Safaricom, Airtel in high-stakes poaching game of senior managers

Senior Safaricom and Airtel managers have switched to rival camps in the past six months, indicating a heated talent war between the two telcos.

Safaricom, Kenya’s biggest telecommunications firm, has poached four managers from Airtel and lost an equal number to its closest rival.

The high-stakes corporate shuffle has seen Priscilla Muthoni  (digital manager), Marion Wanyoike (segment lead-youth) and Wallace Chege (business performance analyst) cross over to Safaricom from Airtel in the past two months.

The three have joined Charles Wanjohi, formerly marketing director at Airtel, who joined Safaricom in July as the head of department - consumer segments.

Airtel has also raided Safaricom’s talent pool, poaching, among others, Kennedy Luhombo (former M-Pesa business development manager) to become the senior manager, Airtel Money business development.

In the list also is Athman Ahmed – who was the talent manager at Safaricom­ – who moves to senior manager, talent and resourcing at Airtel.

Dennis Gatuku, who was a finance manager at Safaricom, is now senior manager finance at Airtel while Henry Nyangor (former Safaricom senior purchasing manager) is now head of supply chain management at Airtel Kenya.

“The Kenyan telecommunications sector remains amongst the most dynamic in terms of talent acquisition. As the market continues to mature and demand more specialised skills, we are seeing increasing emphasis on ensuring that every part of the organisation is performing optimally,” said Safaricom director- resources, Roy Masamba.

Airtel confirmed the list of individuals they have hired from Safaricom but declined to comment on the matter further.

The poaching by the rival firms gives a glimpse into the human resource areas that Safaricom and Airtel are keen to strengthen.

In the early 2000’s when the mobile network operators’ business was picking in Kenya the major concern was if the country had enough technical skills to manage and maintain the GSM business.

Then Celtel (now Airtel) and Safaricom mainly engaged in poaching of employees with technical skills.

The emphasis has now gone to those with talent that grows specific segments of the business. 

Safaricom has gone for Mr Wanjohi who is credited for leading a team that came up with Airtel’s popular data product – the UnlimiNet, indicating the firm wants to up its game on innovative data consumer products.

“In this role he (Charles) will develop, implement and deliver compelling value propositions to consumer segment with a view to enabling achievement of short and long-term business objectives,” read an internal communication to Safaricom’s staff.

Airtel’s choice of Mr Luhombo is indicative of their quest to have an insider who can bring in a fresh strategy on Airtel Money. Data and mobile money transfers are the fastest-growing segments in mobile telephony.