SAFARICOM BOB COLLYMORE GOOFED BIG TO SNUB OBAMA

By Joseph Lister Nyaringo
Atlanta, Georgia
As a CEO of a public company whose majority shareholders are Kenyans and mostly admirers or the USA President, his decision does not help Safaricom as the market leader in the telephone mobile industry.

He has made the biggest blunder to the company. In fact, many Safaricom subscribers will see him as stooping too low to please a small clique in the Country critical to Obama’s failure to feature Kenya in his Africa itinerary.

Mr. Collymore should remember that more than 50% of Safaricom subscribers are Obama admirers. What will prevent them from switching or porting their phone numbers to different mobile providers in protest of his move in the competitive mobile industry?

Failing to feature Kenya in his itinerary of the African tour does not make the USA President, an enemy of corporate Kenya or the general public. We have to remember that Obama avoided Kenya because of the USA’s strict diplomatic standards especially on how she interacts with global nations.

The Safaricom CEO has goofed big by blindly following Mr. Chris Kirubi; who was the first to decline the Obama invitee to Dare- Salaam. Kirubi’s move may be justified because is a Private entrepreneur unlike Collymore who heads a public company.

In my opinion, public Companies are delicate entities and when a CEO makes a decision, he or she must consider the implications such decision will create to the company. It therefore remains to be seen what positive impact the Obama snub will bring to Safaricom subscribers and shareholders.

When the CEO of a public company takes a political path, it does not reflect well on his leadership and the expansion plans of a company.

Mr. Collymore, is neither a politician nor a private entrepreneur like Chris Kirubi, to go public and create unnecessary controversy about a courteous invitation to meet the President of a neigbouring Country.

What message is he sending to other CEOs who will congregate in Tanzania to boost their company’s expansion?