Kenya’s Management Guru
Financial Post / May 9-15, 2005

By Charles Wachira and Samwel Kumba

He is an achiever, a teacher but above all else a giant in his chosen field of choice namely management. That is why he is popularly thought to be a perfect role model, a management guru of sorts, a quality that has won him accolades from all and sundry. This should explain why the current Administration under President Mwai Kibaki routinely hires his invaluable expertise to get around the crucial yet sensitive area of psyching up generically corporate heads who run State corporations including Permanent Secretaries. Decidedly his resume is awesome. That is why amongst his peers, colleagues and acquaintances there is a subtle acceptance and acknowledgement that Ole Mapelu Zakayo is ultimate epitome of a driven, yet exiting manager.

But what is his secret for arguably a life lived so exemplarily?

“I inspire the staff to perspire for me. This should be true of any CEO for success to happen. I facilitate and provide anything that empowers my staff to be better workers. If they want a new car, I provide it, just to ensure that the production is 100 percent. This way I inspire them to perspire for me,” says Ole Mapelu, currently the Managing Director of the 7 billion-asset base worth East African Portland Cement (EAPC).

In addition Ole Mapelu recommends that for a CEO to succeed, “one must not ride on the back of a tiger. I have to provide the requisite contraptions and enabling environment for my staff. I am actually their servant. This has enabled me to earn my jobs.”

In terms of jobs, I cautiously decide which job to go for. I have been offered places that have turned down. For example I was offered a job in Vancouver Montreal. I turned down the offer because I felt it was not challenging much as it was well paying.

I have always felt that in due course of working, I should change people’s lives. That is why I did not go to the lucratively paying job.

The more reason that the government s contacts me to speak to the CEOs and Permanent Secretaries (PSs) to sign the Performance based contracts. I have spoken at least to all PSs and a number of CEOs most of whom have already signed the contracts.

All I tell them is that it takes integrity for any successful manager. They practice that success follows them. There is nothing to be afraid about. They must always hire people who are better than them.

Beginning in 1988, at the impressionable age of 28, Ole Mapelu’s star was in the ascent, for arguably he was already calling the shots in the volatile world of business. Armed with both an Economics and MBA degrees from the prestigious institutions of University of Nairobi (UoN) including the United States International University (USIU) Nairobi Campus, this alumnus of the Kericho based Kabianga High School was seating on a hot seat at the enviable automobile firm, namely General Motors Kenya Limited as the Regional Sales and Marketing Manager.

He explains: “From 1988 to 1993 I was the Regional Sales and Marketing Manager of General Motors Kenya Limited. From here I gained a manufacturing commercial experience of five years. I was responsible for the development of coordinated markets for the Isuzu and Opel vehicles in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Burundi. I directed General Motors’ business development plan for fiscal years 1991 to 1993.”

Interestingly, Ole Mapelu singly owes his success to one indispensable variable notably a dogged determination to get ahead despite all odds, with pursuance of formal education acting as a linchpin.

Talking about management Ole Mapelu says that he detests patronage. He believes in a system that recognizes and awards merit.

“Wherever I have been hired to lead I have always tried to reorganise the whole place by recruiting the very best professionals. For example when I needed to reorganise the human resource here (EAPC), I looked for the very best in every department so as to get rid of the old patronizing culture.

“For example I headhunted my head of finance when he was leaving Europe, he was actually headed for China where he was going for even a higher position. His deputy was also drawn from Europe.”

“While the head of communication was headhunted from the UNDP and the head of security was headhunted from the 747 pilot troupes within Kenya Air Force. I have always believed that if any manager deliberately surrounds themselves with the very best, then success becomes a reality.

“The major problem in Kenya is that sometimes we do not appreciate professionalism. I am driven by the philosophy that I must exit myself out of my job say for example in this place within the next two years.

“That is because I have deliberately acquired such a high calibre of manpower that can be obtained from anywhere in the world and I look forward to train them, expose them, mentor them and rededicate them to create a system with a lot of confidentiality. Then as a manager you can edge yourself out to go and play golf.

“I always believe that any place I go, I must leave it better that I found it. That is when I will be able to associate myself with this institution in future and say, I was part of this. This can only happen it I succeed.

