Don’t fear multinational firms, leaders told

Ms Tabitha Karanja, the chief executive officer Keroche Breweries Ltd, Kenya, delivers a keynote speech during the Monitor Thought Leaders Forum at Kampala Serena Hotel yesterday.

What you need to know:

Inspiration. Owners of top industries in East Africa tell proprietors of small and medium enterprises that their businesses can also grow into multi-national firms in future

Kampala.
Business leaders, industry managers and local entrepreneurs should not shy away from competing with multinational companies, leading regional entrepreneurs have said.

According to Mr Vimal Shah, the chief executive officer of Bidco Oil Refineries, small and medium enterprises should focus on building businesses that will stand the test of time instead of feeling threatened by multinationals.

Speaking at the Monitor Thought Leaders Forum in Kampala yesterday, Mr Shah told an audience comprising business leaders, policy makers and entrepreneurs that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can prosper if they work with multinationals rather than consider them as opponents or competitors.

He argued that most large corporations mutated from being SMEs, implying that entrepreneurs should consider their business as a force in motion that will ultimately end up as large corporations.

He also said SMEs are important in moving the economy forward given their role in creating jobs.

Experiences
Ms Tabitha Karanja, the chief executive officer Keroche Breweries Ltd, Kenya and Mr Shah said their success originated from hard work, thanks to their simple backgrounds.

The entrepreneurs said their beginnings were through endurance as the terrain was never smooth.

“…..When I started this business, I wanted to go into manufacturing but I did not know what to manufacture until I did research and found a lot of potential in the neglected lower end of the Kenyan population,” Ms Karanja said.

She added that she only realised that the market was competitive when her company started facing a litany of problems, including slander, threats, hate speech and inflated tax arrears, which were meant to cripple her company.

“I discovered that the liquor market was jealously guarded and until five years when we started growing, is when I learnt that there was a smear campaign which went up to Parliament,” she said.

On the other hand, Mr Shah said in 1982, he nursed an idea of extracting cooking oil from cotton seed and wrote proposals which he marketed to banks but the latter did not finance his project because they never believed that the idea could bear fruit, forcing him to go into soap business which had been monopolised by a multi-national.

“My father had two small shops in Mombasa and Nairobi. I did not have money and I developed a proposal to start extracting cooking oil from cotton seed but no bank was willing to finance the proposal,” he said, adding that frustrations drove him to carry out feasibility studies which made him realise that he could make soap from the cooking oil.

Ms Peace Kabatangare of aBi Trust & Finance speaks during the Forum. PHOTOs BY Faiswal Kasirye

The entrepreneur said the business later hit a snag after learning that Unilever Ltd, a multi-national, was controlling all the distribution channels for cooking oil and soap.

Mr Shah explained that his company would have closed shop had he not done homework to assess and mitigate the risks that he has withstood to spread wings beyond borders.

“I established Bella Wine through hands-on involvement. Although delegation of duties is important, that should not mean that as the owner, you should not be involved. It is important to introduce family members into the business at an early age and reliance on technical information is unavoidable.”
Prudence Ukkoneka, MD Bella Wine

“Economic ‘Tsunamis’ always make it difficult to operate efficiently. However, using professionals to run the business, and believing in wealth creation kept us going. We believe in giving high class services using automation and the fact that we are not just there to make money but render services,”
Fabian Kasi, MD Centenary Bank Ltd

“In times of business ‘Tsunamis’, passion and vision propel the company in the right direction. Knowing your customers and talking to them will help you understand the reality,”
Tom Gutjahr, MD Airtel

“Tsunamis’ in business come in different ways. To navigate through it, you must fear God, apply knowledge, security, infrastructure, let alone discipline and good attitude. Entrepreneurs and business people should not be afraid of making mistakes and must learn from them,”
Patrick Bitature, Chairman Simba Group of Companies