Sam Wanekeya is a full-stack software engineer with 8 years of experience working as a part-time and full-time software developer. He is a high-performing technology leader. Technical strategy, corporate architecture, cloud computing, big data, blockchain software development, and machine learning are among his areas of competence.
Sam has had a deep interest in technology since he was a child. He shares, “My father bought us a computer back in 2005 and allowed us to play an active role in using the computer and also make any repairs whenever any damage occurred.” Sam decided then that he wanted to pursue a profession that enabled him to tinker with computers and eventually use those same tools to tackle issues in the real world. He experimented a lot with many projects while he was a student at United States International University-Africa studying Applied Computer Technology. Before starting Kakbima, he worked on several software design and development projects. He has experience working on single projects, leading teams, and working in teams, occasionally collaborating with his co-founder Bertrand Omuga.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Sam Wanekeya:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
I am passionate about my work simply because I love what I do. I have a steady source of motivation that drives me to always do my best. I do carry the same zeal outside the workplace, challenging myself daily and learning new skills that have helped me to do better work. For example, besides the obvious software developer skills one is expected to have, I’ve had to learn a lot about insurance. From attending classes to interacting with industry experts, the team at Kakbima and policyholders, with the goal of leading the company in the right direction and helping build a better insurance policy. Outside of the office, I’m an avid story writer on Medium and love to share my knowledge based on my experience to help out other startups and small businesses not make the same mistakes I’ve made in the past. On weekends, you might find me helping out different clothing store owners within our city’s capital or exploring hiking trails outside the city.
Tell us about the inception of the company. How did it all start?
Kakbima is the brainchild of passionate people with a vision to re-imagine and help build a better insurance policy. I had just completed a previous project of designing and developing a hospital management system for a fairly new clinic with multiple branches across the country and got to learn a lot about the gaps that do exist between insurance companies (carriers) and healthcare facilities (clinics, hospitals, ambulance service providers etc.) majority of which were affecting the uptake of insurance by consumers. On the other hand, Bertrand, on the other hand, had worked in the insurance industry, understood these challenges on a level that allowed him to build a case around them to see what solutions he could come up with. It was at this point that we decided to join forces and started off by building a solution for insurance agents thus moving forward to start the company, having received immense positive feedback and a nudge to commercialize the solution.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
Passion, consistency, and patience. Passion, having a zeal to help out, making a change, or improving something does make a big difference.
Which are the major services of the company and how do the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
Kakbima connects insurers, distribution partners, and customers to transform the way insurance is bought, managed, and sold. This is done through our insurance management and distribution platform that removes the barriers to flexible product development and distribution channels, helping more new businesses get started, expedite growth for existing companies, and increase global consumer coverage. We’ve stayed ahead of our competitors by bringing numerous insurance purchase and management processes into the digital space. The platform’s features combine Customer Relationship Management (CRM), products (Motor and Motorcycle fully supported), policy, claims management, quotation automation, premium payments, and much more into a single, integrated platform.
We currently provide 3 other value-added services.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) – Our BPO was formulated to support all back-office processing needs. The Kakbima team members work directly with operational and underwriting staff to minimize time-consuming administrative activities.
Forensic & Security Audits – The Kakbima team offers a number of both proactive and responsive solutions to directly address any forensic challenge that an organization may wish to undertake in their ongoing efforts to mitigate and respond to potential compromises by advanced threats, employee-misconduct, and other similar and related threats.
Insurance Consumer Education – The Bimwik consumer awareness platform provides comprehensive insurance education and tools to help insurance educators manage, measure, and enrich learning experiences on all matter’s insurance.
What are the most important aspects of a company’s culture? What principles do you believe in and how do you build this culture?
Trust, community, and innovation are the most important aspects of a company’s culture.
I believe that a great company needs to have its employees equipped with substantial industry knowledge about their customers and competitors, provide high quality products, and have clear, achievable goals. The company culture is built by defining what a good company culture is, making adjustments to create a positive work environment and finally helping the team achieve the set standards.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
They have allowed us to provide better products and services to our customers, saving you time and money and giving us a competitive advantage over other companies stuck in their systems.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
Individual heroics. This is the case in most parts of the world, and can be attributed to the shift in stock exchange or company evaluations when certain individuals within the companies make a different move that is contrary to the norm. In most cases, there is a large team involved, but the attribution for success or failure always lands on one individual.
What are your responsibilities as the Principal/CEO/President of the company? What is the happiest part of your daily routine?
My core responsibilities at Kakbima are:
- Building our two main products (the Kakbima insurance and Bimwik consumer awareness platforms), this involves observing/interacting with users, writing code, designing product specs) and acquiring users/customers.
- Interacting and helping the team understand our vision, values, and company culture.
- Communicating effectively with all our stakeholders
Interacting with our users/customers, the team, and getting feedback on the products we have built always brings joy to me. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when a user’s problem is solved, especially when they reach out to you to explain a feature they found useful, not knowing that you were part of the team that built the solution.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
Share relentlessly with your team. Let them know everything you know unless it is absolutely confidential.
Admit to the possibility of being wrong. Then you will, more often than not, come up with the best answer.
Make meetings fun to an appropriate extent. Being effective and thorough in meetings does not rule out humor as a lubricant to bring out the best in your team members.
You can’t be everyone’s friend neither can you make everyone happy. Don’t get too close to any of your employees, as that may leave you with little room to discipline or evaluate them properly.
