Enterprise Magazine Kenya Jan 2022 Edition

CONTENTS - JAN 2022

| VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1

8 | Editor’s Note // Kimani Patrick

16

10 | theTopline - Business Headlines You Need to Know

COVER STORY 16

| BUILDING A MASTERMIND ALLIANCE WITH SIR. GEORGE WACHIURI - OPTIVEN GROUP CEO As a high-flying Kenyan pacesetter in real estate and the founder and CEO of Optiven Group, George will always challenge and inspire you when having a conversation with him. His choice of words, phrases, success, enthusiasm, and list of mentors is a clear indication of how much of a motivated man he is.

BY JACKIE KIMATHI

FOCUS 12

| THE ANSWER IS A RESOUNDING NO IF YOU DO NOT ASK It's very easy for us to rely on past experiences and other people's knowledge of the possibilities, but I think if what you are doing is very important to you, you must go against the grain, do it anyway.

EUNICE MAINA - MBURU

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| TRADE RISK FROM AN AFRICAN WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE Most women after many times of trial and error and shire drive and tenacity are able to master the art of export. The next big risk will then present itself, the inability to scale the business.

BY CPA CAROLINE GATHII

24

| MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF AFRICA’S INSURANCE MARKET Despite growth in revenue, the insurance sector struggles to woo African customers. Market segmentation, digitization and government involvement are but some of the ways to develop this key sector for structuring Africa’s economies.

BY TRÉSOR TCHOUATAT

34

| UNLOCKING THE NEXT GENERATION OF AFRICAN TALENT Maybe we can create pockets of reversed chicken-vs-egg causality, where creating talent pools of skilled and ready young professionals can attract more companies, bigger investment, and better jobs.

BY PAUL BRELOFF

LEADERSHIP 28

28

| MANAGING RESISTANCE TO ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD Since they are not included in the change processes, employees have a feeling that their efforts and contributions are not worth it, hence they begin resisting by forming a revolution for opposing the proposed structural, operational, or managerial changes.

BY JEREMY THUKU

04 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

Brand Communications

JAN - FEB 2022 | Kenyan Enterprise | 03

CONTENTS - JAN 2022

| VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1

ENTREPRENEURS 21

| HOW LINET WAIRIMU BUILT HER VACATION RENTAL HOMES BUSINESS DURING THE PANDEMIC Her interests in this business came in at a time when she had lost a friend, and her friends from Nairobi had come to Nanyuki for the burial. Unfortunately, they could not find a place to stay since all the hotels and homestays in the town were fully booked.

FROM KENYAN ENTERPRISE

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| HOW A FORMER MILLENNIAL AIR HOSTESS BUILT A THRIVING RESORT IN KENYA The FloGarden Resort was not what she exactly wanted to venture in; it was an opportunity that happened to come by her. Initially, she wanted to deal with the Airbnb business.

FROM KENYAN ENTERPRISE

INSIDERS

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| ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD LEARN TO HUNT, FISH, AND TRAWL FOR THE BEST TALENT Avoid promoting entirely based on culture fit. Although you may have good intentions in doing it, it often results in a lack of diversity of thought and outdated leadership models. In today’s ever-changing world, businesses are expected to grow as fast as the technologies surrounding them.

BY MICHAEL PAYANO PADILA

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| INCREASE WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY Most women-owned manufacturing businesses are MSMEs and operate in the informal sector (93% of businesses in the informal sector are women-owned).

These enterprises experience a high cost of production, high cost of transport, and high cost of capital outlay.

BY PHYLLIS WAKIAGA

04 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

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06 | Kenyan Enterprise | DEC 2021

CONTENTS - JAN 2022

| VOLUME 1 NUMBER 1

Pg. 34 A FAILED AFGHANISTAN LESSON AND A RECIPE FOR DISASTER: IGNORING THE HUMAN FACTOR

BY MICHAEL PAYANO PADILA

Now you can enjoy reading Enterprise Magazine at:

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 07

08 | Kenyan Enterprise | DEC 2021

FIRST WORD

Kenya in 2022; COVID-19, Elections and Rising Poverty Levels

A Kimani N. Patrick CEO & Publisher kp@carlstic.com +254710254524

cross all sectors, all around the world, businesses are facing the challenge of rapid transformation and unc e r t a in disruptions. In Kenya, 2022 could be more volatile than other part of the world, with the rise of new Covid variants, increased political activities due to the August general elections, and the rising poverty levels.

For the last 2 years, the country’s economy has been adversely affected by COVID-19 and the pandemic’s unforgiving e f f e c ts ha v e no t s pa re d businesses. Kenya’s, and the w orld’s international trade performance, commodity and financial markets, and the entire macroeconomic environment have been affected. From the massive disruption of the supply chains, ever- rising rates of unemployment to the monumental losses experienced by businesses and the loans being taken by the government to help people combat the challenges, the virus has changed our way of life. As we continue coexisting with this virus, businesses are on a non-ending search to find new innovative and effective ways to stay afloat and recover their

losses to make profits.

Second, the Kenya is entering deep into the national elections period and political tensions are at an all- time high. D amages, disturbances, and ultimately, losses from riots, protests, vandalism or other forms of general political disorder are most often among the main political risk exposure for businesses in the country. While some businesses are already facing heightened political risks, majority of them are underprepared, reactive, and most likely lacking confidence in their ability to navigate those risks successfully.

As we get anxious of this, business leaders need to have a plan on how to tackle the effects that the political activities may bring on board. Business owners/leaders need to identify and collect political risk indicators; develop, acquire and build the capacity to assess the business impact of political risk and integrate risk into enterprise-wide processes into strategic planning.

They need to stay prepared for anything ahead of the elections – including a possible rerun of the presidential elections like it happened in 2017 as this will greatly disrupt business performance.

Lastly, there has been a worrying levels of increased poverty in the country. According to the Kenya

National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), a third of Kenyan population is living below the poverty line – occasioned by economic inequality, corruption, and inadequate health facilities. This means most of those living below the poverty line cannot afford at least three basic needs, services, or rights and more than half of the population are multidimensional poor. It is evident that if the effects of the pandemic increase and political scene continues to be more heated, poverty levels will also increase downward affecting the spending capacities of Kenyans. Poverty is also associated with illiteracy, which can affect productivity. Employees with poor literacy skills may struggle to fully understand workflow instructions and are as well prone to making work-related mistakes, resulting in lost profits and reduced customer confidence.

G oing forw ard, business leaders/owners in Kenya need to come up w ith strategies to overcome the challenges listed above as well as many others that may not be foreseen. On such initiatives is to invest in expertise and capacity for their employees. By providing skills training, it will help acquire the capacity to be efficient at the workplace and enhance business continuity.

Copyright @ 2022 The Carlstic Group Limited Ads/Marketing Opportunities: Mary Waweru | mary@team.carlstic.com | +254 114784076 Editorial Features and other Inquiries: team@kenyanenterprise.com | +254 704218613 Operations Center: 5th Floor, Thika West Center

Enterprise Magazine is a publication of The Carlstic Group Limited.

Disclaimer: The advice, opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various contributors of this publication reflect the views of the author (s) and do not in any way reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the company.

The advice provided is general advice only and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. For any products advertised here, kindly do your own due diligence before making any purchase or financial engagement. The Carlstic Group Limited and its employees can in no way whatsoever be held responsible for the content of such views nor can it be held liable for any direct or indirect damage or loss that may arise from such views and or advertisements in this publication.

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 09

theTopline business headlines you missed

Huduma Namba to Replace KRA PIN in the Fight Against Tax Cheaters

KRA to Change Name in Rebranding Plan

The Huduma Namba Bill, 2021 amends the Tax Procedure Act to make biometric key cards for taxpayers. The biometric ID will replace the KRA PIN as per changes to the law that are made to check taxpayers. This also affects any children who will be offered the Huduma Namba since they will be required to file their tax returns as soon as they turn 18 years of age regardless of the state of their income.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has planned to rebrand to Kenya Revenue Service (KRS) in a move to change how the public perceives it. The firm disclosed that it will implement the strategy in the coming months. This aims to bring an end to its association with harassment of business owners and perceived over taxation.

Due to such changes, it also means that all adults will be required to register under the KRA, offering them a bigger field of taxpayers than the existing 5.5 million that currently exist. The essence of incorporating the use of Huduma Namba is to enable the taxman to capture individuals who have been evading paying taxes. This is because it will be serving as a personal KRA PIN.

“The term ‘Authority’ sometimes has a connotation of command. It is like we are in a command position. Commanding is not the real role of KRA. We are servants of the people who are the taxpayers.

