BusinessDay 12 Dec 2017

Tuesday 12 December 2017
COMMENT
RAFIQ RAJI
“Dr Raji is chief economist at Macroafricaintel.
He was previously an
Africa Economist at Standard Chartered
Bank, London, UK. (Twitter: @
DrRafiqRaji)”
On 12 December,
a “president”
would have been
inaugurated in
Mombasa, Kenya.
At least, that was the plan.
But the president of where
or what? Because just weeks
before, one was sworn-in. His
name is Uhuru Kenyatta. And
he looks nothing like the one
that could have taken another
oath of “office” this week. I
have been at my wits’ end trying
to fathom what Kenyan
opposition leader Raila Odinga
was trying to achieve by
committing what could on the
face of it have been deemed a
treasonable offence. Mr Odinga
lost to President Kenyatta
in the August elections, which
SALIENT
Call me Mr President
was annulled by the Supreme
Court over irregularities. As he
did not participate in the second
one, which incidentally
was validated by the court, it
beggars belief on what legal
basis his purported presidential
inauguration would
have stood upon. With some
reflection and after reading
commentaries here and there,
I came around to an understanding
of what he might
have been trying to achieve.
A man could call himself anything.
If I wrote in this column
that I am the “president” of
this page, who is to query me?
Some companies entitle their
chief executive “president”, for
instance. In Nigeria, the head
of the Senate is what again?
Mr. President. But is Bukola
Saraki, the president of the
Nigerian Senate, the president
of Nigeria? Surely not. So Mr
Odinga might actually be on
to something I thought. Since
he is almost assured of the
support of about half the Kenyan
population, designating
himself as “president” of some
assemblage, a “peoples’ assembly”,
say, might just do the
trick of getting on the nerves
of his rival in the presidential
palace. In a nutshell, what Mr
Mr Deng proved the point
that power is not so much
about the title as it is about
legitimacy. It seems to me Mr
Odinga’s plan should be to
hold on to the half of Kenya
that he is now almost sure
would pledge fealty to him if
he asked.
Odinga had planned today may
actually have passed the test
of legal scrutiny. At least, so I
thought; until a press release
by his party over the weekend
postponing the swearing-in
stated he would have been inaugurated
as “President of the
Republic of Kenya.” Say we ignore
this about-face. Let us also
assume he was not about to be
foolhardy to the point of actually
declaring himself the President
of Kenya. With some creativity,
he could actually get away with
something close to the real deal.
Much ado about a title
Going around the country as
the “president” of “something”
that everyone knows represents
about half of Kenya could actually
be the perfect revenge from
the scion of a family forever at
odds (and always at the losing
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end it seems) with the Kenyattas.
A good analogy can be
found in China a long time
ago. While Deng Xiaopingwas
the de facto leader of China
in the late 1970s and for most
of the 1980s, he was never officially
head of state. At one
point, the only title he had was
that ofhonorary chairman of
the China Bridge Association.
Even then, he was able to wield
tremendous power. Mr Deng
proved the point that power is
not so much about the title as it
is about legitimacy. It seems to
me Mr Odinga’s plan should be
to hold on to the half of Kenya
that he is now almost sure
would pledge fealty to him if
he asked. That way, as he and
his party “resist” and ask for
electoral reforms, they would
be able to sustain the current
momentum until the next elections.
Mr Kenyatta and his men
are not likely to sit idly by while
he does this, though. Opposition
strategist, David Ndii, was
recently arrested by the authorities,
likely in the hope that
incriminating evidence would
be found against him, Mr Odinga
and the other principals
of the National Super Alliance
(NASA). As Mr Ndii recounts
after his release on bail, they
BUSINESS DAY
Metaphors of strategy: Strategy as execution
11
did not succeed.
Catch-22
Had the “president” been
sworn-in today as planned, the
president (which one now?)
would have had little choice
but to arrest and prosecute him
for treason. Until the postponement
was announced, I came
to the resolution that perhaps
Mr Odinga reckoned it would
not be such a bad idea to be
in the news in that manner.
After all, he has been in prison
before. In the event, attention
would be drawn from whatever
potential good Mr Kenyatta
might be doing for the people
towards the likely spectacle of
a treason trial. He could still
do some sort of oath-taking
within the confines of the freedoms
of association, expression
and so on. But when the
swearing-in eventually takes
place, if ever, how should Mr
Kenyatta respond? If he arrests
and prosecutes Mr Odinga, the
subsequent drama would be a
tremendous distraction. If he
does nothing, Mr Odinga would
increasingly look presidential.
