This archive report was first published on 27 December 2019.
Published on December 27, 2019, the closure of Nakumatt's last six stores marked the end of the Kenyan market's favourite supermarket chain.
The brand's peak days saw high brand loyalty, with a mantra of 'you need it, we've got it.' At its prime, Nakumatt had over 60 outlets across East Africa, employing 5,500 permanent employees.
Real estate developers allocated prime mall spaces to the brand, facilitating its expansion plans. However, the troubles became public, and Kenyans watched as store after store closed down, eventually selling the last six remaining stores to Naivas Supermarket.
Thousands of SMEs die in Kenya each year, and Nakumatt's closure serves as a reminder that even big entities can fail due to disruption. The original Fortune 500 companies in 1955 show that only 52 of them exist today, with 88 percent having either gone bankrupt, merged, or fallen from the top.
The case of Nakumatt and the failure of Fortune 500 companies are identical, with brands once at their prime tumbling down. The key to learning from their failures lies in understanding the issues that brought them down.
At face value, the downfalls have been attributed to factors such as lack of innovation, incompetent management, and poorly executed expansion plans. However, a closer look reveals that poor leadership is at the core of any success or failure of an organisation.
Studies show that companies that focus on developing leadership potential and promoting the right behaviours create a winning team culture. This drives individuals to want to grow themselves and be the best version of themselves.
