Deciding whether or not to quit a job can take its toll on you. You might have a longstanding loyalty to the business, a decent salary, or some other level of comfort that compels you to stay despite everything telling you it’s time to leave. On the other hand, you might be convinced that all the hardships and struggles that are pushing you out the door are just temporary inconveniences, which you would find at any job.

You Aren’t Improving

Your career should be moving forward in at least one direction. For some, that means climbing up the corporate ladder. For others, that means learning new skills or progressing skills they already have. No matter what your preference or vision is, you should be experiencing some kind of forward momentum. If you aren’t, it’s a sign that your career has become stagnant. Ask yourself this critical question: If you stay with this job another year, how will you progress? If you don’t have an answer or don’t like the one you came up with, it’s time to quit your job and move on.

Your Company Is Moving Toward a Bad Future

All companies experience ups and downs, so if your company is in an unpleasant position, try not to worry. However, if it looks like the unpleasant situation is bound to grow worse in the coming years, getting out early is advisable. Is your company’s revenue decreasing, year after year? Are there more layoffs each year than the year before it? Is your company in a dying industry and doing nothing to differentiate itself? If any of these is the case, your company won’t be around for much longer. Start looking for a new opportunity now, while you have some control.

You Don’t Respect Your Boss

Otherwise solid jobs can be ruined by bad leaders. If you don’t have a person at the top who you respect, there’s little value in coming to work every day. Your boss should be someone who inspires you, motivates you, and helps you learn new things throughout your career. If your boss is unsupportive, or incompetent, or some terrible mix of the two, don’t let yourself suffer any longer. Good bosses are hard to find, but it’s worth your effort to try and find them—or start your own business and become your own boss.

You’re Severely Undervalued

The term “undervalued” doesn’t only refer to money, although if you’re severely underpaid, that can be a problem, too. Instead, being undervalued is more of a problem if your accomplishments aren’t recognized or if your ongoing work isn’t appreciated. Your boss and co-workers should see you as an integral part of the team and recognize you when you’ve done exceptional work. If you are chronically unappreciated, you deserve the chance to look for a position where you are appreciated.

source:themuse

1. Focus on the audience

Most entrepreneurs worry, “How will I look on stage?” They focus on themselves. Successful entrepreneurs think differently: they don’t focus on themselves, they focus on the audience.

World-class speakers ask, “What do I want the audience think, do or feel differently after my presentation?” Focus on sharing your message with the audience and you will become more successful.

2. Engage

The scarcest commodity in the business world is attention. If you’re a boring speaker, the audience will check their emails or think about where to have dinner tonight. To grab the audience’s attention, you need to keep them engaged.

One easy way is to engage people’s emotions: ask questions, tell stories or play a short video. The more engaging your presentation is, the more attention you can get from the audience.

3. Be conversational

Have you ever heard presenters using buzzwords such as “leverage” and “synergy” to make themselves sound more professional? These words are meaningless.

Successful entrepreneurs avoid buzzwords. They use simple words to make sure that everyone understands what they say. To get your point across, use simple words that even a 10 year old can understand.

4. Tell powerful stories

Stories are powerful because they engage people’s emotions. When you engage people’s emotions, they will pay attention and be inspired to take action.

Stories help you stand out from the crowd. The best stories are usually from your personal experiences because you know them best and nobody can challenge you.

source:entrepreneur 

Get their attention

A three-minute pitch isn’t just an expanded mission statement or the “About” section of your website. It is a short opener that tells what your company does, why it’s unique and how it serves your customers. Your goal is to encourage your audience to want to hear more. When they’re interested, you have won permission to tell them additional details about your company that might intrigue them, be it the underlying technology or the potential financial return. That’s how and why you need to customize this template for each audience and for each occasion.

At the most basic level, you should explain your concept, your target audience and how your idea solves a problem.

Tell them the right story

In a short pitch, you can grab attention with a quick story about a client experience, a breakthrough or the light-bulb moment when you came up with the idea for the company.

