Take your Business through a Hyper-Jump in 2021

 

Take your business through a hyper-jump in 2021

I am writing my final business article for 2020 and I am thinking what might be different for business in 2021. Why should it be different and how has it been different in 2020? We are now familiar with how COVID-19 disrupted business through social-distancing, travel bans and broken supply chains.  We had to quickly and immediately find out how to do things differently. What we may not be fully aware of is the significance of those “hyper-jumps” we were forced to make to adjust to the new conditions such as moving from offline to online and working from home instead of an office building. It has almost become second nature to call for home deliveries instead of going to the store. Less than a year ago, these hyper-jumps may have seemed surreal.

So what has all this got to do with 2021. Well, while these “little” shifts in behavior may have been considered as emergent and temporary, they are now beginning to assume a sense of permanence. In other words, we are getting used to doing things differently.  Some of those hyper-jumps have been so beneficial that many businesses are looking for ways to establish them in their normal operations. Indeed, industries are looking for ways to make further inspired hyper-jumps like moving from petrol to solar power and from labor to automation permanently! The gentle nudge by COVID-19 has set off a believable train of thought that things can actually be done differently. Is it possible that 2021 will trigger even bigger levels of innovation and creativity? Could professionals, companies and industries be looking for ways to regenerate themselves through beneficial hyper-jumps. Production may never be the same with the opportunities opening up for rebranding of careers, generation of new ideas and the need for new product designs. So why not take your business through a hyper-jump in 2021! God Speed!

Go for the Prize in 2021

 

Go for the Prize in 2021

Willey Jolley says, “a setback is a setup for a comeback”. Les Brown won’t let you park your car on the side of the road, just because you missed a turn. The great apostle Paul says, “forgetting what lies behind I press on to the goal that lies ahead”. It seems to me that we all come to earth to play a small part and then depart. That small part takes heart, mind and soul and is the only way we can leave the world a better place. A lot has been said about 2020 and perhaps the worst place to look for inspiration is in the past – you have already been there! Looking ahead is an awesome, fearsome and challenging undertaking that always raises the stakes. Perhaps a dream died in 2020 and maybe you almost died with it. Maybe and just maybe you have justifiable reason to give up on this whole “goal setting thing” because it has never worked for you all these years. But I have one more reason for you to rise up and try again as Jolley, Brown and the great apostle Paul would say – it’s a New Year! And because it is a new year it brings an opportunity for New Hope, New Joy and New Success. So set up those goals for 2021 again, yes, again and never ever give up your future for anything in your past.  Trust God, who made you and the universe, to bring it to pass and press on to the prize that lies ahead. What prize are you going for in 2021?

Agenda 2063 - Managing the Vision

Agenda 2063 - Managing the Vision

The turn of the century brought about a refocusing of global and national vision. It moved the world from short term thinking to long term action. The global focus on SDGs, grounded on the accomplishments of MDGs, is much more than rhetoric. Countries around the world stepped into the 21^st century committing themselves to pursue national transformation beyond the traditional medium term development plans confined to the administrative tenure of elected governments. Perhaps the World has borrowed a leaf of thought from the East considering the rise and rise of those economies over three generations in China, Japan, and of course, the ASEAN Tiger technological hub. The adoption of “far-sight” rather than foresight as an instrument of national development is an indication that short term planning is weak on deliverables. But perhaps, more important, is the revelation that long term planning generates better results – even in the short term!

Africarecently launched a 50-year vision – Agenda 2063. The vision is seven yearsold. It is a most commendable initiative of political leaders to outline afuture for at least three generations to come. Nonetheless, in the same season, individual African governments have launched 20-30 year national visions, many of which are losing steam midstream. These economies are accruing rising (foreign) debt as they acquire infrastructure to grasp at the dream of a developed nation. The cost of this transition strategy stretches long into the foreseeable future and begs the question of the sustainability of these initiatives. Does development really mean doubling debt?

