Why 2020 Should Be Your Base Year.

A survey of the financial statements of all the companies listed at the NSE returned a troubling result. The chairman's statements of most of these companies from 2013 to 2019 speak boldly to us. We already know that the 2020 financial statements won't be any better.

In the 2013 statements that came out in 2014, the enthusiastic chairmen were all in agreement with a year that delivered growth for them. Their outlook was full of optimism as greater times seemed to beckon ahead.

Gradually, the statements from 2014 to 2019, have had chairmen lamenting the difficult operating environment and the results attest to this state of affairs. Whereas the economy, over the same period, was reported to have grown year on year, the trickle-down never happened like in the years up to 2013. The reasons have been the subject of much public debate and I choose to leave it as such for they need lots of space to articulate.

But assume for a moment that you are busy bees in the wild. Someone has harvested your honey just when you had summoned the colony to a Christmas feast. At this meeting, all the bees are sad that they worked so hard for nothing and are now very apprehensive that the same thing may happen again. But they must start all over again. The bees must rebuild the waxy combs and quickly head out for nectar.

Losing the honey does not amount to a loss of the ability to make more - with a sting to spare for the next attempt at a heist. We voted in our leaders and we have now had a taste of our own medicine. They are not even worth stinging, for greater potential lies ahead. A spent sting condemns the bee to death, so why die for bad leadership? Keep going at what you do best and things will even out ahead.

During this period, everyone's needs have grown. The dire need for additional resources to cope with our growing needs has never been as pronounced as is the case today.

But, it is what it is. A walk from one difficult year into another and always working harder than in the previous one with no guarantees that more effort translates to that much-needed growth.

Yet, we must keep our noses above the water or drown. We need a coping mechanism which in my view is to individually adjust our base year to 2020. Make it your ground zero and lend the next one the benefit of the momentum still left in you.

Every ten or so years, the government rebases the economy. This is when the economic sectors are acknowledged in proportion to their contribution and adjustments are made to reflect this reality.

The government shifts the base year to a closer time because the further it is, the more likely the indicators are distorted. In 2013, the rebasing factored into the fold the telecom sector. It had expanded rapidly but hadn't been recognised as such.

Often, such an exercise causes the country to jump a few places higher up the list of countries based on size by GDP.

The rebasing that happened soon after Kibaki took over, created the tempo that partly rode on the hopes of Kenyans who at the time, were voted as the most optimistic people in the world. That gave us momentum.

The fiscal discipline that followed, put us on a runway and when we attained the right speed, we soared high. Those are nostalgic years for us. May God grant retired president Kibaki more years so that we may benefit from his wise counsel at whatever level the Lord deems fit.

The year 2020 has meant different things to different people. For the majority, it has been the type that must end quickly. For some technology-based organisations, it has been a good year.

Home WiFi connections had strong demand because we worked or learned more from home due to Covid-19. Reports indicate that some people became billionaires as a result of this shift.

We are now at the tail end of this year and as the Christmas spirit sheepishly sweeps across the landscape, many are worried about 2021. The trend shows no major signs of recovery. The school calendar has changed and with it comes financial implications.

The job cuts, actualised or impending, only serve to heighten the pressure, and with it anxiety and despair sets in. Moments like these confine any plans to the near or medium term. Long term planning is difficult to fathom now, yet we must move on.

Unusual times call for unusual approaches. We are now in the throes of a new dispensation marked by more technology and less of real-world activities. Our Inertia won't help. We are on our phones more than ever before because they are increasingly becoming our main working tool. From desktops, we moved to laptops and now transitioned to working from our palms.

We must move away fast enough from traditional mindsets and release our old and expensive ways, and in their place, open up to newer but leaner ways of coping with life. (what you depended on in 2019 to plan for 2020, is now considered as traditional thinking.)

2020 has cut close to the bone and we must protect the little left by adapting to new ways. And yes, they will be uncomfortable at the beginning for no one loves change save for a wet baby, but it is inevitable.

This is the time to unlearn the old and learn and internalise the new ways of life. To make it count, the best thing to do now is to make 2020 our base year. This is when we just needed to keep our heads above the water.

It has been the year that the business mortality rate went up and as the business tombstones litter the landscape of what was once a bustling economy, those that have lived through this period must move on without looking back like Lot's wife. Even if you are broken, be unbowed. There is nothing else left but courage, and we must summon it to surmount the years ahead.

Many people in 2020 went upcountry and will never return to urban life. Those still in town, have made significant adjustments. We are all adjusted in ways that we hadn't planned for. If we reflect our growth against the previous year or even more, we shall feel discouraged for we most likely, have registered negative growth.

And so, under such circumstances, it is critical to rebase the years so that we are in a position to track any minute progress made moving forward. If we don't rebase, then a half percentage growth over 2018 for instance, will appear as insignificant.

But if the same growth is reflected against a rebased 2020 in the year 2021, that half-percentage will reflect possibly as a two percent growth. That would be encouraging for enormous amounts of resources in time and finances will have gone into the activities that return such a growth rate.

This in turn will spur our hopes. Hope is the second ingredient in a growth economy for it gives you the courage to participate productively. Peace is the first ingredient for if absent, the economy will show us its true muscles being a creature on a heavy structure that cannot shoulder the weight of any form of strife. When we are peaceful, we lend it our muscles by moving around to produce and trade.

Let us all accept that 2020 has come and gone and 2021 is soon coming. And even as the political decibels go a notch higher, we have not the luxury of time and money to get destructed from our goal of moving our noses from the water level to the neck level.

Some of the things to consider in order to make life better are:

1. Get your goals set now as your compass. Don't wait for 2021.

2. Reorganise your operational framework as your engine with futuristic systems and processes void of 2020 bugs.

3. Get yourself an accountability partner as your floater. He or she will hold you accountable for achieving your goals.

4. Anchor yourself to no more than three things. There is the temptation to focus on so much after a bad year but it pays to keep it simple.

5. Cut out the heavy load and travel lighter. Use technology as often as you can. Let your better judgement keep you away from impulsive decisions.

6. Say "No" to those who want to take advantage of you just because you are Mr. Nice guy.

7. Pray for you will not achieve anything if you walk alone.