<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Ohaga</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Great points. Let me turn around that conversation. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">1. What is the role of Policy Makers and Regulators to curb mischief from so-called Dominant Players? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">2. Should Private Enterprise be cowed from being competitive just because they fear they will become 'dominant'? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">3. Does Private Enterprise really know how to put the brakes on success? I mean let's look at a scenario - A CEO calls in his Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer and tells them - 'Guys! You've met your quota for the year. We have achieved the threshold of dominance. If we sell more we will be declared 'Dominant' and we can't have that!! So stop selling!!! :-)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">4. The role of a Referee (Regulator) is to ensure a level playing field and that of a Policy Maker to set the rules of the game. So when players misbehave and the referee is reduced to whining... who is to blame? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">We should ask ourselves fundamental questions on this issue and solve it at source.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><b><font face="georgia, serif" size="2">Ali
Hussein</font></b></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>T<font size="2">el: +254 713 60<font size="2">1113</font></font><br></span></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>Twitter: @AliHKassim</span><span></span></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif">
</span></font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>Skype: abu-jomo</span></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>LinkedIn: <a href="http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim" target="_blank">http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim</a></span><a href="http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></span></font></p><p style="font-size:small;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:georgia;color:black"><br></span></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span><br><font size="1">Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.</font></span></span></font><span style="font-family:"Baskerville Old Face",serif;font-size:11pt"></span><span style="font-size:11pt"></span>
<span style="font-family:"Baskerville Old Face",serif"></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 7:23 AM Ohaga JB <<a href="mailto:durojb@gmail.com">durojb@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">GREAT exposition Hussein and some really thought-provoking questions. But if we were to leave out Amazon and bring it closer home, does Safaricom hold the same power locally?<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">In a previous interview by Jackson Biko with the incoming Safaricom CEO, Mr Peter Ndegwa (PN) commented about Ghana being a tough market because Diageo ONLY owned about 55% of the beer market there.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">In some quarters, owning 55% of the market would be considered huge, but that's not how PN saw it. Which brings me to my question. With a mindset that considers owning more half of the market as being competitive, what percentage of the market do you think such an individual will consider dominant?</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Not accusing PN of anything, but in the backdrop of some of the decisions that Amazon has taken to undercut competition under Bezos, there could be some wisdom in thinking about PN's style.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Regards,</div><div dir="auto">JB.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 08:05 Ali Hussein via kictanet, <<a href="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Listers</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Relevant in this day of Dominance and Market Failures.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Not since the heydays of General Motors in the early and mid years of the 20th Century has a company stood over the industry like a colossal. In many ways Amazon is the New General Motors.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Regulators and Policy Makers are circling. Globally, led first by the European Union and now the Americans. On can probably say that the American Government has been generally ambivalent to these issues until early this year when arguably first shot was fired by Makan Delrahim, the head of the Ant-Trust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice., when he said of Tech Companies:-</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">" They should think very seriously about their conduct, if you're one of the big guys, you should be careful to make sure you don't snuff out competitors because you think that's good for your business. That not what free markets really mean, and we're going to come down on you like a ton of bricks if that's what you do."</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">This long article by <a href="https://www-newyorker-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/10/21/is-amazon-unstoppable/amp" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">The New Yorker</a> exemplifies the conundrum of Capitalism today. At what point does success become poisonous? What is good and what is bad? Where do we draw the line? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif">Regulators are coalescing around the Four 'Cs'.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif">1. <b>Concentration</b>: <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">“The bigger a tech company becomes, the more they can bully, so we need to put hard caps on how big companies like that can grow, on what they can acquire.” said an <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">FTC</a> official. </span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">2.<b> Conflict</b>. According to <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/rohit-chopra" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">Rohit Chopra</a>, t</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">he second “C” is the conflict of interest that comes from “both controlling the pipe and selling the oil.” Chopra, who agreed to speak only about antitrust generally and not about Amazon specifically, explained, “If you do both, you will structure your marketplace in a way that ultimately is self-dealing, and you will use the data from those who sell on your marketplace to benefit yourself.” There’s a long history of the government forcing industries to separate distribution and sales; for years, movie studios have generally been prohibited from owning movie theatres. Unfortunately too often Amazon has been accused of this sin. Too often.</span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">3.<b> Contracts</b>. </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">The next area of concern is contracts. Big tech companies often make highly restrictive deals with smaller venders. Amazon retains a contractual right to hold sellers’ revenues for long periods after a sale and imposes limits on what data sellers can share with other companies. Another F.T.C. commissioner, <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/about-ftc/biographies/rebecca-kelly-slaughter" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">Rebecca Kelly Slaughter</a>, said, “There are a lot of terms that go into boilerplate contracts that consumers or workers don’t really have an opportunity to negotiate. It is absolutely appropriate for us to be thinking about banning those.”</span></font></div><div class="gmail_default"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">4. <b>Complexity</b>. </span></font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font face="georgia, serif">Lastly, regulators worry about the complexity of current antitrust law. “You really have to be an expert, or hire an expert attorney, if you feel like one of these companies is acting inappropriately,” an F.T.C. official said. “The law only works when it is simple enough for the little guy to bring an action on their own.”</font></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif">It is recommended reading to all business people, policymakers, activists and regulators.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:georgia,serif"><b style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font face="georgia, serif" size="2">Ali
Hussein</font></b><br></div><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>T<font size="2">el: +254 713 60<font size="2">1113</font></font><br></span></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>Twitter: @AliHKassim</span><span></span></span></font></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif">
</span></font><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>Skype: abu-jomo</span></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span>LinkedIn: <a href="http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank">http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim</a></span><a href="http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim" rel="noreferrer noreferrer" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"></span></a></span></font></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><br></span></font></p><p style="font-size:small;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial"><span style="font-size:9pt;font-family:georgia;color:black"><br></span></p><font size="2"><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><span><br><font size="1">Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the organizations that I work with.</font></span></span></font><span style="font-family:"Baskerville Old Face",serif;font-size:11pt"></span><span style="font-size:11pt"></span>
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