We are giving them services. We are working with the people and it is for this reason that we strongly believe that our role is of service delivery to the people,” said Francis Muthaura, Chairman KRA Board.

If this bill sails through as planned, KRA will have to commence the tax obligation of every individual who has not complied in registering as a taxpayer. The number of taxpayers is also set to increase significantly since the only number of registered taxpayers currently is a 5.5million whereas the number of individuals over the age of 18 is recorded to be 25.64million.

Over the next two financial years, the taxman expects to collect Ksh6.8 trillion. KRA is now focusing on expanding the tax base with new income sources including the digital economy and High Networth Individuals (HNWIs) in order to achieve the set target.

Kenya Named Top Safari Destination in Africa

Kenya has been recognized as a world- leading Safari destination in 2021 by the World Travel Awards. This is the seventh time in a row that the country has been termed as a premier wildlife tourism stop at the reputable global awards. The country beat Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

KQ was named Africa’s leading airline and its business class emerged top in the continent.

Commenting on the win, Kenya Tourism Board CEO Betty Rad8ier said, “This recognition is an endorsement of Magical Kenya, known as the home of authentic African Safari. Without a doubt, this is well-deserved, and I believe that we shall get even better. We shall continue with our commitment towards preserving and showcasing to the world the unique wildlife heritage bestowed to our country for the sake of generations to come,”.

She went on and added that the country aims to continue building its potential growth areas including the ‘magical Kenya experiences’, where travelers have an opportunity to experience a foot safari or even track wildlife while on foot.

10 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

Bolt to Allow Drivers to Set their Own Prices

Bolt has introduced a new market innovation that allows drivers to set their prices and passengers to select their own drivers.

The new innovation was introduced to attract more drivers to the Bolt platform by enabling them to be in total control of their entrepreneurial journey.

According to Kenneth Micah, Bolt’s Regional Manager for East Africa, drivers will be able to set their own prices within a range of price per kilometer so as to reflect the local market conditions as well as their own preferences. The new moves are expected to bring a better functioning marketplace. However, drivers still have an option to stick to Bolt’s dynamic standard pricing.

Passengers can now select their preferred driver based on factors such as pricing, driver rating, and expected time of arrival. They can also see additional information such as the driver’s name, photo, and car details. Nairobi is set to be the first market in Africa to impose these new features.

Autocheck Launches First Online Car Loans Marketplace in Africa

Autocheck Africa has launched a new mobile app and section on its website that will allow customers to access digital financing solutions for brand new cars and trucks with repayment options of up to 60 months.

The firm has partnered with NCBA and Ecobank, and they will be offering loans with a zero percent equity loan product. Stanbic Kenya and Access Bank will be offering financing solutions with up to 90% financing.

Customers in East and West Africa will now be able to access various financing options to purchase brand new cars and trucks via the Autocheck auto loan services platform.

The company is working with indigenous manufacturers such as Innosson Motors and Nord Motors. It has also partnered with CFAO (Toyota, Suzuki, Mitsubishi) across Africa to facilitate auto financing for all CFAO brands. “We are on a mission to accelerate motorization across Africa by providing financing for brand new and used imports for our customers,” said Autocheck’s Country Manager, Bilha Muriithi.

Kenya Power to Provide Internet Connections in Rural Areas

Microsoft Launches Microsoft Teams, a New Tool for SMEs

Microsoft Corporation has launched Teams Essentials, the first- ever standalone Microsoft Teams offering, designed specifically for small businesses. Teams Essentials gives small businesses a professional and affordable meetings solution to support collaboration, connection, and productivity in a hybrid work environment.

This new plan is already on the market, selling for $4 per user per month. Compared to the other tiers, the Basic and Standard tiers, which cost $5 and $12 per user per month respectively, this is a new level of accessibility for small businesses that are looking to virtually connect their employees.

Teams Essentials provides expansive limits and features for hosting professional meetings and collaborating in one place. Some of its features include; unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours, meetings with up to 300 people, 10 GB of cloud storage per user.

These new features will enable businesses to serve their customers in new ways, grow their businesses and gain competitive advantages, take their productivity to the next level, and help them stay organized.

Kenyan Passport is the 8th Most Powerful in Africa, 71 in the World

Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has announced plans to provide millions of its customers in rural areas with high- speed internet connections. This comes as part of the company’s new plan to capitalize on the flourishing mobile data usage in the nation to develop new revenue streams.

Kenya’s passport is the eighth most powerful passport in the African continent and ranks 71 in the world.

The power distributor said it now looks forward to connecting rural customers with the internet following its expanded efforts in electricity penetration across the country which has seen millions of homes provided with power.

This is after it improved six places in the latest ranking of its mobility scores. A report released by the Henley Passport Index Report shows that the number of countries that Kenyan citizens can visit without having a visa has increased from 64 to 72 in January of last year.

These plans will now give the company a head- start in the rural homes with the internet, a move that might bring conflicts with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who rely on KPLC’S expansive power transmission network to give them access to the millions of power customers. The majority of the ISPs do not have the capacity to supply downstream consumers with fiber optic bandwidth.

Mobility scores measure the number of countries that a person in possession of a Kenyan passport can visit without necessarily having a visa or where they can get on arrival.

This new move will see the company take the competition for internet consumers to Safaricom, Telkom, Kenya Data Networks, Jamii Telcoms, and Wananchi Group that have dominated the internet market.

The end of ‘analog’ passports was initialized by the roll- out of the e- passports with a 10- year validity period as Kenya joins 60 other countries in using these ‘new-age’ passports.

Kenya comes eighth in the continent’s ranking a position shared with Tanzania. They come behind Mauritius, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Seychelles, and South Africa.

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 11

BUSINESS - Entrepreneurship

The Answer is a Resounding NO if you do not Ask

Y

ou w ill nev er achieve much if you believe everything they say: I got the invitation to attend the Africa-Re annual awards dinner on the evening of Tuesday 4th June 2019, the award dinner date, Monday 10th June, Wednesday 5th was a public holiday. When I searched on Google visa application to South Africa (SA), at first I got all the Kenyan media said that I would get a visa on arrival, this made me relax. On Wednesday evening I decided to ask my hubby and he told me it's only for government officers, so this time I Googled but checked the SA embassy page, and the info given by hubby was correct and that it takes 5 working days to process and I have one day.

So I sent an email to my hosts in the evening and I asked for the invitation 12 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

BY EUNICE MAINA - MBURU letter plus other requirements. They sent this a few minutes before 1 pm, I drive to VFS place, the last time I interacted with their services they were in parklands, so I head to parklands. On getting there, the watchman tells me, they moved, where to?

Waiyaki way near ABC place. Wao, I brace the traffic and managed to get there at around 2.15 pm, then am told there is no parking in the building, now it's looking for parking which I managed to get at a nearby building, of course after pleading with the watchman. Then I run to the vfs office, I pick my ticket which was no. 482, just about 2 people ahead of me, but it was now about 2.30 pm and I had Skype calls with Investors at 3 pm which I could not afford to get late.

My number is called and I get to the counter, she checks everything and she looks at me and says, your company registration certificate is missing, please go and bring a copy. Waah, I have a copy on email, can you print it for me? No, you can

print at the cyber just next door. I run and get it printed, the clock is ticking very fast but I manage to return the application, it's accepted, and am asked to go and pay.

Now it's 2.50 pm and I have to wait to be called, I decided, God gave me a mouth for such a time as this, I noticed there was a counter without a customer, I walked there and asked for assistance, the guy agreed to serve me and as am paying I asked, can I come and collect the Visa tomorrow?

He looked at me and smiled, he says it takes a minimum of 5 working days. Then I tell him, mine is urgent coz I travel on Monday and he asked are you sick? No, the only visa we process urgently is for those seeking medical attention.

Then am like, you know if I don't get it by Monday 9 am I won't need it? He said madam, you are over-ambitious, it's not possible. Then I said, please try, then he says I can't promise you but let's hope for the best. Anyway it was now 2.58 pm

Entrepreneurship - BUSINESS

and I have a call at 3 pm, I called a friend who happens to work within the building and I told her, being on the 5th floor, coming down to your office, I need a boardroom or a Skype room urgently. I get to the room at 3.06, and log in to my laptop and get to the meeting, it is a good thing, one of the investors was late so my lateness was overlooked.

On Friday as I promised I went to collect my visa at 2 pm, they told me it's not ready yet and they can't promise I will get it by Monday. I told them I will be there by Monday 9 am to collect and I will be ready to head to the airport.

