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FROM WHERE I SAT

A Potpourri Of Lessons From Roger Steadman ’ s Colourful Career

By Robert Wamai

On Thursday 22nd June 2023 Roger Steadman launched his biography authored by Lloyd Igane , IN GOOD STEAD , at a cocktail held at his house and graced by past and present marketers . Marketing Africa made a decision to feature lessons from the book and a week later I had a chat with him to get more insights . For close to three hours Roger spoke about his career at Unilever , his hobby of surfing , how he started his business , the ups and downs of how he guided the business and the talented team who were his colleagues and drivers in spearheading its rapid growth and success . He talked about how the business having become an African multinational needed to go to the next level and how that led to the decision to finally sell The Steadman Group .

In curating this article , I used three sources , the interview , the book , and a Q & A article , ‘ My Journey Through Business ’ that appeared in the Marketing Africa Magazine Issue of March 2016 . From these three sources I filtered four lessons I should like to share with the readers . or issue yearning to be solved provides a golden opportunity .

The first lesson is on identifying a business opportunity . Many people thinking of starting a business grapple with how to identify an opportunity on which it is worth expending their efforts . Roger said that many recurring problems yearning for a solution can provide a business opportunity . This is why and how he launched his first venture , Media Monitoring Services ( MMS ). ‘ Whilst working in marketing at East African Industries ( EAI ), what is today Unilever , we were aware that some of our ads were being aired badly , yet there was no independent body that was able to identify the extent of the problem and we relied upon VOKs transmission reports that campaigns were being broadcast pretty much as planned .’

However , Roger believed that an independent watch dog service would be of value , especially because there was also a need for accurate expenditure data . When the opportune time came , after he left Unilever , he took the plunge , and launched

# 1 : A recurring problem

“

Brute force does not win business but success comes through observing trends and carefully navigating change . You must learn what trends you can exploit and how to avoid the pitfalls . What may seem to be a challenge can often be an opportunity

Media Monitoring Services . Initially the idea was to identify and provide proof of badly aired spots . It was not until later that the system identified spots that had been booked and paid for yet they did not run at all .

On launching the service , he was faced with two challenges . Firstly , was how to approach and sell the service to potential clients . Secondly , and more , importantly he was alive to the fact that the biggest obstacle would likely be Voice of Kenya ( VOK ), a Government owned monopoly . At that time , VOK was financed directly from the Treasury so that funds from advertising revenue went as a separate stream back to the Treasury . At that time , they were not a commercially orientated organisation and as such did not give thought or care about advertisers or advertising revenue . If this very powerful voice of Government could potentially refuse to accept the entire concept and without their cooperation Roger ’ s idea could have been dead on arrival . The naysayers were opining that the Government would never allow spying on their media .

# 2 : Support can come from the most unlikely person you expect . Most people would rather do a good job than a bad one .

How Roger overcame this obstacle is the second lesson . How the media monitoring concept was going to be presented to VOK was carefully planned and part of the plan was to arrange for representatives from the APA to also attend the presentation

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