ahead - locally, I am sure we can name
a few ideas that started small but have
continued to evolve into bigger ideas
over the years - immediate example
is Safaricom’s MPESA that is now
expanding its role in the e-commerce
space - beyond the basic sending and
receiving cash that it started from more
than 10 years ago.
The next point is around focusing on
what is important - and ensuring the
business or the brand is well defined on
its purpose. Sometimes, when under the
intoxication of success, brands or even
whole businesses at large, start looking for
more spaces to win - wanting more and
more and in the process loosing focus -
example would be getting into categories
that are not aligned with the businesses
core capabilities, launching new products
without proper planning, not looking
into the competitive landscape and
why competition is doing what they are
doing - but instead, just copying blindly.
Humility here would mean the brand
defining what is important to its purpose
and staying focused on it.
Under the delusion of great success, there
is temptation to be self-entitled and to
some extent, have paranoia. This can
lead the business off the real perspective.
It is very easy for successful brands or
businesses at large to suffer share losses
when they start to assume that their
customers should treat them in a certain
way because they are who they are - big
brand or business. Customers are human
and can pick this lack of humility from
the brand - they will pick the next
available choice that is relevant to them
in whatever way.
Paranoia on the other hand, reflects some
level of lack of trust - and like in any
relationship, this erodes the opportunity
to deepen the connection a brand or
business can have with the customers. To
be humble means reducing on the self-
entitlement and learning to be a lot more
trusting within the internal and external
business environment - that’s also being
open minded enough for opportunities
for growth.
The next idea is about managing self or in
business terms, how organized the brand
or the business is to take advantage of
the opportunities to win. When basking
under success, there is temptation,
especially from the leadership, to have
control of everything and fail to delegate
Amidst the prevailing brand success,
keep listening to customers, maintain
a pragmatic cycle of learning, adapta-
tion and constant revision of strategy
to take advantage of arising opportu-
nities. That’s humility.
effectively - and, to appropriate all the
credit to themselves (ego in control).
This suffocates the opportunities for
growth instead and creates a very chaotic
environment that limits decision making.
In the current business world, we all know
that fast decision making is one of the
components of agility - key for growth.
The disease called ‘me’ is another point
worth noting - after great wins like a
successful product launch, a great annual
financial report with impressive ratios,
egos easily emerge. Team members rush
for credit and in some cases, position
themselves for the fat bonus Cheques that
come with such remarkable news.
This rush builds an internal point of
tension that can then hurt the brand and
business at large over the long term as
those charged with looking after the brand
and business focus on personal gains. This
is a tough one to address and may partly
call for internal cultural realignment, if
business success is to be sustainable.
Success can be empty - they say. As part
of humility, it is now becoming clear
that businesses are starting to reflect on
frameworks such as shared value - to put
themselves in better space for the future
- brands are reflecting on the reasons for
their existence and trying to use that as
a connection point with their customers.
I am sure we have seen the new term in
many sustainability reports - ‘shared value
strategy’.
In fact, just recently, I also attended the
Africa Shared Value Summit in Nairobi
- and the conversations there were very
clear - activities that go beyond just
driving profits into the betterment of
the world that has changing realities
- dynamic populations, new health
concerns, agriculture and food security,
more digitally connected world than ever,
cultural integration, evolving geo-politics
and so on and so forth.
Rick Warren once said “True humility is
not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking
of yourself less.” And this is partly what
businesses have realized as they embed
shared value as part of their strategies -
and in the course of it, ensure business
sustainability as an objective. Consumers
will increasingly question what businesses
are doing for the betterment of the world
in general or in specific terms, to current
topics like environmental conservation,
digital/cyber security among others.
Lastly, there is a point about maintaining
sobriety - avoid making business decisions
out of fear, being clearheaded even when
under pressure. There is always temptation,
when very successful, to make decisions
out of fear of losing the success attained so
far - so in marketing terms, we get tempted
to launch a new product, a communication
piece to protect our success.
In the great success, we also get to a point
where we fear failure - so we forget how
to build slow and steady success for the
brand and instead get impatient with any
new project that is taking time to settle -
an example is withdrawing support for a
new product that is, in the interpretation
of the business, taking too long to bring in
the returns so that the project owner can
shine! All about the big enemy, the ego.
In closing, it is no doubt that it is very hard
to be humble when you are great - but
for the sake of long-lasting relationship
with customers and to extend the success
and greatness achieved in the brand’s
or business’ journey, it is inevitable that
acting small is part of the way to go.
Enock Wandera currently serves as
the Chief Client Officer at Ipsos
Limited. You can commune with
him on this and related matters on
mail via: Enock.Wandera@ipsos.
com.