TALKING POINT
Wamlambez And
Lamba Lolo: Black
Swans?
By Boniface Ngahu
Black Swan
According to Lebanese-American author
of the books Black Swan and Fooled by
Randomness, Nassim Taleb, for an event
to be viewed as a black swan it has to be
rare and extreme that can be seen through
the prism of rationality later on. It has an
origin from the new world where swans
were always known to be white, when
black swans appeared there was a great
debate as to whether a swan can be black.
Marketing and other professionals are
always confused by new phenomenon that
easily render them irrelevant. Technology
has been a game changer, I recently asked
a client why some technician courses
have low uptake recently and they told
me that the practitioners told them that
the technician roles in the past are now
performed by technology. The debate as
to whether robots will take over human
roles is finally being answered by what
technology is doing in different industries
from banking to marketing.
For the sake of this column I don’t want
to be a doomsday activist but we have to
highlight that marketing and sales are
said to be less affected by technology
or robots than other industries but the
impact is across board. Being multi-
skilled and having great soft skills will be
important in the future of all industries,
with technology taking center stage.
Are Lamba Lolo and
Wamlambez-Wamnyonyez
Black Swans?
I want to make a strong argument that
these terms or what they represent are
black swans. The first point to support
this is that they are coming from the new
generation and getting serious traction
which makes them rare. The generations
One of the best strategies or precautions
that one can use is allowing the organization
and its people to drive themselves. In this I
am focusing on self-evolving systems that
harness the power of creativity, evolution
and free will. Modern corporations must be
able to restructure as markets expand and
technology evolves. Effective leadership,
organizational beliefs, open communication
and a guiding vision hold the cornerstone
of progress.
10
MAL31/19 ISSUE
have a thing with instant gratification and
lower attention spans than the goldfish.
Keeping up with their state is difficult as
they are operating in a multiple screens
environment that present them ideal or
fake lifestyles of people in social media
that makes one to feel like they are the
only ones not experiencing awesomeness.
The impact of Lamba Lolo, Wamlambez-
Wamnyonyez has been phenomenon
as they have all gained entry into the
international urban dictionary or Google
where you can find out what they mean.
Lamba Lolo literally means licking
a Lollipop, it also means Mind your
own business, Wamlambez is a girl and
Wamnyonez a boy, for other deeper
meanings consult the urban dictionary.
The songs related also have millions of
views on YouTube, which means that
if attention is the new currency, you
need to forget the new notes released by
Central Bank of Kenya and focus on this
new lingua. If you shout on the streets
of Nairobi Wamlambez, you will get an
instant response which some have hinted
it is the new statement of the very elusive
cohesion among Kenyans from all over the
nation. The point here is that we have a
new generation seeking for identity and
as marketers we have to pay attention and
respond appropriately.
But going to rationality part of the black
swan concept, one of the aspects of the
new generation that stand out is the
fact that they are the first generation to
experience less success than their parents.
This causes a societal stress that needs
some solutions. It also causes a sense of