Good People, you know I have stopped writing analytical posts for months now. Yes, those “The Andela Problem”, “Konga Should Sell Itself” , etc. But somehow, I nearly returned to it with the Cars45 piece. Africa is a place where critical analysis is viewed from a negative angle and that is why no one actually offers one. In politics, you are seen as an opposition. In business, you are seen as a demoralizer-in-chief. So, what happens? You simply have to praise companies for raising money, opening new offices, etc but if they do anything wrong, you are not to challenge them.
Some of us have made mistakes in business; we started things which failed. My TED Fellowship roommate was the founder of Kickstarter. I took his idea and built StartCrunch, the first crowdfunding site in Africa, circa 2012. Unfortunately, we could not control the scamming and we shut it down. So, when we write here, it is not because we know everything: all of us are learning. But what happens is evident – with access to more information, we get better.
Back to Cars45, there is a new revelation from the CEO in his comment on this post and that revelation confirms all. He wrote “A brainless piece by a man who doesn’t understand this segment Cars45 Cars45 Ghana Cars45KE losers left | thieves left | company rocked | “. Now, his comment even strengthened my piece: the CEO and the 11 executives were thieves and the company kicked them out, he alleges. And after they left, the company rocked to the bottom. Not sure I wrote anything different.
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While he felt evidently unhappy that many of us predicted that the company would struggle after losing its founding team, he summarized my piece when he said “thieves left” and “company rocked”. To my knowledge, I did not know the founding team members were criminals (he just provided an update on what happened and I hope he has data to back that up), but what is evident is this: the company indeed rocked when they did leave.
I am not sure what is brainless in my piece since both of us came to the same conclusion: the visionaries left and the company rocked to the bottom – and was sold! (I am not using the other meaning of rock since the firm is sold, not rising to the mountaintop).
But there is one group I have to send a message: To young people in Cars45, please I am not demoralizing you. See this as a case study for academic purposes. With Jiji the new home, I am confident that Cars45 will blossom. It was a pioneering innovator and will continue to serve.
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Which of the ‘rocked’ did he mean, collapsed or blossomed? Because many write and speak English with inverse meaning here.
Anyway, whatever his grievances are, he should continue to grow the brand, to justify his relevance.
But don’t worry about their tantrums, it’s the same set of people we have in the political space, who always long for praises and hero worshiping, even in their mediocrity.
It’s a fact-challenged society, so when you question their competence and quality of judgement, rather than providing sound counterargument, they become aggressive and thuggish. Babies in adult skins.
I watched his interview with CNBC so much pride in a statement.
Critics are bad when they are not on your side and are good because they want things from you.
We wish him the best.