Saturday, August 11, 2007

Kenneth Matiba's Presidential Campaign In 1992: What Can It Teach Kenyans For 2007?

archive

I am a voracious reader despite my rather hectic schedule. Currently I am reading the much acclaimed David Halberstam book; The Reckoning (published in 1986) which details the war between Detroit's Ford Motor Company and Japan's Nissan.

Throughout my career as a jua kali entrepreneur cum writer, I have tried to model a lot of what I have done while closely studying the life of Henry Ford, the man who changed the world forever with his mass-produced cars. So the guy is no stranger to me. However in my reading today I came across some telling statistics about the man that I would like to share with you.

The main reason behind Ford's wealth that transformed a penniless kid starting out with less than a dollar in his pocket to a multi-millionaire was the Model T Ford and the modern concept of mass production. Ford ended up selling 15,456,868 units of the Model T. When he started manufacturing, it took him 12 and a half hours to produce one unit of the car. His ambition was to produce one car every minute, a goal that he managed to achieve after 12 years. By 1925 he was producing one car every 10 seconds.

My point is that whatever the human brain sets out to achieve it can achieve.

What has been occupying my brain a lot for a number years now is...

Read more

2 comments:

  1. There's a theory that the desire and ability to improve ourselves is what distinguishes us from the animals-whereas i don't know if that's totally true, there is a lesson in there for our MPs and ministers
    You're sell-by-date has expired and you may just be rotten but if you're an old dog can you learn new tricks? here is where i get mad with almost the whole of Kenya (Gitau Warigi are you listening?yes i know you print media nowadays like to quote Kumekucha albeit reluctantly) if you worked in a dead end job and your boss was stuck in a rut, even if he dyed the colour of his hair would that mean he was a new man?
    MPs listen-We your employers are counting down the days to your reckoning with glee-nothing personal, its just you can't hack it any more

    ReplyDelete
  2. If people want change, they will get it. They just have to be in the right mind set and stop the excuse of saying that a certain tribe is been ignored. Lets just focus on what we need to do and do it. The more we keep analysing our issues and problems ... the longer it will take for change to come. My fellow kenyan this is not the time to do that ... lets concentrate on what needs to be done.

    And for those who want to tell us more of our problems ... don't tell us of how Raila cant be president coz he's a luo, some of us when seeing him never see the luo part of him... we see some other things.

    ReplyDelete

Any posts breaking the house rules of COMMON DECENCY will be promptly deleted, i.e. NO TRIBALISTIC, racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive, swearing, DIVERSIONS, impersonation and spam AMONG OTHERS. No exceptions WHATSOEVER.