So on Monday I carried my bag, took Uber to vfs, collected my visa at 9.30 am and I was in Johannesburg on time for the dinner.

I had an option of giving up before I began because the reality was, minimum 5 days, I said myself if I try I have a chance of getting it, if I don't try I will never know what possibilities were.

It's very easy for us to rely on past experiences and other people's knowledge of the possibilities, but I think if what you are doing is very important to you, you must go against the grain, do it anyway.

Lesson 1: The answer is always NO when you have not asked when you ask you to create a possibility of a yes, the probability could be very low but it exists when you make the step.

What was pushing me to do this was that the Bismart team had believed that we were going to win, having been one of the 4 shortlisted from among the many insuretechs in Africa, there was a 25% chance of winning, I needed to represent Bismart and give an acceptance speech, so I had my speech ready.....Lol. Did we win? No, we didn't but this taught me how much we can achieve within the given time if we only focus on winning.

Lesson 2: Y ou should not doubt until the game is over, even if it's halftime and you are at 7-0, just keep the faith, it's not over until it is over. We have seen teams come from behind and win the game. My son who is my biggest fun keeps reminding me, never give up.

still small voice that always tells you, you need to do it or you need to go, it's quite nudging but we silence it many times by giving excuses. We lose an opportunity to stretch our limits and experience new possibilities.

achieved in 2 days if I was given 2 weeks.

This lesson applies best in sales, given a 10M target, you can achieve it in one 1year if that's the time given and you can still achieve the same given 6 months because if the target must be achieved, you will mobilize all available resources within the Lesson 4: What you become when you try given time. This means more time does not is more important than what you achieve: necessarily mean more achieved.

Focus on becoming, build resilience, stretch your imagination, become a Lesson 6: people will only see the glamor, believer, become mentally tough, become they can't see the sweat, the pain, and the patient, all this will be needed for your risks you take to get there. Y ou must roll future projects. The beauty with becoming up your sleeves, get dirty, get it done. So is that if all you have created in the process when you see it glorious, please note, work blows off or it's lost, you know how to has gone into it, a lot of work. build/ create you can repeat the process and apply lessons learned. This is your greatest wealth.

Lesson 5: Y ou can achieve what must be Lesson 3: you regret the things you did achieved within the given time: I would not do not what you did. There is always a have still achieved the same goal that I

Eunice is a Kenyan- born Entrepreneur, Author, Sales Enabler and trainer, and Founder for Bismart.

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 13

ECONOMY - Trade

Trade Risk From an African Woman’s Perspective

BY CPA CAROLINE GATHII

T

he joint report by the World Bank Group and the Wo rld T rade Organization on the role of Trade in promoting women equality, states as follows: “Trade can dramatically improve women’s live, creating new jobs, enhancing customer choice, and increasing women’s bargaining power in society. But women’s relationship with trade is complex, as it can also lead to job losses and a concentration of work in lower-skilled jobs.

To ensure that trade enhances opportunities for everyone regardless of gender policymakers should assess the potential impact of trade rules on various groups of people and develop policy responses based on evidence.” The report seeks to build on new analysis and new sex-disaggregated data to advance

14 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

understanding on the relationship between trade and gender equality and to identify a series of opportunities through which women can gain from trade.

Women face various challenges in trade and this article articulates just a few of them.

The risk inability to access credit, capital or any form of decent financing.

There are many sources of capital available for Women businesses: venture capitalists, banks, government financed funds amongst other sources. To build an export business requires substantial amounts of money available to the business for the long haul. Most business financing solutions finance a need for example an asset, this is good financing no doubt but to enable the asset to gain economic value, there is also need to finance supply of raw materials as well as the operational costs necessary to create that economic value.

T here are organizations w ith machinery but cannot afford working

capital to run the business. The holistic assessment of business needs is extremely critical other than looking to identify only one area where the financial institution can finance. Most women businesses are informal and small in size, have not very attractive cashflow, lack adequate business projections but could be viable businesses if a more holistic approach including how they are organized and managed is taken into consideration.

The logistical nightmare; many women traders are able to export their products in small quantities. They export artefacts, textiles, grains and cereals, tea amongst other products that they produce. The products are exported in small quantities to different destinations around the world.

Since these products are not in large quantities, women traders opt to transport them through air in baggage bags or through courier companies who ferry small packages. They are not able to afford enough quantity to hire a container which could be much cheaper form of transport.

The risks for this kind of transport it is that there is a high cost of transport hence increasing the cost of the goods, there the risk of loss of products. Surely the export market looks really unattractive to small scale businesses and especially women in export. The logistics companies are designed to cater for large companies who are able to produce products in large volumes hence able to transport goods around the world. We need logistical solutions which are able to aggregate smaller packages from small scale women for export to different destinations.

Access to export information is another huge risk for women exporters.

Large companies have the financial muscle to employ trade professionals whose daily activities to handle their export licensing, certifications, compliance to the numerous rules and regulations.

They are assured that as they undertake their export businesses, they have ticked all the boxes, complied to all the laws, acquired all the licenses and their products are ready and will reach their destination with 100% compliance. A woman exporter will have to call all she knows on her contact list to ask them how they dealt with their last export, do a bit of google searches just to cross the t’s, call a friendly

Trade - ECONOMY clearing agent in to ensure she is ready to export. Due to lack of this critical knowledge, most women exporter undervalue their exports and end up even incurring huge losses. In other cases, their goods are rejected at the entry points of destination due to lack of compliance of one or more regulations that they may not have had any prior knowledge about.

Women exporters require well packaged information to enable them concentrate on their craft and enable to export efficiently. There should be adequate resources set aside to enable this to take place.

Trade documents for example trade agreements, export licenses, Bill of landing, letters of credit are all documents with a lot of legal jargon or unfamiliar language.

This is a huge hindrance to trade for women small businesses. This creates a huge barrier to trade. The women trader has her goods ready for export but another hurdle presents itself, the challenge of consuming the trade related information in these documents.

Most women after many times of trial and error and shire drive and tenacity are able to master the art of export. The next big risk will then present itself, the inability to scale the business. The venture that is export requires that once you commence the journey and you connect with your foreign customer who is ready to consume your goods, then the business growth takes up an upward trajectory. The orders start coming in and find a business owner with limited knowledge on how to scale. The knowledge of how to scale a local enterprise to an export business; lack of knowledgeable staff members to assist in steering the organization; inability to afford business advisory services amongst other challenges that limit these businesses to scale. We have women who have abandoned the export business since they do not have capacity to arrange and grow an export business. Women business require access to continuous support in skill, strategy and financing. There is also great need for continuous mentorship and capacity building.

Caroline is an International Consultant in Risk I Risk Management, Business Process Improvement, and Business Continuity Planning. She is a Director at FirstIdea Consulting Limited.

DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 15

ENTREPRENEURS - Success Story

Building a Mastermind Alliance with Sir. George Wachiuri - Optiven Group CEO

G

eorge Wachiuri, a high-flying Kenyan pacesetter in real estate and the founder and CEO of Optiven Group will always challenge and inspire you when having a conversation with him. His choice of words, phrases, success, enthusiasm, and list of mentors is a clear indication of how much of a motivated man he is.

Imagine your mentor’s list being Napoleon Hill, James Mwangi, and Manu Chandaria – all before and after you achieve your goals.

To call Mr. Wachiuri just a self-made man or a self-help guru would be like calling Michael Jordan just a baller: it doesn’t quite cut it. George is a force of nature, an industry, and a global brand.

In an exclusive interview with Enterprise Magazine, Kimani Patrick 16 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

BY Jackline Kimathi joined Wachiuri in a visit to one of his company’s most prosperous investment, Amani Ridge, Kiambu County.

This is where he introduced us to the concept of mastermind alliance; “I was reading a story of Napoleon Hill, how he did a collabo with this guy called Henry Ford. When we talk about a mastermind alliance, we are talking about two or more minds coming together and working together harmoniously for a specific definite objective. That the mastermind group means you are looking for people who you align, people you can be able to discuss things together.”

Wachiuri tells us that it is important for business people and entrepreneurs to form mastermind alliances because, with them, they will always succeed. However, people make mistakes by picking the wrong alliances. He adds that for one to pick a mastermind group, they must identify the purpose of the group and, the group must be in harmony. If you form a mastermind

group with people who bring disharmony, the group will fail.

“Success is only meant for people who refuse to quit,” a quote by Napoleon Hill is one of Wachiuri’s many favourite ones.

Challenges are there but, it’s not time to give up. “The person you put in your mastermind group, is the person you share values with, a person you can have a discussion with and one that can challenge you.”

