3 Business Lessons I Learned in Kenya
I travelled to Kenya for 11 days for my honeymoon and it was quite the experience! Kenya has a population of over 53 Million people as the 28th most populated country in the world and 7th within Africa. Their land stretches nearly 600,000 km with some of the largest animal national parks in the world and amazing rich culture all around.
You all know that I’m a nerd and I like to get into the weeds of new things I discover so let’s talk about a few business lessons I learned while I was in Kenya.
1. Make your product simple and people will follow.
In Kenya they have an payment system called M-Pesa. This is like their version of e-transfer for Canadians or Cash App for Americans. I must say it’s very efficient and easy to use! Children, young adults, and elders alike all use M-Pesa use it. Payments can be used for gas, groceries, bills, and everything else. It offers a daily max of around 500,000 shillings which is around $3000 US. They move money around way faster than I’ve seen in North America.
Kenyans were the ones who introduced it as an alternative way to have the country access financial services and make payments. Actually many parts of Africa also use M-Pesa or other forms of it. Safaricom is the parent company of M-Pesa and it supports Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan, Lesotho, Congo, Ghana, Mozambique, Egypt, Ethiopia. Safricom is in partnership with another major telecom network in Africa called Vodafone and they have similar services.
I can go on and on about M-Pesa, but the main takeaway is that the success of a business can go very far if you make things simple and convenient for your customers.
2. When selling a product give your customers an experience.
I went to the Maasai Market in Nairobi Kenya. This is an open marketplace where you will see vendors from all over Kenya selling anything from handmade jewelry to colorful textiles and traditional Kenyan sculptures. First off, I will say it can be a very overwhelming experience especially if you aren’t accustomed to environments where you’re being approached every second to buy things.
What stuck out to me the most was their ability to constantly make you feel like the item was yours before you even bought anything 🤣🤣. Let me explain…Any time I would pause at one of the vendors and look at an item the vendor would immediately place the item in my hand. If it was clothes they would ask that I try it on. The funny thing is I knew what they were doing, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the experience even more. When I got home and reflected I realized I actually didn’t need some of the items I bought, but they made me FEEL like I did hahaha!
The experience is just as important than the actual product or service and as a company if you can figure this out there is no limit to who you can sell to or what you can sell. Apple and Starbucks do this everyday with their products.
3. Adapt but don’t forget where you came from.
In Swahili or Kiswahili (one of the main languages spoken in Kenya) they have a saying that goes “Ya kale hayapo, zingatia uliyonayo”, which means “The past isn't there, reflect on what you have”. Kenya has done a great job of adapting, whilst still being proud of who they are and their heritage. They have some of the biggest tech companies in the world with home offices in Kenya, such as, Oracle, IBM, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, and many more. Even though these companies remain they still have massive national animal parks and many tribes living in their domains.
Overall, Kenya was a great experience and I will be back for sure. Kenya has some of the brightest minds in the world and I highly recommend it as a place to travel. I gained so much business and investing knowledge just watching people in their element in Kenya. I will definately be back!
Happy Investing,
Kobi