SAFARICOM PURGE: MORE MANAGERS OUT AS BOB REORGANIZES

Three senior managers at Safaricom have reportedly left the company as CEO Bob Collymore prepares to reorganize the company and reduce the number of people directly reporting to him.

Morris Maina, Head of Internet and Content, Tim Nderi, Head of Contact Support and an unnamed other manager are said by an insider to have cashed out on an offer that was presented.

Earlier rumours about the exit of MPESA boss Betty Mwangi-Thuo could not be confirmed although she is said to have left for China on a business trip.

The exits have been surrounded by unconfirmed stories of corruption and fraud necessitating the executive reshuffle.

Safaricom is also set to do a makeover that will see it take a regional outlook sort of like Kenya Power which divides its business units into Nairobi, Mt. Kenya, Coast and Western.

This will allow such business unit leaders to focus on marketing to specific regions.

The company on Friday said two directors, Peter Arina, Consumer Business and Pauline Warui - Customer Service, had opted to leave.

However, talk of corruption and fraud is swirling around the executive suites movement raising fears that more heads at the company are set to roll. Observers say at least one or two more senior managers will fall.

According to sources, Bob Collymore may be considering creating the positions of Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Operations Officer to bring to four the number of people who would report directly to him. The others would be the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Technology Officer.

Collymore is said to be looking at Vodafone India's C-Suite structure which has few direct reports.

This would be the biggest shakeup at the giant telco since Bob instituted Safaricom 2.0 by reducing the number of "Chiefs" and introducing the current structure.

Then, a number of senior managers left including then CTO John Barorot while others rose to head divisions such as Nzioka Waita, Corporate Affairs, Betty Mwangi-Thuo - MPESA and so on.

The business was split into two roles: customer facing divisions with their own P&L responsibilities, and back office business support divisions.

In the pending reorganization, the Chief Commercial Officer may oversee current GM roles in Consumer, Enterprise Business and Financial Services.

Our sources further indicate that regional roles may be created under the CCO to run sales regions the company will carve out in the country and their role will be to drive sales growth in those specific regional.