"CEOs can't wait to read Sunny Bindra's articles every week."

Aug 31, 2008
How we squander Other People’s Money

I was on holiday along my beloved Kenyan coastline recently, and discovered that not everyone at the resort where I was staying was in leisure mode. I observed one group of people sitting in a specified corner of the hotel every single day. They were not sunning themselves or going for a swim. None of […]

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Aug 29, 2008
The expatriate manager is a declining species

“Executive expatriates are expensive, as many multinational firms have learned. Moving a manager to a factory or corporate office in Dubai, Russia, or India can be a costly experience after providing relocation dollars, tax equalization, and housing allowances. For that reason and others, Western and non-Western companies competing in emerging markets are dramatically reducing the […]

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Aug 24, 2008
It’s back to ‘Business As Usual’ in Kenya

I imposed a two-week television news blackout on myself recently, and what a pleasure it was. We all need a ‘detox’ from time to time, and there is nothing more toxic than an unending stream of news about Kenyan politics. I am delighted to have been spared the sight of groups of parliamentarians calling facile […]

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Aug 22, 2008
Why I back Starbucks to bounce back

“On July 1st (Starbucks), based in Seattle, said it would close a further 500 stores in America (in addition to the 100 closures it announced earlier this year) and reduce its workforce of roughly 172,000 by around 7%. A remarkable 70% of the stores due to close were opened after 2005, which seems to confirm […]

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Aug 17, 2008
How to turn your child into an ‘expert’

Do you want your child to become an ‘expert’? Who wouldn’t? Being an expert in something usually brings great rewards in life: recognition, money, and a sense of deep accomplishment. But what is an ‘expert’? Do we ask ourselves that question often enough? Are experts born or made? In other words, are the factors that […]

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Aug 15, 2008
Teams: Why 2+2 is not always 4

“In the late 1920s, a German psychologist named Max Ringelmann compared the results of individual and group performance on a rope-pulling task. He expected that the group’s effort would be equal to the sum of the efforts of individuals within the group. For instance, three people puling together should exert three times as much pull […]

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Aug 10, 2008
Great education requires great teachers

We are all deeply concerned about the state of our education system these days, so allow me to stay on the subject for a while. There can be little doubt: if we want to haul ourselves out of the murky waters of third-world status, education is the only known method. Educating our people properly is […]

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Aug 08, 2008
What every leader must know about communication

“…Mr (Gordon) Brown’s most damaging flaw: he is a lousy communicator. A failing in any leader, for Mr Brown this weakness has proved catastrophic…Sadly (for him and for Labour), Mr Brown has a bad habit even more damaging than saying impossible things: saying nothing at all, often at excruciating length…Beyond the universal if dispiriting fact […]

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Aug 03, 2008
Kenyan priorities: a new quiz

As Kenya taxis on the runway preparing for take-off, it is important to get a sense of priority. We must all realise what’s hot, and what’s really not. Otherwise we are going to go round and round this airport and watch all those other planes zooming around in the sky. I have designed a special […]

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Aug 01, 2008
The power shifts revealed by the new Fortune Global 500

The 2007 Fortune Global 500: 1. Wal-Mart Stores 2. Exxon Mobil 3. Royal Dutch Shell 4. BP 5. Toyota Motor 6. Chevron 7. ING Group 8. Total 9. General Motors 10. ConocoPhillips Fortune (July 21, 2008) What’s new in Fortune‘s Global 500 List? Well, 6 of the top 10 corporations by revenue are oil companies, […]

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Jul 27, 2008
School fires: let us cane ourselves first

For all my optimism about the future of this fair land, I am now deeply disturbed. What is a society to make of itself when its children start burning down their schools? That society should be very, very worried. We now have a spate of copycat arson attacks leaving a trail of burnt dormitories across […]

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Jul 25, 2008
The Ambani brothers are still snatching each other’s toys

“A bitter rivalry between two Indian billionaire brothers has scuttled negotiations to combine two of the developing world’s largest mobile-phone carriers. South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd. and India’s Reliance Communications Ltd. called off talks Friday over a potential multibillion-dollar deal that would have created a wireless giant. Behind the collapse of the talks is the […]

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Jul 20, 2008
Simple common-sense rules for wannabe investors

When at a certain stage in my life I finally managed to generate some surplus cash (it took a long time), I immediately decided to invest in some stockmarket shares (as many do). I started reading the financial press trying to seek out a real winner of a company to back. I noted that many […]

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Jul 18, 2008
If you want to achieve nothing – hold a mega-conference!

