IEC International | Ellah Natanga: IEC Study Abroad Expo

IEC International | Ellah Natanga: IEC Study Abroad Expo

Kenya Bankers Association will be Hosting "My Chat With A CEO"

My chat with a bank CEO is a month-long Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) event during which Bank Chief Executive Officers will host live online chat sessions, giving their views as well as both seeking and giving advise on the various topics. based on bank customer feedback, the event includes:

• Interest rates: why banks charge the way they do
• Good debt vs. bad debt: when should you apply for a loan?
• How to finance your first home: points to discuss with your bank
• SME opportunities and challenges
• Investment tips: what options are available to the banking public?
• Sharia-compliant banking: how does the no interest aspect work?
• How banks can support Financial Inclusion and Employment Creation
• Careers in banking: day in the life of a banker

David Thuku, CEO Family Bank will on Friday, October 6th 2017 host the topic, Digital Innovation and Banking at 10 - 11 am.

How Companies Conquer In Emerging Markets

These days almost every big company with any kind of international presence has at least part of its business in emerging markets. They don’t all go about it the same way though, and in the video below, Boston Consulting GroupCEO Richard Lesser shares his take on what companies do right, what they do wrong, and how they can get the most out of emerging markets:

“It’s not enough to just go for the revenue, it has to be differentiated.”

So says Richard Lesser, chief executive officer at Boston Consulting Group. He believes the first thing companies expanding into new markets need to consider is whether what they are planning will ultimately generate shareholder return.

That philosophy informs the discussions BCG’s consultants have with companies all over the world, and part of the discussion, Lesser says, is taking a long look  at "which markets you can win.”

Back in May, Clorox CLX +0.49% CEO Don Knauss told Forbes that the consumer products company doesn’t just move into markets because they are big or growing rapidly, they focus on areas where the mid-cap company can be a top-tier player.

“While Procter & Gamble PG +0% and Unilever are beating each other up in Brazil, we’re over in Peru building a nice business,” he said. It may be a smaller economy, but Clorox decided it was better off being in a market where it could establish a more commanding presence.

It’s a philosophy Lesser fundamentally shares.

“It’s really important to understand what the opportunities are specific to individual markets, and not take a broad-brush view to all of the emerging markets,” he says. Key to that is an understanding of local dynamics, from spending and income growth to consumer behavior and the regulatory landscape.

Another opportunity stems from the more recent struggles of emerging markets. Lesser acknowledges that many companies got overextended in infrastructure and commodity plays during China’s buildup – take CaterpillarCAT +0.71% for instance, which has faced serious headwinds from China’s slowdown – but thinks the long-term case in emerging markets remains intact.

BCG has estimated the consumer opportunity in just India and China is worth $10 trillion by 2020, and companies likeCoca-Cola KO -0.84%, PepsiCo PEP -0.23% and a host of others – Whirlpool WHR -0.43% announced the acquisition of a Chinese appliance maker last month – will be fighting for their share of the pie.

There are three typical mistakes companies make in emerging markets, Lesser says: not being amibitous enough; not being fast enough to recognize the different requirements of a given region or market; and failing to properly leverage talent and leadership from both the developed world and developing economies.

Many companies are working to avoid those mistakes though. Lesser highlights a program launched by Samsung in 2011 that aims to train 10,000 electronics engineers in Africa by 2015 and notes that many companies are tapping emerging markets for leadership, not just less expensive labor.

While the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – have traditionally been the short list of emerging economies, the ranks have swelled over the years and the fastest-growing regions of the future may be new ones.

Africa is frequently touted as one of those, and Lesser cites a study BCG prepared alongside the World Economic Forum that found a major gap in the continent’s infrastructure spending – essentially tens of billions of dollars that will ultimately need to be financed via public-private partnerships.

The good news there is that many multinationals are willing to step into that breach. One example: General ElectricGE +0.62%, which is building a new manufacturing and training facility in Nigeria as part of a plan to spend $1 billion in that country over the next five years, and committing $165 million in subsea technology for a $1 billion Chevron CVX +0.24%-led oil and gas project off the African coast.

Source: Forbes

HOW TO AVOID TIME WASTING IN MEETINGS

A friend of mine says people hate meetings because:

1. They don’t start on time..
2. They don’t finish on time..
3. What’s in the middle is a waste of time!

It’s true--many meetings are a waste of time! Unproductive meetings can cost your business big time. 5 people x 1 hour = 5 hours. Multiply that by everyone’s hourly value. You better be increasing production or don’t hold it.

It's not just the wasted hours, it’s the lost production time. Unnecessary meetings are a double loss, when they are not effective...

Here’s a few tips on how to have shorter and more effective meetings:

1. Define the purpose of the meeting.
2. Define the outcome of the meeting.
3. Have a timed agenda and someone in charge.
4. Facts--not opinions!
5. Keep people on-point. (Only talk about matters relating to their job)

Let’s take each point:

1. Define the purpose of the meeting.

Why are we holding this meeting? If you can’t answer that, don’t hold it.

Here are some examples but you can make it whatever you want for your business:

Weekly Sales Meeting:

-To set targets and coordinate the sales team for increased sales for the week.

-To help the salespeople with their deals so they can sell more.

Director’s Meeting:

To set an agreed list of essential targets for completion across the business for the coming month. To fix responsibility for these targets and dates for their execution.

 2. Define the outcome of the meeting.

An outcome is something of value. It is finished. It will be closely aligned to the purpose.

You should work toward the outcome as you are holding the meeting.

Example:

Business Development outcome:

An understanding of the person/business and its challenges.

Understanding of you and your business.

Mutually beneficial opportunities identified.

It also could be: You have identified if they are a "now" prospect, a “later" prospect, or a “never” prospect.

Of course a "profitable sale to the prospect's requirements" could also be an outcome!

3. Have a timed agenda and someone in charge.

This may apply more so to internal meetings.

Your meetings will go out of control someone doesn’t control it! Someone should be totally responsible for obtaining the outcome of the meeting.

For a management meeting it could go like this:

9 am - Review last month’s sales, income, and delivery.

9:20 - Recommend action items to increase sales, income, and delivery.

9:40 - Review strategic plan and ensure action items align to it.

10 am - End of meeting

4. Facts--not opinions!

Opinions will de-rail a meeting and waste your time more effectively than anything else, particularly if from someone who’s job it’s not! (See point 5).

Insist people come with their figures, their plans, what was done, what was not done, Their solutions to increase production etc. Challenges WITH solutions.

No one wants to listen to 10 minutes explaining why they didn’t do their job.

Someone who doesn’t mind hurrying people up and cutting people off if they are off-topic should run the meeting to the agenda.

5. Keep people on-point. (Only talk about matters relating to their job)

Simple but highly effective.

Don’t let the Sales Manager talk about how Production should be delivering.

The National Sales manager should talk about what deals they are going to get closed and what is needed to get them closed.

Production Manager should present facts relating to his area…

Coordination between different departments and roles is a vital function of meetings and you’ll get more of it if you stick to this point.

Until next time, may your meetings start on time... finish on time... and be a good use of time!