Where Would You Be If You Weren’t Working Where You Are Now?

Colleagues at work“Where Would You Be If You Weren’t Working Where You Are Now?” When Terryanne Chebet asked this question to a panel of entrepreneurs during a recent Great Talks event, it turned out that the answers were largely going to be political. I mean, who among the celebrated entrepreneurs would say that they would rather work elsewhere than for the company they founded? Even James Wambugu, Group MD General Insurance UAP Old Mutual Group didn’t dare disclose any wishes (if any) he might be harbouring of moving to a different corporation in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company he heads.

Hilda Moraa, Founder & CEO of Weza Tele was maybe the only one who could speak her mind freely on this subject, having recently sold her company to AFB for Kshs.157M. She said that since distribution is one of the biggest opportunities globally, she would like to work in a small business because such a company is innovative, ready to fail and to keep on testing and growing to impact the masses.

Danson Muchemi, CEO of Jambopay likes a company that’s full of passion, believes in its employees and in empowering them. And of course for him such a company is none other than Jambopay.

Evely Akinyi Odongo, Founder & CEO of Akinyi Odongo Kenya would love to work for Velocity Fashion, a homegrown fashion brand that was started from scratch, just like Akinyi Odongo Kenya. Evelyn feels that both brands have followed the same path and that she would learn a lot from interacting and comparing notes with Velocity Fashion founders.

Suzie Wokabi, Founder & CEO of Suzie Beauty would like working for a beauty conglomerate to help them understand the African market because they don’t.

Vusi Thembekwayo, renowned African entrepreneur, venture capitalist, global business speaker and investor on Dragon’s Den TV show, who was the keynote speaker gave two interesting answers.

  • He would have liked working for Kodak over the past five years because he would have wanted to be in the room when the board of directors decided to ‘cannibalise’ their business. (Kodak spent billions of dollars developing technology for taking digital pictures but for fear of killing its film business which was their golden eggs goose, it held back from developing digital cameras for the mass market. The competition jumped on the opportunity and drove them out of business.)
  • He would love working at the NASA because he’s looking at environments where people are challenging convention all the time and “those guys at NASA are doing new things all the time”.

Over to you! What answer would you have given Terryanne Chebet?

 

Angela Kamanzi
Your Friend in Biashara

PS: January 2016 intake for BizzRafiki – Taking Off and BizzRafiki – Start Right is on. REGISTER TODAY! Select your program here.

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About Angela

Angela Kamanzi is passionate about empowering African women through entrepreneurship. She is the publisher and founding editor of MKAZI, a digital magazine that offers solutions and tools to women who are starting up in business or taking their ventures to the next level. She is the founder of BizzRafiki-Your Friend in Biashara, a mentorship program which specialises in helping budding or aspiring women entrepreneurs start or grow high income business ventures from their passion. For more than ten years she contributed to a number of local and international publications as a freelance writer. She has 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship. She lives in Nairobi with her husband and their two sons. Her journey was featured on Lionesses of Africa, on AM Live NTV , in the Saturday Nation, on Supamamas website and Mummy Tales blog.

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