His Origin Story Y ou could argue that George Wachiuri is the embodiment of the African Dream.

The story of his transformation from a young penniless washerman and barber into a multi-billionaire is as powerful as any of his life quotes.

He was raised by a single mother as he lost his father at a very young age. “Life was very tough and difficult, even accessing the school was very difficult.”

He could later manage to join The

DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 17

ENTREPRENEURS - Success Story University of Nairobi. However, life was more difficult for him there as he explains.

“I used to wash people’s clothes, shave people in order to raise money.” He also turned his small campus room to a library where he would charge people to read magazines.

After completing his degree, he worked as an accountant for a short while, also worked at Kakuma refugee camp before he quit to focus more on business.

He ventured into 15 businesses which failed until he decided to engage in real estate business in 2008.

After he started his real estate business, things did not go very well for him as he lost all his life savings, a total of Ksh 5 million for his first transaction in land business. However, he never gave up on it, even after closing office. “My office was Uhuru Park, with my bible, a notebook and a pen.” All that time, he was always pleading with God to reinstate him again.

He later managed to link up with James Mwangi, the Equity Bank boss whom he is always proud to say he changed the course of his dreams. He made a Kshs. 40 million proposal with the bank which was later accepted and from that year his real estate company, Optiven Group has spread in the Kenyan market, changed many people’s lives through scholarships and much more.

Get Aggressive: 3 Things Everyone Should do to make a Mastermind Alliance work He has inspired many, CE Os, Entrepreneurs, students. And now he is going to coach you. If you’re an aspiring and novice stage entrepreneur, George Wachiuri has some words of advice specifically for you, Enterprise Magazine reader.

1. Identify a common purpose. Always have a reason why you are forming this group and determine why are you in it in the first place.

2. Plan for what you want to achieve. The mastermind person is the person with a plan. The group must have a solid plan, with short-time, medium and long-time plans that will keep it moving.

3. Keep your mastermind group motivated. Always engage the team with stuff that keeps them motivated, like doing fun activities together and, the group will do good work that will make 18 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

your work shine and be celebrated by other people.

Wachiuri advises that for one to create a mastermind alliance and become motivated with it, depends on what you listen to, the books you read, your mentors and how you behave every morning you wake up. As he stresses, you need to be motivated every new day and plan what you want to achieve on that specific day.

“According to the 17 principles of successful people by Napoleon Hill, the positive game- changer is always positive mental attitude. Y ou need to change your mindset and have a positive mental attitude.”

Most people always have a challenge in deciding what content is good and helpful for them. Wachiuri continues to advise them that one is not capable of doing everything. “Let the gardener do the gardening.” Y our passion and liking and, perspective in life will determine who you want to listen to, what to read. If you love a certain aspect, for example, if it’s real estate, read books done by entrepreneurs in the real estate field.

Mentorship is a significant factor when building your mastermind alliance. “For you to identify your mentor, it depends on your personal goals and the direction you want to take in life.” Always check for people who can inspire you depending on the line of your career, business and development. Wachiuri adds that not everyone can be your mentor and advises that once you find your mentor, always be disciplined with how you approach them.

Avoid borrowing money from them or gossiping with them. “Keep a professional distance with your mentor, that way your mentor will respect you and as a mentee, you be respected.”

His accomplishments Mr. Wachiuri is one entrepreneur who always believes in giving back to the community. “When I lost Ksh 5m, I told God that if this thing comes back, part of my resources is to serve the community.”

This is how his foundation, the Optiven Foundation was born. His foundation is now one of the big ones in the country in

Success Story - ENTREPRENEURS terms of giving and support. The foundation supports two orphans per county every year. They also have a program for the physically challenged and the elderly. Looking back at his Uhuru Park’s declaration, Wachiuri believes in honoring vows and this has really inspired his philanthropy works.

His company, Optiven Group has five levels of properties and has delivered home-ownership dreams to over 5,000 Kenyans, a number he dreams to grow up to 30,000 and create 30,000 jobs by 2030.

For properties at Optiven, level one contains bare plots with murrum roads, beacons and is available in Konza city.

Level two is medium value-added with roads, a fence and beacons such as Sifa gardens in Kajiado. Level three is an upper medium like Love Gardens in Kitengela which contains murrum roads, fence, borehole and pipped water. The next level is the high level available in Victory Gardens Kitengela and Amani Ridge in Kiambu with underground power.

The project in Amani Ridge has everything that people desire. It has double roads, a clubhouse, a community area with fruits such as oranges and guavas, reliable water, among other amazing things. They have invested in their power with underground cables, so tenants don’t have to pay for electricity bills. The development has offered over 700 people daily jobs.

George the Mentor George is one person who believes in mentorship and for that reason, he started his own mentorship dubbed George Wachiuri School of Mentorship. The 6 months mentorship program targets young and focused people with a certificate, diploma or degree in sales and marketing or those with entrepreneurial minds. With his 22 years-experience in building a leading business in Kenya, Wachiuri is one of the best in the sales and marketing.

Launched in July, 2020, the program offers a mentorship program that covers 26 key topics and Q & A practical sessions, 3 hours per week. The mentees are privileged to meet professionals in the sales and marketing field under his company, Optiven G roup. These professionals train them and give them a chance to familiarize themselves with the Optiven process.

The program aims at boosting entrepreneurship, job creation thus reducing crime rates in the society. Currently, because of Covid, classes are done via zoom and the first and second cohorts have already graduated, with the third having started in November 2021. For one to graduate, they must have attended 70% of the classes and submitted all assignments on time. Aspiring mentees will require KSh 1,000 for the registration fees and, graduation is free.

“The best leader is not the one who manages people but one who develops people, and for you to develop people and manage resources, you need to understand these people. The rule of a leader is to inspire people and, once you inspire them, they will come together, buy the vision and be able to buy the brand and market it.” As the leader of Optiven Group, Wachiuri offers inspirational leadership to his team and, this has helped market and sell the brand with success.

What else can we learn from George Wachiuri? For Wachiuri, he “encourages every person who was born by a woman that they have a specific assignment on earth which can only be achieved if you as a person can sit down and stipulate your personal goals.” He adds that it’s for you to sit down and say what are your spiritual, development, career, business, and family goals, and once you have these goals, you can go ahead and ask yourself how you can achieve them.

To achieve these goals, one has to move from talking to the acting stage and, have a positive attitude. He says that the reason why we miss our goals is because of our negative attitude, the complaining spirit. “Let us pursue our goals, let us encourage ourselves, let us make mastermind groups, people who can encourage us, you never know that today you may be having challenges, but tomorrow might be better.”

Jackie is an Associate Editor for the Enterprise Magazine.

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 19

Brand Communications

Talk to us: + 254 704 218613 | team@carlstic.com | www.carlstic.com

20 | Kenyan Enterprise | DEC 2021

Rising Star - ENTREPRENEURS

How Linet Wairimu Built Her Vacation Rental Homes Business During the Pandemic FROM KENYAN ENTERPRISE

A

s the only entrepreneur in her family, Wairimu (Nimmoh) never imagined she would end up in the real e state or hospitality business perse. “It’s just out of curiosity, I wanted to try something different, plus every time I would get employed, I felt like I could do more with my life. So… yeah I just… I find myself always leaning towards entrepreneurship, and that’s how I started even back then,” she told Enterprise Magazine at an interview.

Her journey in the homestays business started back in August 2020, that’s when she set up her first two-bedroom units in

Nanyuki town. Previously, she worked with a betting firm and lost her job in 2019 out of redundancy. Before deciding to go back home, Nimmoh applied for quite a couple of jobs. However, nothing was coming through. That’s when she moved back to Nanyuki, her hometown.

Her interests in this business came in at

Our clients’ needs are evolving, so their need to get finer things also grow.

”

a time when she had lost a friend, and her friends from Nairobi had come to Nanyuki for the burial. Unfortunately, they could not find a place to stay since all the hotels and homestays in the town were fully booked. “At that particular moment, I realized there is a gap, and I decided to relocate from Nairobi and moved my household items here and set it up as my first unit, so that’s where my journey began.”

In one year and four months, Nimmoh has managed to furnish and manage 25 units, and market 15 more. She set up her first two-bedroom unit during the high season. However, there was still a shortage. A few weeks later, she decided to take a facility and set up a small unit. “I became very aggressive with my marketing online, so that caught the attention of other people who were trying to set up, and I got quite many of people who wanted me to market their units.”

“I offered a solution that didn’t exist before. Once people set up their houses, they give me the units and, I manage them on their behalf. I will do everything from housekeeping, coordination of check-ins and check-outs; I do guest inventory and restocking. So that’s how I grew my number through marketing, and now people trusted my brand, that’s how I started growing.”

