The Story of House of Manji Biscuits

Chatting with Hash at TED this morning about entrepreneurship and I got to talking about a book I had recently read. Before long, we agreed that it was a good story that would be worth repeating here this week. Kumeckucha [Blog] had posted on this a while ago)

A few weeks ago, I had read the autobiography of the late Mandatally Manji, an Asian-Kenyan who founded House of Manji which he built into the largest regional biscuit company.

He was encouraged by his family to put his life story together and it’s a fascinating story for any budding entrepreneur to read on. He details how;

  • From being a clerk transporting commodities around Central Kenya he came up with his plan to start a bakery.
  • After hard work and sweat many years later, he achieved his dream when through a partnership he was able to buy and run a bakery with a perfect location and healthy customer base in Nairobi.
  • How he chose to walk away from the bakery in frustration at his deadweight partner who contributed little to the success of the bakery.
  • Having to start all over again with even less, as his former partner was slow in paying him for his shares.
  • Dealing with macroeconomic problems – and having to produce biscuits even as basics commodities like sugar and wheat were rationed and diverted to the war (WWII) effort.
  • Dealing with discriminatory/political barriers – and winning customers and contracts away from European bakeries through unmatched service and delivery.
  • Ingenuity to keep producing bread and biscuits by observing and experimenting. This he did by adopting the cooking habits of his employees who used grains not known (or rationed) by the Colonial Government. His competitors accused him of sourcing from the black market as they could not imagine how his bakery was able to keep producing.

It’s a great book that’s less than 200 pages long, but very hard to find.

More:
– Earlier post on Manji by Kumeckucha.
– Wikipedia entry
The book can found at Amazon (though pricey)

TED Global: History Rhymes

Dr. Ken Vickery of North Carolina State University gave a talk on past leaders in Africa and their engagement in entrepreneurial zeal and partnerships on their own terms to benefit their people.

  • Nzinga Mbemba the Manikongo (leader) of the Kongo in the 16th century who entered into a joint venture with the Portuguese where his people would receive education and Christianity in exchange for ivory and slaves. His son was eventually consecrated by the Pope as the first African roman catholic bishop. But the Portuguese did not fulfill their end of the deal, negotiating around him to get greater even greater numbers of slaves and corrupting his court. His relationship with the Portuguese is chronicled in 22 letters that are now widely published.
  • Ja Ja, King of the Opobo Kingdom, in the 1880’s: Got into a partnership with the English for the shipment f palm oil. When he felt he was not getting a fair deal from shipping companies he set out to establish his own shipping line. For this, he was captured and exiled by the British.
  • Third, was African countries in the post independence era (early 1960’s to mid 70′): Their economies GNP’s grew after independence and they delivered services such as education and health care and largely performed as governments. They were not basket cases until the oil crisis and collapse of raw material market shocks destabilized their growth patterns.

So even as we stand at the dawn of a new era of partnerships of trade, development, debt, aid, etc., remember that history rhymes.

Ted Global Arusha

Mentioned earlier about being blessed/fortunate in life to see people like Michael Jordan (destroy Washington in their last game as the Bullets, though Scottie Pippen provided the winning dunk), Michael Schumacher (win the first US grand prix) and Tiger Woods (not enjoying his first US open). That all compares with being at TED Global in Arusha at which Kenya is well represented.

I will use this weeek to relax & learn from such esteemed speakers, participants, delegates, fellows and our Tanzanian hosts. (Read on who else is here, and what happened on Day 1 here, here, here)

Where’s Safaricom? Not met anyone here from the company whose M-PESA is touted by so many people (from around the world) here as a revolutionary enabler and an example of a means to empower millions by giving them financial accessibility & income earning potential

Madaraka Banking Week

The African Development Bank sets up a regional office in Nairobi.

CFC – Stanbic merger on track.

Dar es Salaam community bank extending their rights issue offer by one month to June 30.

A bank site was hacked (this one?)

Family Bank is being sued for making a bribery allegation against a Central bank official

First Community Bank to be Kenya’s first Islamic Bank

An blog investor perspective on the Housing Finance rights issue

KCB plans to open 2 0 branches in Sudan. Also there brief panic created by a smoky generator this week atop Kencom House.

CFA’s wanted: Investment banking gets even more lucrative now in Kenya

Forget the tip jar

This past week I discovered two jobs where one is forced to receive extra money just for doing their job (and it’s not a bribe)

First is for workers at the harbour/ports. Even honest people walk away with (a minimum) Kshs. 2,000 at the end of the day in lunch money from grateful transporters just for doing their job. These guys (transporters) pay so many bribes that when someone does their job without asking for a bribe, they still can’t get over that and press some cash into the reluctant hands of the officers.

Then, passing through the airport yesterday, I overhead several travelers, too bothered to reprice the cost of a cup of coffee in Kenya shillings, pay 1 or 2 dollars or pounds and dash off to their gate. How that money is shared is another matter – but when an 80 shillings soda is paid for with a £1 note (equivalent) to about 130 shillings, there’s a healthy cut for someone – and probably more than any tip jar would bring in. This is probably a common occurrence in in the tourism industry (see how tour van drivers usually have plenty of dollars to sell)