Brevity is key. You’re excited about your business and want to prove that you have, indeed, researched all the possibilities. But the idea of a pitch, in any format, is to start discussion and engender continued interest. Your pitch should whet the appetite, not leave your audience full.

Keep ’em on the hook

The goal of any pitch is to tee up an ongoing conversation.Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of assuming they have to cram everything about their company into a three-minute pitch. But whether you are presenting a PowerPoint slide deck or introducing yourself at a networking event, your goal is to start a relationship. Make the pitch more about the audience and less about you.

“You have to quickly figure out how your business is relevant to that exact person you are speaking with,” she says. “It’s not about sharing what’s interesting to you about the company, but what’s interesting to them about it.”

source:entrepreneur

Kenya Wildlife Service offers Equal Employment Opportunity (EE0). The following are some of the various jobs that exist within Kenya Wildlife Service structure.

1. Management Trainee

-Bachelor Degreee Anthropology, social sciences or natural resource management

– IT Skills

– Be in excellent health and able to undergo a rigorous paramilitary training.

2. Human Capital Officer

-Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from a recognised university or its equivalent.

-Diploma in Human Resource Management or its equivalent

-3 years experience

-IT Skills

-Supervisory Skills

3. Internal Auditor

-Bachelor’s degree in Commerce Accounting option

-CPA 2

-3 years experience

-IT Skills

-Supervisory Skills

4. Accountant

-Business degree in accounting option

-CPA part 2 or its equivalent

-3 years experience

-IT Skills

-Supervisory skills

5. Stores Officer

-Bachelor degree in a related field ( Commerce/Economics/Business Administration) from a recognised university.

-3 years experience

-Diploma in Supplies Management

-IT skills

-Supervisory skills

6. Asset Management Officer

-Bachelor’s degree in Commerce ( Accounting Option)

– CPA 2 or equivalent

-IT skills with proficiency in MS Office

-3 years experience

-Supervisory Skills

7. Budget Development Officer

-Bachelor of Commerce Degree

-CPA 1 /ACCA 1

-3 years experience

-Supervisory skills

-IT Skills

8. Procurement Officer

-Bachelor’s degree in a related field ( Commerce, Economics, Business Administration) from a recognised university

-CIPS level 4 or a diploma in procurement from any other recognised institution

-3 years experience

-Supervisory skills

-IT Skills

9. Surveyor

– Bachelor degree in Land Economics or equivalent

-Associate member of ISK

-IT Skills

-supervisory skills

Apply and deliver your CV and covering letter handwritten to KWS Headoffice: KWS Headquarters

Kenya Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 40241 – 00100
Nairobi Kenya
Tel: +254 (20) 6000800,
+254 (20) 6002345
Fax: +254 (20) 6003792

The following analysis was first published in the Standard.

“In the coming weeks, the Government is expected to embark on a mission to rescue the ailing, loss-making miller, Mumias Sugar Company.

But analysts are grappling with some questions around this. The top ones are: Will the Treasury be throwing good taxpayer money after bad to keep the miller afloat Is Mumias too important to fail. How did Mumias burn through the huge pile of cash it sat on nine years ago.

Further, whereas the Government has promised to inject Sh1 billion (to pay farmers their outstanding dues) into Mumias, hopefully by the end of this month after getting the go-ahead from KPMG auditors, Mumias needs a lot more cash to survive. An analysis of the miller’s financial statements shows, to meet its obligations for the next year, it needs at least Sh7.1 billion.

Mumias has current liabilities (this includes what it owes suppliers) of Sh10.7 billion against current assets (what it is owed by customers and cash it has in its bank account) of Sh3.6 billion, according to its recently published half-year results for the six months to December 2014. This gives a difference of Sh7.1 billion.

But the Government, which is the majority shareholder with a 20 per cent stake in Mumias, is pressing on with attempts to get the miller back on its feet. It is expected to rally other shareholders to a rights issue — the sale of additional shares in the miller, which is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The rights issue is expected to raise another Sh4 billion.

