and everything is digital; where
the interface layer is where the
profit is; where physical assets and
employees are liabilities; and where
providing a slick, best in class
human experience will create your
companies most profound business.
My conviction is that Pesa Link is
sitting on the wrong technological
platform.
We have the emerging block chain
revolution and it would have been
expected that at the very least
Pesa Link lays the foundation for
a digital currency adoption. That
would have been forward looking
and providing a plank to scale up
pending the streamlining of the
regulatory environment towards
digital currency adoption.
Dreaming engineering, not looking
back on the past but rather working
around the unmet needs and
unstated dreams of customers in the
modern age would have avoided the
pitfall.
Block chain to the banks is what
YouTube is to the media. Modern
Companies are founded in a world
of new behaviors, where consumers
are increasingly having a say,
inspired by new technology to drive
efficiencies and liberated by new
market dynamics through lobbying
to the regulatory authorities.
This is however not to undermine
the remarkable and deserved
success of a tranche of banks that
have improved many people’s lives
significantly. Their success lies in
the fact that they brought digital
thinking and modern behaviors to
the very heart of their operations,
not just bolted it onto the side.
Most incumbents have however
collectively failed to learn the
lessons from the past and see that
when a technology really arrives, it
blends into the background.
It would be worthwhile exploring
72 MAL 17/17 ISSUE
‘‘What does Mpesa,
Sportspesa and
Uber platforms have
in common? They
were all started not
by the incumbent
industry players that
the said platforms all
set to revolutionize,
but by parallel
players who had an
outside view looking
in. Otherwise
Mpesa would have
belonged to a bank,
Sportspesa to a
casino and Uber to
transport company.’’
whether the investment that
went into building the platform
is commensurate with the value
derived to the consumer. It will
too be worthwhile to explore
where the penumbra of Pesa Link
lies vis a vis Mpesa and Equitel,
with the latter arguably boosting
the best credit rate scoring
algorithm that has been machine
learned over years with big data at
the epicenter.
Technology Driven Companies
Technology is not oil to lubricate;
it’s oxygen to grow ideas
and change business models.
Incumbents need to disrupt
themselves at the very core,
empowered by what new behaviors
and new technology make possible
and what people today demand and
expect.
Banks need to re-evaluate their
roles in the modern world.
Gyms need to use technology
and collaborate with insurance
companies to lower premiums
for members who achieve certain
lifestyle milestones.
Car makers need to become
transportation solution companies
by collaborating with insurance
companies and city planning
authorities. Why was Mpesa for
instance not started by KCB?
WhatsApp invented by Airtel? or
Little Cabs started by Kenatco?
Digital transformation is not
about a digital department, a
mobile strategist won’t save
your company. It is not the role
of any additional unit to take
your company from irrelevance
to leadership. It’s a corporate
philosophy that all must adopt.
For instance leading physical
retailers like Nakumatt, Tuskys,
Naivas should be driving the
physical address project that is
being undertaken by CAK to bridge
the obvious last mile gap of door
delivery of super market supplies.
Other players in the ecosystem to
support that are delivery companies
like Mondo Boda bodas.
Of course there is fear of shifting
traffic off mall visits, they a ren’t
doing well anyway, and in the
process trigger a change of tact to
address the mall glut and perhaps
finding a different use case for the
malls. This demonstrates the need
to reconsider the entire purchase
process up to and including delivery
managing the entire relationship
with customers over their lifetime.
Rethink Mpesa
During the industrial revolution,
when electricity became widely
available, it didn’t change things
overnight; it took many decades
for it to make a difference. At
first it was used at the edges and