On a recent visit to Kenya’s Maasai Mara, Dilip Pal was not in a boardroom, a strategy offsite, or a finance review. He was watching lions.
What unfolded before him, four male lions from the Marsh Pride stalking a herd of buffalo, offered a lesson in strategy and execution more powerful than any corporate framework.
As Pal later reflected, “some of the sharpest strategy lessons do not come from boardrooms or off-sites, they come from the wild.”
The lions were motionless. No rush. No noise. Just stillness.
“That stillness was their strategy,” Pal wrote. “They were not idle; they were gathering information, reading the wind, syncing their moves, silently and patiently.”
It was a reminder that in both nature and business, preparation is not inactivity. “The hunt does not begin with a chase,” he observed. “It starts with observation, patience, and alignment.”
As lunchtime approached, Pal assumed the lions were about to charge. His guide calmly disagreed, explaining that lions are far more patient than the humans watching them. That moment stayed with him.
“In business, we often forget that preparation can take longer than we expect, and that is okay,” he noted.
For a finance leader who oversees Safaricom Group’s financial strategy across 11 subsidiaries, including Safaricom Ethiopia and M-PESA Africa’s eight-country footprint, the parallel was unmistakable. Clarity before action is not hesitation; it is discipline.
“Clarity of purpose is not hesitation; it is focus,” Pal wrote. “Everyone needs to know why they are there and what they are waiting for.”
Then came the decisive moment. One lion rose and walked toward the herd.
“No drama. No second-guessing,” Pal observed. “That was the first mover, taking risk not because it feels safe, but because timing demands it.”
Once that first step was taken, everything changed. The others followed instinctively.
Dr James Musinguzi and the High-Stakes Test at Uganda Wildlife Authority“That is what happens when strategy shifts to execution, doubt falls away, and trust drives action,” he wrote. “No more endless debate, just committed to doing.”
It is a dynamic Pal knows well. With more than 34 years of experience across telecoms, fintech, FMCG, and financial services, having previously served as CFO at DTAC Thailand and Grameenphone Bangladesh, and held senior roles at Vodafone India, Hutchison Essar, and Coca-Cola, he has seen how execution succeeds or fails on trust and timing.
As the chase intensified, one lion confronted a buffalo head-on, speed against weight, risk against resistance. Alone, the odds were poor.
“That is why lions rarely hunt buffalo alone,” Pal explained, “and instead rely on the pride to surround, isolate, and exhaust a target before moving in.”
The lesson was clear: leadership requires a first mover, but success depends on collective alignment.
“One lion still has to make the first move,” he wrote, “but it is the coordinated support of the others that turns a risky clash into a real chance of success.”
What happened next in the hunt, Pal left deliberately unfinished. But the takeaway was precise.
“In the wild and at work, outcomes often come down to timing, when you wait, when you move, and when you hold your ground.”
He ended with questions that resonate far beyond the Mara, and far beyond finance. Before you move, are you aligned as a team or simply in a hurry to start?
When the moment comes, can your team trust each other and move together without another long discussion? Have you already thought about where resistance will come from and how you will adjust?
For Safaricom’s CFO, who also sits on multiple boards across telecoms, fintech, and global partnerships, the lions of the Maasai Mara offered a timeless reminder: great strategy is silent, patient, and deliberate. And great execution begins the moment hesitation ends.