“So the summit ended as such summits always do. The delegates agreed on the importance of the problem, the urgent requirement to spend more money: they emphasised the need for co-ordinated action, and resolved to meet again in future to reach the same conclusions. If you have no substantive analysis or common principles beyond acquiescence […]

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Jul 14, 2008
Crown Your Customer – Storymoja Business Club, Tuesday 15 July 2008

I will be in attendance at the inaugural meeting of the Storymoja Business Club, Books First, Nakumatt Lifestyle, Monrovia Street, Nairobi, 6.00 to 8.00 pm. The Storymoja Business Club is a new forum for managers and students of business to discuss business books in a convivial gathering of peers. Members meet once a month to […]

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Jul 13, 2008
The AGM circus shows our financial immaturity

The amazing success of the Safaricom IPO confirms that we are on our way to becoming a shareholder democracy, does it not? Hundreds of thousands of new shareholders have been brought into the bosom of capitalism, and are basking in the promise of the new wealth that will follow – yes? Anyone who thinks we […]

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Jul 11, 2008
Multi-tasking can kill you, kill your career

“…In a 2005 Australian study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers interviewed, during a 27-month period, 456 hospitalized cell phone users who had each been involved in a crash. The scientists combed the drivers’ call records to see how cell phone use affected their driving. Whether they talked hands-free or with a phone clasped […]

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Jul 06, 2008
Three words to banish from our tongues

If you want to go up Nairobi’s Museum Hill, you have to turn in from Uhuru Highway. There is usually a policeman stationed at the roundabout to make sure that only cars using the extreme right lane do this. Many a driver gets into trouble trying to turn in from the highway’s middle lane. The […]

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Jul 04, 2008
Managers should develop a “Let’s Go See” attitude

“Throughout your career people will approach you with all manner of real-life problems resulting from your work. A wonderfully effective response is to invite them to have a look with you – in other words, “Let’s Go See!” It is seldom adequate to remain at one’s desk and speculate about causes and solutions and hope […]

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Jun 29, 2008
MPS should read the signs on taxation

The debate on whether parliamentarians should pay tax on their all income is rightly attracting the opprobrium of Kenyans. This is not a new issue, by the way, nor is it particularly Kenyan. Members of parliament and leading bigwigs in other countries have also, in the past, felt that their role is so special and […]

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Jun 27, 2008
Gentlemen, burn your ties – and free your spirit!

“According to a recent Gallup Poll, the number of men who wear ties every day to work dropped to a record low of 6%, down from 10% in 2002. U.S. Sales have plummeted to $677.7 million in the 12 months ending March 31, from their peak of $1.3 billion in 1995, according to market researcher […]

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The Edge: Connecting with Customers – out now

The Edge is a quarterly management knowledge series, jointly produced by the Business Daily and Strathmore Business School. I am the Consultant Editor. The current issue is out today, free with the Business Daily and on sale all weekend. This issue’s theme is Connecting with Customers: why we have forgotten the primacy of the customer, […]

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Jun 22, 2008
Why I didn’t listen to the Budget Speech

A minister reads out a written speech full of numbers, for more than 2 hours. A couple of hundred people, mostly elderly males, gather round him. Most are in varying degrees of somnolence. From time to time they wake up and clap – with their feet. And all of this is presided over by a […]

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Jun 20, 2008
Business has many casualties – but many do last the race

“Of the 500 companies that appeared on the first (Fortune 500) list, in 1955, only 71 have a place on the list today. Nearly 2,000 companies have appeared on the list since its inception, and most are long gone from it. Dozens of companies on this year’s list did not even exist in 1955. Some […]

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Jun 15, 2008
The Top 3 Peculiarities of Kenyans

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph is perplexed again. His company’s latest promotion has turned out disastrously. The offer of ‘free’ calls after 9.00 pm every day has clogged the network and proved a nightmare for people trying to make calls at night. Why? Because Kenyans keep piling in in droves to make their calls at precisely […]

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Jun 13, 2008
Want to think better? Use your legs!

1. You learn 20% faster immediately after exercise than after sitting still. 2. If our ancestors sat still in the savanna for eight hours straight…they became somebody’s lunch. Our brains developed while we walked about 12 miles a day, seven days a week, for several million years. 3. The brain’s executive functions – higher-order capacities […]

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Jun 08, 2008
Stop playing the blame game – it’s for losers

I am writing this in the dark, afflicted by a power blackout. It seems a good time to pass the blame around. So let me start, obviously, by blaming our notorious power company, which has been a blight on this country for decades. Let me also pass some blame to my landlord, who seems incapable […]

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Jun 06, 2008
Why financiers periodically set fire to the economy

“Twenty-five years ago, when most economists were extolling the virtues of financial deregulation and innovation, a maverick named Hyman P. Minsky maintained a more negative view of Wall Street; in fact he noted that bankers, traders, and other financiers periodically played the role of arsonists, setting the entire economy ablaze. Wall Street encouraged businesses and […]

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