In the late 90s, a once-promising mid-sized distributor in East Africa set out to “become the leading FMCG powerhouse in the region.” That was their bold vision. Posters were printed. Workshops were held. Consultants cashed in. But five years in, they had lost key accounts, had high staff turnover, and worse, no one in the leadership team could articulate how “powerhouse” would translate into specific actions this quarter.

The CEO kept repeating, “We must own the market,” but failed to say: which market, what segment, and by what mechanism. Their warehouses remained half-stocked. Competitors tightened their logistics game. Customers defected quietly. Their vision was not wrong, it was just vague. And in business, vague vision is fatal. Read more >>

""A vague vision is worse than no vision, because it fools everyone into thinking direction exists when it doesn’t..” ” 

The boardroom was tense. A new CEO had just been hired to lead a regional manufacturing firm that had stagnated for five years. He walked in with a 98-slide strategy deck, fresh from a Big 4 advisory team. It was clean, data-backed, and impressive. Three months in, not a single initiative had taken root. Staff ignored memos. Managers nodded in meetings and did nothing afterward. The CEO fired two department heads. Still, no movement. Six months in, he resigned. Why? Culture chewed through his strategy like a termite in a wooden pillar.

Now let me be blunt. Culture always wins. Always.

You can buy the smartest consultants. You can run away to Mombasa for a retreat. You can set KPIs, OKRs, KRAs, and quarterly dashboards. But if your people don’t believe, don’t care, or worse, pretend, they will burn your strategy quietly, while smiling at you in the corridor. Read more >>

A CEO once told me how his company lost over $2.5 million, without a single hacker, no fire, no fraud. The culprit? A silent risk named vendor lock-in. They had outsourced their core platform to a firm that coded everything in a proprietary language. When the contract ended, no other developer could touch the code without rewriting it from scratch. The entire tech stack became a tombstone.

He watched it unfold, month after month. Emails flagged the concern. Engineers warned him. But there was no fire, just fog. By the time the board stepped in, the platform was obsolete, the customers had moved on, and their tech team had walked. It was like waking up and realizing your house has termites. The roof hasn’t caved in, but you’re standing on rot. Read more >>

In today’s fast-paced digital world, fraud has evolved into a sophisticated threat that no organization can afford to ignore. From procurement scams and payroll fraud to cyber-enabled financial crimes, the landscape is constantly shifting. Traditional detection methods simply aren’t enough anymore.

That’s why professionals across industries are turning to data analytics, a powerful toolset that reveals hidden patterns, uncovers anomalies, and strengthens internal controls. If you’re serious about protecting your organization or advancing your career, mastering fraud detection using data analytics is no longer optional; it’s essential. Read more >>

This thought-provoking book offers an incisive examination of corporate governance from both a historical and contemporary point of view…I highly recommend it for your useful and sustainable leadership benefit” – Michael Mugabi, Former President, Institute of Corporate Governance of Uganda.