Most hotels and restaurants refuse to accommodate idle people. FILE PHOTO | NMG
A consultant once
divulged in his training session how as a briefcase he learnt the hard
way. One day, after visiting a prospective manager’s office, the man
escorted him to the car park. Then as he entered the vehicle, the man
was shocked and asked: “Mr So, is this your car?”
The
briefcase consultant without an office, but now an executive, working
for international organisations, was sharing in a training session how
he climbed up the corporate ladder. Having obtained post graduate
qualifications here and abroad, he invested his meagre resources and
purchased an old car, which he referred to as "a smoky Joe" to take him
from point A to B. He was embarrassed as he drove it with a lot as it
demeaned his status. smoky Joe, with Mr S as its fourth owner, looked
like it had been rescued from scrap yard by a breakdown.
Corporate
firms don’t just deal with anyone. A top Consultant, often found
himself in a compromising position in hotels when he was starting out
broke. He often carried enough cash for two cups of tea. Then in the
process of entertaining such clients, he learnt with time that the best
way is not to offer them anything until they open up and buy into his
business idea. One day he made the mistake of asking a corporate
business executive he was meeting what he wanted to drink. To his shock
the man ordered gin, a very expensive alcohol.
The
briefcase consultant was not amused and tension, which the other man may
have sensed, grew as the meeting progressed. After the drink he left
him with a bill and no business offer was reached. From that day he
decided not to offer anything to anyone until he clinched a deal. The
most he could offer was a cup of tea.
Once while on a
World Health Organisation (WHO) training for Eastern Africa journalists,
I found that in Finland and Switzerland men and women pay bills for
themselves even in courtship. In Kenya, men boot the bills, as expected.
When an entrepreneur losses everything in the office to the landlord
because of non-payment of rent, or can’t afford to hire a place he is
reduced to a vagabond. If he has to operate in the central business
district (CBD), he may have to be conducting business sitting on
pavements or restaurants.
For someone who does not even
have an office with expenses to shoulder, transport and accommodation,
and furniture and office equipment seized, buying even mandazi can put
him off balance. When he has faced embarrassment, the briefcase
consultant’s only alternative is to meet clients near the car park. He
has to act as someone who has just parked his limousine and only has
little time to spare for a quick word before he drives off to the next
meeting.
Armed with briefcase and dressed
'corporately', it can also be excused that the consultant is not a
briefcase one, and has just released his driver to go on an urgent
matter. If anyone today wants to be driven in any class of vehicle, all
they have to do is call for one. Then they can be dropped and picked in
style that can impress their clients.
Most hotels and
restaurants refuse to accommodate idle people. And if the entrepreneur
is not ordering when he has a client he has invited, the chances are
that he is broke, and if so, then he is not going to make profit for
those he purports to consult. A few years back, many entrepreneurs could
make some restaurants their meeting place, and were not denied basic
amenities. But now, that is almost a thing of the past.
One cannot walk into a prestigious hotel today and ask for the
key to the ladies or gents. So without an office, one would have to make
do with the public facilities in the CBD, which are now managed with
some level of care. This forces one to have an office where at the end
of the day, they are able to go and relax, or refresh between meeting
clients. This is not done online. Cyber caffes don’t avail such
comforts.
That is the reason why someone would deny
children basic needs, and even school fees and medical cover just to buy
a prestigious vehicle and put those thousands if not millions on the
road.
A survey done by this writer for a newspaper
feature confirms, that someone with a Mercedes Benz, however old can
gain more credibility in the eyes of the public. This then influences
the type of clients, business connections, social status, and transform
their financial status than the one on other wheels.
NANCY KOECH, a former Communication Studies Lecturer at Kenyatta University, Kericho Campus.
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