“ So you hire somebody then you train them and you prepare them to take over from you. You see as a CEO, it is more or less like when one is running a four by four relay. At one point you have to hand over the baton. So it is only if the other players are good that your team will win.

“With that kind of strategies I have been able to swing EAPC from a loss making institution which in the last financial year recorded a staggering loss of Ksh 392 million. Within my nine months stay here (EAPC) the Company has made Ksh 845 million as profit. There is nothing unique; it all has to do with strategy and a clear road map. It all boils down to one thing: Integrity.

“I took General Motors from loss making margins to an exorbitant profit within which the management was very comfortable. The same I did with the Airports authority.”

So what else is his secret in management?

“Personally I never manage an institution, I lead it. Most CEOs try to manage institutions and that is why they fail. When you lead there are salient features that come on board in the CEOs activities. For one, decisions are never taken alone and they are never in impulse.

“For example before I fire somebody, I must look at an individual in a broader picture. His family dependants and future career life. All these will be affected in the event of them being sacked. This is the point that I am led by integrity.

“ The challenge of heading institutions is that there must be targets. Just like a pilot is told that to fly to Cape Town you follow a particular road map and that within a certain period in time you must have passed some particular place, so should also a CEO must be programmed.

So from a pilot perspective, I have a clearly drawn roadmap. That is what I use to evaluate my performance just to ensure that I am on track. For example, the current road map I have drawn directs me that in six months time, EAPC should be a regional institution. Come after six months and challenge me on this, If I will not be in Rwanda.

“In two years time I will be in Sudan. Also I stand challenged in this.

While growing up in Narok District, which is the ancestral home of the chivalry Maasai community, Ole Mapelu did query without remorse some of the ethnic groups traditional practices, a thing then considered to be an anathema.

For example, when Ole Mapelu’s age group’s turn for circumcision knocked the door, he says that he was already a grown –up man. He confirms that at the time he was still a high school student. But despite his ties with school, tradition demanded that the newly circumcised ‘men’ chill their heels for an uninterrupted six months in a bush. That was not all, individually the newly circumcised men were supposed to hunt down, the king of the jungle, namely the Lion, as a true mark of proofing that one was truly a man, a brave one at that.

“As Morans and as young Maasai’s living in the bush we were meant to raid for cows for our food and kill a lion just to show one’s prowess. However my parents were disappointed since I chose to take care of the cows while others went raiding. Personally also, I did not see any sense in killing a lion for I consciously understood the peril should the expedition go haywire. I also did not see any sense in raiding and killing fellow human beings, particularly those drawn from the Kikuyu community who were our neighbours. So when my colleagues went chasing Kikuyu’s and lions I took care of the cows. Other boys looked down at me, as a coward and not a hero. And for sure I was not a hero,” reveals a modest Mapelu.

But Ole Mapelu was not hewn from an exclusively rebellious streak. For he did abide with one traditional practice of dropping his first name notably Haiyalel adopting instead his fathers -Mapelu Zakayo, where ‘Ole’ means ‘a son of’.

In 1978, a year prior to the death of Jomo Kenyatta - Kenya’s founding father- Ole Mapelu was admitted to the UoN, where he recalls witnessing one efining moment in the annuls of independent Kenya namely the aborted coup that took place in 1982.

“ I enjoyed it (the coup). It was fun for us at the University.” He confesses with a chuckle.

Upon parting ways with GM in 1993, after turning the automobile behemoth into a profit-making organisation Ole Mapelu was recruited to the enviable position of General Manager of Kenya’s premier gateway to the world namely Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), an establishment that is run by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) .He was aged 34 at the time.

So how did he get the job at such a young age?

He explains that in 1993, KAA ran an advertisement in the local press seeking to recruit a General Manager of JKIA.

“ I applied and was called for the interview alongside several other people. However I had one advantage above them all, I was a trained pilot, and as a result I was the preferred candidate for the job.”

His tenure at JKIA would last seven years ending in July 2000.

