Oct 05, 2025
The balance sheet that matters

I looked down from the stage. The seats brimmed with the who’s who of Kenya. But they were looking on not with boredom or envy, but with affection. I was speaking at the launch of an autobiography, Concert of Life, by Francis Okomo Okello. I don’t normally attend big socials, but this time I had […]

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Sep 28, 2025
You are who you hang out with

Some quotations make you laugh out loud—and then stay with you, poking at your thoughts for days. Here’s one that did that to me recently, from the TV series Justified, based on Elmore Leonard’s stories: “If you meet an asshole in the morning, you met an asshole. If you meet assholes all day, you’re the […]

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Sep 21, 2025
Born knowing the way

Ever seen turtles hatching?  If you haven’t, make a point of being right there on our sandy shores when this quiet miracle plays out. Tiny turtles, no bigger than a child’s palm, erupt from the darkness of their buried nests. They have never seen the world before, yet they know exactly what to do. In […]

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Sep 14, 2025
The art of the CX rescue

A voice rises across the dining room. One customer is clearly furious, the server is flustered, other diners are watching. The temperature is rising. You’re the manager. What now? Here are three options often seen in the wild. One: Storm in, shove your server aside, apologise like mad, blame your staff, and promise heaven. Later, […]

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Sep 07, 2025
The cost of pretence

How often are we tempted to put on a good show, tell a made-up story, sell an illusion? A Potemkin Village is something built or staged to give a false impression of prosperity, success, or good order. It’s a facade that hides a less flattering reality. The term comes from a story that’s probably exaggerated. […]

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Aug 31, 2025
Bruise, mend, continue

My son was talking to a close friend about a big change ahead. He would have to start afresh, get used to a new place with new faces, and tackle advanced knowledge. Here’s what the friend said, in conclusion: It will be difficult, but you’ll get through it. What a profound sentence that is. I […]

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Aug 24, 2025
To stay the same—change!

Today I want to introduce you to a gentleman called Tancredi Falconeri. He’s not a real person, but he uttered one of life’s enduring wisdoms. Tancredi is a character in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel, The Leopard. The novel came out before I was born, but it has great modern relevance. I keep pointing this […]

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Aug 17, 2025
Keep you, you

I was attending my son’s university graduation ceremony recently, and amidst the pomp and parental joy of the great occasion, I caught a snippet of profundity in the air. The university’s chancellor, in giving his congratulatory words to the students, made this phrase his final piece of advice to those going out into the world: […]

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Aug 03, 2025
Some lives are lived on the periphery

I have never been of the crowd.  From a young age, I flinched from the tumult of group interaction and enforced sociability. School playgrounds felt like battlefields, parties a series of uneasy truces. I simply existed on a different frequency. Where others thrived in the noise, I was attuned to silence, solitary trails, and quiet […]

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Jul 27, 2025
The grace of the giver

Do you keep getting dumped on because you’re the accommodating one? Perhaps a lot of work lands on your desk because you’re so willing. Perhaps friends and even close relatives take you and your efforts for granted, not seeing how much you do to help them in their lives. If any of this sounds familiar, […]

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Jul 20, 2025
We’re letting the bad drive out the good

In the days of yore, currency was in the form of silver or gold coins. If you allowed bad currency (debased, or even counterfeit) to be treated as equal to proper currency, guess what happened? Yep, the proper coins disappeared. People spent the bad money (because—why not?) and hoarded the good money. Eventually, the good […]

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Jul 13, 2025
Your people have left. They just haven’t told you yet.

I track Gallup’s State of the Global Workforce report, every year. I don’t really know why. It’s the same depressing reading every damn time.  That’s not Gallup’s fault, but if you’re an employer, it might be yours. So what did the 2025 report, recently released, reconfirm? That the pattern remains clear. Here’s an excerpt, using […]

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Jul 06, 2025
The map will appear—once you start walking.

Strategy is about advance thinking. I said so in my book on the subject, Up & Ahead—I even gave it that title because being strategic is about looking up from the details and ahead of the happenings. And yet, that book contains a counterpoint: strategy is also your next five minutes… That framing comes from […]

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Jun 29, 2025
Where are you rushing to—your funeral?

