Co-founder of Repairnet Teddy Njoroge has over 10 years of experience as a business leader.
Throughout his career, Teddy Njoroge has proven himself to be a “highly pro-active and experienced strategy professional.”
Teddy Njoroge has also shown great “results across all stages of the business cycle—from pre-product release through scaled operations.”
Likewise, Teddy Njoroge has “built high performing teams and enabled companies to rapidly acquire their initial adopters, scale operations to support exponential growth, and achieve profitability in new markets with new products and services.”
At Repairnet, Teddy Njoroge sets the company apart from the rest by doing their due diligence in terms of market research. They also take time to “select a good team to run this venture.”
Teddy Njoroge developed Repairnet into a “multifaceted company with team members sitting in different continents.”
This arrangement “helps us think outside the box,” since every member applies different experiences to give them an edge in the global market. With this edge, Teddy Njoroge hopes to break Repairnet through the global market within the next decade.
Before Repairnet, Teddy Njoroge worked for several multinational companies, which taught him “how to start businesses and scale them to big brands in the respective markets.”
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Our company stands out because we took a lot of time to do our research in the market on the key pain points that we are to provide an end to end solution to. Teddy Njoroge, Repairnet
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Teddy Njoroge: Our company stands out because we took a lot of time to do our research in the market on the key pain points that we are to provide an end to end solution to.
In addition, we took our time to select a good team to run this venture. We are a multifaceted company with team members sitting in different continents.
This helps us think outside the box as every team member brings in different experiences that will help us penetrate other markets globally within the next ten years.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Teddy Njoroge: I believe the key thing is planning. If you fail to plan, plan to fail. Always keep your eye on the ball at all times and trust the process.
Jerome Knyszewski: None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Teddy Njoroge: You never go far alone, but as a team.
There are many friends who have been supportive in our journey but I have this particular gentle man who assisted in a key milestone which was connecting us to one of the key government bodies that certifies Automotive engineers in the country.
His name is Etinick Mutinda — GM ICDL Africa and coincidentally was my employer at some point in my career.
He is a visionary man especially in the educational sector and supports ventures that transform the country. I give him credit for his great help.
You never go far alone, but as a team.
Jerome Knyszewski: Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. The title of this series is “How to take your company from good to great”. Let’s start with defining our terms. How would you define a “good” company, what does that look like? How would you define a “great” company, what does that look like?
Teddy Njoroge: A good company is all about the team…The leader and the supporting team. There has to be a sync between the team players and most of all, a visionary leader…Period.
Jerome Knyszewski: What would you advise to a business leader who initially went through years of successive growth, but has now reached a standstill. From your experience do you have any general advice about how to boost growth and “restart their engines”?
Teddy Njoroge: This happens a lot to team players and also leaders. I would call them plateaus. One key thing is to reinvent yourself.
Try something new (innovate) and that’s why you find companies nowadays have innovation units.
This is to keep the company moving forward. Think outside the box and this will always push the wheel forward.
Your company should have solutions that embrace any business environment.
Jerome Knyszewski: Generating new business, increasing your profits, or at least maintaining your financial stability can be challenging during good times, even more so during turbulent times. Can you share some of the strategies you use to keep forging ahead and not lose growth traction during a difficult economy?
Teddy Njoroge: I believe a company should always be ten steps ahead in understanding the market dynamics.
Your company should have solutions that embrace any business environment.
It’s interesting for us especially when we are facing this pandemic, our solution is providing a service to our clients that are now forced to work from home.
We have moved the whole idea of clients taking their vehicles to the garages.
This simply means we have restructured a solution that fits the current situation and more so, if car owners were to go back to their offices, they would still need our solution.
Therefore, a company needs to really think of a solution that will stand the toughest of terrains and this brings in innovation.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Teddy Njoroge: This has to be customer relations. People don’t tend to invest in customer acquisition and retention.
How you treat your customer will determine if you will have continuous business from them.
You need to keep your customer happy so that they walk the journey with you and not just product dropping.
Jerome Knyszewski: Great customer service and great customer experience are essential to build a beloved brand and essential to be successful in general. In your experience what are a few of the most important things a business leader should know in order to create a Wow! Customer Experience?
Teddy Njoroge: You have to be very keen on the customer journey.
How easy was the purchase of the product by the client, was the information provided to client vague or clear?
Was it sufficient enough to help them make a decision to purchase? How was the purchase process? Easy or a very long tiring process?
Is the client support top notch? If you answer these question In regards to your business and get them right then you are positioned for greatness.
You have to be very keen on the customer journey.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are your thoughts about how a company should be engaged on Social Media? For example, the advisory firm EisnerAmper conducted 6 yearly surveys of United States corporate boards, and directors reported that one of their most pressing concerns was reputational risk as a result of social media. Do you share this concern? We’d love to hear your thoughts about this.
Teddy Njoroge: I share the same sentiments. Social media can make or destroy you as a brand.
Most companies are never keen on their social media channels. Businesses are heavily advertising on social media platforms and therefore how you present your company matters a lot.
At times the public can tarnish your brand especially handling queries or complaints in the wrong way.
Personally I advocate for companies to have digital marketing and Public relations consultants to handle this delicate docket.
This way you are sure your brand is in safe hands at all times.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Teddy Njoroge: One of the key mistakes made is poor planning. Secondly, rushing into the market without enough research.
To avoid these errors always PLAN.
One of the key mistakes made is poor planning. Secondly, rushing into the market without enough research. Teddy Njoroge
Jerome Knyszewski: Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Teddy Njoroge: I would concentrate in empowering the youth who have great ideas but don’t know how best to execute.
There is a huge knowledge gap with the youth on how to spring up and this is the one thing I would invest my time on.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Teddy Njoroge: Follow me on LinkedIn.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!