- Communicate to your people.
- Be dynamic in your response.
It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.Deng Xiaoping
On my boda the other day, three young Kenyan men yelled “Corona! Corona! Corona!” at me. Two weeks ago, when Kenya was deciding whether we should stop flights from China, a young woman started attacking me about how predatory China already was, and how this was just one more step towards it. It was a Friday at 21:30, and I had a glass of wine in my hand, so I didn’t really feel like engaging, but little did I know this was only the beginning, in the wake of Covid-19.
Firstly, this isn’t that different from the normal racist catcalls I got before coronavirus. Most of it is benign, albeit based on ignorance, and I have accepted this as a normalcy of living here. Secondly, I understand this is a way to channel very understandable frustrations and fear about what is happening. However, in times of crisis, results matter more than anything.
China lives in the future—not because of the 5G or AI facial recognition, but because in many ways it is a best-case scenario of what happens if Covid-19 is kept under control. There are so many lessons to be learnt from China, rather than to categorically reject their approach or succumb to racism.
Certainly, there is a local context to consider, in that Kenya does not have the same resources and capacity to react but the government and individuals can definitely take into consideration some of the same responses, and see if they can scale down.
One of the main reasons that the Chinese government was able to lock the country down so swiftly was based on the fact that China's personal saving rate was about 46 per cent in 2017, historically rising to as high as 52 per cent at the peak of the global crisis. This means that even without work, Chinese families were still able to support themselves.
In a crisis, you’re so busy trying to put out fires and planning for mitigation, you often forget how important it is to communicate to your team members what is happening, whether that is your family members or your employees.
On the other hand, the Kenyan savings rate is only at 11 per cent, 16 million Kenyans live under the poverty line, and only 0.7 per cent of Kenyans with bank accounts have deposits of more than Sh1 million. Unlike China, Kenya is completely illiquid, which makes locking down the country a choice between feeding families and stopping the spread of the virus.
All things considered, the swiftness by which the government has responded is laudable, in comparison to out-of-control countries such as Italy. China has already started to help in a private capacity, with Jack Ma sending testing kits, face masks, and protective gear. While there isn’t enough economic similarity to advise the same government policies, businesses and families can certainly take note.
Reallocate labour to other roles
Physically based companies, such as restaurants, which are particularly affected in China were able to reallocate their workers to other valuable activities, or loaned them to other companies. For example, more than 40 restaurants and hotels lent their freed up waiters and staff to Hema, an Alibaba-owned supermarket, to make up the urgent need for delivery workers. As companies such as Glovo, Sendy, SafeBoda and Uber Eats start to ramp up, they can also collaborate with brick and mortar SMEs to reduce the number of workers who need to be laid off.
If you run a company, the process to change the strategy must be fast, to avoid getting stuck in complex internal coordination.
Communicate to your people
In a crisis, you’re so busy trying to put out fires and planning for mitigation, you often forget how important it is to communicate to your team members what is happening, whether that is your family members or your employees. The information may be non-existent, outdated, contradictory, confusing, or not nuanced enough. As a leader, you have a responsibility to filter through and actively communicate what is necessary and urgent.
For example, China’s largest kitchenware manufacturer Supor created specific operational guidelines and procedures for its employees, both from a work standpoint and personal advice. They gave instructions such as limiting exposure at work and in the home, as well as how to prepare for emergency situations. Consistent information means everyone is aligned when they react.
Be dynamic in your response
This applies to both family and business. The constant updates from President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Ministry of Health show that that situation is changing daily, even hourly. You need to stay informed with correct information, rather than gossip and fake news, so that you can react calmly and reasonably. Be comfortable with making plans and changing plans on the fly.
If you run a company, the process to change the strategy must be fast, to avoid getting stuck in complex internal coordination. For example, in China, Nike actually created a playbook to deal with the outbreak, and then used it to deal with the spread in other jurisdictions. Despite massive store closings, they reported a 30 per cent climb in online sales compared to the same period last year.
As Deng Xiaoping, the preeminent Chinese politician once said, “It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.” In this case, Covid-19 is certainly a mouse that needs to be caught, and all colours of cats should come together to do so.