400 in Most Respected Company survey

The number of companies to be surveyed in the 10th edition of the Most Respected Company in East Africa has shot up to 400 companies from last year’s 350, making it the largest survey ever carried out under this PricewaterhouseCoopers and Nation Media Group initiative.

For the first time, the survey findings will be published in the main report of the global study of chief executive officers, also conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, to be launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2010 and later in Africa.

“The issues raised about East Africa will be covered in a dedicated report for the region, due to be launched at the World Economic Forum for Africa in May 2010,” PWC Uganda country senior partner Joseph Baliddawa said.

Other than just announcing the winners and celebrating the strength of business in East Africa as it has been in the past years, survey conductor PricewaterhouseCoopers says this year’s edition will seek to identify the issues that CEOs are grappling with, as well as the strategies being adopted to cope with the post global economic recession period.

Essentially, the survey will help in determining the viability of East African companies and how they are building capacity to withstand the after effects of the credit crunch which have seriously crippled companies’ performance in both the developed, emerging and developing economies leading to either complete closure or bailouts by their respective governments.

During the launch of the tenth edition whose theme is “Rethinking and Reshaping the new normal,” Mr Baliddawa said the survey comes at a difficult economic period arising from global financial crisis that has weakened productivity of companies across the globe, and that calls for new approach for the survival of businesses.

“East Africa’s most respected companies are the mainstay of the region’s economy. Over the past years, they have proved themselves to be generally resilient and well run. CEOs have faced an avalanche of issues beyond the global recession, including political turmoil, power rationing and adverse weather. This year’s most respected companies will undoubtedly be those that are agile in the face of extremely tough operating conditions,” said Mr Baliddawa.

However, Mr Baliddawa explained that for the case of East Africa, business has not experienced serious bankruptcy like their counterparts in the developed economies that remained in business only after their governments bailed them out or provided huge stimulus packages.

“This is time for the CEOs in the East African region to give their views on how the global financial crisis has impacted on their companies and how they have managed to stay afloat without government bailing them out despite global economic downturn whose spillover spread across countries,” he said.

The survey as always is sponsored by the Nation Media Group and covers companies involved in all sectors of economic activities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.

NMG was represented at the launch by Monitor’s Publications managing director Dr Gitahi Githinji.

The Most Respected Companies are nominated in a survey of business leaders across East Africa who also determine the values and attributes that are important to them when defining respect.

Previous Most Respected Company East Africa winners were Safaricom (2008, 2007), Kenya Airways (2006, 2005) and East African Breweries Limited in 2004.

The Most respected Company will be awarded at a gala dinner on November 20 in Nairobi.

Before this, top CEOs in the region will gather for an afternoon roundtable discussion.