Intergrity Is A  Cornerstone  For Transformation

    I am an ardent and staunch supporter of democracy , i subscribe to the school of thought on which democracy rests .But  a billion dollar question is  democracy  equal  to Economic  and social Transformation ?  I  looked  at  country like china , which is governed by  in a dictatorial  way, political dissent  are not tolerated , in fact the catholic church has had a longstanding  conflict  with the  government of China  as  it meddles into the affairs of  appointing the cardinal for  the  Catholic  church  in the country. But i am perturbed the level of economic transformation that has taken place in the same dictatorial nation , is democracy really the answer to  transformation? , Recently it developed the tallest bridge in the word!, it has sidestepped  the traditional United States Of  America  and has become the single block  most trading partner with Africa!, It has a million millionaires , has lifted millions of citizen from poverty in short time !  .My next step was  Russia   which also a supper power , can poke  the eyes of  the Mighty USA without caring  much! As i can remember Vladimir  Puttin has remain in the helm  for a long time, ! Israel , the country is much advanced  in Security and also in  AGRICULTURE  yet is more than  ninety present desert . I srael has no term limits. Closer  home  Ethiopia our neighbour their economy is booming , so much the ease of doing business has made a lot of Horticulture  Companies have  relocated  to   the country      because  of the enabling environment of caring out business  but it is in public domain how  political dissents  are tortured , Extrajucial killings is on the rise , the world was astonished when  an  Ethiopian  athlete  protested in the Olympics  the  mistreatment  the government visits on its people

All the above countries  have one thing in common ,  i realized integrity is treated with outmost  seriousness .In Israel  Ehud Olmert was  sentenced to six years   in prison for obstruction of justice against  a corruption  case he was  involved in  during his tenure  as the Prime  Minister the current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is  also under probe for a an election malpractice in which if is found guilty , he would have to kiss the cold walls of  Prison. IN China  if found with a economic crime like  corruption , the suspect is sentenced to death by injection of a lethal poison   , this proves as to how the country is serious in the against corruption, if a driver causes an accident through careless driving  he /she is sentenced to life  imprisonment!, we all   taken a back  when  a  French court  ruled that  the IMF  Chief Christine Lagard was to stand  trial during  for bribery allegation , committed during her  time as a Finance minister of France!. While  Ethiopia Developed  a double Lane    railway  at cheaper price than Standard gauge Railway in Kenya!

 It seems integrity in leadership, is the swag  to go   integrity in  leadership  is the transformer  , reformer  and  the   vehicle to drive change in society ! The president last year released a list of shame in which many public officers were adversely mentioned   including cabinet secretaries such  Anne Waiguru Devolution, Felix  Kosgei  Agriculture , Kazungu Kambi Labour,  Charity Ngilu Lands   and    no one has been successfully tried and sentenced . The  most interesting part is that most of the suspects  want to take gubernatorial position in counties !!!. Devolution is great tool , it has an immense power to transform  , as each county is allocated  fair share  whether  they support the government of the day or not ,  it important to note  that fruits of devolution has  been felt far and  wide  to areas which were marginalized for long   have picked up with various projects . Counties can develop this nation so much ,  in all sectors from economic to sports,   counties can create the Barcelonas , Real Madrid , Manchester and Arsenal  of  Africa. Yes there lays much power in  devolution, but all such dreams can remain  a mirage  if we continue  elect the  Waigurus, the Felixs , the Kambis , the  Ngilus  . Transformation  of the counties would remain a pipe dream  . If we elect such people we would be   Devolving, corruption not resources!   We are doomed if we think such people can deliver!. Leaving the stewardship of our counties to such people is like leaving Mollis with your wife and expecting nothing would happen!.Knowledge of past errors should  be a beacon of corrective action in present and future. Our counties would suffer extinction if we refuse to accept  changes as we ultimately embrace  mediocrity. Is not  enough to count success or based on no  of records broken, billion., acquired or amassed  empires built  or books  or songs written but ....... INTEGRITY.  Let  it  be our on swag  , our fashion, our yardstick for electing the governors cause counties hold  tremendous power to transform our lives, to lift people out of poverty, to increase living standards , reform and transform our backyards  that the world can envy. Lets remember that integrity is the Corinthian capital of progress, lets  rubberstamp integrity in counties by voting in people  who can  change the narrative of devolution. Nandi, Kirinyaga, Kilifi  and Kitui  and the rest you have better choices  to make but not  them!

Your view on Africa's pathway to a better future

At the continental level, recent UNDP figures show that more than 40% of Africa's population is under 15. The New UNDP report also reveals that gender gap costs sub-Saharan Africa $US95 billion a year.

These figures, although sad, also point to opportunities. We now have an opportunity to catch our youths young and teach them development oriented values in order to secure the future of Africa. Development oriented education and culture (re)positioning could be the approach. And we all must play our part.

