 Of course, welcome back. It's a pleasure being with you on this fine Tuesday morning. My name is Ram Magukko. It's a pleasure. And of course, we're coming to you live from the broadcasting house in Nairobi, Kenya. We are also streaming live. If at all you'd like to watch us online, the place is www.kbc.co.ke4-y254. We value your feedback. And of course, let us know where you're watching us from. The hashtag, as always, is why in the morning. Welcome back. If at all you're just joining us. This is why in the morning, you're just in time for the next conversation of the day. It is all about matters concerning the strategic thinking today. And I'm going to tell you more about this particular issue, but with me I have a fantastic guest. He is an author, Dr. Fred Ogola. He is a strategic thinker. Of course, an author, somebody who has experience when it comes to this field of strategic thinking. And of course, he'll be telling us more about what he does in a bit. But of course, he is a professor and consultant on strategic decision making and change management. We are an expert at Strathmore University Business School. Dr. Fred Karibusana, you're well. I'm very well, yes. And of course, thank you so much for coming. Let us tell us a bit more about yourself and what you do before we go deeper into the conversation. Yes, as you said, I'm Dr. Fred Ogola. I'm a professor of strategy and decision making at Strathmore Business School. So I'm also the academic director of the master programs at Strathmore Business School. I'm a consultant around a company called Tellblazer Business Strategies which has done the 1,000 strategic plans. I'm also an entrepreneur. I own a school. I also own a hospital. So these are all the examples we are going to come with strategic thinking. And because I've done now currently 1,036 strategic plans in the public. Wow, 1,000. You count them one by one. Yes, until 1,000. Would you like to name those schools that you mentioned? You mentioned the school and the hospital. I own a school in Mombasa that is called Lightyears Academy which I started when I was just off from high school. When I was 17 and a half years old. Wow. And it's all about strategic thinking that I found it because the school, I started with a capital of 500 shillings. And to a school that is a... Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold the tea. Yes. You're saying you started a school with the capital of 500 shillings. Yes. Is it? Let me get it. 500 shillings. Kenya shillings, yes. Kenya shillings, yes. At the age of 17. 17 and a half years. When I grow up I want to be like you. Already you're grown, yes. But you see the thing is that first of all the background matters here. Yeah. I'm a son of a catechist. My father was a catechist, a Catholic catechist. We were born 11 children and with that kind of number of siblings and my father's income was 1,500 a month. Wow. And we used to live in Kibera in Olympic here to survive in life was hard. In fact, if you ask me when I was growing up that I will ever finish high school I'll tell you that I lie. But because when I finished high school I managed to go to a scholarship to do my high school. Mm-hmm. And for me I was independent when I was 12 years old. Wow. Because when I finished my class 8, my parents never knew how I earned income. In fact, I used to go to school. I used to be given pocket money. And on my way back I could buy sugar for my parents when I was in high school. So because of that when I finished high school it was race against time to set my family on the map because I would tell you Ram that in the year 2000 because I finished high school in 1999 if you asked my family to raise 2,000 shillings they would not because nobody had a bank account by that time in their family. So that's when I ran to Mombasa and I just took a bus, borrowed money from my uncle's wife and I was living in Veranda. You know when you go to Mombasa there are always two corridors where there's people live in that room, people live on this side. In the building here there's empty. So at night I would sleep in the middle there. So you don't sleep there for too long when you're thinking too hard. You have to come with ideas. So then I was walking around during daytime looking for opportunities. And when I walked around I saw that there are so many school going children at the age of going to school. They were just playing outside and schools were open. That is January 2000. So when I walked around I saw this was a common thing in Magongo. This is Magongo slums in Bokole in Mombasa. So then I took a walk to a nearby primary school which is called Bomu Primary School. And in Bomu Primary School I found out that the kids were so full until they were putting their heads through the window. It was so hot and there was no space. So I asked the teacher there, can I bring my brother there and told me if you want to bring your brother you have to give me 2,000 shillings which is like his pocket money. That was no school fees because it was a primary school, government public school. So it was not like admission fee. It was yes I give me 2,000 shillings, you'll get your child here. So I said maybe this looks like admission fee. So then I discovered there was a barrier for kids to go to school. So when I came back to Magongo something came up with my mind because when I was sleeping I could see the stars in the heaven and I saw that I should start a school called One Dollar a Day School where if you pay a dollar a day you can learn that's a hundred shillings. And this concept I just drafted some kind of a concept then I walked nearby. So I'm explaining to you why I got the business off with five hundred shillings. So I went to a nearby madrasa where they teach Islam. So I asked the teacher there can you give me this classroom because usually teach here between 9 and 12, then you close and the school is closed, the building is closed throughout the day. They told me yes actually I can give you but how much should I pay you ask him. They told me for free because no one will come. So I asked him are you sure? They told me yes. He gave it to you for free? Free. Believe no one will come. Yes, he believed that nothing will happen. So he gave me a key, a spare key to prove that he was right. I entered in Matatu with five hundred, six hundred shillings in my pocket. I rushed to the town I was drafting the name of the school, the concept of the school, the school fees, the requirements, everything I was writing down. At each town I typed it up, printed it, and I came back