Waigwa, you are fired!

I hate to deliver this message but you have been a complete let down. When I recruited you I was convinced that you are the type of guy I needed. After the rigorous interviews, I settled on you because you seemed to know what you wanted in life. You clearly communicated in a clear and concise manner the role you were to play in my company. Look at you now, two years down the line and you look like a shadow of the exuberant young man I hired. Take this letter, hand over all company’s assets, records and files in your possession. Just hit the road and don’t you come back no more.

I hired Waigwa and spent a lot of time inducting him. Heck, I even took him to Naivasha in some posh hotel together with a few others as I attempted to sell them my vision. I took them through the history of my firm, how it grew from scratch with lots of hard work, strategy and serious money invested in it. He seemed to be very keen to perform his role and I grew some liking for him. I could count on him to deal with keeping labour records and paying casuals, procuring materials from hardware and dealing with my clients to an extent; after all delegation is a good option to take for any good manager.

That trust made me drop my guards off. This guy from some remote village from Nyeri was my right hand man and in all honesty I thought he was assisting me get closer to my vision. Crafty Waigwa must have realized that his master had gone to sleep. He could add a few names in the labour schedule (ghost workers) and his master would just pay without verifying. He could collude with the hardware guy and receive part deliveries while his master paid for the full amounts on the invoices.

One day, the master’s sixth sense was aroused. He planted some moles on the site and to his shock he was losing quite some money on labour alone. The clever master once demanded to verify some deliveries and of course there was a big difference between delivery notes and invoices. In other words Waigwa had been busted!

Then the master was called by one of his clients and to his utter shock he realized that the client had some critical information given to him by none other than Waigwa. Information the client clearly used to his advantage to corner the master. That was the stroke that broke the camel’s back. Waigwa had to be fired. He has a family to take care of but his dishonesty and lack of integrity ensured the master no option but to send him back to the hole he came from.

I am one of the most patient fellows around but business has taught me that some ruthlessness is necessary. I sometimes exercise the powers to fire.

These employees who do not buy into your dream are a representation of little foxes that destroy the vines in the vineyard. No wonder the wise man in the Bible taught us in Songs of Songs 2:15: "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom".

Do you know what are the little foxes chewing into your dream? Better find out.

In the upcoming posts, we shall talk about some interesting business opportunities I have been seeing around. Kenya has serious opportunities.

Njuguna, aren’t you working too hard?: Part 2

Continued from part 1

Njuguna worked quite hard and he must have realized that by working harder he was doing better. He must have have gotten sucked into long working hours maybe without noticing. Most likely other areas of his life got neglected. He was most likely eating poorly and probably never exercising. If this continues unchecked the guy will run into health problems and he’ll wish that he found a better balance in his life.

The biggest error of omission or is it commission is failure to create a system that works for him. How do you create such a system? We can learn a great lesson from the business mogul, the late Njenga Karume (RIP). He planned the succession of his business empires to able to run without him. He needed to have gradually let go of his direct involvement in running the businesses:

1.            You need to spot talents and build a team that shares your dream. The team will get you to your goals faster. He ought to have a manager for the hardware who deals with operational issues. The manager would probably have some sales person, procurement person, a person in charge of delivery, person in charge of receiving cash, etc. Njuguna would maybe be getting some periodic briefings and he’d probably concentrate on looking for new ventures and generally strategizing on the business and where it moves.

2.            But how would Njuguna trust that these fellows won’t steal from him? He ought to create controls at different levels to assist tighten any loopholes in the system.

3.            How about his land business? I see no reason why Njuguna would be chasing clerks at Kajiado when he can get someone to do such errands for him. I am sure he can afford to a person or people to take clients to site, chase documentation at lands office, chase consents with DO, etc. Most of these operational tasks need to be delegated.

4.            He should also take advantage of having people in his team who specialize in some areas. The jack of all trade mentality never works well. Isn't it better to know everything about something as opposed to knowing something small about everything?

5.            At that higher level, Njuguna should be able to organize his days in such a manner that he will cover all the facets of his businesses and spare some time for his family and he should rest more. Probably eat better and exercise. That way he’ll be a more complete person.

Let’s get deeper into what Njuguna ought to be doing?

1.             High Level Strategic planning : Setting realistic goals and tracking the attainment of the goals

2.             Looking for new ventures and investment options: How about going around the outskirts of Nairobi and looking for land…at the state he was in….he thought that the best land deals are only found in Kitengela… How about exploring other areas where timber is available? How about expansion into new areas…replicating the Kitengela success say in Rongai or Ruiru?

3.             Strengthening his team to help achieve his vision faster and spotting new talents. He can also build on the strengths of the existing staff and resolve some weaknesses.

4.             Creation of sales and marketing strategies…after all his business is sales driven.

If all this is in place, I think Friday afternoon he can join a member’s club and play golf. After all this life is short and he can afford the nice things in life.