As General Manager Ole Mapelu transformed JKIA in to a quasi private sector concern turning its fortunes around, in other words into becoming a profitable organization. Before the transformation the organisation was exclusively a Government department in the defunct Ministry of Transport and Communications. By the time of his departure he had created an admirable organisation that was ripe for privatisation. He also initiated a five-year development plan, which was approved by the relevant authorities.

“I was required to provide an annual revenue and expenditure budget for approval by the Board of Directors including other tasks like provision of a marketing and development plan by management, provide a human resource development plan, provide a development plan that supports infrastructure development as well as harmonize the government’s development plan with the airport strategic plan,” he reveals.

Moreover during his tenure at JKIA he successfully initiated and implemented the ‘golden handshake scheme’ that reduced the workforce from 2,800 in 1993 to 650 in 1995.

He expounds further about his other feathers in his hat.

“I also initiated a foreign attachment programme for all front line staff at the Airport who were seconded on attachment to various Airports in Europe and South Africa. I spearheaded the elevation of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to a premier Regional Passenger and Cargo hub. Traffic increased from 1.6 million passengers in 1993 to 3.0 million in year 2000. Subsequently I increased revenue base from an initial Ksh 400 million in 1993 to 2.5 billion in year 2000. On the other hand the airlines increased from 22 to 36 scheduled and 46 non-scheduled. I initiated a Joint Commercial Training Agreement between JKIA with amongst other international airports including Schipol, Amsterdam, Heathrow, and Johannesburg as well as creating a motivating environment for various government departments at the Airport. Above all I initiated and oversaw a Ksh 2.6 billion rehabilitation and renovation project at JKIA.”

It is while working at JKIA that Mapelu acquired his second degree in Law through correspondence. He enrolled for the degree with a belief that it would give him an option of being independent in future, that is become self employed.

As the General Manager, he was entitled to a weekly free flight to the UK. This made it possible for him to attend actual classes.

He explains, “On Fridays I used to go the Airport properly dressed with my bag packed. I would actually finish my job at 5.00 pm as usual. I would then board the 10.00 O’clock flight destined for London where I would arrive at 6.00 am on Saturday and I would go straight class. I would be in class the whole of Saturday and Sunday and I would then take a flight at 10.00 pm in London and land at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 7.00 am on Monday morning, take a shower in my office and resume the daily routine work.”

He would graduate with honours from the London University in 1999.

He explains his adventure: “From 1995 to 1999 I undertook a degree in Law (LLB) from London University. Subsequently I have since done a Diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law.”

From between 1991 to 1993 he would follow his odyssey with education with a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Nairobi based USIU.

Currently Ole Mapelu is undertaking an ambitious project, that is a PhD Research proposal in Economics from the UoN.

But that is not all. He has a couple of other postgraduate certificates:

He has a Diploma in Airport Security Management with the Certification being done by Changi Institute of Management of Singapore. In 1995 he acquired a Diploma in Senior Aviation Management from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. In 1998 he acquired another Diploma in Airport Management from South Africa’s Johannesburg Airport.

Why does he have this passion for education?

“I am not satisfied with these three degrees and three diplomas. It is all about strategic management. In fact the more you read, the more you realise how illiterate you are. You will actually realise how much you don’t know as opposed to what you think you know. After you have done all that, in addition to a degree in law, then you become a learned fellow.”

According to Ole Mapelu, most people are actually educated but ironically not learned. He says that he sees himself as both being educated as well as being learned.
What’s the difference?

“ Most people might not realise that very few of us are learned while the rest are merely educated. One might have a PhD but if there is no Law degree to accompany them then such a person remains only educated. As for me I have a degree in Law. I therefore become learned,” Ole Mapelu makes his controversial stand.

Unknown to the world Ole Mapelu’s desire to excel in formal education has another angle, a rivalry that goes down the ages with his alter ego, one Titus Naikuni, whom he fondly refers to as his ‘big brother’. Naikuni is currently the CEO of the East and Central Africa’s biggest company in terms of turnover namely Kenya Airways, this country’s official airline carrier.

“I watched my ‘big brother’ Titus Naikuni whom I grew up with. I saw him steadily climb up the corporate ladder and I admired his stature. So as I grew up, I attributed my success to him. He had gone to school, had a good job and was comfortable. And the community (Maasai) respected him for the amiable role he was playing in the society. He has been my role model since. But one thing I have always vowed, as I grew up with him was that I had to overtake him as far as academics were concerned. And I have actually done that. He is educated, but I am learned,” explains Ole Mapelu, a man who in his formative years aspired to work at the local Narok county council, then a dream for the locals’ there.

