How to grow your business

Every business grows from one line of business to several distinct products. It starts from what it does well to what else it can do. It moves from achieving competence in one area to developing capacity in others. In order to grow, a business must ask, what do we do well (linear growth), but more importantly what else can we do (organic growth) and and then figure out how to go about it.

How do you gauge the success of a business?

The success of a business lies more in its ability to do business than in whatever business it is in.

Get yourself an International Education

All of Africa founding fathers had an international education. All transformative leaders the world over have a global orientation. Is an international education important for the development of leaders? My answer to that question is a definite yes! But then, you ask, is it possible to give everyone an international education? Is it possible to expose everyone to global thinking? Again, my answer is a defining - Yes!

Many parents fear to take their children to international schools for fear of the high fees charged while others do not want to expose their children to global thinking lest they are unable to meet the expectations generated by an international curriculum. Yet the power of inspiration and aspiration is what will trigger the development of the child to strive to fulfill these expectations. Put it this way- If you teach the child about the village in which he or she lives, they will think no further than the limits of the way of life they are used to. But tell them stories of lands far away with different kinds of environment and you will trigger a hunger and thirst for search, exploration and achievement. An international education opens to them a door of opportunity to sample the possibility of another life. Indeed, they will be dissatisfied with the present. But then that is not always a bad thing.

Well if you cannot take your child abroad, how will they access and international education? In most countries there are both international and local curricula. Perhaps schools may want to provide international curriculum as an option and bring it to the local school. My guess is that locals will start to think differently. This will mark them out as leaders able to see things from a new perspective. This then is the value of international curricula, it gives students around a globe an international platform and benchmark of engagement, understanding and aspiration. International curricula help develop leaders among us – People who think differently. People who don’t just deal with reality, but look to achieve possibility. Not people who constantly critical of local conditions, but people willing to construct the future!

Are you Healthy?

Over the weekend Professor Catherine Gachutha, the Executive Director of Kenya Institute of Business and Counselling studies, KIBCO described health as the strength to live, the strength to struggle and the strength to die. As you can imagine I would have expected that she talks about exercise, good eating habits and medical insurance, but no. Her definition implies that health is what keeps you alive!

The strength to live is the will to get up each morning and face the day. The day may be a simple routine of going to the farm or to work. Health is the desire to meet with friends to deal with customers, to enjoy your food to experience the goodly things you look forward to every day. Imagine what the world would be like if we did not have the strength the will or the desire to do these things. If you gave up the desire to work, to eat, to dress up – you could be sick, but also extremely unhealthy.

The strength to struggle is the courage and determination you need to endure suffering, persevere pain in order to do good or get gain. It is the will to sacrifice joyfully for your children’s health wealth and well-being. It is the peace that comes form a hard day’s work. It is the fulfilling exertion of your person to your spiritual, emotional and bodily limits. Health is the capacity to endure loss, sickness and overcome grief. It is the strength to forgive and move on with life. Health is the ability to survive. It is to maintain hope and faith in the face of adversity. It is the capacity to ride the tide of success of achievement and loss in business like seasons of life. Health is the will to empathize, but not always sympathize. It is the capacity to explore all your options, take chances and not throw away any opportunities. Health is the will to live another day!

The strength to die is to live without fear, to live without regret, to do all you need to have done to day to the extent that if your time is called out now, there would be nothing to reach back for. Indeed, you may have had great plans for tomorrow, but you will have used up every ounce of life that was deposited in you if you died today. The strength to die is the strength to let go. To go knowing that you did all good you could with the time you had and to say like Paul - I have fought the good fight. To pass on the baton, teach and coach another in peace knowing that your part of history is done. My inspiration for you today is to live out your life in the fullness of health.

The ABC&D of Education

There is a season and important reason for examinations in schools and colleges. Examinations are designed to reward those that accurately restate what is taught during the term and aligns students in a pecking order of merit that recognizes those who took keen interest and those who had other interests. The “A” student is the most intelligent in this regard and is considered academically brilliant. The “A” student has the gift of recital and can be trusted to commit knowledge to memory. The A student typically qualifies to be an academician entrusted with protection and flawless transfer of knowledge and culture past down from one generation to the next and building upon it gradually, protectively and laboriously by degree.

The B students are certainly astute and have attained the discipline of method and science to an above average degree. Be students strive for perfection. Their gifting enables them to operate in an imperfect world. Their ethics and ethos set them apart as professionals and masters of a discipline. Their technical intelligence will enable them to establish careers in employment and rise to the level of managers of organizations. These are your lawyers, accountants, doctors and engineers who are trusted with expertise, excellence, efficiency and effectiveness.

If you look down upon the “C” grade, you forget that it is the democratic majority. Examiners plan the bell curve such that this group in good company. This group fails as many times as they pass a test. While they are not gifted academicians, but they are willing to try courageous and persistent. While trial and error may seem like guesswork to some, it is the key to survival in life and very often the unction to success. This group has many ideas. their challenge is to exploit them. The creative intelligence of this group makes up the bulk of our entrepreneurs, businessmen and self-employed persons who could not find a job. This group works out its own salvation in the business of life. The fact that an idea has failed once does not mean it will fail next time. Their creative intelligence enables them to succeed with ideas dismissed on paper by the A and the Bs.

The belief that D students only do enough to obtain the highest grade for the least amount of effort is misplaced. While they are considered naughty, cheeky or lazy academic programs do very little to measure their unique gifting. This group exhibits a vast range of kinesthetics energy in non-classroom activities. Their high levels of social intelligence enable them to engage as politicians, leaders, musicians, athletes, artists and fashion designers. D students rely on their natural gifting to succeed in life. Nonetheless, if “A” students were measured for social intelligence, they may not achieve little more than a “D” plain.

So where are we going with this argument? My point is this that God forsakes no one. While education programs measure academic intelligence there are other intelligences that make for success in life. Perhaps education would better serve us if we celebrated all the giftings it exposes rather than the grades it awards. The B student takes his children for tuitions from the A student, and everyone eats lunch at the C students’ restaurant who relies on the D student for popular entertainment. The A student studies the C student to establish industry trends while all of them are raving fans of highly paid football players who hardly made the D grade in school. Education helps everyone find a place in a working society. So, lets respect all our graduates and empower everyone to contribute to the wellness of humanity.