I am left asking so many "whats"... What's the way to go? What can be done? What's the how-to of doing anything? Please express your views if you have any thoughts on this.

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Words and actions can change the world.

Words and actions can change the world.Words and actions can change the world.

I’m back to one of my favorite subjects again… READING and BOOKS.

Today I want to share with you about an American publisher friend of mine, Robert L Bernstein, who just released his autobiography called: “Speaking Freely, My Life in Publishing and Human Rights.” Robert not only had a long career as a top publisher, but continues, now at age 93, as a prominent human rights activist! He started this work back in the 1970s, protecting the rights of people around the world to speak, to publish, to read, and to write, what they want… freely.

Before I tell you about Robert’s human rights work-- some of which I’m honored to say I now play a small part -- let me first tell you a little bit about his story:

Robert started his publishing career right at the bottom of the pile as an “office-boy-in-waiting,” (that was the title he gave himself) not long after serving in World War II in Morocco briefly, and India. He first started work at a publishing company in New York City called Simon and Schuster (which came up with the innovations of selling crosswords and paperback books, back in the day). After he got fired there (you have to read the book; it wasn’t because he didn’t do great things), he moved to Random House where he started in the sales department… and eventually led the whole company, for 25 years!

Over time, as a top publisher, Robert knew very well the power of the written word, yet saw how authors and publishers in some countries were living in dangerous situations, at risk of being imprisoned, or worse, for the work they were doing.

As a very young Jewish boy in America, Robert had heard firsthand how words (spoken or hidden!) could save lives and expose truths, and also end lives and hide truths. Listening to dinnertime stories (at his grandfather’s apartment) told by Jewish refugees who his grandfather helped flee from the Holocaust -- these were doctors and professors and others who’d lost almost everything -- Robert heard tales about the lives they’d left behind, and also about how they were starting all over again as strangers on a new continent.

But as a young unemployed man looking for a job, just out of the war, Robert didn’t set out to be a book publisher. He wanted to go into radio or television, an exciting new technology at the time. Then someone suggested work at a publishing company… and he decided to give it a try.

__That decision not only changed his own life, but turned out to change the world!

Maybe it was his early memories of the poverty he saw in India, the corruption he saw in Morocco and the tragic, but also inspiring, stories he heard at his Grandfather’s dinner table… maybe it was all those things that helped inspire him to become a prominent activist for Freedom of Expression (some people call him the modern "father of human rights"!)

First, Robert started the “Committee on International Freedom to Publish,” then the “Fund for Free Expression,” and then “Human Rights Watch” which still exists today, an organization he even felt free enough to criticize strongly a few years ago when he thought it was going the wrong direction…

Now I’m not going to tell you Robert’s whole story, because I hope you’ll look it up and be as inspired as I was when I first met him several years ago.

__I’ve told you before how you can learn a lot from biographies and autobiographies of great people. This book has some really important stories, whether you’re starting out in business or been there quite a while:

In this book Robert shares stories from his life that highlight the importance of ideas (both thoughts and actions); the great power, of course, of reading and writing; managing people (“hire and delegate”); and also, innovation in his work as both a publisher and a social activist.

# And where did his whole career start in the 1940s?! Innovation (ideas just "pop into my head")... and sales and marketing!

A few years ago, I was so inspired that my wife and I decided to help fund the Masiyiwa-Bernstein Fellowships at the Robert L. Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at the New York University Law School, which was launched (with his sons Tom, Peter and Bill) in April 2015. One of Robert’s sons, Tom, is the Chairman of the Board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where I also serve on the Committee on Conscience (which focuses on genocide prevention).

I count myself honored to be associated with Robert and all his family’s human rights work, and am really humbled that he’s mentioned me in his book.

You can order this important book online as a hardcover or e-book athttps://www.amazon.com/Speaking-Freely-Publish…/…/1620971712

End.

Image caption from left to right: Strive Masiyiwa, Robert Bernstein, and Faculty Director, Professor Margaret Satterthwaite at the Robert L Bernstein Institute for Human Rights inaugural conference.

Image credit: NYU School of Law

Reflection:
Personal branding – You and your words.

Just by chance a few days ago I found a YouTube video of the Academy Award-winning American actor Denzel Washington speaking to a graduating class at an American university. The power of his words reminded me of my New Year’s message several months ago when I talked about the importance of your words. I'll share the link with you, as I think those of you who know of this great star may really be surprised.

In the course of the current series on the importance of sales and marketing, some of you have asked about personal branding. I won’t go into great detail on this today, but I want to say that your words are not just your “bond” as the saying goes, but your words are your brand… not just your business brand but what announces to the world, each and every day, your character and integrity. Every time you open your mouth, or put something in writing, keep this in mind.

