The Peculiar Kenyan

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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Good business is the only sustainable option

9 May 2010

Whether or not Goldman Sachs is found guilty of the various charges laid against it, its reputation has suffered huge damage. It is being fried at the court of public opinion, and faces an uneasy path back to its previously dominant investment banking position.
Many other companies face these ordeals, and they are [...]

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How global-minded European firms are surging ahead

3 May 2010

“Contrary to the widespread cliché of American dynamism versus European economic stagnation, over the past decade Europe’s top companies have beaten America’s (not to mention Japan’s) by an often substantial margin. Despite the rise of China and the rest, Europe has held roughly steady, at about 17 percent, its share of world exports since 2000, [...]

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Why do so many good businesses go bad?

2 May 2010

The problem with being a business commentator is that your subject-matter regularly lets you down.
Last year I was interviewed by NTV about the importance of ethics and integrity in business (a clip can be seen on www.sunwords.com). Great firms, I asserted confidently, do not become great by cutting corners or greasing palms. They [...]

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Five ways in which the world of work will change

26 April 2010

1. No more 9 to 5
2. Productivity will be closely measured
3. Cogs will become redundant
4. The winners will be the linchpins
5. Work will become art
SETH GODIN, Regus Business Sense (April 2010)

Business guru and author Seth Godin spelled out some of the ideas in his new book, Linchpin, in Regus Business Sense online magazine recently.
The next [...]

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How big do you want your life to be?

25 April 2010

Paul Hewson was in Nairobi recently.
That won’t mean much to you, until I explain that I was referring to Bono, the world-famous lead singer of rock band U2, and campaigner against global poverty.
Bono didn’t really make much noise while in Kenya. He attended the Nation Media Group’s Pan-Africa Media Conference, went to a bar, [...]

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Why do people still hate their IT departments?

19 April 2010

“You may think that hate is too strong of a word for feelings toward a corporate department. I don’t. Yesterday, I was interviewing an executive on his perceptions of IT and he couldn’t spit his frustration out fast enough. He said, “In the quest of getting things organized, they are introducing a bunch of bureaucracy [...]

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Why do we seem to attract the world’s second-raters?

18 April 2010

I walked into an Italian restaurant in Mombasa recently, and first impressions were favourable. The ambience was pleasantly rustic, and we were greeted with smiles by a waiter, which makes a change. The Italian proprietor was hovering around benignly.
But there was an immediate warning sign. During the middle of lunch hour, a [...]

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Before you join any board, ask yourself “Why?”

12 April 2010

“The first step in ‘getting on a board’ is to ask why you want to be on a board. If the answer is for self-aggrandizement or prestige, the reputational risks today far outweigh any such benefits. Similarly, if it is for financial reward, there are easier, less risky ways to make money. If it is because you have [...]

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The future of your business is in the palm of your hand

11 April 2010

One of the key practices of successful businesses is the ability to follow trends and anticipate market movements. This is extremely difficult: if any of us really knew what next year’s markets would look like, we would be billionaires.
Some trends, however, are so predictable that the foolishness lies in ignoring them. And that [...]

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How far should you trust your gut instinct?

5 April 2010

The McKinsey Quarterly: “In your recent American Psychology article, you asked a question that should be interesting to just about all executives: “Under what conditions are the intuitions of professionals worthy of trust?” What’s your answer? When can executives trust their guts?”
Gary Klein: “It depends on what you mean by “trust.” If you mean, “My [...]

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This childish culture of dirty tricks in our business world

4 April 2010

The recent spate of competition in Kenya’s telecom sector has been characterised by something ugly: vandalism. Now that fibre-optic connectivity is commonplace, what easier way to disable your competitor than to hire a few goons to cut their cables? That leaves them in disarray for days, while we gain ground. Or do [...]

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At your next strategy retreat, ask yourself: how different are we?

29 March 2010

“In the 1980s, competition from Japan was every western CEO’s worst nightmare. Whether it was TVs, VCRs, or fax machines, Japan’s ability to produce high-quality goods at low cost drove U.S. and European competitors out of those businesses. Since then, Japan has floundered for more than a decade. Why? A big [...]

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Your personal standards drive success

28 March 2010

How were your cornflakes this Sunday morning? One of my oldest friends told me something interesting about his consumption of cereals. He asserted that the milk you add to cornflakes has to be very cold, otherwise the taste is ruined.
I was about to dismiss this as individual fastidiousness, but my attention was piqued [...]

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What would happen if you shut down your corporate HQ tomorrow?

22 March 2010

“One day I would love to conduct an experiment by replacing the entire board of directors of a major corporation with shop dummies and see how well things go. I’m confident most organisations would carry on regardless – and quite a few would unquestionably perform better. Out would go mad strategic initiatives, doomed takeovers, suicidal [...]

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Why reality usually has nothing to do with plans

21 March 2010

Last week this column looked at two words: Event and Process. This week I want to engage you in a discussion about two more: PLAN and REALITY.
The need to think about these words came to me on a recent flight. Anyone who has flown on a commercial flight will be familiar with the [...]

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