Tom Mulwa: How I steered Liaison from an SME to a continental firm

Liaison Group Managing Director Tom Mulwa receives a gift hamper from Institute for Small Business Initiative (ISBIS) Alumni Board Vice President Benny Kitaka during a training to equip entrepreneurs on good business practices. [David Njaaga, Standard]

When Mr Tom Mulwa took over as Liaison Group managing director in 1999, the firm was an insurance broker categorised as a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME).

Today, Liaison Group has grown to be a large taxpayer organisation, whose annual revenues cross the Sh2 billion mark.

Mr Mulwa’s vision was to create a non-banking financial services conglomerate, which he has successfully steered.

The firm now has various units, including risk and insurance business, pension and health administration and investment advisory.

It has a presence in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and South Sudan, with the next phase of the business to expand across the continent.

“If we meet 30 years to come, you’ll find that we are a dominant pan-African conglomerate, possibly quoted in all stock exchanges in Africa. I’m looking at that dream and to me, it seems like it’s just tomorrow,” Mr Mulwa said in an interview with Enterprise.

Mr Mulwa revealed secrets from the C-suite and the hard job it takes to stay on top.

Lessons from the pandemic

The unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic - whose economic ramifications are still being felt today - did not spare Liaison Group either.

Customers were deeply affected as incomes were lost, meaning demand for the firm’s services fell as well.

The pandemic has been a make and break for most business leaders. Mr Mulwa says the biggest lesson from the pandemic was the importance of preparation for any disruption.

“We shall always have threats. That was a pandemic threat, now we have an environmental and geopolitical threat on the horizon,” he said.

“What we’ve learnt is that we should always be prepared for the disruption, which can emerge from any corner.”

This has sharpened Liaison’s focus on the future and led them to think deeply about their role. The firm has also invested in technology business to inspire its transition into tech.

As a risk management business, Liaison was thrust by the pandemic on a “pedestal” to come up with solutions on managing business disruptions.

Protect your workers

As firms laid off workers to ride out the pandemic, Mr Mulwa said Liaison Group stuck with all its employees. As a C-suite manager, he values the power of the people and aligning his troops.

“If you have good teams, they will deliver services, customers will be happy and pay and the cycle continues,” he said.

“If you don’t have the teams able to deliver those products out there, customers won’t be happy and you won’t have the cash, so you’ll collapse.”

He recalled the push and pull over the matter but the organisation stood firm on its decision not to retrench workers.

This has paid off, inspiring loyalty and maximising efforts among workers. “If you look back, the organisations that focused on their people are the ones going to bounce back if people see the sacrifices made by owners and give their all.”

“When you are at war, make sure the army is united.”

Have a guiding philosophy

During the pandemic, Liaison operated with ‘five Cs’ which Mr Mulwa describes as the fighting shields, and had regular town halls with staff to align them to the vision.

The ‘five Cs’ were colleagues, customers, communication, cash and cutting waste.

As one of the pioneers of Liaison Group, Mr Mulwa has been in the firm for over 30 years and underscores the importance of having a guiding philosophy as a business leader.

When he took the helm, two simple things that shaped his trajectory happened. He got a wall hanging that says: “A person harvests what he sows.”

“It has been hanging in my office since, I live by the day with that philosophy. I do believe that whatever you put in is what you get,” he said.  

Around the same time, he also read a book, Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership written by Laurie Beth Jones.

Liaison Group Managing Director Tom Mulwa.

“If you look at that story of Jesus, he lived with three tenets – believed in himself, in the power of action and power of relationships. In a very short time, he built an enterprise and left at a very young age.”

He said every leader must have anchors. “Anchor yourself in a belief in what you do. Iif you aren’t passionate and have doubts in what you do, you’ll not succeed.”

There has to be a zeal, hunger and belief that one is on a mission, Mr Mulwa said. Self-mastery kills doubt and brings clarity of purpose on what one wants to do.

Mastery of action is also important. Most people fail when it comes to execution.

He also talked about the power of relationships. “The true wealth is from who you know, not what you know. If you have good business it is about networking. If you raise your call to the right person you get results.”

With those tenets, any leader can easily scale up a business.

Are leaders born or made?

Mr Mulwa explained this in two ways – talent and cultivation.

“I will act differently to others depending on one’s orientation. Sometimes what comes to me as positive will come to you as negative,” he said.

“I have been on that side of ensuring that things have to happen, so I better die trying than not try at all.”

Surviving at the top

This is very difficult, Mr Mulwa is quick to admit. “The more you climb the ladder in terms of success (success is a perception) and people start to admire you the more painful it becomes.”

“That’s why they say the bigger you are the harder you fall,” he said.  

As the cliché goes, it’s lonely at the top. The corner office is a pressure cooker with a challenge to keep being innovative.

“I can’t sleep, I have to make sure Liaison Group survives and becomes a pan-African business. When we had only one office in Kenya maybe I was more relaxed, now that we are regional there’s more pressure.”

Diamonds, after all, are forged from extreme pressure and heat.

On coping with the pressure

Mr Mulwa believes every business leader must have a hobby. Hobbies take away the ‘pressure’.

For the Liaison boss, it is golf and horse racing. These hobbies allow him to unwind and also network with other business leaders.

His typical workday is more than 10 hours. His day starts at 4:30am.

His work entails stakeholder management (staff, clients, regulators...) and spends a lot of time consulting staff. As a leader, it is also his duty to think about innovation, the firm’s future. And he’s always reading a lot.  

Mr Mulwa’s workday is nothing compared to titans such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates or Aliko Dangote, he chuckled. But is he a workaholic?

“I work every day, even playing golf, going to church is working because it’s relationship building.”

“When doing social events, you must always think ‘what’s in it for me’? Don’t just walk like that, you must be in business,” said the corporate leader, who enjoys cognac.