TALKING POINT
In The 20s Hustlers And
Cheetahs Will Excel
By Boniface Ngahu
W
e are through with the teen
decade that was characterized
with adolescence speed in
change. We saw Donald Trump win the
Presidency in the US, BREXIT in the
UK, the weather patterns also displayed
the characteristics of a teenager with
dramatic changes in established patterns.
In Kenya we had the Jubilee party win
elections with the later Handshake
disrupting the order of things while
reinventing opposition politics. Here
comes the 20s where under normal
circumstances we expect greater maturity,
the consequences of the teenage years
misdemeanor will come to light especially
in relation to the huge public debt, so will
be the fruits of our labor.
From
the
marketing
perspective
technology brands continued to disrupt
markets through convergence. We saw
Airbnb, Uber, Tala and others gain
significant market shares in hospitality,
transport and financial markets from
traditional players. Safaricom also
unveiled Fuliza overdraft like facility that
saw their customers’ access over Kshs 100
billion in short-term financing in less
than a year.
Change Yourself to
Change the World - Be the
Hummingbird The Cheetah Generation is
here to make a difference
“One Day at a Time”
The current Market Talk is informed by
the Hummingbird story quoted by the
Late Peace Nobel Prize Laurate Prof
Wangari Maathai. A terrible fire broke
in a forest, all the animals left the forest
running for safety away from it, only to
watch it from a distance feeling sad and
helpless. One small animal a hummingbird
decided to do something about it instead
of watching the fire in helplessness and
desperation. The bird would repeatedly
go to the stream and pick a few drops of
water to put off the fire. The Guardian Online featured a story in
the past on how African young generation
has been pushing for change through
social media. In Kenya we have a strong
online movement Dubbed KOT (Kenyans
on Twitter). The story mentions the new
generation of doers, bloggers, inventors,
venture capitalists and policy makers, the
Cheetah generation as they are referred
to by George Ayittey the Ghanaian
economist. George stated that these are
hungry grassroots who have been let down
by the establishments.
Other animals watched in disbelief as
they discouraged the bird calling it too
small, its feathers might be burnt and
asking it what it thought it was doing.
The bird was unmoved; it only answered
the big animals with the statement,
“Am doing what I can”. The market Talk
heroes and heroines of the teen decade
are the Hummingbirds, the Cheetahs and
Hustlers. In my previous column on Black Swans
in reference to Wamlambez song lyrics
I referred to Nasim Taleb’s recent book,
“Eruptions of popular anger” in relation
to the broken social contracts between
governments and society. These Cheetahs
are the biggest source of PR for Africa
and Kenya to the world.
It appears that the cheetah generation is
leading from behind by doing small things,
one day at a time and doing them well. This
means that any business would be missing
in action by not incorporating them in new
strategy directions.
18
MAL34/20 ISSUE
My only wish is that those blogging
and tweeting about Kenya and Africa
in general should take a more positive
outlook and focus on telling the beautiful
untold stories instead of focusing on
whining despite the popular anger. Like
the Hummingbird these cheetahs are
doing something about the situation.
Kenyan young techies with their
innovative apps and technology solutions
are putting the country in the world map.
Most of the technology giants want a