The Peculiar Kenyan

Apps ate your lunch, right out of your hand

by Sunny Bindra on May 20, 2013 · 4 comments

in Business Daily

“Nobody knows which was the first app to be downloaded from Apple’s iPhone App Store on 11 July 2008 – but the total is expected to pass 50bn on Wednesday, marking a huge new business created by the explosive spread of smartphones over the past five years.” Charles Arthur, The Guardian (15 May, 2013) As [...]

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Let us not be seduced by false consensus

19 May 2013

The mood was upbeat. Speaker after speaker had highlighted the fact that Kenya is on the move, that the direction is right, that the economic fundamentals are now very attractive. Then the final speaker stood up, and struck what felt like a false note. He asked us to be careful. He wondered what Kenyans being [...]

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Welcome to the business that never sleeps

13 May 2013

“They may have yelled before, but now they have megaphones. Whether they’re bashing or praising your products and your brand, customers are online and louder than ever. And right now, they’re on forums, review sites, Facebook and Twitter, sending out thousands of uncensored opinions—that could have major consequences. Be everywhere. The longer it takes for [...]

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A simple economic truth: performance before pay

12 May 2013

The teaching of economics appears to have failed utterly in this country. I blame this on the teachers. I remember my own first teacher of economics: he would walk into the room, start writing lines and lines of notes on the blackboard and expect his class to copy it all down. At the end of [...]

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Please don’t become a leader. Unless you’re ready to do it properly

10 May 2013

(First published in the TQM Journal, Volume 25, Issue 2, 2013) Everyone wants to be a leader. Almost no-one understands what being a good one actually means. Leadership is aspirational because I think by being appointed ‘leader’ I will announce this to the world: I have arrived. I have the title on my business card. [...]

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If you’re a good-looking woman: don’t send a photo…

6 May 2013

“Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre looked at what happens when job hunters include photos with their curricula vitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia. The pair sent fictional applications to over 2,500 real-life vacancies. For each job, they sent two very similar résumés, one [...]

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Should Kenya make toothpicks?

5 May 2013

My friend and fellow columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo asked an interesting question on Twitter recently: why don’t Kenya and other African countries make toothpicks? I promised to answer, so here is a response. Perhaps the question is better framed in the way that many of Charles’s followers seemed to put it: why can’t we even make [...]

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Customer care via social media: which phase is your business in?

29 April 2013

“Businesses must recognize that the voice of the customer is more powerful than ever before. Whether Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, review sites, product forums, blogs, or Pinterest, your customers are sharing their experiences on platforms where audiences can find what others are saying about you. Your customers and prospects will inevitably find the negative experiences [...]

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We must put the shine back on Kenya’s police

28 April 2013

I had an interesting encounter with a policeman last week. I was flagged down for allegedly committing the heinous offence of obstructing traffic. I pointed out that what I had done was arguably not wrong at all – at best, misguided, at worst, an honest mistake. To no avail. The policeman entered my vehicle to [...]

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Why we’re all moving away from ‘Big Man’ leadership

22 April 2013

“For most of modern history…going back to medieval times, the dominant way people put up buildings was by going out and hiring Master Builders who designed them, engineered them, and oversaw construction from start to finish, portico to plumbing. Master Builders built Notre Dame, St Peter’s Basilica, and the United States Capitol Building. But by [...]

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How important is it to be popular?

21 April 2013

I once sat down on one of London’s landmark big bridges. Right on the road, I mean. During rush hour. I was sitting with my fellow students from university to protest the stand of the government of the United Kingdom, and in particular that of its leader at the time, one Margaret Thatcher, on the [...]

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You need to be better, not just cheaper

15 April 2013

“Frustrated by the lack of rigorous research, we undertook a statistical study of thousands of companies, and eventually identified several hundred among them that have done well enough for a long enough period of time to qualify as truly exceptional. Then we discovered something startling: The many and diverse choices that made certain companies great [...]

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Now, let’s get down to business

14 April 2013

Kenya has much to be proud of. It has come through a general election with maturity and respect for legal process. It has formed a new government with hardly a drop of blood being shed. It has set an example to Africa. For this, we must thank the winners for not gloating or basking in [...]

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You can’t run a business on numbers alone

8 April 2013

“We know it’s impossible to run a successful business just with numbers because people aren’t predictable. We have to work with complex people, bring out the best in them, make them feel secure, encourage their creativity, inspire them to take responsibility when all the rules and metrics point the other way…” David Boyle Authenticity (2004) [...]

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Social media exposes what ails our societies

7 April 2013

Recently, Kenya’s Harambee Stars went to play a game of football in Nigeria. The host country was less than gracious. Kenya’s national soccer team was not received at the Lagos airport; missed the last connecting flight; was accommodated at a 2-star hotel; and forced to train on a school pitch. This was of course unacceptable [...]

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Why the high and mighty keep tumbling

1 April 2013

“In “The End of Power” Mr (Moses) Naím, a former Venezuelan cabinet minister now ensconced at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank, argues forcefully that rigid pyramids of power are collapsing. Micropowers are learning how to frustrate macropowers. Bigwigs are finding it harder to wield power and harder to hold on to it. [...]

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In business, bigger is not necessarily better

31 March 2013

I met a gentleman recently who runs a successful business. He is held in high regard by his customers, and indeed the reason I was visiting him was due to strong word-of-mouth recommendations. Though thriving, his business is not large. It has been located in the same premises for decades. Given the demand for his [...]

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