Running is not easy – Maggy’s experience
I have had runs before – short runs, medium runs, long runs, false starts,
successful starts etc. That makes me assume
that I have seen it all. But wait a
minute – today I did a long run (15km) to Mindspeak seminar at Nairobi’s
Intercontinental Hotel – actually, most of the run was being done by the
matatu!. Let me reflect on expectations…
some months ago, the organizers used to offer breakfast. It is now history (though ‘breakfast will be
served from 9.00am’ is still a footnote on the invitations). The crowd is however becoming bigger. I arrived at about ten minutes past nine and
hardly got a seat on the second row second seat left side of the
auditorium. The position was not very
vantage as I had to struggle to angle almost 90 degrees to see the podium. Additionally, the bright spot lights meant to
illuminate the podium blinded me most of the two hours.
Potential
Mindspeak is a forum for potential (and kinetic) investors to learn
from their and others experiences. Today
we were learning from the experience of Maggy Ireri, the Managing Director of
Ipsos Synovate. Her talk informed us
that I-S has representation in 84 countries worldwide. Her run was a bit different from my routine
lunch hour run down Kapenguria road. Her
run was ordinary. She kept out of
trouble during her childhood and school going ages. Later, while doing her BEd at KU, she also
ran her family supermarket business, earning good money. (This was meant to encourage students to take
hustling seriously)
Diligence, Discipline,
Determination
It is not news that Maggy mentioned the three Ds (3D). That is what she learned while running the
supermart. That is what I have learnt
while tackling the tough hill on Kapenguria road during the lunch hour run,
when the sun is overhead. When it is
hot. When your body aches. When you feel like fainting. When there is no water. When no one is there to urge you on but
yourself.
While awing with nostalgia, something happens on the screen. “Pursue opportunity and Money will follow,” a
bullet point on one of her slides screams in bold black text on a yellow
background. This would have been
invisible from my sitting position had it not been for the large projector
screen just in front my sitting section.
A replica screen shows the same on the other side of the podium.
Improve
“Look for opportunities to do more,” a subsequent highlight indicates. She relates this to her long stay at the
research firm, which has changed ownership from Steadman to Synovate to
Ipsos. I try to relate this to the
running track and remember my own advice to team members – increase the
distance over time. I urge them to
improve from their 45min runs towards the 1hr mark over a period. I encourage them to keep diaries and deliberately
work towards improvement.
School
My analogy is cut short, when a new emphasized text pops onto the
screen – “Academic qualifications are foundations but experience gives the edge”. That is just it – you can go to the school of
running all your life but you must hit the road for the lessons to count. “That was easy,” I say to myself. I happen to have uttered that loudly. My colleague to the left, who was busy on
Twitter, doing an update by the minute, smiles at me and wonders at my response
to the speaker. She gets the point and
probably tweets my statement to the rest of the world. My right hand colleague happens to have been
employed at my current place sometime ago.
Earlier on we had exchanged pleasantries but were cut short when the
session began.
“Work hard as failure is not an option” – another bold text on yellow
states. Before I give it a marathon
angle, the next one follows almost immediately – “Opportunities come once in a
lifetime”. While am conjuring up a run
story for this, Maggy tells the audience how her opportunity to get the MD
position was almost lost by her reluctance.
A two-week soul searching break enabled her take the opportunity that
would otherwise have been lost forever.
Opinion
We learn that opinion polling is not the main business of Ipsos. With only 3% share, it is like a drop in the
ocean compared to their key revenue avenues being Market research (57%) and
Media research (40%). While I crunch the
numbers to put a meaning to them, Maggy states that, “Innovation distinguishes
between a leader and a follower”. She
believes her firm is there to lead the rest of the pack. This reminds me of that very first 42k
marathon, when after waiting for anyone to volunteer to hit the ‘big’ run
without success, I had to declare that “I shall lead the quest for gold in this
run – whether I get followers or not”.
Of course, I did not get follows, but that did not stop me from flying
the team flag in the 2008 run conquered in 3.26.27.
We are given a ‘run’(down) of the science of opinion polling. Her polls have predicted the correct
presidential election results in USA, France and Nigeria all in 2012. At this point, the audience seems quite
skeptical by this proclamation, so she drives the point home by, “Believe me,
we did it. We predicted correctly… and
you know how bad Nigeria is”. That calls
for laughter. Someone shouts, “Oga”. Another one shouts, “Igwe”. These just prolong the laughter.
To answer the unasked question of sample size, she volunteers that the
France sample was only 1,000 respondents.
She concludes by saying that sample size does not matter. The selection and distribution of sample is
what matters.
No cheques
During Q&A, a member of the audience asks what the poll results for
UG were, given that she worked there for over five years earlier in her
career. She amuses all with “Kampala is
a small village”. Amidst some giggles
from the masses, she now answers, “In UG, we do not do opinion polls”. There is applause in the hall as murmurs fill
the auditorium. In responding to who
sponsors her opinion polls, she admits that the range is wide. However, “for politicians, we do not accept
cheques – just cash upfront”. That goes
well with the audience since they respond in kind with sustained claps. As happens at every Mindspeak, someone popped
the big question on whether Maggy was single and available… she keeps us all
guessing before affirming – receiving quite some crowd after the session had come
to an end.
From her run experience, I learn that “running is not easy” – but it
must be done.
Wanjawa WB, Nairobi, Kenya, Saturday, January 26, 2013
