Truth be told, we are always surprised at how cool certain people look when they are in their element. You don’t believe me do you StreetSyder? Seriously, coz I have not even dropped the punchline…
I met a couple of my old skool chums a few months ago at a corporate presentation on Housing Finance in the Ugandan economy.. . The main presenter was a supposedly highly experienced corporate finance expert with a PhD thesis in the Mortgage sector of Eastern Europe including Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic et al…
He had done the bulk of his research from both his home country of Hungary and spent at least two months hanging around the larger financial type institutions within the above mentioned countries…
When he was introduced as Dr. Stetho Financial Listiks, I was not moved as distinctly recall being asked by my former boss (yeah Tumwi, the one with really nice legs), to read about something real hard before making any form of presentation about it. She cautioned me to test the presentation first in the mirror to build my confidence first but above all, make the presentation a little bit (just a little bit AntiPop) skewed to seem like it revolves around the recipient of the presentation.
So when Dr. Financial Listiks was intro’d with his amazing PhD in Financial Economics, I was waiting with bated breath to be PhD’d into Mortgage Heaven. What proceeded was the most interesting presentation on housing finance in my short history.
He proceeded to simplify all the basiks of interest rate setting for condominiums (tandra, that’s condo to you), the impact of reduced savings on lending rates, increased economic activity and its relevance in smaller economies, increased presence of financial institutions and how this flattens the financial landscape, the difference between renting, leasing and purchasing and finally the impact of increased government spending on the housing sector.
All in all the technical part of the presentation was pretty amazing, considering that sometimes I am hard to please… (ask Mrs.Basiks) Anyways, after the display of his financial acumen, Dr. Listiks said thank you and good night. I for one (mind you I was writing out some of his technicalities and waiting for the Q&A session), was taken aback.
You see Dr. Listiks had shown us his above average corporate finance knowledge (with a name like Financial Listiks, who could say much, Ivan do you copy?), but he absolutely did not relate any of it to the Ugandan Sector.
What the email invite said was; Lessons in Eastern European Mortgage Finance and how it can affect the Ugandan Model. I wasleft wondering why almost 92% if the time, people who look the part never fulfill the look and assume that coz their intro is snazzy, they can’t prove that the snazziness is the real-deal (just like Holyfield, Ask Mike Ty)
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Fast forward a whole 12 months later, and Dr. Listiks is back with a doper presentation highlighting the exact same presentation but with the words HOW IT CAN AFFECT THE UGANDAN MODEL…
I have learnt that whatever is said to peeps that relates to them will always make them want to listen to you…
checking the basiks