“For start-ups, suicide is a more likely cause of death, rather than getting killed by the competition,” says Alex Mativo, winner of the Queen’s Leadership Award. “Don’t worry about the competition, just get the basics of the business right,” says the young Kenyan Ted X ‘value of design thinking’ presenter.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves” was how William Shakespeare expressed the same idea in his play, Julius Caesar, over 400 years ago.
Smart perspective for every Kenyan business is to treat every day like it’s day 1. This is one of the mantras of Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, treat each sunrise, like it’s the first day of their new start-up. As the sun comes up, begin with a clean slate.
Having a day 1 mindset is a way to stay relevant and on your toes. Every successful start-up begins with a solution to some problem, or need. A promising start-up focuses on what the customer needs, and how they want it, even if they don’t know it yet.
“The outside world can push you into day 2 if you won’t, or can’t embrace powerful trends quickly. If you fight them, you’re probably fighting the future. Embrace them and you will have a tailwind,” says Bezos.
Start with the problem
The trick is to just be in the present and notice what problems customers are facing. And, notice the direction in which the wind is blowing. Strong trends are not that hard to spot in today’s world.
Many corporates get caught up with what has worked for them in the past, instead of seeing what the present and the opportunity of the future call for. That’s the essence of day 1 thinking. Waking up each morning, searching for ways to become and stay relevant to customers.
Despite living in a digital world, where it may seem, your phone is smarter than you are, any business relies on sharp engaged ‘batteries included’ people who can power the enterprise forward.
“Hire slowly and fire quickly,” says Mativo when he talks about the ups and downs of his decade-long entrepreneurial journey.
His first venture, e-Lab, turned the electronic waste of Athi River dump sites into design art and jewellery that caught the eyes of many including BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera.
Next came Nanasi, which aimed to provide a point-of-sale solution to smaller restaurants, that went on to secure Silicon Valley venture capital funding. Ever inventive, in the last year, Mativo has created Duck, a smart data analytics solution, that gives manufacturers and distributors valued real-time insights on their customers, and non-customers purchasing decisions.
What is the secret sauce?
So, what has made Mativo an entrepreneurial success? Yes, one can sense he is sharp and has a charm about him, and thanks to his global exposure is a polished communicator. But there is something else.
In a recent Saturday morning talk to young entrepreneurs in Nairobi, one notices he listens patiently, he has none of the ‘big man, look at me, flashing lights arrogance’. Just a quiet humility, a readiness to look aspiring start-up owners in the eye, and listen to their story.
Real leadership
This idea of leadership has become yet another management fad, what is the new leadership, is really often just old-fashioned insightful perceptive management. “So many leaders, yet so little leadership” is the almost Biblical lament.
Yet, Mativo fits the bill as a leader, a young Kenyan, winner of international awards, who was sparked by seeing the problem of e-waste in ugly dumpsites, who took action, going on to create part of the solution.
We are all in this together. To create thriving businesses that create jobs, disposable income, injecting money, and creating demand in the local economy, is part of the essence of the economic development problem.
Yet, a small business often can’t go it alone, no need to be a lone ranger, it helps to have a co-founder, advises Mativo, to share the burden of the inevitable day-to-day problems of business. Makes sense to work with people you like, that challenge and bring out the best in you.
Kenyan private equity wizard Ngalaah Chuphi, puts it this way: “Hire people smarter than you, and are nice.”
