NOTES FROM THE BAM BREAKFAST MEETING HELD ON THURSDAY, 19TH JULY 2007 AT THE ACK GUESTHOUSE (TENT) FROM 7:30-9.00AM.
Speakers:
The July Business As Mission had two speakers brought to the network by the Partners worldwide who are in partnership with CMS in promoting this monthly network.
Mr. Rogers Odima; marketing and management consultant spoke on the topic "Quality as a competitive advantage in improving products and services”.
Gabriel Kago the second speaker, an ICT professional and former chairman of the Information Society of Kenya spoke on Information Communication Technology (ICT) is Mission Critical, do not go to work without it .
Download the presentations using the links below:
The notes from the meeting are below.
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Issue |
Discussion |
Action/ reply |
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Content of BAM meetings. |
The BAM meetings are a real blessing, but when we have 2 speakers, we rush through the issues. As an idea, each meeting could focus on one idea or theme. |
The breakfast is designed for exposure and networking. Extended time can be arranged with each speaker at specific time |
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Research shows that women are less tech-savvy, exposed and interested than men. What can be done to reverse this trend? How can women be made more ICT-compatible? |
1.
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Empowering women is a major goal. Many gender-sensitive developments efforts have ICT components. E.g. the women’s development fund |
2.
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PW has a majority of women as their members. |
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Liberalization of ICT infrastructure |
There is a lot of focus on the need for more infrastructure, e.g. the fibrer-optic cables. Yet there are other key factors that need to be addressed. E.g. Kenya works 8 hours, yet other ‘developed’ economies work 24 hours. Should we not think of new ways to increase productivity through ICT? |
1.
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The fibre-optic cable is mainly political. There are other options can offer the needed services service but we are still focused on this expensive project. |
2.
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We need a 24-hr economy that is creative, increases capacities to create wealth and employment |
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Increasing the use of, and changing people’s attitude to use of ICT. |
1.
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Fusion Capital wanted to become ICT compliant. One challenge was that people making applications for jobs prefer to talk to somebody, physically. They want a personal touch in dealing with the business. This is a result of the African background which is relational. |
2.
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Even in educational institutions, professors insist on physical lectures and processes rather than using the internet to offer courses across the world. They say that that education is not just administrative processes that need to be made ICT- compliant, but also personal, and requires fellowship, interaction. |
3.
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Safaricom receives 340,000 service calls a day, yet have capacity to handle only 8,000. They are trying to improve this to 20,000. Kenyans do not want to follow electronic voice prompts for various services- they prefer to speak to people, not machines. |
4.
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On e-government: many Kenyans would rather physically visit offices for necessary documents rather than just download these from the internet. |
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1.
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Our social background is key to this. We need to continue the sensitisation process. |
2.
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Some of the groups that Partners Worldwide has worked with have set up websites that have enhanced their businesses in various ways. E.g. marketing of products. |
3.
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In trying to promote ICT as a vehicle, we must ensure that the said services are available and that that the infrastructure is functioning well. |
4.
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The fact that alternatives exist does not help matters. i.e. when people have been used to visiting offices physically, and being served by personnel and getting the needed documents, then it will not be overly critical for them to use the internet. But if the said services can only be accessed through the internet, then people have no choice but get used to internet. |
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