As MD of EAPC, a firm that he joined in May 2004, Ole Mapelu is expected to use his turn a round magic to salvage the company from being a loss-making organisation.

He explains his mission: “Among other responsibilities, I was required to give the company strategic direction, focus and leadership, cement manufacturing and raw materials extraction and processing, revenue and cost management, operational management of core and support functions and regional expansion. So far I have been able to increase the revenue base by 25 per cent from 4 billion to 5 billion within a year of taking over. I have recorded improved profitability on an average 11 per cent to 19 per cent within a year.”

Tellingly, his integrity and capability had been tested earlier. This is when the European Commission gave him a Ksh five billion cheque for a project while he was still pretty young.

“Between May 2002 and May 2004, I was working at the Tourist Trust Fund as the CEO. This was a joint initiative of the European Union delegation in Kenya and the Government of the Republic of Kenya,” says Mapelu.

The program’s mandate was to manage a Ksh 5.2 billion-endowment fund in which the European Union and Government of Kenya had each contributed Ksh 2.6 billion, slated for the enhancement of Tourism in Kenya.

The initial tasks involved re-branding the Tourism Trust Fund, setting up a viable infrastructure, recruitment and developing of senior and junior staff members, setting up operational, financial commercial and human resource manuals and structures and providing leadership to a multi-racial management team.

The team constituted of five foreign expatriates and nine local staff all of whom were assisting Ole Mapelu to ensure that the program’s activities were on schedule.

“I was responsible for coordinating the Kenya Government Tourism Institutions and Private Sector concerns into logical groups and collating the drafting of a ‘National Tourism Policy Paper’ within the 2003 calendar year.

“I took an active part in capacity building of Kenya Tourism Board and financial support to enable the institution to re-position Kenya as a premier Tourist Destination. Supporting public and private sector diversification of Kenya Tourist Product within a wider geographical area was also what I did while I headed the fund.”

Born in 1959 to an old traditional chief Ole Mapelu remembers vividly meeting his future wife in a one of National Bank of Kenya’s bank hall where she was employed as a cashier.

“Did I marry her or did she marry me…I think she marred me. Actually I got married in 1979. I met my wife when she was working at the National Bank of Kenya. I was a customer there.”

He continued to explain, “I have three children. Three-year-old twins a boy and a girl. I also have my eldest daughter, quite older by far than the others, by choice though. When I finished UoN my wife was also finishing her college somewhere in Nairobi after which she joined the National Bank of Kenya (NBK). She was one of the young girls who had just joined the bank. She was good looking and I started banking more money there. And after a couple of months, Mercy was able to come for a cup of coffee.”

Interestingly, however Mapelu’s wife, Mercy, is not a Maasai, an issue that the society took as a matter of concern. She is Kikuyu.

At the time of his marriage, there were restrictions that one had to marry from the community. With marrying outside the community he earned the unenviable tag of rebel. Interestingly the immediate family had earlier identified a local suitor.

He explains, “She was brought to me a couple of times trying to create that relationship. She was just from my neighbourhood. But I decided that I will not marry her and I married Mercy. I told my parents that I was ready to make a break with traditional in this regard, which I did. But if anything I do not regret making the choice. Despite the fact that I married outside my community the normal traditions that pertains to a newly married couple did take place. I did some ceremonies here in Nairobi and I also took her home for the normal pitying that constituting her blessings, which also took place.”

Amazingly the greatest blunder Ole Mapelu has ever made was to buy a peculiar Volkswagen, it was his first car. He explains, “ When I bought my first car I was conned off. I paid for the car to some guy, only to realise later that it did not have an engine. I was really convinced that the car was in good condition because I had trusted the guy so much. So I just gave him the money on reaching an agreement that he would deliver the vehicle. He let me down.”

Thank God Ole Mapelu never allowed this misfortune to distract his mission in life of giving his very best to organizations that appreciate talent.

ENDS.