Visit to Coca-Cola Kenya HQ & Mount Kenya University, May 11
On Monday, we had a meeting at Coca-Cola’s Kenya headquarters with Bob Okello, Group Execution Manager for EKOCENTER in Africa. EKOCENTER is a Coca-Cola initiative to provide solar-powered centers in the most rural parts of Africa so that locals can enjoy amenities that people in urban areas take for granted such as electricity, WiFi, and TV.
Mr. Okelo shared many great insights about the unique characteristics and challenges of marketing and distributing Coke in Kenya. Coke uses Micro Distribution Centers (MDC) for the “last mile” distribution. In this system, a Kenyan owns a MDC and is responsible for purchasing and distributing Coke products to about 120 retailers (or kiosks) in their geographic area. Coke has “Key Accounts” staff who call on every single retailer/kiosk in their area at least once a week to verify stock, check on the kiosk’s relationship with the MDC, ensure that merchandising and displays are to Coke’s specifications, etc... It is amazing to me that Coke account representatives visit every single, tiny kiosk in the whole country on a weekly basis.
Mr. Okelo provided some good insights into a possible model for our PackH20 project, especially because tracking the packs and ensuring proper training and monitoring of end users is so crucial to verifying that the packs are serving their purpose as a health product. He also touched on the importance of incentivizing MDC owners to serve far-away and tough-to-access locations to ensure that a Coke is always “within an arm’s reach of desire.” Similarly, PackH20’s vision is for everyone in the world who needs a pack to have one, so it will be useful to explore an incentive structure to ensure that even the most remote and marginalized people in Kenya are able to get a Pack.
After we left Mr. Okelo, we went to the main campus of Mount Kenya University to meet with some lecturers and students in the nursing and MBA programs. We paired off and took tours of the school.
Mount Kenya is one of the largest universities in the country, and is set up somewhat similar to OSU, with satellite campuses to serve students in other communities. While their MBA program only has 8 or 9 students, their nursing and doctor of medicine programs are much larger.
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We have poor service at ngong matasia deport which is always closed and we wait too long for service.