Jackson Mutua is from the “Sandwich Generation,” which means he is at the point in his life where he is taking care of his children and his ageing parents.
On the one hand, Mutua, Safaricom’s Regional Business Lead for the Coast Region, is immensely grateful to his parents. They instilled the values of hard work and integrity in him, building a solid foundation that he stands on today.
On the other hand, he is learning how to communicate with his kids without imposing his views on them while still instilling important values, just the way his parents did.
He joined Safaricom five years ago, a few months before Peter Ndegwa took the helm, and got a sneak peek into the organisation’s old structure before it evolved into a purpose-led technology company.
Interestingly, before joining Safaricom, Mutua was CEO of the battery company Eveready.
When did you join Safaricom?
I joined Safaricom in November 2019, so I’m celebrating five years. I started as the head of the department in charge of Nairobi-Western Mountain. In 2022, the channels were reorganised, and I’m currently the Regional Business Lead for the Coast region.
What was it like transitioning from being a CEO to now working where you have a CEO?
When I was joining Safaricom, I had two offers on the table; I had an offer for the CEO of another organisation and the role of Head of Department (HOD). But when I evaluated my current role, it struck me as a general manager’s role in terms of the demands, interactions and engagements, and therefore, I turned down the CEO position because I always felt I wanted to be a part of this transformative story not just in Kenya but globally. I don’t think there’s any organisation that has done what Safaricom has done in terms of transformation.
I didn’t have a problem picking this role because I’m part of a team. You don’t always have to be the leader, but you are on the leadership team, and therefore, being part of the team is good enough.
What does being a Regional Business Lead entail?
A Regional Business Lead is basically the general manager of the region looking at end-to-end business for the company, from acquisition to monetisation. I’m in charge of stakeholder engagement, ensuring that key stakeholders, like counties and business institutions, that are critical to the business are properly engaged and understand where the business is going, so, I basically hold brief for the business. I also collaboratively work with the Safaricom and M-PESA Foundations to ensure that we engage and have the biggest impact on the communities that have given us the license to operate.
That sounds like a lot of work.
To be honest, yes, it is quite a lot. You’ve got to be fully engaged every single day. I have a contingent of close to 250 people, both outsourced and direct staff, that I need to make sure are comfortable, psychologically secure, and delivering for the business. So, it becomes my primary role every single day to figure out ways to check on them and make sure that they are okay and engaged.
At some point, you have to disengage and relax, right?
There are two ways I’ll disengage. One, is to focus on my family. So we can decide either to take a trip somewhere just to relax or we can decide to stay indoors or travel up country to have a breath of fresh air at the farm. And then, once in a while, I’ll immerse myself into a few projects here and there or retreat to myself when pressures are too high and I need to detox from those situations. That’s when I’ll focus on an engrossing TV series that keeps me off thinking about work or anything. Other times I’ll visit my friends.
What’s the last TV series you watched?
In the last two weeks, I’ve been watching The Day of the Jackal and waiting for the next episode. Right now, I’m watching an interesting one called The Diplomat.
You will love it.
Please don’t spoil it for me. Hahaha.
I’m also a fan of La Liga and the Premier League, but I enjoy the World Cup more. I also follow Harambee Stars. I’m just disappointed we didn’t qualify for the AFCON.
How did your parents influence your career path and the person you are today?
To be honest, they had zero influence when we were making our career choices, not because they didn’t want to, but because they didn’t know. We didn’t have a lot of graduates then in the deep rural Ukambani areas; therefore, we would depend on what we heard. And who would you hear from if you had gone to primary and secondary school in the rural markets? It took a lot of hard work and commitment from our parents, but most importantly, as a man of faith, a lot of God’s grace.
Safaricom turned 24, and you’ve been there for five of those. What are some of the noteworthy changes that you’ve observed so far?
I joined four months before Peter Ndegwa became the current CEO, so I had a slight glimpse of what it was before and what it is today. And what I can say is it’s not a change; it’s a revolution of the business and the mindset. You can see there was a need to start focusing on where the world is going, which is tech, and focusing the business on being a purpose-led technology company.
There are two things that, for me, are critical milestones that are revolutionary, and that’s digitising the organisation and moving towards a techco, and deliberately focusing on customer experience. Making sure that we are looking at customer experience not just as a service, but what happens before the service. How do we create our products? How do we create our journeys? How do we bring in the customer voice and the customer view before the product is created?
What are some of the milestones that you’ve reached that you’re most proud of?
There are quite a number. First to be where I am as an individual. Coming from a jungle where we knew nothing those days to where we are today, the fact that God’s grace has been sufficient. That, for me, is the biggest milestone.
