Ooooooo kkkkkkaaaayyyy. Let's get back on topic.

First, as far as the US Fortune 500, let's make it very clear, and I speak from experience:

It's not that they are smarter or more business savvy. It's capital. PERIOD. US companies have access to an obscene amount of credit and money (courtesy of China), so much so, that they are actually pretty relatively poorly managed and are fairly inefficient; this is why China is gaining, economically, on the US and will surpass them by 2016 according to the IMF.

What the US had going for it is that in the past, they got people from around the world- the best and the brightest. People seem to forget that Americans are a melting pot from around the world. There is no special education or savvyiness to American success. They recruited the best, and they have the most money, after them and uncle UK basically cleaned the 3rd world out of all the resources with the help of propped-up dictators.

But that period of history is over.

I won't go into the huge problems facing the West. Forget the West. It isn't important. I won't go into the fact that the Fortune 500 really isn't impressive at all, and if anyone would like to debate why, I'll tell you, from an insiders point-of-view how and why the Fortune 500 is a joke, no matter how much money they make (check some of my other posts for starters).

Here's what's important:

The NSE, and Kenya as a whole, is a the crown of Africa, and is ready to become an economic leader. Think about it on a professional and personal level:

1. Educated, capable university graduates who's salary requirements are LOW. You could start a lab or a manufacturing plant for CHEAP. And unskilled workers are plentiful and even less expensive and hard working! You could train a person to do metal or glass-work, and have a personal army of workers for very very low cost. And blue-collar jua kali artists, mechanics, and machinists are absolute geniuses.

2. Real food- not pumped with preservatives or hormones or genetically modded- mostly farm grown, fresh, and not even trucked in refrigerated cars. Massive opportunity for greenhouses, refrigeration, drying/smoking, and agro tech in general... one could even buy or retrofit refrigerated cars on trucks/lorries and make money transporting and storing farm produce and meats.

3. Real soil and good climate- you could grow almost ANY crop, and the soil isn't terrible, poisoned, and abused.

4. Access to the rest of the EAC market, which is emerging and large.

5. Kitu Kidogo! You can get things done and wheels turning with relatively small "lobbying and consulting fees". Think about it... pay an official 500,000 Ksh in Kenya, or 500,000 USD in the USA... I'd rather pay shillings.

6. FAR less business competition than in the USA... in Kenya, there is a certain ethnic group of folks from Asia that are considered the business savvy... in the Fortune 500, they are considered the least business savvy and the low-cost option for process work. Think about that...

7. Good banks! The banks in Kenya are more than willing to loan you money if you have a good business plan, a respectable CV, and small collateral. In the USA, you'd be fortunate to get a credit card with a decent limit.

8. The NSE! A "real, proper, clean" stock exchange! There hasn't been one of those in the West since the 60s! You can actually use the numbers and analysis to come up with REAL valuations and play the market as it was designed. Toss in a couple grand just for fun, like you are in Vegas, and watch what it does. In addition, the market capitalizations are fairly low, so you could make REAL M&A moves if... and here comes the downside...



1. If there was more capital influx. Westerners are mostly scared of Africa as a whole because of years of bad press, and the Western media and education systems makes it far worse. They teach and show only the slums. Nothing else. Which is a shame, because if someone starting making big hostile takeovers on the NSE, they'd make an absolute killing IF they managed the company from the ground. That's the key to managing a company in the EAC... you'd better come down out of the highrise and MANAGE your operations, or, they might just walk out the door LOL.

2. Slow bureaucracy. It used to be that way in the US 20 years ago, where it took FOREVER to get a business started, or land purchased, but now, it's under a week. Kenya... slooooooow. Too many signatures, desks to cross, etc.

3. Short workweek- Kenyans go home at 5pm. They value their work/life balance. Americans will work 80 hours a week if you force them. Kenyans won't do that, culturally.

4. Shipping problems. Shipping is slow, and customs is nuts. If you need something from China, you'd better fly KQ and get it yourself, and fly back with it. Shipping is a joke. Distribution centers are also a joke. There aren't many, so you pay more for computer and business equipment in Kenya than you do in the US. Unless you have a friend at the ports LOL.

5. Roads. Far too few. That messes up shipping, distribution, logistics, and employees getting to work on time.

6. Water and power. Low pressure, and power that dips and bucks like crazy. Better put EVERYTHING on a regulator, a UPS, and generator backup. Better get water tanks and pumps. That makes setting up a lab or datacenter expensive... especially since you have to wait a MONTH for spare parts to come from China, since shipping and roads are so messed up.