I’ve shared this story with some of you before: Several years ago, long before Internet and Amazon, I was in London going from shop to shop looking for a bible translation called The Living Bible. I’d just heard a sermon about the meaning of Matthew 12:35: “A good man’s speech reveals the rich treasures within him. An evil-hearted man is filled with venom, and his speech reveals it.”

The main message of that sermon (which I wrote down in my notes) offers an important lesson in personal branding, although of course that wasn’t the pastor’s intent:

“…The most important part of your life is actually the ability to use words. Words define your life; words define your values. Words define your personality. You are no better than your words; you are no greater than your words,” the pastor said.

“The character of your words is the character of your personality: Watch your words. No man ever got better than his or her words. Your life is the expression, the manifestation, the reflection, of your words. It does not take long to know who you are. All you have to do is talk for a few minutes; this is because your words locate you, they tell you where you are at…”

Since I posted my reflection on words last December, I’ve written about many subjects and shared three series with you – The Eagle in the Storm; Turning Your Business into a Technology Company; and now The Importance of Being Able to Sell to a Customer…

None of this teaching though will be sown in fertile soil if you do not guard your words, which as the Apostle Matthew said, “reveal the rich treasures within you.” The words you speak and the ones you don’t speak... Your silence can also speak volumes.

Be a person of your word and know its power. There’s a saying about a tongue which I read somewhere: “The tongue has no bones, but is strong enough to break a heart. So be careful with your words.”

Your words are your brand. How you express yourself matters greatly. We’ll discuss more about personal branding and related matters later on, but nothing is more important than the integrity of your words, and the way you express them.

To be continued. . .

Image credit: Andrew McConnell.

                       Social entrepreneurs can change Africa

__There is a social entrepreneur in each one of us, waiting to be unleashed.

Last week when I was in Nairobi, I slipped away briefly from the conference on agriculture, which I wrote about in my last post, to visit some young friends, Jessica Posner and Kennedy Odede.

I was accompanied by three dear friends and colleagues: David Rockefeller Jr, a philanthropist and conservationist (great grandson of John D Rockefeller, the founder of the Rockefeller Foundation); his wife Susan, a renowned filmmaker; and Josette Sheeran, President of the Asia Society. Josette is also the former executive director of the World Food Program, and sits on the board of AGRA.

I'd heard about the extraordinary work of Jessica and Kennedy from my wife. (They’re a married couple -- she from America, and he from Kenya). I was keen to see it for myself!

This was not my first visit to Kibera, a sprawling, informal settlement where hundreds of thousands of people live on the outskirts of Nairobi. I’d been there before, and it was mostly still every bit an "eyesore" of struggling, urban, human existence and extreme poverty, as anywhere I’ve seen in Africa. I could have been in Diepsloot in Johannesburg, Katanga in Kampala, Makoko in Lagos... You know what I am talking about.

__But amidst all such places that can "look" so hopeless, you can also find hope shining...

"When were you last here?" my friend Josette asked, as we entered its dusty and noisy environment.

"Probably 5-10 years."

"Has anything changed?"

"Not much, that I can see..."

To get where Jessica and Kennedy worked, we had to get out of the cars and walk through narrow streets for several miles. This is a hard environment, but the people were so friendly... that had not changed.

As we walked, Kennedy explained to me their audacious plan to build an aerial water reticulation system crisscrossing the entire settlement, to provide clean water. I was intrigued, and a little skeptical at first. But... when we got to the first water station complete with pipes running above us, I was completely taken aback!

Yes, they’ve begun to build a system which has water pipes in the air, rather than underground, something never tried before in such a place. I was impressed, very impressed. (Remember, I'm an engineer). I knew that laying water pipes below ground in such an environment would be prohibitively expensive… and this system stops water contamination and pipe tampering! This was pure innovation, which is why we call people like Jessica and Kennedy "social entrepreneurs."

There was more:

# A school for girls starting at pre-school and primary. Another interesting innovation, they explained to me, was how parents who can’t afford to pay anything (which is virtually everyone) pay by volunteering time to clean the school, and cook meals for the girls, in rotation. I had never seen parents so engaged in the education of their children -- beaming and excited. We need such engagement by parents in all our schools in Africa!

# The clinic was really a mini-hospital. They had so many innovations, some of them contributed by some very famous tech companies in Kenya like Safaricom, and Salesforce from America. Awesome!

Kennedy and Jessica actually live and work in Kibera where Kennedy was born and raised. When they first met, Kennedy was already working as a social entrepreneur in Kibera, but through the encouragement and assistance of Jessica, he managed to go to America and attend one of the country's leading universities. They got married and returned to Kibera to continue their work, now armed with an education.

Walking back with Kennedy beside me, still talking enthusiastically about his plans to transform Kibera, I didn't say much. My thoughts were filled with so many emotions. For one, I thought of the irony of an old nun who had just been declared a saint only a week earlier by the Pope in Rome.