I never got the chance to talk to him and I am sure this message may have never reached him before he collapses in a heap due to exhaustion and weariness. I hope someday I’ll bump into him and talk some sense into him. I hope he can listen to me...he sounded too arrogant to listen to some young man who may not be as successful as him…

That reminds me of some businessman I met who was so arrogant and was really blowinghis imaginary trumpet….Next post I’ll touch on that topic.

Njuguna, aren’t you working too hard?: Part 1

Guest post by Samuel G. Njenga

I first heard about Njuguna the very first time I landed in Kitengela in search of land. The broker I met was very jovial and excited to meet a young man (I was then) interested in investing in land. As he took me round to view the available options he could not help but tell me about Njuguna, because he felt I could be as successful as him. They were buddies with Njuguna because the broker is the one who would get nice pieces of land for Njuguna to purchase. I was therefore very keen to know more about this Njuguna and probably meet him.

According to the broker, Njuguna had as many as 150 acres of land in a myriad of places, in different sizes around Kitengela. In other words his fortune converted into cash would translate into like 200 Million as per the valuations of that time, quite a tidy sum several years ago. I requested the broker to take me to Njuguna just to have a chat with him because maybe I’d get some tips from him.

I was taken to some timber yard and introduced to Njuguna who happened to be the owner of the yard. Njuguna never in any way looked like what I expected. A man of average height dressed in some blue jeans and some blue t-shirt and in sandals; quite simple and modest. When we shook hands and introductions were done, before we could speak further he was on his phone. From the conversation I figured out he was talking to a guy somewhere in Tanzania and they were discussing about timber delivery or something like that. When he finished the conversation he looked at me and told me that he is usually quite busy. Immediately another call came in and from my little knowledge I could hear he was talking to someone at Lands office in Kajiado and the little I heard it was all about a missing green card.

While still talking, some lady came over and joined us and motioned to us that she wanted to talk to Njuguna and urgently so. When the guy finished talking on his phone, the lady was all over him asking about some timber he was meant to have delivered to her site somewhere in Athi River. He cooled her down and called some guy and instructed him to measure some timber from the yard and deliver to Athi River.

Soon after Njuguna was looking at the broker who brought me to him and asked, “What is it that this Kijana wants? “ The broker was at pains to explain that I was interested in investing in land and wanted to just talk to him and probably get some advice. His reaction was quite a surprise as he looked menacingly at me, “Kijana, you know we cannot talk about some things now. Why don’t you come later at around 6 and over a cup of coffee, we can talk business?” Of course I realized how busy he was and nodded in agreement and then we disappeared into the horizon together with the broker.

Of course I really wanted to know the secrets of Njuguna and how he had made it. I was therefore quite inquisitive and the broker gave me a long story of Njuguna’s life and I realized the following:

1.     He was an extremely hardworking guy and his story was that of ‘from rags to riches’. The timber yard was set up like 15 years ago with a capital of twenty thousand shillings and it had really grown to an extent that he could channel part of his profits to land consistently. He had created a good relationship with Maasais and they’d always bring offers for any land on sale to him.

2.     He used to take charge of almost everything in all his businesses. He was the manager at the hardware, was in charge of sourcing for timber and could spent most of his weekend at the border of Kenya and Tanzania awaiting the lorries from the other side of the border.

3.     As far as land dealings were concerned, he would also take clients to site, chase documentation at lands office, chase consents with DO, and sometimes even go to Survey of Kenya to get maps and so on.

I realized that despite doing quite well, he was too busy and working for long hours, sometimes to the detriment of his health. I therefore concluded that he was not only a workaholic but also his businesses depended entirely on him. Minus him, then the businesses would crumble like a stack of dominos.

He had a big problem trusting anyone else to even do the simplest of errands. He was also a mkono gamu and releasing any of his shillings was a painful ordeal. I actually looked for him several time so that we have the coffee but he always had something that would not allow him to show up. He seemed to have a cluttered life to say the least.

The big question I had on my mind is whether he was working too hard and was he actually working smart? Is it possible that with a different approach, he’d easily get to a higher level of success and probably work less, have time with the family and generally create a reliable system that requires his minimal input and probably at a strategic level?

Are you having problems similar to Njuguna’s and how can you get away from the mindset of working hard and start working smart?

Working too hard can have a really negative effect on your quality of life. Long hours and the pressure to keep doing more can lead to stress, burn out, depression, or just that miserable feeling of is this all there is to life?

Next post we shall explore Njuguna’s weak points and possible ways of dealing withthem. Maybe the dude should even get time to play golf and take the family out, a few holidays here and there….he should enjoy life, or so I have been thinking. After all, what is the motivation of accumulating all this wealth? The religious fellows like me will even ask “Of what use is it if a man gains the whole world and loses his soul?