Is this true,i doubt it. Read this its a quote from Robert Alai blog''There seems to be a problem at Safaricom. East and
Central Africa’s biggest telco is facing senior
management problems as the Board of Directors of
Safaricom feel that the shareholders are not getting a
good return on their investment. Citing various touchy
issues, the board members sitting sometime last week
before the annual general meeting (AGM), were
rumoured to have demanded that Bob Collymore resign
as the CEO of the listed company.
Bob Collymore is one very flexible and hands-on
manager if you ask me. He is a keen listener and a team
player unlike Michael Joseph who was more of a dictator
and a political spin-master. But maybe the old men and
women sitting in the board of the firm have not
understoon the management style of Bob Collymore.
They are reported to have raised issue with very petty
matters like Bob Collymore’s love life during theor
sitting.
Who does not have problems in family? I can confess
that I have problems in my family and I can point to you
3 Safaricom board members who will never maintain or
successfully manage their own family. But does that
affect the delivery of Bob professionally? NO!! I guess he
knows how to handle both without any interfering with
the other.
So Bob Collymore is going through a separation with his
wife and that is a MAJOR issue at the Safaricom board.
Secondly, Safaricom board has been complaining for
some time that Bob Collymore is intellectually shallow
than his peers (read: friends) in the industry. I don’t
know what they mean by this but most of the great
managers and pioneers in innovation have not so much
“intellectual superiority.” The board came to this
conclusion having analysed Bob’s friends like Aly Khan
Satchu and Jeff Koinange who does not have any deep
grasp of the industry.
They view Jeff Koinange and Aly Khan Satchu as a
shallow, unschooled and childish bunch that they see no
value Bob get from hanging out with them. Jeff and Aly
are some close friends of Bob Collymore but none of
them is thought to have seen the inside of a university
class.
Aly Khan is believed by the industry and the wide
corporate bigwigs to rely mostly on connections to make
shallow analysis of the Kenyan financial market while Jeff
Koinange is regarded as an equal to village propagandist
who cannot really influence In fact the board members
believe that Bob cannot effectively interact with the likes
of Martin Oduor Otieno, Adan Mohammed or even not
so intellectually endowed managers like Peter Nduati of
Resolution Health.
Some major shareholders at Safaricom have also
claimed that Bob Collymore is more in cheap gossip
pages and least on business pages where he should be.
Lastly, the Safaricom board believe that Bob Collymore is
not delivering value to the shareholder while as a
consumer I believe that Safaricom is not delivering on
my end. On the exit of Michael Joseph, Safaricom
shareholders hoped that the company’s stock would rise
above Ksh 5. It has not happened and look like it will
never happen. The share price is still below the Ksh 5 IPO
price.
However, pundits believe that Bob Collymore might be a
victim of corrupt forces at Safaricom. Bob is credited
with trying to fight the strong forces of Mobitelea and
other corporate frauds at Safaricom but the same forces
represented by managers, shareholders and board
members might be fighting back.
It will be very interesting to see how long Bob Collymore
will last at Safaricom but industry analysts doubt if he
will manage to weather the storm. Already his own staff
members are not happy as late as this week when one of
the senior managers reported to work from leave and
found that her duties have been assigned to another
colleague. She has now been given some options to
chose all of which are junior to her last assignment. She
might be headed out in protest''.