"CEOs can't wait to read Sunny Bindra's articles every week."

“…one quality that leaders I admire have in common is knowing when to act decisively…Effective leadership inevitably means taking decisions – and often pretty tough ones at that. Good leaders have to have the drive and ambition to lead from the front. They don’t accept the necessity of always doing things the same way simply […]

Dear Harpreet and Clement Ah, young love! The thrill, the joy, the agony. It was written in the stars, it was sung on the wind, it was meant to be. When romance is in the ascendant, nothing else seems to matter. Congratulations, youngsters. We can only wish you well. May your love blossom, mature and […]

Our post-elections crisis has been characterised by many types of intolerance, many of which have resulted in mayhem. But one particular type of strange provincialism is happening all the time, and passing without comment: our peculiar loathing of the international media. Many respected Kenyans have hurled vitriol at the foreign press and electronic media in […]

“Many executives view multitasking as a necessity in the face of all the demands they juggle, but it actually undermines productivity. Distractions are costly: A temporary shift in attention from one task to another – stopping to answer an e-mail or take a phone call, for instance – increases the amount of time necessary to […]

A question: why are all those Kenyans in Diaspora not chasing each other with pangas? I’m being entirely serious. There are hundreds of thousands of Kenyans out there, in dozens of countries. They come from all tribes and all social classes. Some are very well educated, but many are not. They are not necessarily in […]

“Companies increasingly accept that crises, in whatever form, are inevitable. While there is a variety of theories and opinions on how best to manage a crisis, some fundamentals are common. First, accurate information is essential. Any attempt to conceal relevant facts and to manipulate the situation ultimately backfires. Second, the company must react as quickly […]

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. Saint Francis of Assisi’s famous prayer is widely quoted and cherished. Its sentiment is […]

“If we must have leaders, let us seek ethical leaders; those who seek the greatest good of their followers. The followers must on the other hand undertake to suffer the consequences of seeking, together with their leaders, the ultimate good, the greatest good. …How sad, then, that we are surrounded by such weak leaders; people […]

So many bad things have happened in Kenya over the past few days that we are numb with disbelief. But more than anything else, I am overcome by feelings of deep shame. Shame that my countrymen are capable of such inhuman and unconscionable acts against each other. And shame that people at the top of […]

“Each and every day, we unwittingly cage (and enrage) ourselves with old-fashioned thinking rooted in a bygone Industrial Era. Behind the modern corporate veil lurks old fashioned “hierarchical planning”: those Dilbertian cubicles where we partition ourselves from one another and where space is reduced to its leanest and meanest economic essentials. With time, any sentient […]

Where did my country go? Just a few days ago I lived in a seemingly vibrant country that was going somewhere. A country that was attracting the attention and investment of the entire globe. A country that seemed set to resolve its differences through a properly conducted, peaceful ballot. Today I find myself in a […]

The elections are done. It is now time to stop asking what your leaders can do for you, and start asking what you can do for yourself. For that is how development and progress actually happen: by one’s own efforts. But there is a very important step we must take before we rush to action. […]

All the hullabaloo is nearly over. It’s time for the day of reckoning on 27th December, in the only place that matters: the voting booth. The right to vote is the fundamental tenet of democracy. None of us should take it lightly. It is one of the most important powers granted to you by your […]

“Think back for a moment to your school days. Remember the best teacher you ever had, the one who seemed to know everything about his or her field and had something all the other teachers lacked: the ability to boil down the complex ideas of a discipline – whether it was psychology, economics or chemistry […]

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the elections to be done with. Regardless of who wins what, this campaign has not done the country any favours. We have all conducted ourselves very badly. Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in us. Who gains from elections? Certainly, the people who peddle […]

“There are five character flaws that are dangerous for a general. If he is reckless, his men can be killed. If he is cowardly, his army can be captured. If he is short-tempered, he will react in anger. If he is self-important, he can be deceived. If he is attached to his men, he will […]

I will be signing copies of Crown Your Customer at Books First, Nakumatt Ukay on Tuesday 11 December from 7.00 – 9.00 pm. Muthoni Garland will also be in attendance, signing Tracking The Scent Of My Mother.

When I was a student in London, there was a particular Kenyan T-shirt that I would wear with great pride. It depicted a cartoon of a man pulling a ‘mkokoteni’ cart. This T-shirt reminded me of my roots, and of the idiosyncrasies of the country from which I had emerged. I told my fellow students […]

Scene from The Godfather: To set the scene, Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino), the don’s war-hero son who was not ordained to enter the family business, nonetheless finds himself tapped to avenge the attempted assassination of his father (played by Marlon Brando). His mission is to shoot Sollozzo, who engineered the gunning down of […]

How long do family businesses last? Most make it to the second generation, and then the problems start. Once the visionary founder has handed over the reins to his son/daughter/nephew/brother, an inflection point occurs. What happens in that second generation decides whether the business has a future. Either the company makes necessary changes and undertakes […]

“Where is (success) coming from? It’s coming from having, within a company, difficult-to-replicate and usually intangible resources. Things that can generate and sustain competitive success – things like reputation, a good customer group, network externalities, experienced and competent people performing your processes. …we know that companies get good at something by doing it. Now that […]

Fast Forward is a new leadership development programme, launching in Kenya in 2008. It has a specific aim: to develop the leaders of ‘business unusual’ and take them on the final leg of their learning journey – developing WISDOM and GOOD JUDGEMENT in leadership. The programme will select a small group of participants every year […]

I have been fortunate enough in my life to have visited many of the world’s great cities. When I was younger, that was great fun. These days, I just get angry when I travel. Why angry? I get angry when the plane approaches a new city at night, and I can see a dramatic display […]

“The rule of the market economy,” this Communist official explained to me, “is that if somewhere has the richest human resources and the cheapest labor, of course the enterprises and the businesses will naturally go there.” In manufacturing, he pointed out, “Chinese people were first the employees and working for the foreign manufacturers, and after […]

I am delighted to announce the launch of my new book: CROWN YOUR CUSTOMER. CYC is a short polemic about the state of customer service in Kenya – and what to do about it. Click here to read an excerpt. The book is available in Kenya from the end of October, and is published by […]

One man and a small child dead; another child in the intensive care unit. That was the net effect of last week’s Diwali celebrations in Nairobi. Diwali is the Hindu festival of light, and is meant to signify humanity’s evolution from darkness to light, from the forests to civilisation. An apt metaphor for where we […]

“The strong global economic tide has lifted the boats of most South-East Asian countries, but perhaps the most impressive performer is Singapore. Its national income per head is already higher than Spain’s and New Zealand’s, and five times that of its nearest neighbour, Malaysia…since the 1997 Asian Crisis, it has fared markedly better than its […]

Football pundit Alan Hansen, when surveying the new-look Manchester United team of 1995-96, famously stated: “You can’t win anything with kids”. Those words have probably haunted him every day of his life subsequently. Manchester United went to win the English Premiership title that year, with a team whose average age was 24, and 6 of […]