I'm not a Roman Catholic, but I still admire the Pope and what he represents, and I'm privileged to have lived in a time when Mother Teresa worked and lived in the slums of the informal settlement of Kolkata in India, with the same selflessness and passion of Jessica and Kennedy.

"Did this young man and his lovely wife know about her and her sainthood?" I wondered to myself, but didn't ask.

"Thank you for the assurance, that behind my generation is one coming up, which is better than my own," I told them as we left, adding: "You are doing God's work, and it is not without recompense."

As my friend Josette explained to me when we entered Kibera: "Less than 100 years ago, there were places like this in cities of America and Europe. This is how they transformed them into what you see today... people like Jessica and Kennedy."

I agree.

All that needs to happen for change to happen is when one or two people stand up for that change.

Buying and selling businesses, is business (Part 1)

__A big idea, an excellent team.

A few months ago, Liquid Telecom, one of our businesses, bought a South African telecoms company called Neotel Communications, for about $450m. Quite a few of you who saw the news about the transaction wrote to me, asking me to share some insights into buying and selling businesses.

I’ve therefore decided to use this acquisition as a case study to share some tips on the subject of buying and selling businesses. First of all, some background to the Liquid/ Neotel transaction: Liquid Telecom is a company I set up from scratch in about 2000. It was one of the first businesses I launched when I left my homeland Zimbabwe, and began to live in South Africa.

Initially, our business operated from Mauritius and London. It was my first time to set up an office in a European country, when the idea of Africans setting up businesses in Europe or outside Africa was quite rare. I'm glad this has changed, as it should.

__Liquid was a small high tech company with a "big idea." That’s all you need sometimes. We also had an amazingly passionate team, who were highly skilled and confident.

Within a few short years, the company became highly respected in a new area of telecoms in which it was almost a pioneer. It was also a "B2B" company, meaning that it sold services to other telecoms players, and not direct to consumers.

Liquid initially focused on moving international voice traffic for telecoms operators in some 70 countries. We did this using satellite technology, and we developed earth station facilities in Europe and throughout Africa. We even had an earth station facility in Norway.

Even when you’re enjoying success in any business, you must always stay on the lookout for disruptive changes that could either threaten your business or create new opportunities. In the case of Liquid, the growth in telecoms voice traffic was slowing down, but we saw that movement of data traffic to support the Internet was going to be explosive. Most importantly, we saw it long before most of our peers. We quickly moved our focus into developing fibre optic networks.

After the Neotel acquisition is completed, we’ll have more than 50,000 km of fibre optic networks across southern, central, and eastern Africa. This is the largest such network on the African continent.

We were not the only ones to see this new landscape, but different players, new and old, saw things in different ways. Some companies built undersea cables, others became Internet Service Providers, and so on.

Our own business grew quickly, and through effective management and judicious use of our resources, it soon emerged as the key player in its sector of the industry.

Making the business bigger required a combination of setting up and building businesses from scratch, but we also made acquisitions in some markets. The Neotel transaction is just the latest in a long list of acquisitions that we’ve done to build the business. We’ve also bought businesses for Liquid in Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Neotel was owned by Tata Communications, a subsidiary of the giant Indian global conglomerate, Tata.

In this series, I’ll share with you some of the principles and processes that we use in deciding when and why we buy businesses, and how to buy a business. There’s also the challenge of integrating and transforming a business that you buy.

Sometimes we also sell businesses, and we do this quite often: "Buying and selling businesses, is also business."

Adopted from   Strive masisiywa 

                                               AFRICA IS THE NEW SILICON VALLEY

Africa has the potential to feed not just itself but other regions too.  From M-PESA     to may others Africa is becoming a powerhouse  giving silicon valley a  run for their money. There is a great awakening among  Africans   , many are harnessing technology as resource used in transformation.

The spread of mobile devices has created opportunities for agribusiness, banking, commerce and investment. Mobile technology can accelerate Africa’s productivity in farming and fisheries.

Examples of applied tech innovations developed by Africans for Africa and the world include mobile apps such as:

– ESOKO, which enables Ghanaian farmers to collect and send out market data using simple text messages.

– M-FARM helps Kenyan farmers collectively buy inputs directly from manufacturers and sell produce to the market.

– MLOUMA, in Senegal, connects farmers to food purchasers by displaying real-time market prices and localizations.

In an article published in the Special Issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine, which they co-curated, the Africa Progress Panel’s Chair, Kofi Annan, and Sam Dryden emphasize that digital technology is a powerful tool to help reduce the profound isolation of the vast majority of smallholder farmers.

African governments and international partners as well the private sector, civil society organizations should seize the new opportunities made available by digital technology to accelerate a uniquely African green revolution.