‘Business is not a bed of roses’

By James Anyanzwa

The Africa International Business and Management (AIBUMA) 2011 conference came to a close Friday last week with a key message to businesses to consider ways of working together to build synergies for growth and development.

Among the speakers included Standard Group Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul Melly, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, Uchumi Chain of Supermarkets CEO Jonathan Ciano and Kenya Wildlife Services Director Julius Kipng’etich and Brand Kenya Chief Executive Mary Kimonye.

Others were, Vision 2030 Secretariat Director-General Mugo Kibati, Information and Communications Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo, and the PhD-Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Carroll School of Management John Gallaugher.

Ciano gave a candid experience and insight of what is required to turn around financial distressed companies.

Indeed Ciano, has achieved what many executives would hope to achieve in a lifetime: reviving a company.

"Life is a series of experiences which makes an organisation bigger and even bigger than we think," he said adding that "business is not a bed of roses".

"Business success is dependant on strategy, leadership and culture. All these factors combine

Ciano explained that the approach to take in turning around a company depends so much on the environment that company is operating in.

"The approach to turnaround a company is dependant on the environment," said Ciano, who is credited for turning around Uchumi Supermarkets.

The return of the supermarket chain to the Nairobi Stock Exchange is indeed a success story because not many companies manage to come out of receivership.

Sound leadership and management practices including application of ICT operations in business management was also singled out as key factors in creating synergies required to enhance improved performance of firms.

"It is important for different businesses to work together to create cutting edge products for emerging markets such as Kenya," said Bob Collymore Safaricom CEO, adding that, "ICT makes very complicated business operations to be easier and faster to execute."

Collymore said the use of ICT has transformed the way business is carried out.

"There is no doubt in my mind that most of the questions and problems we face in our organisations can be resolved using technologically-based solutions," he said.

"Use of ICT has transformed the way business is conducted and it is transforming global economy."

Melly said the nature of leadership in an organisation determines its capacity to grow and embrace technological advancement and innovations.

It was argued that performance of organisations require leaders who are passionate, dynamic and ready to adapt quickly to the changing market trends and that business synergies are likely to flourish better in environments where firms focus mainly on their core activities.

" In whatever we speak whether we are talking about synergies or innovations, the key thing is leadership," said Melly adding that," leadership must be at the core of everything we do in our organisations."

Melly pointed out that distrust, suspicion and conflict of interest have hindered players in the same industry from sharing resources and outsourcing some of their non-core activities to each other.

"The reason why companies keep on investing in functions that they can outsource is because they can’t trust competitors," he said.

The second AIBUMA conference themed’ Building Synergies for Better Performance’ attracted 180 students from various universities, who converged at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) to listen to more than 100 presentations.

The AIBUMA conference seeks to provide a forum for disciplinary and interdisciplinary communications, where researchers, intellectuals, policy makers and consultants share results of their research, studies and thoughts, with regard to societies and private/public organisations.