In one of our entrepreneur’s stories, we feature one of our spring cohorts, Aggrey Anduuru, the proprietor and CEO of Essential People.
We asked Aggrey a series of questions, whose answers we hope you, our Zidicircle community, will find enlightening, insightful, inspiring and motivating
Q: What is the name of your venture?
A: Essential People… trading as Essential Business Advisory Services Limited
Q: What does Essential People do?
A: We are a people business. We are into recruitment, selection, placement, compensation, learning and development services. Following the change in the workplace following COVID 19, we strive to build workplaces of the future… that value human capital as an asset and not as a liability
Q: What is the history of your business?
A: I have been in the family business for close to 30 years, but formally got involved in HR in 2008, following my graduation from USIU. In 2014, my mum and company CEO passed on following a long-term illness. I took over the leadership of the family business in October of that year. In 2020, in response to new challenges and opportunities in human development such as Digitalization, Biometrics, AI, Cloud computing…remote working: I took a look at the position of the business in this changing world and realized if we don’t pivot then in 5 years we would have lost our position in the market to agile competitors. We conceived Essential People to reflect a new focus on people-process engineering as opposed to just hiring to fire when the fit isn’t right…
Q: How did the idea for Essential People come about?
A: Essential People…is a tribute to the legacy of my mum. The family business is called Essential Management Consultancy Services Limited, but that is a mouthful and I wanted something that was easier to say…so Essential People was born. We also desired to repurpose ourselves, especially after COVID 19 broke out. New challenges arose such as Safety and Health at work, supply of manpower during the pandemic, and working from home. All these created a different business environment from that which we operated 20 years ago…and with that the realization that change was here
Q: What would be your 3 key pieces of advice from your journey to fellow entrepreneurs?
A:
1) Never walk alone…and I don’t just say that because I’m a Liverpool fan ?
2) Seek advice and seek partnerships that will grow you and test you. Secondly don’t be afraid…
3) Thirdly be humble enough to say sorry when you mess up
Q: What triggered you to take part in the bootcamp?
A: I wanted to start afresh…and was looking for energy and ideas from the start up space. I also really want to work with Bhub to build a killer cloud based HRNIS system
Q: What have you learnt so far from the program and how have you applied the lessons learnt?
A: Pain points. I learned to listen to customer and client pain about my service delivery and it was humbling. Two clients; I’ve already written letters of apology for performance that was below expectation, and devised action plans to correct behaviour
Q: Where do you see your business in 3 years’ time? And what will it take for you to get there?
A: I want to build a business that provides solutions to human capital challenges such as recruitment and selection of talent that is the right fit, performance management systems that bring out the best of the employer-employee collaboration, learning and development opportunities that will empower all employees regardless of rank or position.
I want Essential People as a PEO that can be counted on to maximize the full potential of everyone… To get there we need assistance in putting in place systems and processes. We also need mentorship and partnerships more so to assist in the move to ultimately attain International Certification
Q: Would you recommend the program to other entrepreneurs?
A: Yes
Q: Do you have any advice for other starting entrepreneurs?
A: Don’t be afraid to explore new opportunities and relationships.
Q: How can interested parties find you? A: Our website is www.ebas.co.ke Our physical address is Jogoo Rd Plaza, 2nd floor, Door 09.
Email:aanduuru@gmail.com
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