Michael Joseph on his four marriages, starting Safaricom in an apartment and why he doesn’t wear suits

• Michael Joseph successfully headed Safaricom from 2000 to 2010 stepping down for current CEO Bob CollyMore.
• Early in life he had hoped he would be a veterinary officer or ranger but his life would take a different trajectory.

“I don’t like suits because; I wear suits on Fridays only because we have KQ AGMs on Fridays,” Michael Josephs laughs heartily as he sits for an interview.

Laughter from a man whose risen from a young South African boy who day-dreamed in class to a man who took chances and created one of the most successful business stories in Kenya.

Michael Joseph the former Chief Executive Officer of Safaricom is not your ordinary CEO. He has faced it all, starting from a not so bright education to attend technical school before joining the South African army as young man.

 “I wasn’t star in school. And in university I struggled in my first two years, “ he admits narrating that he would only catch up with books later own in the university.

In fact he would not have made it to university with his middle school grades but technical school papers helped him get an admission letter to cape Town university.

 “You have got to take chance in life,” he says alluding to his move from South Africa to America in the eighties.

Well, Michael Joseph has been a man of many chances. From his education, to marriage to a career that exploded Safaricom from a small company housed at an apartment in Nairobi to multibillion company.

For a man who does not prefer wearing suits anymore, he says that he has had his own shares of failure. In 1986 when he was 40, he left South Africa to start a company with American investors.

"I moved for several reasons,” he thoughtfully explains,"I had gone through divorce, I  had two young daughters to take care of and South Africa was in the depth of apartheid and I wasn’t too sure what would happen.”

The investment he had in the US was a huge flop as his American friends failed to invest in the company as they had agreed before his decision to move. “I actually lost a lot of money.. ..That was one of the lowest points of my life.” He recalls.

That would be made worse by the fact that he was in a new country, had obviously lost a lot of money and had children waiting back at home.

On his marriage, Michael Joseph explains that he has been through four marriages.  “Along the way I married a couple of times, I married four times… this is my fourth and last marriage” he says smilingly.

He explains that marriage is another part of life where some things work and others simply don’t. “There are reasons for each.” He notes.

From the time he came to Kenya in 2000 with five Vodafone employees starting out Safaricom in an apartment at Norfolk towers, Michael Joseph has rewritten the narrative of business success.

Safaricom he admits is the biggest success in his life but whether he would do the same to Kenya Airways, he ponders, would be something to look at. “Can that be replicated?”  He queries, “That is not a foregone conclusion” he quickly answers himself.

He adds that the ingredients that made Safaricom successful were way different from what he is currently handling at Kenya Airways.

 “You are measured by your last success. Everybody remembers me for Safaricom and Mpesa, but if I fail at Kenya Airways they will remember me for that,”  he finishes.