Nesbitt: Go-getting, no frills boss at IBM

You have not seen humble until you have seen Nicholas Nesbitt’s office on the fourth floor of The Atrium on Chaka Road, IBM’s nerve centre in eastern Africa. It is threadbare, unassuming and devoid of any frills that would come with his lofty accomplishments so far, right up to his current post as the general manager, Eastern Africa.

You know him from KenCall — the leading international BPO/call centre outsourcing in East Africa, recognised and feted globally.

Educated at Stanford (MBA) and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (Engineering), he was awarded the Order of The Grand Warrior (OGW) by the president in 2006 in recognition of his pioneering spirit. He sits on numerous corporate and public sector boards.

Nicholas is uber intelligent, driven, self-aware and has deadpan humour.

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What is your struggle today, right now, as the boss here?

I’m struggling with being very entrepreneurial in a very large company, to mean processes and structures. The other challenge is around the perception of IBM.

What is IBM? People still ask questions around computers or laptops and so on, so we are trying to change that brand — or the perception of the brand. And then I think, personally, I’ve grand ambitions as to what IBM can do for East Africa, and then eventually more parts of Africa by helping to build trust in processes, helping to simplify how people do transactions, trying to get more people included in financial sector and so on. (Pause) You know, it’s tough to get the whole world to move in the speed I want to move.

As a leader, what makes you the most insecure?

That’s an interesting question…(long pause) …I don’t really know...I don’t really know. I will have to come back to that question.

Where did you grow up?

Just over here on Denis Pritt Road. I was born behind Valley Arcade, walked to Kilimani Primary School, then went to St. Mary’s, finished “A” level then went to the States.

How old are you now?

54 years.

When do you think you became the man you are now?

(Pause) I’ll probably say that happened early 20s. This is when I left graduate school and went into management consulting. I did not even know how I got there because I was with the smartest people I’d ever met. I had always been the smartest in my class, suddenly I meet guys who were much smarter than me.

And when I got to college, Dartmouth, which is one of the Ivy League schools, I was blown away. There were guys who would score 99.9 per cent while you’re happy with an 85 per cent, which would have given you an “A” here. For the position of analyst in the management company, about 3,000 people applied and they picked seven. I was one of them.

That was a very tough job because right from the word go, you’re engaging with the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, and you had to make decisions. I became a man during those times.

What would you undo in your life, if you were to have a second crack at it?

I think would not have made decisions based on two things; money and age. First, putting milestones and achievements against age was a mistake.

Secondly, many times in my life I’ve made key decisions — where I live, what job I took — based on money even if it did not fit with who I was as a person. You will always go wrong with such decisions.

So when did you become completely self aware?

I think the self-awareness really happened at Stanford Business School, when I was about 26- years-old.

You’re a really early bloomer, huh?

Those first 10 years of education in the States was a time when your skull just gets cracked open. Especially somebody coming from Kenya who was very successful, and in many ways quite privileged, to now just see this whole different world. But here, the focus, as you know, was not about self-awareness but self discovery.

I had to be an engineer and I did not really want to be an engineer but I was smart enough to do engineering. But that was very focused and regimented and predictable but it wasn’t really who I was. But I met targets and kept going. I then did a masters in electrical engineering then worked at consulting for a few years.

I went on to study for an MBA. So that whole time, it’s all very scientific, formula driven, my father was a doctor, which just meant “push”.

So when you get to Stanford you get to sit with Steve Jobs — in fact he married one of my good friends. You get to sit with the CEO of Ford. You begin to realise that these guys are different penguins, all aspiring to be the best penguins and what made them different was their actual self awareness.

In business school, they actually focused on you as an individual. What makes you tick? They said when you get out of here, you absolutely will have failed if you basically succumb to the conspiracy of mediocrity...

Conspiracy of mediocrity, I like that...

It means when everybody is trying to be sort of the same, keep balance, manage risk, no waves, save, bureaucracy.

Based on this background, how are you raising your children?

Just having a lot of fun doing it. My son who is three, told me he wants to dress up exactly like me — my tie, my shoes and socks . He said he wants soccer boots just like mine. He wants to be like me.

Would you say you are a high achiever?

Yeah. I think I am, yeah.

Would you say you have had fun getting where you are now?

Fun? Oh yeah. I’ve had some rough times but I’ve had fun.

What have you ever failed at, spectacularly?

Spectacularly? (pause) I think I failed at making that company into what I wanted to make it into, which is a $100 million company. I failed to do that by not innovating again. I think I failed at being very clear about the financial obligations, very clear about the distinction between the financial obligations and the social obligations because at the end of the day it was a business, it was not a social organisation.

Was there any pressure growing up under your father who I take it was also highly driven? And are your children invariably exposed to some level of pressure from you now?

You know, my father, was completely self made. He went to Alliance in the 30s, and 40s. He fashioned his own suitcase out of wood to go there as a young mixed race boy in the 1940s, with those big guys, and he wasn’t a very big guy. All of his peers and friends from Alliance came in to basically run the country in the 60s 70s, and 80s.

I grew up in that structured kind of environment. For my kids, I’m also giving them that same kind of sense of structure but it’s different, you now; I play on the ground with my kids, I carry them, I spend all day in the swimming pool with them. My dad did not do that.

So you are a successful businessman, an accomplished corporate man and now come across as a committed father. So what do you really suck at?

I think… what do I suck at? (pause) …Wow...(turns to Ben Mann his COO) …what do you think I’m bad at? Remember we haven’t done your 2016 review yet (laughter in the room).

Let’s not put Ben on the spot. Tell me instead, your definition of success?

Success to me is about achieving your potential. What are capable of doing? Success is about achieving what you are meant to achieve and what you are capable of achieving.

How do you review that?

A lot of self reflection which is writing and thinking things, and reviewing those regularly. I’m also part of the group called Young Presidents Organisation, and we have a structured way of meeting every two months or so, where you get to talk about what’s happening with you.

Your dad is a mix of black and white, and your mom is a mix of black and white. Who did you marry?

My first wife was a white woman. My second wife is an Asian woman, in Kenya.

You’ve not talked about your mother. What kind of a lady was she? Is she alive?

Yeah, my mother is 80, she still plays golf and drives herself. She drives faster than any of my brothers. My mother was a constant force in our family, and perhaps equal if not even greater influence on our character.

What’s different about being married the second time?

(Long pause) I think the second time, you are more patient and understanding about the other person. The cultures, environment are all different. There is more self-awareness now. I’m aware now that some of the problems with the first wife, are now also problems with the second wife. So I’ve become aware that there’s only one person who’s been in both of those relationships so just perhaps it might be me. (laughter).

What does money mean to you?

Money? You know money to me is like sex; you never get trained on it, you never talk about it at the dinner table, you never have enough of it, you’re always thinking other people are getting more of it than you are, and you never think you are good enough at it.