eBusiness Weekly
Kudzanai Sharara Taking stock
Many moons ago, people living miles apart were not communicating by the touch of a cellphone screen, as is the case nowadays. Instead they would have to write a letter, wait for the postmen to deliver, then wait again for the reply.
Those who wanted to hear the voices of their loved ones, would have to go to a call box, call the nearest school or store at the growth point and ask that their relative be available at a certain time then make the second call and finally communicate.
In Zimbabwe, the only player in the postal and telecommunications sector, then known as PTC, was so comfortable with the status quo of providing fixed land line services. It ignored the ability of the mobile phone to disrupt this business. Perhaps PTC’s legacy did not end there.
Years down the line, the market is dominated by the mobile phone operators with millions of subscribers. TelOne, (sometimes with sluggish tendencies reminiscent of PTC) can only do with approximately 300 000 subscribers.
If banks had been proactive, EcoCash maybe wouldn’t be so prominent today with inroads in a sector banks could not conceive to have actors outside of traditional peers.
Imagine if banks had developed Zipit early enough; would EcoCash be the substantive leader it is today?
Imagine if financial institutions had long come up with mobile money — would a mobile operator with EcoCash have been so widely accepted without suspicion?
To their misfortune banks only woke up after the mobile operator’s platform had already made inroads. When EcoCash was introduced, it was clear that banks had never expected it to make any meaningful impact. By the time they realised what was happening it was too late to stop it.
What is clear is that many only take action once their company’s bottom line has been affected, despite visible warning signs across the board that change has arrived.
Disruption is taking place in multiple sectors. In retail, for instance, Alibaba and Amazon have integrated shopping platforms that not only create ease of transactions, but offer wider choice ranges and customized preferences for shoppers; all whilst removing the limitations of location.
With Zimbabwean mobile and data penetration, retail agents in Zimbabwe should take heed.
As technology spreads fluidly through globalisation, certain innovations which may have seemed distant a few years ago arrive to our markets quicker.
In the transport industry, it is not too fetched to imagine a scenario where kombis face the service disruption seen in other markets by companies such as Taxify, Uber, and Lyft. Transport is not merely about getting from point A to point B for cheap.
Like all logistical sectors order, regulatory efficiency, and customer preference are bound to catch up to our rather madcap kombi sector.
In Zimbabwe, there are a lot of sectors which are not offering affordable quality. For current market participants, there is need to reinvent the wheel.
Furthermore, there are so many sectors that are still underserved or not served altogether. Business models and product offerings in some sectors have been stagnant for years, without any product innovation or distributive efficiencies.
Perhaps this is not a flaw particular to Zimbabwe enterprises alone. The tough structural environment may indeed be a hindrance to investment into operational and marketing efficiencies. Consider the case in point that is the satellite TV industry. Dominated for years by DStv or MultiChoice, viewers have been putting up with recycled programmes.
Initially offering relatively new movies, fascinating documentaries, intriguing reality shows, amongst numerous other offerings that composed a diverse bouquet, MultiChoice had recently developed a reputation within the market for “spending on a bouquet that you only watch 10 percent of”.
Indeed sports remained an action attraction, but with cultural trends of social watching at recreational public spots, this offerings value diminished over time.
A reluctance to push the envelope by MultiChoice may have been preserved by the laggard competitor, national broadcaster ZBC. MultiChoice relaxed and continued to give people poor service despite numerous complaints about repeats and high charges.
But the whole industry may be turned upside down with the initial Kwese frenzy. Given the kind of service that people get from Econet, in terms of dropped calls or disappearing airtime among other flaws, one would not expect Zimbabweans to go gaga about its products as is the case with Kwese.
Before viewers are even familiar with the platform’s programming offerings, many seem willingly vocal to see it enter the market. That should tell Multichoice something. While Multichoice is not making it easy for locals to subscribe given the forex challenges, it has exposed its current market share to competitors.
If the cash situation does not normalise in the near time, conceivably most viewers will have migrated from DSTV and forgotten that it ever did exist.
It is not that Kwese is comfortable with holding currency that lacks utility outside of our borders, further being at a widening discount to USD within our borders, but the liquidity environment is in fact an opportunity to strike at DStv at what many observers would reckon is its weakest point since entering Zimbabwe.
Kwese, like its sister companies, is banking on its ability to be innovative. Hopefully the company has put a lot of energy into figuring out what consumers want, and building its programming accordingly.
The lesson we get from all this is that companies should never become too comfortable with their methods, products or services, lest they risk being overtaken by competitors.
