My Heroes Journey, Essay Example

Michael Joseph was picked to head a Kenyan mobile phone operator, because he lacked the required school qualification to be a head in Europe. In his youth in South Africa, he fled when apartheid was at its peak. He was nick named the network man-upgrading railway by setting up pylons in Drakensberg Mountains. He was in America when mobile revolution had just begun. He quickly worked on bids to establish networks in South Korea, Brazil, and Spain. The most credible moment was establishing the first mobile network in Argentina, (which is the fastest in the world). Mr. Joseph in the year 2000 went to Kenya; a mobile operator safaricom had as little as twenty thousand customers, he was appointed the companies’ chief executive officer. At the moment he has revitalized the company to an extend that its net worth is commendable; it is one of the largest mobile operator in East Africa region having over ten million customers, it is the most profitable business in the Eastern and central Africa region. All these are credited to Michael Joseph’s efforts. He went to Kenya and at first emphasized on pay as you go customers, who pre-paid their airtime. His first task was to introduce billing by the second. It was welcome news for customers who earned less than a dollar a day. He therefore revamped the brand of Safaricom. (Brown, 1999, P.290) advocated that the poorest customers must be kept loyal by developing a strong brand since they are price sensitive. He approached using old school method, by playing on the status of the company, which had been established ten years earlier as a national pride. For instance in a safaricom advert, it shows a Masai herdsman before a sunset in Rift Valley backing a hymn “I vow to thee, my country.” He offered a lesson to the Middle East and Europe mobile operators. Michael said take advantage of affiliations as they come to technical and technological knowledge, but remain silent about it to your customers, and dress your network in national colors. The most notable achievement of Mr. Joseph is the Electronic money transfer M-MPESA. He pioneered this service, which enabled customers on the network to send and receive money by text message. It is much faster and cheaper than the money transfers are. It transfers over two million dollars across Kenya, on a small transaction. The service has been put up in Afghanistan, Tanzania, and India. (Hobby & Bloom, 2009, P.77) said this is the greatest mobile phone innovation ever. It is an exaggeration-but not a big one. Mobile phone could be the next stage of transformation of economies. Just dialing T for trade, he wants M-MPESA to be used in other services like payment of mortgages. He build high speed internet in Kenya using third generation mobile networks. He was not afraid to weigh in on perennial issue of trade versus aid. The ability to acquire credit for less than one dollar, (Campbell, 2008, P.178), said has been hugely efficient than aid. At the end, he offered a strong lesson to upcoming investors in the African continent; that it can bet on the poor and pet. However, there is no rose flower without thorns; Michael Joseph has not sail smoothly. For instance, some have criticized him for naming the stakeholders of 5% shares in Safaricom; critics believe he enriched some fraudulent politicians. Nevertheless, audit reports reveal the company as clean. He refused to bow down to pressure from intelligence of Kenyan Government security agents to ban text messages, during the post election violence. He admitted that Kenya was at the verge of collapse, however, he insisted that it would be unwise to bet on as resilient and rich continent as Africa. Michael Joseph as manage Safaricom to have a turnover of up to $223 annually, with a growth rate of 16% per year. Despite the eruption of political violence, the firm reported better results and rolled out 25% of shares to the public. His firm managed to raise over 8000 million dollars. Michael Joseph over looked the critics, the prophets of doom who predicted that climate change and population growth will condemn African cities to crisis and collapse. Instead, he was optimistic and eventually made a remarkable African success story.

Michael Joseph’s aspect of innovation, made me admire the tenacious approach he took to grow the business and his will to invest in Safaricom future therefore decimating competition. His greatest business move was also a calculated risk. By taking software created by Vodafone Group and pushing it to the market, he inspired me. His initiation turns out to be the most successful money transfer in the world (Hobby & Bloom, 2009, P120). After retirement, he moves to the World Bank to implement his innovation of having all member states connected via M-MPESA. No one in the world has knowledge on deployment of the money system, than Michael Joseph. Had Vodafone knew they were sitting on a wild goose laying golden eggs, perhaps Mr. Joseph had not got the software, had it not be his ingenuity.

References

Brown, J. (1999). The Hero’s Journey: How Educators Can Transform Schools and Improve Learning. ASCD.

Campbell, J. (2008). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library.

Hobby, B., & Bloom, H. (2009). The hero’s journey. Pennsylvania: Bloom’s Literary Criticism.