The Peculiar Kenyan

The man at the bridge: a lonely battle against ethical collapse

4 July 2010

We spend too much of our time on big issues and big personalities. We remain engrossed in ‘Yes-No’ politics and huge debates about governance and development. In all this grandstanding, we sometimes miss the fact that all great movements in history stem from small actions from small people. Nothing starts off as [...]

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Take the board chair’s job very, very seriousy

28 June 2010

“When Jack Krol became the lead director at Tyco International, in 2003, he developed, in conjunction with CEO Edward Breen, a document specifying his own role. With input from the board, the governance committee then developed some general characteristics of the role for whoever would succeed Krol in the future. Krol said three competencies or [...]

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BP v Obama – whatever happened to leadership?

27 June 2010

I have been watching the unfolding oil spill drama with a mixture of horror and amazement. As someone who believes in the power of corporations to do good, and in the power of leadership to transform, I am dumbstruck by what I see and hear.
The facts you know: toxic oil is spewing from a [...]

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Who should be losing sleep over the rise of Safaricom?

21 June 2010

“Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. The answer is: None of the above. The winner is Nokia, whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cellphones.
Try this. Who runs the biggest music business in India? The answer is Airtel. By [...]

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Why what I think about the constitution doesn’t matter

20 June 2010

Last Sunday Kenya changed for the worse.
As we know, grenades were thrown at a rally held as part of the current constitutional review campaigns. The resulting explosions killed six Kenyans and injured scores of others.
The numbers mislead us. They turn the people who died into mere statistics. Note and turn the page. [...]

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Welcome to the new-look Sunwords.com

19 June 2010

Hi All
I hope you like the all-new Sunwords.com. We have given it a fresh new look and feel, and added modern features. These include video clips, easy links to social networks and sharing sites, better site navigation, and many more. You will also find an attractive version automatically renders when you visit the site [...]

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Why an open-plan office is a modern necessity

14 June 2010

“The topography of most large organizations – where finance occupies one floor, for example, and marketing another – reinforces the functional fiefdoms that arise naturally among colleagues who read the same professional journals, speak the same jargon, and crunch the same numbers. Geographic dispersion of operations often frustrates executives attempts to foster a shared world-view.
An open [...]

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Arise Africa – your future awaits

13 June 2010

For the past two weeks I have been beating the drums for Africa, arguing that the continent’s prospects look very good – provided it quickly does the right things. Those things involve big investments in knowledge and connectivity.
Let me wrap up the topic with a closer look at the phenomenon of emerging markets.
I have [...]

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The sin of hubris undoes many a dominant company

7 June 2010

“We will encounter multiple forms of hubris in our journey through the stages of decline. We will see hubris in undisciplined leaps into areas where a company cannot become the best. We will see hubris in a company’s pursuit of growth beyond what it can deliver with excellence. We will see hubris [...]

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Use knowledge and exchange to light up Africa

6 June 2010

Last week I argued that if we want Africa to be lit up, we need to worry about knowledge, not electricity. If we generate and exchange enough knowledge, the electricity (and products and services and incomes) will come, as sure as day follows night.
In 1958 a gentleman called Leonard Read wrote a short, readable [...]

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Use rivalry to spur innovation in your company

31 May 2010

“It is difficult to overstate the extent to which the Renaissance was built on the professional rivalries of its major figures. While these men generally held each other in deep respect and esteem, they also competed passionately against each other for commissions, recognition, and prestige. Competition can sometimes yield petulance and destructive energy. But rivalry [...]

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Time for Africa to stop being the dark continent

30 May 2010

Dr Edward Mungai is Dean of Strathmore Business School. He likes to use a satellite map of the world in his presentations to current and future students of the school. The map shows the earth by night – which parts are most brightly lit up.
As you would expect, North America, Europe and Japan [...]

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How to make new employees productive quickly

24 May 2010

“There are many theories on how to correctly “onboard” someone to an organization or a team. Most focus on how to provide the new hire with the information and skills she needs to succeed. But that can only take her so far. She will need connections and an understanding of the inner workings and culture [...]

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A great example of spontaneous giving

23 May 2010

My fellow “Kalasingas” are not renowned for their social activity. In Kenya, the primary image of the Sikh male is of a hard-drinking, cranky, rumbustious, self-absorbed individual. There are indeed enough Sikh males of this ilk around to feed the stereotype, but the stereotype does not define the species.
At London’s Heathrow International Airport [...]

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Why does your company try to annoy its customers?

17 May 2010

“I was reflecting the other day on the near infinite number of ways in which companies annoy their customers. A few that make me go “grrrrrr:”
– Being forced to rifle through a two-foot pile of garments in order to find my size
– Having to search through lines of nano-sized text at the bottom of an [...]

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A very strange British election

16 May 2010

The good people of the United Kingdom went to the polls last week, and a very strange outcome ensued.
No party managed to garner sufficient votes to command a majority in parliament. David Cameron’s Conservative Party gained the most seats, but fell short of a majority. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour got hammered in [...]

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Can you make mergers work? Only if you have great leadership skill

10 May 2010

The most successful deals…are those where the strategy is clear and integration is quick, allowing the acquirer to realise synergies and recover the premium it paid to buy the business.
Retaining key employees is also critical, otherwise bidders can see much of the value of their purchase walk out of the door.”
Lina Saigol and Richard Milne, [...]

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