with it and put it on posters in people's houses in the slums. And I asked for people to join in one week's time. Believe me, I had the first admission of 39 pupils and the admission fee was two thousand. School fees was eight hundred a term. When this was paid, that day I rented my building. I was able to sleep in the house for the first time in Mombasa and the rest is 60. The school now has over one thousand two hundred and thirteen pupils. Wow. Yes. I wish you had an audience here. You deserve an applause. And that's the name of the school. It's called Lytris Academy. It's still very functioning. It's sometimes number two, number three best school in Mombasa district. Wow. And the name of the hospital? The hospital is called Halisi Family Hospital. It's based in Kitangela. Next to Yuko's total protestation is a 35 bed inpatient hospital. Actually, it's among the best in that area. If you want anyone who is giving birth in that area, if you don't come to Nairobi, you go there. It's the best in that area. Wow. Yes. And ladies and gentlemen, you can already feel the aura from this individual. He has a book, and this is the name of the book, Strategic Thinking. Ten lessons from one thousand strategic plans. And I love the fact that on the very first onset, I managed to go through. They work within a short period. I love the fact that you talked about the strategy's biggest dilemma. Yes. And that is where many people always get stuck. Yes. Because you want to get into something, you want to start something new. Yes. But you don't know where to start from. Yes. And every entrepreneur always tells you this. Yes. That the problem they had was how to start it. Yes. And that's the oldest problem. What are just some of those dilemmas that strategic thinkers always face throughout as they plan? Like today when I came in and I think I went to the wrong station to the KBC Channel 1, and I met a young man who told me that, you're a professor, I told him, yes. And he told me that I'm looking for to start my own business, but I'm still looking for capital. Yes. And so what comes first? Asking which business do you want to start? I told me, no, I still don't know which one, but I'm still looking for capital. Don't you see that's a dilemma? Yes. Should we start with capital or should we have a business idea? And I told him, young man, there is no business in this world which is not bankable, which has a good idea. And I told him that all companies in the world, 64% of companies you see running in this world, have some kind of value proposition. Mm-hmm. 1.2% only have the right value proposition, meaning that when you set up a business, one dilemma could be, is my value proposition right when you set up a business? For example, you say you want to sell samosa to believers through global. Is it a right value proposition? Is it that you have capital? Is it that you have a competent staff? Is it that you have the best samosas or you have the best logistics to offer samosa? Remember, McDonald is the best restaurant in the world every year ranked. But is it good because it produces the best food? No, it produces the worst food, but it has got fastest service. They are just focusing on 10 minutes you are eating. Well, for you are looking to prepare the best chicken, somebody is not focusing to come with the best recipe. He is just looking for chicken in 10 minutes somebody is eating. If I visit you at your home, when you arrive will you give me chicken in 10 minutes from your kitchen? So that is what I am trying to say. The biggest dilemma here is that do you have the right strategy or that you have the right execution? Because some companies have got the right strategic plan, but they are executing it poorly. Others have the wrong strategy, but they are executing it well. I love when you talk about strategy because now we are trying to find out what can make a business to succeed. In your book, there is a place where you wrote and I quote, most customers already know what they are looking for. So if it is not immediately clear that your company can meet their needs, they likely look for it elsewhere. Is this a problem of strategy where we have a company, my business, located within other businesses that offer the same services and therefore we have something called competition within the area. What should I do for me to stand out with my business considering strategic thinking? Because you see when I say every customer knows what they are looking for, there is what is called unmet need. I don't know that Ramya is married, but I can tell you if we do survey all our wives are not 100% happy. So that percentage, all our wives are not 100% happy. So what I am trying to say here is that there is something we are not meeting. There is some need we are not meeting. Even SafariCom means one of the most dominant company in Kenya, there is something that SafariCom does not give exactly what we are looking for. If you launch your business and bring that solution, what customers are looking for in Kenya in Telco, they can't get from SafariCom, they can't get from Airtel, they can't get from Telcom Kenya, that thing is what we call value proposition. So you are looking for what the customer do not have, they are looking for it and you have the solution. Even if it's about food, before people have restaurants in town here, some restaurants are able to open at 8, for you can open at 7. That one hour difference can make you get customers. Even a radio station, even a TV station like for example where we are now, there is what your viewers want that no one is offering. And should you offer that, you can bring, for example, how did citizens become the highest viewed station? I am saying that when I am in a TV station with you. Is because of what? They offered local content that people are looking for that was not in KTN, was not in NTV. People wanted to see their life, not seeing, watching the life of, so popular as some Mexican cities. We want to watch a Kenyan like Fred talking on TV, discussing about issues which are of Kenyan interest. And I love what you are saying because here at Y254 our focus is youth. Yes. These people. Yes. And showing that the youth get content that is customized for them. Yes. So that is part of the story. And that's why this book there is helping a young man that this is an ordinary boy called Fred. He grew up in Kibera. He's a real person. He went to Kenyan schools. Of course later he studied abroad. But the journey to there was a very normal environment. Take a bus, go to Mombasa and start