Brackenhurst Ministries: BlueSky Adventures seeks to help Kenyan businesses experience change

I (Stu) sat in a conference room a few weeks ago listening to the marketing and sales department of one of Kenya’s biggest companies lay out their strategy for 2010. The director of this department started the meeting off and spent most of his introduction talking about how last year’s numbers, with regards to profits and client base, were lower than expected and how this year they needed to increase drastically and anyone who didn’t feel the same shouldn’t be there. Towards the end of his introduction he went on to say numbers are not what is most important but their clients and staff were most important, despite the fact that he did not once address the issue of client or employee satisfaction. Clearly, his actions and words told two different stories.

Next, we listened to each regional sales team give a presentation bragging about their high numbers and letting everyone know they were the best region in the country as if they had not even heard the views from the company leadership that things were not good and needed improving.

Lastly, the majority of the meeting focused on how to best market a certain product. This product had been rolled out last year in response to the success of a similar product from a rival company, but had been a flop because it had too many problems from trying to get it out before it was ready. This year, even though the product still wasn’t ready and they only have eight customer support agents to deal with the problems of the millions of Kenyans who will be using this product, they feel as long as they heavily market this product and tell everyone how much better it is than the competitions similar product, even though it isn’t, people will choose their product instead of the competition.

Leaders learn what it means to be a servant on the challenge course

Of course not every company in Kenya operates this way but the majority hold the same value of “do whatever it takes to increase profits without concern for the clients or the employees.” This leads to clients wasting their time and money trying to find the best services while not really trusting any of them and it allows the most corrupt companies to grow the largest even though they are not providing any value to the client or the country because they either fool the most people or bribe the most influential people to keep their foot in the door and their products in our faces.

BlueSky Adventures longs to combat this way of thinking . We believe the only way to change this mentality and for the economy to grow is for Christ to bring about the transformation of the hearts of businessmen and women throughout Kenya. Last year we worked with over 2,000 men and women who are involved in Kenya corporate sector and worked with over 500 students who will be the next corporate leaders. It is our hope and prayer that our teambuilding and leadership development programs will model what it means to put on the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ. As Kenya’s leaders learn to serve their customers and employees and begin to implement honest business practices, we believe we will see a change in the way business is conducted in Kenya. More importantly, we long to see change in the lives of these leaders, to see them in a relationship with Christ that will transform the way they do business. As they change, we pray that they will bring about the change that will improve the lives of the millions of Kenyans who are affected by the decisions they make.