Entrepreneur's Corner

90% Of Your Future Depends On You, Safaricom CEO To Women On Boards

BY Soko Directory Team · September 28, 2023 12:09 pm

KEY POINTS

Leading forward requires you to be active, you cannot be passive or complain. 90% of your future depends on you. You have to be vulnerable, be bold and have courage. You have to have a purpose and want to do things.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Authenticity is the entry to be able to take charge, influence change, and to be able to guide others. At Safaricom, we are proud to have women in key leadership roles, driving our innovation, and contributing significantly to our success.

Innovation is necessary for the survival of any organization and business in our rapidly evolving world. At Safaricom, innovation is part of our culture, together with purpose, collaboration, and customer obsession.

There’s a need to embrace new ideas, technologies, and approaches as solutions but also driven by creativity, experimentation, and forward-thinking to match and address the challenges we face.

For me, innovation is the bedrock of my leadership especially for the organization that I lead. Innovation means that we are constantly finding new ground, extending our runway, so that we remain relevant and most importantly, we continue to inspire society as we transform lives.

If you do not innovate as an organization you can easily get left behind or perish quickly. You will be challenged because people are comfortable and used to the status quo. You have to be vulnerable and willing to take risks.

At Safaricom, if we wanted to become a purpose-led technology company, we had to go agile. I took a risk by introducing an agile way of working, but two years down the line, we have seen real benefits.

To be innovative one must seek to learn and relearn. At Safaricom, we refer to it as ‘One More Skill’. As a leader, this has meant taking up new courses in innovation, agility, and new technologies.

When you are unsure about taking up a new role, always remember it is never too late, you can learn anything at any age. Leaders have to re-tool, to adapt to changing environments. Look for roles that allow you to become more successful as you grow.

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Leadership is called upon at times of crisis and uncertainty, and inspiration is the most important element in driving the organization forward.

Be deliberate in how you think about your career. My journey at Safaricom has taught me the importance of always challenging the status quo and learning from other people. To lead, you must be able to connect, motivate, and inspire a sense of ownership in shared objectives.

When I joined Safaricom, it was a deliberate effort to identify where we wanted to go as an organization: Become a purpose-led technology company by 2025.

This journey taught me the importance of embracing new skills, fostering a culture of innovation, and learning from diverse individuals.

It is for this reason that I am currently being reverse coached in Artificial Intelligence by one of my colleagues, Charlotte who leads our Big Data department. We can’t be a technology company if we do not leverage the data we have.

One of the best decisions I ever made was to build my capacity in these rapidly changing times when AI and IoT are becoming a reality in our sector.

Data science, Computer Science, and Data Engineering form part of the key qualifications we have been looking for as we do our recruitment at Safaricom.

To inspire others, you have to inspire yourself first. We also have to allow ourselves to be inspired by others and be humble enough to be taught.

Leading from strength is what allows you to be yourself and be able to inspire others. Focus on leading from the area that you are strong, to allow you to show up at your best.

In our Management, 40% of women are in senior leadership with all our commercial functions (Enterprise Business, Consumer Business, and Financial Services: M-PESA) being led by women. They are all a great asset in ensuring we remain true to our strategic focus as guided by our purpose to Transform Lives.

One-third of senior management in our Technology Division are women. All our graduate recruitment and placement is 50-50 gender-balanced. We are keen on developing a pipeline of women who will become our future leaders.

The task of achieving gender balance at the top levels of leadership, including the board level, requires unwavering commitment, and we must remain steadfast in our efforts.

Be a purposeful leader that coaches and mentors others. We play a very important role in guiding others, women especially, in making important decisions.

If you want to help people develop, you need to be very understanding about who they are and their current situations.

As a leader, you need to be authentic and conscious about your vulnerability and expressing it, even if you are not sure about the kind of reaction you will get.

Leaders benefit from supportive and well-informed boards. Boards and management need to work together as this is what will propel an organization forward.

Leaders must also embrace a mindset shift and remove obstacles that prevent their organizations from evolving and changing.

I joined Safaricom at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in addition to leading the organization through unprecedented times, I had to manage major transitions. We need to learn how to navigate to the top and deal with an uncertain world.

If you focus on the things that matter to you and your journey, you can stay ahead of the curve.

About Soko Directory Team

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory