‘Retirement isn’t about stopping; it’s about moving on to something different,’ he says. ‘Besides, people die a few years after retiring not because they’re broke, but because they have nothing to do.’
At 36, with no university degree, he applied for a chief operating officer job. He got it. His pay was doubled. His hours were cut short.
‘I had a level of ‘madness’ or insanity when I was young. I was fearless,’ he says.
Odundo later got a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management and an MBA, both from the United States International University; a Postgraduate Certificate in Hospital Management from Leeds University, UK; and a Diploma in Hotel Management from Utalii College were the magic potions needed to turn him into an expert straddling the corridors of a hospital.
By the time he left his CEO position at Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital to head Nairobi Hospital, he was blooming, a man at the height of his powers. Then he was sacked.
‘I had what was essentially a dream job, and I lost it,’ he says. ‘It has been a test of resilience and the unknown. And I realised through that process that I needed more than just seeing my life through my work and family.’
What can you tell us about yourself that can help us understand you better?
I’ve worked in the health sector for over 25 years. There is a common assumption that I must be a medical doctor. But my actual training was in hotel management. I trained for four years and worked in the hotel industry for 11 years before transitioning into healthcare.
People often find it hard to relate those two fields, but I see them as two extremes of looking after people. While hotels focus on voluntary leisure, hospitals focus on ‘repairing’ people and bringing them back to good health.
Why the shift from hotels to hospitals?
Hospitality and hospitals, right? In private healthcare, high-end hospitals are often branded as offering ‘hotel services.’ Patients look at the beds, food, accommodation, and human-focused customer service.
My transition was a career change sparked by a feedback session with a consultant during a staff training programme. He told me that if I ever wanted to leave the hotel industry, I would succeed outside of it. In the mid-90s, I felt my career was stagnating under an expatriate manager, so I looked for new opportunities.
I saw an advertisement for a chief operating officer at a hospital. The description fit me perfectly, but I didn’t meet two key criteria: they wanted someone with an MBA who was at least 40 years old.
At the time, I was 36 and didn’t even have a university degree [chuckles]. However, I applied anyway, got shortlisted, and got the job. It came with double the pay and fewer hours-moving from 18-hour days in hospitality to an eight-to-five job. I used that extra time to go to night school at USIU to earn my undergraduate degree and my MBA.
What did they see in you that made them know you are their guy?
The organisation wanted to transition to a more strategic management style. Hospitals often struggle with ‘headache jobs’ like repairs, maintenance, the kitchen, laundry, and housekeeping because they are so clinically oriented.
As a hospitality-trained manager, I knew how to make those services seamless. I was appointed Deputy CEO and COO with a mandate to run the organisation’s day-to-day operations.
Have you always been that courageous, applying for jobs when you didn’t meet the criteria?
Looking back, I think I had a level of ‘madness’ or insanity when I was young. I was fearless. When I told my late father, a career civil servant who valued job security, that I was leaving hospitality for a smaller, less prestigious healthcare organisation, he was concerned. My dad had been a civil servant engineer who worked for the government all his life, so job security was important.
I told him not to worry and that I would make my own security [chuckles]. My first assignment there, even before finishing my probation, was to restructure the organisation, which involved sending about 50 percent of staff home. I had to lead that change humanely and legally. You’ve got to take those leaps of faith, and maybe that has defined my character.
Did you want to be more like your dad or forge your own path?
I had a rebellious streak. I worked in government ministries during school breaks before my A-level, but I swore I would never work there permanently. I found it inefficient; people would leave their coats on their chairs to look like they were at their desks while they were actually away for hours [chuckles].
I once found a desk full of files that needed to be processed, and this guy who used to sit there would only process one or two files a day. I cleared the whole heap, and I didn’t have work for three months [chuckles]. I also disliked how government pay scales weren’t aligned with effort or responsibility.
I wanted to work somewhere where I could be rewarded for my performance, because the more senior you became, and with inflation, you became more broke. I told myself, I refuse to be broke.
How much of your career was planned and not happenstance?
I changed jobs quite a bit, but it’s only that I used to get promotions every year. In my first job, I worked there for four years. I’d joined as a trainee assistant manager.
Then they said no you’re going to be a departmental head and after some time they changed my title to give me more responsibilities because they could see the way I was working and that I could do more.
And then I was approached by another organisation where I went to work as a senior, but I didn’t stay long because I was getting married, and I needed to relocate to Nairobi for almost a similar role in a new hotel. I had a lot of upward mobility in my life.
What was your mom like?
My mom was a nurse. My parents would allow you to do what you wanted.
As a hospitality man in a hospital, did you ever worry that, especially because you were working as a non-doctor leading doctors, you had to prove yourself?
I was very lucky. I was working with a British CEO, and he said, ‘Look, I’ve arranged for you to go for training.’ So I went to Leeds University to study hospital management.
One of the first things they emphasised was: ‘In hospital management, learn not to do the doctor’s work. You’re there to be the head of the institution.’
If you remember that and keep learning about the details and depth of what healthcare professionals go through, you don’t feel the need to earn their respect by trying to become an expert in obstetrics, paediatrics, or whatever. They spend many years learning those things.
Your job is to appreciate their expertise and help them work better in that environment.