On Kenyan roads, many drivers seem to be in the grip of a particular madness: the need to get there quicker. On any given highway on any given day, there will be cars overtaking in the most dangerous situations. They will come blazing out past sharp bends. They will squeeze back into their lane with […]

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Jun 22, 2025
Built the app, forgot the flow

This actually happened. My wife received an online delivery order. She had paid for it. The items were correct. It had come to the right place. But the rider was unable to hand it over—and so the order went back. The absurd sequence began when Mrs B placed an online order at one of our […]

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Jun 15, 2025
How to spot a real thinker

We all respect thinkers. Well, most of us, anyway. Thoughtful people are of immense value in a world running on shallowness and the absence of critical reasoning. They go deep, and they re-emerge with insights, wisdoms, and solutions that regular people cannot. Many folks like to hang out with proper thinkers, at least some of […]

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Jun 08, 2025
The pause that saves us

The pause that saves us Creshonda Smith moved to Italy from America a while back, first to Rome and then to a remote town in the far south. She got a huge culture shock. Not about language, food, or fashion; but about attitudes towards rest. In her words: “For most of my life, being busy […]

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Jun 01, 2025
The first push is the hardest

I was very lucky when I was young to come across this concept: ACTIVATION ENERGY. I want to show it to you today. If you’re feeling stuck, stranded, unable to get going—this idea may just be the trigger you need. It certainly did wonders for me. In science, activation energy is the minimum energy needed […]

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May 25, 2025
How to ruin what you love

Do you know this word? ENSHITTIFICATION. It’s ugly and accurate. Cory Doctorow coined it. It describes what happens when tech platforms, once useful, go bad. Not all at once, but gradually—and then completely. The pattern is simple—and sadly predictable. When we start a great business, we try to be amazing for our customers. Then, we […]

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May 18, 2025
The ultimate flex—modesty

A plain wooden coffin. No ornamentation, no gilded handles. An ordinary pickup truck, serving as the final hearse. A tombstone bearing just one word: Franciscus. And yet, the world stood still. Presidents, monarchs, patriarchs, imams, rabbis. Heads of state and heads bowed in reverence. All gathered in one of the grandest public squares on Earth, […]

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May 15, 2025
Introducing SUNNY’S SIGNAL

I confirmed recently that I have stopped being a newspaper columnist—after more than two decades. And that the ruckus will continue. I have seen it all over those years. My first columns appeared only in print, for online was not really a thing yet. The very first one got pulled—the editor was afraid it might […]

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Apr 27, 2025
Change is so difficult—and so necessary

Which sock do you put on first, right or left? Whichever one it is, I bet you choose the same foot, every time. Most people do. It’s the same with trousers; people tend to start with their dominant foot or leg. Once the routine is established, they stick with it. It’s an unconscious act, repeated […]

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Apr 20, 2025
What should your business do in a downturn?

Like many around the world, your business might be staring into a fog of extreme uncertainty. Perhaps your government keeps slapping on new taxes—suddenly, haphazardly. Maybe looming trade wars are giving you sleepless nights. Or it could be that new tech and fresh competition have arrived in tandem to feast on what used to be […]

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Apr 13, 2025
Does your business behave like a cheapskate?

I notice a disturbing trend in the favourite candies I have enjoyed since childhood. The quantities per piece or packet have been gradually shrinking. The packaging is often cheaper and more shoddy. And there is variation in quality depending on the target market: here in Africa, for example, there seems to be an assumption that […]

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Apr 06, 2025
Could your disadvantage be flipped into success?

Richard Branson is dyslexic. The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group suffered at school because his brain was wired differently. Reading and writing was more difficult for him, and in those days dyslexia was not a known condition. He was dismissed as lazy or stupid by his teachers. But he now refers to dyslexia as […]

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Mar 30, 2025
Do you think people respect you for your wealth?

“The respect a person receives due to wealth is not their own; it is the respect for their wealth.” That was written by the writer Munshi Premchand, perhaps a century ago. A man draped in money is often showered with deference, but let him lose his fortune, and watch how quickly that reverence evaporates. What […]

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Mar 23, 2025
The first tissue problem—or why you should eat your own dog food

You reach for a tissue from a brand-new box, expecting a smooth, elegant pull. Instead, nothing budges. That first tissue is glued to the second like a child clinging to its mother’s leg on the first day of school. You poke, you pinch, you wiggle a corner free. Which then rips off in your hand. […]

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Mar 16, 2025
Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean you’re winning

Some football teams are all fire and fury—quick passing, relentless pressing, constant attacking. Others are patient, methodical, waiting for the right moment to strike. These are tactics—the specific ways a team plays in a given match. But behind the tactics lies something bigger: a strategy. A team’s strategy defines its long-term approach—whether it builds around […]

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