In the year before Bob Collymore passed away, the Safaricom board had started recruiting the person who would take over from him. Bob's contract had been extended by one year to compensate for the year he had spent away from work as he sought treatment.
Even during Bob's time, we knew that Bob wanted to move on. Bob had already been offered a job back in the UK, taking what he had done here in terms of external relations, developing the relationship, making the company here that cares for you. Safaricom had become a beacon like that in the Vodafone group. And Bob was invited to go back or had been offered a job to do exactly that on the group side. So, we knew Bob was going to go. So, we had gone through a search for his replacement before Bob died. And we went through another global search around the world. In that first round, Peter Ndegwa's name was there on the short list. So, when we went back to do the next selection criteria, now restricting it to Kenyans, Peter's name was there at the very top. So, that was how Peter was selected. There were a number of Kenyans there who wanted the job, who thought they could have the job, should have the job. They lobbied very hard both politically and so on. But, Peter stood out as the right candidate for this job. I interviewed Peter many times, not just in the board, but I actually went to see him. I met him in Paris. I interrogated him. Does he understand the DNA of Safaricom? And that was the big criteria for me. I knew he was a competent senior executive at EABL. The board thought very highly of him.
While Peter Ndegwa was not a household name at the time, he had spent a considerable amount of time building his career in Kenya, starting from PwC and on to East African Breweries, where he held senior positions in strategy, sales and finance before going to work in Nigeria and then Ghana. At the time he was headhunted for Safaricom, he was the managing director for Continental Europe and Russia.
I knew Safaricom would be one of the only handful of companies that I could work for. So, it's just pure coincidence that I got the call. I'm assuming when they were looking for the successor to the late Bob, they would have had a list of people of which I was on that list. And eventually the board decided to select me for the role. There were certain adjustments I needed to make when I come, but I was still working. So, it was how do I manage my current employer because I had to break the news. And then I'll start to reorient my mind because that was around September, October of 2019 that I think the call came and the announcement happened in October of 2019. Although I joined in April 2020, the announcement actually happened like six months earlier.
New Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa will assume office in April next year. Ndegwa's appointment was announced today, ending months of speculation.
I took six weeks off. I would have wanted more time. You never get more time from either your current employer or your next one. And I went to Indonesia. That's the time that COVID had showed up. Lockdown had not been declared in this country, but I had just come from Europe where it was declared in mid-February. So, then I went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in March to rest, to readjust my mind and emotion. But, when I joined Safaricom it was on the April 1st, 2020, and it was during COVID. So, I joined from home. It's not the best way of joining an organization. I was very keen to now come back and actually create impact, use the skills that I had, the leadership bandwidth that I had built to create impact in this country. So, I didn't feel any pressure of being a first Kenyan. One big benefit that Safaricom had, unlike other competitors, for example, is that we had had a very stable leadership. So, three CEOs in 25 years is actually very, very stable. Very stable board. So, you see long-term. The CEOs have a long-term view about how to think about the business. And also, they invest their lives into ensuring the business is successful. If say, for example, I was an assignee from another country and I had three years to do, I would focus on my three years. But, when you have a long tenure, it's much easier to think about the more difficult decisions that you need to make and take in order for the business to be successful rather than near-term decisions that make you look good and potentially compromise the future of the business. So, it's being conscious that people saw a Kenyan coming in to lead a business that hadn't been led primarily, at least, by a non-indigenous Kenyan. But, also understanding that I had led businesses in other parts of the world and I had the confidence of what it takes to be a CEO. I was just adjusting into a different business environment and also in a different sector. I think what really I had to pay attention to was coming into a telecom business which I had not been involved in before. And also one with a financial services arm. And then into a business that is number one in the region. With a shareholding structure that is interesting. Public owning 35% which is the government. Vodafone Vodacom 40% and then the listed part which is 25%. I was already used to leading listed businesses because Guinness Nigeria, East Africa Breweries are all listed. But this was a large brand that was a leader in Kenya that everyone considers their own and you can't blame them for it. Kenyans consider Safaricom their own which is true. So the stakeholder base that you need to think about is very wide. And what you need to manage and understand the kind of role you have is actually quite expansive. And then the other thing is that it had not been led by a Kenyan. So it was an opportunity and actually a responsibility to lead a business of this size. But also not just the size in financial terms but of the impact it has in terms of the country and the role it plays because one always has to remember Safaricom plays a very important role in terms of inclusion, in terms of service but also in terms of stepping up when the country needs it.
For the new CEO the big question was whether he was going to fit in the big shoes of his predecessors Michael Joseph and Bob Collymore.
When you are a leader you have to follow your own brand. And you lead from your own strength. So, when people asked me and I remember that time I was asked and Michael was sitting there in the audience and I said, 'Which shoes? I have my own shoes.' And it's not undermining the success that Michael and late Bob had in this business. But you always have to lead from your own strength. And wear your own shoes. But also understand the mandate you have for the business that you're running. And I was leading this business at a very different stage. Michael led the business in the startup stroke investment phase. Bob came in and actually led the business in what I would call growth phase. Remember that's when 3G expanded, 4G came in, etc. Growth phase, M-Pesa became kind of big. And then I was coming to lead a business that was in the mature stroke renewal phase.
If we continue to behave normally, this disease will treat us abnormally. As Kenyans were getting used to life under lockdown in these early days of COVID-19 in this part of the world, Safaricom's new CEO was getting into office.
