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SACCO LEADERS CONVENTION
Peter Lengewa, Managing Director, Essence International Limited Changing
speaking on disruption CUSTOMER
BEHAVIOUR
driving
DISRUPTION in
SACCO sector
By Ngumbo Njoroge According to David Power, President and CEO of Perkins
School, in an article published by the Havard Extension
SACCO Societies are at risk of disruption if they do not School, the middle ground—which too many companies
respond to changing member needs, a management miss—is the enormous advantage of understanding what
and strategy related solutions expert has warned. problem the customer needs to solve.
According to Peter Lengewa, Managing Director at Essence “Companies don’t spend enough time understanding the
International, SACCO should invest in data analytics to changing needs of their customers. They spend too much time
understand member needs and serve them effectively. on product development and not enough time on what Steve
Blank calls customer development,” he said.
“SACCOs collect a lot of data from customers and they do
not use that data. The basic understanding of who a SACCO Findings from McKinsey, a consulting firm, suggests that
member is is still low. We collect a lot of data but do very little the current pace of disruption is happening ten times faster
with the information that we get.” he said. than the industrial revolution, at 300 times the scale, and
with 3000 times the impact. This, they say, is a historically
He emphasized that understanding who the member is, unprecedented opportunity for businesses to thrive, but at
where they are and their needs is critical to responding to the same time an unprecedented threat to slower-moving
their changing needs. organizations, who may end up allowing themselves – or
their industry – to be disrupted.
“Disruption becomes a very powerful thing when it is a
consumer-driven disruption. When consumers do that they “Through a data-driven understanding of audience or a
are able to drive their needs, their desires in a very powerful market, disruptors seek to prioritize customer experience and
way,” he said, work to improve the status quo – often creating a new one.”
“The disruption coming from the consumer side is because Faced with increasing disruption, Lengewa says, SACCOs
the consumer needs something, given to them in a certain must embrace greater customer-centricity and allow for
way, at a certain cost and with certain convenience.” customer-based insights to drive their transformation
journeys.
He urged SACCOs to focus on meeting customer needs to
fend off competition from other players. “The adoption by consumers of more ‘everyday’ and disruptive
technology has been followed by a corresponding expectation
“Disruption starts with an unhappy customer. When this that higher levels of service be replicated.”
happens, customers migrate and their migration is brought
about by the level of their satisfaction,” he said, adding that
this means members have the capacity to turnaround an
organisation if decisionmakers are careful to listen.
Lengewa emphasized that while technology has its place,
the consumer drives the process.
18 | SACCO Star Magazine
