MANAGEMENT IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, ITS ADHERENCE TO PRINCIPLES

The lobby of the Palm Springs Hotel

While on a trip to Dubai, I attended a demonstration conference at the Palm Springs Hotel that showcased advances in robotics and Artificial intelligence in handling mundane tasks like lawn mowing or laundry cleaning. Among this elite group of tech whizzes, I also encountered tens of venture capitalists, corporate CEOs gurus, and policymakers. 

Later in my hotel room, I kept wondering how such an illustrious gathering had been assembled in a country that wasn’t famous for its innovation and advances in robotics and Artificial intelligence. Someone must have arranged how to cream the top talent from all over the world to assemble at one place and demonstrate their advances. 

A lot of work must have been involved in getting the notoriously hard-to-catch venture capitalists to assemble on the same day and meet with potential future tech billionaires. However, the government of Dubai agreed to host the event and apparently provide incentives for all attendees, which was an astonishing fact.

On my flight back to Nairobi, I took notes trying to configure my thoughts around the logistical genius that converged political, financial, and technical interests at a focal point and fired off one of the greatest (and most successful) demonstrations of how far society has been taken over by machines. More astonishing was the chosen venue, given that Dubai experiences searing summer temperatures at this time of the year.

Understand what motivates and inspires each employee.

By the time our pilot was flaring out at the JKIA in Nairobi, I had written down a list of probable tactics the convenors of that expo had utilized.

1. Understood clearly what every stakeholder needed in their most selfish and intimate minds.
2. Demonstrate separately to each participant, how they stood in a position to advantageously profit over the other participants.
3. Make the whole process so simple that it is pretty clearly understood and accepted as legitimate and valid.
4. Convince each of a ‘secret’ agenda to benefit their lot, as a recognition of their invaluable contribution to progress in that field through their stellar work. 
5. Hire the most successful logistics firm to organize and get teams to run efficiently, flawlessly, and glitch-free; travel, hotel, catering, event management, and communications services.

In my taxi ride to our offices, I marveled at the brazen audacity that would convince anyone or any organization that they pull this off.

Such a success worked on aligned synergies, perfect timing, and total information dominance. These competencies were to be collated and coordinated by an authority figure who must also be wise enough to realize when to antagonize, praise, encourage, scold, hire, or fire….could a human being, any person or group of persons be capable of such a feat?

Entrepreneurs on their first venture tend to be territorial and practice micro-management

It then occurred to me that it wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined. If all likely participants and stakeholders were identified early enough, each could be assigned a particular task that played a role in the overall success of the undertaking. 

At the same time, by inducing a desire for the individual to perform their work well, either as professional pride, loss of earnings, adulation, and recognition, or steel fines, the participants could be induced to produce optimal performance.

Maybe the heat of the Emirates had delayed this simple realization that dawned on me as I stepped out of my taxi and sucked in the cool air of Nairobi’s weather. The secret of management lay in knowing what each team member prized the most or their vulnerability, and by using this as a stick or carrot, you could get them to perform wonders. 

As I stepped into my airy office that overlooked this beautiful city I’m the sun, I dialed my intercom and spoke to my secretary: Hello Joyce, please gather all personnel files and records and have them on my desk by tomorrow 8 o’clock in the morning. 

It was time to run my organization.