As it is with every other job, Nimmoh says that one of the biggest challenges in her business is that the licenses are quite hefty, and they are giving them a hard time but they still make to do it.

“I think love what I do. I have not thought let me look for a job, maybe let me re-strategize, let me re-model a unit because sometimes you find that our clients’ needs are evolving, so their need to get finer things also grow.”

Wairimu decided to call her business Nimmoh’s because she wanted to personalize the brand since, in such a business, people have to trust you with their money. “I decided to be the face of my brand, that is if you’re looking for accommodation you know you’re being handled by Nimmoh whom you can place a finger on their face… this is the one, this is the lady I sent my money, so that’s brought in a lot of trust. She has used her name as the company’s name since the beginning. - TKE JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 21

ENTREPRENEURS - Rising Star

How a Former Millennial Air Hostess Built a Thriving Resort in Kenya The beautiful garden space is always flocked over the weekend with events and for one to secure space, they always have to book earlier enough. “We work along with so many service providers that we trust to bring the best,” she says. She advises other entrepreneurs to always do the vetting and determine the best when working with outside suppliers.

B

BY ENTERPRISE TEAM

efore Grace Mweru started her blooming FloGarden Resort in Ruiru, she was in the hospitality industry for a long time, “I have worked in Dubai in a five-star hotel,” she told Enterprise Magazine’s Kimani Patrick during an Enterprise Talk. “And I have also been a cabin crew so I have been traveling around the world.”

Her decision to build FloGarden was inspired by her friend who had brought her to see the dams located about a kilometer from Thika Superhighway, and knew well how passionate Grace was with water. By then, there were other resorts around the dams and Gracey (as her friends refer to her), was really interested in creating her own.

That was back in 2016 and by 2017, she had already secured land around Mugutha dam in Juja Constituency. “I started coming up with a garden because I wanted a photo scenic place and that is where the name FloGarden came from,” she said.

Grace was raised in a family of entrepreneurs; her mum was into photography business and ventured into salons. Unfortunately, she lost her at a very young age. Upon completing high school, she decided to do farming to enable her to get money to pay for her college fees. She used to grow onions along Kangundo road. Later on, she met a lady named Lillian who used to take people to Dubai in the various meetings that she used to attend. She was offered free hospitality training, was interviewed and luckily enough, she secured herself a job in Dubai.

In a span of one year, she had gotten herself a promotion. “I started to do some investments bit by bit because I had a

22 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

dream of coming and doing a major thing in Kenya,” she says. While in Dubai, she used to import hair and beauty products because she had an opportunity to travel to China where such stuff is cheap. She would get the products from China and Dubai and import them to Kenya. She continued to say that it was such a good venture back in the days before it was flooded.

“However, it was not easy because I was not in the country. I would import things and trust people to run the business for me, and I lost quite a huge amount of money but this never discouraged me from purs uing entrepreneurship.”

The FloGarden Resort was not what she exactly wanted to venture in; it was an opportunity that happened to come by her. Initially, she wanted to deal with the

Airbnb business.

She first started with a garden where people would come with their drinks just to chill out for picnics, photo sessions, and video shoots. “I saw an opportunity of starting off a kitchen and a bar,” she added. People would come with their drinks and when their drinks would be over, they would struggle to get more and food. “I was the chef, the manager, the waitress, so I was the one going around checking with my customers.”

At the start, she only had two employees, a cleaner and a security guard.

As of now, she has more than 20 full -time employees. However, she aspires to grow more and build an international brand.

“I want it to be an icon in the world, which will come to happen, I will tap everything that will make it happen and bring the best that will be admired all over the world.”

Rising Star - ENTREPRENEURS Her resort is now a place where people hold events such as weddings, baby showers, birthdays, family gatherings, and many more. It is a place loved by people due to its beautiful views of the dam just next to the garden.

The resort has a swimming pool, bouncing castle, boat rides, speedboats, sw ings, and slides. D uring the weekends, the place is always flooded with people for fun activities. It also has an open room where people sit and watch various games and another private room for training and conferences, all with a good view of the dam.

The beautiful garden space is always flocked over the weekend with events and for one to secure space, they always have to book earlier enough. “We work along with so many service providers that we trust to bring the best,” added Gracey. She advises other entrepreneurs to always do the vetting and determine the best when working with outside suppliers.

Having kicked off in 2019, her business was hit by Covid-19 in its early

stages of growth. That was the time when social gatherings were banned and eateries were closed. “I would say I was shocked because it was an abrupt thing, remember I had staff that I didn’t know what to tell, and to make the matters worse we were new in the market, we were just trying to climb.”

By then, she had employed many staff, everything was running smoothly and she did not know what to do. She was forced to call a meeting with her staff to try to brainstorm with them on the way forward.

Her biggest worry being new in the market was what she was to tell her staff, how they would go back home and take care of their families. Some had to leave since the business could not sustain them at that time, and this was really painful for Gracey.

“One thing I learned about Covid19 is resilience, things will never work the way you want them to happen and you need to have a proper plan from the word go,” she advised.

Gracy aspires to start a Real Life Training Centre. Her advice to young

Things will never work the way you want them to happen and you need to have a proper plan from the word go.

”

people is that it’s never too late to start doing anything. She advises them to not be discouraged for the little they have as it can always help them do marvelous for them.

“Most of the best dreams are in the grave,” says Gracey. She adds that if you have something, start it today. She challenges women to not look up to men to make their dreams come to reality. “It is you that will make yourself happy, it is you that will bring your dreams to reality.” - TKE

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 23

MARKETS - Insurance

Meeting the Challenges of Africa’s Insurance Market Despite growth in revenue, the insurance sector struggles to woo African customers. Market segmentation, digitization and government involvement are but some of the ways to develop this key sector for structuring Africa’s economies

BY TRÉSOR TCHOUATAT

D

espite revenue climbing steadily since 2015, with a 7.5% annual increase recorded by the association of A f ric an national ins ura nc e c o mpa nie s (FANAF) across its zone, the insurance sector struggles to win new customers on the continent. South Africa is still the only mature market in sub-Saharan Africa. “Aside from the scale of its economy and its relatively high income per capita, uptake in South Africa can be explained by the non-provision of a state pension.

This leaves people no alternative but the private sector”, pointed out Junior Ngulube, former vice chairman of Sanlam Pan Africa and panel member at the Africa Financial Industry Summit held last March, which was attended by several leaders in the insurance sector. “Though average income per capita in other African countries is still far lower than that of South Africa, it is nevertheless growing quickly and represents a huge potential market,” Mr Ngulube added.

Why then are so few consumers interested in insurance? Rashidat Adebisi, chief client officer at AX A Mansard Insurance in Nigeria, suggested to her colleagues that the question should be put differently: “We should be asking, ‘Why is insurance of such little interest to consumers?’. African customers were quick to embrace mobile phones and new digital solutions. The problem therefore stems from us and the answer, I believe, is pretty straightforward: methods used by insurance firms are too detached and out of date to win over loyal customers.”

One of the chief factors hampering penetration on the continent appears to be the marketing language used by insurance companies, which is ill-adapted to the African context. “Consumers feel uneasy because the language used by insurance companies is unclear and lacks transparency” said Souleymane Gning, CEO of Assuraf, a Senegalese aggregate insurance

24 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

platform (also called assurtech).

“Firms have done little to make themselves comprehensible and explicit for customers. This lack of clarity gives rise to numerous disputes when policy holders claim compensation. Very often they have misunderstood the subscription and are under the false impression that their insurance covers certain risks. They then feel betrayed by the company, which in turn tarnishes the sector’s reputation”.

T he problem of language is compounded by the price. More than half the targeted population lives below the poverty line and the corresponding insurance offer is not consistent with their income. “Companies can only cater for this population by tailoring products to their context and standard of living and by marketing them differently” said Souleymane Gning. “Micro- insurance provides a possible solution. Technology could also be a useful means to develop integrated insurance services into products consumed on a daily basis”.

Lastly, restricted access also acts as a barrier. Despite the multi-channel

distribution of its services, the insurance sector needs to keep pace with the digital world where it has been lagging far behind. Not only would up-to-date online services reach a population that is increasingly connected to social media and new platforms, but digitisation would make branches operate with greater efficiency and accuracy. “In terms of interaction, our major competitors are companies such as Airbnb and Uber, which provide services in a couple of clicks”, said Junior Ngulube. “If we continue with our poorly interactive websites, we will never be competitive in this segment”.

Putting the customer back at the core.

