Copycat business approach killing economy

In Kenya, the words on many people’s lips are that “money is not circulating” and businesses are struggling to remain afloat. Many lament that making a living is not a walk in the park. Many things have been blamed for this state of affairs including the persistent drought and the tightening noose around corruption cartels.

IMITATION GAME

Whereas these propositions may hold true, one notable business killer is the copycat approach. This is my premise: every other shop in Kenyan cities and towns, regardless of the direction you look, is stocked with clothes and shoes. Every other shop is transacting the M-Pesa business.

When a few people bought the motorbike riders — the famous boda-boda — everyone and their brother scurried for money to buy one. The car-selling business, plots-for-sale, the infamous quail eggs craze and many others, follow the same mantra — Kenyans are imitators extraordinaire!

This business-aping mentality is not limited to small businesses. Even the mega, capital-intensive businesses such as the real estate sector have caught the bug, sucking in billions of shillings, yet they can’t find tenants or fetch rent commensurate with the investment.

The upshot of this trend is that supply far exceeds demand.

Billions of shilling are now stuck in stagnant investments, hence the limited circulation of money. Legions of businesses are on the ropes, and because much of these businesses run on credit from banks, investors are feeling the pinch.

LEAST RESISTANCE

Here is the other problem: Due to Chinese goods flooding the country, our manufacturing sector is either dead or dying. There is no way that Kenya factories can compete with robot-driven Chinese factories.

With the manufacturing sector on the cusp of collapse, what then, can Kenya and by extension Africa do to grow?

There is hope in the software and service industry. We must spare neither the money nor the effort in nurturing technology and allied skills that will, in turn, improve the service industry — which we can even export to other countries. But this demands both the left-brain and right-brain approach.

From an early age, children must be “immunised “against taking the path of least resistance that is characterised by aping other people’s ideas’. They should be mentored on how to spot a problem and innovatively solve it with technology.

COMPETITIVE GENIE

If in doubt, turn your eyes to the flourishing mobile money transfer service industry. It’s an innovation that is not under threat from China.

Out of the mobile money, a myriad of other businesses have been built on it, creating employment and energising the economy.

Every sector — finance and commerce, agriculture, transport, tourism, education and others are yearning for technology-enhanced solutions.

That’s where our competitive genie is buried, and we got a steady supply of a pantheon of top-tech brains to sustain it.

To survive, we need to banish the unintelligent copycat business mentality. We have to subject ourselves to the dictates of technology and unlock the current gridlock.

Mr. Wambugu is an informatician. Email:[email protected] @samwambugu2