Digital Transformation and Business Evolution: A Talk with Rakesh Rao of Crown Paints Kenya

Rakesh Rao, Group CEO of Crown Paints Kenya PLC, discusses the impacts of COVID on Crown Paints in terms of digital transformation and business evolution.

“We have increased a lot of our digital training programs. If something is not happening in a physical way, we should adopt another way. We have a wonderful digital platform where we even train our own painters online. Digital transformation was a key success. In terms of the way of doing business earlier where everything could only be done physically, that mindset has been changed. We are now doing a lot of meetings online, improving efficiencies, we can meet more people online, we can strike more deals with people who are looking for paint requirements and contracting. So, it has become very easy to reach out to people. Reaching out to people or taking appointments for professional architects and developers sometimes takes a longer time. Now, in five or ten minutes, you can finish the discussion, show a proposal, negotiate what is to be done, and then we can close the deal. It is a new lifestyle. We can reach out to more people. With the architects and other professionals, we were doing Zoom meetings, educating them, talking about our new products. We have also had a virtual launch of a new product called Granite Paint. We were able to send the videos to all customers and 5,000 people were logged in for the launch. We have changed the system and proved that business can be done in this way without meeting physically. Business can be done virtually and we can get our numbers and we can meet our business target”, says Rakesh Rao.

ABOUT CROWN PAINTS: Crown Paints Kenya PLC was established in 1958 and is the number one paint manufacturing company in Kenya. As the Kenyan decorative brand leader since 1986, Crown Paints has built a strong distribution network. Quality has been the key to the company’s consistent performance and growth, supported by its close to 700 loyal staff, as well as distribution dealers, some of whom have had 40 years trading or more as key distributors.

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