Why culture will eat strategy for breakfast any day

The 4,000-mile-long Great Wall of China was built to keep out invaders from the north. The first wall was constructed by Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China, who lived between 259 and 210 BC. But in AD 1644 the Manchus broke through the Great Wall and overran China. They did this by bribing a general of the Ming dynasty to open the gates.

I hope you got that clear. The Great Wall of China — a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labour — was breached. It was not done by breaking it down or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers.

Where am I going with this? I will do justice by going a back into history. I will cite three examples.

Just after the Jubilee government came in, the Sh24.6 billion laptop tendering process rejected by the High Court because it was Sh1.4 billion above what the winning bidder quoted. This is because officials had tried to reserve Sh1.4 billion for themselves.

Then we had the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chicken Gate scandal where top elections officials received more than Sh50 million to facilitate printing tenders.

The UK Serious Fraud Office investigated, charged, prosecuted and had convicted the co-accused in London. They have offered the evidence to their Kenyan counterparts who are yet to make tangible progress on the same.

Not to forget the Sh175 billion Lamu Coal project awarded to Centum/Gulf energy who were already excluded at the preliminary request for proposals stage. Both companies were excluded for having absolutely no technical and financial capacity to deliver a project like this. They were also the highest power cost bidder.

The tender loser had experience generating more than 100,000 megawatts of coal fired energy globally, Kenya has about 2,294 megawatts total installed electricity capacity. The loser was the cheapest power cost bidder.

So what did we do?

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyetta launched the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) with pomp and glamour in Nairobi. The platform was touted as the ultimate cure of our corrupt public financial and procurement system.

But we wondered, was it the silver bullet that was going to succeed where the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and other agencies seem to have failed?

The IFMIS website proclaims it is an automated system that enhances efficiency in planning, budgeting, procurement, expenditure management and reporting in the national and county governments in Kenya.

So what happened after IFMIS? As I write this, The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has recommended 21 government officers be prosecuted over the National Youth Service scandal. Investigations revealed that Sh791 million was lost in suspicious payments to various private companies.

Youth Fund chief executive Catherine Namuye has also been suspended over Sh200 million fraud. Reports indicate that Ms Namuye was suspended after the Banking Fraud Unit discovered suspicious transfer of funds from the fund’s account between February and April.

What’s my point my fellow countrymen? Culture is all that invisible stuff that glues organisations together, as Dr Ouma, my economics professor at Egerton University, taught me many years ago.

It includes things like norms of purpose, values, approach — the stuff that’s hard to codify, hard to evaluate, and certainly hard to measure and therefore manage. Many other experts, such as Peter Senge and John Kotter have certainly added to that understanding with complex and nuanced constructs, but Dr Ouma’s invisible glue comment holds a truth.

This “invisibility” causes many managers to treat culture as a soft topic, but it’s the stuff that determines how we get things done.

After working with organisations on strategy for 10 years, I can say this: culture will trump strategy, every time. The best strategic idea means nothing in isolation. If the strategy conflicts with how a group of people already believe, behave or make decisions it will fail. Conversely, a culturally robust team can turn a so-so strategy into a winner.

The “how” matters in how we get performance. Yes, it does. God bless Kenya.

Mr Waswa is a management and HR specialist and managing director of Outdoors Africa. E-mail: [email protected].