Nairobi, May 13 -- "It is always urgent, 'here and now' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank," said Jose Ortegay Gasset.

When is the business problem not the real problem? Why do most small businesses fail? How can one survive, and even prosper? Is access to credit funding what smaller enterprises need most? Is the bigger the customer problem solved, the more valuable the enterprise? Does creative destruction fuel innovation and change in both the tiny shop at the side of the road, and the development partner dispensing millions of dollars?

Competing on sameness

Many Kenyan small businesses struggle because they are often competing in the same crowded spaces, using the same business models, targeting the s...