“The need to analyse customer requirements and sticking points and set up tailored solutions is urgent,” said Tijsbert Creemers, director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. “Broadly speaking, company executives must rethink insurance in Africa and put the customer at the core of their reflection.

Crucially, this approach requires understanding context, trends in consumption and cultural differences.

Insurance - MARKETS Copy and paste solutions must be avoided at all cost.” Rashidat Adebisi also stressed this point: “The ecosystem in which these people live and the corresponding proposal of an insurance offer has not been efficiently analysed. Focus has concentrated on the affluent who can easily afford insurance instead of the low-income populations with a real need for coverage.”

The sector must adopt a different approach to marketing. “We need to redefine our market segmentation, which will enable us to provide the services our customers require,” explained Rashidat Adebisi. “We can also build up interaction with customers through added value services, such as information sharing, birthday greetings, and other initiatives that bring us closer together.” For her, this new approach must unquestionably involve a “financial literacy” phase to educate people about different financial services and their significance.

Corneille Karekezi, CEO of the Africa Re reinsurance company, believes that governments also have a pivotal role to play. “Finance ministers don’t do enough!

The insurance sector is neglected compared to other sectors. Developing insurance services should be a priority for any government so it can share the financial burden in times of catastrophe.

Moreover, African states should use insurance companies to cover their populations through mechanisms, such as insurance subsidies. All this helps promote the idea of insurance among populations.”

The absence of any social security protection in many African countries points to the colossal task ahead, which is of course incumbent on public authorities.

“Government regulators can also educate populations about financial services by making it mandatory to subscribe to certain insurance products, as is the case in Europe. They would then be responsible for overseeing compensation in the event of incidents relating to policy holders. Public authorities could also contribute to developing the sector as partners, particularly by providing companies with data and statistics, which would enable them to refine their products”, said Souleyman Gning. But insurance companies have no say in such matters, though some lobbying might move things in the right direction.

TRÉSOR is an International Business Master of Science student at Kedge Business School Marseille, Marketing Manager Assistant at Philips France and Ex Marketing Officer at EVOLEX AFRICA DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 25

WORKPLACE - Workforce Development

Organizations Should Learn to Hunt, Fish, and Trawl for the Best Talent

BY MICHAEL PAYANO PADILA

I

Is leadership overrated? I have often grappled with this question. The fact that one holds a position barely qualifies one to be a leader.

Some folks manage to deceive themselves into believing that they are leaders. Why? Because they hold a position?

In my life, I have worked with leaders who served a cause. Some served in the military, and some I have worked within my role. Some leaders I thought I knew withered away after we moved on – out of sight, out of mind. We barely kept in touch. Then there were those who I genuinely respected, who turned out to be friends for life.

Many schools preach and offer how to become a great leader. Once we tear down the facade and peel away the layers, it comes down to what is left in the bare and naked form of humanity: the human personality. After all, you cannot teach people to be nice. Leadership traits are the

26 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

same; either you have them, or you do not. Y ou cannot fake it for long.

In some instances, I have seen how the dynamics of power-play work. Actions speak louder than words. Most often, people see games people play. I have witnessed how power-hungry managers wield power by inspiring a few for some time before the disillusion sets in.

In my life, I have experienced my staff and myself in a situation and daily interactions with regions of the unpredictability of social risk and terrorism.

Speaking for myself as a CEO, I am constantly facing dilemmas, this year alone, between COVID-19 lockdown and customer fears, facilitating movements of people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Sudan, and helping customers re-enter frontier markets. Thus, I am reminded of a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

I believe some of the most critical leadership behaviors and characteristics are needed, and here are three ways you can go about finding your future leaders as I did.

First, we can all attest that promotions are still essentially a reward for past performance. Organizations continue to assume the attributes that have made someone successful so far will continue to make them successful in the future (even if their responsibilities change). This may explain why there are still many incompetent leaders.

Therefore, organizations that wish to select the best people for leadership roles need to change how they evaluate candidates. When choosing, ask yourself three questions: The first question is whether or not the candidate has the skills to be a high-performing contributor or the skills to be an effective leader? The performance level of individual contributors is mainly measured through their ability, likability, and drive.

Leadership, by contrast, demands a broader range of character traits, including high levels of integrity and low levels of dark-side behaviors born out of negative attributes likes narcissism or psychopathy.

The difference between these two skill sets explains why great athletes often end up being mediocre coaches (and vice versa) and why high performers often fail to succeed in leadership positions.

We all know that the most successful salespeople, software developers, and stockbrokers have exceptional technical skills, domain knowledge, discipline, and abilities to self-manage. However, can those same skills be used to get a group of people to ignore their selfish agendas and cooperate effectively as a team? Probably not. Leaders need to obtain a certain level of technical competence to establish their credibility, but too much expertise in a single area can be a handicap. Experts are often hindered by fixed mindsets and narrow views, which result from their years of experience. Great leaders, however, can remain open and adapt, no matter how experienced they are. They succeed because they can continually learn.

Secondly, you need to ask if you can trust the candidate’s individual

Workforce Development - WORKPLACE

performance measures. The most common indicator of someone’s performance is a single subjective rating by a direct line manager. This makes performance measures vulnerable to bias, politics, and an employee’s ability to manage up. Although peer-based and ne tw o rk- o rie nte d p e rf o rma nc e management are growing, it is still in its infancy. As a result, performance measures may not be as reliable as you think.

This is likely why women tend to be promoted less than men, even when their performance is identical. Many organizations promote people into leadership positions because they “create the right impression,” even if their actual contributions are minimal.

If you ask yourself the above question, and the answer is “no,” take some time to think about what good leadership looks like at your company. Are you looking for leaders who can drive great results? Bring people together? Listen and develop others? Or are you looking for leaders who can connect, innovate, and help evolve the business? Every company needs different types of leaders at different times, and someone who performs well in their current role may not be the right person to help you reach your most immediate goals.

Thirdly ask yourself, “Am I looking forward or backward?” For me, the secret to selecting great leaders is to predict the future, not to reward the past!

Every organization faces the problem of how to identify the people who are most likely to lead your teams through growing complexity, uncertainty, and change. Such individuals may have a very different profile from those who have succeeded in the past, as well as from those who are succeeding in the present.

Avoid promoting entirely based on culture fit. Although you may have good intentions in doing it, it often results in a lack of diversity of thought and outdated le a de rs hip mo de ls . I n to day’s ever-changing world, businesses are expected to grow as fast as the technologies surrounding them.

Their models must be in constant transformation. What worked in the past and what is working in the present may not work at all in the future. We at Al Thuraya holdings are comfortable about

“

WHAT WORKED IN THE PAST AND WHAT IS WORKING IN THE PRESENT MAY NOT WORK AT ALL IN THE FUTURE.

thinking outside the box. This means taking “misfits” or “people who think differently” and placing them into leadership roles. We give them support and time to prove themselves. This is how we deepen your leadership pipeline.

Y ou should also take an extra look at the people who “may not be ready” and analyze them on the basis of their ambition, reputation, and passion for your business.

Often the youngest, most agile, and most confident people turn into incredible leaders, I know, I have them in my leadership team.

It’s time to rethink the notion of leadership. If you move beyond promoting those with the most competence and start thinking more about those who can get you where you want to go, your company will thrive. In other words, start considering those who have high potential, not just top performers. - TKE JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 27

LEADERSHIP - Change Management

Managing Resistance to Organizational Change in a Globalizing World Since they are not included in the change processes, employees have a feeling that their efforts and contributions are not worth it, hence they begin resisting by forming a revolution for opposing the proposed structural, operational, or managerial changes.

BY JEREMY THUKU

G

iv en the fas te v o lv ing and competitive nature of the w orld, businesses have no choice but to devise their operations to remain competitive and relevant. One of the strategies of realizing this objective is through initiating appropriate changes in their operations, management, and service or product delivery. As a way of adapting to the unpredictable nature of business environments and responding to globalization, organizations are forced to introduce some changes at some stages.

Expectedly, any change or transition cannot be without resistance. However, the major problem has been how to deal with resistance to change within an organization without adversely affecting the smooth functioning of the organization. Since change entails many aspects including material resources, energy, time, and human resources, it is important to define a structured and effective change management model.

Proactive change management that entails using structured methods and frameworks is associated with higher returns on investments.

Notably, a large number of changes in organizations are done following the popular model referred to as the “C-level” in which the lower-level employees are least involved. It is recommendable that all employers and stakeholders be actively and fully involved in change processes.

This is because the exclusion of some employees in the change process is the primary source of internal resistance.