For seven years, I was the CEO of Eveready, a listed company, and I led that organisation during an extremely difficult time. Providing hope and a vision to stakeholders and shareholders and sustaining an organisation through a very difficult environment, having been the first African CEO of that organisation, is an area that I’m extremely proud of. Another thing I’m proud of is I’ve been able to come into Safaricom, a completely new environment, get acclimatised in the way of the telcos, and be able to play my part in the drive to transition the business from the previous structure where we were to the current channels organisation and the milestones we’ve been able to achieve. But my biggest pride is mentoring my juniors and seeing them hold senior positions or scale to different roles.
What kind of a leader are you? Do you think you’re a good leader?
I’ll be the last person to answer that because I will definitely say yes. That’s why I’m still here. If I wasn’t, I believe circumstances would have forced me out because you’re either leading or you’re failing.
My biggest success as a leader is in the people I mentor and coach successfully.
What are some of the things that your juniors have taught you about yourself and leadership?
Learning is continuous. There’s no point at which you can say, “I know everything.” Another thing I’ve learned within the last few years is to listen more because, in the course of listening, you learn something. I listen more and talk less, but I always make sure that I have expressed my point of view.
The other thing is don’t just criticise, provide alternative views and solutions. My mental agility has really changed in the sense that when we’re having a conversation, I don’t talk about problems; I talk about solutions because that’s what makes the conversations of the business progress. I’ve headed finance in organisations and transitioned from being an accountant to a commercial person. If you are not careful, as a finance person, you get lost in the numbers and the issues, not the outcomes or the solutions.
Do you give them room to criticise you?
I don’t use the word criticism. I call it feedback. And feedback is food for champions. You know, if you’re not getting feedback, you may assume everything is okay until you crash.
I always want to hear from the team that I work with because, remember, those guys are the experts, not me. They are the guys on the ground. They have the pulse of the customer. They know what is going on, and therefore, it’s them that I want to hear from, and I want them to call me out. They have the freedom to give me feedback.
You have an impressive resume on LinkedIn, have you ever written something that’s not true in your CV?
The problem is that I haven’t updated it. It’s about 70% done, but there’s still 30% missing. But I can defend every single thing on my CV. One of the things my parents taught me is integrity. I still remember when I bought my first car and went home proudly driving it, thinking that my dad would be impressed. He sat me down and told me, ‘Tell me how you bought this car. I hope I’m not going to hear scandals.’
He wanted us to account for every milestone we have achieved and demonstrate that it was the result of sheer hard work and rightful gains from our employment.
What do you like spending your time doing that you are passionate about?
One is community enablement. I’ll sacrifice a lot of my time to participate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. I remember the last time we had CSR in Mpeketoni. We had gone to deliver desks and found some girls who could not afford school uniforms. We had a small collection of funds amongst ourselves and bought them uniforms. It was such a joy to see their photos in uniform compared to when they didn’t.
When I go upcountry, I undertake programmes with the students and teachers to enhance the kids’ performance. I also do treasury work for a group of churches for free. Other than that, I do free finance seminars for youth, men’s, and women’s groups in the church. I teach them about finance and what they can do to uplift themselves.
Three nuggets of wisdom about finances?
Don’t borrow to finance consumption. Borrow to finance investment that will generate enough cash flow to pay for the borrowing and leave you with some money in your pocket.
Never go to a shylock. Getting money from a shylock is like getting involved in drugs. Once in, you can’t get out; you have to begin rehabilitation, and it’s usually extremely difficult.
Always have a financial plan. Ask yourself, what are your sources of income? How are you going to spend the money? What are you going to save, and where are you going to save it?
What’s a philosophy or a mantra that you live by?
Change what you can today. Every day, there are things that affect you. What you can change, change so that you address the problem. What you can’t change, forget about it and move on. Don’t carry baggage in your head.
What about yourself are you working on improving, and how do you think achieving it will make you a better person?
One of the biggest struggles I had was getting my kids to see things from my point of view. Then I realised I was forcing them to be me instead of letting them live their lives. I took my last-born son on a trip to visit Dandora, where I used to live when I was starting life. I thought my story would inspire him. He asked me, ‘Okay, fine. What do you want us to do with this information? What was your problem? Why did you guys have to go through that?’
I realised this is someone who was born in Karen and is in a completely different generation from mine.
I’m now teaching them about empathy for others and why they have to work hard. I’ve changed my approach and mindset regarding how I engage with them. It’s now usually very interesting to have conversations with them. I realised my story was not their story.
