Book review: From a Business Tragedy to Strategy

Title: From a Business Tragedy to Strategy 
Author: Anatoli Kamugisha 
Release date: 2022
Reviewed by: Tonny Abet 

When thieves attacked his Mbarara-based family, killed some of his relatives and left his father for dead, Anatoli Kamugisha had to drop out of college because their family was crippled financially. 

Anatoli, who is now a renowned real estate developer and founder of Akright satellite city, reveals in his new book From a Business Tragedy to Strategy that he promised himself then “never to look like a failure in life”.

In the book that will be launched soon, Anatoli reveals how he managed to cope with the belittling educational history, dream big and overcome roadblocks in developing his dream business.
Born to Theresa Bonabana and Bartolommeo Ruhigirwa in 1963, he attended the rural Rwomuhoro Primary School.

He then went to Mbarara High School where he completed O-Level amid political unrest that eventually saw out president Idi Amin in 1979. He then transferred to a community school, Ryakasinga Centre for High Education, to sit his final exams.

He was lucky to be admitted to Kyambogo Polytechnic College for Civil Engineering, but dropped out because of  financial challenges.

“Upon dropping out from the polytechnic college, I promised myself never to look like a failure in life. Subsequently, I registered a company known as Kanoblic Group of Companies with the objective of manufacturing clay building materials,” he reveals.

He says in the book that he partly got this inspiration after he watched President Museveni and the then vice president Samson Kisekka advocating for small-scale industry. He reveals that he was having these plans of starting a business immediately after dropping out of college.

“The company got registered and attempted to raise capital through borrowing from development banks. What became a seemingly unfortunate scenario is that as a company, we never succeeded to acquire the bank loan for our manufacturing project,” Anatoli reveals in the book.

This frustration made his associates lose hope and decline the partnership interests. This roadblock saw Anatoli take the company into the construction sector because he felt he could manoeuvre without the need for loans and a lot of capital.

But as he progressed, he met many challenges, especially clients who were not willing to pay after he completed construction works. 
Anatoli denotes that the formula of success in business is believing in yourself and your dreams, beginning and becoming what you dream of.