Since they are not included in the change processes, employees have a feeling that their efforts and contributions are not worth it, hence they begin resisting by forming a revolution for opposing the proposed structural, operational, or

28 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

managerial changes. In most instances, the fear of job loss contributes to change resistance among employees in an organization.

This is because some changes are accompanied by employee downsizing and workforce restructuring, which creates new opportunities while rendering others jobless, especially the less effective employees.

Robert Quinn Competing Values Model provides that resistance to change in an organization arise from poor communication that is characterized by a lack of stakeholder engagement. Given that, effective communication plays a critical role in solving “all organizational ills’, it is important for the management to involve the rest of the staff in planning and implementing changes. Inadequate or lack of proper communication has been identified as a possible source of resistance to change in any setup.

Quinn’s Competing Values Model is critical in ensuring effective change management and organizations should have a grasp of the model. The Quinn competitive model enumerates four aspects that include internal orientation, external orientation, flexibility, and organizational modalities that may help in managing change in any organization.

The model developed by Quinn advocates that for a leader to be effective in managing the change process, he or she must understand that an organization must focus on what is going on within the organization and outside the organization as well. The first step in the Competing Value Model is to evaluate the degree to which the organization emphasizes decentralization against centralization and control over the organizational process.

The second step for this model is to evaluate the degree to which the organization is oriented towards the

Change Management - LEADERSHIP external environment as well as the relationships with the outside stakeholders such as competitors, regulators, partners, and suppliers among others.

One of the positive and proactive strategies for handling change resistance is through facilitating participation that is accompanie d by total me mb e r involvement. The method of managing change resistance in an organizational setup entails involving those who are opposed to the change process as well.

Specifically, the management and board may establish a collaborative body that includes those persons who are resisting the planned changes in the implementation of the change initiatives.

The best and most effective method of managing change in a positive way is through engaging all stakeholders including those opposed to the change through a consultative forum.

Essentially, this is one of the feasible constructive approaches that have proved beneficial in resolving resistance to changes in different organizational setups.

Facilitating participation, while focusing on the need to include those workers who are opposed to change in a participatory consultation is a positive and active method for addressing change dissenting

voices within an organization. Collective involvement of the change resisting individuals is fruitful since, through this method, the concerns of such groups are identified and addressed exhaustively.

Another method of addressing change resistance in an organization is through a support and facilitation approach. Often more than not, it has been observed that employees are particularly opposed to change on the ground that the transformations that do accompany changes may result in alteration of the functional and operational structures of the organization, as well as modifying what they are accustomed.

G iven the new methods and operations that often accompany change processes, Quinn posited that the employees and the entire workforce must be offered adequate and reasonable emotional support as well as facilitation to aid in coping or adapting to the changes within the organization.

Essentially, it has been established that the fear of the unknown such as the inability to handle the challenges associated with changes may prompt resistance among employees. For this reason, organizational management should focus on offering necessary support

systems to those resisting the change as a way of enhancing their adaptability to the changes. Through facilitation and support, change-resisting people are given a chance to express their concerns, anger, resentments, and fears that are directly related to the change.

On the other hand, negotiation, agreement, manipulation, and co-optation can be used to realize a positive change management outcome. This approach entails bargaining with those individuals who are opposing the change.

In most instances, the methods of change management involve trade-offs by finding a compromised position for addressing the concerns raised by those resisting the change. Due considerations must be considered in the process by exchanging their grievances for change and transformation for the betterment of an organization.

Jeremy Thuku is an Economics Graduate, Certified Public Accountant (CPA-K) and Certified Investment and Financial Analyst (CIFA- K).

Reach him via jthukujeremy@ gmail.com

DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 29

OPINION - Economy

Increase Women’s Participation for Economic Prosperity

T

BY PHYLLIS WAKIAGA

he novelty and productivity that women bring into business is being lauded for having re v e rb e ra ting effects on all economies.

However, this can only be realized across all aspects of society if we achieve gender equality.

The latest Global Gender Gap Report paints a grim picture on this front.

Specifically, it shall take 267.6 years to close the current global gender gap in economic participation and opportunity.

This striking number is a result of two conflicting trends. One, albeit at a slower pace, the proportion of women among skilled professionals continues to increase.

There is also progress towards wage equality. On the other hand, overall income disparities still exist and there are a few women in leadership positions.

The report ranks Kenya position 84 on economic participation and opportunity.

This has been attributed to our performance on labour force participation (26), estimated earned income (38), wage equality in similar roles (61), legislators, senior officials, and managers (107) and professional and technical workers (148).

This calls for the need to include more women in senior roles and enhance skills development for women to take up both technical and non-technical roles.

Five years ago, according to a McKinsey Global Institute report, women generated 37% of global GDP despite accounting for 50 percent of the global working-age population. The report further states that in a best-in-region scenario, whereby all countries match the performance of the country that has made the most progress toward gender equality in their region, $12 trillion a year could be added to GDP in 2025.

Imagine how far we would be, as a nation and the world at large, if we could achieve this. We would have increased wealth, better livelihoods, higher purchasing power and in turn, new productive job opportunities to meet 30 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

consumers demand as propensity to spend increases.

Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) acknowledges the role of women in driving industrial transformation for job creation and inclusive economic growth. This is why the Association continues to advocate for an inclusive manufacturing sector, through the establishment of policies and policy incentives that encourage women to be key players in value and supply chains.

To realize this, KAM conducted a study to understand women’s representation in the sector, address the challenges they face, and seal gaps that inhibit their participation. The first ever Women in Manufacturing Report in Kenya not only highlights challenges facing women industrialists but it also provides recommendations to address the same.

Furthermore, it provides an essential foundation to champion for an enabling environment that encourages increased participation of women in industry.

Two findings stand out: first, the manufacturing sector is predominantly male-owned and staffed across all its fourteen manufacturing subsectors, except for the chemical and allied subsector, that accounts for 50% female.

Second, most women-owned manufacturing businesses are MSMEs and operate in the informal sector (93% of businesses in the informal sector are women-owned).

These enterprises experience a high cost of production, high cost of transport, and high cost of capital outlay. Despite the significant role of the informal sector in the economy, many of these businesses remain unable to grow into medium-sized enterprises.

Economy - OPINION To address this, the Association kicked off county-focused drive to increase the participation of women in industry and its value chain, at the beginning of the month. Conversations such as skilling, reskill, upskilling, and access to finances took centre stage whilst engaging women from North Rift region.

What stood out was the zeal by the women to produce goods for their region w hilst promoting socio- economic development in their community. For instance, Creation Hive, a social enterprise based in Eldoret, uses recycled materials, all sourced locally, to make various products, such as bags, notebooks and jewellery. The organization does this to empower women with life-changing

diseases economically. There is also the Epileptic Foundation of Kenya that makes various items, using beads. Proceeds from the sale of their products are used to support children with epilepsy across the country, through the provision of essential items, such as food.

These two are among the many organizations across the country that strive to promote socio-economic development by creating jobs and wealth for many in the community they serve. Imagine the ripple effects that they would have if they have a conducive environment for women -owned or led businesses to thrive and expand.

We urge the government to provide an enabling environment for them to thrive.

This includes providing targeted financial and tax education and exemptions for w o me n- le d a nd w o me n- o w ne d manufacturing companies. It is also paramount that the government puts deliberate efforts to review specific laws that affect the manufacturing sector through a gender lens and creating guidelines for gender-responsive implementation is required.

Phyllis is a Kenyan lawyer and corporate executive.

She has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, since 2015

DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 31

WORLD - Afghanistan

A failed Afghanistan lesson and a Recipe for Disaster: Ignoring the Human Factor

I

will not state my comments with regards to how Afghanistan was handled, as things are still raw and developing, but what I will address is the failure of companies and large service providers in actually establishing sustainable local capacity, as they often advertise; (replace companies and large service providers with "governments" and you would still end up in the same spot, funny -isn't it?)

It is well known that Organizations want to focus on their primary processes because these generate revenue and added value for their goals. As in any process where humans are involved, human factors play a crucial role in planning, executing, and evaluating. At least they do on paper! Anyone who has ever seen security or operational plans has come across the same thing: an often misguided (or even idiotic) expectation of how 32 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

BY MICHAEL PAYANO PADILA people will behave in times of crisis.

Beautiful plans, drafts, graphs, flowcharts all outlining a perfectly organized concert of human actions that completely ignores the essence of being human: the unpredictability, the emotion, the fear, the bravery, the stupidity, the whole explosive mix that makes people become a wild card when planning anything from a wedding to a foreign invasion or military retreat.

