It has been almost 10 years of change in Kenya. Change is everywhere – private sector, public sector, infrastructure and wherever you look. Some Nairobi residents now have 12 lanes of road where they just had four, while others have the same two lanes they had, but choked with traffic to suffocation where traffic was flowing smoothly the other day. New road or old road, there’s enough change to go around for everyone, other than Nairobi supermarkets who lack Ksh. 1 denominational change.
In fact, the other day, I happened to be seated behind two people who were arguing about change.
One of them worked at KCB while another worked at East Africa Breweries Limited. In case you are not aware, KCB changed its name from Kenya Commercial Bank after it found itself with branches in Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan. EABL , formerly Kenya Breweries Limited, found itself with breweries and non Kenyan drinkers in Uganda and Tanzania.
However, the fact that the royal Kabaka was more likely to become a client of either EABL or KCB was not the reason that drove the change.
The two firms had been under mismanagement for a number of years. KCB, with the government being a majority shareholder had suffered from political influence.
EABL, meanwhile, had enjoyed a wild run with little competition in Kenya for years. The South African’s, finding nothing but the cold waters of the Atlantic ocean down south, decided that the drunkards of Kenya were theirs for the conquering. See, according to Diageo, who now own EABL, the 40 million Kenyans consume almost as much alcohol as the 50 million South Africans and half as much as the 160 million Nigerians.
South African Breweries Limited thus set foot in the bars of Nairobi, thus challenging the then KBL’s dominance, and making it difficult for millions of drunk Kenyans to identify their favourite brewery.
Meanwhile, at KBL offices, things run a bit differently. It is said that there was a holy floor in their offices , which was occupied by the MD amongst others. Normal employees were not allowed to this office of the gods. A manager, once said to have rubbed the gods the wrong way found that his card could not let him into office the next day. Human resource protocol and procedure were not necessary here.
The resultant firm was one not focused on customers, or even shareholders, but on pleasing the gods of the higher floors. Faced with competition, it was difficult for such a firm to compete effectively.
KBL later sold majority shares to Diageo in a bid to raise funds to modernise and compete effectively. Diageo replaced the CEo with a foreign one, who was brought in as change manager. Employees could now focus on their work, and walk into any floors without fear of losing their jobs. Employees were now able to even present differing opinion for consideration to their manager.
KCB had a similar problem. Being a state owned bank, there was a lot of political meddling in the bank, with a long list of non-performing loans. If you were politically connected, you were able to get a large loan from the bank. If you felt they were bothering you more than is necessary in paying the loan back, you would place a call to a powerful individual somewhere, who would then remind bank officials it was rude to demand loans from those who had a say in their appointments.
The bank was then the largest in the country by customer base and also by assets.
With a new government in 2003, made of a new order, a new CEO was needed to change the mode of operation at KCB. Terry Davidson, a Kenyan Born Briton, was appointed from Citibank.
Terry Davidson was later to leave in what some term as unclear circumstances. Some suggest that he may have brought much more change than the powers at be were comfortable with.
The argument the guys were having was whether “native Kenyans” are in the position to bring change.
I have had a similar argument with one Phares Kaboro. Phares is of the opinion that a company does not have to hire staff from outside the corporation, or even outside the country to bring about change. A change manager can come from the same firm plagued with shortcomings. According to Phares, the fact that the top management have a certain flawed style of management does not mean that the whole firm subscribes to this gospel. Are change managers inside the firm easier to find than a needle in a haystack?
When it comes to hiring staff from outside a country, is it that managers from the West are preferred due to a difference in culture? Are they better managers than one hired from the native country a firm operates in?
Where does change come from?