Andrea Rademeyer is the CEO and founder of the market research company Ask Afrika Group. She tells Margaret Harris that the biggest luxury of having a leadership role in an independent business is being able to choose the people you want to work with. Tell me about your job.My job requires me to think out of the box every day to build a company that provides a rich variety of products for our clients. I abhor templates, so I have to develop a system that does not exist yet - one that is designed specifically for the Ask Afrika Group. I also manage the board, manage the company's reputation and co-design vision and strategy.What does Ask Afrika do?Ask Afrika manages market research mainly in South Africa, but also in 14 other countries in Africa.What did you want to be when you were a child?I didn't consider careers as such; I always considered how I wanted to live. Having grown up on a farm in KwaZulu-Natal with the cruel dependency on fickle weather, I was determined to be financially independent.Growing up in a tightly knit German community, two principles of life were ingrained in me from an early age: hard work elevates the soul; and talent comes with responsibility to contribute to others. Those principles have moulded my life and my career.What did you study, and how does this help you do your job?I studied psychology and sociology, which 30 years ago dealt with apartheid structures in society and personality.It helped me understand the tight rope between personal responsibility and the social context, which influences my business and its people every day.You recently returned to South Africa - how has this affected the work you do?While living in Austria I had access to some of the top thinkers in the market research fraternity and digital leadership space and was able to attend many internal conferences that gave me valuable insight into the global context. However, I realised that a big part of my impact on Ask Afrika is personal, which was compromised by not being present. Digital communication is augmented by the right balance of personal contact. I have immersed myself completely in this, now that I am back here.What work tasks do you wish you could outsource?I used to wish for someone to fight my battles for me - interpersonal conflict is not fun. On my return, it has been a privilege to have intense personal conversations with our teams on topics that would have been difficult in the past. Authenticity and a common purpose take the sting out of these situations.If I could wish for something, it would be for a personal chef and trainer. I love all the parts of my day at work now.What do you love most about your job?The people I get to engage with. I like the demanding, tempestuous, difficult, screaming-to-the-heavens, challenging ones the most.The biggest luxury of working for an independent business in a leadership role is that you get to choose the people you want to work with.If you had to begin again, what career would you follow?Since we are told that our generation has two or three careers in a lifetime, I probably can have a go at two more. I am saving authoring a book for later and in-between I might want to fix the research systems in the UN. The UN is a marvellous vehicle for social evolution, it is just that I have not seen them use research for its ground-breaking, kick-ass, change-the-world kind of potential that it has.The capitalist in me hates to see all that money wasted.Charity is one of the biggest industries in the world, with the lowest return on investment. I would change that in my second career.What character traits do you need to do your job?Self-awareness for its home-basing GPS button. It is impossible to live a purposeful life without self-awareness. Courage for its energising engine, which keeps curiosity and honesty going. If you aren't going to do something about your insights, why bother discovering them? Love, for it being the basic glue for building people...