life. Any young man listening to that, that's relevant to them. Wow. But if you talk about Alejandro from Mexico, they don't get it. Alejandro riding on a horse. Yes. I want to just touch, I know there are 10 lessons. Can we just touch on three? Yes. Three. Yes. Just three and then you wrap this conversation up. Okay. Because you mentioned here 10 lessons from 1000 strategic plans. Yes. I don't know how you manage to do this but we need to have a conversation on this on another day. Yes. But just three lessons that people can pick when it comes to strategic thinking. So the first lesson on that book is about strategy is biggest dilemma which I already explained. Actually the most interesting lesson in that book is called mismanagement of mismanagement. Because I've done over 1000 strategic plans, I can tell you in all companies where I have worked, there is something called mismanagement of mismanagement. What is that? Mismanagement is whereby you make the first wrong move strategically and you don't acknowledge that it's wrong. So you try to make other moves which are equally wrong to try to rectify the wrong and you don't get it right. For example, I can mention the issue of family there because this book can help you in your personal life, business life, family life, corporate life, entrepreneurship life. So let's say for example, in family life, you reach home late tonight and your wife will ask you, Ram, where are you coming from? Now remember the first thing you have mismanaged your time to arrive late. Yes. And now you mismanage your time by asking who are you to ask me where I'm coming from. Then when you're being told, don't I have the right, then you bang the table. So you see the first thing you mismanagement of mismanagement of mismanagement of mismanagement and in corporate. What we need in the corporate world is to understand for you to be a strategic thinker is that you need to manage what was mismanaged in the first place. Yes. For example, you enter, you launch a product in Uganda. It's a wrong product for the wrong market. Then instead of agreeing this is wrong and pull off the product, maybe do a lot of research study before you launch, you blow more money on advertisement and research. And maybe you even fire the team, hire a new one instead of just knowing this was wrong move. So that is mismanagement or mismanagement. We've seen this a lot. Let's pick lesson number two. Yes. Lesson number two there. No, that's a lesson number two. Yes. You're good to number three. Number three, we talked about another thing they are called romanticize leadership. The leadership is romanticize. What is that? Romanticize meaning here that if you hear corporate Kenya, have you heard about guys who are being called top CEOs who are seen to be let's say social icons? For example. Yeah. So keeping a teacher is mentioned in that book. Yeah. He was a CEO at KWS. Very successful. Then he went to Chumi. He performed very poorly, isn't it? And now he's at Jubilee in Switzerland. I don't want to mention whatever he's doing there. But people think that because you are the success of a company is because of the goodness of a CEO. But we have realized that sometimes if you pick a good CEO from this company, attack them, the company they fail. Michael Joseph was picked from Saffaricom, was sent to Romania to run a World Bank project of mobile money and he failed. Michael Joseph can reach here in Kenya Airways and you can tell whether they are succeeding. They are failing. So what we are trying to say here that I've seen in many strategic plans that people overemphasize the importance of the CEO. But what is important are the middle level management and actually the people on the ground, the food soldiers. For example, like you now you're doing very well for the station. Maybe your CEO can be said, your success is the reason that he succeeds. But people do not see the need of seeing the importance of those people in the middle level management and the food soldiers that they have a serious contribution to the success of the company, the culture of the company rather than just the CEO because. So for us to succeed, we need strategic thinking applied so that the managers, the CEO, those who are at the top can be able to bring down inspiration from those who are at the bottom. Yes. Like for example, what turns you on in the morning? Wake up and come to work and show up here and be able to perform well. That motivates you to come to work. Motivates you. That's what your CEO needs to think about. What makes RAM wake up and show up and perform? Rather than thinking about I'm a CEO, I was successful at that company and the big shot here. I run a big department, I'm not the big shot. My staff are my heroes. Wow. We need to bring this conversation to a close. But sadly we have not touched on a lot, but I would like to have you again on another day, but I want to give it time to have a final word to talk to that Kenyan youth watching you today when it comes to strategic thinking, what would be your parting shot? My parting shot to them is that success is not an event. Success is not about chance. And success is not just about an accident. Success needs a process. And the process is something which is superior to you. It needs discipline. It needs focus. It needs hard work. It needs you to put your attention in the right things. All right. Because when you put your eyes on attention, the wrong things actually you get it wrong. How can people find this book as we wrap it up? Is it accessible? If you go to my website, Fredogola.co.ke, you can easily be able to find how you can purchase that book. All right. And you can be able to buy yourself a copy. You can pay by pay bill number. Then it can be sent to you through Sandy. All right. Or it can go to you by some other ways of delivery. And of course I'm away. You have a book launch. What is happening? Yes, the book launch is on 2nd of June. That's this Thursday. All right. I start my business school from 7 a.m. to 10. Please be there. All right. Looking forward to that, Dr. Gola. Yes. And of course, thank you so much for coming. And of course, I wish you the best. Keep doing what you're doing. I love this. Thank you. I love how everything. And I can see there's a chess here. Yes. Meaning it's almost strategic. He's thinking, yes. Thank you so much. And of course, this is all about matters concerning strategic thinking right here on Entrepreneurship Tuesday. We are taking a short break. We'll be back in a bit. Keep it going in the morning. Thank you very much.