Y ou would expect that companies, organizations, AND governments would have realized by now that the Human Factor is a crucial element that needs to be addressed, especially since a lot of the modern disasters and crises have their roots in human error or human nature!

Have they learned their lesson? History proves that they haven't, and as if that wasn't enough, TV newscasts reinforce the element daily.

I get it, and I understand that for some people and companies, it is hard to precisely identify human factors and

understand how to manage human factors that remain elusive. What are the most common human factors that cause system failure? Is it a language barrier, incorrect interpretation, fatigue, or is it culture-driven? Is it nature or nurture? Is it personality attributes or maybe the result of hundreds of years of complex historical processes? People and even researchers tend to often use generic terms and generalizations when it comes to human factors, but each aspect requires a different approach to prevent system failures. T hese different approaches in managing human factors can and should be mapped through a reciprocal process of becoming embedded in the areas you serve and by allowing your capabilities to be driven from the ground up and not the other way around.

Seeing the news earlier, it's estimated that up to 15,000 expats and local partners are still in Afghanistan as of this morning. Coalition troops are protecting

Afghanistan - WORLD

those who made it to the airport. Those who didn't make it to the airport have been advised to 'shelter in place in a country where insurgents are now actively searching for them! Shelter in place seems like an excellent way to say you are on your own now and is a far departure from the promise of sec urity both o rg a niz a t io ns , c o mp a nie s , a nd governments handed out so freely.

This situation will test every organization's duty of care and crisis management policies and procedures.

Unfortunately, it will uncover the weaknesses in travel risk management, Human Risk Management, and even plain old daily operations. The poster face of many providers will now collapse in what should have been anticipated, prevented, or at least mitigated.

Over the past 72 hours, we have received several frantic calls and emails from Security directors, Shareholders, In Country Managers, Operations Directors.

All had one standard view: Their risk management/security provider had failed to provide a solution or even failed to respond. They all needed immediate help when faced with imminent threats. It is sad as the providers lacked the ability to forecast and see but also educate the customer on what could happen. So many c u s t o m e r s t o d a y le a v e t h e ir decision-making process to technology, and bots who could never understand the social risk aspect of things. In short, the Human factor was needed to see and read and read understand the social risk issues as well as to take into consideration the culture of Afghanistan.

When global' providers sign contracts with local providers, without so much as meeting with them, or conducting thorough due diligence, then failures are bound to happen. Essentially the global provider believes what the local provider has marketed to them. In turn, the client believes what the global provider has promised to them. And then a significant incident happens, and the wall comes crashing down.

I have been preaching about this for 15 years. I still do not understand what kind of companies sign up for this kind of sales approach (I actually do know the types of companies who do this) and never see who is actually doing the job, or better yet, make sure they actually have the

“

When global' providers sign contracts with local providers, without so much as meeting with them, or conducting thorough due diligence, then failures are bound to happen.

capabilities to carry out the tasks as described in the fancy contracts with the many tiny letters and many exemption clauses that provide a legal cover for what is -in essence- an absolute failure.

I am glad we have been able to support our customer base and others, but waiting until a crisis to test the capabilities of so-called global providers is too late. And it is too late not because companies have run out of time, but because actual, real people are running out of time, in the most literal sense of the word!

Michael J. Padilla Pagan Payano is the founder and CEO of Al Thuraya Consultancy™, bringing a unique understanding of risk analysis and supporting his customers in understanding culture and traditions of countries to be better employers and investors.

JAN - FEB 2022 | Enterprise Magazine | 33

WORKPLACE - Talent Development

Unlocking the Next Generation of African Talent Maybe we can create pockets of reversed chicken-vs-egg causality, where creating talent pools of skilled and ready young professionals can attract more companies, bigger investment, and better jobs.

BY PAUL BRELOFF, CEO FOR SHORTLIST

M

y playlist has been dominated by Arcade Fire lately, for no reason in particular.

I’m loving their newest album “E verything Now,” a collection of pieces suggesting that humanity is at an all-you- can-eat buffet and we’ve blown right past satiety to stomach rupture.

Amidst the angst over civilization’s internal combustion, there’s at least one line from the song “Creature Comfort” that I find myself turning over in my mind in the context of our current work at Shortlist: “Born in a diamond mine / It’s all around you but you can’t see it / Born in a diamond mine / It’s all around you but you can’t touch it” In Africa, there is a huge untapped talent mine hiding in plain sight (and that is absolutely not a reference to the troubling history of extractive industries in Africa).

On the continent, we’re on the cusp of likely the greatest talent explosion in the history of humankind.

By 2030, the working-age population across Africa is set to grow from 370 million to over 600 million, expanding the workforce by more than the rest of the world combined over that time period.

Y es, combined For the continent to fully benefit from this incredible potential opportunity, it will require (1) a massive increase in the availability of good jobs, (2) an education and skilling infrastructure primed to prepare individuals for those jobs, and (3) a better way of matching talent and opportunity.

There is a gaping hole between the number of people seeking work and the number of jobs actually available. And there’s a growing mismatch between the skills young people have today and the skills that employers are demanding. This is increasingly being identified by business leaders, politicians, policy wonks, and philanthropists as *the* issue to solve in Africa.

At Shortlist, I’m not sure we can do

34 | Enterprise Magazine | JAN - FEB 2022

much about creating great new jobs at scale; that’s probably the domain of big business, government, and policymakers.

It’s a huge multi-headed problem with no easy answer, for sure. But I do believe we can use new approaches to education, skills development, and opportunitymatching to prepare the kind of ready-torock talent pools that can, over time, attract the kind of large-scale job creation we need.

In other words, maybe we can create pockets of reversed chicken- vs- egg causality, where creating talent pools of skilled and ready young professionals can attract more companies, bigger investment, and better jobs.

So what’s going to be key to unlocking this talent and laying bare the incredible talent bounty of the continent?

Improve learning: Gone are the days where we could rely on high school and university to prepare people for the modern workplace. As Ryan Craig writes in his new book, the future of higher

education lies in faster, better, and/or cheaper alternatives to higher education.

These alternatives need to be affordable; geared towards skills of the future (like tech and data); geared tow ard competencies and practice rather than theoretical subject matter.

Technical programs like those offered

by Moringa School or courses on soft skills (like communication, problemsolving, and teamwork) like those now offered by Shortlist show new ways that practical learning can be fostered outside of traditional, long-term, and expensive high end options.

Promote discovery: Part of the problem is that young professionals often don’t know yet what they’re passionate about, don’t yet know what they’re good at (or could be good at), and don’t know what the market wants/expects. Students are often slotted into courses of study very early and in a manner dictated more so by society and family (whose mom hasn’t wanted them to be a doctor at

Talent Development - WORKPLACE some point??) than informed personal decision-making. (And to be clear, this certainly isn’t only an issue in Africa… ) We can use tech and digital distribution to expose young people to the range of professional options out there and provide tools for self- discovery and opportunity discovery — and in so doing, also get to know job-seekers better. Think: the right podcasts/videos/posts targeted to the right people at the right time, with a feedback loop to gather data points on interests, engagement, motivation, and learning velocity.

We can then start to engage and curate pools of talent based on genuine interest and ability rather than meaningless demographics, and we can tailor content and training opportunities to the particular passions and abilities of specific jobseekers.

Help companies see better: Back to the original conceit: “It’s all around you but you can’t see it.” Part of this issue is that talent is there, we just lack the tools to see it. If your criteria for “work- readiness” revolves around a prestigious tertiary degree, time served at a big 3 consultancy or Big 4 accounting firm, and lots of acronyms - well, you may not find enough professionals to build your company. If, however, you are open to professionals who possess the skills and/or raw ability to succeed, the talent is often there, but the tools of finding and seeing it are lacking.

Our approach at Shortlist collects and analyzes data points on demonstrations of competency, skill, and motivation so that we can X -ray vision the CV and see who has the stuff of success regardless of credential. Of course, this approach works better for some roles than others, but broadly we believe that employers in or coming to Sub-Saharan Africa will need to think differently about assessing talent, relying on underlying competencies and skills and not fancy gold stars, if they are going to find the folks they need to grow.

Needless to say, this will NOT be easy.

It will take the efforts and energy of a diverse set of stakeholders, sometimes working together and sometimes in parallel, to realize this promise. Most importantly, it will be driven by and depend on the energy of this emerging workforce to go out and grab these opportunities and create e ven more opportunities themselves.

All things considered, though, we’re choosing to stay optimistic about the road a he a d, de s p ite the s ig nif ic a nt challenges - and no matter what Arcade Fire thinks. - TKE DEC 2021 | Kenyan Enterprise | 35

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