CASE STUDY
app , what we call a ‘ kiosk app ’, that allows the customers to pay as little as 20 shillings a day , which is like US $ 0.20 for a smartphone . That US $ 0.20 also includes the data and voice they ’ re using .
We ’ re looking to double our usage and the analogy I give is the network we ’ re setting up is the rails , but we need to get the carts on the rails and the carts on the phones . The applications are now the passengers and the use cases and the various things that people can do while on the cart .
This is meant to increase 4G penetration and get a lot more of our customers to access content they couldn ’ t access before , because of having feature phones and not smartphones . It ’ s become more and more important right now with COVID-19 , because now education is moving to that platform . As much as there ’ s the content providers , if people don ’ t have a way to access this just because of the phones , then we ’ ve not yet addressed the inclusion issue in terms of digital .
How would you describe your own managerial style ?
I think my style is a lot more about inclusion and coaching . I ’ m a trained executive coach and I coach people – that ’ s what I like to do . First of all , I believe that , I need to be able to work with everybody to ensure that they appreciate the vision .
Once we appreciate the vision of the organisation , we work towards setting out how we fit within that vision , the strategy , objectives and key initiatives .
I usually have that built bottom up . So the vision is at the top then we build everything bottom up and it ’ s a case of empowering and enabling people to be in roles that they are excited to do and deliver for the organisation .
There are people I have found in deep technical roles who are more inclined to do management because of their people skills and people who are in management but more inclined to do more technical roles because they don ’ t want to engage as much with people . I then focus on ensuring that people are in the right roles , then I can make sure that they can thrive , at what they really want to do .
I think everybody has great ideas , but people have probably been accustomed to a lot of the old management styles and probably some Frederick Taylor type of approach . I also think that the traditional ‘ School of Management ’ has not transformed , as many graduates expect top down instructions , but we ’ ve transitioned to an agile way of working , where we believe everybody has great ideas that can contribute to the achievement of our organisational goals
What are the main challenges of your current role ?
It ’ s demanding . It ’ s a much bigger role than I ’ ve ever held in any of my career , though every new role seems big when you are looking for a new challenge . It ’ s different because I was in financial services and now I ’ m in telecommunications , but I keep saying the ‘ customer is the customer ’.
I just have to work towards how I prioritise where I give my attention . How do I play a role in Digital Transformation within an organisation that ’ s very successful ? We are probably the most successful company in East Africa and one of the most successful in the whole of Africa .
Availability is important . In banking , a lot of the demand was from eight to five and it wasn ’ t a matter of life and death . Here , we can ’ t have downtimes . If there ’ s a downtime , somebody can ’ t pay a critical bill
at a hospital or get something done that ’ s important , or they can ’ t reach their loved ones . A critical service not working could be a life and death matter .
What advice would you give to aspiring CIOs ?
I ’ ve always described myself as a new generation CIO , who ’ s really not an expert in power and hardware , but is more concerned about services and software . My word of advice is that one needs to first understand who the customer is and care about services . Only then , do you realise that we are more of business leaders , not IT leaders . At the end of the day , the business shouldn ’ t have to tell us what applications they need but what business problem they ’ re trying to solve . They should be telling us what customer experience they want with a new service and we can come up with solutions . We are
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