Bob Collymore taught us it’s not just about profits, it is the people

What you need to know:

  • Great leaders, because of their honesty and integrity, have credibility.

  • They command respect and inspire others. They reach out and influence others.

  • Mr Collymore did not only meet the President and other leaders; he met people from all walks of life — journalists, bloggers, musicians, artists, captains of business and so on.

  • You can’t influence people if you don’t meet and interact with them.

  • And you need humility, patience and kindness to be open and welcoming to all types of people.

When Bob Collymore invited me for lunch a couple of years ago, I thought we got on like a house on fire. I had an excellent lunch and leant back and let him talk. His mind was like a young gazelle in the savannah. It wandered: Technology, media, innovation, humanitarianism and on and on. But it came back to one favourite place: The fate of Kenya’s teeming youth.

PROFIT RAIDERS

It was surprising to see a corporate leader worried so little about profits and so much about people. And therein lies the magic of Mr Collymore’s leadership and legacy. That at the end of the day, it’s about people — your staff, your customers, your partners — and so long as you minded those, you really need not worry about profits. Great corporate leaders are not profit raiders; they see the true and unique purpose of their business. And it’s not money.

Safaricom is not just a technology company; it is the manager of our confidentiality, privacy and so much of our money that it is as much of a national security concern as the DoD HQ. Just like media companies are not just purveyors of meat wrappers but are factories of cultural products and important components in the assembly of the national identity.

A relative told me a second-hand story, which, I think, demonstrates why Mr Collymore was so highly thought of at Safaricom and beyond. A junior worker was unfairly sacked after disagreements with the boss. Somehow, Mr Collymore got to find out about it and called the employee to his office. The encounter was simple and to the point: I’d like you to please go back to work, he said.

I don’t know whether the story is true or not but, in the eyes of the teller, the former Safaricom CEO was a paragon of fairness in the workplace.

This whole episode also tells us something about Safaricom as a community. The outpouring of emotion, their determination to give a fitting send-off to their leader, complete with shutting down their shops, says a lot about the kind of company they have created. I’m not saying that it is a paragon of virtue (What company is?); just pointing out that they generally have something great going.

REACH OUT

Big companies, when they are good, are catalysts of change and development. The Asian transformation has been driven not just by small business, but the giants, too, which can innovate and seed economies with new ideas, massive numbers of jobs and capital. In Kenya, too, we should not look at our big companies as enemies or targets for extorting bribes, but as national assets and our weapons against poverty.

Great leaders, because of their honesty and integrity, have credibility. They command respect and inspire others. They reach out and influence others.

Mr Collymore did not only meet the President and other leaders; he met people from all walks of life — journalists, bloggers, musicians, artists, captains of business and so on. You can’t influence people if you don’t meet and interact with them. And you need humility, patience and kindness to be open and welcoming to all types of people.

In our brief interaction, I was very impressed by Mr Collymore. I’m not at all surprised that he inspired so much love and admiration from so many. We did not necessarily agree on everything, but it was a memorable conversation.

* * *

Three things have recently happened in the media. First, a reporter on an online business publication was shocked and horrified that we had dealt with the departure of one of our colleagues with professional courtesy. He thought we were putting on a brave face. Why does it require a brave face to deal with a colleague’s growth?

The second is the arrest of two bloggers — Robert Alai and Dennis Itumbi. They may not be your favourite people, but which journalist would welcome or tolerate the denial of the freedom of expression of any person?

The laws of freedom were not written to protect writers about flower shows, dog breeds and food but the voices of the disagreeable, irascible and nosy. In a perfect world, every writer would show equal commitment to obeying the law and being nice. But it is not a perfect world.

While I’m not making excuses for the two gentlemen or passing judgement on their guilt or lack of it, and while I’m not saying that they are exempt from the law, I also do know that democracies are stronger when folks like those have space to make trouble.

The third one has to do with a rag that writes fiction about me every time a certain city politician is unfavourably reported in any of the Nation platforms. The story always goes that I met at K’Osewe with former colleague Mwenda Njoka and amidst copious amounts of ugali, fish and managu, washed down with quaffs of fermented milk, we conspired on behalf of a top government official from our tribe to finish this politician.

To assist that publication with fact checking, I prefer beef and sukuma wiki, and I don’t take milk, not even in tea. I don’t think I have ever had lunch with Mwenda, though he is a great guy. The government official is not from my tribe. Besides, I have never met him, never spoken to him even on phone.

Otherwise, it’s great fiction.