The demise of Victoria Basin Savings and Microfinance Cooperative Trust Ltd was a big blow to so many people’s livelihood. Founded in 1990, this once vibrant entity started operating as a building society and then transformed into a SACCO. It became an immediate success. However, changes in the legal status (from a building society into a SACCO) called for better ways of doing things especially an effective and independent Board of directors to provide effective oversight, risk management and going concern. Unfortunately, its leadership and members did not respond to the new realities. It was reported that one of its…
Story of a football game, how to win at the work place
It is a game of two objectives: Score many goals and do not concede. All the 11 players and the coach, and club administration focus on the winning any match the team plays both in the short term and long term. Much as the keeper is responsible for stopping balls from entering his goal (not conceding a goal); any opportunity a Keeper has to score, they attempt to score. You can see this usually in world cup matches where the Keeper sometimes runs to the other goal to try to score a corner kick at a huge risk to the…
Are you driving in the rear-view mirror?
If you drive a car or use a taxi, you have seen the driver looking ahead through the main driving screen or looking tilting the head to see what is behind through the side or rear-view mirrors or the overhead mirror. When the driver looks in the rear-view mirror, s/he is trying to take note of what is coming from behind. When the driver looks through the main driving mirror, they are looking ahead of the road – to see where she or he is heading. A great driver knows that both mirrors are critical for a safe drive. To…
Never surrender your control
Never surrender your control. The biggest challenge as an entrepreneur is trying to lose control over the critical aspects of your business like talent acquition and retention, customer relationships and quality service delivery. Any business leader must identify areas where they must win. Thereafter, invest to win. And then protect the win so that it is sustainable. In your family for the example, if you are the husband or the head of the family, you must identify the top 2-4 things which you must control. Once you lose control over those areas, you lose your family, and everything will fall…
Why your team building retreats are usually a waste of time
In the last five days, I have received several requests for proposals for team building facilitation at the management team retreat. Some have been requesting for motivational talks. Around this time of the year, many leaders are planning for off-site strategic retreats and team building events. When I receive some requests for proposals, I respond to the sender asking for two clarifications: Why do you need team building and motivational talk? What would you say is your #1 strategic challenge today? Most procurement officers who send the requests for quotations often don’t answer the questions in which case, I don’t…
In your life, who are you benchmarking against?
In your life, who are you benchmarking against? Your achievements will be average if you compete against the average. Take an example of marathon runners. To win the run, one must have pace setters strategically positioned within the runners. And they all know each other. You have, A, the key runner (the one who wants to win the race). And you have person B and C, the pace setters. And you have competitors D, E, F, G, H, etc. Only A, B, and C know who is who. The rest of the runners do not know. Runner A will look…
