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

His Highness the Aga Khan’s 50th anniversary celebrations came to Kenya this week. He is marking his accession to spiritual leadership of the Ismaili Muslim community, and has chosen to commemorate much of this milestone here in Kenya. We should return the gesture by understanding the unique set of institutions that this leader has developed […]

“Shares should rise in price only if there’s good reason to think future profits will be high. As we know, profits derive from scarcity; for instance, ownership of scarce land (protected by legal title), a scarce brand (protected by trademark) or an organisation with unique capabilities (protected by nothing more than the fact that most […]

Would you care to work for this company? This company makes it easy for you to get to work. It provides air-conditioned buses from five locations, free of charge for all employees. And the buses are Wi-Fi enabled. If you drive to work, your car will be washed and have its oil changed while you […]

“If I kick my dog (from the front or the back), he will move. If I want him to move again, what must I do? I must kick him again. Similarly, I can charge a man’s battery, and then recharge it, and recharge it again. But it is only when he has his own generator […]

I’m pleased to confirm that I will be starting a new weekly column for Kenya’s new Business Daily, every Friday starting 3 August. ‘Thought Leadership’ is designed to feed Kenya’s growing hunger for high-quality management knowledge. Every week, I will take an excerpt from a classic management book, article or paper – new and old. […]

Imagine a 44-year-old adult. Let’s say his name is K. K is a grown man, but an underachiever. He dropped out of school early, and does menial work for little pay. He watches his neighbours with envy: some have developed their own businesses; others get large pay-packets for performing highly skilled jobs. K has to […]

We were all shaking this week. Some were shaking because the earth actually trembled under their feet; others shook because of the fear of the earth shaking in future; and most were shaking just because of the uncommonly cold weather. If, like me, you left your abode en famille in the early hours of Wednesday […]

Who would want to be poor in Kenya? We treat the poor no better than chewing-gum stuck to our shoes. If you are poor in Kenya, you must never fall seriously ill. If you do, your descent into hell will begin. Assuming you have a local clinic, you will in all likelihood be given the […]

I have no idea who the next president of Kenya will be, and neither do you. Given that our politicians are driven by the overwhelming need to take office rather than stick to principle, anything is possible. Anyone can yet team up with anyone else. Any number of permutations can emerge. I find all of […]

There it is, tucked away in Nairobi’s Highridge area: the strangest of shopping malls. Like some bizarre human-sized rabbit warren, full of confusing corners, surprising staircases and odd little businesses in basements, on roofs, in the car park. You almost expect Alice to pop up somewhere in this wonderland – expect that Diamond Plaza, or […]

Mahmood Mamdani always makes sense. He is a rare voice of reason in East Africa, where unadulterated vitriol and uneducated diatribes are often the norm when discussing this thing called ‘The Asian Question’. When something as shocking as Kampala’s April riots disturbs us, it is soothing to read an insightful reflection by so thoughtful a […]

There is a story often told about work and productivity (The Economist carried a version of it recently). An economist is out for a stroll, and comes upon some workers digging beside a river to build a dam. The workers are all using spades, and the work is back-breaking and laborious and takes forever. Intrigued, […]

Sunny Bindra, Executive Fellow at Strathmore Business School, concludes his special three-part series on the ideas of Michael Porter. This final article looks at the professor’s prescription: a new collaborative approach for Kenya. Michael Porter came, spoke and left. So what did he leave behind? I believe he left us with the intellectual framework that […]

Sunny Bindra, strategy consultant and business writer, continues his three-part series on the ideas of Michael Porter. Harvard’s Professor Porter was in Nairobi on Monday and delivered a memorable address on “Global Competitiveness” at the Strathmore Business School. This second article examines the question: What are the sources of national competitiveness? “You can become very […]

Professor Michael Porter, world-renowned authority on competitiveness, was in Nairobi this week. He met government leaders and delivered a keynote address to executives and students at the Strathmore Business School. Business Daily asked Sunny Bindra, the Sunday Nation’s business columnist and a member of Strathmore’s Advisory Board, to convey the legendary don’s ideas and recommendations […]

Do voters vote for the right things – and for the leaders who deliver the right things? Traditional thinking would suggest that the answer is yes: democracy is a good thing because voters do, by and large, all things considered, vote sensibly. In other words, they are rational beings who vote in their own self-interest. […]

If you head out to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, chances are you’ll come across a police roadblock on Mombasa Road. I did so recently, and counted fifteen policemen manning this checkpoint. Yes, fifteen. Perhaps two or three were actually checking cars; the other dozen or so appeared to be ‘supervising’. Or look at the […]

We all receive a lot of stuff via e-mail, and most of it is garbage. But just once in a while, something does make you laugh out loud. Again, I don’t know who wrote this, so apologies to the very witty author for the lack of attribution. Enjoy! YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2007 […]

This column is happy to continue its annual tradition of deciphering the weighty and comprehensive Economic Survey – our main compendium of economic numbers – for readers’ benefit. So, if you don’t have the money (Sh. 900), the time (284 pages) or the interest (what’s on TV?) to read the whole thing yourselves, today’s piece […]

There is much hoo-ha about the epidemic of scams that has ‘suddenly’ afflicted Kenya. Everywhere you look there is a pyramid scheme collapsing, or a big company rushing to warn customers about SMS hoaxes being conducted in its name. Outrage fills the air. The papers are packed with calls for the government to do something […]

The Paul Wolfowitz saga ran painfully long, but finally came to an end last week. Wolfowitz resigned as President of the World Bank, after digging in his heels and repeatedly stating that he would not step down in the middle of the huge storm involving his girlfriend. Mr Wolfowitz is widely regarded as a ‘neo-conservative’, […]

The Nation recently carried a two-page spread on the traffic congestion that is bedevilling us all. The news is that 5,000 new cars are, on average, now being registered every month, while the road network is barely expanding. Too many cars, too few roads. And so we read the tales of the poor folks who […]

Language is important. Words matter. It was with these sentiments in mind that I began noticing how many of us say things that we just don’t mean. I’m not referring to the glib things we say which are economical with the truth; I’m more concerned about those expressions we routinely deploy that actually mean the […]

I don’t know who wrote this, but it will certainly resonate with many I grew up with. If you know the author, please post a comment. Minor edits are mine. To the wonderful kids who were born in Africa and survived the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. First, we survived being born to mothers who […]

Sir Richard Branson was in town recently, and everywhere he went he was received like royalty. How come? Not too long ago, we would have viewed him as a neo-colonialist come to exploit us, to take our business away, to expropriate profits, to hurt our national carrier, to prevent us from developing our own skills […]

There is a public notice that seems peculiarly Kenyan, and it appears in our newspapers nearly every day. It’s so common-place as to be almost banal, and most of us can recite it from memory. “The person whose photograph appears below, ID number XYZ, is no longer employed by the ABC company. He/she is no […]

There is a highly charged debate taking place in Kenya today. It concerns one of our unique national assets: our wildlife. There is a strong and vocal lobby that is demanding we rescind our decades-long ban on hunting. An array of facts and figures is being marshalled, and it is finding frequent expression in the […]

We had great hopes for our new women leaders in 2003, did we not? For the first time we saw a fresh batch of women, some veterans of the multi-party struggle, others young and zestful, taking meaningful positions in parliament and government. We hoped for a better, more sensitive, more thoughtful type of leadership than […]