Toughen up to stay competitive, family businesses advised

A new report shows that growth is strong and prospects are bright for family businesses and private companies in Kenya.

Nairobi; Kenya: Family businesses need to adapt to the changing environment to stay ahead of the competition, a new study says.
According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)’s global report, family businesses should upgrade their processes, governance and skills to take on “hungry new competitors”.

The company notes that while in the short term, the prospects for family businesses are good, continued success would depend on their ability to further professionalise their business by keeping pace with technological change, and formalising succession planning.

“Private companies — many of them family businesses — must adapt faster, innovate sooner and become more professional in the way they run their operations if they are to remain successful,” the report titled “Up close and professional: the family factor,” adds. The Global report released in London last week, include highlights from first-ever Kenya survey. Full Kenya results from the latest PwC survey of 2,378 family business executives in more than 40 countries worldwide, would be released on November 5 in Nairobi.

According Partner and Private Company Services Leader at PwC Kenya, Michael Mugasa, growth is strong and prospects are bright for family businesses and private companies in Kenya. “Their leaders believe that companies like theirs benefit from agile decision-making and an entrepreneurial mind-set, particularly when they focus on strategies to support long-term sustainability, professional management, skills development and innovation,” he says.

skilled labour

This focus, Mugasa adds, helps to offset some risks to growth like economic and political instability and inadequate access to skilled labour.

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A statement from the multinational Professional Services Network, said the seventh survey of private companies and family businesses globally, includes 62 respondents from Kenya.

One of the key interviews in the report is with Nakumatt Holdings Managing Director Atul Shah. Nakumatt is a leading retail business in East Africa.

The report quotes Shah as saying, “People don’t expect to find outlets like this in Kenya – in the past they used to take empty suitcases to places like London and Dubai to shop. Now they don’t have to.”

Atul began working in the retail business with his father at the age of ten, and now his own sons and one of his nephews are part of the team.

“We are allowing the next generation to bring in their own ideas. They want to do things a little differently – some of it may succeed, some may fail. But that is the beauty of it,” he says.