
The Masterclass
One day, invitation only. The instruments are taught against live accounts, with the executive team in the room. Interest is registered through a conversation, not a form.
Discuss your priority→How the dataset is built, and what it will not claim.
A finding is only as good as the instrument that produced it. This note states the instrument, so any figure published under Paradigm Research can be argued with on its own terms.
One instrument, read the same way every time
Every business in the dataset is read on Cash Flow Story, from full statutory accounts, on an operating cash flow basis. The same instrument across every company and every year is what makes the record comparable rather than anecdotal.
The base is analyses, not clients
More than 60 businesses across more than 80 analyses. The dataset includes diagnostic and masterclass analyses beyond client engagements, which is why it exceeds the number of companies engaged. It is an analysis dataset and is never presented as clients served.
Profitable means positive operating profit
The headline finding counts only businesses that earned an operating profit in the year read. A business is assigned to kept, never converted or lost downstream on full report review, not on a single ratio.
What the dataset will not claim
No pooled totals of cash unlocked. No decimals on the headline finding. No projection beyond the period read, 2020 to 2025, or beyond the 8 countries covered. Where a figure comes from a report in local currency, it stays in that currency.
Operating cash flow basis. Profitable defined as positive operating profit. Assigned on full report review across the dataset.1
- 01Cash Flow Story analyses. Operating cash flow basis, full report review across the dataset.Base · 60+ businesses, 80+ analyses, 8 countries · 2020 to 2025
The research is the reason the practice can promise anything at all.
Averages lie. Bottlenecks tell the truth.