In response, one might ask, “just what is development?”. The very essence of development needs to be turned on its head in the word transformation. Transformation is the internal generation of substance. Development, on the other hand, is the simple acquisition of capacity. Development is a word focused on the exo-skeleton of advancement. For example, the expansion of roads provides room for more cars and transport vehicles. This is not short sighted if the country produces cars. However, if the country does not create roads nor produce cars, this can hardly be considered advancement. Transformation is based on empowerment for growth and generation of wealth through the creative, collaborative reorganization of the internal capacity of a country to advance its wealth position. It does so by creating new value through social engineering, transformative education and value creating enterprise. In short, there are two roads to national advancement; borrow the money-import capacity-pay the debt-export wealth. The second is, empower the people- nurture capacity- establish competence - import wealth. You will notice that the model from the East is designed on the latter, the model in Africa is predicated on the former. The former is an instant, exciting and fundamentally unsustainable. The latter takes time, effort and initiative.

In order to fulfill a vision there is a need to manage its realization. Developing a vision, like realizing a goal, requires a process of managing priorities and reorganization of one’s current reality to align with a sustainable future possibility. That requires the deployment of transformative thinking, critique, creating and doing things differently to sustainably realize a new future. Managing a vision is a generative process of transformation that cannot be managed by politicians. Transformation requires dedicated teams of citizens and social entrepreneurs committed to sacrificing for and serving the interests ofthe next generation. The difference between those who get things done and those who don’t, is that the former do and the later don’t. 

 

HELP PUBLISH RESEARCH

 

HELP PUBLISH RESEARCH

The beauty with writing is that you get to touch and transform lives of people you will never meet with a few well-chosen words on a blog, paper or book. This year I ventured into academic writing. Frankly, I was not prepared for the amount of work required to generate such papers, especially when I found out that it costs between $500USD-3000$USD to get a paper published in a reputable journal! Anyway I braved the challenge and published three articles and I am asking for help to publish a few more.

Research is a public good that drives industry, technology, education and the advancement of society. We could do with a lot more research to improve livelihoods in Africa. The article, “How empathy, social contracts and deep conversations are helping companies in Kenya overcome the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, (October, 2020) garnered more than 800 reads in one month! The research is downloadable at no cost to readers. Anyone can utilize the findings to improve their circumstances.

CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE 

One of the greatest areas of need on the continent is transformative leadership. Availing research publications is one important way of empowering leaders, readers and organizations to; transform living standards, resolve pressing social concerns and design sustainable solutions to environmental problems. Though research costs be prohibitive, lets help get it published. Thanks in advance! 

Build Ecosystems @ KUSI Ideas Festival 2020

 

Build Ecosystems @ KUSI Ideas Festival 2020

While thanking the organizers, participants and promoters for the presidential engagement of the KUSI Ideas Festival 2020, I do hope that the discussion will move from Ideas to action in the immediate and short term.  The event was predicated on Post COVID scenarios and discussed Pre-COVID options, but was reminded firmly that proactive “In-COVID” initiatives are perhaps the most important things we can do with our time right now. Rather than draw up industry blueprints and grand recovery plans to be acted upon when COVID has passed, we must establish ecosystems that support the emergence of those industries and recovery plans. Building cotton factories is unsustainable if there are no farmers growing cotton and no ecosystem to support its passage from farmland to fashion house. You can ban used clothes imports today, but with no ecosystem to support the local clothing industry, you merely strike the used clothes market off the tax radar. Our In-COVID responsibility and action therefore is to establish the ecosystems that will support the grand plans we have for a post-COVID recovery. Ecosystems, however, take time to build. They are not installed like factories. Ecosystems are an association of ideas, initiatives, incentives, profit motives, livelihoods, entrepreneurial activity and connectivity provided by technology, protected by a legal environment that advances national interests. Ecosystems are the invisible networking of a confluence of initiatives, like a spider’s web, that guarantee and sustain the economic survival of all stakeholder in a food chain.   