Maybe it should end with the
postponement.
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WEYINMI JEMIDE
Jemide is a certified master coach and
currently a doctoral candidate in applied
leadership and coaching. He writes every
Tuesday in BusinessDay
Strategy execution is
well known to be the
most challenging aspect
of succeeding
with strategy. Strategy design
and all the conversations
that go with it are easier to
get right. Installing processes
and getting the right people
also come with difficulties but
executing strategy has proved
time and again to be the real
mountain to climb. Good
strategy often fails to deliver
the expected outcomes due to
failure in execution. In continuing
the series on metaphors
of strategy, this article features
five aspects of strategy which
propel success with execution.
Know what to do
Clarity about what is to be
done can never be too much
when it comes to strategy. The
question of what the business
is doing has to be clear to the
executives and all other stakeholders.
This clarity ensures
that everybody is on the same
page regarding what should
be done to meet the corporate
objectives. Without clarity,
execution becomes vague and
employees start to drift across
a variety of mostly unproductive
activities. Of course, clarity
is a process of continuous
improvement because communication
requires consistency
for it to produce clarity.
Organisation should get clarity
of action for execution to
deliver its full benefits.
Know how to do
Strategy experts refer to
competencies and capabilities.
Without supporting know
how, company strategy cannot
succeed regardless of the
level of clarity about what to
do. People must have the right
skills and knowledge, processes
have to be aligned with
what needs to be done and
customers should be confident
that the organization can
deliver on its promises. The
competence of employees and
appropriate processes combined
with the confidence of
customers results in a synergy
of strategic success. It also
leads to strategic operations
that are difficult for competitors
to replicate even if they
intend to.
Yet, building the required
competencies is not automatic
but a deliberate and
mostly painstaking engagement
of internal and external
resources. Depending on the
size of the organization, it
takes several years to develop
unique competencies that truly
give advantages in the market.
Without knowhow, strategy
execution fails.
Do what is to be done
So what if you know what to
do and you have the required
competencies? Strategy execution
demands one more level of
achievement – the actual doing
of what is to be done. This is
no exaggerated challenge as
executives will admit having
numerous repeated conversations
about what should have
been done but is yet to be done.
Then the conversations are
transferred from one meeting
to another like repeat episodes
of television shows. The lack of
movement eventually increases
despondency and a sense of
failure.
One way to remedy this
situation is to focus on progress
rather than on completion.
Small wins, more yes answers
than no answers and consistent
action create patterns of
success for the organization to
build upon. More so, strategic
tasks can seem overwhelming
for those to whom they
have been assigned. A simple
rule for doing is to ensure that
something is being done which
takes everyone closer to the
expected end. Constructing
consistency of action is more
in the small steps than in the
search for revolutionary action.
Although immediate results
are more often the focus
of attention, the dominant
evidence is that strategy takes
time and best succeeds with
the small wins.
Measure what is being
done
It is a popular expression
that what does not get measured
never gets done. It is a
simple expression but measurement
of strategy in practice
is not that simple. Potential
roadblocks include identifying
and applying the right
measures, ensuring that measures
align with the strategy
and generating frequency of
measurement. There can also
be debates about the units of
measurement, who should be
responsible for measurement
and the effects of measurement.
A balance of suitable measures
is always recommended
to cover employees, customers
and processes rather than only
financial which are mostly
based on outcomes. Industry
standards are also useful in
determining what operators
measure internally. Externally
comparative measures in addition
to internal measures
challenge organisations to
look outward and take a more
competitive stance.
Reward what is done
As companies succeed with
strategy, employees and other
stakeholders should be
beneficiaries of the results.
Everybody appreciates being
appreciated and appreciation
triggers the desire to do more
for rewarding organisations.
When employees do the right
things, they should receive
suitable financial and nonfinancial
rewards. Consumer
products companies extend
strategic rewards to distributors
and agents to ensure that
they are installed as part of the
larger community.
Rewards should be advertised
as widely as possible for
public audiences to recognize
that businesses are truly getting
ahead with their objectives.
When strategy is being
successfully executed, those
that are executing it at all levels
should be included in the rewards.
Rewards should not be
limited to bonuses and financial
benefits for top executives.
Closing note
Strategy execution invites
organisations to know what to
do, get the know how, do what
is to be done, measure what is
to be done and reward what
is done.
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