I woke up to the pleasant but foreboding calm that characterised the eve of the Kenyan election, when campaigning was no longer allowed. In the quiet of the morning, I found myself reflecting on the power of my vote, my one vote.
About a week earlier, someone had sent me a WhatsApp message extolling the virtues of the one vote, citing incredible so-labelled “historic” victories: how, in 1645, ONE VOTE gave the control of England to Oliver Cromwell; how, In 1649, ONE VOTE decided that Charles I of England was to be executed; how, In 1776, ONE VOTE gave America the English language instead of German; how in 1845, ONE VOTE added Texas into the United States Union; how, in 1875, ONE VOTE replaced France’s monarchy to a republic; how, in 1923, ONE VOTE helped Adolf Hitler gain the leadership of the Nazi Party….
Unfortunately, I spoilt the party by checking the facts. And, it turns out, the above “historical” claims are all false. In 1645, Oliver Cromwell became leader of the New Model (Puritan) Army, but not of England. To the best of my search, there never was a voting by Congress in the USA to have English or German as the country’s official language. As for adding Texas to the Union, that one comes close: In 1845, the U.S. Senate passed the convention annexing Texas by two votes (27-25), not one. And, as to France abandoning the monarchy in favour or a republic… Well, in 1876, France was not a monarchy; it had become a republic in 1875, and that, by a larger margin. Hitler’s control of the Nazi party? Surprise: Hitler acquired dictatorial control of the Nazi Party in 1921, not 1923, and by a party congress vote of 553 to 1 – a much wider margin!
Lesson: always check facts…
But this is a distraction… my reflection that day was squarely on the power of my one vote. Mine, yours, the other voter’s, every one of our votes – together. It is called aggregation (the formation of a number of things into a cluster). To which end, the dictionary offers two apt examples: how “a single dose of aspirin irreversibly inhibits the normal aggregation of plateles” and that “the pelican is the other bird likely to be found in large aggregations in East Africa’s wetlands”. As to votes: my one vote, aggregated with millions of others, would elect a president, usher in a governor, an MP and so forth. Others of course would be aggregated to a lower strength, leading to disappointments, and, I hoped, not to the extent of violence.
Aggregation is also applicable in business. The one sale of the same commodity many times over leads to the scale that leads to a buildup of cash from daily or monthly profits; the combined cost saving opportunities (negotiations; bulk buying; comparing sourcing options) that improve pricing competitiveness; the focused attention on many small process details (number of steps involved in completing a sales transaction; performing two or more transactions with the same effort) when, combined, improve overall efficiency. Most recently, after observing the process of manual seeding of spinach seeds into seedling trays in our greenhouse, I asked our team whether there isn’t a way we could multiply the dropping of seeds using the same effort and, after some research, we came up with a plan: to design a tool with the same number of “mouths” as the seed tray of 200 holes, then use suction force to pick up seeds on each of the “mouths” and then release the pressure once the seeder was positioned directly over the seed tray — same effort but 200 times more efficient.
Entrepreneurs who look for the one big thing that will make them multi-millionaires are like the voters who fail to focus on attracting many individual votes that aggregate the final tally into a win. To realise that aggregation, the campaigners attend rallies, do a lot of talking, send messages, exploit their opponents’ weakness (Swahili: kukosoa) and even conduct door-to-door visits. The winning team is the one whose strategy for aggregation creates the larger scale of votes from those listed in the voter’s register. Similarly entrepreneurs must focus on key strategic areas of business performance to aggregate or scale their sales, cost savings, pricing optimisation and reach in the market.
In construction aggregation refers to a broad assembly of coarse particulate material, including sand, gravel, crushed stone, slag, etc to serve as reinforcement, adding strength to the overall structure: under foundations; a base for a floor; a wall; a tunnel. To apply this illustration business, we need to see that it is not one but many and diverse components, processes and transactions that aggregate into the arsenal that a business needs to stay competitive in the marketplace. In response to the question: “What is scaling?” Jeremy Melis, UPS’ marketing director for small businesses responded: “Scaling means something different to every business: more employees, new geography, more equipment or facilities, increasing the online presence or any combination of those things. The real question is, ‘Why are you in business in the first place?’ If scaling helps you achieve that, then you’re on the right path.” https://www.thebalance.com/global-scaling-small-business-1953569
In recent years, technology has played a revolutionary role in enabling small businesses and service providers to scale to global levels — fast. Businesses such as Uber, Google, WhatsApp, mPesa’s facilitation of making or receiving payments with a cell phone. That is one level of scale. The other level that technology facilitates is through its facilitation in business processes, leading to efficiencies, cost savings, speed and generation of data. The point: technology, be it ICT or mechanisation is a most important ally in the pursuit of aggregation. Ride its wave.
Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash
Haron Wachira 