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11:49
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Mark Kaigwa
This is part of a series of articles I'm writing on customer service in Africa, the basis of which is my upcoming Marketing Africa magazine column titled "The End of Customer Service As Usual." For your viewing pleasure, this version is unabridged.
The Cutting Edge by Watchman reads the popular column in Kenya's The Daily Nation newspaper. Opposite the editorial cartoon lies what for decades has been Kenya's equivalent of the public suggestion box. From apt questions on government departments to quick and witty opinions on current affairs, this column featuring a carefully selected array of 6-7 edited comments from the Watchman’s inbox. It has since morphed into the modern day bulletin board for comments, complaints and compliments.
If a company was praised or berated, a response was all but guaranteed if not put in writing in The Cutting Edge days later by a senior representative of the mentioned organisation. Often addressing and typically acting on the feedback that was shared by the correspondent. But ask any Kenyan of their everyday experience and there are far more frustrations and challenges they face than a 12 by 3 inch column could ever capture. Whether utilities such as water and electricity or consumer products within the home to the moment they step out and have to deal with the bedlam known as Kenyan traffic (overlapping, anyone?)
But closer to us are the brands we interact with. The companies whose products, services and representatives we pay for or are in a position to make demands of. It is here there for all the +4 million readers of the Daily Nation in a day, they couldn't print a newspaper big enough for all of us to comment, complain and compliment the peculiar Kenyan experience. Note: Circulation is +220,000 copies and their estimates are approx. 20 people read each copy (source).
The advent of technology and more importantly the age of social media has foretold a new chapter in empowering people to speak up and take action. And the very real challenge of customer service in the age of pervasive technology, be it the mobile phone, which boasts some 26.4 million subscriptions in Kenya or be it the internet, which an estimated 5.5 million Kenyans have access to. What would happen if the mandate of The Cutting Edge was re-imagined today?
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4:27
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Mark Kaigwa
Much has been going on since the last update on the blog weeks ago. Here’s a really quick run-down. Sandbox Summit in Lisbon Short story: I didn’t go. It is a long story so you can expect a full-length blog post on it. The summary, two the Portuguese government had no idea how hard it [...]
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9:56
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Mark Kaigwa
A few days ago I launched what was certainly my first foray into crowdfunding and with great elation, surprise and excitement I can now announce that my airfare, by Sandbox Network. I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to Roni, Kara, Nadia and everyone at Sandbox for the gracious opportunity. As my Portuguese [...]
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0:05
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Mark Kaigwa
According to Wikipedia, the popular phrase Harambee is summed up as follows: Harambee literally means “all pull together” in Swahili, and is also the official motto of Kenya and appears on its coat of arms. I’ve spent the entire year developing a network of social capital with friends, colleagues and partners all around me chipping [...]
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1:51
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Mark Kaigwa
I was invited to give a talk at Mobile Entertainment Africa 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa at the One & Only Resort on the mobile entertainment industry in East Africa.
I identified a number of trends, examples and insight into this market and what to expect in the months and years to come, not to mention one of the largest untapped opportunities within mobile entertainment.
Here's not only my slides, but a detailed breakdown of my talk.
Details, pictures, stats and more when you read the rest.
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17:22
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Mark Kaigwa
Without further ado I present the full video and transcript of my talk at Innotown 2011. I’ve given the summary and the long form story of my experience at Innotown in June of 2011.
Video, Transcript and more info on it when you Read the Rest!
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11:00
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Mark Kaigwa
This is a long and deep look at the behind-the-scenes of my trip to speak at Innotown in Norway a few months ago. From the first email, to my take on the city, architecture, pictures, boat rides and more importantly my talk and reality TV debut from my feature on Norway's TV2 television station.
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7:00
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Mark Kaigwa
I’m the son of a retired army major and an interior designer. For this among other reasons you could say art runs in the family. All my exercise books and textbooks from pre-school all the way to Form 4 (12th grade) have drawings, sketches, cartoons and caricatures filled in them in the space that wasn’t marked for writing notes and any blank space or page.
So when I found out a while back that there’s people who’ve taken this into a very unique career, the likes of Austin Kleon and Mike Rohde I set out to make sure I start thinking visually and taking better sketchnotes of talks and speakers I listen to.
Which brings me to this blog post; Innotown is the most amazing conference I’ve ever been to. It was a life-changing and mind-blowing experience that had my brain tired from all the sponge-work it was doing. Listening, noting down and reflecting on the amazing lessons I was learning from 8 of the smartest people on the planet talking about innovation, technology, nature, the deep sea, marketing, social change, energy, music and nuclear science (yes, those two together) and finance and economics.
These are my sketchnotes.
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8:44
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Mark Kaigwa
Following the #mbgeeks Twitter Chat discussion hosted by Jesse Oguntimehin, last month I promised to write my thoughts out in a blog post to share and allow for the conversation to continue past Twitter.
I tackle 7 questions facing Social Media in business in Africa today.
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8:00
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Mark Kaigwa
Just over a month ago, I was in Sweden for CinemAfrica's annual film festival. CinemAfrica is one of Europe's respected African film festivals and takes place in the beautiful Swedish capital, Stockholm. I was glad to be African Animation Curator at the film festival for it's first African animation focus and put together a 4 hour Forum with African animators, animated films and Swedish animation professionals. This is the story behind the event including animated films from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and pictures from my interactions with Swedish Television, Radio and the press. All this and more after the jump!
