Makala hii ilikuwa inatoa picha nzuri kama siyo kuwasifia akina "Mkono & Co."
Wale mlio nje; hasa Europe na America; je, hivi ndivyo tunavyoongelewa au picha ni nyingine?
Wale mlio nje; hasa Europe na America; je, hivi ndivyo tunavyoongelewa au picha ni nyingine?
Tanzania Re-branded
Benin Mwangi , African Path
Published 04/14/2008
A few years ago a friend of mine from Tanzania and I were having an interesting conversation about his birth place-Tanzania. He was basically telling me about how progressive the East African country's business environment had become. Two of the names that he mentioned which caught my attention were "Mkono and Co" and then another "IPP Media". He indicated that the entrepreneurs behind these companies were successful beyond measure and that, "oh, by the way I know both of them very well through my family". For a brief moment I thought about utilizing this connection to try and interview the magnates behind these two companies. In fact I actually pursued the stories for a short period of time. But, then I thought to myself , "yeah, but come on...can Tanzania really compete with Kenya and Uganda in the global or even the East African market?"
It wasn't long after this that I learned that TED Global Africa 2007 was going to be hosted a Tanzanian city called Arusha. Shortly afterwards this event came and went creating a buzz that set the African blogosphere on fire. The funny thing about it is that almost every blogger who attended the conference had nothing but good things to say about Tanzania.
Somewhere within almost the same time frame Tanzania also launched a very visible public relations campaign which I learned about, while watching a "visit Tanzania commercial" during a CNN commercial break.
Kenya Losses Become Tanzania's Gains?
It would be less than a year later that Kenya's presidential elections would occur, bringing with it horrific stories of post election violence which shocked the world. In it's wake the Mombasa port became so backed up that many importers stopped using the port and actually went several hundred miles south to the Dar es Salaam [3] port in Tanzania to fetch their goods.
Today while flipping through stories on the web I just learned of a group of graduate school business students [4] who spent their spring breaks in Tanzania, while simultaneously participating in a program which highlighted the success of Tanzania's small entrepreneurs.
In fact just today, Tanzania received more publicity as the Olympic torch was received in Dar es Salaam [5].
Tanzania Re-Branded
So I said all this to say...is it just me or is Tanzania Africa's most successful re-brand? In the same breath I would also say that this should be a lesson to any African lesson seeking to change its image that it is possible by following Tanzania's example. They didn't just all of a sudden start a campaign saying that they've changed. Instead they let Kenya and Uganda bask in the sunlight of recognition, while they quietly began a series of gradual market reforms ( going from a state run to a private economy). Then years and years later, after everything was in place they slowly began to wage a powerful PR campaign re-branding themselves as the regions economic powerhouse. And recently, with the exception of Kenya's Safaricom IPO [6], many of East Africa's success stories have come from Tanzania.
Finally, is Kenya's position as the dominant economic player in East Africa under threat?
African Path