Ideas to Action @ KUSI

Ideas to Action @ KUSI

If you did not attend yesterday’s session at KUSI, make sure you are on the front row today. The interesting mix of, “Pre-COVID, In-COVID- and Post COVID” suggestions and projections are an important melting pot for Eastern African entrepreneurs. COVID has evolved faster as an economic stimulus package than a medical crisis. What may be interesting for researchers to determine is how people define “disease” in our modern world. It would appear that a condition such as COVID-19 cannot be treated or “cured” by a medical vaccine alone or even the entire efforts of the pharmaceutical fraternity to resolve the threat to human life. Human life is much more than having an immune system. Human life consists of occupation, enterprise and socio-economic intercourse. COVID-19 has won attention of the media, politicians and the business community because it has “interfered” with the routine pursuits of a healthy humanity. It has therefore created a point of contemplation, reflection and regeneration. Before we can talk of a post-COVID economy, we need to capture the consummate lessons of the In-COVID-19 bubble. How do we cope, how do we emerge and WHAT CAN WE DO with it? To my fellow entrepreneurs, pre-COVID times are not coming back. Consider the data and dissect the political rhetoric. Rather than debate whether the glass is half full or half empty, think about what to do with the water, the glass- and the people looking at the glass! Consider the opportunity and cut through the ideas to action.

 

First Week of December 2020

First week of December 2020 @ Business Daily

I can empathize with the editor who suddenly realized that December is here and had to start summarizing the “remaining” stories to fit in the paper before the year ends. It is pretty difficult to isolate the top stories from the important ones and then establish which have the highest impact. COVID-19 has probably been the top story throughout the year, but the important stories are the lives impacted and livelihoods changed. John Creswell says research of the future is about “numbers and stories”. The data on layoffs, profit warnings, fatalities, tax and technology give us a heads up on the direction things seem to be taking, but the emerging stories of how people are coping and others moving on with life “regardless” of the pandemic are the ones that create the future. This second group have decided that life cannot be put on hold and therefore are planning, training, developing and working towards the future with hope and determination - whether they get the vaccine or not. Somehow life must go on and that seems to be the message. While scaling back and repositioning is now a major occupation of all industries bracing themselves to operate under depressed economic conditions, there are those who are taking on new challenges with the eyes of visionaries and see opportunity where others see problems. The numbers in 2020 tease and challenge us to examine whether the glass is half empty or if it is half full.

Allan Bukusi

Sources – Business Daily

Innovation & Enterprise @ Academia

 

Innovation & Enterprise @Academia

December always sparks a holiday season. Many minds have already moved out of town and headed to holiday destinations. Those who have to complete their school programs can’t wait for the term to end. But December is also tinged with a hint of hope for a new beginning. The business sector seems to have picked up some end year cheer with the hope of a COVID vaccine becoming available in the Western world. Under a depressed economic cloud, there is a new drive to bring on board technology and innovation to usher in the New Normal. Innovation, Tech conferences, agribusiness initiatives plus a loud discussion of how Kenya can close its Industry-Academia gap. This decades old debate does not seem to get much traction every time it is brought up. Unfortunately, HELB data shows 38,314 (more) education loan defaulters and blamed it on the limping economy. Perhaps it is time that HELB should become more innovative in generating money FROM education and generating money FOR education by appreciating that education is an enterprise that can only grow if it is profitable. Relate these comments to the Industry-Academia gap and you will appreciate that the education industry operates in isolation from economic reality. With treasury backing a plan to triple university fees the gap between Academia and Industry just got wider. It will only come together when Academia starts to feed industry with what it is asking for and when academia becomes an agent of enterprise.

Allan Bukusi

Sources – Business Daily

   

Minimum Tax @ Treasury

 

Minimum Tax @ Treasury

There is a proposal that every business is to pay a mandatory minimum tax of 1% of its turnover. Whichever way you look at that proposal; it does not create any incentive to do business, if I owe the government money for taking the initiative to feed my family. It is unlikely that the proposal was made by an entrepreneur. However, in this regard, I must offer a counter argument to advance the cause of fiscal prudence. One company CEO I worked with a few years ago offered his staff the following advice, “I would rather make 1 shilling from a billion transactions than make a 100 shillings from a thousand customers”. This may be the fundamental logic behind the MAT argument except for one crucial oversight. In the CEOs case, it was the company’s business to generate those transactions. In the government’s case it is not. Safaricom works hard to generate a billion transactions. The government may need to generate productivity before reaping a running harvest. The second nugget is that while a government needs money to run a country, high taxes do not spur economic growth. A survey of tax regimes in African nations indicates that there is a direct negative correlation between high tax rates and economic growth. The tipping point is 8%. Below this figure growth rises exponentially. Above this figure growth declines, stalls and falls between 16-38%. We can learn from available global statistics on tax vs economic growth.

