Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: The journey so far: Martin Kiarie, CEO, Bean Interactive

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Martin Kiarie is the co-founder and CEO of Kenya-based Bean Interactive, an
agency that specialises in strategy, product innovation, design, web
development and digital marketing.


1. Tell us about one of the toughest situations you’ve found yourself in as
a business owner.


There have been several challenges over the years, but the toughest I have
faced is ensuring organisational alignment when trying to steer the
organisation – from shareholders and board members to employees – to a new
direction.

When [a] company is in its infancy, it’s easy to align the thoughts,
energies and actions of [a] team towards a common goal, [because] a lot of
the time that team is you and your business partners.

What I learned during this time is to mature as a leader. I realised I
didn’t need to be the hero who came in and saved the day, I needed to be the
captain who steered a great team to a shared destination. It was hard for me
to let go of attending every important meeting, joining each brainstorm, but
I overcame the challenge by trusting the people I hire.

I realised they are way smarter and better than me at their core
competencies and I didn’t need to hire people to then hire myself back. By
letting go of more things and assigning those things to people who were
infinitely more capable, I was able to focus on steering the ship.


2. Which business achievement are you most proud of?


This year we celebrate our 10th year anniversary. That is an achievement I
am really proud of. However, the greatest achievement I have had the
privilege of being part of is enabling businesses transform digitally and
seeing the effect that has on them.

Delivering the service and value we promise and retaining clients are
always our biggest goals, and thus accomplishments. Enhancing and improving
how we deliver our value are a constant task at Bean. We never really get
there, but love the journey.

Last year we re-positioned ourselves as a digital transformation agency
making a conscious effort to work with our clients not just on digital
marketing, but [also] on product innovation and defining our clients’
overall digital transformation strategy.


3. Describe your greatest weakness as an entrepreneur.


Believe it or not, [it] is not taking time to plan something out. When I
latch on to an idea I go straight into execution, driven more [by] bringing
it to life – and not necessarily thinking of what could go wrong. The effect
this has had, previously, is I move too fast and leave people behind.
Secondly, it leads to costly failures. It’s expensive to fail in the field.

What I have done to avoid this is to work with a strong project management
team at Bean, which ensures we are intentional in all our project planning.
And thanks to the Stanford Seed Programme, we have adopted the design
thinking methodology to our product development and communication design
services. [It] allows us to go through a process which ensures that what we
do is relevant to the consumer and not just focused on energetic execution.


4. Which popular entrepreneurial advice do you disagree with?


That you have to dominate [the] competition. I really think this gets it
twisted. I think there is too much focus on competition and less on product
innovation and adaptation. When a company is focused on competition, this
leads to a commoditised environment that is only differentiated [by] cost.

It’s a race to zero – no one wins. But when you focus on value creation and
being true to your vision, your “competition” becomes your ability to
execute what the market needs.


5. Is there anything you wish you knew about entrepreneurship before you
got started?


That you don’t need money or connections to be successful. Just a purpose,
energy, relentless action and patience. The connections and money are a
consequence. They show up because of the value you are creating, they don’t
create it.--Howwemadeitinafrica



Martin Kiarie

 

 

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Bulls n Bears 

 

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