Which Business are you in?

July 17, 2008: What business are you in? This sounds like quite a silly question when taken at face value, especially when it is directed at the chief executive or business owner. Of course he or she knows what business they are in. They wake up every morning, and probably spend sleepless nights, thinking about their business.

It almost seems obvious that every chief executive knows what business they engage in. Perhaps not.

Many corporate leaders are consciously or subconsciously grappling with the question of what business they are in. Many do not actually know what business they are really in.

This conundrum has a significant effect on how they conduct business, how they allocate resources, who they are really competing against and most importantly, how they position their brands to effectively obliterate the competition and thus make a good return to shareholders.

The Postal Corporation of Kenya provides a great example of a business that has been able to successfully grapple with the question of what business it is really in.

This question is ultimately a branding question as getting the answer right defines every business decision and forms the core of the organisation’s brand essence.

It defines the organisation’s promise. To put it another way, organisations are really in the business of building relationships, and brands are all about relationships that secure future earnings for business.

Fond memories

A few of us will remember the giant Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (KPTC). Even fewer of us will have fond memories of KPTC. That was the organisation that sold us stamps, delivered our letters (slowly), connected us via phone, fax (sometimes) and even regulated the industry (where it was the only real player).

Regulation in those days meant frustrating any effort aimed at development or ensuring no organisation ventured into the businesses it was in. How times change. Come 1998 and the giant bloated organisation was split into three —Postal Corporation of Kenya, Telkom Kenya Limited and the Communications Commission of Kenya. This marked the beginning of real business and real branding decisions for the organisations.

Postal Corporation of Kenya, now branded simply as Posta, found itself at crossroads with the internet era.

Gone were the days when one would have to get a writing pad, write a letter with an actual pen, put the letter in an envelop and take a trip to the post office to purchase a stamp, then helplessly watch as the letter she had worked so hard to put together was swallowed by a cold inanimate red bin.

The bin promised nothing and often kept its promises. If one was lucky, a letter to the United States would take a couple of weeks.

By the time the respondent across the oceans was able to digest the now outdated contents and respond through the same painful process, a full month would easily have elapsed. The internet, and specifically email, changed all this.

As we entered the new millennium one could get a free e-mail address which allowed anybody with access to the internet to send and receive, what would have taken at least a month, within a matter of minutes. Posta obviously had to grapple with its very survival in an era where state subsidies had suffered the same fate as the dodo and there was no holding back the idea of the internet as its time had definitely come.

It was time to go back to the drawing board for Posta to discover what business they were really in. Like many businesses every day rigours seem to take front seat and the strategic outlook becomes blurred. This cancer had struck Posta and it ails many businesses, most of which do not know they actually have this challenge.

Big picture perspective

Thinking from a big picture perspective allows the chief executive an opportunity to position the brand for the long term. Posta wasn’t about stamps and delivering letters. Posta wasn’t about money orders and telegrams.

Posta wasn’t about courier services. The truth about what the Posta brand is really about is now revealing itself. The Posta brand is about distribution and reach. That is the real business Posta is in. Why do I say this?

Posta is now in several strategic alliances with organisations that would hitherto not touch it with a 10-foot- pole because it boasts unparalleled distribution channels countrywide.

That is Posta’s real strategic asset. It is much more than just mail, courier or financial services. The names of Posta’s partners sound like the who is who among Kenyan corporate brands: Safaricom for airtime distribution, GTV for subscription payments, Kenya Power and Lighting (KPLC) for bill payments, among many others.

One gets the feeling Posta’s drive to leverage on its distribution channels has only began and coupled with great service, will be what makes or breaks its brand. Going back to your own business, what business are you really in? The answer may not be as obvious as it seems and this fast moving world has a way of redefining businesses.