It means that even after receiving a Sh1 billion bailout and hopefully pulling off a Sh4 billion rights issue, Mumias will still be short Sh2.1 billion. By cutting costs and laying off an estimated 300 employees, the Government hopes to make savings in the long term to get Mumias back to profit.

Although the timing of the rights issue has not been mentioned, it remains to be seen if — as a press release from the Deputy President Presidential Service (DPPS) put it — “shareholders will have the stomach to put in more money in the miller”. Mumias’ shareholders have suffered over the past year, with the price of their stock tumbling to trade at Sh2.50 at the end of last week. This is a 35 per cent drop from a high of Sh3.85 12 months ago.

Further, the only sure source of cash for the miller is the Government bailout of Sh1 billion. One of the truisms that holds in business and that applies so fittingly in this case is this: turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is reality.

“Cash, though, is to a business as oxygen is to an individual: never thought about when it is present, the only thing in mind when it is absent,” wrote Warren Buffett, a well-respected investment guru, in his 2015 annual letter published last month. The only thing that the Government, shareholders and management of Mumias are thinking about now is how and where to get cash now that their “oxygen” has run out.
However, looking back over the last nine years, Mumias may have been rather extravagant with its use of cash. From a strong start of Sh740 million in cash on its balance sheet in 2006 (about half of the Sh1.5 billion in profits it made that year), Mumias only had Sh31 million in cash at the end of December 2014.

In his 2015 annual letter to shareholders, Mr Buffett mentioned three keys to financial staying power, which has seen his investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, become one of the largest conglomerates globally. These are: a large and reliable stream of earnings, massive liquid assets and no significant near-term cash requirements.

Unfortunately, Mumias fails on all three fronts. Although the miller has a larger share of sales compared to other millers in the country, its earnings are unreliable. Cheap imports and a glut of sugar have seen the firm’s sales fluctuate in the last three years.

From hitting record sales of Sh15.62 billion in 2010, Mumias’ fortunes have lost some of their shine, with revenues falling to Sh13 billion in 2014. As much as Mumias blames external circumstances for its misfortunes, the miller occasionally shoots itself in the foot. For example, it closed its factory in the peak months of October, November and December last year for maintenance due to what it termed “acute cane shortage”.

“The maintenance was prolonged to make up for the deferred 2013 scheduled maintenance, which never took place due to cash flow constraints,” said the company in a statement accompanying the 2014 results.

The closure resulted in a 62 per cent drop in sales to Sh2.6 billion in the first half ended December 2014, compared to Sh7.1 billion over a similar period a year earlier. Ethanol revenue also dropped 23 per cent due to less cane being crushed. Ethanol is produced from molasses, a by-product of sugarcane milling.

“‘The Government has no business in business’ used to be a popular phrase,” said XN Iraxi, an economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi. “But the truth is, the Government will always be in business. It regulates businesses, influences interest rates, sets taxes and can make life easier or more difficult for businesses through the provision of public goods. The Government can also invest successfully.”

He gives the example of Temasek Holdings, a successful investment company owned by the Singapore government and whose portfolio covers a variety of sectors, from telecommunications and media to real estate and energy.

There is also the Norwegian sovereign fund, which recently bought into Equity Bank. “That was probably the thinking behind setting up parastatals, with one firm, the Government, owning them all — like the Temasek structure,” said Dr Iraki. “But this Government’s bold step in investing has been frustrated by our short-term thinking and politics that have seen firms looted or turned into fiefdoms.

There is nothing wrong in Kenya that cannot be cured with what’s right, as former laggards like Kenya Pipeline Company and Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) have shown.” Dr David Ndii, the managing director of Africa Economics, added: “There are good economic reasons for the Government to be in business. For instance, Kenya’s very successful smallholder tea industry would not exist had Government not nurtured it.