7. Self-hate. People simply just don't believe that they "can". People gripe about the government, the MPs, the Universities, this, that, and the other, and it hurts their belief in themselves and their countrymen. That's why the Mzungus and Muhindis can come into Kenya and make a killing in profits, because while black Kenyans are murmuring and complaining, others are just accepting what it is and just DOING, and making money. This leads to the need to really manage your teams more than you would elsewhere- people's own self-doubt. You have to encourage encourage encourage, or you and your team will loose the dream and the drive it takes to be successful, from the CEO on down. In America, you have the dream, and Hollywood helps keep you in it. That dream keeps people from seeing the downsides, and keeps them motivated, even if they are going to end up working in Walmart as a door greeter until they die.

Kenya is a great place, with great people, and great promise. Sure, there are some infrastructure and bureaucracy issues, but so what? You do what you have to do and work around the problems. Shipping? Buy a Cessna Caravan and go get it yourself. Then, charter the plane out to others while you aren't using it. Power? Buy some African Wind Power windmills, diesel gens (which can be bio-fuelled using bad maize and sorghum), and get back to work! Then sell the surplus power.

Remember, in the US or UK, you'd be working for someone, making anywhere from $8 an hour to $80 an hour, but that's it. There is nowhere else to go. And, the more you make, the WORSE you are taxed... it's sometimes like making LESS! Start your own business? LOL don't make me laugh. Prepare for millions of dollars in bribes in order to get tenders and contracts, or even to get a product on a shelf in a store, and millions more to hire employees, pay for insurance, real estate, etc etc... how are you going to get that kind of money working a job? You CANT. It's all big corporate out here. In Kenya, you can build something big- the barriers to entry are far lower.

Just look for a gap... something useful to the EAC that you may have seen in the US or UK, go online and get the patent and some textbooks, learn all you can, and EMULATE or COPY it! Then set up shop and sell the product or service in the EAC. That's all. Or, eliminate the middle man. If people are buying Android tablets from Pranav's PCs on Koinange street for $300, and you see them on US websites like EBay and Amazon for $100, then you know they are $50 on the streets of Guangzhao... go make a trip (see my earlier posts).

And lastly, after decades of living in the west, working 80 hour weeks, not knowing who your neighbors are, feeling like a second class citizen because of your race or citizenship status, eating "processed" food, watching meaningless TV, and wondering how the old Mzungu lady working the door at Walmart that has a Masters Degree and worked 60 years straight has NOTHING to her name, you will feel FREE and NATURAL and BLESSED walking down a Kenya road, buying fruit from a Kiosk, talking to a kind person, and letting your mind drift into the beautiful skies, and flowers, and people, and will realize that this is how and where the African man was intended to live. That this, is HOME, and that is more important than any 3 bed 2.5 bath home in Dallas, Boston, Los Angeles, or Atlanta.

And you can always go back to the West and live dirt poor while you get more dollars to send home to turn into shillings to invest... year on year off... then retire... that's a strategy.

And if you are REALLY into M&A, watch the foreigners doing business in Kenya. Electronics stores, clothing stores, chemists, opticians, etc. etc. Watch their operations, pricing, the way they treat customers, etc. etc., set up across the street, DO BETTER- run your business better, and exploit their weaknesses using what you learn from the internet as far as pricing, etc., treat customers better, and

RUN THEM OUT OF BUSINESS. How's that for M&A?

That's all for now.

Best Wishes,

Hill

@Hill great great stuff

@Jason,
Bravo!You should come to Kenya and get a wife from here..
On the other had I am wondering,how would the world be without Uncle Sam?
As in the Internet,Windows,Intel,Cisco,Boeing,Coke,FacebookGoogle etc...
Why is it that Americans keep getting Nobel prizes each year?

Interesting... do you suggest that in terms of "business savvy" we have:
1. white folk
2. brown folk
3. black folk

I agree, I think its a systemic thing for blacks... were just lazy (most of us).

Its almost cultural. Idleness / mediocrity / Inefficiency... we don't even keep time, many times we don't keep deadlines either(most of us).


I am a bank employee & I disagree, I think its much harder to get credit for business.

Banks are force-selling consumer loans and mortgages to salaried employees. Its extremely hard to get a bank to do proper trade finance or OD for working capital... they mostly want security (plot in nairobi area - 60%, property - 80%, listed securities - 50% etc.)

I know for sure that my banker (not my employer, name witheld) will give me 250k to but leather sofas, a big telly and some curtains cos i have a salo!? They will not give my start up biz a line!?

I don't need these consumer goods, especially not at 15% plus... I could just take a personal loan from my employer at a much lower rate!

Funny thing is my employer will NOT finance my side hustle with an overdraft... we get F***** in Kenya but we try

@Rollout: Stating your day job and achievements that have come with it is an indirect demand for cred. Wazua does not work that way, which is why you see that "Rank" business next to your username. You are judged mostly by the wisdom you write here
Anyway, we should move past the slight, real or imagined - Welcome, sir. Now, how would you like to conduct the idea-share meet? virtual? an informal meeting perhaps (like bloggers used to)? what are the more focused interests?

Stop defending yourself, provide more info.