St. Paul’s Self-Help Group marked 20 years of impacting lives in 2021. The group was established as an agent of Caritas Nairobi self-help Programme on September, year 2000. In marking the milestone, the managing committee shared with the membership and the community via social media; life and business lessons, acquired over the years, some learnt at ease, and some learned painfully.
Today the group manages over $1 million (Ksh. 122 million) of members funds and recently launched the St. Paul’s Self Help group strategic plan 2.0 (2021 – 2023) as we accelerate our mission of fulfilling members socio economic aspirations.
Business Reflections
1. IDEAS. [You can have ideas anywhere!]
Every day we have ideas. They are the most profound of products that we as humans generate. And if your idea is profound enough, it could change the course of history.
• It’s important to add that having ideas is the most democratic of all activities that we undertake. You don’t need special permission or a certificate to come up with a good idea. So, let’s remember to celebrate our freedom and ability to conjure ideas. Just make sure you share them with the world.
2. HEAD vs. HEART. [Stop Thinking. Start Feeling.]
Creating anything is an intellectual process, but it’s also one driven by the heart. Irish writer James Stephens summed it perfectly when he wrote: “What the heart knows today, the head will understand tomorrow.”
• As humans, we respond more to emotions than we do to logic. How something looks and feels, how it stimulates the senses, is much more important than its function.
3. STORY TELLING.
Storytelling is the most powerful form of communication ever invented. Through stories we learn, entertain, communicate, and socialize with each other.
• A story always leaves you feeling something. And despite all our advances, all our supposed sophistication, listening to a great story, told brilliantly, still enthralls us the most.
4. GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT.
Understand this and you’ll be very successful.
• Getting good is hard enough but given half the chance good will stop you from getting great. Therefore, always take a step back from what really feels good and ask: BUT IS IT GREAT? So, park that good idea and keep going and trust in the inspiration to come up with a great idea.
5. FOCUS vs. ADAPTABILITY
Keep your focus but be flexible.
• Have a positive attitude and skills to pivot within your situation as well as moving from one to the next. However, too much openness to change defeats the ability to be present.
6. ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
The primary role of management is to motivate employees and coordinate their activities.
• Management is about establishing routines that helps teams and organizations to get the work done.
• A classic managerial dilemma lies in performing two contrasting tasks simultaneously: (i) administration, and (ii) innovation. Success management therefore involves balancing the virtues of control and learning.
7. ENGAGE FOR IMPACT.
“A conductor is nothing without an orchestra.” – Gustavo Dudamel
- Business often deals with a range of stakeholders’ whose interests are ever changing and often divergent. Successful businesses engage for impact rather than affinity – they balance their stakeholders’ priorities with an unrelenting focus on delivering results.
8. STRATEGY AND TACTICS.
“There is nothing as useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter Drucker
• The difficulty of thinking strategically is to see the world not only differently but also accurately. It’s important for businesses to avoid the trap of making the strategic process synonymous with planning. Instead keep the strategic process as a catalyst for creative thinking and entrepreneurial endeavor.
9. MEASURING SUCCESS.
Success is best measured by added value, not profit.
• Business success is proportional to its ability to add value to the resources it uses. These resources include human talent, materials, and capital. Added value is the difference between the market value of a firms output and the total cost of the inputs.
10. WINNERS AND LOSERS.
Profit is the reward for daring to be unique.
• Firms outperform their competitors by aiming to be different, not better. Aiming to be different from competitors does not, of course, guarantee success – all it can be said is that it is the necessary but not sufficient condition of success.
11. THE 6 WAYS TO GROW A BUSINESS.
A growth strategy doesn’t have to be complicated.
• Every business needs to grow but the first step is to understand where it comes from. Check out the following six simple categories:
1. New processes: sell the same stuff at higher margins. Cut production costs and delivery costs, automate for efficiencies etc
2. New experiences: sell more of the same stuff to the same people. Increase retention and share by connecting with customers.
3. New features: sell enhanced stuff to the same people and add improvements that drive incremental purchases.
4. New customers: sell more of the same stuff to new people. Introduce the product / service to new markets with needs similar to your core, or to markets where it might address a different need.
5. New offerings: make new stuff to sell. Develop a new product – not just enhancements. Find a new need to solve within existing markets.
6. New models: sell stuff in a new way. Re-imagine how to go to market by creating new revenue streams, channels, and ways of creating value.
12. DECISION MAKING.
Understand the difference between reversible and irreversible decisions.
• Most of the most successful businesses adopt simple, versatile decision-making process to remove the need for deliberations in particular situations. If a decision is reversible, make it fast and without perfect information. If a decision is irreversible, slow down the decision- making process and ensure you consider ample information and understand the problem as thoroughly as you can.
13. UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER NEEDS.
3 most common types of customers’ needs to be aware of.
• Ultimately, all customer needs can be categorized into three main types:
1. Functional needs: are the most tangible and customers typically evaluate potential product or service on whether they’ll help them achieve a particular task or functions.
2. Social needs: is a customer need that relate to how a person wants to be perceived by others when using a product or service.
3. Emotional needs: emotional needs refer to how a customer wants to feel when using a particular product or service.
14. CULTURE IS CRITICAL TO YOUR SUCCESS.
How businesses get culture wrong.
• Many business leaders are concerned with the engagement and performance of individuals and teams only so far as their immediate execution on corporate goals. They figure out if the work is getting done, the culture is just fine. However, if the culture of your business isn’t thriving, if people don’t feel connected to something bigger than their pay cheque and the wrong working environment doesn’t care for the long-term connection of people, you won’t be in business very long.
15. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.
The 6 fundamental skills every leader should practice.
• By reflecting on success and failures along the way, we find these six leadership skills essential in building a leadership pipeline.
1. Shape a vision that is exciting and challenging for the business.
2. Translate that vision into a clear strategy about what action to take, and what not to do.
3. Recruit, develop, and reward a team of great people to carry out the strategy.
4. Focus on measurable results.
5. Foster innovation and learning to sustain the team and organization and grow new leaders.
6. Lead yourself – knowing yourself, improve yourself, and manage the appropriate balance in your own life.
16. BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS.
Securing partnerships is the fastest way to accelerate your business.
• Business cannot always rely on their own internal capability to create value. Sometimes, it makes more sense to find a partner. Often the key drivers of a true partnership include:
1. Acquisition of resources.
2. Optimization and economies of scale.
3. Reduction of risk and uncertainty.
17. OPERATE SUSTAINABLY
Sustainability underpins the long-term success of any businesses.
• Sustainability is about businesses being purpose-driven, how they integrate values in their work that help transform them into catalysts for system level change.
18. MAINTAIN A LONG-TERM OUTLOOK.
A long-term outlook enables business leaders to both make decisions that stand the test of time and pass down the business to subsequent generations.
19. BRAND BUILDING
Having a strong brand has become crucial for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
• Your brand is not your product, your logo, your website, or your name. In fact, your brand is much more than that – it’s the stuff that feels intangible.
• A brand identity is made up of what your brand says, what your values are, how you communicate your product, and what you want people to feel when they interact with it. Essentially, your brand identity is the personality of your business and a promise to your customers.
20. THE POWER OF SMALL WINS.
When we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough. These big wins are great—but they are relatively rare. The good news is that even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously.
Compiled by
George Kaburu
Global Operations Executive | International Program Manager | Start-up Enabler | Social
Entrepreneur & Innovation | Market & Social Researcher SSA
Member & Strategic adviser – St. Paul’s Self-Help Group.
George Kaburu is a member of St. Paul's Self Help Group