Allan Bukusi

Sources – Business Daily

How to Negotiate Share-Share Outcomes - in 2021

 

COVID-19 has created a temperamental and insecure business negotiating environment in which, “Win-Win” outcomes are impractical and “Win-Loss” outcomes are unacceptable. You can’t have “Win-Win” because both parties won’t get what they want and you don’t want “Win-Loss”, because one party then takes advantage of the other. But there is s third option discussed in this book in which both parties work together for mutual success. To access that option you must think beyond yourself; think about what is good for you, but also what is good for your negotiating partners – and what is best for everyone in the environment.  But this book is not about COVID-19, it is about coming through a  crisis – any crisis! First, reflect on the nature of the crisis and carefully frame the issues that need to be addressed. Second; examine the ecosystem and empathize with how the situation affects all the stakeholders within it. Third; reach out and build a trusting relationship with your negotiating partners. Fourth; agree on the principles and strategies that will anchor “business continuity” for both parties. And fifth; negotiate and share responsibility for sustainable outcomes in the New Normal.

This book is based on the findings of a research study to establish how some business were able to remain open in spite of the harsh economic impact of the pandemic on society, trade and travel. The book offers important crisis survival and sustainability tool kits for individuals and businesses everywhere.  We are all going to need a whole new set of negotiating skills in the New Normal. The book launches in January 2021 @ Kshs1,000/=  (10USD) plus shipping rates outside Nairobi. Email the author for details.

Yes, Its December!

 

Yes, it’s December!

If you are like me, then this has been the longest year you have ever lived or can ever remember. I thought it would never end. For many it has been a year that has tested our faith in friends, family, finances and ultimately faith in God to the very core! There are many who may not have visited Church for most of the year. The English say that you need to call a spade a spade and not use euphemisms like a big spoon, if you want to deal with reality and move on with life. There has been plenty of pain all around. And this is not a griping post. First, I would like to help you see that you are no alone and that the challenges have actually been universal. That means many of the hopes, dreams and resolutions you had for the year may not have materialized. However, when I look back there were somethings I never would have done, had the year not turned out as it did. I picked up an exercise routine that moved me from an unfit, paltry 3 kilometers a week to a modest 8 Kilometers a day in 8 months! – bring on the marathon! (or at least the half-marathon). Sitting at home, without a job, I have written and published more papers than I have had the time, concentration and focus to come up with in the past decade! My prayers have shifted from “God I want this” and “God, I need that”, to “God, what would you have me do?”. Of course, I can’t remember the last time I was this broke. I don’t know how that can be counted as an achievement, but many rich people seem to think it is important to acknowledge the starting point. Look back, and you will see some of the good in you (or to you) too! So what has this got to do with December? Well it’s the season, a reminder that, no matter how rough the road or great has been the load, No Season Lasts Forever! And so my wish for you this year is to have a Happy Christmas.

Negotiate @ Chief Justice

 

Negotiate! @Chief Justice

Chief Justice David Maraga, shared some interesting data that indicates “out of court” settlements are the way to go. In one sense, the Chief Justice is happy to work himself out of a job if people can sit down and negotiate among themselves. This seems like a growing sense of maturity, but the data shows that it also makes huge business sense. 2905 cases settled out of court means that there were more than 11 cases settled for every business day of the year. Those cases turned over Shillings 33.9 Billion in value that would have been tied up in non-productive assets awaiting court direction for at least one year. That means the economy was injected with “liquidity agreements” of 2.83 Billion shillings a month. Money which would not have been available to anyone. This is a concept that is not always appreciated by those seeking justice, but clearly understood by entrepreneurs. It has been said that “justice delayed is justice denied”, but entrepreneurs know that “payments delayed is as good as business denied”. Thus, I laud the courts for offloading those cases from their corridors and roundly I applaud those citizens who chose not to put their lives on hold, and sat down to negotiate terms that helped everyone move on with life. Given the hurdles presented by COVID-19 in the prevailing economic season, I urge companies to take direction from the Chief Justice, polish their negotiation skills and agree on terms with business partners.

Allan Bukusi

Sources – Business Daily