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9:00
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Mark Kaigwa
I had the chance to write my own 10 do’s and don’ts for the city I love and call home for popular travel blog Serge the Concierge. Including:
Take a Safari
Kiss A Giraffe
Don't Go To Malls
Be A Carnivore And Get Your Game On
Don't Smoke On The Streets
Don't Forget To Ride A Matatu
And 10 Do's and 10 Don'ts for the Green City in The Sun.
Pictures, Tips and more when you read the rest!
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12:00
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Mark Kaigwa
I love how connected the world is. Emer Beamer who I've done some work with at Butterflyworks put me in touch with Ulrike Reinhard who was curating WE Magazine's first Africa Edition - WE Africa.
I'm always open to chances to share and declare what's happening on the continent and this was a great opportunity. This is my column which was published earlier this year. Enjoy.
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10:50
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Mark Kaigwa
There’s a bunch of professional artists who are invited to conferences like TED, SEED and many others just so they can make sketches and do the work of retelling the speaker’s talk through “sketchnotes”. Many times these are done in Moleskine notebooks. The likes of Mike Rohde and Flickr’s even got a whole set of awesome artists to look at.
I made some sketches in the last Introduction to Accounting class I went to and this was the result. More pictures and links when you read the rest!
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1:37
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Mark Kaigwa
Facebook, can live with it, can’t live without it. Fast Company released this infographic of numbers and figures behind Facebook. And at a current valuation of over $70 Billion, it’s not hard to see why the social network’s success at world domination is evident. See for yourself...
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20:26
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Mark Kaigwa
I am a bootstrapper. I have initiative and insight and guts, but not much money. I
will succeed because my efforts and my focus will defeat bigger and better-funded
competitors. I am fearless. I keep my focus on growing the business—not on politics,
career advancement, or other wasteful distractions.
I will leverage my skills to become the key to every department of my company, yet realize
that hiring experts can be the secret to my success. I will be a fervent and intelligent user
of technology, to conserve my two most precious assets: time and money.
My secret weapon is knowing how to cut through bureaucracy. My size makes me faster
and more nimble than any company could ever be...
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14:17
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Mark Kaigwa
East African Communications giant ScanGroup’s made some interesting business investments and partnerships in communications and moreso in digital and online over the past couple of years. They started out in late 2009 with the launch of Squad Digital, a joint-venture between Scangroup and leading Indian digital marketing and technology businesses Smile Interactive Technology Group, and Quasar, part of WPP Digital. Founded and only until recently led by Kamal Krishna, who’s since been appointed Head of Ops at AgencyDigi back in India.
Under the leadership of Bharat Thakrar, under the WPP umbrella they’ve made a host of investments including the most recent deal that saw ScanGroup buying into Ogilvy Africa as well as tipping the scales locally firmly in their favour with the acquisition of Ogilvy East Africa as part of that deal. Closer to home, the change of Scanad PR to Hill & Knowlton, the inception of Millward Brown into the market, among other strategic partnerships.
Most recently I attended the launch of Firefly Millward Brown, a qualitative research house focused on digital. They had a bunch of stats which I gave an attempt at visualizing below.
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1:03
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Mark Kaigwa
From its inception, I noted Kenya28Feb transform from a discourse gone awry about ethnic backgrounds (which was pronounced dead in the water by my buddy Kachwanya) to what it is now. A simple call-to-action to stand together for our country. Beyond the arguments of philosophy, protagonism or antagonism, here are my reasons to sing...
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15:11
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Mark Kaigwa
If you visit sites like AdFreak, AdsOfTheWorld and watch a lot of advertising and integrated marketing campaign work, you’ll be familiar with the concept of the “Case Study Video” which Canadian agency John St. parodied to create this hilarious video.
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23:28
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Mark Kaigwa
A year older.
A year wiser.
I pray the latter has played true.
I've been fortunate and blessed. I've been given room and a safe environment to make mistakes. Because of this, I succeed. I've been far from perfect, but those around me have more than made up for it (strangers and friends alike) I've been trusted with the opportunity to speak to others as well as speak for others and I'm thankful for that... [Read More]
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2:18
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Mark Kaigwa
Since meeting Matthew Buckland in Cape Town earlier this year just before he launched Memeburn, to see it rise up to become an award-winning site focused on startups, technology and innovation in emerging economies has been great and to have played some part in that has been a privilege.
For my last piece, I had the pleasure of contributing my 6 Predictions for Investment, Technology & Innovation in Kenya for 2011 that include:
Classifieds: Find out why giants like Google Africa, and South African internet giants MIH Internet and The bidorbuy Group have their eyes set on Kenya in the classifieds market. Can they succeed where Craigslist and others have failed?
Investment: With 48-hour bootcamps where people go from ideas to businesses for Ksh. 1,000,000 ($12,500), find out why Mozilla’s own Global Community Manager, William Quiviger, said Nairobi deserves to be crowned Africa’s ICT Innovation hub. Foreign investment has taken notice of Nairobi and is acting fast.
Groupon: The successful group buying startup's business model is being replicated by over 4 players already in Kenya. Each with a shot at success, who'll get to Kenyans online where it counts, their wallets?
These and 3 more predictions with all the answers and thoughts when you read the rest!