“No government in a democracy can stand by watching its economy collapse as a result of business failures — recall the US banking and auto industry bailouts during the financial crisis. The trick is to have an exit strategy from the outset.” One of the best examples of a turnaround is that of KCB, in which the Government has a 17 per cent stake. KCB was on the brink of collapse in the 90s before a restructuring process.

Now, the bank has crossed borders and become a financial services powerhouse across East Africa.

For many Kenyans, the idea that the Government is pumping in billions to try and revive the ailing Mumias seems far-fetched and a matter that only touches a few thousand citizens, who include staff and sugarcane farmers in Mumias. Should the typical Kenyan on the street really care about the Government bailout The short answer is yes.

Perhaps it would help if Kenyans looked at the situation from the perspective that the Government is one big investment group to which we all belong and contribute to monthly through the taxes on our salaries or on the basic goods and services we buy.

This ‘chama of chamas’ called the Government uses our contributions to pay for salaries, develop mega construction projects like roads and hospitals, and invest in running State-owned corporations and institutions. The money the Government invests in its businesses is expected to generate a return. Therefore, shareholders and chama members, or the general citizenry, should be interested in knowing what the Sh1 billion that is to be pumped into Mumias will bring back.”

I recently came across this article and as someone who happens to work in a startup, found it to be quite informative.

Q: What is the difference between a leader and a boss?

There’s no place where strong leadership is needed more than in a hectic startup environment in which the odds are most stacked against you, and Herculean efforts to gain and maintain traction are required daily, not quarterly. So I see the distinction between the two mindsets an important one to make.

Bosses stick to a preordained script and defined roles, connoting little else but hierarchal authority and approaching their contributions in the context of their own careers—their compensation, personal goals, place on the proverbial totem pole. Leaders, especially the transformational ones, inspire positive change in others, earning trust, creating cohesion and raising morale. In short, bosses tell people what to do, while leaders inspire people to do their best.

When getting a company off the ground, there is no room for bosses, only leaders.

An ability to chart the course and get everyone pointed in the right direction.

A visionary can set the path for the company, while a solid boss can execute it, but it takes a true leader to do both. There’s too much ground to cover in a startup environment for senior employees to be focused solely on either long-term strategy or day-to-day tasks. Instead, it’s vital to create a culture in which people feel a sense of ownership and efficacy in growing the company. I expect all Compass’ employees to be both visionaries who recognize opportunities and field marshals who are constantly executing upon them.

An understanding of how to generate resources, not just allocating them.

A visionary can set the path for the company, while a solid boss can execute it, but it takes a true leader to do both. There’s too much ground to cover in a startup environment for senior employees to be focused solely on either long-term strategy or day-to-day tasks. Instead, it’s vital to create a culture in which people feel a sense of ownership and efficacy in growing the company. I expect all Compass’ employees to be both visionaries who recognize opportunities and field marshals who are constantly executing upon them.

source:entrepreneur

In today’s product-centric business environment, companies frequently commit vast amounts of resources to market their product brands, yet sometimes overlook the company brand — the brand that stands behind all of a company’s products, services and people.

At the most basic level, strong corporate brands add value to a company in 3 key areas:

Internally (culture)

Employees who have a shared understanding of who the company brand is and who it’s for (which customers, segments, etc.) naturally live out the brand in their interactions with each other. In essence, employees’ collective on-the-job behaviors — the culture — personify the company brand. A shared understanding of the brand among all employees — from manufacturing to tech support, engineering to human resources — promotes a consistent understanding of how business is done across the organization.

Externally (marketplace)

Strong corporate brands deliver more economic value. CoreBrand’s Corporate Branding Index® revealed that the corporate brand accounts for between five and seven percent of market capitalization, which CoreBrand refers to as brand equity. Similarly, research conducted by McKinsey & Company in 2012 found that strong brands outperformed weak brands by 20 percent, up from 13 percent in 2011. Accordingly, the corporate brand can significantly contribute to or detract from a company’s value.

Finally, strong corporate brands offer the intangible asset of goodwill which can drive value and boost market capitalization.

source:entrepreneur