Kiboro Leaves CEO Seat At Nation Media Group

Baton passed on to 44 year old with long career in the pharmaceutical industry

If former Nation media group CEO Wilfred Kiboro sticks to what he said on Wednesday, this morning, he will be driving his grandson to school and enjoying every minute of it.

On Wednesday Mr Kiboro symbolically handed over the keys to his office to new CEO Linus Gitahi (44) and walked out into the Nairobi sunshine to start his retirement. For many CEOs letting go is sometimes very difficult and indeed past executives of Nation have found it difficult to stay away. Take the example of former group managing editor the late George Mbuguss who when on leave would wonder around aimlessly in town and then find himself in the office. "Just taking a peek to see what tomorrows splash is," he would say, but would end up spending his entire leave in the office.

But for Kiboro, there is no doubt that he will be happy in a way that he is handing over the pressures of the office to somebody else. Mr Kiboro is 62 and at that age the sort of pressure the CEO of the Nation media group has to bear cannot be a healthy thing. More so with the elections around the corner and political wannabes thinking that they deserve extra mileage and special treatment at East African's most widely read daily. And worse still, thinking that they can have it with a little prodding. Not to mention the bullying calls from government heavyweights who read a second meaning that undermines the government in every other sentence.

Mr Gitahi should have no illusions about his leadership and managerial abilities not being tested to the full. Yesterday Kiboro handed over a healthy, prosperous company to him, but Gitahi will have his work cut out to maintain profits. To start with he has to defy the laws of gravity, which say that everything that goes up must come down. In business after years of healthy growth, the dip in profits will always come and Kiboro's exit seems to have been timed precisely with eyes fixed on the growth graph. You can't blame him, who doesn't want to leave with a bang?

The situation on the ground in the media world is also very fluid currently. To start with the exodus from print media to online, which is in full cry in the West has started to slowly but surely show signs of taking hold in this market. The worst hit area is in circulation where it is becoming harder by the day to sustain circulation figures and profits. Circulation has always been the Nation's traditional strength and trusted cash cow, pouring in millions daily in hard cash brought in by newspaper vendors countrywide. The main culprits are the Nation's own online edition which is picking up readers like there was no tomorrow. The management is yet to find a way to translate those rising numbers to equally rising revenues. There have been attempts of course but as of the moment they remain just that, unsuccessful attempts.

It is obvious that print is on its' way out and that the new major battleground for media companies in Kenya is Television. Here the Nation does not enjoy the same supremacy it is used to in print. There is stiff competition and most people feel that competitor KTN, is currently ahead in this game.

In radio Kiss FM and the KBC national service rule, so much so that the Nation radio division has been re-launched several times. It is now called Easy FM.

All in all, Mr Gitahi takes over a ship that is sailing on course but headed straight to some dangerous icebergs capable of tearing the ship apart or at least doing some damage. How he steers this shs 14.8 billion ship with his inexperienced but youthful hand will be the guiding factor and determinant of what will happen over the next 5 years or so, which are bound to be very eventful in the media world.

One interesting aside here, is the policy the Nation media group has always maintained of bringing in an outsider as CEO rather than grooming somebody from within the organization. I wish Gitahi all the best, but incase there are slip-ups, an insider could be brought in to fill the gap. Keep your eyes on the guy who has risen at Nation faster than a NASA space rocket, Dennis Aluanga. (see my earlier analysis).

This policy of bringing in outsiders no doubt has it's merits especially in an organization the size of the Nation media group. However it usually leaves a lot of resentment around. The scenario has many similarities, and is akin to that of Moi bringing in Uhuru Kenyatta as his preferred candidate. Few will remember that Kiboro himself was brought in as an outsider to head the company in 1992. The "plastic" smiles told it all at the handing over ceremony on Wednesday as the young 44 year old from "nowhere" came in to occupy the seat that some consider to be the most powerful in Kenya, outside politics.

Read my analysis of the Kiboro reign.

N.B. It is interesting that the Nation group initially reported that the new CEO is 39. In the latest report, he has been reported as being 44. No explanation has been given as to how Mr Gitahi aged 5 years in less months than those years.

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